The Peridale Cafe Cozy Box Set 4 Read online

  “Leah!” Julia called after her. “Please tell me what all this is about!”

  “You’re Leah?” Violet cried, her Russian accent turning the air cold as a familiar snarl took over her lips. She looked Leah up and down before shaking her head. “You do not belong here. Go back to where you came from, vile woman.”

  Violet spat at Leah’s feet before running after Roxy, who had already disappeared around the corner.

  “Why do I feel like everyone knows what’s going on except for me?” Julia cried, a little louder than she had intended. “Leah?”

  But Leah only dropped her head, crossed the street, and turned the corner. Julia considered chasing after her, but as though she could sense it, Dot pulled her back.

  “Let her go.” Dot hiccoughed and looked down at the almost empty bottle in her hand. “I’d be surprised if this is even real champagne. I can taste quality, and this is definitely the £2.50 fizzy wine from the corner shop.”

  “You seemed to enjoy it,” Sue muttered. “I can’t believe this is how I’m spending my first child-free afternoon in months.”

  “The night is still young!”

  Julia checked her watch. “It’s only half past noon.”

  “Exactly!” Dot slapped the hood of Julia’s car before climbing inside. “To the pub, driver!” She rolled down the window and peered up at Sue. “Unless you have something better to do?”

  Sue shrugged and joined Dot in the backseat.

  Julia frowned. The first milestone of her wedding planning had been ruined, she was no closer to having a dress, and she was leaving Mulberry Lane with more questions about Leah than she had arrived with.

  Chapter Four

  Julia spent the rest of the day at the café, hopelessly distracted. She served Shilpa Patil a teapot minus the tea bags, Evelyn Wood a sandwich consisting solely of lettuce, and Amy Clark soft cheese instead of cream for her chocolate chip scone. When the time came to close the café, Julia had never been so glad to flip the sign and lock the doors.

  Unfortunately for Barker, her level of concentration didn’t improve when she returned to the cottage. The shepherd’s pie she attempted to make was given an unsavoury twist when she accidentally used curry powder instead of gravy granules. Despite Barker’s protests of enjoyment, she knew he had forced down every mouthful.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” Barker suggested after clearing the failed dinner from the dining room table. “The fresh air will do you a world of good.”

  Julia hoped Barker would be right, but her mind was firmly fixed on one subject: Leah Burns. She bit her tongue and listened to Barker’s book updates for the first ten minutes of their sunset stroll, but when the path disappeared into the fields surrounding Peridale Farm, she couldn’t help but turn the conversation to the bridal shop confusion.

  “It was like watching animals fight,” Julia said. “The Leah I knew wasn’t like that.”

  “The Leah you knew left Peridale a long time ago.” Barker looped his arm through Julia’s and offered a supportive smile. “Let’s hope you’re not going to be dragged in as an assault witness anytime soon.”

  “I don’t know what I witnessed.”

  “A fight?”

  “It was more than that.” Julia gazed at a flock of wandering sheep in a neighbouring field. “And why? Why did Brooke launch herself at Leah? Why did Roxy run away? Why did Violet spit at her feet? Why did Johnny act like an entirely different person when he saw her? What did she do that was so terrible? Who is she?”

  “Who was she?”

  “She was lovely.” Julia let out a long sigh as the warm breeze fluttered her hair from behind her ears. “She was polite and kind. As far as I knew, everyone loved her. People used to call her the ‘teacher’s pet’ because she was always the first to volunteer for anything. She once missed a party to help Mrs Dawson clean her textbook cupboard after school, but that’s the type of person she was. She didn’t care if people thought that made her a geek, she just liked to help. If you needed anything, whether it be homework help or a shoulder to cry on, Leah was the one to jump in. She was a good friend. Her offer to plan our wedding for free was typical Leah. That’s precisely what she would do. She wasn’t a wicked troublemaker.”

