Page 26 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)
Getting out of the full tea room with a Labrador on a lead was quite an undertaking, especially as Julia knew someone at just about every table, and everyone wanted to have a chat, or at least say hello, and many were eager to give Jake a pat.
She evaded most of them with a cheery wave, but at one table, she came to a sudden and surprised halt.
‘Molly!’ she said, greeting a slim, pretty woman with a pale porcelain complexion and ash blonde hair, dressed in layers of creamy cashmere. ‘And hello, Dominic.’
The man smiled manically at her, his eyes darting anxiously over her features, as if he recognised her, but couldn’t place her.
‘Julia Bird! How lovely to see you,’ said Molly, simultaneously greeting Julia and enlightening her husband, who flashed her a grateful smile. It was a graceful move. ‘We haven’t seen you since…’
The sentence petered out, but if it hadn’t, it would have ended: … since you helped clear our pyromaniac son of murder .
‘How is Marty?’ Julia asked quickly, dissipating the awkward moment.
‘He’s doing very well…Please sit for a minute,’ said Molly, pulling out the chair next to her. Julia sat, and Jake flopped down next to her. He was in no hurry. ‘We found a lovely new therapist for him, and with that and the medication he’s taking, he’s in a good space.’
Julia was pleased to hear that things were going better for Marty.
He was a sweet young man, despite his fascination with flammables.
While Molly talked, Julia couldn’t help glancing over at Dominic, who looked so similar to – although in crucial ways, different from – his brother.
He shared Anthony Ardmore’s even features and smooth good looks, but lacked the thin sheen of oiliness that seemed to adhere to the younger brother’s manner.
Flo stopped at their table, and looked at Julia in surprise. ‘Couldn’t drag yourself away?’ she said in a teasing tone.
‘I was on my way out the door, but I got waylaid for a chat.’
‘It’s a common problem. Especially when half of Berrywick is in here taking shelter from the storm. You could stay all day and not run out of tall stories to listen to. Sit down, let me bring you another hot chocolate!’
Julia laughed. ‘Definitely not, thanks, Flo. I’m going to be on my way in a minute.’
‘Anything else for you?’ Flo asked the Ardmores, picking up their breakfast plates, both scraped clean. ‘We’ve got a nice fresh carrot cake. Homemade, of course.’
‘You do tempt us,’ said Molly. ‘But just the bill, please, when you’re ready.’
Flo made her way back to the kitchen, and Molly turned to Julia. ‘I’ve been going on about Marty, and haven’t asked you a thing. Now, tell us how you have been, Julia. What’s been going on?’
This was a golden opportunity to quiz them about Dominic’s brother, and the two men who had invested with him. The trick would be to make her enquiries sound innocently off-the-cuff.
‘I’ve been very well. It’s so odd that I should bump into the two of you, because I was thinking of your family just yesterday.’
‘You were?’
‘Yes. I’m sure you’ve heard about what happened to poor Lewis Band and Matthew Shepherd?’
‘Of course, yes. Tragic,’ said Dominic. ‘I knew them both from when we were youngsters.’
‘Well, that’s exactly why I was thinking of you. I was talking to their wives, and your name came up. Hester mentioned that Lewis and Matthew had been together just a few weeks before, at a reunion lunch with friends from those days, including you. And now here you are. Isn’t life funny that way?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Dominic. ‘And it was quite a strange thing that we met up at all. It’s been decades since we’ve seen each other, other than to wave to.
Even though we all live fairly close by, somehow we seemed to move in different circles.
’ He was being delicate. Julia had seen Dominic and Molly’s house: a huge barn, renovated to a light-flooded modern home in soft tones, set in a large, gently landscaped garden.
They’d done very well for themselves. Lewis and Matthew’s circumstances were very modest by comparison.
They would, indeed, live in different worlds.
Dominic continued: ‘And then, about a month ago, another chap we knew from those days got in touch. He had moved back to Berrywick. I hadn’t seen him in forty years.
The four of us had lunch together – it was great to see them.
Odd, how it is with old friends. Even though we’d all gone our separate ways, and our lives are quite different, there was a connection.
Common ground. Well, for the most part…’
‘You certainly had a lot to talk about,’ said Molly, elbowing her husband. ‘This one got home after supper! They had a fine old time, the four of them.’
‘We did have a fine old time. And I’m so pleased we did, because, as it turned out, within weeks Lewis and Matthew were both dead.
’ Dominic’s eyes filled up with tears that he quickly wiped away.
‘It might have been a long time since we had all been close, but it’s been such a shock. Really, it has.’
Julia allowed him a moment to collect himself, and then said gently,‘ Your brother was at the lunch, too, I believe,’ said Julia.
‘Anthony?’ There was a wariness to Dominic’s voice. ‘Well, yes. He wasn’t part of that crowd, he was a few years younger, but he happened to come past the restaurant where we were having lunch, and he stopped to say hello.’
‘They were talking about some investment scheme of his, something to do with plants, if I understood it correctly.’ Julia kept her comments deliberately vague, and didn’t own up to having met Anthony herself.
‘Yes, he was going on about his business, as usual,’ Dominic said grumpily. ‘He’s something of a wheeler-dealer, is Anthony. Always got something on the go, always trying to sell you something. It’s become embarrassing, to be honest.’
‘Heavens, yes,’ said Molly, coolly. ‘Imagine going around town saying, “Would you like to invest in my miracle cures?”’ It’s like an actual snake oil salesman.’
Dominic nodded. ‘It is. Anyway, he bent our ears for a while. They listened politely but I’m pleased to say they didn’t bite.’
Except that they had, thought Julia. She suspected Anthony had tracked them down after the lunch, and made a harder pitch than he had made in front of his brother.
Dominic continued: ‘I think mostly they didn’t invest because neither of them understood what on earth he was talking about.’ He gave a bark of laughter.
‘Or perhaps because they’re not idiots,’ Molly snorted.
‘That’s debatable. You might not say that if you could have seen some of the stuff we got up to back in the day. There was an incident with a potato and an exploding Bunsen burner in science class that I’d prefer not to think about.’
‘They were all at school together,’ Molly said, filling Julia in.
‘We all grew up here, went to school together,’ Dominic affirmed.
‘Not much to do in the village in our teenage years. Mostly we hung out in the car park of the pub when we were too young to be allowed in, played football, tried to play guitar. And, you wouldn’t think to look at us now, all middle-aged and all, but we had quite a tight little band back in the day. Keyboards, that was my instrument.’
‘Dom was very cool. You should see the photographs,’ Molly said, her blue-grey eyes sparkling.
Julia had, in fact, seen the photographs, not that she confessed to that. ‘I can well imagine,’ she said, with a laugh.
‘Fun times. Didn’t last, of course. If ever there was a band that didn’t end in a flurry of recrimination and disappointment, I’d be surprised. But still, fun while it lasted. It was good to see them.’
Flo came by, slowing to deposit the bill in the middle of the table, and then sweeping off again to take care of the rest of the mass of customers.
Julia had one more burning question, which she asked with as much casualness as she could muster: ‘Sounds like fun. Who was the other guy, the guy who had just moved back?’
‘Chap called Ken. The guitarist.’
The name sent Julia’s heart skittering about in her chest.
‘He was a fair guitarist, back in the day,’ Dominic continued, oblivious to Julia’s heartrate.
‘You wouldn’t have come across him, though.
He only came back to Berrywick a month or two ago.
It seems things weren’t going too well for him in Scotland, poor chap.
He’s back in town and hoping to make a fresh start. ’
A fresh start? wondered Julia. Had Ken decided to begin by settling some old scores?