Where Memories Are Made (6 page)

BOOK: Where Memories Are Made
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Mrs Evans gave a snort of derision and said, ‘Well, you telling me I look fit for the knacker's yard doesn't help me feel any better, Marion! And neither does talking about cake when just the thought of food is turning my stomach at the moment. Anyway, I'm glad you're here because this young lady has been sent by Jolly's to try and convince us we're to blame for the outbreak, so they can get out of seeing us right.'

Marion seemed to see Jackie for the first time. She gave her a stony glare and said, ‘Is that right? Well, you go back to your boss and tell him that it
is
Jolly's fault and if they don't settle matters with us to our satisfaction then we'll … we'll …' She flashed a look at Martha Evans. ‘What will we do, Martha?'

‘Well, er … we'll … Yes, that's what we'll do. As soon as we're all back on our feet, we'll be outside the camp restaurant warning all the other people that they're risking their lives eating in there. And then you'll be facing a mass evacuation, with them all demanding their money back.'

Marion gave Jackie a push towards the door. ‘Now go and warn your bosses what we'll do if they don't do right by us. Eh, and don't forget some food for me and Cyril. Fancy fish and chips, mushy peas and pickled onions, do you, Cyril?'

He licked his lips. ‘I do. I'm getting a bit peckish, I must say.'

She told Jackie, ‘Then that's what we'll have. Oi, and not from that kiosk! Have it brought in from Mablethorpe.'

‘Oh, will you stop talking about food, Marion?' Martha Evans moaned. ‘You're making my stomach churn, and it was just beginning to settle down.'

Her friend looked ashamed and mumbled, ‘Sorry, Martha.'

Jackie sighed inwardly. It seemed that the cause of the food poisoning was a mystery that was never going to be solved. And the camp was going to bear the brunt. She just hoped the damage was minimal. Hopefully Harold Rose would agree to the injured parties' demands … in fact, she couldn't see how he he'd be able to refuse. By settling with them he might persuade the sufferers to look a bit more favourably on Jolly's and decide not to spread bad publicity about them.

Jackie had just shut the chalet door behind her when she got the overwhelming feeling that something had been said inside the chalet that was the key to solving this whole mystery. She felt positive of it. If only she could remember what it was … She tried to recall all that had been said, then suddenly it came to her. Surely it couldn't be a coincidence that out of the party of forty-two who'd all had their dinner in the restaurant, there were two who hadn't been struck down by food poisoning and two slices of cake left? Spinning around, she tapped on the door and, in her need to explore this latest piece of information, forgot to wait for a response.

The three occupants looked surprised to see Jackie back so soon.

After apologising for bursting in on them, she addressed Marion. ‘That cake you told me was eaten on the coach … two of you didn't have any and there are two pieces left. Well, I …'

Marion snapped, ‘Cyril and I were full from our sandwiches or there wouldn't have been a crumb left. I'm famous for my Victoria sponge. The recipe has been passed down from my great-grandmother. I've won numerous competitions at church fêtes …' She suddenly stopped in mid-flow, narrowed her eyes and wagged a warning finger at Jackie. ‘Oh, I see where this is heading. You're desperate to palm off the blame. Well, I won't stand for it. Three of them I made to go round all the party, with my own fair hands. Each of them good enough to be eaten by the Queen herself, let me tell you.'

Martha said under her breath, ‘Well, the piece I had was on the dry side, if you ask me.'

Marion shot at her, ‘What was that you said?'

Martha Evans gave an innocent shrug. ‘I never said anything, Marion. You're hearing things.'

Regardless of her friend's denial Marion still looked at her suspiciously for a moment before she returned her attention to Jackie. ‘Now you get out of here and don't come back unless …'

But Jackie wasn't going anywhere until she had answers to questions she needed to ask and cut in, ‘I wondered where you got the eggs from that went into your cakes?'

It was Martha who answered. ‘From the Co-op, same as we all do in our street.'

‘Yes, that's right,' Marion backed her up. ‘Going to blame the Co-op for poisoning us now, are you?' She began herding Jackie towards the door. ‘Now once again, out with you, lady, and don't come back …'

Cyril Evans, who had been sitting on his bed all this time listening to proceedings suddenly piped up, ‘But you didn't get the eggs for the cake from the Co-op, Marion.'

