Now that was a scary thought.
I drank more of my cider before deciding to break the ice with a non-Veronica related conversation. “Did you hear about Emma?”
Will nodded, staring at the lake. “Yeah, it’s horrible. Makes you think you should drink less.” He looked at the cider in his hand and laughed humourlessly. “Trouble is, stuff like that happening just makes you want to drink more.”
I thought about Emma’s matted hair and dirty face. It would definitely be a while before I drank a vast amount of vodka again, that was certain.
“Did you tell the police about her being all weird?”
I hesitated, not wanting to tell him about the strange timing of my run-in with Emma. I knew Rach wouldn’t tell anyone and without V to spread it around, my secret should stay safe. “Yeah I did, it didn’t help much though; they already knew she was drunk.”
“I wonder what she was doing in the woods?”
That thought hadn’t even occurred to me. Some of the young residents hung out at the castle after they’d had a few, and some were stupid enough to walk into the woods in the pitch black, but Emma was definitely not the type. Then again, people did weird things when they were under the influence. Like following a guy home so you could see where he lives…
I noticed Will looking at me over his can of cider. “I have no idea,” I said, shrugging.
“Did you hear they arrested John?”
I paused with my cider halfway to my mouth. “What?”
“Well, I don’t know if he was arrested or just taken in for questioning.”
I took a sip. “Oh, they probably just had to get a statement from him or something.”
“Maybe. I’m just saying, I always thought the guy was dodgy.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Will liked stirring things up, but I really didn’t think it was funny joking about a death.
“John was the last person to see her alive.”
“Are you assuming this? Or are you a policeman now? Anyway, she choked on her own vomit.” At least, that was the official line.
“Yeah, after hitting her head on a rock. There’s nothing to say she wasn’t pushed.”
I couldn’t believe him; there was absolutely no way John was involved. “Where exactly are you getting your information from, anyway?”
Will shrugged. “Maggie at work. Her dad’s friends with Officer Paul or whatever his name is.”
I was getting pretty annoyed. “Well I got my information directly from DCI Wood. He’s the one who found her.”
“Really? He found her? What was he doing in the woods?”
Another good question. “I have no idea.”
“Maggie told me that Emma’s dress was all torn up, as if she’d been in a struggle.”
I had to stop myself from laughing in disbelief again. I wondered if Rick was aware half the village knew about that dress. So much for telling me I was mistaken. So much for telling me I didn’t see her…
I cleared my throat. “Look, can we stop talking about this, please? It’s giving me the shivers.”
Will looked at my pleading face and nodded. “So what did you want to talk about? What’s up with Veronica?”
The sound of her name made me flinch, and I think he noticed. “Well, I was sort of hoping you could tell me.” He looked confused so I carried on. “Veronica hasn’t spoken to me since the other night, either.”
He raised his eyebrows in a ‘So?’ expression.
“And… she yelled at me in the Diner, in front of everyone. She told me to get out. She was so angry, it was horrible.” I trailed off and looked at Will.
He was obviously trying to stop himself from smiling. “Yeah, I heard about that.”
I sighed. Of course, everyone would have heard by now. Apparently a murder wasn’t enough to put a stop to all the other gossip in the village. “Who’d you hear it from?”
“A couple were talking about it in the shop. So, what was this fight about? Make-up? London? Boys?”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand, it wasn’t like one of yours and V’s fights, this was… different.”
“Different how?”
“She told me she didn’t want to be friends anymore, and she meant it. She threw some glasses at me, but missed. She said if I valued my life, I’d stay away from her.”
Will didn’t look like he was hiding a smile anymore. “I thought that whole glass thing was just a rumour. What the hell did you do to her to make her do that?”
I banged my can on the table in frustration. “I didn’t do anything!” He jumped at my sudden outburst. “I just don’t understand. I was hoping you might know something?”
Will looked past me into the distance, lost in thought. Then he glanced back at me, shrugged, took another gulp of cider and replied, “Maybe you just caught her at a bad time.”
I shook my head; he just didn’t understand. I wasn’t planning on doing this, but I knew I had to tell him about Veronica and my parents.
I told him what happened in great detail, both at the Diner and then later at my house. When I finished, he stared at the table, not saying a word. I carried on drinking and when I got to the bottom of the cider, I opened another.
The sound of me breaking into my second can brought him back to the present, and he drained his first and did the same. After a minute or so, he looked up at me and asked, “Have you told your parents you heard them fighting with Veronica?”
“I asked them if they’d seen her… they denied it. Twice. They lied to me… I was too scared to ask them why.” I looked down at my cider, embarrassed.
“Hey, Beth, don’t worry about it. It’s probably not as bad as you think.”
I looked up at him and tried a smile. It felt wrong on my face, as wrong as my laugh had sounded earlier in my room. “Thanks. It was just a very weird day, and I can’t even talk to anyone about it.”
Will leaned in closer. “You can talk to me. I mean, I know we’re talking now, but if you need to again, you can talk to me.” He stopped his sentence, laughing awkwardly. “Sorry, that was supposed to make more sense.”
