Beneath the Moon and the Stars (16 page)

‘Ok a lot mean, but I’ve had so many women in the last eighteen months think, “Oh poor Finn, his wife’s cheated on him, I’ll look after him, I’ll fix him”. I don’t need fixing Joy, I just want to be left alone. It was easier to push you away by being mean than have you try to fix me. But I’m just not interested in a relationship right now.’

‘So you have no feelings for me at all?’

His jaw clenched as he clearly fought the automatic denial that was forming on his lips.

‘You just spent the night in bed with me. If there was no feelings there at all, wouldn’t you have just gone back to your own bed when I fell asleep?’

‘I stayed with you as a friend, nothing more.’

‘Are you always this intimate with your friends?’ Casey would be delighted.

‘You were upset, I was trying to comfort you.’

‘Which I’m very grateful for.’ Too grateful, as she had fallen a little bit in love with him because of it.

Seemingly reading her mind, he took her chin in his large hand. ‘Don’t fall for me, Joy. You’ll get hurt and I really don’t want to hurt you.’

‘But you can’t just shut the chance of love out of your life forever. You deserve to be happy again.’

‘I’m happy alone.’

She tried another tack. ‘So you’re never getting married again?’

He shook his head.

‘No one to have children with, no one to grow old and grey with? You’ve built this beautiful home to raise a family in, you can’t let it go to waste.’

She saw him hesitate at this and the pain in his eyes he must still feel about the abortion. She decided she wasn’t going to push it anymore.

‘So… how about we’re friends instead?’ she said.

He offered her his hand to shake, which seemed a bit too polite for the fact that she was lying on his bare chest, but she took it anyway and shook it. ‘Friends.’

She rested her head on his chest for a moment, before she got up, and his hand almost instinctively fingered one of her curls. It was such an affectionate gesture.

If this was friendship, then she could certainly get used to it.

*

Finn headed out into his garden and passed a bottle of beer to Casey. He had left Joy on good terms earlier and he was relieved that he was no longer going to have to push her away. But her comments had bothered him, she bothered him. He had taken Billy for a very long walk to think about her and when he came back Casey had been sitting on his doorstep. But even though he’d had hours to think through his emotions, his thoughts, and even though Casey was talking to him, he couldn’t clear his head of her.

He had set the boundaries quite clearly. Friends, simple as that. He knew she liked him, but there wasn’t going to be anything between them, he would see to that.

But that comment about never having children, not growing old with the person you love, that had settled into his brain and refused to go away. He still wanted that, he had wanted that so much with Pippa. That’s what Blueberry Farm had been about, creating a home for his wife and kids. Should he really throw away his chance of happiness just because of what happened between him and Pippa? She had hurt him spectacularly and he never wanted to live through that kind of hurt again. Though was it time to put the hurt behind him and move on? Could Joy really be the person he moved on with?

‘Hey, are you listening to me?’ Casey waved a hand in front of Finn’s face.

‘Mmm? Sorry mate, what were you saying?’

‘There’s been another one.’

Finn focused on Casey, his best friend, and pushed away thoughts of Joy altogether. Well temporarily at least. ‘Another what?’

‘Diamond robbery, last night. Strawberry Green this time. They took a load of diamond rings and a diamond brooch shaped like an owl. It seems the thief is working their way through the local area.’

Finn frowned. Joy was out again the night before, dressed in black. He really hoped she wasn’t the diamond thief. She didn’t seem to have a job and as she didn’t appear to have come from wealth, having to sell her home when she was eighteen, she had to be getting her money from somewhere.

Hoping Casey hadn’t noticed his eyes sliding to Joy’s house when he spoke of the diamond thief, he changed the subject slightly. ‘I thought you were supposed to be on holiday, you’re not involved in this case are you?’

Casey frowned. ‘It’s my case. It’s the same thief that hit five houses in my patch in spring. We’re trying to play down that we have a serial thief on our hands, the press don’t know, but he wants us to know that’s it the same man. He always leaves behind a plasticine animal.’

‘Plasticine? What is he, a child?’

‘A very talented child, the animals are so intricate, obviously a lot of work has gone into them. It could be a child, though. The size of some of the openings he’s got through are tiny.’ Casey swigged his beer thoughtfully. ‘Could be a woman.’