  “That’s one version of her,” Barker suggested. “But as you know, people have different sides to them. If my years in the police force taught me anything, it’s that you can’t take anyone at face value. I’ve seen sweet and demure people snap over trivial things. We all have it in us to hurt others.” They slowed to a halt and leaned against a fence to watch a nearby grazing horse. “My guess is, she came back to Peridale hoping time had healed old wounds, but for Roxy and Johnny and the dress shop lady, it sounds like they needed another twenty.” Barker paused and broke his gaze from the horse to look at Julia. “And do you know what that tells us?”

  “What?”

  “Whatever she did must have been quite terrible.”

  Julia took in a deep lungful of the warm evening air. Barker had hit the nail on the head.

  “But what if Leah has changed?” Julia’s teeth worried at her bottom lip as the horse shook out its mane and neighed. “So, she did something awful twenty years ago. She would have been eighteen when she left the village. She’s thirty-eight now, like me. I know I’m not the same person I was at eighteen. Are you?”

  Barker shook his head.

  “People can change.” Julia tapped her finger on the fence with each word. “Isn’t forgiveness important?”

  “It is.” Barker pulled his arm away from Julia’s and looped his fingers together, leaning over the fence. She knew the expression on his face. He was about to tell her something she absolutely didn’t want to hear. “But it’s not your place to demand that forgiveness. Twenty years may have passed, but it doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be held accountable for whatever she did.”

  She tried to think of an appropriate reply as the horse sauntered toward them, its chestnut coat glowing under the setting sun. The longer Barker’s words hung in the air, the more she knew there was no point in attempting to counter them. If Leah had been the kind and helpful friend in their group, Julia had always been ‘The Fixer’. It was in her nature to make everyone around her happy, and that need could quickly blind her.

  “You’re right.” Julia reached out to stroke the horse’s long nose. “Maybe this isn’t my fight. I wanted so desperately to get the old gang together, but what will it cost if I push it? If Roxy and Johnny can’t even look at Leah without foaming at the mouth, it’s going to take more than my meddling to fix it.”

  “You? Meddle?” Barker winked and nudged Julia’s shoulder. “Never.”

  She laughed as she coiled her arm back through his. They left their equine friend to finish his sunset grazing and circled around Peridale Farm before joining the winding lane that led back to their cottage. When the lights of Julia’s sitting room came into view, the sky above them was an almost perfect blanket of darkness speckled with stars.

  “What if Roxy and Johnny never speak to me again?” Julia broke the silence, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve agreed to let Leah plan our wedding, but, obviously, I want Roxy and Johnny to be part of it. I was going to ask Roxy to be one of my bridesmaids. I’ve barely thought about Leah in the past two decades, and even though it’s been nice to see her, Roxy and Johnny have always been there in some capacity.”

  “Exactly.” Barker nodded. “They’re not going to abandon you. You had noble intentions, as you always do. And don’t forget, you still don’t know what happened.”

  “Things would make much more sense if I did.”

  “So, find out.”

  “How?”

  They stopped at their garden gate. Barker nodded in the direction of Leah’s cottage, where soft light poured out into the dark garden.

  “It looks like she’s home.” Barker pulled Julia away from their cottage and back onto the lane. “It’s time you asked her for the truth.”

 
“What if she doesn’t want to give it?”

  “Then you’ve got your answer. If Leah isn’t mature enough to be honest with you about something that happened years ago, your friendship isn’t going to work. But, something tells me she wouldn’t have come back here if she didn’t want to live peacefully.”

  As they approached Leah’s cottage, Julia immediately knew something was not right. The front door was slightly open, and the light flooding into the garden was coming from the floor, not the ceiling. Barker glanced cautiously at Julia.

  “Wait here.” He put his arm in front of her and unhooked the gate. “It’s probably nothing.”

  “If it’s nothing, I don’t need to wait anywhere.” She slipped through the gate before he had a chance to push it back into its latch. “Although something tells me this isn’t nothing.”

