‘Come on, darling. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can put it behind us.’ Tony looked back at Alex who pulled against his hand like a truculent kid. ‘Come on! You said you wanted to come. You said you were up for this? We tell them what we know, which isn’t much, and get home for an evening by the fire.’
‘Grr,’ she said. ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’
‘Aren’t you the original one?’ He knew when he’d better keep things light. ‘We haven’t been in the lovely parish hall for ages. We miss it, don’t we?’
‘No, and I wish Dan and Bill would find themselves a home away from home somewhere else. OK, I’ll pull myself together. But only because I want to get out of here fast and your fire sounds OK.’
‘Only OK? Thanks. Let’s move before our boots freeze to the spot.’
They had walked the short distance from the Black Dog to the parish hall in increasing darkness. For now, the snow mixed with sleet had stopped but he didn’t fool himself it wouldn’t start again soon enough. Alex walked beside him up the driveway to the front doors of the hall.
‘You looked pensive when I got to the Black Dog,’ he said. ‘Was it just this Gladys thing that had you down? You haven’t said a word about how it went with your mum.’
At the bottom step, she paused. ‘There’s a lot more to say but I’d rather wait until we’re at home to talk about it.’
She often talked about them being ‘at home’ as if they had somewhere they belonged together. Well, even while it got other thoughts going around in his head, he liked to hear her say it.
‘At least tell me if the talk you had with Lily was OK?’
Alex nodded, yes, and took hold of the cold ring of metal to open the door. He helped her turn it then put a shoulder to the warped wood to meet the expected resistance as the door scraped open.
He shoved the door shut behind them. ‘They can’t all have gone home. There are cars outside, including the Jag.’
As they had the last time they’d been here, the police had set up a row of screens that cut off most of the hall from anyone coming in casually. In front of the screens a row of desks was empty.
Alex held up a finger. Voices reached them from the other side of the screens and almost immediately a uniformed police constable came from one side.
‘Evening,’ he said on seeing Alex and Tony. ‘How can we help you?’
‘We’re looking for Detective Chief Inspector O’Reilly.’ He didn’t like interacting with these people any more than Alex did. ‘Is he here?’
‘Yes, sir,’ the officer said. ‘He’s busy but if it’s urgent I’ll see if he can talk to you.’
‘It’s not urgent,’ Alex said quickly. ‘It’ll keep.’
‘What will keep?’ Dan appeared with Bill Lamb. Other members of their team straggled out and began to leave the building.
‘Buy you a pint at the Black Dog, guv?’ a striking black man Tony remembered from the last time this crew took over the village asked. ‘Unless you’d rather we stayed to finish going over what we were talking about. Better in the snug or the restaurant than here. You, too, Sergeant Lamb, if you haven’t got other plans.’ He gave what could only be called a sly smile.
‘Good idea to deal with it there,’ Dan said. ‘I’ll be along as soon as I can.’
‘About time you called me Bill, Ball— LeJuan.’ Bill Lamb’s expression was too angelic. ‘Can’t make it until later tonight but it’ll be my shout if you’re still around when I get back. Don’t forget to find out how Longlegs made out with that man he took to Gloucester. We need to double-check contact information for him, too.’
LeJuan gave an abbreviated salute and left with a blond man Tony also remembered.
But for one uniformed officer on a desk, the hall emptied out until the three of them had it to themselves.
‘We’d better get our interview room together,’ Dan said smiling and seeming relaxed. The man was a damn sight too good-looking for Tony’s liking, and too charming, and that he had a thing for Alex didn’t fade from the way he looked at her.
The three of them dragged grey metal chairs over to a corner they’d used on previous occasions. Next to a hissing radiator and beneath a snow-encrusted window, it felt too familiar even if the seasons had changed since the last time.
They sat, quietly considering gaps between parched and splitting floorboards. Tony looked sideways at Alex and felt guilty at the flush that swept up her neck and cheeks. She was a prisoner to her furious blushes.
Dan cleared his throat. ‘So, what brings you here this evening?’
Tony felt no guilt over the scowl he sent the man. The least he could do was throw Alex a kinder lifeline.
She scooted to the back of the shiny metal chair and crossed her arms. ‘Remember … you don’t remember. You don’t even know. I called Gloucester because Gladys Lymer was missing.’
‘When was that?’ Dan looked sincerely lost.
‘Last night.’
Frowning, Dan considered, then took a breath and nodded. ‘Yes. Of course. But there was a call back to say she wasn’t missing. I got a note about that. Don’t tell me she’s done another runner.’ The irregular scar along his jaw had grown paler but not much less noticeable than when Tony first met the detective.
‘This probably doesn’t mean a thing,’ Alex said, sitting up straighter on the chair’s slippery seat. ‘In fact, I’m sure it doesn’t but I’d feel awful if … and it isn’t likely, but if it turned out to be some important piece of a puzzle.’
‘It’s always good to speak up about anything. I think that’s something we’ve all learned, haven’t we?’
