What looked like a large white napkin, sunshine turning it luminous, fluttered from an upstairs window at Leaves of Comfort. Walking along Pond Street, past the tea rooms, was the shortest route from the parish hall to the Black Dog.
‘Are they surrendering?’ Tony said when they had a better angle on the building and could see Harriet clearly.
‘You were a facetious teenager,’ Alex said, trying not to show how fatigued she was. ‘Forever young, that’s you, Harrison. I can’t hear what Harriet’s saying.’
Tony waved. ‘We don’t need to hear. We’re being summoned. Should have called someone to pick us up from the parish hall.’
‘It isn’t far to the Dog.’ She was glad of his arm around her, his hand firmly gripping her waist. ‘I might even go for a shot of very good brandy.’
‘Me, too. But let’s see what the ladies want. Then I’ll have someone drive my vehicle over for me and take you home for the brandy. You don’t need to be at the Dog today, do you?’
‘Tony! Alex!’ Harriet had pushed the window wide open.
‘Coming,’ Tony called, then under his breath said, ‘you never know, they could have heard something useful, not that I’m sure I should be allowing you to keep poking your nose into all this.’
‘Me?’ Her voice broke off in a squeak.
He grinned down at her. ‘Does the name Gidley-Rains mean anything to you? Looked like it said Bourton underneath. Bourton-on-the-Water, I assume.’
They turned in at the Burke sisters’ gate. Encouraged by the sunshine, a profusion of yellow and purple pansies was starting to open along the pathway. ‘I don’t know,’ Alex responded. ‘I’ll have to think about it … but what did you say about me poking my nose into things? Didn’t you take a sneaky read of the whiteboards at the parish hall? Isn’t that how you found Gidley-Rains’ name?’
‘Hurry, you two. Come right on in. The coffee’s getting cool. And we’ve got a houseful waiting for you.’
‘What’s she talking about?’ Tony muttered. ‘They didn’t know they’d see us.’
He opened the blue door, pushed it wide, and got Alex inside. Seconds later Harriet appeared in the doorway at the top of the stairs to their flat and Katie tore past her. Tongue lolling, whining with ecstasy, she barreled into Tony. Bogie appeared from behind Harriet, his entire body wiggling.
‘Hello, my friend,’ Tony said, rubbing Katie down. ‘What are you doing … here?’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘I left her with Radhika, of course I did.’
‘Lily brought them,’ Harriet said. ‘Would you get that girl up the stairs, Tony Harrison? And I don’t mean your dog.’
‘Yes, madam,’ Tony said, and enjoyed lifting and carrying a scowling Alex despite her rigid body.
‘Lily had to go over to the Slaughters for some local art sale.’ Harriet scratched Bogie’s head and pushed both Oliver, and new boy Maxwell Brady back into the flat. He wore a black eye patch and seemed comfortable with it.
‘What did Mum say about having Katie?’
‘She turned up at the Dog, trailing her leash, around midnight,’ Mary called from the ladies’ sitting room. ‘We think Radhika must have lost hold of her when she was attacked.’
Tony leaned against a wall and returned Alex’s puzzled look. They both shook their heads. ‘Let me get you settled,’ he said. ‘Then we’ll start the inquisition. We’re ready for a warm, fresh roll or two – with or without anything on them.’
‘I’ll heat something up for you,’ Harriet said. ‘Put Alex on the couch.’
The sagging, faded pink velvet couch wasn’t the most comfortable but Alex settled gratefully. The sisters’ sitting room folded any visitor into its pink warmness. Faded, fringed puce velvet drapes framed thick-paned windows and pink and green carpets, worn to silky shine, covered much of the dark oak floors.
Swathed in a green shawl and rocking gently in her favorite spindled chair, Mary Burke faced the window over St Aldwyn’s churchyard. She pointed a thin and elegant finger at Tony and Alex. ‘I’m disappointed in you two.’
Alex raised her brows. ‘Really?’
‘So much going on. So much you obviously don’t yet know. But you didn’t come to see if we might know something useful. You came quickly enough when you needed us for … when you needed us the last time.’
‘I want it all to go away,’ Alex said. ‘It’s unbelievable that we’ve had another murder in Folly – or near Folly. And it’s been a whirlwind, Mary. You know we always want your opinions.’
Settling in front of the small fireplace with her nose on her paws, Katie watched the cats warily while Oliver and Maxwell eyed her from either side of the hearth. Bogie leaned against the couch where Alex lay and cast baleful looks at her.
Harriet had been into the kitchen and returned with a steaming kettle from which she added water to the china coffee pot. Retracing her steps, she came back without the kettle but carrying a platter of steaming cottage rolls, a bowl filled with small pots of jam and with a butter dish balanced beside the rolls. ‘It’s too early for today’s fresh delivery but you’ll enjoy these.’
