Page 24 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)

Anthony Ardmore was, it had to be said, a fine-looking man, slim and broad-shouldered, with a smooth, open face, lightly tanned, as if by rays caught on a tennis court or perhaps a ski slope. He looked familiar. Julia had an odd feeling that she’d met him before, but couldn’t place where or when.

He led them into the house, and the four of them sat down at his kitchen table. ‘Now, did I hear correctly that one of you is Mrs Shepherd and one Mrs Band?’ he asked, holding out his hand.

‘I’m Mrs Shepherd,’ Hester said, taking his proffered hand. ‘Hester Shepherd.’

‘You are most welcome in my home, and might I offer you my deepest condolences. I had the utmost affection and respect for Matthew. He was a fine, fine, man.’

‘Thank you. He really was. And I’m sure if he came to you, he must have trusted you. He had such good instincts about people.’ Hester appeared to have forgotten all her worries about Anthony Ardmore. Julia was always amazed how this could happen when a person was good-looking.

‘How right you are, my dear.’ Julia felt a prickle of irritation at Anthony’s ‘my dear’, but didn’t let it show. ‘Matthew had excellent instincts, about people and about investments.’ He turned to Coral. ‘And you must be Mrs Band?’

‘I’m Coral, and this is our friend Julia Bird.’

‘So you must be Lewis’s…?’

‘I am Lewis’s wife. Well, Lewis’s widow. I’m sure you’ve heard…’

‘Again, I am most sorry to hear about the accident. A terrible thing, and what a fine man.’

‘Thank you,’ Coral cut his condolences short. ‘The thing is, we’re here about the money our husbands invested with you. The medicinal plant farming. We’d like you to explain the investment, please.’

Julia found herself very much admiring Coral’s no-nonsense approach. The woman might look like the main character from a soap opera, but she was behaving like a Wall Street businesswoman, undistracted by Anthony’s good looks.

‘Gladly, gladly.’ Ardmore had that combination of suave confidence and excellent tailoring that came with a lifetime of money.

It was clear that he simply told people what to do, and they tended to do it.

‘Fortunately for you, your husbands identified an exceptional opportunity.’ He rested his elbows on the table and made a pyramid of his hands.

‘I’ll explain everything, and I’ll put it as simply as I can… ’

Coral narrowed her perfectly outlined eyes. ‘Please do, although I’m a trained bookkeeper, Mr Ardmore, and I worked at a bank for years, so I should be able to keep up.’

Julia felt a flush of pride. It was clear that one underestimated Coral at one’s peril.

Anthony Ardmore was slick, and could lay on the charm, but Julia hadn’t forgotten that he was one of the few links between the two dead men, and had only recently got his hands on a good chunk of both of their life savings.

Nor could she get the empty warehouse and the final demands out of her head. She didn’t trust him one bit.

‘Excellent news!’ said Anthony, with rather too much bonhomie. ‘Well, I can see you’re a sharp one, and I’m sure you’ll understand right away just what an excellent investment you have on your hands. Before I start – Mrs Bird, is it?’

‘Yes. Julia Bird. I feel like we might have met. Or perhaps I’ve seen you somewhere, recently. Now, where could it have been?’

His face fell. ‘I can’t say I remember, I’m afraid. That’s village life, though, isn’t it? We’ve likely seen each other around the place. In the high street. At the shops.’

‘It was in the last few weeks, I think.’ Julia made a show of scratching her head and frowning.

‘I know. I’ve been to a few of the Christmas activities around the area.

I do love a bit of Christmas spirit, don’t you?

Could it have been at the switching on of the Christmas lights?

Or one of the Christmas markets? Were you at any of those occasions? ’

One of those occasions where the men had mysteriously died, in other words, thought Julia.

‘Sadly, I haven’t been able to attend any of them this year,’ Anthony said. ‘Too busy with work, I’m afraid. Now, might I ask about your connection to this, Mrs Bird? Does your husband…?’

‘I don’t have a husband. I drove the ladies here, and I’m interested to hear all about this investment too.’

Mr Ardmore beamed at her, his white teeth stark against his tanned face.

‘Ah, an independent woman with an eye for a good investment. That’s what I like to see.

’ He really was the most patronising man.

‘Now, let me explain your investment, ladies. I have no doubt you fine ladies understand that there are a number of medicines constantly being tested and reviewed, and that many rely on the rich world of plants. Now imagine if you knew ahead which plant would be the one that is going to be used in a cure for cancer. Imagine if you had already invested in licensing and growing that plant.’

‘That would certainly be lucrative,’ said Coral.

Anthony Ardmore beamed and nodded. But too soon, as it turned out, because Coral wasn’t finished.

‘But with all due respect, Mr Ardmore, this seems a little too risky for me in my current situation. It also sounds a little bit like insider trading. With Lewis gone, I’d rather have my money in more traditional investments, like the bank, thank you. ’

‘Me too,’ said Hester, jumping quickly onto Coral’s coattails. ‘I can’t take any risks with our money. And I need access to the cash to live on.’

Mr Ardmore’s tan seemed to fade a little, and his confident white-toothed smile faltered.

But to give credit where credit was due, he recovered in moments.

‘Of course, I understand completely. You certainly don’t want risk in your current situation – your very sad situation.

What you want is to get excellent returns and to grow your capital, which of course is also what your wise husbands wanted for you.

Your financial security. Which is why they decided to invest their money with me in the first place.

’ He held his arms wide, and beamed a dazzling smile, as if he had solved all their problems. Then he switched to a more serious, earnest persona.

