Page 40 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)
‘Isn’t that your friend the detective inspector?’ Jono asked.
The whole table – Sean and Julia and Tabitha and Jono and Laine – looked up from their table at the Topsy Turnip in astonishment.
The person coming towards them, moving slowly across the crowded room, looked like Hayley Gibson, but it seemed impossible that it was indeed her.
She was wearing a bright green jumper, featuring a goofy red-nosed reindeer.
On her head – and this, honestly, Julia could not believe – was a headband with antlers.
Julia could only nod.
‘She looks…different,’ said Jono.
‘I saw my dentist at the gym once,’ Laine said. ‘She was wearing a leotard. Couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so confusing. I was like, where’s your apron thingy and your mask, and why aren’t you wearing those magnifying glasses? And why are you so cheerful ?’
Tabitha cackled at this anecdote, and said, ‘Ah, Laine, you are a card.’
Behind Hayley was Sylvia in a red dress speckled with star-shaped snowflakes.
From a close-fitting bodice, it flared out prettily into a short skirt, under which she wore green and red striped wool tights, and little boots.
Somehow, she looked completely appropriately attired, Christmassy and rather gorgeous, and also just like herself.
Hayley was at the table now, and they all did their very best to behave as if there was nothing remarkable about her attire, and as if this wasn’t the first time in living memory that she had been seen in an outfit other than her uniform of dark trousers (occasionally jeans on weekends) and a rotation of plain and sensible shirts and jackets, varied only slightly, as the weather conditions demanded.
‘Hello!’ said Sean, rather too loudly. ‘And Merry Christmas Eve to you both! Don’t you look festive?’
‘Sylvia loves Christmas,’ said Hayley, somehow managing to look proud and pleased and mildly embarrassed all at the same time.
‘Oh, I do!’ said Sylvia.
‘Which is how I find myself somewhat unexpectedly at the Topsy Turnip Christmas Eve Celebration and Singalong,’ clarified Hayley.
‘Hayley is very kind to indulge me.’ Sylvia put her arm through Hayley’s and squeezed her.
The detective blushed and grinned and said, ‘Well, it is Christmas, after all.’
‘Dentist,’ muttered Laine out of the side of her mouth, to Jono.
‘Hayley, look how nicely your outfit matches Leo’s,’ said Jono. And indeed it did. Leo was wearing the green jumper Julia had bought at the Christmas market. Its red edging matched Rudolf’s nose. ‘We should get a picture.’
Hayley’s arched eyebrow was answer enough. She and Sylvia sat down, without photographic evidence of their good cheer.
‘Well, isn’t this festive? And it’s filling up fast. We should probably order something to eat before the music starts.’ Sean waved politely at the waitress, who smiled and nodded to indicate that she’d noticed.
‘Shall we get nice bar snacks to share?’ said Julia.
‘Good idea. Everyone okay if I order a selection?’
‘I’m happy to put my fate in your hands, Sean,’ said Tabitha. ‘Order away.’
The waitress came over, her piercings glinting in her nose and eyebrow as the coloured Christmas lights flashed on and off, her pen poised over her notepad. ‘Well, if it isn’t Laine King!’ she exclaimed, lowering her pen and pad.
‘Bonnie!’ Laine got to her feet to hug her. ‘Wow, it’s been ages.’
‘I was away for a few years. Came home a month or two ago. I heard you were wandering about the place with a goat,’ Bonnie said, peering hopefully under the table, but locating only two dogs in Christmas gear. Leo looked up and wagged his tail in welcome.
‘I do indeed, but she’s not here. Most venues are very species-ist. Happy to let dogs come along with their humans, but arrive with a goat…’
‘It’s not fair, really. How are they ever going to hear live music with that attitude?’
The girls laughed, and Bonnie said briskly: ‘Now, what are you having?’
‘We’re going to share…’ said Sean, running his finger down the bar menu. ‘I was thinking, maybe…’
‘You’ll want the Scotch eggs, they’re just out the fryer, and my other favourite is the fried cod.’
‘Happy to go with whatever you recommend, Bonnie. Enough for five.’ Sean snapped the menu shut. ‘Thanks, Bonnie.’
‘I’ll be round to see that goat,’ she said to Laine as she left.
‘Ken will be on any minute,’ said Julia. ‘I saw him earlier and he said he’s playing one or two songs, sort of a warm up for the Christmas Eve Celebration and Singalong. But he is obviously thrilled to be playing again.’
