Aunt Dimity: Detective (9 page)

Dick Peacock was a large man, so big around that he'd been forced to widen the hatch in the bar to accommodate his girth. He was also finicky about his appearance. His mustache and goatee were works of art, and he had a closet full of brightly colored shirts. He'd chosen one in aquamarine today, perhaps in tribute to the “dirty” weather.

Dick's majestic proportions could be attributed directly to his wife's culinary skills. If Sally Pyne reigned supreme over all things rich and sweet, Christine Peacock was the rightful queen of grease. Christine's famous homemade sausages and chips came from the kitchen dripping, her fried bread and fried tomatoes glistened with globules of fat, and the crusts of her meat pies were laden with lard.

Christine was, as a result, nearly as big around as her husband, but she carried her weight gracefully and dressed to suit herself. As we hung our wet coats on the wall rack, she emerged from the pub's kitchen wearing a long-sleeved striped pullover and a pair of outsized jeans.

“Lori,” she called. “Welcome home.”

“Thanks,” I replied. “It's good to be back.”

While Dick served the field hands at the bar, Christine guided Nicholas and me to a table at the front window, talking nonstop.

“How was your visit to the States, Lori? And your father-in-law? He's well, I hope? And how are the boys? They must've grown a foot since I last saw them.”

Christine's rapid-fire questions reached a climax with an inquiry that had by now become as predictable as spring rain.

“Bill stayed on in London, did he?” Christine's blue eyes darted to Nicholas's face. “No trouble there, I hope.”

“He's catching up on paperwork with his cousin Gerald,” I explained patiently, “and he'll be home on Saturday. In the meantime, Lilian Bunting asked me to—”

“—show her nephew Nicholas round Finch.” Christine turned to my companion. “I'm pleased to meet you, Nicholas. Dick saw you running by the river this morning. Gives a man an appetite, does running. Will you be having lunch?”

Christine's cholesterol-crammed cuisine may have been a cardiologist's nightmare, and it wasn't something I indulged in every day, but when I did, I invariably cleaned my plate. I ordered a classic fry-up, Nicholas followed my example, and Christine retreated to the kitchen.

“I didn't know you ran,” I said to Nicholas.

“Penance for my gustatory sins,” he confessed, “which have been mounting at an alarming rate ever since I arrived in Finch.” He looked over at Dick Peacock and lowered his voice. “I suspect I'll have to run to Kathmandu and back to work off today's lunch.”

I was still chuckling when Dick came to take our drinks order.

“I think the rain has scared away your regulars,” I commented, eyeing the empty tables.

“It's a busy time of year for farming folk,” Dick said.

“They'll be in this evening, though, whatever the weather. Did I tell you how good it is to have you back, Lori? We missed you.” He surveyed my smiling face, then extended his hand to Nicholas. “And you're the Buntings' nephew. Pleased to meet you, Nicholas. Lori seems to be having great fun with you. I haven't heard anyone laugh like that in ages.”

“My aunt tells me that Finch hasn't had much to laugh about lately,” Nicholas ventured. “Nasty business, a neighbor being murdered.”

“Well, Nicholas, it depends on how you look at it.” Dick stroked his goatee philosophically and gazed out of the window.

“I take your point.” Nicholas nodded sagely, as if the publican had made a profound observation. “I suppose, for example, it could depend on how neighborly the neighbor was.”

“That's it in a nutshell,” Dick said. “And I'm sorry to say it, but Mrs. Hooper wasn't the neighborliest of neighbors.”

“Is that right?” Nicholas looked puzzled. “Peggy Taxman told us that she took an interest in people. Surely that's an admirable quality.”

“Well, Nicholas, it depends on how you look at it,” Dick repeated. He folded his arms and settled back on his heels. “There's taking an interest, and there's poking your damned nose in places where it has no business being, and I'm sorry to say it, but old Pruneface had a snoot on her like a pachyderm.” He smiled down at us beneficently. “Now, what will you be drinking?”

I ordered a half-pint of shandy, and Nicholas requested a pint of stout. When Dick had gone back to the bar, I raised both eyebrows.

