The Ullswater Undertaking by Rebecca Tope (read dune .TXT) 📕

sounded almost giddy with good cheer at the apparent success of their mission. ‘This is brilliant,’ he said, just to ensure that Simmy knew how happy he was. ‘I can’t explain why, but it feels as if things just got connected up at last.’

‘You just like snooping round old sheds,’ she accused him.

‘Can we go to Keswick now?’ he asked next. ‘If we don’t do it today, we’ll have to wait till Monday. There’s no sale this weekend, is there? There’s still plenty of time, and who knows when there’ll be another chance?’

Simmy felt a powerful mixture of reactions. A wish to co-operate and drive anywhere Ben wanted to go fought against an instinct to stay secure and snug somewhere with her baby. ‘I’ll have to go home and get spare nappies, and have a drink first,’ she prevaricated. ‘But I suppose it’s possible. Not that I see much point in it, I have to say.’

‘Come on then,’ he urged, seizing the moment. ‘Do you want me to wave you out?’ He was offering to check for oncoming traffic as she reversed onto the main road.

‘No, it’ll be all right,’ she decided. The manoeuvre really wasn’t so hazardous, after all. ‘Just keep an eye out for anything coming on your side.’

It was accomplished with only a minor bump as Simmy drove over a stone on the corner, and they were quickly back in Hartsop. Robin woke when they came to a stop and began to wail. ‘I’d better feed and change him,’ she said. ‘And he might need a jacket.’ She tried to think through the requirements for taking a young child out in a car for an unspecified length of time. ‘This is still all very new to me,’ she whined. ‘I know I’ll forget something.’

‘I can’t see that much can go wrong,’ said Ben blithely. ‘So long as I can get back to my bike at some point.’

It was half past eleven before they were heading northwards again, this time to turn off the road and cut through Dockray before reaching the A66. Simmy’s mind was far from clear, and she repeatedly asked herself what she thought she was doing. Ben’s insistence that it was vitally relevant was a familiar force that she had often failed to resist. Generally it had turned out to be based on sound sense, with favourable outcomes. But not always. ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ she asked him, twice. ‘It all feels really flimsy to me. Those boxes were obviously just handy when Josie wanted them to take junk to the tip or something. I can’t believe there’s anything interesting about them.’

‘I admit that’s possible, but on the other hand it could be a brilliant clue.’

‘I’m sure there are things I ought to be telling you. For a start, I saw Moxon yesterday. He’s seen at least some of the file on Josephine, but isn’t directly involved in the investigation. Oh – and he wants me to try and talk to a neighbour. Gosh, I forgot that, as well.’

‘As well as what?’

‘Whatever baby equipment I’m sure I need to have with me. You see women with these enormous bags of stuff, and all I’ve got is a spare nappy and my purse.’

‘Who’s this neighbour woman, then? Can we see her now?’

‘What? Oh! Well, Christopher thinks it’s daft. He more or less talked me out of it. I can’t even remember why Moxon thought it might help.’

‘Neighbours see things. They get a feeling for what’s going on beneath the surface. They watch each other. What’s her name?’

‘Mrs Harriman. Christopher knows someone with that name, but thinks it’s a different person.’

‘We should give it a try. What’s the address?’

‘He wrote it down. I think it’s in my bag.’ She indicated the shoulder bag she’d slung on the back seat next to Robin. ‘I can’t imagine how we could do it. Just knock on the door and say we knew Josie? Which we didn’t. The woman’s a sort of childminder, according to Moxon. She’ll be knee-deep in toddlers.’

‘Perfect! You can say you’re looking for somebody to mind your Robin.’

The thought sent a sharp pang through Simmy’s heart. How anyone could even contemplate leaving their baby with someone other than close family was entirely beyond her. But it seemed to be a viable plan, looked at from Ben’s perspective. ‘So who do we say you are, then?’

‘Why say anything? You can tell her I’m a hitchhiker you just picked up, for all it matters.’

‘If you were a hitchhiker, you’d stay in the car and let me go in by myself. Instead, you can do all the talking. And we don’t want to tell any lies. That always ends badly.’

‘It wouldn’t be a lie to say you were going to need a minder, would it? Or is your mother taking him on full time?’

‘He’s three weeks old, Ben. He’s not going anywhere.’

Ben sighed and shook his head at her obstinacy. ‘I don’t know why we’re arguing about it. I’ll be your stepson then, if I have to be anything.’

‘I can’t see why you need to explain yourself.’

‘You never know. People can be suspicious. I can say I’m worried about my dad because he was terribly upset about Josephine. That might be enough to get her going.’

Simmy was thoroughly unconvinced. ‘I don’t understand how we get from knocking on her door to talking about your dad – who you’d have to say is Christopher, and that’s a lie that could very easily come back to bite us. Everybody knows him.’

‘Let’s just do it, okay? It might turn out to be really easy.’

Ben had found the address, and asked his phone to direct them to the house. They drove to it without difficulty, only to see a middle-aged woman escorting two children out of the front gate. ‘There!’ said Ben. ‘Couldn’t be simpler. Park up the road a bit, and we can get out and go to meet her. How long does it take to get Robin