Chapter 20
‘He wasn’t dead,’ Tommy announced from thousands of miles away.
It was the middle of the night and Nella had been dreaming about Nick Callaghan. Not in a naughty way, more’s the pity; they’d been in his office and she had attempted to seduce him by singing and dancing along to ‘YMCA’.
Since Nick had been backing away against the filing cabinets and looking horrified, it was actually a relief to wake up.
‘What?’ Holding her phone in front of her face and peering blearily at the screen, Nella saw that it was three in the morning on the first day of May. She’d been called over to Hay Hall late last night because the new guests hadn’t been able to figure out how to use the TV remote control. OK, that was then, this was now. Concentrate. She took a deep breath. ‘Who wasn’t dead?’
Surely not Elvis? Not after all this time.
‘What?’ Tommy sounded confused, which made two of them.
‘You said he wasn’t dead. I don’t know who you mean.’
‘You dingbat, no one’s dead. I said, It wasn’t Jed . He wasn’t the one behind the arson attack.’
‘Are you serious?’ Nella sat bolt upright in bed. Outside, an owl hooted. ‘How do you know?’
‘The police have arrested someone else. And she’s confessed to everything.’
‘She?’
‘Wait for it,’ said Tommy. ‘It was Mad Max.’
‘ What? My God.’ Wide awake now, Nella plumped the pillows behind her. Maxine Chisholm had been Tommy’s girlfriend three years ago, for a period of around three months. She’d been vivacious, sociable and somewhat exhausting, always up for one more drink, one more party and probably one more line of coke. She hadn’t taken it too well when Tommy had inevitably tired of her antics and moved on. But her nickname was due to her love of dancing on tables and generally being outrageous rather than anything that might ring alarm bells and cause you to have the local fire station on speed-dial. Stunned, Nella said, ‘Are they sure?’
‘Yep. Her latest ex caught her on CCTV climbing into his garden with a bottle of bleach. Seems she was planning to tip it into his fishpond and kill off his koi carp. He posted about it on TikTok and one of her other exes told him about the time Max stuck a hosepipe through his letter box and flooded the hallway. They contacted the police and mentioned that she used to go out with me . . . and guess what the Old Bill found when they searched her flat? Only her diary! I mean, who even keeps an actual diary these days? But it turns out Max does. She even hides it in her knicker drawer like she’s twelve, and writes down everything she’s been doing to get back at the men in her life who’ve pissed her off, even if she had to wait three years to do it. They got her bang to rights.’ Tommy gave a bark of laughter. ‘And she couldn’t deny it. Reckon it was the coke that did it to her, scrambled her brain and sent her over the edge. Apparently she’d written that I deserved to have my house torched because I’d humiliated her in front of her friends.’
Wow. Just, wow. Nella lay back against the goose-down pillows, taking it all in. ‘I feel bad about Jed now. He told me he had nothing to do with it and I didn’t believe him.’
‘I’m glad it wasn’t him too. Makes me feel safer. I was going to message him, but Juliet thinks it’s best not to rock the boat.’ He paused. ‘You could, though. If you wanted.’
Tommy and Jed had always been rivals rather than enemies. Until Tommy had stolen Juliet away from Jed. What a turn-up for the books. All this time it had been Mad Max.
‘Let me have a think about it,’ said Nella.
Waking up again four hours later, she found a WhatsApp on her phone from Juliet, giving her Jed’s contact details and saying, You could tell him we’re both sorry. Xx
Scrolling through the news channels, she found the story of Mad Max’s arrest and confession along with an unflattering photo of her that Max, who was vain, would be furious about. As Nella searched another site to see what other photos they might have lifted from various social media accounts, a new message popped up on her phone, this time from Nick. He’d sent a link to the page she’d just been looking at, and said, Seen this?
She typed back, YES! and her heart began to thud against her ribs, because their cottages were mirror images of each other and their beds were both backed up against the dividing wall. To know that he was there now, mere inches away, and they were both looking at the same news item felt weirdly intimate. It was like lying in bed together chatting about the case. What was even more surreal was the way she was able to picture it so clearly and in so much detail, from the warmth of Nick’s body to the scent of his skin and the sensation of his leg resting next to hers, the fine golden hairs glinting against his tanned chest.
A new message arrived from him.
A spurned ex, but not the spurned ex everyone thought. Did you know her?
Nella typed back:
I did. We called her Mad Max.
She pressed send and wondered if she would hear him laugh.
Not psychotic mad, she added by way of clarification. Outrageous party-girl mad.
