Sixteen
Penny awoke early the next morning, made herself a cup of coffee, which she set on a small tray, and headed back upstairs. She had barely been able to bring herself to set foot in Emma’s bedroom since the afternoon she had moved in. But soon, once the personal things were cleared out, the room would be ready to be decorated and she could move into it. She was starting to feel ready.
She set the little tray down on the heavy, old-fashioned mahogany dresser and then glanced at the closet, where most of the things to be bundled up for the jumble sale would be.
She opened the closet door to find a few church-type hats on the shelf, half a dozen shoe boxes stacked neatly on the floor, and a predictable collection of dresses, blouses, and skirts. She moved them idly along the rail and then stepped back as a faint odor of powdery lavender hit her. At the end of the row of clothes was a zippered garment bag. She undid the zipper and peered in.
It contained what looked like a man’s suit with a light-coloured dress or blouse tucked in behind it. She lifted the bag from the closet and laid it on the bed so she could examine it more closely. She pushed the edges of the bag back and then decided to take the suit out.
It was navy blue and, she thought, expensively tailored. She opened the jacket to see if there was a label. JACKSONS’ THE TAILORS.
But something about the suit seemed odd. She held it up against her and realized she would have a hard time fitting into it, and, in fact, it would probably be too small for her to even try. She’d never get the trousers done up!
The bedsprings creaked as she sat down beside the garment bag, tenderly holding the suit in her arms. It had to have belonged to Alys. She carefully removed the jacket from the hanger and, placing it on her lap, ran her hand gently over a sleeve, feeling the soft finish of the smooth fabric. She fingered the lapels and hesitated as her hand reached the pockets. She checked both of them and was disappointed to find them empty.
But the bag had held two garments, and laying the suit on the bed, she pulled out the other item. It was a woman’s sleeveless summer shirtwaist dress, belted, with a full skirt and a single row of small white buttons down the front. It had been white but was now starting to take on a yellowish hue. But what caught Penny’s attention was its delicate pattern of violets. In some places, just a single flower, in others, a few flowers tied together to form a posy.
She felt a sudden flood of relief that Gareth was on his way to help her deal with whatever secrets this room was about to give up. She laid the dress on the bed beside the suit, walked over to the dresser, and took a sip of tepid coffee. She heard herself making a little sound of distaste and set the cup down. She wandered over to the window and, glancing down into the garden, wondered where she would find the time to keep that up. It seemed like ages since she had sat out there with Gareth on her first day in the cottage, and since that day the garden seemed to have become even more tangled and unruly. She was starting to realize how much work and upkeep even a small property like this entailed. There would always be something that needed replacing, repairing, or polishing. For the first time she wondered how Emma had managed so apparently effortlessly to keep everything always looking so nice and still have time to teach school and enjoy a social life.
As far as Penny knew, Emma hadn’t used any outside help, but she was starting to think she needed to hire someone to help her with the gardening and cleaning, especially now that the spa was going to be demanding so much of her time.
A knock at the front door interrupted her thoughts, and she ran down the stairs to open it.
“Hi,” he said, setting down a couple of boxes. “Sorry I’m a bit late. Is there any coffee?”
“There is, but it’s not very good, I’m afraid. I need to get a proper coffeemaker and maybe even a grinder for the beans.”
“Well, whatever you’ve got will do for now. Shall I go on up?”
“Yes, why don’t you make a start, and I’ll be up in a few minutes with fresh coffee.”
She watched Davies climb the stairs, and then she headed for the kitchen. A few minutes later, with two cups of coffee, she joined him.
“What do you think?” Penny asked.
“I think we’re going to have to be ruthless. Shall we start with the clothes? Are you interested in the clothes? I think they’re the easiest things to get rid of. You probably don’t want to wear something she used to wear, but someone else, who doesn’t know where they came from, will be glad to have them.”
Penny nodded and pointed to the suit and dress on the bed.