Finn cleared his throat uncomfortably, just as Joy walked out into her garden.

‘Hey,’ Casey waved at her. ‘Were you out by any chance last night?’

She stopped and Finn saw her eyes slide momentarily to him. She knew he had seen her go out dressed in black.

‘Yes, for a drive. I … couldn’t sleep so drove around for a bit, getting to know the local area.’

‘And did you perhaps go near say… The Orchards or… Strawberry Green?’

She paled, she definitely paled. Though Casey seemed to think the whole thing was hilarious.

‘I don’t really know where I drove, Ashton Woods, your neck of the woods, I was definitely there, Chalk Rise. I don’t think I was near The Orchards.’

She seemingly had deliberately not mentioned Strawberry Green, though the small village of The Orchards backed onto it. She stroked Darcy as she ambled past her. ‘Casey, pop by later when you’ve got a moment. I need a word.’

Casey nodded and Joy disappeared into her shed, closing the door firmly behind her. Finn eyed Casey, watching Joy go suspiciously, and fought back the sudden urge to give her an alibi.

*

When Joy had finished cleaning and sharpening her chainsaws later, and replacing a new disc on her angle grinder, she emerged from the shed and was relieved to see Casey and Finn were gone. Just because Casey had seen her with the chainsaws, he had now decided that she must be The Dark Shadow. There was no more proof than that, but still he knew and she had always been a bad liar. It was the local jobs as well, she should never have taken them. She had one more to do in Ashton Woods but after that she wouldn’t work so close to home again.

Zach was in his garden, smoking again, but after what she had heard about him that morning she wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. He smiled and waved at her as she walked past, but she ignored him.

‘Hey, wait up, what’s wrong?’ Zach came through the connecting gate, his eyes filled with concern. ‘You ok?’

‘You’re not the person I thought you were.’

‘Wait, wait.’ He quickly followed her into her kitchen. ‘What has Casey been telling you now?’

She whirled to face him. ‘It wasn’t Casey, it was Finn, he told me about you sleeping with Pippa.’

His face fell and a real sadness filled his eyes. ‘Oh. Worst thing I’ve ever done. I can never go back and change that; I can never undo the hurt that I inflicted on Finn. He was my best friend…’

‘And you betrayed him.’

‘Do I not even get a chance for my side of the story, or is that it, you’ve already made up your mind about me.’ She could see he was hurt but he didn’t deserve the chance to explain.

‘What are you going to say, that it was an accident, that you tripped over and your dick accidentally fell into her.’ She turned away from him.

‘No, listen.’ He caught her arm and pulled her back. ‘She had been after me for months, touching me, trying to kiss me, but I didn’t want anything to do with her. She was Finn’s and he was so in love with her. She was beautiful though, any idiot could tell that. I was attracted to her, I can’t deny it, but I would never have done anything with her.

At her party I got so drunk, Pippa had mixed some weird punch and kept plying me with it all night. I have never been so drunk in my entire life. I went back to my house and passed out on the sofa. God I had weird dreams, I still remember them, so vivid – Angelina Jolie was in them, always had a bit of a thing for her. So I’m with her, kissing her, and ahem… other things… and the next thing she changes and it’s Pippa I’m making love to, Pippa who is sitting on top of me, stark naked, Pippa whose breasts I’m…’

‘Ok, ok I get the picture.’

‘Well the next thing Finn’s there and there was a lot of shouting and well… you know the rest. Finn has barely spoken to me since. I swear Joy, I would never have intentionally slept with Pippa, I could never do that to Finn.’

She watched him, his shoulders slumped, his hands thrust in his pockets, his face crumpled and she couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for him.

There was a knock on the back door and Casey was suddenly standing there, looking between her and Zach with narrowed eyes.

‘Clear off little bro, me and Joy have some serious talking to do.’

Zach took a step back away from her, watching her carefully. ‘We’re ok aren’t we?’

‘I… don’t know.’

‘Just think about it before you cast the first stone,’ he said as he walked out looking very dejected.

As soon as he was gone she turned to Casey, who was scowling at her.

‘Him and Pippa, do you believe his side of the story?’

