Beneath the Moon and the Stars (8 page)

‘You tripped me up, it was you wasn’t it? What were you doing on my doorstep?’

He flushed. ‘I was … There was dog shit on your doorstep, I was trying to clear it up.’

She stared at him. ‘Why?’

He shrugged, snatched the bucket up and headed back into his own house. She stared after him. Was that Finn’s attempt at being nice?

Just then Casey pulled up outside in a purple Ford Focus, not the neat little convertible he had taken off in the day before with Arielle.

He saw Joy, and shielding his face, he quickly made for Zach’s front door.

She smirked as he peered through his fingers at her. ‘Casey Fallowfield, you have some explaining to do.’

He sighed theatrically. ‘Damn it, how did you know it was me?’

She indicated that he should go into her house. ‘I think me and you need to have a little chat.’

He slunk past her like a naughty schoolboy. ‘If this is stage two in the unburdening of our gruesome secrets, you can start off by telling me what you were doing last night?’

She followed him through to the lounge, so news of it had hit the headlines already. ‘I watched Romeo and Juliet on the TV and was tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and a fat dog for company by ten.’

Casey pulled out a very official looking notepad. ‘And do you have an alibi, a witness that will testify to this?’

She sighed, pulling affectionately on Darcy’s ears as the dog sat down on Casey’s feet to be stroked. ‘If only Darcy could speak, she would confirm my story.’ She watched him make a hasty note in his notebook. She leaned round him to see what he had written and he snapped it shut before she’d seen it, though she was pretty sure Casey had just drawn a quick doodle of a flower. ‘What are you, the local constabulary?’

‘Actually yes.’

She stared at him, his eyes were so honest. ‘Really?’

He fished his wallet out of his pocket and showed her his ID. ‘Detective Inspector Fallowfield, CID.’

‘You’re kidding?’

He smiled and shook his head. ‘As I said before, people interest me, but taking an interest is actually part of my job.’

‘That’s so cool, bet you’ve seen some interesting cases.’

‘Yes, they’ve been some weird ones. There was a squirrel killer.’

The smile fell off her face. ‘An actual squirrel killer?’

‘Yes.’

‘I wouldn’t think CID would get involved in that.’

‘Normally we wouldn’t. The bodies of mutilated squirrels kept turning up on people’s doorsteps. But the first person to receive a squirrel was found dead a week after the squirrel was reported. Then, when more dead squirrels started appearing we thought it might be some kind of calling card of a serial killer, we thought that those that received a dead squirrel would be killed too. Turned out it was just some sicko who liked killing squirrels who used the opportunity to get his own back on a bunch of people he didn’t like. The first death was merely a coincidence.’

‘That’s horrible, did he go to prison?’

‘For six weeks, and a hefty fine for animal cruelty.’

‘Six weeks?’

‘Legally you can kill squirrels, grey ones, it’s just the method that has to be humane.’

She shook her head over the lack of justice.

‘Oh there was Bonnie and Clyde, a husband and wife crime duo. Jewellery shops, petrol stations, car jacking, they left behind quite the trail of guilt wherever they went.’

‘They weren’t really called Bonnie and Clyde were they?’

‘She was, Bronwyn was her real name but everyone called her Bonnie.’

‘What was his name?’

‘Derek.’

She laughed. ‘Did you catch them, did they go down in a hail of bullets?’

‘Not quite as dramatic. We thought it was mainly the wife, that she was the brains and he was the brawn. We finally caught up with him when their car ran of petrol just round the corner from a petrol station he’d robbed. But all the evidence pointed to him, we couldn’t pin anything to her, even though we knew she was as involved as he was. He went down for three years, she walked away scot free.’

The legal system really did have a lot to answer for.

‘It does sound like an interesting job.’

‘It is, I love it, no day is ever the same.’

‘But… why aren’t you at work? In fact, you’ve not been at work since I’ve met you.’

‘I have a few weeks off, for the erm…’ He trailed off.

‘The wedding?’

Casey flushed obligingly. ‘Yes, this Saturday, a week today, you will come won’t you?’

‘I’m your cousin, Uncle Raymond would be very disappointed if I didn’t show my support.’

