Doughnuts and Deception (Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 3) Page 6

  When the taxi pulled up, Barker climbed in the front, and Tommy and Jessie climbed into the back. Before getting into the car, Julia looked back at the soup kitchen, but movement in the shadows of the closed nightclub caught her eye. She spotted Pete and Cindy talking to a hooded man. Pete passed over the twenty-pound note Barker had given him, and the man handed over a needle.

  Pausing and clinging onto the car door, Julia had to stop herself from going over to slap the needle out of their hands, but she knew she couldn’t help them all. Tonight, she was helping Tommy, and that had to be enough.

  Freshly showered and shaved, Tommy sat in front of the roaring fire wearing a badly fitting fluffy pink bathrobe. It had been a Christmas present from Sue that Julia hadn’t gotten around to forcing herself to wear, so she was glad she could finally find a use for it.

  “I feel like a new man,” Tommy said as he ran his fingers along his clean jawline. “I underestimated the power of a hot shower.”

  “You look so much younger,” Jessie said as she sat cross-legged on the hearthrug, picking at it with her fingers. “I’ve never seen you without a beard.”

  “I don’t think I’ve seen myself without one for years,” Tommy said, leaning up and looking in the mirror above the fire again. “Quite handsome, if I do say so myself.”

  “Your clothes shouldn’t be too long,” Julia said, as she heard her two-in-one washing machine and tumble dryer click from the washing to the drying function. “Although I must say that colour does rather suit you.”

  “I think it does too,” Tommy said, winking in Jessie’s direction. “Imagine what the guys would say if they saw me now. I can’t thank you enough for letting me into your home, Julia. You truly are a modern day saint.”

  “I’m just sorry I can’t do more,” Julia said, trying to smile despite not feeling very saint-like. “You’re welcome to sleep on my couch for as long as you need to.”

  “No need,” Tommy said, shaking his head and waving his hands. “One night will do me just fine. I won’t impose. You’ve done more than enough taking this one in.”

  Tommy reached out and gently ruffled Jessie’s hair. She smiled softly and leaned her cheek on his knee as she stared at Tommy, as though she was looking at a grandfather she adored. Julia recognised that look. It was the look of a girl who longed for a family of her own, and Tommy was as close to that as she had come.

  They stayed up chatting until the fire died down and the clock had gone past one in the morning. When Julia noticed Tommy starting to yawn, she suggested they all retire for the night, something Jessie seemed reluctant to do. After Julia dug out her spare duvet from under her bed, Tommy tucked himself up in front of the flickering ambers in the grate of the fire, still snuggled up in the pink bathrobe.

  “G’night, little one,” he said sleepily to Jessie. “Sweet dreams.”

  Jessie wandered off to her bedroom, a definite sadness hanging over her. Julia went to her own bedroom and changed into the matching fluffy pink pyjamas for the first time. She looked in the mirror at the hanging sleeves and trailing legs, wondering why her sister thought she would like such things. Chuckling softly to herself, she crept out of her bedroom and along the hall towards Jessie’s. Against the soft hum of the tumble dryer, Tommy could be heard softly snoring.

  “Jessie?” Julia whispered through the door. “Are you still awake?”

  There was a long pause. Julia could tell Jessie was thinking whether or not she should respond.

  “Yeah,” she replied.

  “Can I come in?”

  “It’s your house.”

  Julia carefully opened the door, not wanting the creaky old hinges to wake Tommy. She winced as an ear-splitting creak echoed around the cottage.

  Sitting cross-legged on top of the covers, Jessie was flicking through a cookbook, looking at the pictures but not reading any of the words. Mowgli looked up from his comfy spot at the bottom of the bed, blinked at Julia, then tucked his face back under his giant tail.

  “I found him snuggled up in my laundry basket,” Jessie said, reaching out to gently stroke Mowgli’s head. “Thought he might be comfier on the bed.”

