Chapter 14
There was no sign of Sofia. She must be in one of the cubicles, thought Julia.
She had come in quietly and was now in front of the bathroom mirror, playing for time.
Not that she had a plan. Or even much of a reason to follow Sofia.
Her curiosity did sometimes lead her into strange places and situations.
Julia reached for her lipstick in her handbag.
Her fingers felt the cold metal and the unfamiliar shape of Sean’s key with its heart-shaped key ring.
It gave her a warm flush of pleasure. She found the lipstick and opened it.
Leaning into the mirror, she carefully drew the lipstick over her lips.
She followed her mother’s practice, which she’d admired as a child: centre to edge upper left, then upper right, and a long left-to-right sweep along the bottom lip, followed by a double smack of the lips.
As she started the lower lip sweep, she heard a voice from the cubicle. It could only be Sofia.
‘I understand your frustration, and I am doing what I can.’ She spoke in a calm, business-like tone, as if to someone slightly annoying, or perhaps an underling. Her accent was barely discernible.
There was a moment of quiet, presumably when the other person was talking. Then Sofia spoke again.
‘Basil’s death doesn’t change the situation at all. If anything, I have to be even more careful…’
The lock on the cubicle turned, and Julia walked quickly towards the door, so as not to be caught eavesdropping.
As Julia left, she heard the cubicle door open and Sofia’s footsteps on the tiled floor. The last few words she caught before the door closed behind her were, ‘I’ve done my job. As far as I’m concerned, this matter is over…’
When DI Hayley Gibson arrived fifteen minutes later, Julia was waiting for her in the library of The Swan, where Julia had installed herself.
She had been given special dispensation to bring Jake in, on the proviso that he was ‘very, very good, and quiet’.
It was a pleasant room, lined with bookshelves on three sides.
On the other side, a big window gave a lovely view over the lawns down towards the river, a similar aspect to the view from the terrace.
On a butler’s tray underneath the window was a carafe of sherry and a few small glasses on a silver tray.
Julia had been briefly tempted to pour a little glass of the sherry, but instead ordered tea, which was on the table in front of where she sat on a brown leather buttoned sofa.
She’d been too distracted to browse the books on the shelves or admire the view, and had instead scrolled through nonsense on her phone, while mulling over the details of Basil Crow’s death and his unusually complex personal life. She sprang to her feet when she saw Hayley in the doorway.
‘Hello, Hayley, oh, and Walter.’ Rather unexpectedly, DC Walter Farmer came into the room just behind his boss. ‘Gosh, you got here fast.’
Hayley answered, ‘Well, when I get a phone call to say you overheard a potential murderer discussing the crime, it does put a bit of pep in my step.’
‘And we were already in the car on the way back from an interview,’ said Walter, closing the library door behind them.
‘I’m not saying she’s necessarily the murderer,’ said Julia, back-pedalling. She thought of the nice young people, and hoped quite fervently that their glamourous mother was not going to turn out to be the killer. ‘But I thought you should know…’
‘Okay, Julia. Tell us exactly what is going on here,’ said Hayley. ‘You said you overheard one of Basil’s wives?’
‘Yes, the Argentinian one.’
‘Sofia.’
‘Yes. I didn’t know that she was even here, but I met the children this morning – sweet young teenagers, they made friends with Jake – and they said they were here from Argentina, and that’s rather unusual for the Cotswolds, especially outside of school holidays.
And I had heard that Basil once had a wife who was from Argentina, so I put two and two together. ’
‘And what figure did you come up with?’ Hayley asked, rather archly. It was true that Julia often reached the correct answer when adding two and two, but she occasionally came up with five or six, or perhaps even seven.
‘I came up with the idea that perhaps they were Basil’s children, here for the funeral.’
‘Go on.’
‘They said they were staying at The Swan and, as it happened, Sean and I were coming here for lunch today.’ She had slightly fudged the details of how and when the lunch venue had been decided, but even so, she saw a flicker of a smirk cross Hayley’s face.
Hayley knew her well enough to suspect that this was more than a coincidence.
‘I saw this rather glamorous woman, who I took to be foreign—’
‘Why?’ Hayley interrupted.
‘Her clothes, her very shiny black hair… It was a look that would be unusual in Berrywick.’
Hayley nodded. ‘Shiny hair. Got it,’ she said, a touch sarcastically.
‘She went into the ladies’ loos, and I, um, well, I also needed to freshen up my lipstick, so I went in, too.’
Hayley’s smirk was made audible – somewhere between a harrumph and a throat clearing.
‘Okay, then. Tell me exactly what you heard.’
Julia repeated the conversation, which she was pretty sure she could remember almost word for word.
‘She said, “Basil’s death didn’t change the situation at all… If anything, I have to be even more careful…” Something like that. And then, as I was leaving, she said, “I’ve done my job.”’