She stopped and turned back to face him, looking puzzled. ‘I never get eggs from anywhere else, Cyril, so what are you blabbering on about?'

‘But last night you called round to ask if we had any spare because when you went shopping earlier for your sandwich fillings you forgot to get the eggs for the cakes and the corner shop had shut by then. Martha was upstairs packing at the time so it was me that answered the door to you. I went off to look if we had any in the pantry, only we didn't as we'd had the last two that morning for our breakfast and Martha didn't buy any more, what with us coming away for a week on our holidays, so we couldn't help you.'

Jackie could have sworn she saw a flash of worry in Marion's eyes before she said matter-of-factly, ‘Oh, yes, that's right. I'd forgotten about that.'

‘So where
did
you end up getting the eggs for your cakes?' Martha asked sharply.

‘Oh, er … I can't remember.'

‘Marion, we're talking about something you did less than twenty hours ago. 'Course you can remember. Now where did you get those eggs from?'

She started shuffling her feet uncomfortably. ‘Well … er … after trying a few others who didn't have any spare either, I … er … went to see Nelly Brown. Miserable old bugger could see how desperate for them I was and charged me more than the Co-op does.'

At this news Martha shut her eyes and let out a loud groan of despair. ‘You bought eggs from her? Marion, no one buys eggs from Nelly Brown because people have got ill from eating her eggs before. Only those that don't know that buy from her.'

Marion said defensively, ‘Well, I didn't know.'

Martha eyed her suspiciously. ‘Well, if you didn't, why didn't you have a slice of the cake?'

‘I've already told you, because I was full from my sandwiches.'

‘I don't believe you. I think it was because you did know and didn't want to risk eating it. Well, you'd better go and tell everyone that it's you to blame for poisoning them and nothing to do with Jolly's. They're not going to be very happy with you, just like I'm not, so for the rest of the holiday you'd better make yourself scarce.'

Marion almost choked as she cried, ‘Well, there's absolutely no proof it was the eggs in my cakes that caused the poisoning. They looked all right when I cracked them open and didn't smell off, so it's not fair I should take the blame.'

Martha said, ‘Well, we'll just have to prove it one way or the other then, won't we? Go and get the tin with the remains of the cake in it.'

‘Why?'

‘Because you're going to eat a piece, then you're going to stay put here where we can keep an eye on you and see what happens.' Martha said to Jackie, ‘And you'd better stay too, so you can be a witness. If Marion becomes ill then it's the cake that's the cause. If not then it has to be something prepared by Jolly's and we get our money back and a coach home. Is that fair enough?'

Jackie nodded. ‘It is.'

It didn't seem that she was going to have her night out with Keith, Ginger and some of the other staff, dancing the night away at Groovy's celebrating Helen's birthday. But this had to be settled one way or the other.

Marion almost choked on the cake, but under the watchful eye of Martha Evans, Jackie and Cyril had no choice but to finish every crumb. While they all waited to see what happened, sitting on Cyril's bed, he and Jackie played game after game of knockout whist while Marion sat anxiously on the other end and Martha dozed on and off in her own bed. It was approaching eight o'clock and Jackie was just about to lay down a winning hand when Marion's face suddenly turned pale and she clutched her stomach, issuing a low painful groan. Then as fast as her rotund body would carry her, she made a dash for the door, yanked it open and disappeared in the direction of the toilet block.

Martha roused herself from a doze just in time to witness Marion's departure. She looked over at Jackie shame-faced and said quietly, ‘Well, it seems we have our answer. I can only apologise for blaming Jolly's without considering for a minute that it was something we'd had before we arrived here.'

Jackie smiled at her. ‘I'm just glad we've got to the bottom of it, Mrs Evans. I hope you all recover soon and enjoy the rest of your holiday here with us.'

The woman smiled. ‘Thanks, love. One thing is for sure: Marion won't be getting any more eggs from Nelly Brown!'

Mortally relieved that the situation was resolved, Jackie had arrived at the camp's row of shops on her way back to the office when it struck her that she really ought to go and inform Chef Brown that his kitchen was no longer under suspicion. She might still catch him before he finished his shift.