  Purring deeply, Mowgli rolled over and arched his back so Jessie could rub his belly. He only did that for people he really liked.

  “He’s taken quite a shine to you,” Julia said, sitting on the edge of the bed to join in the stroking.

  “He’s cool. I always wanted a cat.”

  Julia smiled to herself as she stared down at Mowgli. It was just another thing she hadn’t known about Jessie. Just like she had on her date with Barker, she was beginning to realise how little she knew about the people in her life. It wasn’t a feeling she liked.

  “Great Cakes of the East,” Julia read aloud from the front of the cookbook. “Another library book?”

  Jessie nodded, the messy bun on the top of her head bouncing. She didn’t take her attention away from Mowgli.

  “Anything interesting in here?” Julia flicked through the beautifully illustrated pages.

  “I don’t understand most of the words,” Jessie admitted. “Too complicated. I was thinking of trying something to impress you, and then you might want to put it in the café.”

  “You already impress me, Jessie. You’ve made a lot of progress with your baking.”

  “I’m not as good as you though.”

  “You will be one day,” Julia assured her. “A bit more practice and you’ll be even better than me.”

  Jessie smiled appreciatively as she took the cookbook back from Julia. She continued to flick through the pages, pouring over the photographs. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Julia that Jessie had some trouble reading recipes in the café.

  “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you ever since we first met,” Julia started, trying her best to sound casual as she tickled under Mowgli’s chin. “Considering everything that’s happening right now, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep another night without knowing the truth.”

  “The truth about what?” Jessie asked, looking suspiciously down her nose in a way only she could do.

  “About your past.”

  Jessie immediately looked down and started fiddling with the fraying hem of her pyjama bottoms. She managed to grab a thread with her chomped-down nails and began to pull.

  “What’s there to know?” Jessie asked, her brows pinching tightly as she carelessly unravelled the stitching.

  “Well, I don’t really know much.” Julia rearranged herself so that she was sitting cross-legged, mirroring Jessie exactly. “All I really know is that your parents died when you were a baby, you grew up in foster care, and then you ran away and I found you in my café.”

  “Sounds like you already know everything,” Jessie mumbled, snapping off the long thread and wrapping it around her index finger.

  “They’re just facts. You can know a recipe, but it doesn't mean you can bake a cake. I want to know more about Jessie, and how things affected her.”

  “Nothing’s affected me.”

  “Why don’t you start with your childhood?”

  Jessie wrapped the thread tightly around the end of her finger and waited until it turned bright red before unravelling it. She exhaled deeply and looked up at Julia, her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed. She looked more uncomfortable than Julia had ever seen her.

  “My mum and dad died in a car crash,” Jessie said, in matter-of-fact voice. “I was in the car too, but I somehow survived. They say it was because of my car seat and that it was a miracle. Didn’t feel much like a miracle to be alive. I was in the system from three months old.”

  “That must have been tough.”

  “I was a baby,” Jessie said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t remember any of it. My first memory was being with this really nice old couple. I thought they were my parents, until they told me they weren’t, and that they were retiring from fostering. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t keep me. It wasn’t until later I realised they could
, they just didn’t want to. I was the last of twenty-seven children they had fostered. I must have been a bad baby.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Julia said softly, resting her hand on Jessie’s. “Perhaps they were just too old to look after a little girl. I don’t doubt they thought they were doing what was best for you.”

  “Well it wasn’t,” Jessie snapped, pulling her hand from Julia’s and tossing the thread. “I was four when I went back into care. People only want babies. I bounced from foster home to foster home but everything was only temporary. When I thought I’d found somewhere nice, I’d be turfed back into the care homes. I was always too difficult, or too loud. I never got on with the other kids.”

  “Is that why you ran away?”

  Jessie laughed softly, shaking her head. She looked up at the dark ceiling, and then to the soft lamp on the nightstand, her gaze distant.

