Page 39 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)

‘It was a couple of days after the incident, and a little way away from exactly where it happened, and to be honest, I forgot about it.’

‘You forgot.’ Hayley sounded sceptical.

‘Forensics had been and gone. The police tape was cleared away. It didn’t seem important. I just popped it in my bag because I thought someone might be missing it, and I could return it. But I forgot it was even there.’

A small silent storm played over Hayley’s face. Her team had missed a potentially useful piece of evidence. Julia had found it, but forgotten all about it. And she, Hayley Gibson, was angry with everyone, including herself.

Hayley turned to Margaret, who had sunk back in her seat and seemed to be having a small nap. ‘Margaret,’ she said loudly.

Margaret opened her eyes. ‘No need to shout,’ she said. ‘I’m right here.’

‘Is this St Christopher definitely yours?’ she asked.

‘Oh, yes. It was a present from my mum. It’s got the saint on it, and also there’s the chain. It must have broken.’

When it came to the questions of when and how she’d lost it, Margaret became vague. ‘I suppose I dropped it. At the shops, maybe? Or on a walk. Or someone might have stolen it. Pippa never locks her door. I told her, you can’t trust people. Maybe someone took it.’

Dusk was falling and the room was dim and grey.

No one had thought to turn on a light. The fire had burned down, and needed another log.

Instead of adding the bright and festive touch they had earlier, the Christmas bells and baubles now somehow managed to have the opposite effect, drawing attention to the gloom.

Pippa came back with a plate of muffins, which she put on the coffee table in front of Hayley and Julia.

The sight of Pippa looking so tired and pale reminded Julia of something.

‘Pippa, you mentioned that Margaret stopped driving recently.’

Pippa looked slightly confused by the turn the conversation had taken.

‘Well, I had to take her keys away, didn’t I?

She kept coming home with dents in the car and couldn’t remember what she had driven into, poor thing.

’ Pippa gave a small laugh. ‘I keep expecting a neighbour to claim for a postbox!’

Hayley and Julia exchanged a quick glance.

Pippa smiled and indicated the muffins. ‘Help yourself. Back in a mo with the tea.’

Julia salivated at the sight of the muffins, and her tummy gave a low anticipatory growl.

They looked delicious, deep golden brown, perfectly risen, and she’d had a very busy day with nothing to eat since breakfast. She reached for the plate, and then pulled her hand back, as if she’d been shocked.

The little slice of banana pushed into the top of each one – she had seen those exact muffins before.

In fact, she’d handed a plate of muffins just like that to…

‘Ken Payne!’ she said.

Hayley Gibson looked at her in surprise.

‘The muffins!’ Julia said, pointing. ‘They look…’

Hayley caught on immediately. ‘Has anyone eaten one of those muffins?’

Pippa came back in with the tea tray, the puppies trailing behind her. They looked delighted to see a room full of new humans, even if the humans seemed tense and distracted.

‘What’s going on?’ Pippa asked.

Hayley didn’t answer her question, but instead took a handkerchief from her bag, and picked up the plate of muffins, which she moved to a side table. ‘Who made the muffins?’ she asked.

‘Aunt Margaret, of course. She’s always been a wonderful baker, but she can only do simple things now. Scones and muffins. It’s one of the few things she can still enjoy. It calms her down when she’s agitated.’

‘Nobody eat or drink anything,’ said Hayley, reaching into her bag for her phone. ‘Everyone sit down. We’re going to be here a while.’

‘What on earth are you talking about?’ Pippa asked.

The puppies were looking for attention, jumping up at their legs, and trying to climb onto their laps. No one paid them any attention, let alone tried to wrangle them to order.

‘Ken Payne was poisoned by a plate of muffins left on his doorstep,’ said Julia.

‘Luckily, he only had a bite or two and left it because it tasted funny,’ said Hayley.

‘He got very sick – vomiting and loss of motor function. The doctor in the emergency room found it peculiar, and did some blood tests. Poison, and strong pain medication. If he’d eaten more, he would have died.

’ She glanced at Margaret when she said it.

‘A man was poisoned? In Berrywick? Good lord. Who would do a thing like that?’ said Pippa.

Julia and Hayley looked at her. ‘Someone with a grudge,’ said Hayley.

Pippa looked pleadingly from Julia to Hayley and back again, hoping for confirmation that the notion was absurd.

‘Why would Margaret have anything against this Ken Payne person? I’ve never even heard his name before today.’

‘Pippa, think about it. Ken was in the band. So were Matthew and Lewis. And it’s clear that Margaret was furious with them for what happened in the past.’

‘If Margaret’s muffins were poisonous – which I must say, I find hard to believe – then it was entirely by mistake,’ said Pippa decisively.

‘She might have put rat poison in the mix instead of flour – the woman has a brain tumour, you realise. I put all the dangerous substances up on the highest shelf, but when she gets an idea in her head, she’s very stubborn.

She might have been remembering some time in the past when they kept flour up there, or something.

And I can’t watch her every minute.’ Pippa’s voice rose.

Julia’s heart broke for poor Pippa, who had tried so hard to take good care of her ailing aunt. She took her hand, and shook her head. She said gently, ‘Pippa, I found that St Christopher at the scene of Lewis’s accident.’

‘This suggests that Margaret herself was there,’ Hayley said. ‘And I think that the forensics will find damage to her car which is consistent with hitting a person. Hard. Two people, in fact. It appears that Matthew died the same way, likely at the hands of the same person.’

‘This is madness,’ Pippa exclaimed. She looked at Julia pleadingly: ‘Julia, please, explain to the detective that it’s not possible.’

‘Pippa, I wish I could…But I think Hayley is right. Margaret ran over two men, and when you took her car keys away, she poisoned the third. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Dominic – the fourth person at that lunch – might have been next.’

Hayley turned to Margaret, who had been gazing out of the window, seemingly unconcerned by the fraught conversation going on around her. ‘What size shoe do you wear, Margaret?’

Margaret smiled. ‘Four. Feet like a child, my mum used to say.’

Hayley turned back to Pippa and Julia. ‘Consistent with the forensics.’

‘There is no way my sweet, sick aunt is a murderer,’ said Pippa. ‘Not a chance.’

‘The thing about getting old,’ said Margaret, conversationally, ‘is that people often underestimate you. Lewis saw me driving towards him, you know. He knew what he did to me back then. But he just stood there. Thought I would stop. Thought I didn’t have the balls.

Ha! He was wrong, wasn’t he? Ran him over, and then again, just to make sure.

My only regret is that he didn’t suffer like I suffered all those years. ’

Rather chillingly, Margaret described Lewis’s death as if she were relating a story about a church jumble sale.

‘Aunt Margaret! I can’t believe you would do that,’ protested Pippa.

Margaret turned and looked at Pippa, her eyes cold. ‘I’m tired of being underestimated, Pippa dear. Very tired indeed.’ Then she gave a warm smile. ‘That’s why I made some special muffins, dear. Where have they got to? I think all of you should have one.’