‘“I’ve done my job.”’ Hayley repeated the sentence slowly and thoughtfully. ‘And what did you take that to mean?’
‘Well, I don’t know exactly but… it struck me… Well, could it be that she was involved somehow in Basil’s death?’
Hayley didn’t answer Julia’s question; she asked one of her own. ‘Anything else?’
‘That’s it,’ said Julia. She found herself surprisingly tired after the short interview, and was eager to be done.
‘Oh wait!’ she said. ‘There is one other thing. The timing. I thought they might have come from Argentina for the funeral, but the children said they’d been here for two weeks.
If that’s so, they would have been in town at the time of Basil Crow’s death. ’
‘Thanks, Julia. We’ll take it from here. We will find Kevin and see if she’s still at the hotel, or if we can perhaps get a phone number for her.’
‘Okay, good luck,’ said Julia, with some relief. She was looking forward to getting home and putting her feet up on the sofa while Hayley and Walter did their jobs.
She stood up from the buttoned sofa and put her bag over her shoulder. Through the window, over the sherry tray, she saw a figure in a camel-coloured trouser suit and brown leather boots, a hat on her head and a satchel over her shoulder.
‘No need for Kevin. There she is,’ said Julia.
The two police officers went for the door. Walter opened it, and Hayley swept through. Julia was uncertain as to whether she should follow, but Walter gave an impatient nod of his head. She walked outside and followed them across the lawn. They might want her for more questions, or some such.
They followed the direction the woman had gone in and found her at the riverside. She had placed her satchel on the bench and was taking things out of it. She seemed to be having a picnic, as there was already a book and a flask and a glass jar on the bench next to the bag.
She looked up, startled at the sight of the three arrivals.
‘Hello, I’m DI Hayley Gibson. Do you have a moment to speak to us Mrs, er, do you go by Crow?’
The woman looked at Hayley in surprise, her dark eyebrows two black arcs. ‘Mrs Crow? Why would I?’ She held out her hand and said firmly, ‘No. I go by Esmeralda Gray. Which is my name.’
Hayley shook the proffered hand rather feebly and said, ‘Ms Gray, it’s about your husband.’
‘I’d be surprised, seeing as I’m not married.’ Julia couldn’t help but admire the woman’s poise and confidence.
‘Apologies,’ said Hayley. ‘Your ex-husband.’
‘I don’t have one of those, either. No husband, past or present,’ said Esmeralda Gray.
She might have been annoyed, but instead she seemed amused by the situation.
There was a twinkle in her eyes, as if she was enjoying this bit of banter with the police.
‘Why don’t you tell me what it is you want, and I’ll tell you if I can help? ’
It wasn’t often you saw DI Hayley Gibson on the back foot, but this was one of those rare occasions. She took a breath, rallied and tried again. ‘Are you not the ex-wife of Basil Crow?’
‘No.’
‘You’re not from Argentina?’
‘Nope. I have a Portuguese mother, if that helps. I spent some of my early years in Portugal.’
That would explain the shiny hair and the faint accent.
‘Not the mother of the two children we saw here earlier, Basil Crow’s children, a boy and a girl who are staying here at The Swan?’
‘Good lord, no!’
‘But you knew him?’
‘Of course I knew him. He consulted to the council and I am an environmental officer for the council. Sometimes our areas of interest overlapped. We were colleagues, in a sense. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to work.
’ She gestured to the satchel, the book, and the flasks and jars that Julia had taken for picnicware, but which, it seemed, were the tools of Esmeralda Gray’s trade.
‘I’m very sorry to have disturbed you, Ms Gray.
I was given incorrect information.’ Hayley’s eyes flicked over to Julia.
Julia recognised that look from childhood – it was the one your mum gave you when you misbehaved in public.
The one that meant, ‘We’re in company now, but you’ll be hearing about this later. ’
Hayley continued, ‘We’ll be on our way and let you get on with your work. One last question, before we go…’
‘Go on, then,’ said Ms Gray, now looking mildly annoyed.
‘You were overheard in the ladies’ toilets saying something about Basil’s death, and that you had to be extra careful.’
‘I honestly don’t think I should have to justify my private conversations overheard by eavesdroppers.
’ She sounded angry and looked at Julia, who blushed furiously under her gaze.
‘But if it will help put this whole matter to rest, I will tell you that I was talking to a colleague. He’s a bird expert who works with Birders for Britain.
We were talking about the Lesser Spotted Squawker, which has a small range in this part of the Cotswolds.
Basil, as part of a long-term strategic assessment of development in the area, had identified, quite rightly, that its local habitat was under pressure from developers in the region.
Although Basil is sadly no longer with us, we will continue to be very aware of their precarious situation. ’
‘We’re finished here, thank you, Ms Gray, and again—’
‘Not to worry. It was an honest mistake.’