Speaking of outrageous party girls, Nick replied, the group in Hay Hall have managed to lose all three corkscrews, so we need to order some more. Right, time to get moving. See you in a bit.
Thirty seconds later, Nella heard the clank of the pipes as the shower next door was switched on. It was almost impossible not to imagine Nick naked in his bathroom, standing under the water whilst shampooing his hair then soaping his chest, the suds slowly sliding down his torso . . .
OK, she really had to stop doing this.
It was lunchtime before she had a chance to grab a coffee and a sandwich in the office. Carrying them outside, she sat down cross-legged on the grass and took out her phone to compose a message to Jed Diamond. In response to a doorstepping journalist and TV crew this morning, he’d replied sarcastically that the last few months of everyone assuming he’d been behind the arson attack had obviously been a joy. Eyeing the journalist in his deadpan and somewhat intimidating Mancunian way, he’d gone on laconically, ‘Maybe I can change my name by deed poll now to Jed Innocent,’ before stepping back and closing the front door.
Nella took a bite of her sandwich, then put it down and typed out a text message.
Hi Jed, I just wanted to apologise for not believing you. Tommy and Juliet are both really sorry too. We’re glad the situation has been resolved and hope life will be easier for you from now on. Sorry again. Nella Hughes. Xx
She was quickly rereading it, checking it through before sending, when a sudden noise behind her and a voice shouting, ‘No!’ caused her to jump and press send anyway.
‘Ted, noooo !’ the voice yelled again as a little dog raced up and made a beeline for the plate next to her on the grass. Nella grabbed her sandwich in the nick of time and Matthew Morgan, Maeve’s dad, said, ‘Sorry about that. You nearly lost it.’
‘He can have some, if you don’t mind?’
‘What is it?’
‘Brie and cranberry.’ Teddy was wagging his tail and giving her a hopeful look.
‘Exotic.’ Matthew’s smile was characteristically dry. ‘Give it a try, see what he thinks.’
Teddy’s tail-wagging doubled in speed as he watched Nella tear off a corner of the sandwich and hold it out to him. He sniffed it, retreated a few steps, returned to investigate it once more, then took a cautious bite and spat it back out onto the grass.
‘Sorry about that. His manners aren’t up to scratch.’
‘No worries.’ She moved her coffee out of reach before Teddy could stick his nose into that too. ‘I expect it’s the Brie.’
‘How’s Maeve getting on? Doing OK?’
‘Do you even need to ask?’ Teddy had now rolled onto his back with his legs in the air, so Nella gave his tummy a rub. ‘She’s a complete star. The hen party in Hay Hall told me yesterday they want to take her home with them. And Lizzie adores her. Did Maeve tell you she tried to teach her how to cook an omelette?’
‘She did.’ Matthew nodded. ‘And she did say it was all going well. Just wanted to check.’
‘Everyone loves Maeve. She’s so cheerful and capable, and nothing’s ever too much trouble for her to sort out. It still seems funny to remember what she was like when she was little, making a ton of mess everywhere she went and never wanting to clear anything up.’ Maeve had been a noisy, hyperactive child. Once Nella had turned sixteen, she had begun babysitting Matthew and Amanda’s chatty, confident daughter. Whereas most six-year-olds were ready for bed by seven in the evening, Maeve would greet her at the front door with a list of activities they could do, ranging from catching frogs to climbing trees to jumping in puddles and seeing who could make the biggest splash.
It had been fun but exhausting looking after a small girl who never slept.
‘And now she’s the one who nags me,’ Matthew said wryly. ‘Do this, do that. She keeps having a go at me to get on the dating apps.’
He clearly wasn’t keen. Nella gave a sympathetic shrug. ‘Maybe you could give them a try. Unless you don’t feel ready.’
He pulled a face. ‘It’s not so much that. It’s the whole idea of having to start all over again. The world’s moved on. Mandy and I met when we were both sixteen. Everything was different then. That was thirty years ago and there’s never been anyone else, ever . I wouldn’t have the first idea of how to . . . be with another woman.’
‘Maeve just wants to see you happy again.’ She and Maeve had had a few chats about it since Nella had been back here; having both lost their mothers as teenagers, they knew only too well how it felt.
‘I know she does. But it still seems safer not to get involved. Just the thought of it’s exhausting. I have Teddy.’ Matthew nodded at his beloved dog, who was now chasing a bee. ‘And work to keep me busy. And Maeve, of course. For now.’
‘You’ll miss her when she heads off to uni.’ Hastily Nella went on, ‘But she’ll be coming home all the time to check up on you!’
