Page 46 of Murder in the Winter Woods
‘Well, that’s exactly why I was thinking of you. I was talking to their wives, and your name came up. Hester mentioned that Lewis and Matthew had been together just a few weeks before, at a reunion lunch with friends from those days, including you. And now here you are. Isn’t life funny that way?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Dominic. ‘And it was quite a strange thing that we met up at all. It’s been decades since we’ve seen each other, other than to wave to. Even though we all live fairly close by, somehow we seemed to move in different circles.’ He was being delicate. Julia had seen Dominic and Molly’s house: a huge barn, renovated to a light-flooded modern home in soft tones, set in a large, gently landscaped garden. They’d done very well for themselves. Lewis and Matthew’s circumstances were very modest by comparison. They would, indeed, live in different worlds.
Dominic continued: ‘And then, about a month ago, another chap we knew from those days got in touch. He had moved back to Berrywick. I hadn’t seen him in forty years. The four of us had lunch together – it was great to see them. Odd, how it is with old friends. Even though we’d all gone our separate ways, and our lives are quite different, there was a connection. Common ground. Well, for the most part…’
‘You certainly had a lot to talk about,’ said Molly, elbowing her husband. ‘This one got home after supper! They had a fine old time, the four of them.’
‘We did have a fine old time. And I’m so pleased we did, because, as it turned out, within weeks Lewis and Matthew were both dead.’ Dominic’s eyes filled up with tears that he quickly wiped away. ‘It might have been a long time since we had all been close, but it’s been such a shock. Really, it has.’
Julia allowed him a moment to collect himself, and then said gently,‘ Your brother was at the lunch, too, I believe,’ said Julia.
‘Anthony?’ There was a wariness to Dominic’s voice. ‘Well, yes. He wasn’t part of that crowd, he was a few years younger, but he happened to come past the restaurant where we were having lunch, and he stopped to say hello.’
‘They were talking about some investment scheme of his, something to do with plants, if I understood it correctly.’ Julia kept her comments deliberately vague, and didn’t own up to having met Anthony herself.
‘Yes, he was going on about his business, as usual,’ Dominic said grumpily. ‘He’s something of a wheeler-dealer, is Anthony. Always got something on the go, always trying to sell you something. It’s become embarrassing, to be honest.’
‘Heavens, yes,’ said Molly, coolly. ‘Imagine going around town saying, “Would you like to invest in my miracle cures?”’ It’s like an actual snake oil salesman.’
Dominic nodded. ‘It is. Anyway, he bent our ears for a while. They listened politely but I’m pleased to say they didn’t bite.’
Except that they had, thought Julia. She suspected Anthony had tracked them down after the lunch, and made a harder pitch than he had made in front of his brother.
Dominic continued: ‘I think mostly they didn’t invest because neither of them understood what on earth he was talking about.’ He gave a bark of laughter.
‘Or perhaps because they’re not idiots,’ Molly snorted.
‘That’s debatable. You might not say that if you could have seen some of the stuff we got up to back in the day. There wasan incident with a potato and an exploding Bunsen burner in science class that I’d prefer not to think about.’
‘They were all at school together,’ Molly said, filling Julia in.
‘We all grew up here, went to school together,’ Dominic affirmed. ‘Not much to do in the village in our teenage years. Mostly we hung out in the car park of the pub when we were too young to be allowed in, played football, tried to play guitar. And, you wouldn’t think to look at us now, all middle-aged and all, but we had quite a tight little band back in the day. Keyboards, that was my instrument.’
‘Dom was very cool. You should see the photographs,’ Molly said, her blue-grey eyes sparkling.
Julia had, in fact, seen the photographs, not that she confessed to that. ‘I can well imagine,’ she said, with a laugh.
‘Fun times. Didn’t last, of course. If ever there was a band that didn’t end in a flurry of recrimination and disappointment, I’d be surprised. But still, fun while it lasted. It was good to see them.’
Flo came by, slowing to deposit the bill in the middle of the table, and then sweeping off again to take care of the rest of the mass of customers.
Julia had one more burning question, which she asked with as much casualness as she could muster: ‘Sounds like fun. Who was the other guy, the guy who had just moved back?’
‘Chap called Ken. The guitarist.’
The name sent Julia’s heart skittering about in her chest.
‘He was a fair guitarist, back in the day,’ Dominic continued, oblivious to Julia’s heartrate. ‘You wouldn’t have come across him, though. He only came back to Berrywick a month or two ago. It seems things weren’t going too well for him in Scotland, poor chap. He’s back in town and hoping to make a fresh start.’
A fresh start? wondered Julia. Had Ken decided to begin by settling some old scores?
23
The snow continued gently but steadily overnight. Only when the weak winter sun rose lazily above the horizon did it pause, as if to give the other side a sporting chance.
Julia started the day with a flurry of messages from Kevin Moore. He liked Julia’s slogans for the road safety campaign, but wanted to add some of his own. ‘People will die in pain’ was one example, and most of his ideas were on this theme. Julia reminded him that they were taking a more constructive approach, and that slogans like his might be very upsetting for the families of the recently deceased.
Having handled this, Julia fed Jake his breakfast and left him outside to run around while she showered and dressed for the day. The ground was sodden with melting snow, which meant that Jake’s feet were muddy and wet after his morning constitutional. It was going to be chilly, and she didn’t want to leave him outside while she worked a make-up shift at Second Chances, because she had missed her shift on Wednesday when she accompanied the widows on their search for Anthony Ardmore. If he was to stay in the kitchen, she would have to clean him up.