He grinned at her, but then the smile fell off his face.

She squeezed his arm. ‘Casey what are you doing, marrying someone you clearly don’t love.’

‘It just sort of got out of hand. I’ve dated a few women in the past, years ago, before I really accepted I was gay. Of course, they never worked out. I’d been single for years and Mum came to me and said one of her friends wanted to set me up with one of their children. When she told me it was one of the Carmichael kids I was delighted. I only knew of the Carmichael boys, big strapping lads, really fit. It turns out they had a little sister too.’

Casey sighed. He grabbed a flower from a vase and started slowly demolishing it, ripping the petals off one by one.

‘Mum was so excited about the date and when I came downstairs to find Arielle waiting for me, I could hardly say, “Urgh a girl!” So I went on the date and when I next saw Mum, she was as giddy as a school girl about how well Arielle had said it went. In truth, there was no chemistry at all, not even as friends. I found myself telling Mum that of course I’d be seeing Arielle again. I didn’t want to upset her. It just spiralled out of control.’

With the flower ruined and confetti-like petals scattered about his feet, Casey reached for another one. Joy didn’t really mind. She’d only picked them from the garden.

‘I’m not quite sure how I ended up engaged. Of course that had never been my intention and to Arielle of all people, she’s an absolute cow. We’d only been dating a few weeks and I was desperately trying to find a way out. But there I was walking through the woods one day with Arielle and her parents and my mum. I spotted a ring on the floor, knelt to pick it up and the next thing, she’s squealing, her parents are squealing, my mum was crying, proper tears of joy and everything. I don’t even know how the ring got there, but it fitted Arielle like a glove, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she threw it on the floor in front of me. Well it quickly snowballed from there. Before I knew it there was an engagement party, marquees were ordered, a band, a harpist, flowers, the best champagne from France. I couldn’t stop it. I have never seen my Mum as happy as she has been over the last few months organising this wedding and I just couldn’t break her heart, I couldn’t do it.’

‘So you’re just going to get married? Live happily ever after with a woman you can’t stand?’

Casey sighed. ‘My dad died, three years ago.’

‘Oh Casey, I’m so sorry.’

‘Mum was a wreck, but after the initial grieving was over, the constant crying, she just became this empty shell, devoid of any life. She’d get up, get dressed, meet friends, she was involved with the village council, but… she wasn’t really there if you know what I mean. She was always this sparkling woman who laughed a lot, who had this zest for life, and when Dad died he took all that with him. Her eyes were flat, her skin was grey. She never laughed anymore. She moved through life, she engaged with people, but she was lifeless, a living corpse. It devastated me to see her like that and year after year, it never got any better. It was almost as if she was just biding her time until she could die herself and be reunited with him. This engagement has brought her out of that shell – she laughs now, she’s excited, she has plans, she has a purpose. My old mum is back and so yes, I’m going to marry Arielle if that’s what it takes to keep my mum happy and to keep the smile on her face, because I never want to see her go back to how she was before.’

‘Your mum would be devastated if she knew you were doing this for her,’ Joy said quietly.

‘I know, but I’m just enjoying her being happy again. I’ll deal with the fall out when it happens. It won’t last Joy, Arielle doesn’t like me either. I’m pretty sure she’s shagging our pool boy, or the gardener or maybe both.’

This was madness. ‘So why is she marrying you if she doesn’t like you?’

‘The Fallowfields are pretty high up in the social scheme of things. If there was a food chain made up of Lords, Ladies, Earls and Countesses, the Fallowfields would be at the very top. We’re richer than most of the nobles in this country.’

He wasn’t saying it to show off, in fact he seemed quite embarrassed by the whole thing. ‘So it’s safe to say you don’t actually need to work?’

‘No, I just enjoy it. But Arielle, despite her flashy clothes and car, would be down at the bottom of the food chain.’

Joy bit her lip. ‘Have you slept with her?’

‘No, lord no. I made the excuse that I wanted to wait until after we were married.’

‘Honeymoon?’

He let his head fall into his hands and nodded. ‘Two weeks in St Lucia. I think she’d like to try for a baby.’

‘Oh Casey. What are you going to do?’

