Shared Remains by Rachel Lynch

Author:Rachel Lynch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

The Crown was busy, Kelly reckoned the dreary weather brought more people in to drink and warm up by the fire. There was something about crap weather that made people want to talk about it, especially in England, and even more so in the Lake District. It could make or break a day. It could decide a future. It could destroy a farmer.

And it was Friday night.

Johnny had given her Carrie’s mobile number. She’d made a childish quip about them paying for that too, and his lack of response told her that it was more than likely. She’d put on a bit of make-up, still needing to somehow face Johnny’s wife with an exterior of armour, just in case.

She worried that Carrie would pin all the debt on Johnny as legally, their assets were equally shared under marriage laws. Kelly also knew legally, that this was none of her business.

Thank God Josie was at university.

She shook her umbrella and put it into the stand, nodding a hello to the bar staff, who she knew by name. She saw Carrie by the fire, who waved at her with a broad smile. Kelly felt slightly sick. She went over and asked if she wanted a drink. Carrie stood up.

‘Thanks for coming,’ she said.

‘Thanks for meeting me,’ Kelly said.

‘I’ll have another wine if that’s okay,’ Carrie said.

‘Sure, white?’ Kelly asked, looking at Carrie’s glass that still had some straw-coloured liquid at the bottom of it. Kelly remembered once again Johnny saying his ex-wife had an alcohol problem, but the woman here looked in control. Kelly questioned if she should have believed anything Johnny told her. When Kelly had returned from London all those years ago, she had really been looking for somebody to hold onto. And Johnny had made it all feel so easy.

She went to the bar. The woman behind the counter waved at her and nodded she’d be next. She ordered two glasses of wine but then changed her mind and ordered a bottle and took it to where Carrie was sat.

‘Busy day? Johnno says you work hard,’ Carrie said.

Kelly smiled and took off her coat. ‘I’ve had better weeks.’ She poured the wine and took a sip. Carrie’s pet name for her husband was becoming more palatable as Kelly got used to the betrayal.

‘Thank you. And thank you for sorting this out. Your father is lovely,’ Carrie said.

‘He is.’

‘I saw the release of the photo this afternoon on the local news. Is that your department? Who are you looking for?’

Carrie’s inquiry was benign. The reference to her work was an icebreaker but Kelly wasn’t in the mood. The frame from the CCTV footage was one of a set they’d released via the press department in an attempt to identify who’d been driving Victor Walmsley’s car.

‘Yes. I’m always trying to find nutters.’

‘So who are they?’

‘If we knew that we wouldn’t be requesting help from the public.’

‘I heard that releasing photos sometimes made the criminal go to ground.’

The last thing Kelly needed was an armchair chat about criminal profiling.

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