“Except for those two. I’ll put them back in the bag and hang on to them.”
Gareth nodded.
“So let’s get everything out of the closet. We’ll fold up the clothes so we can get more in a box, and I’ll drop them off at the rectory, if you like.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Oh, and be sure to check the pockets. You never know what you’ll find there.”
“Right.”
They worked their way through the contents of the closet but found nothing of interest. Shoes, hats, blouses, and skirts were soon packed up. Penny felt lightened to see them go. Gareth had been right. It was easy getting rid of these things that had no meaning to her. She opened the dresser drawers and bagged up underwear for the rubbish. In just over an hour, with only the occasional word exchanged between them, all Emma’s personal effects had been removed. Penny had set aside the jewellery to go over more carefully, and the few prints on the wall had been added to the pile for the jumble sale. They looked at the bed and then at each other.
“What are you going to do about the furniture?” Gareth asked.
“I’m getting rid of all of it. Then I’m getting the room painted and filled with lovely new things.”
Penny walked over to him, and just as she put her arms around his neck, his mobile rang.
“Oh, no,” he said. They sat down on the bed while he answered it. He listened for a few seconds, nodded once or twice, and then rang off. He placed the phone in his jacket and looked at Penny.
“Sorry, love, duty calls.”
He stood up and gave the room the once-over.
“I think we did a good job here. There’s just the bedding left to do, I guess. You’ll probably throw out the pillows, but you might want to wash the coverlet and donate it to the women’s shelter, maybe?”
“Good idea,” said Penny, as she pulled the coverlet down.
As she did so, she noticed the small paperweight sitting on the nightstand. She picked it up, liking the way its smooth coolness filled her hand.
“I don’t think it’s very valuable, but what makes it so wonderful is that I think it was a gift from Alys to Emma.” She looked up at him. “Emma probably touched this every day of her life.”
Gareth put his arms around her.
“I’ll ring you later. Is your little group coming over this evening?”
Penny gave him a startled look.
“Oh, it’s Friday! I’ll have to speak to Victoria and see what we’re doing. I guess they are coming over!” An idea flashed through her mind.
“Would you join us? Maybe you could update us on the bones found at the spa.”
“Too early for that. We won’t have the results for a couple of weeks at least, I would think. But I’ll drop in. Say, about eight? Now, I must be off and you, too, I expect. I’ll take the boxes with me so at least they’re out of your way.”
He clattered off down the stairs with one of the boxes, and Penny followed him with another. They loaded them in the car, and Penny waved him off. She watched his car disappear and then walked back into the cottage. She looked at her watch and, although she knew she should be leaving for the salon, picked up the telephone and left a message for Eirlys that she would be late.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the paperweight. She thought about the memories it held and was surprised by the emotion it evoked in her. She felt deep sadness for all that had been lost and longed to know and understand what had happened and why.
She walked over to the table where the paintings were and set the paperweight down in front of them. Inanimate objects, but they had all been connected to something powerful. But what, exactly? Penny was now convinced that Alys had been murdered. Was there a connection to the bones in the spa? She felt impatient with how slowly things seemed to be moving.
Who would be the most likely to have some answers? The answer had to be Andrew Peyton. She knew from the police file that Bethan had left behind on that first night that he had been interviewed at the time of the accident, but he hadn’t been very cooperative. But sometimes people mellow over time, and if he had information then that he was unwilling to reveal, he might be willing to talk about it now.
Resolving to track down Peyton, she made a light lunch and was just about to leave the cottage when the telephone rang. She hesitated before answering it. It was probably Victoria calling to ask about something, and she could ring her when she got to the salon. But something drove her to answer it.
“Hello?”
She spoke to the caller for a few minutes and then, just before the conversation ended, asked if she could ask just one question.
“Did the exhibition at the Walker Gallery go ahead?”
Thanking the caller, she rang off, and after applying a quick streak of lipstick, she let herself out of the cottage and walked quickly down the lane.