I noticed for the first time that I wasn’t the only one finding this whole thing awkward and embarrassing; Will seemed to be extremely nervous. “That’s OK. Thanks.”
The sound of my phone beeping made me jump, and I took it out of my pocket to find a text.
Will gestured to the phone with his can. “V?”
I shook my head. “J.C. He wants some new designs. Apparently cats are in.”
Will looked at me blankly. “Cats?”
“Oh…” I realised that Will didn’t know what I was talking about; we really didn’t know that much about each other. “I earn a bit of money drawing designs for J.C’s Tattoos in Willowton. It’s where I got mine done. Apparently he wants cat designs.”
Will still looked blank. “Who would want a cat tattoo?”
I smiled. “Well, my boss, for one…”
“No way.”
“Yes way, on her arm. It’s… classy.” We both gave in to the cider at the same time, giggling like school children.
We stayed at the lake for a while longer, talking about Veronica and my parents, and when we stood up, I thanked him for listening to me. I meant it; the alternative of staying in my room moping all day hadn’t seemed too appealing.
He smiled slightly drunkenly at my thanks and held up his hand. I stared at it, uncertain what he meant. Will laughed at my perplexed expression and grabbed my wrist. “High five?” He moved my hand so it hit his and then dropped it.
I laughed to myself. “Oh, high five, sure. I didn’t think people actually still did that.”
“Well, I do. I’m unique.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I could think of other words to describe you.”
We started walking away from the deserted lake and picnic area and back towards civilisation. He raised his can of cider at me in a bizarre - almost camp - toast. “Likewise, Powers, likewise.”
r />
***
I tried ringing Veronica that night when I got in but, as expected, there was no answer. At a loss as to what to do, I broached the subject with Rach at work the next day.
She seemed surprised at Veronica’s behaviour, but like Will, didn’t seem to understand the extent of the situation. So once again I told her about my parents and their strange behaviour with V, and like Will, it got her attention.
She stopped messing around on her phone, looked up and said, almost to herself, “There’s something going around the village.”
I waited for her to continue, but she just seemed to be staring into space. “Rach?”
She snapped out of it and her eyes focused back on me. “Things are just a bit weird what with Emma and everything. And last night…”
She paused and I moved a little closer, intrigued. “Yes?”
She shook her head, “I shouldn’t say anything, I hate gossiping.” Bless Rach and her older-than-her-years moral code.
“It’s not gossip… it’s chatting with a friend. What happened last night?”
She didn’t look convinced but she must have (correctly) guessed that I wasn’t going to give up. “Well, I was at Max’s, he was playing video games with his brother and I was bored out of my mind. I went and looked out the window, just for something to do, and saw Norman Carter. He was sitting in front of his wife’s grave with some flowers.”
I nodded. There was nothing unusual about that; Norman was one of the village’s eldest residents and his wife, Doris, had died a few years back. Ever since, he’d spent a lot of time in the graveyard; apparently his wife’s grave was the only one in the entire cemetery that always had fresh flowers on top. I supposed that was sweet, but the amount of time he spent there was pretty worrying.
Rach continued in a hushed voice, “I watched him for a minute, then noticed someone go up to him. It was pretty dark but I could tell in an instant who it was.”
I had no idea where she was going with this. “Well, who was it?”
“I really shouldn’t be saying anything.”
“Come on, this is me we’re talking about. I’m not going to spread it around the whole village, I’m not Veronica.” I cringed to myself. “I mean, I won’t…”
Rach looked at me sympathetically, a small smile on her face. “OK.” She glanced around, making sure no one was there to overhear her awful gossiping. “It was Connor.”
I stared at Rach in surprise. I just couldn’t think why Connor would want to talk to Norman. “What happened?”
Rach dragged her chair closer to mine so she could speak more quietly. She was obviously serious about not wanting anyone else to know. “They had an argument.”
“You could hear them?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t have to. It was so obvious they were fighting. It took a couple of minutes to get going, but when it did, they were properly yelling at each other. Connor kind of gestured to the grave and that really set Norman off. He went right up to Connor, looking furious, and whispered something in his ear. Then he just walked off.”
“What would those two have to fight about? They can only have just met.”
Rach shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea, but after Norman left, Connor went and stood in front of Doris’s grave for quite a while. Then he left, too.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. You should ask Connor about it, he’s still in your book club, right?”
Rach looked shocked. “It’s none of my business! Or yours, for that matter,” she whispered, rather haughtily.
“Right, sorry. No gossiping, got it.” I made a ‘my mouth is zipped’ motion with my hand.
“I just thought it was… strange.”
Strange was definitely the right word. I glanced at the clock above the main doors; it was nearly six and both Rach and I got off at seven.
Pulling my phone out, I sent Will a quick text asking if he could meet us at the Inn for some interesting news in an hour (my mum would probably be working there but I figured I’d just stay out of her way).
