Air from an open window slipped across his bare skin. Tony opened his eyes to the sound of Alex’s voice. She’d gone to the next bedroom, the dogs’ room, as they called it, and was in animated conversation on the phone.
He checked his watch and swung his legs out of bed. Well after nine. He never overslept. His breathing slowed again, his eyes closed and he fell back among the tangle of sheets. For a wounded woman, Alex had showed no signs of handicap last night. Her body bent to his and the lady had a wonderful, wild side.
Her voice continued in the next room. With both hands, Tony pushed his hair back from his forehead. What was she thinking about them? She never mentioned the sadness he knew she felt over the loss of an almost full-term baby girl, or the former husband who had been in bed with another woman while people looked for him and his wife went through the worst moments of her life.
The past months since he and Alex had become close had been a helter-skelter. With her he had known happiness and confusion – even fear. Fear of losing Alex.
His own marriage had ended in deep waters off Australia when Penny went scuba diving alone and didn’t return. Her body was never found and she was presumed dead. They hadn’t been happy for a long time but still he wanted closure and it didn’t look as if that was likely.
Galloping paws approached and the two dogs burst in. They jumped on the bed with enough force to bounce the mattress and went to work on his face with their tongues. He wrestled with them, but wouldn’t allow them to stay.
‘Good morning!’ Alex appeared in the doorway. ‘Those two have been outside. Are you ready for coffee? We’ve got places to go and people to see, or I think we will have. I talked to Harriet but I want to make sure Radhika’s settled safely, too.’ She still held her mobile. Her black curls were mussed, her face flushed – he suspected from beard burn. The old T-shirt she wore, one of his, clung to the most interesting parts of her body and started another reaction he couldn’t afford to indulge immediately.
‘O’Reilly expects to see us, and I think we’d better mull over your very good idea from last night because it could get us way out of our depth.’
She held up a hand and limped to the bed where she climbed awkwardly onto the mattress and propped herself against a pillow.
‘I’m going to make another call. They should be in at Lark Major by now. Don’t make a sound, please.’
‘You said you’d get a burner phone.’
‘I’ve decided it doesn’t matter,’ Alex told him. ‘I’m not doing anything illegal.’
He turned up his palms and slid back down in the bed. A sharp crack on the window startled them both. A cuckoo’s long beak had connected with the glass. The bird wobbled its blue and red body for an instant, recovered and flapped away.
‘Hello,’ Alex said into her mobile. ‘I hope you can help me. I feel really silly but I met someone from your firm and arranged to meet him after work for a drink. But I don’t remember the name of the pub, if you can believe that. Can you give me the names of your favorite locals? Favorites with the firm, I mean?’
Tony closed his eyes. As perky as she sounded, he couldn’t imagine anyone falling for her line, and the slightly cockney accent she put on shouldn’t fool anyone.
‘This is so embarrassing,’ she said. ‘We’ve walked together on our way to work but we’ve never exchanged names, like. He seems nice and I really want a chance to see him – when we can actually talk, I mean. If you think there’s someone else I should talk to …’
A pen hovered over a small notepad on Alex’s knee. Tony took in her serious face and shut his eyes again. He should be on his way to some of the outlying farms and there was the mare and a pony at the Derwinters’ place.
‘That’s good of you, Angela. I love that name. Anyway, what can it hurt? Even if I don’t know his name I can take a look around and hope I see him. I must sound like a clot … Oh, thank you. You’re a gem. Hey, want to get together for lunch one day? Or a drink?’
With difficulty, Tony stopped himself from shaking his head, no, at her.
‘Half a mo’, The Globe? ‘Course, I do. Who doesn’t? London Wall, right? I thought that was all wrinklies nowadays. Yeah, yeah. What’s that? Bust? No, I haven’t been there. Right off Fleet Street. A club?’ She laughed. ‘What sort of club?’ Alex rolled her eyes.
‘You’re the best, Angela. Why is it … I get it. Their new local. Really, thank you.’ She switched off the mobile. ‘We can find that. The in-group – that’s what she called them – the in-group goes to a club called Bust on Bride Lane. I think she was trying to say, without actually saying, that it’s a bit raunchy.’
