The Peridale Cafe Cozy Box Set 4 Page 26

  “And it might not.”

  “It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

  Julia tugged her hands from Dot’s and pulled her phone from her pocket. The words on her screen were blurry thanks to the champagne. She wanted to call Johnny again, but there was a text message that had been sent six minutes ago.

  “It’s Barker,” she explained. “He wants to know where I am.”

  She replied, telling him she was at the manor. He read the message instantly, and three bubbles appeared to show that he was typing. ‘On my way’ popped up within seconds.

  “He’s coming up.” Julia tapped her phone against her chin. “It must be important.” She looked around at the balloons and the barely-touched food on their plates. “I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve wasted your time.”

  “Did it take your mind off things for an hour?” Dot asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then it was worth it.” Dot twinkled with a lively smile. “You take on so much, it was nice to take you out of it, if only for a little while.”

  “Maybe think about not trying to abduct me next time?”

  “I’ll consider it.”

  They nibbled their food and finished their drinks while they waited for Barker. When the doorbell rang, they all jumped up and hurried into the hallway. Hilary, the housekeeper, appeared at the top of the stairs with her cane, waving her free hand and heading back to her room when she saw them running for the door. Julia ripped open the door as the bell sounded again. She let out a shriek when she saw that it was Roxy and not Barker who was standing on the doorstep. Julia dove forward, grabbing her friend into the tightest hug she had ever given her.

  “They had nothing on me,” Roxy said as she clung to Julia. “They’ve been drilling me to confess every second since they took me in.”

  “I’m so glad to see you.”

  “I’m sorry, Julia.” Roxy dug her face into her shoulder. “You’ve been through too much. I promise I didn’t kill Leah. I swear on Violet’s life I didn’t even touch her.”

  “I believe you.”

  “We all do,” Dot said, followed by a cough. “Well, now that they haven’t charged you with anything.”

  Julia opened her eyes and looked over Roxy’s shoulder. Barker stood beside his car. From the way he was wringing his hands, she knew there was more. She reluctantly let go of Roxy and crossed over to him.

  “There’s been a development,” he said, his tone careful and low.

  “A development?”

  “They’ve found a body.” He swallowed hard before exhaling. “They want you to go and identify it.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Barker eased in between two cars at the far side of the busy car park before reaching out and resting a hand on Julia’s knee.

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “Christie will just have to wait for the official identification process.”

  “I want to.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I need to.”

  Julia looked at the hospital as the setting sun turned the surrounding sky dusky pink. She imagined Leah in there, lifeless and lying on a table. Or would she be in a body bag? The thought turned Julia’s stomach. It had already been a bizarre day, and it was about to get even stranger. She pinched her wrist, but she was very much awake.

  “What will she look like?” Julia asked.

  “I don’t know.” Barker gulped. “Christie said they’d only just found her. She’ll be in the state she was when they brought her in. This isn’t usually how things are done. We—I mean they—normally let the pathologist do their job, clean the body up a bit, and let the family identify the person from a photograph. You honestly don’t have to do this.”

  “I do.” Julia opened the door and climbed out. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  They wove between the parked cars and walked towards the hospital hand in hand. Instead of going to the entrance, Barker took her around the side, and they followed the wall until they reached a metal fire door. He banged on it with his fist. It opened immediately. DI Christie poked his head out before ushering them in. Thick stubble covered the lower half of his face, his eyes were red and hollow, and his suit looked like it had been evading the washing machine. Had he slept since the beginning of the case?

  “Nobody saw you, did they?” he asked after sucking on an electronic cigarette. “I could lose my job over this.”

  He blew a fruity cloud of chalky smoke in their direction before taking another long drag.

  “Raspberry?” Julia asked.

  “Is there anything you don’t know?”

  “Baker’s nose.”

  Christie’s mouth hardened into a straight line. “Wife is making me give up. It’s like sucking on fresh air, and these don’t help either.” He yanked up his sleeve to show three nicotine patches on his forearm. “I would kill for a real cigarette right about now. I’ve never felt more stressed in my life. How did you do it, Barker?”

  “One day at a time.”

  “At this rate, I don’t think I’ll be here for another day.” He glanced at a set of double doors. “She’s in there. One of the patrol cars found her at the side of the road an hour ago. She looks like the few pictures of Leah we have, but I need to be sure.”

  “How did she die?” Julia asked, her mouth drying.

  “I don’t know.” Christie took one last drag on his device before pocketing it. “I’ve only seen her face, so all I know is that she wasn’t shot in the head.” He offered an awkward laugh but immediately cut it short when they didn’t join in. “Pathologist hasn’t arrived to perform the post-mortem yet. He’ll be here any minute, so we need to be quick. You can’t linger too long. Are you ready?”

  Julia stared at the double doors and tried to swallow, but she had no moisture left in her mouth. She attempted to nod, but her head barely moved. She was sure no one could ever feel ‘ready’ for such an occasion.

  Christie took her head jerk as confirmation. He pulled one of the double doors open a fraction and waved them through it. They entered a dimly lit, freezing examination room. Stainless steel counters topped with trays of gleaming tools lined the room. A large window occupied one of the walls, offering a view of a second, darker room. The current room’s light illuminated the vaguest outline of a body on a table.

