Satisfied that the corpse was suitably hidden, Alice set down the spade and wiped the sweat from her brow. She was exhausted.
“Beautiful day for it.” Eddie Sedgwick appeared in the doorway. “I did knock but you obviously didn’t hear. I’ve been meaning to get down to a bit of gardening myself.” He looked at the freshly-dug earth underneath the hollyhock bushes.
“The bees are getting busier by the day.” She had to think quickly. “I decided to plant some more hollyhocks.”
“I wish ours grew like yours.”
“Can I help you with something?” Alice could not face making small talk. She wondered how long Eddie had been standing there.
“We’d like to invite you over for supper.” Eddie smiled. “It was actually my Barbara’s idea. I couldn’t believe it when she suggested it.”
“When?” Alice was shocked.
“This evening. If it’s convenient with you, that is.”
It was the last thing Alice felt like but she agreed all the same.
“Come by around six,” Eddie said, obviously very pleased with himself.
She had two hours before the supper ordeal. She hadn’t mentioned Milly’s death to Eddie, and she didn’t intend to. It was none of his damn business. She was not looking forward to the dinner, but it might take her mind off everything that had happened in the past few days. She sat in her kitchen slumped over a cup of tea, looking at the door, half-expecting Milly to come shuffling in carrying a freshly-baked chocolate cake or a new batch of biscuits. It still did not seem real. Her oldest friend was now lying at the bottom of the sea.
“Stanley,” the jackdaw shrieked. “Stanley Green.”
Alice was shocked. She had taught the bird to say a lot of things, but her husband’s name wasn’t one of them.
“Now, where did you hear that?” She stared at the jackdaw. “You mustn’t say that again. Do you hear me?” The bird pecked at the side of the cage in response.
At six, Alice made her way next door, armed with half a bottle of port. She had decided that if she was going to have to endure an evening with the Sedgwicks, she would need a bit of help. Eddie Sedgwick answered the door with his usual inane grin, which widened when he saw the bottle. “We’ll definitely have a drop of that later.”
He led her into the meticulously neat cottage. Alice could not remember the last time she had been inside but she remembered that Barbara Sedgwick had always been extremely house-proud.
“Take a seat,” Eddie told her. “Barbara’s just finishing off in the kitchen. What’ll it be? Red or white?”
It could be green or pink for all I care.Just give me something to drink so I can make it through this. “You choose.”
Eddie waltzed off and returned with a bottle of Riesling and two wine glasses.
“This ought to go nicely with the haddock.” He poured Alice a glass. “My Barbara doesn’t drink much since her operation, but that doesn’t stop us, does it?” He poured himself a glass and sat down. “Cheers.” He took a small sip and added, in a voice little more than a whisper. “Can you do me a favour? Don’t talk about your bees. It’s a bit of a sore topic at the moment, if you know what I mean.”
“No bees,” Alice agreed.
* * *
After producing the driest piece of haddock Alice had ever tried to swallow, Barbara returned to the kitchen to do the dishes. Alice and Eddie were left alone with the port.
“That was very nice,” Alice lied. “Barbara’s a very good cook.”
“She used to be,” Eddie poured them both a generous glass, “before the operation, I mean. I don’t know what happened, but she hasn’t been herself since then. She seems to have forgotten how to cook.”
He looked around the room as if to make sure there were no hidden eavesdroppers.
“Between you and me,” he whispered, “I couldn’t take it any longer. After one piece of rubbery steak too many, I had to get my false teeth reinforced.”
Alice started to laugh. She was beginning to see another side to her doddery next-door neighbour.
By the time the bottle of port was finished, the sun was starting to set. It was Alice’s cue to make her excuses and leave.
“Thank you, Eddie.” She stood up. “It was a lovely evening.”
“We must do it again sometime,” Eddie said. “I promise I’ll cook next time.”
Alice was about to go through to the kitchen to say her goodbyes to Barbara when there was an almighty scream. Eddie and Alice rushed through to the kitchen. Barbara Sedgwick was sitting at the table staring at the small television screen on the wall. She was very pale and her mouth was wide open. On the screen was a blown-up photograph of Milly Lancaster.
CHAPTER TWELVE
DC Taylor woke to the sound of the newspaper landing on the doormat downstairs. The letterbox was still rattling as she sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. She had barely slept. After the episode up on Merryhead she had decided to see if one sleeping pill would be enough. It had been a bad idea. She had spent the night drifting between periods of semi-slumber and consciousness. After a while, she wasn’t sure whether she was asleep or not.
The only sleep she’d had, included a vivid nightmare. She was in the car with her husband Danny. A truck came towards them in slow motion and she heard Danny scream. Just before impact, the face of the woman who Taylor had only seen in the mortuary filled her vision. Danny’s bit on the side was smiling as she said, “You’ve been such a fool, Harriet Taylor.”
Taylor went downstairs and picked up the newspaper. There was a photograph of Milly Lancaster on the front page. The details were rather vague — just that a car had gone over the cliff at Merryhead and an elderly woman was missing — but at the end there was the part she’d been dreading. The police were asking for “anybody who may have been in contact with Mrs Lancaster between Friday evening and Saturday night to come forward with any information they might have.” The phone number underneath was the number for the switchboard at Trotterdown police station.
It was going to be a long day.
* * *
Half an hour later, when Taylor arrived at the station, a crowd of journalists was already gathered outside. She pushed through them, ignoring the shouting, and slammed the door with some difficulty. She made her way to her tiny office at the end of the corridor and sat down at her desk.
“It’s going to be chaos for the next few days.” DI Killian stood in the doorway. “The phones are already going crazy.”
He came inside and walked up to the window.
“Look at them,” he said, “even the nationals have got someone out there. We’re going to have to be very careful with this one. Every move we make will be under the microscope.”
“Has anybody reported anything useful?” Taylor asked.
“Mostly time-wasters, but that’s to be expected, I’m afraid. Eric White thought he was onto something, but that one fizzled out. You look tired.”
“I didn’t sleep much last night. Too much on my mind. What’s the plan for today?”
“We wait, we wait some more, and we see what comes in. Someone must have seen something. A car doesn’t go over a cliff without someone noticing.”