Page 35 of A Village Theatre Murder
‘Come with me, sir, I’ll take your statement.’
‘It’s very important that I see the DI. My client…’
The man’s voice continued, muffled, as he followed Walter through the door, and then was heard no more. The door opened, and one of the young constables came through, along with Mr Lineker’s insistent voice: ‘…he served her notice of intent to divorce on Saturday morning…’ The door closed behind them, leaving Julia wondering.
‘Mrs Bird?’ The way Cherise said her name made Julia think she must have said it at least once before catching her attention.
‘Sorry, Cherise. My mind wandered. I have a little something for Hayley Gibson. Some books I thought she might like. I imagine she’s very busy with everything that’s going on, so I don’t want to bother her. But would you mind giving them to her when you see her?’
‘Yes, of course.’ Cherise reached over and took the books, turning them over to read the blurbs. ‘Oooh, these do look nice. I think I’ve read one of hers. American police detectives are so much hunkier, aren’t they?’
Julia did not feel it her place to comment on the relative hunkiness of American versus British police detectives, especially given the proximity of the latter. Instead, she said, ‘It’s an author Hayley likes. Someone brought a few newish ones into Second Chances, and I nabbed them.’
‘Ah.’
‘Paid for them, of course,’ Julia clarified. ‘I wouldn’t just take them.’ There was something about being in a police station, even one that Julia had come to know so well, that made Julia feel as if she might be accused of a crime at any moment.
Cherise smiled. ‘Oh, of course not. I’m sure DI Gibson will be very pleased. She needs something to take her mind off things, that’s for sure, other than the chocolates and flowers she keeps getting. She’s been working like a madwoman, as usual. Loads of paperwork with poor Graham’s death, of course. Andnow this.’ She gestured with her head towards the door, behind which the pushy lawyer was no doubt badgering Walter Farmer for access to the senior officer. Cherise gave an almost imperceptible roll of her eyes.
‘Give Hayley my best,’ said Julia. ‘I hope she enjoys the books.’
Julia went home via the post office – a second item ticked off the list – her head full of what she’d heard:He served her notice of intent to divorce…And before that, he’d said something about a personal matter, a legal letter delivered on the morning of his death. Try as she might, Julia couldn’t find any interpretation of these snippets of conversation other than that Graham was planning to divorce Jane. And he’d told her on the day of his death. But what did that have to do with…
The furious blare of a car’s hooter dragged Julia out of her musing. She slammed her foot on the brake, sending Jake into the back of her seat. She was shocked to find the car’s nose halfway into a junction, having stopped too late.
The dog was fine, if somewhat put out. But not nearly as put out as the man shaking his fist at her. From the angle of his car, he’d skidded to a halt when she’d come through the give way sign in front of him.
‘Look where you’re going, you idiot!’ he shouted through his rolled-down window. ‘You could have killed someone.’
And the truth of it was, she could have.
Just as surely as someone had killed Graham Powell with that bullet in the prop gun and with Oscar’s finger on the trigger.
18
Sean grinned a self-satisfied-trying-to-look-modest grin as he placed his coffee cake on the eats table. Although a reasonable cook, he was not much of a baker, and his previous contributions to book club tea had been rather amateurish in their execution – a wonky carrot cake that had somehow risen more on one side than the other; a chocolate cake with a dip in the middle; a plate of slightly undercooked cheese straws. This cake was symmetrical and smoothly iced, and smelled tantalisingly of fresh coffee.
‘That looks incredible!’ said Tabitha.
Dylan nodded approvingly. ‘Proper professional.’
‘I watched a video on YouTube,’ Sean said. ‘It was Jono’s idea. He found it for me. It’s quite amazing what you can get online! Step-by-step instructions, and you can see exactly what it’s meant to look like at every stage.’
He seemed genuinely amazed by the existence of cooking videos, as did Tabitha.
‘Really?’ she said. ‘I can see how that would be useful. I always feel nervous when I read “beat until stiff peaks form”.’
‘Yes, or “untilsmooth and glossy”.’
‘What even is that? Glossy?’
‘And then there’s “bake until golden”.’
‘Exactly. I start to doubt myself. I mean, is it really golden, or is that more like light brown?’
‘That’s the beauty of the videos,’ said Sean. ‘You can see the exact colour it’s meant to be.’
Dylan smiled at this exchange, which probably sounded like something from medieval times to him. Julia had come late to baking – her ex-husband Peter had been the cook in their marriage – but when she had, she had just followed the recipes and hoped for the best without overthinking it. She certainly didn’t try to differentiate between shades of gold and light brown. Her offerings might not be professional level, but it was her experience that fresh-baked foods were always appreciated and generally wolfed down, even if they were a little rough around the edges.