  “The last family I got put with weren’t very nice,” Jessie said, still staring blankly at the light bulb. “Kelly and Tim. Along the way, I met some okay foster-parents, but these were the worst of the worst. I don’t know how they got approved. It was clear they just did it for the money. Kelly was always at work and Tim was a drunk. There were five kids, two of them were theirs and the others were foster kids. He never hit his own kids. The others just took it, but I was never like that. I told my social worker, but she didn’t believe me. She just thought I was being difficult, so I packed my bag, nicked his wallet, and ran.”

  “That must have been hard.”

  “Hard?” Jessie scoffed, shaking her head. “That was the easiest decision I’d ever made. The second I left, I was free of being in that messed up system. I slept rough for weeks, and then I met Tommy at the soup kitchen. He took me to Fenton so I wasn't on my own. Took me under his wing like no other foster parent had. There wasn’t anything in it for him either. He didn’t need to be nice to me. I felt at home there. It wasn’t easy, but we got by. It was a long winter, and the older ones were dying all the time, but Tommy looked after me. We’d helped each other, until -,”

  “Until what?” Julia urged.

  “Until I abandoned him,” Jessie cried, her sudden loudness waking Mowgli. “I abandoned all of them because you offered me something better. What kind of person does that make me?”

  “A survivor.”

  “But look what’s happening to them now,” Jessie cried so loud Mowgli jumped up and scurried for the closed door. “They’re barely surviving.”

  “That’s not your fault.”

  “I know,” Jessie whispered, dropping her head again. “I feel so guilty because I love the life you’ve given me. It’s the life I always dreamt of but never thought I’d have. You’ve given me hope, cake lady.”

  Jessie’s words took Julia so much by surprise that she didn’t have time to stop the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away before grabbing both of Jessie’s hands.

  “You have a home here for as long as you want,” Julia said, squeezing tightly. “I promise.”

  Jessie pulled her hands away and turned back to the lamp, tears collecting in the corners of her own eyes. She furiously wiped them away with her sleeve, her lips curling downwards.

  “I’ve heard that before,” she said bitterly. “They say they care, until they have babies of their own, and then they don’t care enough to keep you around. You’ve got Barker.”

  “We’re only dating,” Julia said, trying her best to sound reassuring. “No matter what happens, it won’t change anything.”

  “Everything changes,” Jessie said bleakly.

  “Change can be good. Look at you and me. Before I met you, I was rattling around in this cottage alone. You’ve given me as much as I’ve given you. When I wake up in the morning, just seeing you here puts a smile on my face.”

  “Really?”

  “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

  “I know,” Jessie said with a nod. “You’re an honest woman most of the time.”

  “Most of the time?”

  Jessie smirked a little, wiping the last of her tears away. She looked over to Mowgli as he noisily scratched underneath the door.

  “You said you and Barker were just dating, but he’s clearly in love with you,” Jessie said, meeting Julia’s eyes properly since the first time she had sat down. “You don’t see the way he looks at you when you’re not looking.”

  Julia smiled nervously, her heart suddenly fluttering in her chest. She tried to deny it, but she didn’t know what to say. Jessie was only a teenager, but she was more observant and receptive than people twice her age. She thought about the kiss they had shared earlier in the night before being interrupted by Jessie. She remembered the frustration she had felt when he had pulled away. She had wanted it to last forever.

  “I should get to bed,” Julia said. “Early start in the morning. Saturdays are always busy.”

  Jessie nodded and climbed into bed. Julia tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead, and they both smiled at each other. She wasn’t the girl’s mother, but she knew she had just become the next best thing, and she liked that. Jessie had filled a void in her life she hadn’t even realised she had.

  “Julia, can I ask you something?” Jessie asked as Julia reached out for the doorknob. “Do you think these people are being murdered?”

  Julia looked down at Mowgli, unsure if she should tell Jessie how she really felt. She didn’t want to upset the girl, or give her false hope, but in the spirit of being honest with each other, she knew she couldn’t lie after everything she had just shared.

