Death on the Lake by Jo Allen (rocket ebook reader txt) 📕

would surely have sent Miranda into the ditch to join the other twin and probably landed him in a police cell. ‘I’m just going about my business and your young thugs ambushed me, that’s what.’

They hung behind their stepmother like a couple of jackals behind the pack leader, waiting for the order to pounce. ‘That’s not what happened, Miranda. We caught him creeping off the property. I think we’d better head up there and check there’s nothing missing, don’t you?’

‘I went to the house because I wanted to talk to you.’ He stuck his hands in his pockets again, fighting the temptation to keep at them and wipe the smirks off their faces.

She stared at him for a moment, twisting the stems of the cow parsley round her fingers. ‘Will. Ollie. Go back to the house and clean yourselves up. And you can spend a few minutes thinking about how you’re going to explain this to your father, because I don’t intend to.’

‘Dad’ll back us up,’ one of them said, though without as much confidence as Luke thought he might have intended.

‘Yeah. He will.’ The other twin dabbed at a split lip and looked down at the blood on his fingers with a look of awe, as if it was a badge of honour.

‘Go,’ Miranda instructed, with a scowl for them. ‘Now.’

They went, and as she turned to watch as if making sure they were out of earshot, Luke began to regret the situation he’d got himself into. Robert, who was someone who would always back up his sons in public whether they were right or wrong, wouldn’t give him any sort of a hearing; and though Miranda had shown her displeasure towards them he wasn’t so stupid as to think it would translate into support for him.

‘All right, Luke.’ She turned back to him, scowling at him in exactly the same way she had at them, as if she had any authority over him. ‘Fighting in the street? What’s this all about?’

‘None of your business.’ He found the courage to spit, but she wasn’t remotely perturbed. She was a tougher bird than he’d thought she was.

‘Who started it?’

‘Your kids started it. They jumped me when I was coming out of the drive.’

‘And what were you doing in the drive?’

‘I’d been up to the house. I said. I wanted to talk to you.’

Her expression wavered, as if it could go either way, as if she was choosing between standing up to him or placating him. She went tough. ‘Fine. Here I am. If you have anything to say to me, you can say it to me now.’

His courage almost failed him. It was only the way she kept twisting the wild flowers in her fingers that gave away her nervousness. ‘Them’s protected. You’re not supposed to pick them.’

She looked down at them with a frown. ‘Oh, God knows there’s enough of these. Is that really what you wanted to say to me? Because if so then I think you’re being vexatious.’

He had no idea what that meant. ‘Picking wild flowers is breaking the law. You don’t want to go breaking the law.’

‘I’m quite sure the police have more important things to do than worry about that, and of course we all know you regard the law as sacrosanct. But if it makes you feel any better…’ She tossed them aside. ‘Happy now?’

It was no wonder the twins had turned out the way they were, with a stuck-up bitch like Miranda to set them an example. ‘Aye, that’s how you people work, isn’t it? You do something wrong and you ditch the evidence and you lie about it.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘On the day Summer died you came back before you said you did.’

‘I promise you, you’re mistaken. Will and Ollie saw me come back and they’ve already confirmed it to the police.’

‘What if I go to the police and say differently?’

‘What if you do? It won’t make any difference. The matter is closed, and anyway it’s irrelevant. Summer’s death was an a accident. So please leave us in peace and don’t assault my stepsons again, or I’ll be the one calling the police.’ She shrugged her way past him and stalked through the now-open gates.

‘You want to be found drowned too, Mrs?’ he called after her. ‘You’re going the right way about it.’ But she carried on walking, and it wasn’t until she was out of sight that he realised he’d forgotten to ask her for money.

Back at Waterside Lodge, the first thing Miranda did was call Robert. The encounter with Luke had been a chastening one, but her earlier confession and Robert’s unconditionally positive reaction to it had been a game-changer. Fear flew from her heart like darkness ahead of light and the stroll she’d taken through the dale before stumbling upon the brawl in the road had been the first walk she’d had where fear hadn’t stalked her.

‘Luke threatened me,’ she told him.

‘Young hothead,’ he said, when she’d outlined what had happened. ‘He thinks with his fists. All the Helmsleys do. It’ll just be the boys putting his back up. Nothing to do with the other thing.’

Even at a distance, his voice was reassuring. He was in Newcastle that day, not too far away. Some investment banker had been dispatched up to a regional office at Robert’s behest, to save him from a trip to London. She smiled. ‘When will you be home?’

‘I’ll pick up a sandwich and head straight back. Don’t worry. I can see how it alarmed you, but I’ll go down and speak to him this evening. It won’t happen again.’

‘I’ll see you later on.’

‘Goodbye, darling.’

When she ended the call, comforted by the unfamiliar luxury of being able to tell him anything, there was silence inside the house. The twins had gone to ground, and she had no stomach for chasing them and demanding an explanation. That was something for Robert to do when he came home, because at some