Anxious though she was to meet Victoria, she decided she should pop into the salon for a few minutes to see how Eirlys was doing.
She needn’t have worried. As she opened the door, Eirlys and her client looked up and smiled at her. As Penny entered the salon, she recognized immediately that something was different, and when she took a closer look at the client, she realized what it was.
The client was a teenager, and the two young women had brought an atmosphere of lightness, energy, and fun to the salon.
“Penny, could I have a word, please?” asked Eirlys. Penny stepped into the small preparation area and Eirlys followed.
“It’s about the nail varnish colours. We need more bright pinks and different colours, like yellow and silver. It’s what the girls want.” Penny looked into her eager, shining face and smiled. You can’t put a price on enthusiasm, she thought.
“Yes, we certainly do!” she agreed. “Tell you what. I’m going to Llandudno this afternoon, so I’ll pick up a few at the beauty supplier. You can tell me if I’m on the right track. But for today, will you be all right with what we’ve got?” Eirlys nodded and returned to her client.
“Hey, Jude, Penny says we’re going to get some colours in!” she said. “I told you she’d be cool with it.”
Penny smiled to herself and left to meet Victoria at the site.
An hour later, the two women were walking through the green fields that led to the next town, where they would catch the bus to Llandudno. They could have gone to the Watling Street stop in town but decided that the twenty-minute walk through the peaceful countryside would help them focus their thinking and give them time to discuss what they would say to Andrew Peyton when they met him.
“Tell me what he said,” Victoria demanded. “You must have been gobsmacked when you picked up the phone and it’s none other than Andrew Peyton!”
“I was just thinking about him,” Penny replied. “It’s odd how that happens sometimes, isn’t it? I was just thinking about him and the phone went and it was him. I was that surprised I actually had to sit down.
“Anyway, he said he got my number from Thomas Evans, and could I come and see him. He asked if it would be possible to come today.”
Victoria shot her a quizzical look.
“I know. And he apologized that it was on such short notice but said he wanted to tell me something about Alys, so of course I agreed.”
She smiled at her friend.
“And it’s really good of you to give up your afternoon to come with me.”
Victoria stifled a yawn. “Well, what are friends for? And to think I could have been at home sneaking in a nap!”
“But I did manage to get in the question about the exhibit,” Penny continued. “You know, the February exhibit at the Walker Gallery. And he said that no, with Alys’s death, the exhibit did not go ahead. He said he didn’t want to answer my questions over the phone and he’d talk to me when we got there. I’m hoping he might know where her paintings ended up.”
They strolled on, admiring the sheep that grazed peacefully on each side of them. Penny loved and admired the hills that stretched higher and higher, cradling the valley. How many words are there for green, she wondered. Whatever the best one is, it must have been invented in Wales, for nowhere on Earth was there green like this.
Soon they came to the little pub that signaled they had almost reached the neighbouring town. Penny glanced at the letterbox outside the pub and, because it seemed to be almost in the middle of nowhere, wondered if anybody ever used it.
“I daren’t even post my letters to you from the town post office—the post mistress is that nosey. I have to walk halfway to the next town and use the rural box outside the pub.”
They walked on for a few more minutes until the Trefriw Mills bus stop came into view. About ten minutes later the bus arrived, and they hopped on, paid their fares, and found seats. The windows were rather dirty, and they had a difficult time seeing out.
The bus wound its way toward Llandudno, eventually skirting the majestic strength that is the thirteenth-century Conwy Castle, until it arrived at its final stop, the Llandudno Palladium. Deciding to leave the beauty-supply shop errand until later, they strolled the short way to Church Walks, stopping occasionally to admire something in a shop window. In minutes they arrived at the busy street at the foot of the Great Orme that stretches almost from the famous Victorian pier to the cable car station. Home to the occasional pub, the street was comprised mainly of guesthouses catering to summer tourists, most of whom had now departed. Victoria glanced at a piece of paper, scanned the street for the address Peyton had given Penny on the phone, and then pointed at the house they were looking for.