  “Yes, I do,” Julia whispered into the dark. “I’m going to try my best to find out why.”

  “I know.”

  Leaving Jessie to go to sleep, Julia carefully opened the creaky door, making a mental note to ask Barker to take a look at the hinges. As she tiptoed back to her bedroom, she realised Barker was filling another void in her life that she didn’t realise was empty. It was a void Jerrad had never been able to fill.

  Julia crawled into bed and rested her head on her pillow. She closed her eyes, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Looking up at the dark beams in her ceiling, she decided to make use of her time. Grabbing her laptop, she opened it and started researching injectable poisons that could kill without leaving a trace.

  Saturdays in Julia’s café were always busy and this one was no exception. While Julia and Jessie ran around the café trying to keep on top of everything, Tommy stood by the sink washing all of the dirty dishes, and doing a good job of it. When Julia promised to pay him for his time, he insisted that the unlimited supply of cakes she had given him throughout the day were more than enough payment. Julia still slipped thirty pounds into his jacket pocket as a thank you.

  When the café finally closed, they ate fish and chips before driving Tommy back to Fenton. He turned down Julia’s offer of another night on the couch.

  Once at Fenton Industrial Park, Julia set up her table once more and served doughnuts and coffee to the grateful inhabitants, some of whom she was starting to recognise. She made a promise to herself that she would keep bringing her coffee and doughnuts as long as the people were there.

  “Did you see Cindy anywhere?” Julia asked Tommy while packing up the table and equipment as the sun started to set on Fenton. “I wanted to make sure she was okay after yesterday.”

  “A lot of people come and go,” Tommy said as he shut Julia’s car boot. “You get used to people drifting in and out as they please.”

  Julia hummed her agreement, but Tommy’s explanation didn’t ease her. After seeing Pete and Cindy hand over cash in exchange for a mysterious needle the night before, she was more than a little worried about the poor woman. When she saw Pete digging around in Mac’s corner, she instantly made a beeline for him, leaving Jessie with Tommy in his doorway.

  “What are you doing?” Julia asked Pete as he upturned the crates, standing on Mac’s broken guitar as he did so.

  “What
’s it to you, lady?” Pete snarled over his shoulder. “I’m looking for money. Mac always had some from his busking.”

  “The poor man is in a morgue somewhere and you’re looking for his money,” Julia cried, pushing Pete out of the way to pick up the broken guitar. “Have some respect.”

  “A man has to eat!”

  “I saw you take three doughnuts and eat them all by yourself,” Julia said as she tried her best to see if the guitar could be fixed. “I saw you and Cindy last night talking to that man.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady,” Pete mumbled, rolling his eyes and pushing past Julia.

  Julia sighed and placed the crates back to how they had been. Sitting in Mac’s seat, she looked out at the industrial park with the guitar on her lap. Inhaling the cool night air, she scanned the sea of different faces, noticing how diverse the crowd here was. Some people smiled, some people looked like they were at the end of their tether, and some didn’t look like they knew where they were. She wondered if this was why Mac sat here, so he could watch the world pass him by and turn it into beautiful music. Julia ran her fingers along the loose strings. They made a pathetic sound deep within the broken guitar. Cradling it like a baby, she carried it to her car and laid it on the backseat. She didn’t know what she was going to do with it, but she knew Mac’s legacy deserved better than to be trampled on while people searched for his imaginary pot of gold.

  Julia had barely locked her car when a blood curdling cry pierced through the noise, forcing silence to descend on the industrial park. She turned around and saw Pete stumbling out of the burnt out shell of a building, a shaky hand over his mouth. Tommy hurried over, and Pete grabbed his shoulders as he attempted to speak. Sensing what had happened, Julia hurried over.

  “She’s – She’s dead,” Pete spluttered, clinging onto Tommy as he looked at the ground, looking like he was going to vomit. “Oh my God, she’s dead.”