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I smiled.
These old ladies were fun.
“We’ll probably be with Steph,” Ash said before the twins descended into chaos. “So we’re relying on you four to get some information for us.”
“I thought you didn’t want us coming with you.” Gwen sniffed. “You changed your tune.”
“I’ve accepted that I can’t stop you, so I’ve decided to exploit you instead.”
“How rude.”
“You’d do the same thing, you old bat,” Viv pointed out. “Besides, we’re only going for the gossip anyway.”
“Looks like everyone else had the same idea.” I eyed the bustling pub. “Combined with a Friday night…”
Ash grimaced. “This is going to be rough.”
“No, it’ll be fine,” Barb said. “More people means more gossip.”
“That’s not a good thing,” I pointed out. “We don’t want gossip, we want actual information.”
Gwen shrugged. “Then we’ll just have to weed it all out.” She turned to the other three elderly ladies and held up a small black box. “Recorders at the ready, ladies?”
They all whipped identical black boxes out of their sleeves and nodded.
I shared a look with Ash as all four of them marched into the pub with purpose.
“What is going on?” Ash whispered, pulling the door open.
“I don’t know,” I said, taking the weight of the door as she walked inside. “But I’m a little scared.”
Steph arrived at the pub about half an hour after we did. It’d been another thirty minutes since we’d all made eye contact, and she hadn’t yet managed to extract herself from Declan’s family.
Given the way she kept looking at us, she wanted to do just that.
Her gaze was a silent scream of, “Help meeeeeeeeeee!”
“My God,” Ash said. “They won’t leave her alone, will they?”
“I suppose they think they’re grieving together,” I reasoned, stirring my drink with the straw. “Does his family live nearby?”
“About an hour away these days,” she answered. “I wonder if they’re trying to cosy up to her for his money.”
“That’s a bit sceptical of you, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps, but death turns people into vultures. You hear about it all the time; close, loving families who are suddenly at war when there’s an inheritance involved.”
“I guess. We don’t exactly have that.”
“No, but your mum is an only child, and you’re an only child. There’s nobody to fight you for the inheritance.” Ash shrugged. “When Grandpa died and we got our inheritance, Aunt Matilda fought tooth and nail to challenge the will.”
“Which one is Matilda?”
“Dad’s oldest sister. Grandpa had lived with her for the last year of his life, and she decided she was due more than anyone else because she’d left her job to be his carer.”
I paused. “She kind of had a point.”
“I don’t disagree,” Ash said, putting her straw between her lips and sucking up the last of her cocktail. “The problem was that she wanted almost everything. Grandpa had already left her the house since she’d moved in with him, but she wanted the money, and she wanted itnow.”
