Frozen (Vera Stanhope) by Ann Cleeves

Author:Ann Cleeves [Cleeves, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2020-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

In Corbridge, Helen had taken Vera’s advice and the bookshop’s event had been moved to the cafe on the square. They’d turned it into a coffee and cake session instead of an evening meeting because more snow was forecast for later in the day. Forum books was still surrounded by police tape and a uniformed officer stood on the door. The cafe was packed and Vera slipped in and found a place at the back. When she arrived, the proceedings were coming to an end. The primary school choir sang the Coventry Carol and Vera was pleased Joe wasn’t there. He was so soppy that he’d have been crying after the first verse. She waited until the crowd had thinned and found Helen and her son on their own at a table in the corner.

‘Is there any news? Can we move back into the chapel? We need the Christmas business if we’re going to survive.’

Vera looked at her for a moment before asking the question that had been troubling her since the evening before. ‘What brought you back?’

Helen shut her eyes and there was another silence. ‘Thomas follows the Summerskill girls on Facebook. He could see how affected they still were by Jenny’s disappearance, how they still allowed themselves to believe that she might still be alive. He thought we should let them know, give them some peace.’

‘Hence the charade, the pretence to discover the body. Did you know I was in town?’

Helen shook her head. ‘Any customer would have done. Someone to be a witness.’

‘Didn’t anyone recognize you when you moved in? You’d been the minister’s wife.’

‘Oh, I looked quite different then.’ Helen gave a little smile. ‘I worked in finance, dressed the part. And I wasn’t around much anyway. When Neil got the post here, the deal was that I led my own life. Perhaps that was why I didn’t see what was going on.’

‘And what was going on?’

‘He was drinking. Hard. He hid it very well. Not even the kids, who were closer to him than I was, knew. I think it was Neil’s way of surviving the disappointment and the criticism. He arrived here with so much passion, so many ideas and the congregation ripped him apart. They were very genteel of course, the respectable elderly of Corbridge, but they killed his confidence, bit by bit.’

‘Had he been drinking the afternoon Jenny died?’

Helen nodded. ‘Neil decided he’d come to pick up Thomas from the minibus after the school trip, but he was driving too fast. It was nearly dark and the road was icy. He didn’t see Jenny until it was too late, then when he braked he slid into her. She died immediately.’

Vera wasn’t sure how a man as pissed as Neil Elliott had been could tell that. A 999 call might have saved the girl. ‘What did he do then?’

Helen looked straight at Vera. ‘A terrible thing. He rolled her into the ditch, picked up Thomas and took him home, and then went back for her.

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