Small Town Suspicions (Some Very English Murders Book 3) (18 page)

They hugged and Francine went off to buy some fancy and
expensive food for their evening meal, and Penny made her way to Lincoln police
station.

* * * *

The usual dour desk sergeant didn’t even say hello. He
frowned, then rolled his eyes, and waved her to a seat as he picked up the
phone to call through on the internal system.

“She’s here, that woman,” he said.

When the security door opened and Cath stepped into the
reception area, Penny said, “Your staff need a bit of training in customer
service.”

“We’re police,” the man behind the plastic screen said.
“Not on the fish counter at the supermarket.”

“Come on. Let’s go sit outside,” Cath said. “Have you any
news?”

“This and that, but nothing that really amounts to
anything. I would put Steve Llewellyn and Barry Neville on the list of
suspects, but nothing’s really certain.”

“And Carl Fredericks and Mandy Jones?” Cath said. They
walked a little way to a small urban park and settled under a tree, on a carved
wooden bench.

“Yes. Mandy because she wasn’t honest with us, and Carl because
… well, he wasn’t exactly straight, either.”

“Tell me about Steve and Barry, though,” Cath said.

Penny quickly filled her in on the latest developments. “So
you see, Steve isn’t telling us all the truth either, and Barry has his own
issues. They could well be in it together.”

“It’s possible,” Cath said. “But we have been moving
forward too…”

“Tell me! Goodness knows, I need something to keep my mind
occupied right now.” Penny outlined the problem with Kali, but downplayed the
possibility that she had been deliberately targeted for Penny’s involvement. It
was her worst fear, and the most likely explanation, yet she felt reluctant to
tell Cath and have her panic and take her off the case.

Cath picked up on something in her manner, though, and
asked if she definitely wanted to stay as their unofficial investigator.

“Yes, please. Tell me about your progress.”

“We called Mandy in for a formal interview,” Cath said.

“Oh my goodness! I thought you were all for playing it cool
and gaining her trust.”

“Yes, we were,” Cath explained. “But we ran background
checks, of course. One thing that had interested me when we spoke to her was
her reaction to us. She wondered if we were there because of her job. So we
looked into her job, because she was hiding something about it. It turned out
that she had lied on her application form to work in that shop. She never
declared her conviction for robbery.”

“Oh! What does that mean?”

“It means she’s unreliable in what she tells us. And it
also means she can be dismissed from her work, too.”

“Poor Mandy. She should have been honest at the start.”

Cath raised her eyebrows. “Really? Then she probably
wouldn’t have got the job at all. It’s hard to find work, and even more so when
you have a criminal record.”

“It’s so long ago now, though. It shouldn’t affect her.”

“The conviction is spent now, yes. But when she applied for
the job, it wasn’t. And that omission invalidates her entire job application
and subsequent employment.”

“She must have known that,” Penny said.

“Oh yes. When it emerged, when we challenged her on it, she
broke down completely. It was rather uncomfortable, to be honest. She knew
she’d done wrong but she saw no way of ever coming clean without losing her
job.”

“What a lot to hide for so long. And of course…” Penny
rubbed her cheek. “Alec knew, didn’t he?”

“I suppose he would have been surprised that she had got
work in a shop when she had that past conviction for robbery, but whether he
knew she had actively lied, I don’t know. And what would he care? I know what
you’re thinking,” Cath said. “Was it a motive for killing Alec? It seems really
too thin, because it is so long ago.”

“You’re right. Did anything else come up?”

“No, not really. She’s single and has been since she came
out of prison, or so she said. She mentioned she had an admirer but she has no
idea who it might be. Someone has been delivering bouquets of daffodils to
her.”

“Daffodils aren’t even in season.”

“I know.”

Penny said, “It wouldn’t be Carl Fredericks, would it? He
has a bulb business. Maybe he wants her back.”

“We suggested that but her face was a picture. I doubt
she’d take him back. We need to have another chat with Carl, though, now we
have more of his lies exposed.”

Wednesday night was exactly
as awful as Penny expected it to be, and she was very grateful for Francine’s
patience and understanding. She moped around her cottage, looking at the
abandoned dog toys which littered the floor, and tried not to get upset at the
sight of the water bowl and empty basket.

Not that Kali often slept in
her designated basket anyway. She was definitely a sofa-based animal.

She rang Drew and he was
appalled and supportive. He was about to drop everything and come around, but
she assured him that she was all right. Hearing his voice was enough of a
comfort.

But she didn’t tell him
that.

She stared for a long hour
at websites that listed everything that was poisonous to dogs that could be
found around the house and in the garden, and then went outside to study her
flower borders.

Nothing.

But thinking that it could
have been a deliberate act was shocking and repellent.

She hardly slept at all.

* * * *

So Thursday was a groggy
sort of day, both within Penny’s self-fuddled head and reflected in the heavy
grey weather outside. For the end of July, it was strangely cold and what Penny
called “sweater weather”. She pulled a thick jumper on and took comfort from
its warmth.

Francine urged her to go for
a walk. At first, Penny refused. Walks were for doing with dogs, and her dog
was not there. But Francine was insistent that it would do her good. Eventually
they wandered around the town centre, and then, by unspoken mutual accord,
began to make their way south, in the direction of Alec Goodwin’s house. The
mystery of the unsolved murder drew them back, again and again.

“Are we going in?” Francine
said as they stood at the gated entrance and looked down the driveway.

“I don’t see the point,”
Penny said morosely. “I don’t even know why we came down here.”

“It calls to us,” Francine
said dramatically. “The universe wants us to do something. It needs closure.”

Penny noted the use of “us”
but ignored it. She couldn’t ignore the “universe” though. “Do you actually
believe that?”