‘Ladies, I can see you are three very sensible, clever women – of course, Mrs Band, Mrs Shepherd, your husbands had said as much, but to meet you in person is an honour. And I know they would agree with me when I tell you that now is not the time to get out. In fact, now is the time to get further in! If you have a life insurance payout, for instance, you could consider increasing your stake. If things go as planned, you could be set up for life! I’m talking about long-term financial security.

I am not at liberty to give details, but something very exciting is about to happen with dandelions, and the fund is investing heavily. ’

‘In dandelions?’ Julia couldn’t quite keep the incredulity from her voice. Dandelions were weeds! The gardeners of Berrywick were constantly doing battle with dandelions. It did not seem to be something that a person should be investing in.

Anthony turned to Julia. ‘You’d be surprised by the returns, too, Mrs Bird.

In fact, you should invest. Ordinarily, at this late stage, it would be impossible to take on an additional investor, but I’ll have a word with my partners, and I am pretty sure I could persuade them to get you in. What do you think of that?’

‘I think that you have an empty warehouse and unpaid bills, that’s what I think,’ said Julia.

‘An empty warehouse?’

‘That’s where we went. It’s the address on all your correspondence. It did not inspire confidence, Mr Ardmore.’

For a moment, Anthony Ardmore looked nonplussed, but then he smiled. ‘Ah, a simple misunderstanding! We’ve cancelled our lease on that property.’

‘It looked like you just ran out,’ said Hester.

‘Not at all!’ Anthony laughed. ‘We realised that our funders did not need to be paying for such a large space, when the magic in fact happens without the need for space.’

‘Except for the dandelions. They need space,’ said Julia, earning her a scowl from Anthony Ardmore.

‘Ladies, I can assure you, your money is in safe hands.’ Anthony spread his hands out, palms up, as if to illustrate the point.

‘That’s all very well, Mr Ardmore,’ said Coral, ‘but personally, I need the money in cash. I want out. What is the procedure for liquidating Lewis’s stake?’

Anthony Ardmore’s face assumed an expression that approximated regret, as imagined by a person who had never, personally, experienced such an emotion.

‘The thing is, Mrs Band, the contracts are watertight. The negotiation is based, of course, on current figures, of which your investment forms part, so we can’t get the sum back to you right this moment.

Plus, the three invested as a joint venture.

So there are implications there for release from the contract.

Standard practice, in fact. But as soon as we have dotted every i and crossed each t, you can claim your returns, providing all the investors in your group agree, although I strongly suspect you won’t want to get out.

You’ll be too busy buying yourself fancy new shoes and handbags… ’

He laughed at his own joke, which fell like a lead balloon. When he saw their stony faces, and realised he was the only one laughing, the sound died in his throat, but his mouth remained stretched in a rather over-enthusiastic smile.

Coral returned his Cheshire Cat grin with a steady look, and spoke calmly but firmly: ‘If we could just have a cheque, that might be best.’

Even Mr Ardmore’s radiant positivity was starting to wear a little thin. ‘In terms of our contract with your late husband, that’s not going to be possible. We can certainly look at that once the deal has been finalised.’

Hester sighed. ‘When will that be?’

‘I’ll get an update from my partners, and let you know asap. Just hang in there, ladies, you won’t be sorry.’

He saw them out, fussing about, helping them solicitously with jackets and bags, and shepherding them to the door.

A silver Land Rover was now parked in the road, having been driven up by Anthony while the three ladies were inspecting the padlock at the back.

Anthony took out his car keys and pressed a button.

The vehicle’s lights flashed in response. It really was very large and sturdy.

‘That’s a very smart car,’ Julia said, running her eyes over it in an admiring manner.

She was, in fact, inspecting it surreptitiously for signs of damage.

Anthony Ardmore didn’t seem like a killer, he seemed more of a chancer, but he was the strongest link she could find between Lewis and Matthew.

The car was buffed to a high gloss, with not a mark on it, as far as Julia could see.

‘It has a lovely shine – it looks brand new.’

‘Ah yes, my new baby,’ he said, patting its rump as if it was a favoured horse. ‘If things go as planned, ladies, you’ll be looking for new wheels yourselves. I’m sure you won’t want to miss out, Mrs Bird.’

Julia unlocked her own, much more modest car, with a click of the remote. The three women reached for the door handles. Julia felt that funny tip-of-the-tongue feeling she got when her subconscious was trying to tell her something. What was it?

‘Oh, one last thing, just as a matter of interest,’ she said, turning back to Mr Ardmore. ‘How did you meet Lewis and Matthew?’

‘I know them through my brother,’ he said. ‘They go back a long way. They were in a band together back in the eighties, if you can believe it.’

‘Your brother?’ Coral frowned.

Julia was frowning too, on the inside at least. This was either an extraordinary coincidence, or something much worse.

‘Yes, Dominic Ardmore.’

That was why she recognised him. Julia had come across Dominic Ardmore a year or two before, when she’d been caught up in another murder investigation. He and his brother looked very alike.

‘I remember the name. Your brother is Dom, from the band the Red Berries?’ Hester said.

He grinned. ‘The very one. He was on the keyboard. Not any more, of course. Luckily he gave up that band nonsense, same as your husbands did. Dominic’s an engineer now.

Very successful. Yes, it was Dominic who introduced me to Lewis and Matthew.

The band had a get-together a while back, a lunch.

One of the chaps from out of town was here.

It seemed like a good time to introduce them to this opportunity.

Might as well spread the good fortune amongst friends, right? ’

Hester didn’t answer the rhetorical question, just shook her head in astonishment. ‘Well, goodness me. This is a surprise. Who’d have thought…’

‘A small world, isn’t it, Mrs Shepherd?’

It was indeed.

Far too small for Julia Bird’s liking.