He replied with a ‘Sure!’ remarkably quickly; either he’d finished at the store by now, or he just wasn’t particularly concentrating on work. I asked Rach if her and Max wanted to join us and she agreed, saying she had nothing better to do.
Nothing better to do. That seemed to be the usual reply heard during the cold, dark days of autumn in Little Forest.
If only it had stayed that way.
***
Rach and I got to the Little Forest Inn just after seven. I scanned the bar as soon as I walked in through the large, old-fashioned oak door, and sure enough, there was my mum, pouring pints and talking loudly with the usual ‘Inn Crowd’.
This group mainly consisted of middle-aged housewives or the unemployed who had nothing better to do than sit in there all day wasting their money and their lives on cheap local beer and pork scratchings. I thought that Joan Cooper and Rose Wood, in particular, must literally spend half their time chatting to my mum and drinking themselves silly.
The mood tonight was slightly less jovial than usual - no need to guess why. I noticed a framed photograph of Emma on the bar, with a small bouquet of flowers resting underneath. The whole thing had my mum written all over it, and I didn’t know whether to be grateful to her for caring or mad that she’d even thought of doing that in the first place.
I grabbed Rach’s wrist when I realised she was heading for the bar and dragged her to the table in the furthest corner of the pub. I really didn’t want to have to talk to my mum, or anyone gathered at the bar for that matter.
The Inn wasn’t as bad as it used to be; I never used to go in there at all, but the owners had completely refurbished it over the summer. Now it was a pretty cool place to hang out, even for twenty-something’s, with events such as open mic nights and curry evenings.
Tonight it was the weekly quiz night. Veronica and I had remained the undefeated champions of the quiz for six consecutive weeks in the summer, but I hadn’t been to one since.
The table Rach and I were sitting at was situated next to a little log fire and right underneath two giant church candles which were resting in a gothic bracket on the cream coloured wall. It was set in its own little alcove, half separated from the main bar area by a thick wooden pillar, and was therefore the perfect spot to hide away from the nosy village people.
A few minutes later, Max and Will came in, more or less at the same time, but definitely not together. They got on well enough, but like me, I don’t think Will had ever hung out with Max when he wasn’t clinging onto Rach’s arm.
We all said hi and I asked if Rach could go and get the drinks now that everyone was here. She seemed a bit annoyed with me, but one glance round the pillar at the bar told her why I was being awkward, and she nodded, heading towards my mum with Max.
Will was staring at me quizzically, his eyebrows raised and his head tilted slightly to one side. This was the second time in so many days I’d asked him to meet up, which was more times than I’d done so in the past three years put together. “Have you spoken to V since yesterday?” He paused. “Or your parents?”
I shook my head, glancing over at my mum, who was now serving Rach. “Not so much.”
“I tried contacting V last night. Phone, text, email, nothing.”
I slumped further into my chair. “Right.”
He smiled encouragingly at me. “Just give it some time.”
I wasn’t used to Will being so nice to me, and I tried to search for an appropriate answer while he sat there looking at me.
I was saved by The Couple coming back with our drinks.
Will grabbed his Coke from Max. “So, what’s the deal? What’s this news you wanted to tell me?”
I took my glass of juice from Rach and noticed her annoyed expression. “Is that the only reason we’re here? To discuss goings-on in the cemetery?”
From out the corner of my eye I saw Will sit up in his chair, and I was glad h
e seemed interested. I was getting pissed off with Rach’s anti-gossip campaign.
I ignored Rach and turned to face Will, filling him in on what had happened in the graveyard. Max had obviously heard it before because he was staring into space, looking bored out of his mind. I hated to think what he did all day without a job if we were boring him now.
I finished the story with a hesitant, “What do you think?”
Will sat back and pretended to stroke an imaginary moustache (as weird as it sounds, he actually did that a lot), and then answered in his best Poirot voice (which wasn’t very good at all and sounded more German than anything), “I theenk it is very interesting, Madame!”
I laughed at his awful impression and wasn’t surprised to see that The Couple didn’t look at all impressed.
When I turned to face Rach I noticed my mum at the bar at the other end of the room; she must have heard my laughter and was trying to get my attention, but I ignored her. She had managed to crush my good mood in about a second.
“Anyway, I think something’s going on. Norman’s… well, he’s been around forever, and Connor’s hardly been here five minutes. He shouldn’t be arguing with anyone yet; I’m sure it usually takes people a good couple of weeks before they realise they hate most of the village.”
I was joking, but Rach, as usual, took it the wrong way. “God, I wished I’d never mentioned it. Connor’s a great guy and Norman’s just a lonely old man. If they are arguing for some reason, it’s none of our business. It was probably nothing, anyway.”
I nodded, wanting to stay on Rach’s good side but needing a good gossip to keep my mind off things. “I agree that usually it would be none of our business, but…” I hesitated, not wanting to make Rach angry or upset, “don’t you think it’s a little strange that you saw them having an argument, at night, in a graveyard, right after one of our residents was found dead?”