Small Town Secrets (Some Very English Murders Book 2) (17 page)

“Yes. I’m worried.”

“Have you any mutual friends you can contact? Do you know
her family?”

“Oh. Mutual friends, yes.” She decided not to admit she
hadn’t made contact properly herself. “I will.”

Cath’s phone buzzed and she leaned back to dig it out of
her pocket. She had a text message. Penny discretely looked away.

Family. If something happened to Penny, would people try to
contact Ariadne, her sister?

If something happened to Ariadne … would Penny ever know?

* * * *

When Taz returned, she was carrying hot drinks and a stack
of printed photos.

“I’ve got something,” she announced. “And this time, from
Warren’s photos.”

“We need a bigger table,” Cath said, shoving the general
clutter to one side. “Show us what you’ve got.”

Taz riffled through the sheets of paper dramatically and
then fanned them out on top of the other photos. “Ta-dah!”

Penny and Cath stared at the top one.

Penny broke the silence. “That’s Reg’s house. Again.”

“Yes. I didn’t think anything of it when I first went
through Warren’s photos, because it’s just a house. He has taken a lot of
boring photos, you know, as well as the really good ones he posted up. I don’t
know why he never deleted the rubbish ones, but from what I know of
photographers, that’s not unusual behaviour. But when I saw the one that Blue
took of Reg’s house, I had a nagging thought that I’d seen something similar
before.”

The photo was taken from a different angle, but it was
clearly Reg’s house.

“And no CCTV pole up there, yet,” Penny said thoughtfully.

“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Cath asked.

“I hope not,” Penny said. “What’s on your mind?”

Cath spoke slowly. “Perhaps Warren was harassing Reg.
Perhaps Blue found out about it…”

“Oh my goodness. Yes.”

Penny was determined to get the final shots that she needed
for the calendar. True to Agatha’s words, the long-range weather forecast was
predicting torrential rain and storms approaching Eastern England, and Penny
wanted to grab the nice weather while she had the chance. Some of the members
of the camera club had been annoyed at the “rush job” but she had to explain
that the layout, printing and distribution couldn’t happen overnight. Leaving
the photography until December so they could get some dogs frolicking in the
snow sounded great, but it simply wasn’t practical. The calendar needed to be
on sale by mid-October.

She had managed to arrange a last photoshoot that Saturday
afternoon. The shots taken in the forge had been good, but only one or two were
useful. Luckily, Saturday was a cooler day, and they arranged to have some of
the more sociable dogs taken to the meadowland called the slipe. Two in the
afternoon was the designated starting time, but from midday onwards it was
busy, with a general relaxed party atmosphere and lots of picnics and screaming
children. It wasn’t the best situation for many dogs, but only the friendliest
from the dogs’ home had been picked.

Penny brought Kali down just after midday. When Kali had
first come from the dogs’ home, she’d been very reactive and upset in the
presence of other dogs. Unfortunately, an upset and fearful Rottweiler looked,
to the general public, like an angry and dangerous dog. Especially when she got
over-excited and started to foam at the mouth. With lots of patience and help
from knowledgeable dog people, Penny had been able to convince Kali that other
dogs meant her no harm, and that the sight of another dog actually meant nice
things would happen – namely, bits of chicken or ham, and sometimes cheese.

Still, the dog wasn’t comfortable with a lot of chaos
around her, and when Penny observed that she was beginning to feel anxious from
the way she tightened up her lips, she took her home and left her in the
kitchen with a puzzle toy and a bowl of water.

When she got back to the slipe, with her own camera and a
notebook and a bottle of lemonade, she noticed that most of the photographers
were there, including Eric.

He gave her a filthy look when he saw her, and didn’t even
crack a smile. Instead he turned away pointedly and began to talk to another
camera club member, who peeped around Eric’s shoulder and smiled apologetically
at Penny. She waved back and went to talk to Lucy, the daft shop manager, and
Marge from the office.

Lucy had brought some cleansing crystals, and Marge was
shaking her head regretfully. “Thank you all the same, but I think I’ll stick
with what the doctor prescribed.”

“It can’t harm to try,” Lucy insisted. “This is Amazonite.
It will balance your auric body.”