‘Hope that I catch her with that pool boy before she walks down the aisle.’

*

Finn was busy tweaking things in his front garden, tying up the trailing clematis when the police car pulled up outside.

He had spent a good few hours tidying the two gardens of his clients earlier and had come back to work on his own. Joy had just left about ten minutes before to walk Darcy, dressed in that sexy jacket and cap again. She had flashed him a small smile as she walked past. He didn’t give one back; in fact he was pretty sure he glared. He cursed himself for getting involved, for feeling sorry enough for her to try to do something about the dog shit on her doorstep before she found out.

He straightened from pulling a stray weed out from near the roots of the clematis as he watched the police man and woman walk up Joy’s garden path.

‘She’s out,’ he said, wondering why he couldn’t stop himself from getting involved. ‘She’s just left.’

They turned to face him and gave him that look that most people gave him when they met him for the first time. The look of “My God, he’s huge.” He was used to it now. At six foot ten he always got that look. He was broad as well, and he understood that some people found him intimidating.

The policeman found his voice first. ‘Do you know which way she went; we really need to talk to her?’

Instinctively and not really knowing why, except having this intrinsic need to protect her, he found himself pointing in the opposite direction to the one she had just taken. ‘She normally walks through the village to The Pride and follows the little path up to the old beacon.’ God, now he was lying to the police as well.

The policeman nodded. ‘We would appreciate it if you didn’t tell her you saw us. We’d like to speak to her first. We wouldn’t want her to worry.’

‘No, of course not.’ Finn nodded, feeling his stomach clench with that exact same worry.

The police got back in their car and drove off in the direction that Finn had pointed. Finn threw down his tools, whistled for Billy and quickly followed in Joy’s footsteps.

Chapter Five

Joy had made for the tallest peak in the range of hills. The one that looked like a face. Old Woman White, her dad used to call it or White Lady Hill to everyone else. It was a good long walk, but Darcy had enjoyed it. Joy knew, as she approached the side that held the hooked nose, she would have excellent views of the valley below. There would be the River Quail, which was nothing more than a tiny stream in this part of the country, it would curl lazily through Hollyhock Woods, down Blueberry Hill and most importantly straight past Blueberry Farm. It was the farm she was more interested in seeing than anything else. She hadn’t been brave enough to go and visit it yet. But when she did she would give the man that owned it a piece of her mind. For now she would settle for looking at it. Maybe she would sit for a while and remember.

Her dad had said that she should never look back, that dwelling on the past was a mistake. He said that time was well spent planning for the future, but more importantly it should be spent living for now, enjoying the moment, because you could never go back and change things, so there was no point wishing you could. She wondered if he would be disappointed that she had come to the farm that day, if he would be shaking his head over her plans.

As the farm came into view, she realised she had been holding her breath. She stood looking at it for a moment, then sat down to indulge in the past.

*

Finn had easily spotted her about a thousand yards ahead, her red hair flying like a scarlet banner behind her. He had followed her, slowly closing the gap between them, as she had walked with purpose across the range. As he drew closer she finally stopped and sat down, staring out on the view below. He approached, but now he was here he didn’t know whether to talk to her about the police or not. Surely it was best for both of them if he just kept walking. He really didn’t need to be there for her, or to know the reason for that sad, faraway look on her face. He would just keep on walking.

‘You see that farm down there Darcy, that’s my farm.’ Joy pointed down towards Blueberry Farm. Intrigued at the lie more than anything else, he moved to stand near her side.

She looked up, clearly embarrassed at being caught talking to her dog, and annoyed to see Finn was the one to disturb her, she moved to get up.

‘No don’t go on my account, I was just enjoying the view. Surely we can be civil enough to enjoy the same view at the same time.’

She nodded reluctantly and he sat next to her. They sat in awkward silence for a while, probably while she wondered if he had some sort of split personality disorder. He’d been scrubbing her doorstep this morning, then he refused to smile at her when she had smiled at him, and now he was sitting down next to her as if they were best friends. He was confused by it himself.

‘I… couldn’t help overhearing you telling Darcy that Blueberry Farm was yours. I know the person that actually owns it and you look nothing like him.’