Page 43 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘For your Instagram channel?’ Gina asked her.

Dorothy glanced over her shoulder to see where Sophie and Luke were. They were actually tucking into some wine with Caroline and Toby, Katie and Dan and Peter too. Their raucous laughter drowned out everyone else’s chatter.

‘I just made that up. I don’t even have Instagram.’

‘I guessed. I was joking,’ Gina said. ‘Why are you still recording?’

‘Because I think there’s more going on than Leonard and the painting. Here, listen to this,’ Juliet said, tapping on her phone.

‘Maybe not here or now,’ Gina said. ‘If you have something you really want us to hear, then later might be better.’

Juliet grudgingly put her phone away.

‘Gina, if you get the chance, could you talk to Peter? I have this odd feeling that he perhaps knows something,’ Dorothy whispered, and Gina nodded in agreement.

There was the sudden sound of a glass being struck and they all looked up to see that Leonard was back in the room and was standing at the end of the table about to make another of his announcements.

‘A little word from me if you could all indulge me for a moment.’

‘Me, me, me,’ Dorothy said, under her breath, and Gina laid her hand on her arm. Dorothy hoped it was more a reminder than a warning.

‘I have finally had word from the group who I hired the quad bikes from,’ he continued. ‘They got the bike back to base and had a good look at the problem. They pride themselves on their impeccable safety record and have never had an incident like this in all the years they’ve been in business.’

‘Get on with it, man,’ Dorothy breathed again and Gina took the reminder up a level by gently squeezing.

‘In short, they found a hole in the brake pipe,’ Leonard said.

There was a loaded pause as Leonard’s stare bored into Rufus.

Paul filled the silence. ‘Well, that’s on them then, isn’t it? Not having their machines in order – you could sue them.’

‘Paul, you don’t understand. They weren’t negligent; it was sabotage.’

‘Oh, not that again, what on earth makes you think that? Far more likely a faulty pipe than someone’s malicious intent. They probably hadn’t serviced it properly,’ Paul said, getting aggravated with his brother.

‘The brakes were fine on our way to the pub. I was using them as we came down the track into the village for God’s sake. Sorry, Vicar.’

Dorothy noticed that Peter was staring at Leonard and his look was hard and cool. Was there something there – more than offence taken of casual blasphemy? she wondered.

‘I came to a stop in the back of the car park, using the brakes,’ Leonard continued. ‘Then, when we left, the first time I needed to use them was at the top of the hill and they failed because, while I was inside the pub having my lunch, someone cut a hole in the pipe.’

18

GINA

Tentatively everyone started picking at their food again, but with Leonard simmering at the head of the table and casting his accusatory eye around us all, it did rather put a dampener on things. It seemed that nobody thought it was likely anyone had done something to his quad bike. And then Peter, who’d been quiet and contemplative up until that point, added his own thoughts.

‘Do you have enemies, Leonard?’ he asked. ‘I can’t think it’s likely your family and friends would wish ill of you, so who do you think might be responsible?’

‘Well, I don’t have a particular person in mind,’ Leonard said, glancing up at each face in turn around the table, including an unpleasant lingering look at me.

I swallowed hard and put my slice of pie back on my plate as a sudden wave of nausea took me.

‘Perhaps a disgruntled tenant farmer? A person in the village with an axe to grind? A husband whose wife you’ve dallied with?’ Peter asked.

There was a ripple of laughter at the last suggestion and I wasn’t sure if it was the image of Leonard with a woman, or the word dallied, which surely belonged in the last century. Leonard had turned a shade of puce and the laughter died down.

‘Perhaps,’ Peter continued, ‘someone from your art world. You’re quite the collector, maybe you have someone who’s after a treasure you’ve acquired.’