Page 42 of A Village Theatre Murder

‘No, I saidnotgoing for a…’

Julia stopped herself just in time, realising her mistake. Jake’s vocabulary was limited, and he was selectively deaf when it suited him, but ‘walk’ was one word he never missed. The word ‘no’ and its close relative ‘not’ were words that seemed unrecognisable to his doggy brain.

‘Okay, Jakey, calm down.’ She stroked his ears, which sometimes worked to settle him. ‘Sit down. I’ll tell you what, I’ll drop you home first. You can hang out with Henny Penny and Chaplin while I go and see Hayley.’

Jake was, frankly, bored with her itinerary and with her commentary. There had been all too much driving, waiting and talking, and too little snacking and walking, as far as he wasconcerned. When Julia started the car, he gazed wistfully out of the window.

Once home, Jake leapt from the car as if he was being released from prison. Even Chaplin seemed annoyed at their long absence. He was sitting on the front doormat glaring at them like a stern father waiting for a tardy teenager who had missed her curfew. Julia half expected him to tap his wristwatch and demand to know exactly what time she thought it was, young lady.

Julia dashed to the back garden to let the chickens out, and saw that Henny ‘Houdini’ Penny had let herself out already. Jake galloped up to her and snuffled her chestnut feathers with his big brown nose. ‘Right then, you behave yourselves, I’m off,’ Julia said, having checked the water bowls and general state of things. ‘If it’s quick, we might still be able to…’ She stopped herself just in time, and said, ‘Ambulate.’

As she got back into the car, she had a bit of a laugh at her own joke, but sobered up rather quickly at the thought of going to see Hayley. She’d been warned about coming with another of what the detective liked to call her ‘half-baked ideas and improbable theories’. And the more she thought about it, the more she realised that this one was based on an assumption – that the ‘Bethie’ in the phone conversation was Bethany. Julia couldn’t see who else it could possibly be, but that was the sort of detail that Hayley liked to home in on, and then she would give Julia one of her looks, or worse, one of her talks about minding her own business. The theory was based ontwounproven premises, in fact – the other being that Roger Grave and Bethany had something going on between them. Julia had no evidence of either fact. And without that, ‘half-baked ideas and improbable theories’ rather accurately covered the situation.

One thing about Julia Bird, though: she wasn’t long out of ideas.

Julia seldom shopped at the supermarket that Graham had managed and where Bethany worked. It was on the very edge of Berrywick, on the opposite side from Julia’s house. It wasn’t more than a five-minute drive, but Julia was in the habit of shopping at the little shops in the high street. She was usually only shopping for one – one human, that was – and more often than not, she picked up two or three items on her walks, or on her way to Second Chances or the Buttered Scone. She enjoyed the ease and neighbourliness of it, and only went to a bigger shop, by car, once a month or so.

The shop wasn’t busy. It was 2.30p.m., after the lunchtime shoppers, and before the rush of people stopping on the way home from fetching children or from work. Bethany was easy to spot, thanks to her red hair, which she wore pulled up in a tight, no-nonsense ponytail. She was in the cleaning products aisle with a clipboard and a pen, presumably doing some sort of stock-related activity. It would be a big job. The sheer number of cleaning products in the world was one of the things that made Julia feel like some peasant transported from the nineteenth century. She was ninety-eight per cent convinced that there were only three distinct products, and the rest was packaging and smells. Furthermore, she felt sure that water, bleach and vinegar would take care of household hygiene. But she could never entirely resist the pressure to buy floor cleaner, tile cleaner, oven cleaner, window cleaner…

‘Oh hello, it’s you!’ Julia said to Bethany, in what she hoped sounded like surprise. ‘I’m Julia, we met at the funeral.’

She added this, knowing that young people didn’t seem to be able to remember and recognise older people. She imagined they thought they all looked the same. It was part of the invisibility of old age.

‘Of course I remember you, Julia,’ said Bethany. ‘You were very kind. You gave me tissues and sweets.’

‘How are you doing? It must be hard being back at work without Graham.’

‘Oh, it’s sad and weird, but when you’re busy, it takes your mind off things for a bit.’

‘Well, I hope you’ve got good support.’

‘Not really…’

‘And you’ve got Roger Grave to lean on, haven’t you?’ Julia hoped that she was not being too direct.

Bethany looked at her in mild surprise. ‘Oh, do you know him?’

‘I do, actually.’

‘And how did you work out we were…?’

‘I’m a social worker; I have a bit of an instinct for human relationships. I put two and two together.’

‘Well, I mean, quite a few people know by now; it’s not the secret it once was. So I suppose there’s not a lot of putting together needed, really.’

Times really had changed. Grave was a senior policeman, and old enough to be Bethany’s father, and if what Bethany said was true, it was an open secret that the two of them were involved in a relationship, and no one batted an eyelid.

‘Anyway, it’s not as if he’s very supportive as far as Graham is concerned,’ Bethany said.

‘Graham?’ Julia wasn’t sure if the young woman would be pleased to realise that Julia knew about the affair.

Bethany dropped her voice. ‘Graham was in love with me,’ she said. ‘He was going to leave Jane.’

‘You can see why Roger might not have liked that.’ Julia felt she was rather understating the situation.

‘I suppose he’s very protective, and he didn’t think the relationship with Graham was good for me.’

‘I can imagine it’s been quite difficult for you, beingtorn between the two of them.’

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