A Lake District Christmas Murder by Rebecca Tope

Author:Rebecca Tope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison & Busby Limited
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Christopher had been gone about twenty minutes. ‘They’ll have asked him in for sherry or something,’ Simmy sighed. The thought made her uneasy, as if letting her husband out of her sight admitted the possibility of intrusive curiosity – or worse – from outsiders. She wanted to gather her little family around her and lock the doors. ‘I wish Lily hadn’t seen Jerome.’

‘If you ask me, it’s DI Moxon you should be worrying about,’ said Angie. ‘If he was part of the murder investigation yesterday, he’ll have to make a report, from his sickbed if necessary, and you’re highly likely to feature in it.’

‘He won’t have to mention the baby, though. Why would he?’ Simmy groaned softly. ‘We’ve said all this already. Can’t we talk about something else?’

But nobody could think of anything, other than waking Robin from his little nest on the sheepskin hearthrug and giving him a drink. His new toys were strewn around the room, and Simmy fetched a cardboard box from the kitchen to put them all in. Jerome also woke and began to make little bleats, as if working up for a full-scale wail. Angie took him, laying him on her lap and bending over him to pull faces. ‘They can only focus for a few inches at first,’ she said. ‘The distance from breast to face, presumably.’ She was making exaggerated expressions, and suddenly cried, ‘Look! He’s imitating me. Isn’t that clever!’

‘They do that,’ said Simmy. ‘It’s terribly sweet.’

Then Christopher came back, bringing gusts of cold air and stamping his feet. ‘You were a long time,’ said Simmy.

‘The sister came in while I was there, with an armful of dead sticks. She said she’d met a man and his dog and they started talking about the murder. He lives in Patterdale, apparently, and they’re talking of nothing else up there. Nicholette wants to go tomorrow and find out for herself what’s what.’

‘How does she think she can do that?’ said Russell. ‘Nobody’s going to tell her anything, are they?’

‘Just morbid curiosity,’ said Angie. ‘Like gawpers on the motorway. Although I always think that’s natural human feeling, actually. I suppose it applies to murder as well. People are bound to feel nervous and want to get as much information as they can.’

‘Except there won’t be any information,’ said Russell again.

‘Aoife said the same thing about people on the motorway,’ said Simmy. ‘It’s starting to sound like a cliché.’

‘Well, pardon me,’ said Angie, in mock umbrage.

‘There might be more information than we think,’ Christopher said. ‘If everyone gathers at the pub and talks about what questions the police have been asking, they might well construct a pretty good picture. Now they know who the dead man was, there’ll be all sorts of scope for speculation.’

‘But nobody’s going to know there’s a baby,’ Simmy insisted, trying to convince herself. ‘Especially if Celia’s gone off somewhere.’

‘You’re safe for another day,’ Russell assured her. ‘After that, it’s all going to change.’

Simmy pulled Robin to her, in an effort to console herself for the inevitable separation from Jerome.

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