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

‘Well said.’ At the age of fourteen, Simmy and Christopher had simultaneously read David Copperfield and quoted it to each other for years afterwards. They had delightedly gone back to doing so now, when they discovered they could still recall the whole story. ‘Although I worry a bit that Agnes wouldn’t have had her babies in bed with her.’

‘Oh, she did. She wouldn’t be at all risk-averse.’

‘And she’d never get drunk.’

‘Definitely not.’

‘In fact, you can probably tell the quality of a person’s character by just that – how much cuddle they give their babies. And, of course, it would explain a lot about how the babies themselves turned out.’

Christopher smiled, but let the banter drop at that point. ‘By the way, your squirrel is demanding to speak to his solicitor about unfair imprisonment. I think we need to let him go, and pretend we never met him.’

‘Another law we’d be breaking.’

‘I don’t suppose I’m the first to observe that the law can very often be an ass.’

‘You’re not. Mr Bumble said it – though I think the exact words are “the law is a ass”.’

‘So – what are we going to do today, then?’ he asked. Because he only had alternate Saturdays at home, they acquired added value. ‘It’s not raining.’

‘I’ve got to phone Moxon and Ben, for a start. And I need to be available if Bonnie wants me at the shop. I think we also said we’d try to get together tomorrow.’

‘You won’t go down there, will you? Not after yesterday?’ Simmy had told him of her emergency deliveries, driving down to Newby Bridge in the van without Robin. He had been careful not to criticise, but she could see he hadn’t liked it.

‘Not if I can help it. My time is yours, Bonnie permitting. I doubt if she’ll summon me today, anyway. I don’t think any of us can say for sure what could happen tomorrow.’

‘And that’s the nearest I’ll get to a promise, is it?’

‘I promise I won’t go anywhere today without you,’ she prevaricated. ‘We might have to go places together. You won’t mind that, will you?’

He laughed. ‘Why would I? The fact is, you’ve got me well and truly sucked into this murder malarky. I keep thinking of poor Josephine and how harmless she was. And the effect it’s had on everybody at work is tragic. The place is in meltdown, and I’m furious with whoever made that happen.’ He hesitated. ‘Did you get the impression that Fabian virtually told us, last night? Or was I imagining it?’

‘The only impression I ever get from Fabian is that he’s auditioning for the part of Uriah Heep. I don’t think his mind works well enough for anything he says to be credible.’

‘All the same—’

‘What?’

‘I’m finding myself worryingly keen to get to the bottom of it. I seem to have caught the sleuthing bug from you and Ben, because I can hardly think about anything else.’

‘Good,’ said Simmy.

Moxon was evidently delighted to get her call and even more delighted to hear what she had to say. ‘You really did it?’ he repeated. ‘I wasn’t sure you would.’

‘It was quite a lot to ask,’ she reminded him. ‘But it turned out to be all very easy. Christopher knows her, as it happens. Did she tell you about Josephine doing some sort of research? Have the police taken her computer – because it must all be on there.’

‘They have. That’s all I know.’

‘I think she must have been working on something with Hilda Armitage. They were buying up old papers at the auction.’ A thought struck her. ‘I wonder if Josephine tipped Hilda off about what was coming up for sale. She might even have arranged for it to go cheap, if she somehow managed to hide the best stuff. There was a bit of trouble, when Christopher first started doing the actual auctioning.’

‘Slow down. You’ve lost me.’

‘It’s only speculation, anyway. The real point is that Chrissie Harriman told us that Josephine was very much into this project, whatever it was. She stayed up late every night working on it.’

‘But isn’t Hilda Armitage dead?’

‘Quite recently, yes. But her whole family was close to Josephine—’

‘Right,’ he interrupted. ‘Which is why they’re persons of interest and are being kept under close scrutiny.’

‘And they don’t like it. Fabian came here last night again complaining about it.’

‘Was he harassing you?’ His tone had become suddenly sharp.

‘Oh, no – not really. He’s too pathetic for that. I don’t think there’s any real harm in him.’

‘Not a killer, then?’

She laughed. ‘I’m sure you’re not supposed to ask me that. Aren’t there laws against slander?’

He returned her laugh, and after a few more questions, he concluded the call with sincere thanks for her help. ‘Call again any time,’ he said in conclusion.

Christopher had been listening, his expression very thoughtful. ‘Fabian is harmless, isn’t he?’ he said, as soon as she’d finished the call. ‘And I’m pretty close to believing him when he says none of his family are killers. Which doesn’t leave many suspects, does it?’

‘As far as we know, it would focus everything onto the auction house,’ she agreed sadly. ‘It must have been someone she knew, if she let them in – as it seems she did.’

‘Not necessarily. All kinds of criminals con people into letting them in.’

‘And if it wasn’t one of her own knives, then they’d have come prepared. Premeditated. I keep coming back to the same thought,’ said Christopher miserably. ‘I was awake half the night trying to work round it, but it won’t go away.’

‘I think I might know what it is. And I think there’s a chance that Ben will have arrived at the same one. But we probably shouldn’t say it out loud, in case we influence each other. Is that silly?’

‘A bit. I mean – what happens now?’

‘I’ll phone Ben.’

But Ben got there first, with dramatic news. ‘I’ve had a letter from Richmond,’ he said. ‘I haven’t read it all yet, but I think it