Three stories tall, painted a pale yellow with flower boxes on every window, it was probably built as the summer home for the family and servants of a prosperous Liverpool merchant. By the mid-twentieth century it would have been used as a bed-and-breakfast and within the last decade or so had been converted into small flats. Penny and Victoria climbed the steep stairs to the front door and looked at the names written on slips of paper beside doorbells. B. DOYLE. L. KENT. A. PEYTON. M. TUCKER.
Penny pushed the button beside Peyton’s name, and they waited for a response. She checked her watch and then rang the bell again. When there was still no answer, she tried the door handle but it was locked. They stood on the step looking about and considering what to do when the door opened and a woman emerged, carrying a protesting cat in a large carrier case.
Penny grabbed the door, pulled it wide open, and stood to one side so the woman could pass. “Here you are.” Penny smiled at her.
“Oh, thank you,” the woman replied. “Just off to the vet. Such a bother it is. And with all the stairs, too.”
Penny nodded, and they watched as the woman set off down the street, the cat yowling louder with every jostle of his cage. Then Penny and Victoria slipped into the building.
They found themselves in a small, dark foyer that smelled of yesterday’s curry. A few shafts of desultory light filtered in over the transom, revealing a dark green carpet that led down a hall on the left and to a staircase on the right.
With a quick glance at each other, they wandered down the hall, past a heavy table, looking at the cream-coloured doors. “Peyton’s elderly,” Penny whispered, “so I expect he lives on the ground floor.” Victoria nodded. Penny crept up to the first door and pressed her ear against it. She could hear what sounded like a radio playing pop music but couldn’t make out the words. She shook her head, and they moved on to the next door.
As Penny knocked on it, the door slowly opened a few inches. With the tips of her fingers, she gave it a soft push and it swung open farther, revealing a short, narrow hallway with light coming from rooms on either side.
“Hello?” she called. “Mr. Peyton? Are you there? It’s Penny Brannigan.”
With a glance back at Victoria, who shook her head, she slid into the hallway and inched her way along. She peeked into the first room, a tidy, uncluttered bedroom. She continued down the hall and peered into the second room.
And there, sitting in an easy chair, was Andrew Peyton, who seemed to be asleep. He did not move so she crept quietly into the room, and just as she was about to speak to him, she saw that something was terribly wrong.
He lay back in the chair, his head lolling to one side, mouth and eyes open. He was an ashen grey, and she sensed before she touched one of the cool hands that rested on the armrest that he was dead. Covering her mouth with her hand, she backed away out into the hall and, whispering to Victoria, “I think he’s dead,” scrabbled in her bag for her mobile. She called the emergency telephone number, gave the address, asked for police and an ambulance, and the two them stood in the hall to wait.
“We should probably wait out here, but we’ve got a few minutes before the police get here,” Penny said. “Do you want to go in and have a look?”
“No, thank you very much!” Victoria shuddered.
Unable to resist, Penny ducked back into the flat and stepped into the bedroom. Careful not to touch anything, she looked at the paintings on the wall and then moved farther down the hall. Nothing looked out of place in the bathroom, and the kitchen was orderly, with the dishes put away. She returned to the sitting room and, without looking at Peyton, took in as much of the room as she could. It was a comfortable, if dated, room and nothing seemed disturbed.
She couldn’t tell if anything was missing. She then went back down the main hall and went through the magazines and other mail that had piled up on the table near the door. Nothing was addressed to Peyton.
“Victoria, there’s something wrong in that sitting room. Something’s not right, but I’m not sure what it is. Go and have a look!”
“Of course, something’s not right. You said there’s a dead person in there. Are you crazy?”
Penny gave her a gentle nudge.
“Go on. Please. So we can talk about it later. Second door on the left.”
“What am I looking for?”
“There’s something odd about the room. Something’s not right, but I don’t know what it is.”