‘Probably thrilled not to be dead from poisoning, too,’ said Jono.
‘Jono!’
‘Just joking, Dad, didn’t mean to be unkind. I know it’s not a joking matter.’
‘It probably does give you something to think about though, a near-death experience,’ said Tabitha. ‘Re-evaluate your life. Carpe diem and so on.’
‘Well, poor Lewis and Matthew didn’t get that chance,’ said Hayley, looking a lot less festive than her jumper. ‘Or Lydia, for that matter.’
‘Why did she kill poor Lydia?’ asked Tabitha, who Julia had filled in on the relationships in the band. ‘What did Lydia have to do with the band and the assault?’
‘Nothing. Margaret had got it into her head that Lydia was rude to her. And gave her sub-par lamb chops. Emboldened by her success in getting rid of the two men, she killed Lydia by giving her a handful of her industrial-strength prescription painkillers. Told her they were a homeopathic remedy for bunions, it seems. Then she used the same painkillers crushed up and mixed with rat poison in the muffins she gave Ken. The rat poison actually saved him because it tasted weird and made him vomit – if she’d stuck to the painkillers, Ken would probably be dead.
’ Hayley gave a little shrug, as if to convey the randomness of life, and death by poison.
‘Is Margaret going to go to prison for murder?’ asked Julia.
‘That’s for a judge to decide, but I doubt it. If her behaviour was caused by her medical condition, she won’t be held culpable.’
‘Have you seen anything like that before, Dad?’ Jono asked Sean. ‘Someone going off the deep end because of a tumour?’
‘Never heard of a murder, but depending on where the tumour is in the brain, it can cause increased aggression, impulsive behaviour and even personality changes. In this case, with terrible consequences.’
‘And then there was all that buried trauma that came out when she saw those men again,’ said Julia, sadly.
‘If she hadn’t seen them all having that reunion lunch together, laughing and joking, it’s possible that none of this would have happened.
She’d have died peacefully in a few months, and they’d all have gone on with their lives. ’
‘What about Anthony Ardmore’s business?’ asked Sean. ‘Did that turn out to be a scam, or legit?’
Hayley sighed. ‘It’s a grey area. The business itself is a complete scam. There are no miracle plant cures anywhere close to being released, and there was no inside track with the FDA or whatever it was he claimed.’
‘That sounds pretty straightforward,’ said Sean.
‘The part that isn’t clear is whether Anthony was part of the scam, or a victim himself.
Whether he simply embezzled the money invested in his company, or actually invested it in these non-existent farming opportunities.
The financial guys are working at getting to the root of it.
But he gave the widows most of their money back, and he has promised Ken his share back when he sells his house. ’
‘That’s something,’ said Julia, who had seen Coral and Hester murmuring to the bees that very afternoon, and guessed it must be this they were telling them. ‘And at least it was all solved before Christmas, even though it will still be a difficult one for them both.’
Everyone gave a deep sigh, as if they had planned and scripted it.
‘What about the postcard that the widows found?’ asked Tabitha. ‘The one that made you suspect Ken?’
‘It turns out that was from Ken,’ said Hayley. ‘But he’d put it in the car the day before – he wanted to try to scare the widows out of withdrawing their investment. He says he was panicking and regretted it almost immediately,’
Hayley sighed. ‘If I had a pound for every time someone has told me that – but it’s usually about something with more serious repercussions than that postcard.’
‘Let’s talk about more cheerful things,’ said Julia. ‘I’ll start – Jess has decided to come home when her degree finishes next year. She wants to spend some time in Berrywick while she applies for jobs. I’m delighted.’
‘I bet Dylan is too,’ said Tabitha, with a laugh.
‘Not to mention Jake.’
Jake looked up hopefully at the sound of his name. There seemed to be no food in the vicinity, and definitely no walk. He dropped his head onto his paws with a sigh.
Ken came out from behind the bar, carrying his old guitar from Second Chances. He caught Julia’s eye and lifted the instrument up in her direction with a little smile and a nod of acknowledgement. He sat on the stool on the makeshift stage, and cleared his throat.
‘Thank you for coming, ladies and gentlemen…and dogs.’
The ripple of laughter from the audience seemed to ease his nerves, and he spoke with more confidence:
‘I’m going to sing you a little song about friendship and second chances. Feel free to sing along.’
Julia smiled. Her life in Berrywick was all about friendship and second chances. She glanced over at Sean – her greatest second chance of all – and saw that he was looking at her. He raised his glass to her, as the room filled with the voices of her friends.