A Body in the Village Hall by Dee MacDonald (non fiction books to read TXT) 📕

Kate could understand that Jess was devastated but couldn’t condone such a move when the money came from ill-gotten means.

‘Yeah, and it don’t matter to them Greys that Fenella was drivin’ and not Kev. They still killed him.’

‘Both the Greys?’

‘Yeah, both the Greys. He disappears for years on end and then – the moment Kev gets out – back comes Billy Grey, bastard that he is. Have you seen him?’

‘No,’ Kate admitted, ‘I haven’t had that pleasure.’

‘Anyway, we know now it was him. And she probably helped him.’ Jess took another gulp of tea and started on a second chocolate biscuit. Her appetite didn’t appear to be affected by her angst.

‘I should never have let him out the door Saturday night,’ she went on. ‘He fancied goin’ along to The Tinners for a pint, but I was knackered cos I’d been workin’ all day. So I says to him, “You go, Kev, and I’ll just put me feet up in front of the telly.” To be honest I wanted to watch Love Island and he didn’t go much for that. And then I went to bed but I didn’t worry cos I knew he’d probably got in with a crowd of his mates and they’d be celebratin’ him bein’ home or somethin’ and they’d be drinkin’ late. I were a bit worried when he weren’t around in the mornin’ but then I thought he’d be sleepin’ it off somewhere so I went over to me mum’s for Sunday dinner.’

‘He didn’t phone you?’

‘No, cos he didn’t have his phone on him cos he’d locked it away safe, see. Then you found him on Sunday evenin’. He’d left the pub late but he never got home.’

‘I guess you knew him for a long time?’ Kate was intrigued and determined to find out more.

‘Since school,’ Jess replied through a mouthful of biscuit. ‘I always fancied him.’ She swallowed. ‘Neither of us was the brain of Britain, but we got by. Know what I mean?’

Kate nodded.

‘It all went wrong when he went to work for that bloody Fenella,’ Jess went on. ‘Did you ever meet the cow?’

‘No,’ Kate replied, thinking it best not to say ‘only when she was dead’.

‘She’d got more blokes than you’ve had hot dinners,’ Jess said. ‘She were one of them women that was needin’ sex every five minutes. She weren’t bad-lookin’, I suppose, but her was old! Must’ve been about sixty but that didn’t stop her, did it? You’d think the old cow would have dried up by then, wouldn’t you?’

Dried up at sixty? Kate decided not to comment.

‘She’d got plenty money though. Went all the way to Exeter every week to get her bleedin’ hair done. Dyed, of course, and I’m bloody sure she had them what’s-it injections in her face, not that you’d notice cos she didn’t smile much. Maybe she couldn’t smile much, ha! She sure knew how to perform though.’

‘And you knew all along that it was her – not Kevin – who was driving that day?’

‘’Course I did! We reckoned it might be worth a few years in the nick to get some decent money at the end of it. Five hundred thousand quid she promised him. We could’ve bought a bleedin’ palace down in Spain for that money!’ She paused. ‘Thing is, we never thought he’d get such a long sentence. We thought maybe he’d get seven years and be out in three or four. We heard later that the judge had lost his grandson in a hit-and-run accident and was handing out sentences like bloody sweeties.’

‘Why did Kevin go to work for her in the first place?’ Kate asked, wishing she could record this conversation herself. She’d try to remember as much of what Jess said as she could.

‘Why? Cos she was offerin’ good money, that’s why. Only trouble was her wantin’ him to live in, and I didn’t want him doin’ that.’

‘Couldn’t you have lived up there with him?’

‘Not bloody likely. Didn’t like her and don’t like that place. Anyway, I’d just been given a nice flat by the council and I wasn’t about to be leavin’ that. So he said he’d try it for a few months, did Kevin. See how it goes, was what he said.’

‘So Kevin was her chauffeur?’

‘He ended up bein’ the chauffeur, gardener, handyman, you name it. She got her money’s worth, I can tell you. And that’s not all.’ Here Jess pursed her lips and took a deep breath. ‘But I ain’t sayin’ no more.’

‘More tea?’ asked Kate.

‘No, I’d best be goin’. I do a bit of cleanin’ at The Gull and down at The Locker Café. Just thought I’d ask about Kev… you know?’

‘I know,’ Kate said.

‘And now at least everyone knows that neither Kevin or me killed Fenella Barker-Jones,’ Jess said as she stood up. ‘I’d bloody felt like it often enough but I never killed nobody.’

In spite of the double negative Kate believed her. ‘Well, any time you want to pop in,’ she said, ‘I’m usually home by four. And I’m a good listener.’

Jess sniffed. ‘Yeah, thanks, I might do that. And you can tell that bleedin’ detective friend of yours that if I was goin’ to kill the bitch I’d have done it bloody years ago.’

Kate was astounded. How on earth did Jess know about her friendship with Woody?

‘What do you mean – “that detective friend of mine”?’ she stuttered after a moment.

As she reached the door Jess said, ‘There ain’t much goes on round here without the whole village knowin’. Thanks for the tea and that. See yuh!’

With that she mounted her bicycle, which had been leaning against the wall, and was gone.

Kate badly wanted to speak to Woody about Jess Davey landing on her doorstep. She felt deeply sorry for Jess, who’d lost not only her partner but also her long-held dreams of a life in the sun with no money worries. That dream must have kept both her and Kevin going through the long dark years of his