Page 31 of Murder in the Winter Woods
‘Two men who didn’t know each other in life, joined in death,’ said Julia. She felt this was quite a profound observation. The sort that Aunt Edna might make, on a good day.
‘Has someone else died?’ asked Hester, horrified.
‘Well, yes. Lewis.’ Julia felt confused. Hester herself had just referred to it.
‘Lewis and who else?’
Good lord, was the woman going insane from her grief? ‘Matthew,’ Julia said, in her gentlest, most therapeutic voice.
‘Yes, but who is the other one?’ Hester was getting quite het up.
‘The other who?’
‘The man who didn’t know them?’
‘Each other,’ said Julia, enunciating slowly. ‘They didn’t know each other.’
‘Well, of course they knew each other!’ said Hester. ‘They went to school together. Goodness, they even had a band together! How we used to laugh – Lewis Band, your friend from the band, I used to say.’
‘A band?’ Julia felt as if this conversation was rapidly hurtling away from her, and she needed to get it firmly back on track.
‘It would have been, what, the mid-eighties?’ said Hester, her eyes narrowed, as if she were squinting into the past. ‘They were in a band together when they were youngsters, but it had split up by the time Matthew and I met.’
‘Did they still see each other, the band members?’
‘Not as a group, no. There had been some bad blood between them at the end. They’d been doing quite well, apparently. They’d got a big London manager, who had got them in with a record company. They were going to make a record, but something happened, Matthew was never clear exactly what and it used to upset him talking about it. Anyway, at the last minute they weren’t signed up. Before my time, that was, but the breakup was quite fresh when Matthew and I got together. A few months before, if I remember. I just know that there had been a lot of blame and bitterness, and a lot of fighting. The band fell apart. Bands, you know. Matthew and Lewis were the only ones who stayed in the area; the others moved off.’
‘Were Matthew and Lewis friends later on in life?’
‘They weren’t enemies, but they weren’t friends, particularly. I suppose they just didn’t have much in common, other than the band. But they’d say hello when they saw each other in the village. They were friendly enough, but they didn’t make plans, or get together.’
Hester got up to poke at the fire that she had lit just before Julia arrived.
‘What was the band called, Hester?’
‘Oh, now you’re asking. Gosh, I should know. Idoknow. It’s on the tip of my tongue…’ She tapped impatiently at her forehead, as if trying to dislodge that sticky piece of information.
Julia was all too familiar with the tip-of-your-tongue feeling, and the anxiety it engendered in the sixty-something mind. She also knew that the head tap didn’t work. ‘Not to worry, Hester, I was just curious.’
‘Well, it’s going to bother me all night if I don’t remember it. Wait a mo, I’ll get Matthew’s photo album. He’s got one specially for the band. It’s got lots of pictures from the gigs they played, and a little tour they did around the area. Gosh, I haven’t looked at that in years.’
Hester got up and walked over to a big wooden dresser. A matching set of stoneware was on the upper shelves. She opened the lower cupboards to reveal a stack of albums. Julia felt pleased that she seemed at least more energetic than she had been.
‘This is it,’ she said, pulling a big red-covered book from the bottom of the pile. It was fat, and crumpled papers peeped from between the leaves. She opened the book at a random page, and pulled out the flyer. ‘The Red Berries! Of course, how could I have forgotten? The Red Berries because they were from Berrywick. God, I hope I’m not going dilly.’
‘You’re not going dilly. Stress affects memory recall, you know. Stress and grief, both.’
‘Well, there’s enough of that about,’ Hester said sadly, turning the pages of the book slowly, as if lost in thought. ‘It’s funny,’ she said, ‘their most popular song was a Christmas one.’
She started singing softly:
‘As white as the snow
The Christmas trees glow
And now I must go
Hoooooooommmeee.’