He nodded. ‘I know. But she needs to live her own life. It’s what Mandy and I always used to talk about. You want to keep your kids close, but they have to be allowed to fly off and do their own thing. We promised each other we’d take ourselves off on adventures once that happened, so Maeve would know we weren’t sitting at home moping. Except it didn’t occur to us back then that one of us might not be around when the time came.’
Nella’s heart went out to him; he and Amanda had been so happy together. There had been hardships and sadness along the way, of course there had, but they’d got through those periods when others might have given up and fallen apart. They’d become the kind of couple you held up as an example of a perfect relationship.
‘If you don’t try the dating apps,’ she told him, ‘you’ll never know if they might have been the best thing you ever did.’
Matthew’s smile was brief. ‘And now you sound exactly like Maeve. Right, I’d better get back. See you around. Come on, Ted, let’s go.’
As Nella watched the two of them head off in the direction of the high street, she idly picked up her phone.
The first thing she saw on the screen was the message she’d sent to Jed. Oh shit. She’d pressed send before checking it . . . and there it was, complete with two kisses at the end. If she’d reread it, she would have deleted them. But she hadn’t. Bum.
Hastily she sent another:
Sorry about the xx, that was a mistake.
Moments later, the dancing dots appeared beneath her message. Nella held her breath. Then:
OK. Thought for a moment you were getting flirty with me.
Aaargh! She typed back:
No, sorry. Force of habit. Look, no kisses.
Ten seconds later, her phone began to ring.
‘Hey,’ said Jed when she answered, and hearing his deep voice brought back the memory of the last time they’d faced each other outside his house, when he’d been wearing his silk pyjamas and Versace slippers. ‘Sorry to hear the kisses were a mistake.’
What? Was he being flirtatious with her now? Surely not. Caught off guard, Nella gabbled, ‘Like I said, I wasn’t concentrating. I should have checked before I sent it off.’
‘Always advisable. Anyway, thanks for the message and the apology. I knew I hadn’t done it, but it hangs over you, everyone thinking you’re guilty.’
‘I’m sure. You must be relieved it’s over.’
‘Of course. I’ve never been one for trying to burn down people’s homes.’
Dry humour. Relieved, Nella said, ‘Well, that’s good to know.’
After a pause, Jed said, ‘So they’re still a couple.’
Ah, here we go, here was the real reason for the call. She waved away a persistent fly. ‘Yes.’
‘Still madly in love?’
‘I haven’t seen them. All I know is they’re together.’
‘Where?’
‘No idea.’
‘That’s probably not true, though, is it?’
‘It is true,’ Nella lied, because Tommy had told her the other evening.
‘That’s a shame. You’d think he’d confide in you, of all people.’ Jed sounded amused. ‘If you want to send him a birthday card, I can give you his address if you like.’
Was he bluffing? She didn’t reply.
‘Here, write it down.’ Jed reeled off the correct address in Phuket, then went on, ‘I’ve known for months where he and Juliet were hiding out. Tell him he can come home now if he wants. I’m really not bothered. I’ve moved on.’
‘Glad to hear it.’ The annoying fly now landed on Nella’s knee and she brushed it off. ‘I’ll pass that on to him.’
‘And he’ll wonder if I’m double-bluffing him. Ah well, that’s for me to know and Tommy to find out. Anyway, how are things with you?’
‘All good, thanks.’ If he asked her where she was working, what would she say?
But he didn’t. ‘Don’t be a stranger,’ said Jed. ‘If you’re ever up in Manchester, give me a call and we could maybe get together. Not romantically,’ he stressed. ‘I’ve met someone else now. She’s beautiful and we’re really happy.’
He’d said if she was ever up in Manchester. Did that mean he knew she was down here in the Cotswolds? ‘If I’m in Manchester, I’ll call you,’ Nella told him. Highly unlikely to happen, but hey ho.
‘Great,’ Jed drawled. ‘Look forward to it.’
After he’d hung up, she googled Jed Diamond Karina Carr and saw several new photos of the two of them together. Jed, looking extremely pleased with himself, had his arm around the waist of Karina, whose hair was a tumbling mass of ash-blond curls. She was indeed beautiful, with huge boobs and half a dozen earrings in each ear. Nothing at all like Juliet; he’d gone back to the type of uber-glamorous girlfriend he’d been known for before Juliet had come into his life.
Nella took a screenshot and sent it to Tommy in case he hadn’t seen this most recent photo, along with a précis of the phone conversation and Jed’s assurance that he no longer cared about Tommy and Juliet’s relationship because he was happy with his own.
Tommy’s reply, when it reached her twenty seconds later, was: Hmm, but he would say that, wouldn’t he?