Marge sighed and accepted the unconvincingly glittering
jewels, and tucked them away. “Hmm. Thanks. Ahh, Penny. So, we’re all set for
the final push! I’m very excited.”

“Me too. I think the photographers know what to do by now.
I’m just going to leave everyone to it.”

“It’s been wonderful,” Marge said. “Do you see that man
there? The one chasing the Jack Russell?”

“He has chased him before,” Penny said.

“Exactly! That’s Trevor. He’s going to adopt the terrier.
He says they’ve formed a bond.”

Certainly, the mischievous terrier wasn’t running to get
away, Penny realised. He’d go so far, and then stop and look to ensure he was
being followed. He’d let the portly man get almost close enough, and then dart
away, tongue lolling.

“Aww. That’s nice.”

“Yes. Bill’s needed something to do for a long time.”

“I thought the photographer was called Trevor?”

“He is. The dog’s called Bill.”

“Right.” Penny nodded. She caught sight of Eric again, with
his back to her. He was waving his arms angrily about something. “Eric seems
even more agitated than usual.”

“I’m not surprised,” Marge said. “What with his wife and
his daughter and all that.”

“All what?” Penny thought about the showdown at the fast
food restaurant and winced. “What’s happened now?” She thought she could guess,
though, and she was proved correct.

“His wife has left him,” Marge explained. “Apparently,
she’d been having an affair! Who knew?”

I did, Penny thought. She said, “Oh no!” and hoped she
sounded suitably shocked.

“What’s more,” Marge went on, “his daughter Nina has moved
out.”

“Has she got a job in Nottingham?”

Marge looked confused. “No. Why would she do that? She’s
gone back to Edinburgh with her partner. Gordon. He came for her and they’ve
made up and it’s all going wonderfully again.”

“Oh! Well, that’s fantastic.” Penny was happy for Nina, but
felt a slight sadness for Eric. He’d lost everything meaningful to him.

No, she reminded herself. He’d pushed it all away. But it
was still a shame.

“And there’s someone I did not expect to see,” Marge
commented. Penny followed her gaze and saw two more people she recognised.

Lee – and his daughter, Natasha. She slouched along, trying
to look uninterested in being out with her dad, but the mere presence of so
many fluffy dogs and puppies was too much, even for the incipient teenager. No
one could hold back a smile when being licked by a baby pug.

As Lee approached, Marge peeled off to talk to someone
else. Penny expected that Lee would follow Marge, but it turned out to be Penny
that he wanted to speak to.

“Hi,” she said stiffly.

“Hi. I’m just here to prove I’m a good dad,” he said.

Natasha squealed and batted him on the arm. “Dad! You’re
here because you like spending time with me, aren’t you?”

“That’s the same thing. Go and look at those puppies in
that crate over there. But no, you can’t have one.”

She duly wandered off, and when they were alone, he said,
“I want to remind you that nothing, and nobody, can jeopardise my relationship
with my daughter.”

“I know, I know, I’ve got that, and I wouldn’t. Family is
important.”

“And I’ve got something to tell you. About me and Warren
and why I was so mad.”

Penny hesitated. Cath had spoken to her on Friday about
Lee, but she didn’t think it would be a good idea to reveal what she already
knew. She let him speak.

He said, “I am only telling you this so that if, or when,
you find out, you won’t think I tried to hide it, because I know it looks like
a real proper motive and everything. My daughter Kelly came to stay with me
when she was having some problems in Lincoln.”

Penny nodded. “Emma told me a little.”

“Huh. Did she? Right. Did she also tell you that Kelly got
caught shop-lifting in the mini-market?”

“She mentioned something had happened,” Penny said
cautiously.

“It was something and nothing. To be honest it was a
typical teenager thing. It had been going well between us, but I had pushed it
too far by talking to her about her future, and she kicked off. She said
afterwards that she acted on impulse because she just wanted to teach me a
lesson. Warren called me when he caught her, and I went straight down to the
shop.” Lee scowled. “And that should have been that, but it wasn’t.”

“Why? What did he do?” she asked. She already knew the
answer. Cath had told her. But she was curious as to Lee’s take on it.

