Page 15 of A Village Theatre Murder

‘No, I haven’t seen it.’

‘Well, it seems the police are treating it as a murder. The newspaper says that they are investigating…’

The mobile phone vibrated in Julia’s pocket, interrupting Flo’s conversation. As she reached for it, Flo gave a nod and cock of the head, while pointing towards the paper with her thumb. Curiously, Julia knew exactly what this obscure sign language meant: ‘You take that call. Then look at the paper. Then we’ll chat.’

Julia did her own little hand movement, a squiggle, indicating, ‘Bill, please.’

The name on the phone screen read:Jane.

Just yesterday, Julia had said, ‘Don’t hesitate to phone if there’s anything I can do,’ and she’d meant it, too, but she hadn’t anticipated the call coming quite so soon.

She answered quickly. ‘Hello, Jane, how are you? Are you all right?’

‘I’ve just seen the local paper.’ Jane sounded old and shaken.

‘I haven’t read it. I’ve only seen the headline.’

‘They are saying that maybe Graham’s death wasn’t an accident. They’re saying it might be…it might be murder.’

Instinctively, Julia slipped into her calm, professional social worker voice. ‘I’m afraid that they see it that way, Jane. It was a prop gun. Roger Grave checked that it was empty. But someone must have loaded it. The police can’t see any other explanation.’

‘It says in the paper that they are interviewing people!’ Jane said this like it was the most aberrant behaviour that the police could possibly be indulging in.

‘Yes, of course they are,’ soothed Julia. ‘They need to know what happened. They are speaking to everyone in the cast and crew, starting with anyone who had something to do with the gun. They’ve spoken to me and Tabitha. And to Roger Grave.’

‘And to Oscar.’

‘Yes, of course to Oscar, because he was the one who was, um, holding the gun at the time. When it fired.’

‘But Oscar…It’s just that…’ Jane paused on the other end of the line. ‘I hope you won’t take what I said yesterday the wrong way. About Oscar, I mean. Oscar and me. Our old connection. Him supporting me and all that.’

‘Yes, you never said what he was supporting you with?’

‘Nothing!’ Jane paused for a second, and then gave a small laugh. ‘That’s the thing. He wasn’t supporting me with anything in particular. Just…You know…He’s been there…Listen to me now, talking nonsense. I have been soworked up and so tired. Like yesterday, Julia, I was just rambling on. I said too much. I don’t want you to take it out of context, is all I meant. I didn’t know it was a murder investigation. Oscar would never do anything bad. He’s the gentlest man. The gentlest.’

Jane finally stopped her rambling, ending with a strangled sob, at odds with the earlier laugh. The poor woman was really beside herself.

‘It’s all right Jane, it’s all right.’ Julia spoke in her most calming voice. ‘Don’t you worry about them getting the wrong idea about Oscar. I know DI Gibson well. She’s smart. And thorough. She’s not going to go after the wrong man. And there’s the forensics, which are very sophisticated these days. She and her team will find out what happened. You rest and spend time with your family, and let’s leave the investigation to the police, shall we?’

‘I hope people don’t starttalkingabout this,’ said Jane. ‘Gossiping about me. And Oscar. And, well, everyone.’

Julia had to bite back a retort. Jane knew Berrywick better than Julia did, and the chances that people would not gossip were about zero to nothing. This would be the talk of the town for the foreseeable future. But Julia knew how much other people’s opinions meant to Jane, so she held her tongue.

‘All you can do at this point is trust the police to solve this quickly,’ she said.

‘Yes. Yes. You’re right. The police will make sense of it all. Thank you, Julia. Thank you.’

Julia ate her scrambled egg. Unfortunately, it had cooled rather while she listened to Jane’s strange declarations. Julia liked her food piping hot, as a rule. Jake had no complaints about the bacon. He’d never met a rasher he didn’t like, and he snapped this one from her fingers, swallowing it in one go. Julia looked around the Buttered Scone, which was filling up. It was mostly regulars at that hour. The tourists tended tocome in a little later, for lunch. She spotted Johnny Blunt, with his blue knitted cap atop his whiskery eyebrows. There was Nicky with another young mum, taking a breather while the little ones were at school. There were one or two others she recognised, and exchanged smiles and nods with. It was nice to have a regular breakfast spot, and to be a regular herself. She noted again how lucky she’d been to end up in Berrywick when her marriage had ended, and her career at the same time.

‘I suppose we’d better be going,’ she said to Jake. She put a twenty-pound note on the saucer with the bill. ‘We can’t be sitting here all day. We’ve got lots to do.’

It wasn’t entirely true; there were bits and pieces of house and garden maintenance to do, but nothing pressing. But she got up nonetheless.

Sitting at an outside table was Pippa, the guide dog trainer in whose care Jake had been before it became apparent that he wasn’t cut out for life as a service dog. He had turned out to be an excellent companion to Julia, though. A service of its own kind, in a way.

Pippa had three lovely Labrador puppies on leads sniffing around the table. The Buttered Scone may now have had a dog-friendly policy, but Pippa must have thought that bringing three puppies inside would be pushing it.

‘Oh, look at them! How dear! I didn’t know you had puppies again?’

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