Page 50 of A Village Theatre Murder

Julia was calm, in fact slightly amused, and tried her best to put Jono out of his misery. ‘Not at all, Jono! You weren’t to know. It’s all very amicable. I’m happy that Peter’s happy. Christopher is a lovely man. I am pleased they are married. Jess, our daughter, is fine with it all. That is not why I haven’t gone back to the Swan.’

‘Ah, well, that’s good,’ said Jono, turning his attention most diligently to the vindaloo. The scarlet drained slowly from his face as he cut into the succulent lamb.

Sean caught Julia’s eye and smiled a wry smile. What they hadn’t told the young man was that the fact that Julia’s ex-husband had been one of the grooms had not been the most traumatic part of the wedding at the Swan. No, that would have to have been the frozen body they had discovered the next morning. Of course, there had also been a dramatic allergy attack, as a distant second in the trauma stakes. But neither of them mentioned either of those events.

After a few forkfuls of curry, Jono had composed himself enough to continue. ‘Well, I hope Peter and Christopher had a DJ, or at least a playlist on an iPhone, instead of what we had, which was a very drunk red-headed girl playing awful love songs on the jukebox, and singing along.’ He did a little thing on an invisible guitar and crooned, ‘I-yyye-I will aaaaalways love you…’

‘Poor thing. Maybe she had a heartbreak,’ Sean said. ‘Maybe she had just broken up with her boyfriend and was drowning her sorrows and listening to maudlin music.’ Sean looked pleased with his invented history.

‘Not a break-up,’ said Jono. ‘Someone died, apparently. Laine recognised her; she’d been a few years above Laine at school. We’d finished eating and moved to the bar counter for a coffee. The girl was telling Laine a long, sad story, but I didn’t listen in too closely. It seemed rude, when the girl was spillingher heart out. A married man, I got the impression. Then a death. Possibly a murder. It was all very complicated.’

It sounded very much, thought Julia with some surprise, like Jono had seen Bethany at the Swan.

‘And then, as well as her, some other fella came in and sat on the other side of me. He downed three shots of tequila in a row. Believe me, this was not a guy who could hold his drink. Soon he was telling anyone who’d listen about his acting career. He’d been in that TV programme about the newspaper barons. Remember it, Dad? Mum used to watch it.’ Julia felt an odd little jolt at the mention of Sean’s wife, Jono’s mother, who had died of cancer some years before Julia had met Sean. He had told Julia about his wife and her death, but it wasn’t something they talked about often. And she’d never heard her referred to as ‘Mum’. It made her sad. Jono had been in his teens when he’d lost his mother. No wonder he’d had a hard time finding his feet. He was grieving.

‘Hot Press, it was called,’ Sean said. ‘Full of very well turned-out journalists, evil press owners, secret sources. It’s a wonder they had time to get the paper out, what with all the steamy affairs. I used to tease your mum mercilessly about it, but she loved that programme. Said it was relaxing after a long day. Didn’t demand an ounce of brainpower.’

It couldn’t have been anyone but Hector yammering on aboutHot Press. Berrywick was a small village, but still – what were the chances?

‘Right, well, he starred in that, apparently,’ Jono continued. ‘So he was bending my ear. And this drunk girl – Brittany, her name was – was bending Laine’s ear, and the date took rather a turn for the worse. Made me glad I’d given up drinking, though, I can tell you. We took Brittany home in the end. Laine had her dad’s car. She doesn’t drink either. So we drove the girl home.’

‘Are you sure she was Brittany, and not Bethany?’

‘That was it. Bethany. How did you know, Julia?’

‘A hunch. Now, Jono, this is very important. What time was she there?’

‘I noticed her there when we went to supper at about seven. She was looking pretty ropey even then. By the time we moved over to the bar after eating, she was very drunk. In fact, the manager guy…’

‘Kevin?’

‘I don’t know his name.’

‘Big chap. Brown hair. Gentle manner.’

‘That’s it. Do you know everyone’s name in the whole village? And where they are at any point in time?’

Sean snorted with laughter at the question, and answered it for her: ‘Pretty much.’

‘No, noteveryone,’ said Julia. ‘But I like to keep my eye on things. Now what were you about to say about Kevin, the manager?’

‘He said she’d been there since mid-afternoon, and his impression was that she’d been somewhere else first. Another pub. He was worried about her and he had told the barman to stop serving her by the time we left. He asked her if he could call someone to fetch her, or get her a taxi, but she refused. That’s when we offered to give her a lift. We were leaving and she lives not far from Laine, so Laine convinced her to come with us. We delivered her home around ten or ten thirty. Had to help her to the door and upstairs to her room. Girl was trashed.’

Julia was sorry that Bethany was in such a bad way, although it was hardly surprising. The poor girl had, after all, lost her boyfriend. Little had she realised that she would wake up to even more loss, thought Julia sadly. But she was pleased – if that was the right word – that, by Jono’s account, Bethany had been drinking all afternoon and would not have been in any state to kill Roger Grave. Of course, that would depend on the time of death, too. But Julia would get hold of Walter Farmer inthe morning and see if he had any more info from the forensics team.

‘More dhal, dhaling?’ Sean asked, nudging the carton towards Julia.

She smiled at his punny joke, but shook her head. ‘Thank you, but I’ve had elegant sufficiency, as my gran used to say.’

‘At least she didn’t say “I’m stuffed”, like we used to say at school lunch. It was usually followed by the loudest burp a boy could manage,’ said Jono, leaning back contentedly with his hands on his tummy. ‘I love a good Indian. Thanks, Dad.’

‘It was a real treat, Sean,’ Julia added.

‘My pleasure! Now, I think it’s just about time for us to be heading home. I’ve got early consults in the morning.’

‘And I’ll be up early too,’ Jono said. ‘I’m meeting Laine for a run. A walk-ish run. I’ll take Leo.’

The dog raised his head in response to his name. Jake stirred too. The dogs had worked out fairly early on that this was not a meal that would result in a tasty chicken bone or a bit of bacon fat, and had napped through the whole thing.

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