  They crept up the garden path like two teenagers venturing towards a haunted house on Halloween. Julia’s gaze was fixed on the yellow light seeping through the bottom of the open door. Its stillness and concentrated lines unsettled her in ways she couldn’t explain.

  “Leah?” Barker called out, the boom in his voice making Julia jump.

  They lingered on the step, their ears directed at the door. The seconds thudded like rocks dropping into a shallow pond.

  “Maybe she’s not here?” Barker glanced back at the lane where Leah’s car was. “She might have gone for a walk.”

  “Leah?” Julia called, hoping the familiarity of her voice would stir movement in the cottage. “Are you in? It’s Julia. I only want to talk.”

  They waited again, but no sound came. Unable to take the silence a moment longer, Julia reached out with her forefinger and pushed on the door. It swung back on its hinges, revealing the source of the strange light. A table lamp lay on the floral carpet, its dusty shade bent out of shape. The sight of something so ordinary should have eased Julia, but the matching smashed vase and decapitated Little Bo-Peep figurine pointed to something more sinister.

  “These were all on this side table.” Julia pointed to the long, walnut cabinet under a mirror on the hallway wall. “I’m sure of it.” She paused, the realisation of the scene hitting her. “It looks like someone’s had a fight.”

  “The explanation could be harmless,” Barker said, his tone giving away the suspicion in his voice. “But yes, it looks like the result of a scuffle.” He stepped over the broken items and peered up the staircase into the darkness of the landing. “Leah?”

  If Leah had been asleep, Barker’s echoing call would have woken her. Julia waited for a sign of movement above, but the floorboards didn’t so much as creak. Stepping over the lamp, she walked into the kitchen. Flickering blue light illuminated the room from a lit gas ring under a hissing pan. After clicking on the ceiling light, Julia investigated further. The pan was empty, and the metal bottom sizzled, hinting at a drop of remaining moisture. Julia grabbed the handle, a scream escaping her throat when she dropped the scorching metal onto the kitchen tiles.

  “I should have known.” Julia held out the pink burn on her palm when Barker dashed into the kitchen. “It looks like she was boiling water to cook something. It’d completely evaporated.”

  Julia scanned the kitchen. Barker gestured toward the opened bottle of white wine just as Julia’s gaze landed on it. Two empty glasses stood next to it.

  Clutching her wrist, Julia ran her palm under the cold water. A mobile phone and a bunch of keys sat next to the sink.

  “This isn’t right,” Julia called to Barker, who was back in the hallway, staring at the scattered objects on the floor. “I think we need to call the police.”

  “I think you’re right.” Barker beckoned for Julia to join him. “I don’t think this is part of the carpet design.”

  Wiping her wet hand on a paper towel, Julia walked into the hallway. She stared where Barker was pointing, but her eyes couldn’t see anything other than flowers in the glow of the broken lamp. She shook her head, prompting him to circle a dark patch. Julia thought it was a rose in the cluttered design until she realised it was wet and glistening in the light.

  “Blood,” she choked. “Barker, that’s blood.”

  Barker’s expression darkened as he pulled his phone from his pocket. He tapped on the screen and put the device to his ear, his eyes fixed on Julia.

  “John? It’s Barker. Yeah, I’m fine—sort of. I need you to come look at something. Yeah, now. Yes, it’s important. Yes, it’s more important than your pint.”

  Leaving Barker to explain what they had found to his former colleague, Julia returned to the kitchen, her hand on her forehead as she tried to wrap her mind around what they had just stumbled upon. Something red on the glossy bannister caught her attention. She parted her lips to tell Barker she had found more blood, but she stopped when she realised what she was staring at might have been the colour of blood, but it was something else entirely. It was a hair, and there was only one person in the village with hair that fiery. Julia’s gut twisted as her mind jumped to conclusions faster than she was comfortable with.

  “He’s coming up with a team,” Barker said after tucking his phone back into his pocket. “Julia?”

  Julia swiped the hair into her fist as she spun around, her heart drumming. She stuffed her hand into her pocket and tried to banish the shock from her face.

