Page 37 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)

‘David said you were the real talent in the Red Berries,’ Julia added. ‘In fact, what he said was, “She was something really special”.’

Margaret’s smile spread: ‘Oh, it was wonderful, being in the band. Matthew and I, we were in love. We were going to be famous. It was a dream come true at first. Until…’

She fell silent.

Julia had been wrong about the Lydia connection. Where Lydia fitted in remained a mystery, but Julia held out hope that Margaret could shed some light on the connections between Matthew, Lewis, and Ken. Julia spoke softly, ‘Margaret, can you tell me what happened to the band? What went wrong?’

‘It all went wrong, it went horribly wrong. It was Lewis’s fault. All of it. Lewis ruined it for us all. He was a bad man.’

Julia waited for Margaret to continue.

‘He always fancied me, Lewis. Tried it on a few times, made passes, even after I said no. You know those men who think they’re God’s gift to women? Think they can have whoever they want?’

‘I do, I’m sorry to say. I know the type.’

‘What goes round comes round, though,’ said Margaret calmly.

Julia felt a shiver of apprehension. She remembered how sweet Dora had also implied that Lewis wasn’t the nice man that he seemed to be.

Had someone from his past taken revenge into their own hands?

But that didn’t explain Matthew or the attempt to kill Ken.

The connections between the two dead men, the band, and Margaret, were so many and so tangled.

Julia grappled for a way of making it all make sense.

Julia remembered what David had said: It was the girl who scuppered the whole record deal…They were supposed to be in the studio…She just didn’t pitch…Disappeared…

It seemed so unlikely that she would disappear, and jeopardise the thing she had dreamed of. There must have been another reason for her non-appearance.

‘Margaret, can you tell me what happened in London? Do you remember what you were doing there?’

‘Oh, I remember. We were playing our music,’ she said, calm and lucid as her damaged brain reached back decades to pluck out a treasured memory. ‘You know the dream where you find out you can fly?’

Julia and Pippa nodded.

‘It was like that. But with singing. My voice was strong and pitch-perfect. It was the best feeling. The band sounded good, too. I knew we were going to get a record contract. I knew we were going to be famous. I came out of the studio walking on air.’ She smiled at the recollection.

‘Then after, there was a party with champagne. I’d never had champagne before, imagine that? ’

Pippa and Julia smiled.

‘I shouldn’t have had it though…That’s when he…’ She looked down at her hands. ‘He…touched me. Like that .’

‘Oh God,’ Pippa whispered under her breath.

‘Margaret, are you talking about Lewis Band?’ Julia asked, gently.

‘Lewis, yes. Bastard.’

‘Did he assault you, physically?’

Margaret nodded, and when she spoke, it was in an anguished voice, as if she was a girl again, a young woman berating herself for her poor decisions: ‘It was the dress. I was wearing a tiny dress, I still remember it, silver, all slinky, it felt like water. I bought it in Carnaby Street that morning. Never had anything like it before. Mum would never have let me go out like that, she was very proper, and she warned me about…what can happen, you know, to girls who dress like that. I thought I looked sophisticated, like a cool girl from a band, not like a little village girl in dresses her mum made for her on her Singer sewing machine. And, well, it turned out that the thing Mum warned me about…It happened. Mum was right. I should have known. If I’d worn the clothes Mum made, if I’d been the girl Mum brought me up to be…

And I never could hold my liquor. If I didn’t have the champagne, and then a whisky… Maybe…’

Jake, who hated sadness or conflict, sidled nervously up to Julia and put a paw on her thigh.

Pippa got up and stood behind the older woman’s chair, her hands stroking her thin shoulders. ‘Aunt Margaret, I’m so sorry for what happened to you. It’s unimaginably horrible. But you must know that what that man did to you…It was not your fault. No matter what you wore or what you drank.’

Margaret seemed to snap back into the present.

‘I know that now , Pippa dear. But I was young. And it wasn’t like now.

Women’s Lib and Me Too and all that. I couldn’t face him, or any of the band.

The shame. The fear. I had a bath and got dressed.

I threw that silver dress in the bin, and before anyone woke up, I ran away. ’

‘You went back to Berrywick?’ Julia asked.

‘I had to. I had nowhere else to go. I didn’t know anyone outside the village. I had lived there all my life.’

‘Oh, Margaret, I’m so sorry.’

‘The band didn’t last without me. Everyone was angry with me for ruining their big break. I couldn’t tell them why. Lewis would deny it. There was no evidence. To be honest, I was angry with myself, too.’

‘What about Matthew?’ Julia asked. ‘Didn’t he help you? He must have been furious with Lewis.’

‘I didn’t tell him what Lewis did to me.

I couldn’t talk about it. I was sad and lonely.

And angry with Lewis, with Matthew, with myself.

I hardly went out. Lewis was living in the village, walking around cheerful as you please, as if nothing had ever happened.

I didn’t want to see him. I couldn’t be a normal person any more.

Matthew didn’t understand. He never even asked me about that night.

He should have known that something was wrong.

Soon after we got home, he broke up with me.

He said I had changed, and asked me why.

But I couldn’t tell him. I made him cry.

But he should have known . He should have asked . He should have realised .’

‘Oh no, I’m so sorry,’ said Pippa, hugging her aunt.

Julia took the old woman’s hand. ‘You had an awful time, and no one helped you.’

‘I did, I did…It was awful. I had no one to talk to…I couldn’t tell anyone…’ Margaret seemed to regress again, gabbling tearfully, ‘Matthew said he loved me. But he left me. He left me all alone.’