Angel Kiss - Laura Jane Cassidy [56]
I heard some activity and voices out the back.
‘For God’s sake, Mary!’ a man’s voice bellowed from inside the storeroom. They mustn’t have heard me come in. My heart pounded. I stood still, behind one of the shelves, unsure of what to do next.
‘Michael, please … please just calm down,’ said Mary.
It was her husband who was yelling at her. Part of me wanted to quickly leave … to get as far away as possible, but another part of me needed to stay and listen.
‘How dare you … how dare you bring that murderer on to my premises?’
Murderer? Had I heard that right? Michael’s voice frightened me. It had a quality that made me shiver.
‘I didn’t ask him to come in. He just happened to be in the shop the morning it broke. Who told you that –’
‘Oh, so you didn’t think I’d find out?’
‘No … I …’ Mary’s voice was shaking. ‘He offered to help. I could hardly say no. He was only here for a few minutes … He fixed it in no time … I couldn’t afford to wait.’ Mary paused and then continued with slightly more force in her voice. ‘Besides there was never any proof that he –’
I heard a dull thud, something being thrown on the floor. Then I thought I heard a whimpering sound.
‘You know as well as I do …’ Michael was yelling, ‘he didn’t have an alibi for that night. Half the village knows he did it. That should be enough for you … What is it going to look like … you hiring him to fix our bloody freezer? A killer on my premises. You’re so stupid sometimes.’
There was silence.
‘You didn’t have one either,’ she said.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You didn’t have an alibi for that night either, Michael.’
There was another loud crash and Mary yelped.
‘How dare you,’ said Michael. ‘Keep your mouth shut. And if you ever invite Des Butler into this shop again, you will be very, very sorry.’
The storeroom door swung open and Sergeant Reynolds stormed out of the shop, completely ignoring me.
Moments later Mary emerged from the storeroom with her signature cheerful smile plastered across her face.
I needed to talk to someone about this. Fast. I bought the stamps and left in a hurry. I knocked on the door of the guesthouse but nobody answered. So I tried Lydia’s shop. I could hear The Cure blasting out from the speakers before I even opened the door. The workshop curtain was pulled back, and Lydia was at the sewing machine. She looked up, and must have seen the worried look on my face, because she turned off the stereo straight away.
‘Jacki, are you OK?’
‘No, I’m not really,’ I said. ‘I just heard something really upsetting.’
‘What’s wrong?’ said Lydia, hurrying over and putting her arm round my shoulders. I felt like I was going to faint. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. It took me a few seconds before I could get the words out.
‘Did Des Butler kill somebody?’ Saying it out loud made me feel even worse. ‘Who told you that?’ Lydia sounded kind of angry.
‘I overheard Sergeant Reynolds say something.’
‘Some people think he did,’ said Lydia. ‘But not everyone thinks so.’ She pulled out a stool from under her desk and offered it to me. I sat down, but still felt faint.
‘Why do they think that? Who did he kill? He’s working on my house. My mum has been on dates with him!’ I couldn’t understand why nobody had told us this.
‘He was a main suspect for Beth’s murder,’ said Lydia. ‘But no one in my family believes it. He would never have hurt Beth. Michael Reynolds’s opinion is not everybody’s opinion.’
‘Beth Cullen …?’ I couldn’t believe that Des was a suspect.
‘Yes.’ Lydia sat down on her swivel chair, weaving a piece of blue fabric between her fingers.
‘If he was a main suspect, then there must have been some reason –’
‘The partner is often a main suspect.’
‘Des and Beth were … together?’ This was too much. I just couldn’t believe it.
‘They were childhood sweethearts.’ Lydia smiled when she said this. I couldn’t understand why she was so calm. Surely, in this instance, a police officer’s opinion would be a good one to take? I didn’t particularly like Sergeant Reynolds, but he must have had a reason for