As Lizzy and Rayne turned into their road, a tow truck driven by Ronnie Clarke, the third member of Alfie’s team, passed them at speed and showered them with dust. Lizzy clicked her tongue and patted down her Sunday best blue gingham dress. Parked in front of their house was a tour bus. Milling about on the pavement was a group of elderly tourists and Lizzy immediately guessed the bus had broken down.
She politely edged her way through the small crowd, making for the gate. Spotting the driver, she changed direction and went over to have a word with him. “You’re surely not leaving them all stuck here, are you?” she said without preamble.
“No of course not. There’ll be a replacement bus along anytime now, along with a new driver. I’ve got to go with this one,” he said, jerking his thumb at it. “I have to stay with it.” Ronnie wasted no time in hitching the towrope to the fender of the bus. It was the first time he had done this but he was trying to project an attitude of professionalism in an effort to hide his inexperience. His face began to glow in nervous exertion and he flicked a forefinger across his forehead to stop the run of trickily sweat, the action quick and furtive.
On noticing Lizzy Holdcroft talking authoritatively to the bus driver, it flew through his mind that he wouldn’t like to come up against her in a slanging match. Ronnie cast a sneaky eye over the passengers; no one was looking at him. He took the time to shift the rope to a more secure spot and then quickly mopped his forehead. Letting his eyes wander over the group once more, he was betting the old geezers were carrying a tidy sum between them. Some of the old biddies, he noticed, were wearing some decent jewellery, real gold on several if he wasn’t mistaken. Perhaps he could branch out into the highway robbery business, he fantasized.
But Ronnie was under strict orders from Alfie to tow the broken down bus to Fenton’s Garage, pick up the fee and come straight back to the warehouse. Pity, he thought, he could have made a pretty penny from this lot. With their failing eyesight they would be unlikely to identify anyone.
He suddenly became aware of Lizzy Holdcroft staring at him and took in her expression of distaste. Shifting his eyes, he quickly resumed the job at hand, actively avoiding eye contact. As he secured the hook, he lifted his head and stretched his neck muscles and caught sight of Rayne who was watching him closely from behind the gate.
For what seemed like an eternity to Rayne, his and Ronnie’s eyes locked in a sombre moment of recollection. As an evil smirk crept across Ronnie’s face, a dread feeling in the bowels of Rayne’s stomach prompted him to break eye-contact abruptly and turn his back on that penetrating gaze. Without a backward glance he ran up the path to the safety of the front porch where Andrew and Morris were sitting. They were enthusiastically observing the spectacle of the throng of elderly people, some of who were bunching a few gnarled fists in anger at the spoiling of their day trip. One spirited old gent, wobbling precariously on his walking stick, even shook his fist at the departing bus as it rattled off down the road.
It wasn’t long before Lizzy took pity on the stranded tourists and invited them to sit on the porch, forcing Morris to give up his seat and Rayne to ferry all the dining chairs outside to ensure all their unexpected guests had a seat. The gnarled fists dropped, frustration turned to satisfaction and calm was restored upon the welcome appearance of a tray of teacups. Helping to dispense the comfort, Rayne politely invited the guests to help themselves to milk and sugar.
The bus driver must have lied to save face, Lizzy thought, as some forty-five-minutes later she once again began to fill the kettle: there was still no sign of replacement transport. Her thoughts were centred on calculating how far her fruit cake and ginger biscuits would stretch if the bus didn’t turn up soon, when she became aware of Rayne bustling about behind her. She looked fondly on him as without being asked he refilled the milk jug and sugar bowl. Then he picked up the teacloth and started to dry the washed cups and mugs on the draining board. Though she kept quiet, she was bursting with pride at his behaviour today. It hadn’t escaped her attention that he had aped her performance when speaking to Pete. And now here he was, and without being asked, waiting on their geriatric guests with not a single word of complaint. At this moment she felt a rush of love for Rayne so great that it threatened to explode in an eruption of tears.
Picking up a burst of laughter out on the porch, she and Rayne exchanged a knowing look and broke out in huge grins of their own. They both knew that Andrew was in his element, taking advantage of a captive audience to regale their unexpected guests with tales of pirates and smuggling along the coast, and in particular Mullond’s Beach. Edging to the forefront of Lizzy’s mind was the fervent hope that he wouldn’t dampen the mood by mentioning the finding of Susan Lecky’s body, a tragic event that was currently worrying everyone, since they had yet to learn the exact manner of her death.