The Distant Dead by Lesley Thomson (books for students to read TXT) 📕

police. She’d never think it was me, I was a goody-two-shoes. I planned to creep in through the kitchen. By then he should have gone up to bed. But when I opened the baize door, there he was. Dead in the hall. I called 999. When they came to interview me, Derek told me to say I’d been at the film in Evesham until it finished. He said, if they didn’t find someone for the murder, they’d blame me.’

‘And you never told Derek what Northcote had done to you?’

‘He believed he was my first. Soon after, I discovered I was carrying. For the next months I was sure I was bearing the Devil’s child. But God forgave me. John had Derek’s chin and that winning smile of his. There was nothing in him of Northcote.’

‘Do you know a woman called Joy Turton?’

‘Joy, the blacksmith’s daughter, runt of the litter. The kids called her Spotted Dick after she got the measles. Joy told Roderick she’d seen me that night. She was on at me about who murdered the girl in the film. Well, I didn’t know, did I. The minx said the murderer was a girl who’d seen her husband kissing another girl in the lounge at the back of the house. From jealousy, she bashed her on the head with a poker. I couldn’t tell on her to her father because I had lied and she knew it. Roddy looked up the film on the internet, although Mary my friend who worked at Moore’s auctioneers had gone over what really happened, so I knew. Joy had lied to let me know there was no escape.’

They heard a loud rat-a-tat-tat, like gunfire. Stanley jumped up and woofed his head off.

‘She’s banging her teaspoon on her cup,’ Lucie explained.

‘Good guard dog.’ Stella calmed Stanley.

‘I’m waiting for her to go the police. She is biding her time, giving me her Cheshire cat smile when we pass in the shops.’

‘That’s it.’ Lucie had her own Cheshire cat smile.

‘Joy was keen that Lucie and I suspected Gladys.’ Stella said.

‘We can rule out Gladys.’ Beverly was hugging a cushion. ‘I wish I could murder Northcote all over again.’

‘I agree with Bev, Gladys is too obvious a suspect,’ Jack said.

‘Often the simplest solution is the one. She had a strong motive for wanting Northcote dead.’ Stella sounded reluctant to point a finger at the former housekeeper for whom Jack knew she had a soft spot. ‘But if Northcote had carried through his threat to tell Derek Wren he’d been with Gladys, she’d have lost everything.’

‘She’d have lost everything if she’d killed him with Joy watching.’ Beverly would be upset that Stella wasn’t simply ‘onside’.

‘She would have.’ Stella’s fingers flew about the keys as she added in the latest information. ‘Gladys’s story rings true to me.’

‘I agree,’ Jackie said from the pizza boxes. ‘You said Gladys Wren is the size of a wren, we know from photos that Sir Aleck Northcote was a big bloke. How did she overpower him?’

‘The same way Roddy’s killer got to him – by catching him unawares,’ Lucie said. ‘Gladys Wren finds Northcote zizzing in his chair. Grabs the poker and with one whack fells him. Another and he’s unconscious. Presuming he’s dead, she finds her brooch and scarpers.’

‘If Joy was watching at the window, she’d have seen everything.’ Jackie’s picture momentarily pixelated. ‘You said she’s a Christian steeped in morality, would she witness a murder and say nothing? And why protect a woman she doesn’t like?’

‘Joy had a better idea,’ Lucie said. ‘After I accidentally stopped recording, Gladys told me that, for fifty-seven years, Joy by Nature has been blackmailing her.’

Jack had to hand it to Lucie, she was consummate at the grand finale.

‘Why hasn’t Gladys gone to the police?’ Stella sounded outraged.

‘Why indeed? Suspect round-up.’ Lucie’s good mood was restored. ‘Gladys Wren is paying out on a murder she claims she didn’t commit. Madam Joy wins the jackpot every month for being a peeping Tom. Felicity Branscombe knows how to use a knife and has a morgue in her basement and a creepy crush on Northcote. Andrea the Fake Gardener is granddaughter to the first victim in our grisly daisy chain and jilted girlfriend of the third. All four are steeped in motive and opportunity.’ Lucie was riding high. ‘…kinell, let’s do eeny-meeny-miny-moe.’

‘If Gladys killed Northcote, and then Roddy to stop him naming her in his podcast, why not murder Joy too?’ Stella coded the suspect cells on her spreadsheet a light blue.

‘What if Joy murdered Northcote for Gladys and that’s why she’s paying her?’ Beverly said. ‘And she told you Joy was blackmailing her because she’s strapped for cash.’

‘Felicity and Andrea could have teamed up.’ Lucie waved a fig.

‘Felicity said pathologists revere Northcote – she’d surely want the true killer revealed.’ Jackie raised her voice over the hubbub of theories.

‘And see Roddy March get the credit?’ Lucie said. ‘Ooh, Andry-Pandy just texted.’

I love Jack. Stella’s words echoed as if she’d whispered in his ear. I love Jack.

‘…you go, Jack?’ Stella was looking at him.

‘Sorry?’ Jack blinked.

‘Andrea’s texted Lucie: William Greenhill wants to see her. She’s insisting you go with her.’

‘Me?’ Jack ran a hand through his hair.

‘She might want to make a pass at you to get back at Stella. But it’s a chance to see Maple’s son, another piece of the jigsaw,’ Lucie cackled.

‘Do you mind?’ Jack asked Stella.

‘Why would I?’ Stella took his hand. ‘I love you and I know you love me back.’

Chapter Fifty

2019

Stella

The next morning Jack went to meet Andrea in Stella’s van to drive her to Chertsey to find out why William Rogers (Greenhill) had summoned his daughter. There had been a contretemps before they left when Jack and Stella found Lucie hidden in the back of the van under a heap of groundsheets.

‘She could lead you off the beaten track and bash your brains out with her spade,’ Lucie had protested as they bundled her out. ‘Jack, you’d never let Stella