“I've never heard Dick Peacock swear before,” I murmured.

Nicholas leaned forward, whispering, “Pruneface the pachyderm strikes again.”

An elephantine snort of laughter escaped me, and I turned my face to the window to hide my merriment. I didn't want to give Dick the impression that I was having
too
much fun with Nicholas.

“It's stopped raining,” Nicholas observed, and sure enough, the cloudburst had ended, and the square had come to life. Little knots of people spilled out of the Emporium, the tearoom, and the greengrocer's and scattered in all directions. Most took advantage of the opportunity to make a dry escape and went directly to their cars.

“Huh,” I said, catching sight of a lone figure walking from the tearoom toward Saint George's Lane. “There's George Wetherhead. We have a box of gingerbread for him.” I watched the retired railwayman idly for a moment, then more attentively. There was something different about him, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

“Here you are.” Dick Peacock had returned with our drinks. “Enjoy.”

Nicholas took a long pull on his stout and wiped the froth from his mouth with the back of his hand. “A fine brew, Mr. Peacock.”

“We aim to please,” Dick said. His smile faltered slightly. “Not that you can please everyone. If that Hooper woman didn't like living next to a pub, she shouldn't have rented Crabtree Cottage.”

“Indeed not,” Nicholas agreed.

“There goes old George.” Dick's smile returned as he noted the direction of my gaze. “He's looking awfully chipper these days, don't you think?”

“Where's his cane?” I asked suddenly. A hip injury suffered in a fall from a freight car had forced Mr. Wetherhead's early retirement from the railway. I'd never seen him walking without the aid of a three-pronged cane.

“Leaves it at home these days.” Dick peered over his shoulder at the kitchen door, as if to make sure that his wife was safely out of earshot. When he turned back to us, he was smirking. “There's a spring in his step, wouldn't you say?”

“It's wonderful,” I marveled. “What happened? Did he see another specialist?”

“In a manner of speaking,” said Dick. “What I've heard about old George is—”

He fell into a guilty silence as his wife loomed at his elbow, carrying a serving tray. Grog, the Peacock's basset hound, trailed hopefully at her heels, his attention riveted on the artery-clogging, aromatic feast she placed before us.

Christine glared at her husband. “Did I hear you talking about Mr. Wetherhead?”

Dick raised a placating hand. “Now, dear, I was only trying to fill Lori in on the latest news.”

“The latest nonsense, I'd call it.” Christine planted one hand firmly on one broad hip. “It's nothing but rumors, Dick, and I won't have such talk repeated in my pub.”

“Just because they're rumors doesn't mean they aren't true,” Dick said. “Where there's smoke—”

“—there's usually a large pile of rubbish,” Christine broke in. “You'll do well to remember it, Richard Peacock. What folks get up to in their own home in the wee hours or at any other time is their business, so let that be an end to it.”

Dick hastened to the bar in chastened silence, but the moment the kitchen door had swung shut behind his wife, he returned to our table, ostensibly to check the levels of our drinks.

I couldn't contain myself. “In the wee hours?” I prompted.

Dick's bearded face took on the avid expression of a devoted gossip. “Round about dawn, so I've heard.”

“We've heard you're up at that hour,” Nicholas murmured.

Dick's face froze for a fleeting second; then he laughed. “Me? Up at dawn? You ask Chris if I ever get up that early. She's lucky to roll me out of bed by opening time. But George, now, that's a different matter.” He lowered his voice. “There's some who say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But there's some tricks that'll put a spring in any old dog's step. Good for him, I say.” His eyes narrowed. “But not so good for Mrs. Hooper. She should've stayed out of old George's business.” He pressed a finger to the side of his nose, then scurried back to the safety of the bar.

I caught a last glimpse of George Wetherhead as he entered Saint George's Lane. He wasn't striding like an athlete, but he was moving steadily and without the support of his cane. It was an incredible sight, though not half as incredible as Dick Peacock's sly insinuations.

I turned to Nicholas. “I can't believe—”

“Not now,” he broke in quietly. “Mrs. Peacock's antennae are extended.” He fed Grog a sliver of black pudding, and the basset hound gazed up at him worshipfully. “We'll take in the war memorial when we've finished lunch. Tell me then.”

