Death at Rainbow Cottage by Jo Allen (novel24 TXT) 📕

She stopped. ‘Claud, what’s going on? What’s happened?’

‘Oh God,’ said Claud again, a sigh draining his lungs. ‘Nat. Where the hell have you been?’ He moved towards her like a sleepwalker.

‘I was running. You know I was. I said I’d meet you at the office.’ She was stock-still in front of them, standing in the doorway that led into one of the buildings in the church close, hands braced on the doorposts like a crucified Christ. ‘What’s happened? Is someone hurt?’

‘I found a body in the churchyard,’ he said, wearily. ‘I have to go and give a statement. They’re going to take me to the police station. Come with me, Nat. I need you.’

‘Of course I’ll come with you.’ She’d remained still as instructed but Claud reached her and she clasped his hand in both of hers, lifting it to her lips. ‘Darling. You look awful. So awful.’

‘I know what it was like for you, now.’

‘This way.’ Jude led them around the route one of the PCs directed, away from the body and towards the south entrance to the church. Inside, Ashleigh and Tyrone had half a dozen people sitting on the pews. A further collection sat bemused to one side. The bell ringers, he supposed. Phil sat by himself, tapping blood-stained fingers on the back of a pew and speaking into his phone.

Claud sank into a chair at the back of the church, the nearest place, as if his legs could no longer hold him. ‘I need a glass of water.’

‘I’ll get you one. There must be one somewhere.’ Natalie headed off towards the back of the church.

‘I know the drill by now.’ Claud’s natural bumptiousness was returning. ‘Quick story now. Full statement later. Why do I have to go to the police station?’

‘It’s routine. But it won’t take long.’

‘I understand. Well, mine is a short but bloody tale, I’m afraid. But I’ll tell you what I can.’

Natalie re-emerged from the cupboard with a glass of water which she placed in Claud’s hand. For a brief moment Jude did a double-take: her fingertips were stained with blood. Then he looked again and saw it was nail varnish, flaming scarlet in the low-wattage light.

‘There you go, darling.’ Calm words, but Jude noted how she bit her bottom lip when she looked at her husband, and dropped on her knees beside him, staring at him like a devoted puppy.

‘It was weird. Horrible. I’d finished with work for the day and I was just waiting for Nat to come back so we could head home. I was standing looking out of the window. Not that you could see very much. It was just getting dark and it’s windy, so the shadows of the trees were jumping about. The bell ringers had gone into the church and the place was suddenly really quiet.’ He licked his lips. ‘I thought I saw Nat down in the churchyard, standing in the shadows by the war memorial. Just standing.’

‘But I wasn’t—’ She stared at him in bewilderment. ‘I was running. I didn’t run through the churchyard.’ She twisted the fitness tracker on her wrist.

‘It was dark. It was someone who was tall and thin and in a white top. I thought it was you and so I went down to see what you were doing. Why you were just standing.’ His look was a plea for something, or someone, to obliterate the memory of what he’d just seen. ‘ I was worried. I always am. I needed to know you were all right.’

‘And when you got outside?’

‘I walked into the churchyard. Whoever was by the war memorial had gone — there was nobody in the churchyard at all, in fact, which is unusual — so I walked across the grass to see if I could see where Nat had gone.’

‘Across the grass?’

‘Yes, because if she was running she’d have got out of sight in the time it took me to go round by the path. Then I saw someone lying on the ground. A woman. Tall. I thought…’ his voice tailed off. ‘You don’t know what it’s like, Chief Inspector, to think someone you care about might be dead.’

Jude, the image of those plain black shoes in front of him, said nothing.

‘I saw as soon as I got close that it wasn’t her,’ Claud went on, after a moment. ‘She was wearing a light-coloured jacket. That was where I made the mistake. At first I thought she’d passed out so I tried to help her up but then I realised. The front of her coat was covered in blood. I dialled 999. And I remembered that you’d said you’d be in town so I called you.’ He lifted the cup to his lips.

‘Did you touch the body?’

Claud hesitated. ‘Yes. I remembered Nat had said when she… I remembered she said he was still alive. I thought maybe this woman was but then I was sure she was dead Then I realised that whoever did it might still be around and I panicked. I might be at risk. I shouted for help, and a man came running over and said he was a doctor. I told him not to move her, but he said she might not be dead, even though I told him she was. And then people started coming to see what was going on. The rest you know.’

‘Okay. Thanks.’ Jude looked around, found a uniformed officer and instructed him to take Claud down to the police station. That done, he turned to look for Phil.

Ashleigh had corralled the witnesses in the church and she and Tyrone were almost through the process of taking their names and brief statements. As Jude turned towards Phil, Doddsy appeared in the doorway.

Phil could wait another minute. Jude headed across to the door, pausing by