‘Yeah, I sort of do. Zach is many things, most of them are not good but I doubt he would ever have deliberately slept with Pippa behind Finn’s back. Alcohol can make you do some stupid things.’

She sighed, not sure what to think.

‘What’s the deal between you two anyway? Finn says you’re going to the wedding with him.’

‘As friends.’ She turned to put the kettle on. Although why had she agreed to that when she’d much rather go with her new best friend she had made the night before?

‘Just make sure it stays that way. He’ll hurt you, Joy – and I’d hate to see that happen.’

She didn’t say anything, just busied herself with the mugs. She had to prepare herself for what she wanted to say next.

‘Have you seen the new sign on the road into the village,’ he said behind her. ‘You know at the top of the hill, where there’s a sign saying, “Home of Finn Mackenzie”, there’s a new one now, it says, “Home of The Dark Shadow.”’

She dropped the mug she was holding and it smashed on the floor.

Chapter Nine

She quickly bent to pick up the pieces, deliberately not looking at him.

There was silence from Casey for a moment, then he spoke. ‘Shit, Joy – you are, aren’t you. I was joking, I was just teasing you because of the chainsaw, I didn’t think you actually were. Oh my god.’

‘Of course I’m not, what a silly thing to suggest.’ She grabbed the dustpan and brush and started to sweep up the fragments. ‘What on earth makes the villagers think that he lives here?’

He paused, obviously watching her carefully. ‘One of the villagers, Mr Brackley I gather from the gossip, was in The Orchards last night visiting his sister when he saw a black 4x4 emerge from the woods. Well The Orchards is directly above Bramble Hill, you can see your village from the road. He watched the headlights of the car follow the road down towards Bramble Hill and past The Pride and they went out shortly after that. It was impossible to tell which house it stopped outside, but as there’s only one road into Bramble Hill it stands to reason that the driver of the vehicle lives or at least was staying in Bramble Hill, otherwise they’d have no reason to drive down here quite so late at night.’

‘That’s silly, it could just have been a farmer, or someone looking for firewood.’ She concentrated on sweeping up all the fragments so she wouldn’t have to look at him.

‘In August? And the news is filled with another Dark Shadow strike in The Orchards this morning; a Ringwraith apparently. The villagers are very excited. They all think it’s Mark Duggan who moved into the village about three months ago, he owns a dark blue BMW 4x4, which might have looked black in the night. Though to be honest, as this is quite an affluent area, most of the villagers own dark 4x4s, it could have been anyone.’

‘And now they’ve put up a sign?’ She looked up at him and he nodded. Crap. Wait till the press got hold of that, they’d be swarming all over the place trying to find out exactly who it was. Ashton Woods would have to wait a few days, maybe even weeks until the furore calmed down.

She had worked so hard for this; she couldn’t let it all go now. She realised her hands were shaking as Casey knelt down by her side.

His eyes were serious, concerned. ‘Joy, there’s CCTV footage of the grounds of Menton Hall, from the night of the robbery. There’s a black 4x4 in the background of one of the shots, driving through the woods. It’s very far away. It’s the only sign of anything suspicious from that night. The only clue we have. We were going to have it analysed, get specialists to zoom in to see if we can make out the driver. Is this something I need to get hold of and accidentally lose or delete?’

She swallowed. Asking him to do that would be admitting she was The Dark Shadow. How much could she trust Casey? There were probably only two people that knew who she was – Jake Aldbury and Alex. To get hold of this footage she had to trust Casey more than she’d trusted anyone in her life.

But then even if she did ask him, that was a dreadful imposition on him. He could get in serious trouble for tampering with evidence like that, even if her presence in the video had nothing to do with the diamond robbery. He could lose his job over it, she couldn’t ask him to do that. She would just have to hope the specialists couldn’t identify her through the footage. But what if they could? She would be called in for questioning, they might think she had something to do with the diamond robbery, she would have to tell them who she was and what she was doing. She could easily prove who she was but there was no way a whole team of police would keep her identity a secret.

She finally found her voice. ‘I erm… I know someone who might be able to help you with that evidence. Alex actually, he works in the film industry, he has access to that sort of equipment that allows you to enhance footage. If you get me the footage, I could pass it to him and he could look at it for you.’