Death on the Lake by Jo Allen

Author:Jo Allen [Allen, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

‘George has died,’ Becca said, shouting into the phone though it was more in hope than expectation. The signal was fine down in Wasby but God knew what it was like up in the wilds. ‘Where are you?’

‘Does it matter?’ Ryan bellowed back at her. ‘I’m up in the Pennines somewhere. I’m having a blast. I just keep walking with the sun in front of me in the mornings and behind me in the evenings. Eventually I’ll get to the sea.’

Sometimes Becca thought Ryan’s easy-come-easy-go attitude was fake, put on to make himself seem more charming than he actually was. He’d hardly have got anywhere in the army without being able to know exactly where he was with a map and have a pretty good idea how to get somewhere he recognised without one. At that moment she was only surprised he’d bothered checking his messages and using his limited battery on calling her back. ‘How soon can you get here?’

‘Do I need to get back? Has something happened?’

‘Yes. Didn’t you hear me? I said George has died.’

‘Oh, died! I thought you said… well, I don’t know what I think you said. Geez. Hope I didn’t frighten him to death. Your mum would never forgive me.’

Becca thought that crass. ‘He had a stroke. At least, I’m pretty certain he did, but we don’t know for certain yet. The police haven’t come back about the post-mortem yet.’

‘The police? I thought you said it was a stroke.’

‘Yes but…oh I don’t know.’ It all came down to Jude again, and his inability to ascribe anything to accident or natural causes when sometimes they should be left well alone. That was what came of believing the worst of human nature. ‘There has to be a post-mortem because he wasn’t under medical care when he died. So we’re waiting on the PM, but I expect it’s straightforward.’

‘Why is it a police matter?’

‘It’s just routine. It’s an unexplained death. They’re always involved.’ Jude clothed everything in the drab uniform of routine. That hadn’t endeared him to Becca’s mother, who’d always thought him a little over-zealous. Why can’t they let the poor man rest in peace, she’d said, though she knew well enough what the procedure was. Regardless of Jude’s presence there would have to be a post-mortem. ‘I called because I thought you might want to come through for his funeral.’

‘You think he’d want me there? He wasn’t exactly charm itself.’

It was a matter of respect. Once more Becca found herself irritated by Ryan’s clumsiness. ‘Bluntly, I don’t think he’d care one way or another. But since you’ve come all the way across the world to see him and visit the old homestead, I imagined you might want to come.’

‘Might be a chance to catch up with all sorts of rellies I’ve never met, I suppose. See if any of them have a good word for me.’ There was crackling sound that might have been Ryan laughing or might have been the wind catching his words. ‘When is it?’

‘Sooner rather than later.

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