‘Yes.’ She cleared her throat. ‘It’s very stuffy in here. It can’t be good for all of you.’
‘We’re managing,’ Dan said.
Tony wasn’t managing very well. He laced his fingers together between his knees and willed Alex to spit out what she had to say. If he were inclined to turn red he might do it now.
‘Good. Frank Lymer was at the Black Dog last night. To be honest I thought he’d gone home. Actually, I wasn’t thinking about him at all. We all got a bit strung out by Grant Hill coming by about the pub name contest … That’s not what I wanted to say to you. We were diverted. My mum had been gone. Well, you know about that. Anyway, I was upset about it and not taking proper notice. We were going to lock up but out comes Frank from a corner – like I said, I didn’t see him there – and he said he was waiting for Gladys. Gladys is his wife. And she wasn’t there. She hadn’t been there since one in the afternoon, you see? She just started work cooking breakfasts for us and she’s really good at it.’
Tony looked at Dan who either deserved applause for appearing interested and patient, or was just doing what came naturally because people made a habit of waffling on at him.
‘I think I’m getting your drift,’ Dan said but Tony didn’t believe him. ‘We’ll get back to Frank and Gladys but I don’t want to forget about … someone called Hill? What did you say his full name was?’
‘Grant Hill.’ Her sigh was audible.
‘Any relation—’
‘His son.’ She cut Dan off. ‘He and his mother brought entries for a contest to name a pub they’re probably going to build in that new development. Or I think that’s where it’s planned for. It was the other day they came. Last night Grant came to find out how it was going with the entries. His mother – that’s Esme – wasn’t there.’
‘I see.’
Again, Tony didn’t see how Dan would make sense of the contest thing, but he’d been quick to pick up on the Hill name, darn it.
Alex tapped the floor with the toes of her boots and waited.
‘Well, we may come back to that but let’s deal with your Frank and Gladys. Frank was waiting in the bar because he thought Gladys was somewhere around but she wasn’t.’
‘Exactly. And he got furious when he found that out. He stomped off and I had to run after him. I was very worried – as anyone would be. I felt responsible.’
‘Why would you feel responsible, Alex?’
Tony watched her raise her shoulders. ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t responsible. But I employed her and I should have … no, that makes absolutely no sense. Why would I follow up employees all the time to find out their movements? Silly of me. I’m really rattled about this, Dan. Something isn’t right but I seem to be the only one who thinks so. I called the Lymers’ cottage several times later in the evening. At first Frank said they were private people. As if they had something monumentally secret they couldn’t share. But that was after he’d told me I was to blame for Gladys going missing because I gave her a job! The second time I called him he more or less told me to mind my own business.’
Dan took out his bag of sticky sweets, the ones he always carried, and offered it to Alex. ‘Have one. Sweet things are good when you feel a bit shocky.’ Damn that warm voice he could put on when he wanted Alex on his side.
And she took one of his bloody sweet treats.
‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘That’s nice of you. I used to love these when I was a kid.’ And she put the sherbet lemon in her mouth.
‘You carry on at your own pace,’ Dan said. ‘There’s no hurry.’
No, no hurry at all …
‘When I got to the Black Dog this morning, there was Gladys cooking breakfasts, wasn’t she, Tony?’ Her green eyes turned to him for support.
‘Yes, darling.’ He took her hand and rested it on his thigh. ‘Damndest thing, Dan. There she was, large as life, cooking breakfast while Liz Hadley served.’
‘That’s not the point though,’ Alex commented with a little frown. ‘When I asked Gladys what had happened last night, she told me nothing had happened. And she said she’d ridden her bike home, only she hadn’t – or I don’t think she had. I found it under a layer of ice and snow around lunch time, I think it was. Hugh helped me get it out. He didn’t seem to think there was anything strange about that, but I do.’
‘OK,’ Dan said gently. ‘Tell me why you think it was strange. But remember she could have ridden it back today, not that I think it’s likely in this weather. Was it standing where it’s usually put?’
‘No, I thought I said it was on its side. Perhaps I didn’t, but it was. The thing is that Gladys said she rode home. Of course, she must have got home because Frank brought her back this morning. And he picked her up again when she was finished with work.’
Dan tapped a finger against his mouth. ‘I’m very glad you came and told me this,’ he said eventually. ‘It sounds to me as if there may have been a domestic issue between the Lymers, but we’ll keep an eye open just in case. You never know when a piece of seemingly disconnected information will turn the key to something of major importance.’
Dan stood up and Tony was quick to join him.
Alex remained where she was, frowning at the floor again.
‘You ready to go, Alex?’ Tony asked. ‘It’ll take a while to get up the hill.’
‘Yes.’ She got up slowly. ‘Thank you, Dan. I think you’ll remember what I’ve told you tonight – even if I did mess it up a bit. I hope you don’t remember too late.’
Tony saw how Dan stiffened slightly and straightened his own spine. He didn’t believe in hunches.