“Why not? Prove me wrong.
Something has caused us to walk down here.”

“Yes. Feet.”

Francine sniffed. “What
propelled our feet, though? You can’t deny that it calls to us. This house.
This place. It calls to me, anyway.”

“It’s basic psychology,
that’s all,” Penny said. “It’s unfinished business and we are involved, so of
course we will find ourselves here. It’s just how minds work.”

“There is a lot to do with
our minds that hasn’t been explained yet. Maybe science will have all the
answers. But perhaps things that are considered a bit lunatic now will be
eventually proved correct. What’s that thing about sufficiently advanced
technology being indistinguishable from magic?”

“You’ve got a point,” Penny
said. “Hmm. I wonder if Barry has spoken with Steve this past day or two.”

She started forward, and
Francine trailed along behind. “What about his dogs?”

“They are a pair of softies,
you know that.”

There was no need to worry.
As they passed by Alec’s house, and approached the shack where Barry lived,
they saw that he was fixing the fence that was the boundary to his garden.

“Now then, Penny. Can’t stay
away from me, can you, ha ha!” He wiped his hands on his sweat-stained t-shirt
and grinned. He nodded at Francine and winked.

He could get away with such
cheekiness. Penny grinned back at him.

“Wasn’t the fence Alec’s
responsibility?”

“Yeah, but I don’t reckon
he’s going to have chance to do much about it now,” Barry said. He was knocking
u-shaped nails into wooden posts to hold the chicken-wire fence into place.
Behind him, Bob and Cassandra tumbled together on the grass. “Anyway, I thought
it was time I smartened it all up around here.”

“What’s going to happen to
the house, and your place?”

“I dunno. It’s all sort of
stuck for the moment. It’ll probably be sold. I’ll carry on living here,
quiet-like, until someone notices. Maybe the next owner will be a nice one.”

“It is lovely out here,”
Francine said. “So peaceful. No neighbours and no noise. I love it.”

Penny had to agree, and she
nodded, but Barry was shaking his head. “Oh, you reckon? Most times, it is.
Mind you, the last few weeks have been a bit hectic. Police everywhere, not to
mention nosey-parkers like you two. At least you pair turn up in daylight,
though.”

“Why, have you have people
poking around at night?” Penny asked.

“Yeah, last night some
weirdo was sneaking around, yeah. The dogs went bananas so I let them out to
chase them off.”

Penny grimaced. Clearly
Barry had little understanding of the trouble he’d be in if any would-be
burglar decided to be terrified of the dogs. “Did the dogs catch the intruder?
Have you told the police?”

“Nah, I ain’t one for
bothering the cops. Bob and Cassandra sorted them right out. Whoever it was,
they legged it. I don’t know what they were up to, though. Look at the mess!”
He turned and pointed his hammer in the direction of his residence.

“What is all that?
Daffodils?” Penny said.

“Yeah. Daffodils in pots.
Like they were setting them out around my front door. There was a gift tag on
one of them. It even said ‘to Barry’ on it. Madness!”

“Wow. That is … strange.”

Francine laughed. “You’ve
got a secret admirer, obviously!”

Just like Mandy
, Penny thought.
We’ve got to go and talk to Cath
about this.

“Good luck with the fence!”
Penny said brightly. “Come on, Francine. Let’s go…”

“Bye…”

Francine shot her a sideways
glance but Penny pretended to not notice as she strode quickly back to the
road, staying silent until they were well out of earshot.

As soon as she was certain
that Barry couldn’t hear them, she said to Francine, “We’re going to Lincoln.
Now.”

* * * *

Francine drove in her little
car, and Penny spent the first ten minutes dialling and redialling Cath until
she finally answered.

“I was in the bathroom,” was
her opening statement.

“Too much information!”

“Sorry,” said Cath. “No,
wait. Not sorry. Is this a matter of life and death?”

“Yes. Alec’s death.”

Cath was suddenly serious.
“Go on.”

“We’re on our way up to
Lincoln. Can we meet?”

“Come into the station,”
Cath said. “I’ll find us a room. Who is ‘we’ – is Drew with you?”

“No, Francine.”

“Okay. See you soon. Drive
carefully. Hang on! You don’t have a hands-free.”

“Francine’s driving.”

Cath growled and hung up.

Then Penny called the
veterinary surgery to get an update on Kali. She got through more quickly than
she had to Cath, and was reassured that Kali was up on her feet, a little
groggy, but would be okay to collect and take home in two hours’ time.

“Thank goodness,” Francine
said as Penny relayed the news.

When they reached the police
station, Cath was waiting. The desk sergeant grimaced when he saw Penny and
Francine.

“Oh, no. There’s more of
them.”

Cath waved at him and ushered
them both into a sparse, beige interview room. “I’ve got information,” she said
as they sat on unpleasant plastic chairs around the table, “but go on. I’d like
to hear yours, first.”

“Daffodils,” Penny said.
“There is something really strange going on with daffodils right now, and that
points to Carl Fredericks, or … I hate to say it, but to Ginni Llewellyn.”

“Just because Mandy Jones
had daffodils delivered to her?”

“And so has Barry Neville.”

“Crikey,” Cath said. “Barry
has an admirer, does he?”

“What sort of admirer creeps
around someone’s house in the middle of the night and puts out a few pots of
daffodils?” Penny said. “And most weird of all … daffodils aren’t even in
season.”

“That’s true,” Cath said.
“How did you find this out?”

Penny and Francine’s words
fell over each other as they took turns in explaining what had happened. Cath
pulled out a notebook and jotted a few things down. “And do you believe Barry?”
she asked. “Or is it something he’s done to throw us all off the scent?”