While Harriet dealt with putting rolls, butter and pots of jam on plates, Tony squished in by Alex’s feet, lifting them onto his thighs where they felt very comfortable.
‘Harriet?’ Mary said. ‘What about … you know?’
‘Oh, my, yes.’ Producing a package from behind a cushion like a conjurer whipping a rabbit from a hat, Harriet presented it to Alex. ‘Don’t open it too quickly. Do you know who Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was?’
Alex squinched up her eyes. ‘This is a book. It must be a children’s book.’ She collected them. ‘I’ve been too distracted to think of them this year.’
‘We’ll talk about what all this is doing to you later,’ Tony said.
His feelings for her showed. He wanted her to be happy … and he just wanted her. Her body tightened and turned warm. She smiled at him. ‘Perhaps we will,’ she murmured.
‘And from what I hear you’ve been too distracted to paint, too, Alex.’ Mary looked disapproving. ‘You shouldn’t squander so much talent. Now Sarah Woolsey …’
Alex tipped her head back and grinned. ‘It’s Susan Coolidge, of course. She was American but I read all the Katy books when I was a child.’ She couldn’t wait any longer to tear the paper away. ‘Crikey! What Katy Did and it’s really old. It’s … no, it can’t be a first edition. It is!’ The book had a gold-colored board cover with a little band of ants, or crickets – she wasn’t sure – scampering across the front. But the publication date was 1872. A first edition. ‘You can’t give it to me, ladies. Whew, how much do I owe you. I know you must have bought it.’
The ladies exchanged a glance. ‘Shall we tell her?’ Mary said and when Harriet nodded, added, ‘We found it in a box of things from when we were children. I hardly remembered it.’
‘You should keep it,’ Alex said. ‘It must have a special meaning for both of you.’
‘There are just the two of us. No family to pass things to. And if the book can bring out that smile, my girl, it’s in the right hands now. Anyway, it’s ours so we can give it to you. End of subject.’
‘Thank you both,’ Alex whispered.
‘OK,’ Tony said. ‘I hate to change the subject but Katie went to the Dog and Lily took her in, right? Didn’t anyone go to find out if Radhika was all right?’
‘Juste Vidal called her. She said Katie got away from her and she was glad the dog was OK. Lily offered to keep the dog and Radhika didn’t argue. She hung up on Juste.’
Muscles in Tony’s thighs had flexed beneath Alex’s ankles. ‘How did you find out Radhika had been hurt?’ she asked.
‘Your mum told us when she came this morning. We need to find out when Radhika was attacked. Juste told us she only gave one-word answers. So what was the timeline?’
Alex suppressed a smile at Harriet’s ease with detection.
‘After your mum left, we knew to watch for you because you would probably walk back to the Dog from the parish hall,’ Mary said. ‘Doc James dropped you there, correct?’
‘Mm,’ Alex said.
Mary suddenly pushed up from her chair and stood, holding the walker with one hand. She faced Tony and Alex with an air that suggested something momentous to come. ‘Harriet and I are going to take Radhika in here, aren’t we?’
‘When she’s discharged from the hospital,’ Harriet said. ‘I’m going up to visit as soon as they’ll let me. I want to tell her we won’t hear of her going home to that cottage alone. We’re hiring Prue Wally to come and help out. With Pamela Gibbon gone, Prue needs the extra.’
Alex feared the idea of Radhika being alone but she wondered how it would work for her to be here. Would it put Harriet and Mary in danger, too?
‘She’s going to have my room,’ Harriet said. ‘It’s got an en suite bathroom. I’ll move in with Mary. She’s got twin beds in there. We may have to ask you to help us get her settled.’
There didn’t seem anything to argue about and with plenty of people around at the Burke’s, Radhika should be safe.
‘That’s good of you,’ Tony said. ‘Alex can also help persuade Radhika – she’s very fond of Alex. And I’ll help out with everything. But we’ll have to clear this with the police and make sure the three of you will be OK.’
‘I hope that lovely Dan O’Reilly comes to see us. I’ve got a few questions for him.’
Hiding a smile behind her coffee cup, Harriet said, ‘Mary always had a soft spot for a good-looking Irishman. What I want to know is why they’re taking their time the way they are. Young Jay Gibbon was in yesterday and he said as much, too. We hadn’t seen him since … well, I suppose it was when he was coming to see his father years ago. He’s changed a lot. Looks a bit down at heel.’
‘You knew Jay?’ Alex said slowly. ‘I didn’t remember him at all.’
‘It would have been when you were away,’ Harriet told her. ‘You weren’t around much for some years after you went up to town for school.’
Alex didn’t want to talk about all that. ‘But Jay came by yesterday? Just for tea?’