  “You really don’t have to do this,” Barker whispered, grabbing her hand. “These things never leave you.”

  But before Julia could change her mind, Christie flicked a switch on the wall. Strips of lights illuminated one by one, revealing the body from the feet up. A blue sheet covered most of it, but the sheet had been folded down at the neck to leave the face uncovered. If the body hadn’t been so motionless, she could have been sleeping. Her face had cuts and bruises, and her pale hair was matted and full of twigs and leaves. It was the saddest sight Julia had ever seen. She bit back the tears as she turned away.

  “That’s not her,” she croaked. “That’s not Leah.”

  “What?” Christie cried. “It has to be.”

  “It’s not.” Julia closed her eyes, but she could still see the woman. “I’ve known Leah since childhood. That’s not her.”

  “I don’t understand.” Christie’s hands disappeared into his thinning hair as he stared at the woman on the table. “Maybe you’re wrong? Take another look.”

  Julia reluctantly took a second glance at the woman. She could see why Christie thought they were the same person. They looked to be similar ages and builds, and their hair was even a similar shade of sandy blonde, but the differences were obvious to Julia. The stranger had sunken cheekbones, a hooked thin nose, and a jutting chin.

  “I’m sure.”

  “It can’t be!”

  “She said she’s sure.” Barker pulled Julia into his shirt. “Back off, Christie. I know what it’s like to want something to be true, but if Julia says it’s not her, it’s not.”

  Christie glared
at them both, and then at the woman in the other room. He cried out and crashed both fists onto the counter. The tools jumped and rattled. A moment later, Christie turned away and pushed violently through the doors. They swung in his wake, admitting the hot air from the corridor.

  Julia stole one last glance at the woman. She sympathised with whatever she had been through, but she was glad she was not Leah. She turned away and leaned into Barker before they walked through the still swinging doors. Christie leaned against the wall, his electronic cigarette clasped between his tight lips. He sucked and exhaled in one motion, breathing plumes of smoke like a furious dragon.

  “I thought this was my breakthrough.” He kicked the wall with the heel of his shoe. “Chief has been breathing down my neck since day one to come up with something, but it’s like the woman vanished into thin air. I thought she’d just fallen into my lap, but now I have a Jane Doe on my hands, which is the last thing I need.”

  “Do you have no leads?” Barker asked.

  “Nothing!” Christie cried. “Forensics raked over her house with a fine-toothed comb, and all they came up with were fingerprints on the side table and some unknown male DNA in the bedsheets. We matched the prints to Roxy, but the male DNA doesn’t match anyone in our system. Do you have any ideas?”

  Julia shook her head, even though she remembered what Roxy had said about hearing someone snoring upstairs during her visit.

  “I couldn’t get anything from Roxy,” he continued. “I tried to press her for a confession, but she wouldn’t give me anything. Her timeline of leaving Leah’s, going to the shop, and then the school checks out with security footage we gathered from around the village. A fingerprint wasn’t enough to charge her, so I had to release her. It’s an embarrassment! My first big case as DI and every lead I’ve followed has fizzled into nothing.” He turned to Julia as he ran his hands against his stubble. “Please tell me you have something. I know you’ve been flitting around the village.”

  Julia immediately thought about what Heidi had told her about Johnny, but there was no way she was going to reveal that to Christie without first speaking to her friend.

  “Have you looked into Leah’s first ex-husband?” Julia asked the second it came to her mind. “Craig Wright. He lives over at Fern Moore. Flat 104. I saw him in the village today.”

  “Craig Wright?” Christie pulled a pad and pen from his pocket. “His name hasn’t come up. Do you think he’s connected?”

  “I don’t know,” Julia admitted. “But he left the village with Leah, and they had a messy divorce. We went to see him, and his alibi is shaky. It might be worth talking to him.”

  “Got it.” Christie scribbled on his pad. “Anything else?”

  “No,” Julia replied. “That’s all I’ve got.”

  Christie looked up at her, and she knew he didn’t believe it, but she remained calm. Until she spoke to Johnny, she was not handing him over to the police.

  “You should go.” Christie walked them over to the door and opened it. “Not a word of this to anyone, got it?”

  “We won’t say anything,” Barker said. “Are you going to be okay? You need to take care of yourself, or you’re going to burn out.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Christie waved his hand before reaching for his electronic cigarette again. “I’m going to wait for the pathologist to see what happened to my Jane Doe.”

  “Promise you’ll take care of yourself?” Barker slapped him on the shoulder. “It can be a tough job.”

  “Okay, I promise,” he muttered between drags on his device. “Thanks for coming.”

  They walked into the dark, Barker shutting the door behind them. They lingered for a moment before holding hands and setting off.

  “There is more, isn’t there?” Barker asked when the car park came into view. “It was written all over your face that you were holding something back.”

  “I need to work on my poker face.”

  “It was quite good, but I know you.” Barker smiled. “Has something new happened?”