“Kelly was crying. He was threatening her with the police,
and she was terrified. And that’s all he needed to do. But he didn’t stop
there. He
did
ring the police. He told her he was going to recommend
that the company that owned the mini-market took action against her. Even when
the copper turned up – even he advised Warren to drop it.”

“But he didn’t?”

“No, he didn’t. He was so rigid. So unbending. Like he had
a point to make. As it happened, the mini-market company didn’t press any
charges. It wasn’t worth their while, and the crown prosecution service had no
interest, of course. The problem was that me and Kelly’s mother, well, we
weren’t getting on very well and she was looking for someone to blame for
Kelly’s troubles. It was easy enough, then, to blame me.”

“So you lost touch with Kelly,” Penny prompted.

“That sounds like it just happened accidentally. No. I was
prevented from seeing her until she came of age when she could make up her own
mind. Until then, I was deemed unfit to have care of her.”

It tied in exactly with what Cath had told her on the phone
the previous night. “I’m so sorry, Lee. It sounds horrendous. But you’re in
contact with Kelly now, right?”

“As much as I can be, given that she’s enjoying the student
lifestyle in London. But you see, now, why I didn’t mourn Warren’s death as
much as I should have. I mean, yeah, he shouldn’t have died. No one should have
killed him. But I don’t miss him. He wrecked my relationship with my daughter
when I needed it the most, and I won’t forgive him. Ever.”

Penny was silent for a moment. Hearing it from Lee’s own
mouth, the hurt in his heart was obvious, and she ached for him. Then she
nodded. “I wouldn’t get over it, in your position, either.”

“Really?” He blinked at her in surprise. “Oh.” He stopped
short of saying “thank you” but she could see the acknowledgement form on his
lips. “Well, then.”

Penny couldn’t think of anything more to say. She smiled,
and began to move on, but Lee’s hand shot out and he grabbed her arm, just like
he had when she had caught him spying on his own daughter. “Now what!” he
exploded in rage.

She craned her head around to see what had set him off this
time. Two liveried police cars were arriving in the car park near the
children’s play area.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Let me go! This is nothing to do
with me. Or you, I would imagine.”

People were staring their way and he reluctantly let go his
hold of her arm. He turned and called for his daughter. “Natasha! Come on.
We’re leaving. Now.”

Natasha, however, was kneeling by a small pen that had been
set out to contain some Labrador puppies and there was no way that she was
going to be easily parted from the four bundles of blonde fluff. “Dad, we’ve
only just got here. And look at them! Just look!”

The cars didn’t have the blue lights flashing, but three
uniformed officers and Cath, in her plain dark suit, got out and began to walk
across the slipe, each taking separate directions and talking to everyone in
their path. Cath spotted Penny and made her way over to her. Lee seemed frozen
next to her.

“Penny! Aha. I knew you’d be here. I think pretty much
everyone is, aren’t they?” Cath said.

“Most of the town, yes. Just because there are puppies.”

“I can’t blame them. Hi, Lee. Have either of you seen Blue
Bailey?”

“Blue?” Lee said as if he didn’t know him. “Oh. Blue. No, I
haven’t. Why?”

Cath’s mouth was set in a grim line. Penny hadn’t really
seen her in professional work mode – not since they had first met, when Penny
had stumbled over the body of the farmer David Hart. Then, Cath had been warm
and reassuring. Now, she looked like a hunter, and Penny was reminded that she
was a Detective Constable with a serious job to do.

“We need to talk to him. We need him rather urgently,” she
said. “If you have any idea at all, as to where he might be, I strongly advise
you to tell me.”

“I’m not a suspect then?” Lee said, unwilling to let his
own fears go.

Cath snorted without humour. “You? Lee, you’re an idiot in
many ways but I think we know, now, that you’re not a killer.”

“Oh. Right. An idiot?”

“Could be worse.”

Penny said, “What new information has emerged? Is it
something about Blue?”

Cath nodded. “We were still curious about his relationship
with his dad. So we went to speak to Reg, and it was pretty uncomfortable. He’s
a nice guy, you know? There are not many of his calibre still around. And he
broke down in tears when we suggested to him, very gently, that perhaps his own
son had been behind the campaign of harassment against him…”