with me all the way to Barnstaple. Raider and I are having lunch at the park with Barracuda. I imagine she’s been an outcast at times in her life because her muteness made it hard to fit in. It’s hard to be different. But she’s found her Fish Family.
I’m nervous about fitting in with her. Charlie says she wants to ask me about my book, how I’m using Molly’s death to create my mystery. At least I have the pooch with me. He’ll be on her wavelength without speaking a word.
This time we’re not following anyone and the drive on the two-lane highway helps me relax. There are sections of hedgerows and rural vistas, hamlets and villages with old stone buildings and sometimes a thatched roof. After an hour, a series of residential streets in Barnstaple takes us to the park and we’re stopping on the grassy verge where Helena parked. It’s colder than last time. Raider and I have dressed for it in our matching black jackets.
Barracuda is already waiting at the picnic table under the roof. Today her hair is crimson. And she’s not wearing her fish mask. She gets up when we approach and I look at her for the first time. The resemblance to the photos of Molly is there. A broad face with a pointed chin. But her eyes are larger eyes, made distinctive by puffy folds underneath and thick unshaped eyebrows.
I put out my hand. “Tiggy Jones and this is Raider.”
She shakes my hand then drops to her haunches to make eye contact with the pooch. They stare at each other for several long seconds and something happens between them. An understanding. He sniffs her hand and she rubs his ears. Then he jumps on the bench seat beside her and puts his front paws on the table. I sit down opposite, not sure what’s just happened.
Charlie has given her my burner phone number and she begins our conversation with a text.
“Just talk normally. I’ll text back. I’ve learnt things from Raider already. He trusts you. You’re kind. Your job writing books makes you nosy. He likes that. He gets to meet new people and new dogs. The dog in your books isn’t as smart as he is.” She gives me a cheeky grin before typing again. “I’ve talked to dogs since little. Always easy. My aunt should have called me Bulldog.”
“A dog whisperer. That’s fantastic. I’m jealous. And you type faster than I can think.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Do I call you Barracuda or Barbie?”
“I tried Barbie – the nickname felt disloyal to the mother I never met – but it didn’t work. I’m no Barbie and I’ve stopped being blonde.”
“I know what you mean. I had a boyfriend once. When I put a brown rinse through my hair, he called it ‘artificial intelligence’.”
“Ex-boyfriend, for sure! Now, I have questions.”
“Ask away.”
“You followed me the day I met Helena. She was late. She said she met a mystery author using my mum’s death for her plot. I asked her how that can happen. Steal someone’s tragedy. Helena rang the author and told her not to write about any of her cases. That author was you. You live in Exeter. You must have followed Helena to this park, then you followed me. Nosy or what?”
She looks at Raider. He barks once. Her frankness reminds me of Baxter. It makes sense that she doesn’t mince her words.
“Raider found a flash drive at Helena’s house,” I say, “and I was trying to return it. I didn’t know she was going to drive to Barnstaple. Then I saw you two meet and I wondered who you were.”
“Charlie said you followed me because my hair was green.”
“That’s true. But something happened at Helena’s. It’s not my secret to tell but I won’t lie to you.” I think for a moment. “I reminded her of someone and as soon as I left her house she took off in her car. As well as returning the flash drive, I wanted to see who she was visiting. In case you looked like me.”
She looks at Raider and he barks again. Then turns back to me.
“Do I look like you?”
“I don’t think so. But when I went into Fish Family you were wearing a mask. So I didn’t learn a thing.”
“Bummer!”
“And I didn’t know why Helena left that message you heard. She’d invited me to her house to offer me her private life as a plot for my book. It was her idea, not mine.”
“Really? She doesn’t have a dog so it’s easy for her to lie to me.”
She’s getting messages from Raider. I’ve heard it’s possible.
“It was weird when she turned up. Out of the blue. She was sorry my mum died and she didn’t know she left a baby behind. I’m thirty-six! As if it was her fault that Mum got pregnant with me and then fell into the mire one day and Helena had to look at her corpse. She asked if I need help with anything. Like money for my education. If I didn’t want to work in a fish-and-chip shop forever.”
I want to ask what she said to Helena. Nosy or what?
“She told me her niece was dead at 25. She said she was thinking about how she didn’t have a daughter and I didn’t have a mother. I thought she might want to adopt me or something. It was awkward, made worse because I can’t talk. I think she wanted to run away but couldn’t.”
Is that what Helena forgot? Her plan to meet Barracuda. And my similarity to Electra made her remember? It doesn’t seem to fit the ‘crucial’ thing she couldn’t remember. But it sounds like connecting with Barracuda was important to her even though she wasn’t comfortable with it.
“I have more questions! About your book.”
“I’m ready for them.”
“Yeah, you’re more chilled than when you got here. Isn’t she boy?”
She looks at Raider. He woofs.
“How are you using Molly’s death in your book? I didn’t know her. She was an accidental mother who left me with her sister while she studied insects but ...”
“You want to know what I say about her. I get it.”
I tell her everything from how I read about Molly’s death in the bio story about Helena’s early cases, then the whole process of choosing a character name twice, using a fictional bog and replacing the insects with a photographic theme. Then the big one: flipping the cause of death to make Kelly’s a murder that looked like an accident.
“No-one’s going to recognise where you got the idea.”
“I don’t think so. Would you like to read a draft? It’s called Death by Deception.”
Sim will kill me if he hears about this offer but after our chat I’m comfortable making it.
“Yes! I promise not to make trouble about it. I don’t even know what happened to Molly. No-one does. An autopsy isn’t the same as an action scene.”
“I hope the scene about Kelly’s death doesn’t upset you.”
“Getting upset is good sometimes. It means you’re alive and reacting to things.”
“That’s a good way to look at it. You can let me know what Raider thinks about the scenes with Bandit. I read them aloud to him but I can only guess his opinion. Next time if you have one, bring your dog.”
“I can’t have a dog. Too much psychic communication and my head explodes. But I love connecting with other people’s dogs part-time. Raider is a sweetie.”
She winks at the pooch and he barks in agreement.
It’s a deal. We’ll see each other again and all three of us are comfortable with that.