Mary turned the full effect of her ice-cube thick glasses on them. ‘He had tea but we asked him up at closing time. After all, he’s been through a lot, too. He seems a bit shocked. I was surprised he’s staying at Pamela’s though, even if it was once his father’s, too.’
The scent of lilacs wafted from a bowl of potpourri near the fire. Alex let her eyelids close a little while silence slipped softly around her. When she opened her eyes again, Maxwell stretched, arched his back and edged close to Katie. The cat settled in, back to back with the dog and closed his one eye. Evidently a bond remained from Katie’s nursing efforts when Maxwell was injured.
‘So what exactly did Jay have to say?’ Tony asked at last.
‘According to Jay, the solicitor hasn’t sent out the will yet. Apparently the man’s been on vacation.’ Harriet set down her cup. She got up and opened the window, let in the scent of loamy soil and thick grass recently mown beneath the trees. ‘He still thinks there’s something funny going on but he doesn’t know what. Apparently his father always said there would be a provision for Jay when he was forty, even if Charles Gibbon was dead and Pamela had inherited. He looks older but he turned forty a week or so ago and he didn’t hear a thing.’
‘He hated Pamela,’ Mary said. She was looking at her roll from all sides as if it were something she’d never seen before. ‘She had everything and he could never get a break.’
‘Mary,’ Harriet said gently, ‘he never said he hated Pamela.’
‘You could tell he did,’ Mary said, a stubborn purse to her pale lips. She turned to Tony and Alex again. ‘Haven’t the police talked to the solicitor yet? You’d think they’d do that right away.’
‘They don’t tell us what they’re up to,’ Tony said mildly, although his eyes were steely when they met Alex’s. ‘Hang on. Let me just look something up.’ He took out his mobile and whipped his thumbs over the touch screen.
‘Venetia Stroud was the one I was surprised to see,’ Harriet said. ‘She joined Jay when he was at a table downstairs. It was strange, almost like she’d been waiting to follow him in.’
Absently, Tony patted Alex’s ankles. She’d stiffened automatically at the mention of Venetia.
‘What time was that?’ Alex asked. The little room felt too warm and closed in.
‘Just before closing time,’ Mary told her promptly. ‘That’s why it wasn’t awkward to ask Jay up to our flat. Venetia went out first and I told Jay I’d saved something for him.’
Tony smiled at Alex and frowned afterward. ‘You OK?’ Her anxiety must show. She nodded at him, yes. Surely he had worked out that Venetia came to Leaves of Comfort while Alex was locked in Harry’s flat. ‘Found what I wanted in Bourton-on-the-Water. The name on the whiteboard at the parish hall. It’s a solicitor.’
Which meant the police were very aware of needing details of Pamela’s will. Why hadn’t she and Tony thought about that?
Bright as ever, Mary said, ‘Do you mean you’ve found Pamela’s solicitor? Couldn’t we think of an excuse to call his office just to see if he’s really away?’
‘No,’ Alex said flatly. ‘Your lovely Dan O’Reilly would have our heads.’
‘Did Jay say anything about Venetia?’ Tony asked the sisters. ‘I wouldn’t have thought they knew one another.’
‘Venetia and the major met Jay on his first trip to Folly. He was looking for his father’s house and stopped at the Strouds’ to see if they could give him directions. He was only a little way off. Cedric Chase is very close.’
‘So Venetia supposedly saw Jay coming into the tea rooms and followed just to say hello?’ Tony looked skeptical.
‘We decided she followed him here, didn’t we, Mary?’ said Harriet. ‘It might have been a chance that she saw him, but she’s never been here before so why now unless she was looking for Jay? And she was all dressed up. I’ve never really had more than a word or two with her but she was always quietly turned out. A lot of make-up yesterday, too. She was excitable as if she was on the verge of something momentous.’
Just as Alex had seen her and the times probably meshed. Venetia must have left the Stroud house, seen Jay, and watched to find out where he went.
‘She wanted to know if he had met you yet, Alex,’ Harriet said, ‘and whether you had said anything about Harry. He got the feeling Venetia didn’t like you, or trust you and she warned Jay to be careful what he said around you about Pamela and what might have happened to her.’
Tony whistled, long and low. ‘That’s preposterous. Why is she singling out Alex?’
‘I’m not sure, but Jay wonders if Venetia thinks her son has done something he shouldn’t have and she’s trying to cover for him. She said Alex is a woman twice scorned.’
Alex only stared at Harriet and forced a swallow to calm her thunderous heartbeat.
‘You are not to get upset by this,’ Harriet said.
Mary shook her head emphatically. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘She said you’d been scorned by your husband, and now she thinks you’ve been scorned by Harry and you’ve got plans to punish him. She told Jay not to take anything you say seriously.’