The staff entrance was still open so she knew Chef Brown was about. Bracing herself, she went inside. She found him in the process of locking up his office.

Hearing footsteps clicking across the tiled floor, he spun his large body around to check who it was invading his kitchen at this time of night. Seeing it was Jackie, to her surprise, instead of clouding with anger his face filled with shame. As she reached him, he said, ‘Ah, Jackie love, before you say anything, I want to apologise for my behaviour towards you earlier. Of course, the first place that would be under suspicion when there's an outbreak of food poisoning is the kitchen. I just took the accusation personally, that's all, because I pride myself on running such a tight ship that nothing like this is allowed to happen. After you left and I'd calmed down, I felt terrible and wanted to come and apologise straight away. But I couldn't get away and by now I thought you would have gone home. I was going to come and see you first thing in the morning. Please accept my apologies. What I should have done, instead of blowing my top, was told you to get the health people in to check the kitchen over and for them to clear it or condemn it, as no matter how diligent I am …'

She interjected, ‘There's no need for that, Chef Brown. I've found out where the contaminated food came from and it wasn't your kitchen.' Jackie told him about the suspect eggs.

He looked relieved. ‘Well, to be honest, despite doing all I can to prevent anything like this happening, I was worried I'd let myself down somewhere, so I'm really pleased to hear that. I appreciate your coming to tell me. I'll sleep well tonight. I expect you will too.'

Jackie smiled at him. ‘I certainly will. Goodnight, Chef.'

He responded accordingly before turning back to finish locking up his office for the night.

CHAPTER FIVE

I
t was well after eight-thirty by the time Jackie arrived in the office to collect her belongings before going home. She was most surprised to see Al still sitting behind his desk. ‘What are you doing here?' she asked him. ‘Your mother must be worried out of her wits and your dinner will be shrivelled up with keeping hot for so long.'

He told her, ‘Oh, I don't live at home. I've got a room with an old lady in Skegness.' He then added jocularly, ‘Believe me, the evening meal she cooks me always looks shrivelled up and is never hot, no matter whether I'm on time or not.' He then very obviously changed the subject. ‘Mr Rose left as usual on the dot of five-thirty and I didn't like to leave until you came back, just in case you needed me for any reason. I kept myself busy clearing up the filing.'

Naturally inquisitive, Jackie had to stop herself from asking why Al didn't live at home. One of the very valuable lessons she had learned from Rhonnie was that some people took offence at having their private lives queried. If there was information they wanted made public knowledge they would voluntarily impart it. To Jackie's mind that was all well and good, but if they didn't volunteer the information this only opened up a lot more questions, one being … what were they hiding? Come to think of it, Al had worked with her for over a week now and she knew next to nothing about him. He had listened to her while she had chatted away as they worked, all about her widowed mother, brother and boyfriend Keith, and happenings at the camp during the years she had worked here, both hilarious and tragic, but had never once reciprocated by telling her anything about his life outside Jolly's. Maybe that was because he felt he had nothing of interest to tell her. Jackie felt it unlikely that she would ever discover the reason, though, as Al had only a few more days of working here before Drina and Rhonnie were due to return and then his temporary placement with Jolly's would be over.

She smiled at him. ‘I appreciate your staying behind tonight, Al. Make sure you put down the extra hours you've worked on your agency time-sheet.' In light of the fact that he had stayed behind for her sake, she felt it only right to offer him a lift back to his lodgings on her scooter, despite the fact that she was desperate to get home herself because Keith would be waiting for her.

She knew he'd be upset that her having to work later had scuppered their night out as he'd been looking forward to it, but was sure he'd be understanding once she told him the reason. She pictured Keith in her mind's eye. He was four years older than Jackie at twenty-five years old, five foot ten in his stockinged feet, fair-haired, handsome in a rugged way, with an easygoing nature. He was a qualified mechanic and worked for a local garage. He had no idea who his father was as he had been born illegitimate to his then seventeen-year-old mother who had abandoned him at six months old, stealing off in the middle of the night, leaving him with her own widowed mother to raise and never being heard from since.

BOOK: Where Memories Are Made
13.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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