  “Don’t worry,” Barker said softly as he pulled her into his chest. “I know what you’re thinking, but there’s no point getting worked up yet. This could all be nothing.”

  “I know.”

  But Julia’s mind was thinking something else entirely. With the red hair clenched in her burnt palm, only one thought circled relentlessly through her mind:

  Roxy has killed Leah.

  Roxy has killed Leah.

  Roxy has killed Leah.

  Chapter Five

  “Roxy Carter, you should know better than to ignore my calls.” Julia paced the tiny stone yard behind her café. “I know you’re listening to these messages. You’re too curious not to. I know where you were last night. Call me back immediately before you get yourself into a situation you can’t get out of. I only want to talk.”

  Julia hung up and reached into her apron pocket. She pulled out the plastic zip-lock bag containing the red hair. What had possessed her to take the hair from Leah’s house? She grabbed her phone again.

  “Roxy, it’s still me,” Julia muttered into her phone after calling for the thirteenth time that morning. “You have no idea how much I’m putting my neck on the line for you right now. Call me back, or, better yet, answer your phone!”

  Julia hung up again, her anger increasing with each new message. It was not like Roxy to ignore her, and yet it was typical of Roxy to bury her head in the sand when things were too serious to deal with. Julia had played over every possible situation that could have occurred at Leah’s cottage, and very few scenarios left Roxy in a good place.

  “Why were you at Leah’s cottage?” Julia spoke to the hair, desperately wanting a reply. “What did you do?”

  Tucking the hair back into her pocket, she pulled on the heavy back door and returned to the kitchen, cringing as the sweltering heat hit her. The sun still had its blistering fingers wrapped around the village, and it showed no sign of letting go. The weather was unbearable to work in, but it would have been even more agonising if every customer had been asking Julia about what she had discovered at Emily Burns’ old cottage. News of Leah’s vanishing act had yet to spread like most Peridale gossip usually did.

  After checking her phone—still no messages—Julia pushed through the beaded curtain. A small line had formed at the counter, but it was nothing Katie couldn’t handle. Julia had yet to mention what had happened, but Katie was stepping up and taking on Julia’s responsibilities regardless.

  “I heard police were sniffing around up near the farm,” Shilpa Patil whispered to Malcolm Johnson in the queue. “Amy said she saw a white tent in front of Emily’s old cottage.”

  “Emily Bur
ns?” Malcolm replied. “You don’t suppose it has anything to do with her death?”

  “She died of cancer,” Father David jumped in. “Or, that’s what I heard, at least. Poor soul.”

  When Dot burst through the door in her usual hurricane fashion, Julia was glad of the distraction, if only to stop the villagers turning to her for an explanation behind the forensic tent surrounding her closest neighbour’s home.

  “Crikey, Julia!” Dot exclaimed, her hand gripping the brooch holding her collar together as a look of horror spread across her face. “You look like death! The bags under your eyes are like sacks of sugar! Did you sleep?”

  “As it happens, I didn’t.” Julia sighed as she rubbed her tired eyes. “But thank you. I know I can always count on you for a confidence boost.”

  “Dear?” Dot’s expression softened as she pulled Julia away from the counter and into a quiet corner. “Has something happened? Are you and Barker okay?”

  “Why wouldn’t we be?”

  “Wedding planning!” Dot cried. “The stress it causes makes me wonder if the result is worth it. Your grandfather and I could barely look at each other in the week leading up to our nuptials. Well, he did have that lazy eye if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, but that’s another story for another day.” Dot paused for breath before her hand lifted to cover her mouth. “It’s not Jessie, is it?”

  “Jessie’s fine,” Julia replied. “Well, I assume she is. I haven’t spoken to her in a couple of days. I’m trying not to be a worrying mother while she’s having the time of her life. No. Something happened with Leah.”

  “That’s funny, I was going to say the same thing.” Dot squinted as she sat down at the table next to the window. “So, you know?”