 

 

It was a case of hiding in plain sight. The war memorial stood at the north end of the green, in full view of the buildings on the square but far enough away from them to allow for confidential conversation.

As soon as Nicholas and I had cleared our greasy plates, we said good-bye to Chris and Dick and left the pub. We crossed the cobbled lane encircling the green and stood for a moment in the wet and spongy grass, as if debating what to do next. Nicholas motioned toward the imposing Celtic cross, and we strolled casually in its direction.

“We've established that Mrs. Hooper was vindictive,” Nicholas began. “She held grudges on her grandson's behalf against both Mrs. Pyne and Kit, and she acted on those grudges in ways that infuriated each of them.” He put a hand in the small of my back to guide me around a muddy puddle. “Now we're being told that she was intrusive as well.”

“According to Dick, she poked her nose into George Wetherhead's business.” I stepped around the wet patch, and Nicholas withdrew his guiding hand.

“To judge by Mr. Peacock's leer,” he continued, “Mr. Wetherhead's business involves something naughty, something that's given him the strength to throw aside his cane and walk with a spring in his step.” He stopped short. “Would it be fair to assume that Mrs. Hooper discovered what Mr. Wetherhead was doing and threatened to expose him?”

“It's fair,” I said grimly. “I wouldn't put anything past Pruneface. On the other hand, I can't imagine George Wetherhead involved in something naughty. As far as I know, the only thing he gets up to in the wee hours is playing with his toy trains.”

“Perhaps he's found a new hobby.” Nicholas's suggestive smirk recalled Dick Peacock's.

I blinked in disbelief. “Like . . . an affair?”

“Sexual energy can work wonders on the anatomy.” Nicholas gazed reflectively toward Saint George's Lane as we moved on. “I don't know if it can make the blind see, but it might make the lame walk.”

The difficulties of conducting an illicit love affair in Finch had crossed my mind so recently that I didn't have to search for an objection.

“Mr. Wetherhead would have to be clinically insane to think he could keep an affair secret,” I stated flatly. “Have you noticed how people keep shoving the word
husband
down my throat? You and I are already raising eyebrows, and we're only hanging out together.”

Nicholas gave me a brief, diffident glance, then looked away. “Do you mind?”

“Being talked about?” The question took me off guard. I looked down at the rain-dappled grass and smiled shyly. “It's flattering, in a way. At least they haven't written me off as just another boring housewife.”

“You will never be a boring housewife,” Nicholas murmured. “No matter how hard you try.” He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say more, then seemed to think better of it. “My point is,” he resumed briskly, “that people engaged in passionate love affairs aren't necessarily thinking clearly. If Mr. Wetherhead's engaged in one, he might not pause to consider the consequences.”

We'd reached the holly hedge Emma Harris had planted around the war memorial. Nicholas gazed up at the weathered cross, then stepped closer to it and bent low to read the names carved into its base.

My gaze wandered wonderingly to Saint George's Lane. It wasn't easy to envision short, balding, reserved Mr. Wetherhead in the throes of a passionate affair. He was so bashful that he rarely met my gaze in conversation and so modest that I could scarcely imagine him holding a woman's hand.

But perhaps my imagination was too limited. After all, George Wetherhead was human. Like the rest of us, he had needs, desires, dreams. If he'd found love, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, who was I to quibble? And who was Pruneface Hooper to go poking and prying into something that had nothing whatsoever to do with her?

“Okay.” I leaned back against the cross and folded my arms. “
Maybe
Mr. Wetherhead is playing with something other than trains in the wee hours, and
maybe
Mrs. Hooper found out about it. I still can't believe that he killed her. He's the most inoffensive guy you'd ever want to meet.”

“Haven't you heard? It's always the quiet ones who go spare.” Nicholas ran his battered hand across the memorial's rough surface. “You have to face it, Lori. If Mrs. Hooper confronted Mr. Wetherhead with something he's deeply ashamed of, there's no telling how he might react.”