Tony grunted. This sounded like the longest shot he’d ever heard of.
He got out of bed and looked through the windows at a day unsure of how it felt. There might be sun, there might be hours of the great gray.
‘I’m going to this club later today,’ Alex said behind him. ‘When people leave their offices.’
If he told her it was a lousy idea she was inventive enough to get herself there alone. ‘Am I invited?’
Vivian breezed into Leaves of Comfort while Alex was accepting a bag of sandwiches from Harriet who insisted she take them for her ‘little outing’ with Tony. With help, the sisters had got the impression that Tony was taking Alex for a drive because she needed a change of scenery.
‘Grapes for the invalid,’ Vivian said, holding a beribboned basket aloft. ‘And oranges and apples and some sweeties. She can afford to eat what she likes with that figure.’
Radhika was slender but the saris she wore left almost everything to the imagination.
‘She’ll love those,’ Harriet said. ‘Go on up and see her. Give a coo-wee to let Mary know you’re coming.’
‘Will do,’ Vivian said. ‘You’re looking pretty spry, Alex – and pretty spiffy. How are the injuries doing?’
‘Better. But I don’t want to fall down any stairs in future.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress before,’ Vivian continued. ‘Red suits you. Very sexy.’
Alex felt uncomfortable. ‘Thanks.’
‘Horrible news about Jay Gibbon.’ Vivian winced. ‘Sounds unfeeling but I can’t help hoping it really was suicide. I wish the police would get a move on.’
The whole village must be discussing Jay’s death by now. ‘I wish they would, too.’
Vivian nodded and took the stairs two at a time, calling, ‘Coo-wee, Mary,’ as she got to the top and went into the flat.
‘Horsey,’ Harriet said, wrinkling her nose. ‘She smells of wet tweed.’
Alex laughed aloud. ‘You’re awful, Harriet. And she’s a good-looking woman. I should have asked how her bum’s doing since that mare knocked her down.’
The next one through the door sent Alex’s stomach into her boots. Bill Lamb smiled at her and she felt even more wobbly. ‘Good afternoon, ladies. Just checking up on your charge. You won’t forget there’s an unmarked car across the way, will you? They’re keeping an eye on you.’
‘Very comforting.’ Harriet’s narrow nostrils flattened for an instant. Vivian could tell that Lamb was another one who didn’t meet with Harriet’s approval. ‘Radhika’s doing well. She says she’s getting up before long. Can’t bear being in bed any longer. She’s got company at the moment but I’ll tell her you checked on her.’
Lamb’s expression didn’t change. ‘I’ll go up anyway if it’s all the same to you.’ His eyes strayed to the loaded pastry case but Harriet didn’t make any offers. ‘It would be best if Radhika didn’t go outside just yet, but I’ll mention that to her. Alex, the chief inspector still wants to talk to you and Tony, remember? He couldn’t get to it this morning, but he’ll call you later.’
‘I never forget the good stuff,’ she told him. ‘Radhika really is healing quickly. She’s still a bit of a mess, but the swelling’s going down.’
‘Very gentle woman,’ Lamb said. ‘But she’s got courage even though she’s not the pushy sort.’
It could have been her imagination but Alex thought there was something meaningful in the sergeant’s glance. She wasn’t imagining that Radhika had made a significant impression on him.
‘Any new breaks in the case?’ Alex asked. He already thought she was pushy. What did she have to lose?
‘I’m sure we’ll have an announcement to make soon.’ Nothing in the tone of his voice made her believe him but it was a nice idea.
‘Can I give you a lift somewhere when I’m finished here?’ Lamb said. ‘I didn’t see your car and you won’t want to be walking far.’
‘How nice of you.’ Tony had dropped her off and was coming back. She saw his Land Rover through the bay window. He slid in to park outside the fence. ‘My ride just got here, but I’ll take you up on that another time.’
She made it to the door and outside even faster than she had hoped. Tony got out and opened the passenger door for her. When she was belted in she ducked to see the tea rooms. Bill Lamb stood in the window watching them.