  “You know how Johnny’s alibi was that he was at his cottage with Heidi all night?”

  “You didn’t believe him.”

  “And I was right not to.” Julia looked around to make sure they were alone. “Heidi said she hadn’t seen Johnny in months until he turned up on her doorstep crying that he’d done something wrong. Guess what night that was?”

  “Tuesday?”

  “Bingo.”

  “Do you think he killed Leah?”

  “I’m not jumping to that conclusion until I speak to him.” Julia sighed and rubbed her head. “But even I have to admit it doesn’t look good.”

  “But it’s Johnny.” Barker laughed and shook his head. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t think he could if he wanted to.”

  Usually, Julia would have agreed with Barker, but she remembered Johnny’s near-rabid reaction when she had sprung Leah on him in the café. It had been a side of Johnny she had never seen, and it had scared her.

  “I need to find him.” Julia checked her watch. “Why don’t you stay here and make sure Christie is alright? Maybe take him to the canteen to get something to eat. The poor man looks like he’s on the brink.”

  “Do you mind?” Barker asked, sucking the air through his teeth as though he had wanted to ask. “I really feel for the guy. It’s a tough job.”

  “I’ll grab a taxi back to the village. I’ll let you know if I find Johnny. I thought everything that could have happened today had already happened, but it turns out the day isn’t done with me yet.”

  “What else has occurred?”

  “Wedding dress shopping, kidnapping.” Julia tried to laugh, but she was too exhausted to make a joke of it. “It’s just been a long day. Although, speaking of wedding dress shopping, something interesting happened while I was there.”

  “Did you find a dress?”

  “Sort of, but that’s not it. Brooke told me the police had already been to see her and she gave them security video footage of her at the shop at the time Leah disappeared. It’s probably nothing, but do you think you could get the footage to review it?”

  “Consider it done.” Barker nodded. “Christie owes us after what we just did. I shouldn’t be here for too long. Let me know if you find Johnny.”

  “I will.”

  “And stay safe.”

  She smiled. “Of course.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The taxi driver remained silent for the journey back to Peridale, giving Julia a chance to formulate a plan. She was going to have a quick shower, drink a very strong coffee, and go in search of Johnny, not stopping until she found him. When the taxi pulled up to her cottage, it seemed the plan wasn’t necessary at all.

  “Keep the change,” she told the driver as she climbed out of the cab.

  Johnny sat on Julia’s doorstep next to a large suitcase. His head was in his hands, and he seemed so deep in thought that he hadn’t heard the taxi. Julia cleared her throat as she unclipped her gate. His head darted up.

  “Going on holiday?” she asked as she nodded at the case. “Or are you trying to move in?”

  “Heidi called me,” he said quietly. “She told me what you asked her.”

  “If you were going to involve her in your lie, maybe you should have told her first?” Julia smiled as she joined him on the doorstep. “What’s with the case?”

  “I panicked and packed a bag. I went to the train station and convinced myself I was going to get on the first train that pulled into the station. I missed the first one, and the second. I tried to tell myself that I was waiting for a destination I liked the sound of, but I knew I didn’t want to run away. I love Peridale. Why should I have to leave? I haven’t done anything wrong. Not really. I didn’t kill Leah.”

  “Why don’t we go inside and talk about this over a cup of tea?” Julia helped him up off the step. “You look like you need one.”

  Johnny nodded and looked pathetically at the ground. Julia rummage
d for her keys and unlocked the door. Grabbing the suitcase, Julia dragged it into the hallway before leading Johnny into the sitting room. She planted him in an armchair.

  “Stay there,” she ordered.

  She hurried into the kitchen and filled the kettle. Mowgli sauntered in from the bedroom. He yawned as he stretched out each leg in turn. He shook out his fur right down to the end of his tail before jumping onto the counter. He gave her his ‘where have you been?’ meow as he headbutted her.

  “It’s been a long day, boy,” she whispered to him, tickling his head. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  She filled his food bowl before grabbing two cups from the cupboard. She put a black tea bag in one and a peppermint and liquorice in the other. She filled them to the brim when the kettle pinged, and after letting them steep for a couple of minutes, she added milk and plenty of sugar to the black tea; Johnny looked like he needed it.

  In the sitting room, Johnny stood at the mantlepiece in the dark, a photograph in his hand. From the frame, Julia knew it was a picture of her with Barker and Jessie at the top of Blackpool Tower, taken on a recent holiday.

  “You have it all,” Johnny said as he put the picture back. “You really landed on your feet with those two. I’m happy for you.”

  “But I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice.”

  “I am jealous.”

  “Oh, Johnny. It’s not too late for you. We’re still young!”

  “Are we?” Johnny sighed. “I don’t feel it. I’m heading into my forties, and I’ve never had a relationship that’s lasted more than a couple of months. You’re about to get married for the second time.”

  “And look how my first marriage ended.” Julia passed him his cup and nodded for him to sit down. She switched on a table lamp and sat on the edge of the couch. “I married a pig, lived unhappily with him for twelve years, and then crawled back to Peridale to restart my entire life from scratch. Do you know how hard that is to do in your thirties?”