Victoria exhaled and groaned, then dashed into the flat. A few moments later she was back, out of breath and shaking.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to do that,” Penny said.
“Too right, you shouldn’t have!” Victoria moaned, bending over and covering her mouth with her hands. “I think I’m going to throw up! I’ve got no stomach for this sort of thing. Don’t forget, Penny, I was there at the spa when those bones were found. I don’t know how many more bodies I can take.”
Minutes later a uniformed police officer arrived.
“Down the hall, second door on the left.” Penny pointed the way. Seconds later another police officer pounded after him, followed by two paramedics, and then the police officers they had been hoping to see.
“Now, why am I not all that surprised to see you here?” Davies asked, looking from one to the other. “Are you all right?”
Penny nodded. “I’m okay, but Victoria’s feeling a bit queasy.”
“Bethan here will stay with you and take your statements, if you feel up to giving them now. If not, they can wait. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He continued down the hall and followed the others into the flat.
“Would you be okay if I left you for a moment?” Bethan asked. “I just want to pop in for a moment and see for myself.”
Penny nodded.
“It’s not you I’m thinking about,” Bethan said. “Victoria here is looking decidedly peaky.”
“Too many bodies,” Penny said. “The bones at the spa and now this.”
“Hang in there and I’ll be back in a minute. Maybe you could just sit down here, Victoria, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Victoria slid down the wall and sat on the floor under the stairs, back against the wall, legs out in front of her, and her head in her hands.
Penny crouched down and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m really sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have asked you to go in there. That was really stupid of me.”
Victoria groaned. “Help me up and let’s get out of here. What are we waiting for, anyway?”
“Bethan wants to take our statements, but I’ll just tell her that we need to leave. She’ll understand. They know where to find us and we can do it later. Be right back.”
But just as she was about to re-enter the apartment, Bethan emerged and Penny asked her if they could leave.
“I don’t think Victoria’s okay to drive,” Bethan said, frowning.
“We didn’t drive. We came on the bus.”
“Oh, really. Wait there.” She ducked back into the flat, and moments later, wearing a reassuring smile, she was back, standing beside Victoria.
“The boss says I’m to drive you two ladies home. Won’t take long and I’ll take your statements when I get there, if you’re up to it.”
They drove in silence back to Llanelen, Victoria in the front seat, leaning against the headrest, Penny gazing out the window at the green fields that bordered the rural road.
“I’ll come in for a cup of tea, if that’s all right with you,” Bethan said as they reached Penny’s cottage. “I’ll put the kettle on and you two sit. You’ve had a shock.”
Penny and Victoria sat down in the sitting room, facing each other. The atmosphere was tense and heavy.
“I don’t know what you expected me to see,” Victoria said in a low voice, with a glance toward the kitchen where Bethan was putting on the kettle.
“I’ll talk to Bethan when she comes in,” Penny said. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
Bethan joined them in a few minutes later with a tea tray and poured out cups for each of them.
“When you looked at the body, Bethan, did you notice anything strange?” Penny asked. “There was something odd there, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“He looked very calm to me,” Bethan replied. “There was no sign of anything amiss, and the paramedics seem to think he died of a heart attack. Probably natural causes. He was fairly elderly, after all.”
“Maybe.”
Bethan took their statements and then left.
“I’m starting to feel a bit better,” Victoria said. “I could probably eat something, if you’re buying. Or cooking.”
Penny smiled. “Of course. Giving you a nice meal is the least I can do. Do you know, in all that, we didn’t get the coloured nail polish for Eirlys. I’ll have to go back to Llandudno soon to get it for her.”
“Well, you’re going on your own next time.”
“And what about tonight? You won’t feel up to a meeting with the gang. I think I’d better ring them and tell them not to come. And next Friday is that opening in Liverpool that we wanted to go to, so I’ll tell them to come in a fortnight and we’ll bring everyone up to date. We should have lots more information by then.
“Fancy a pizza, since I’m on the phone, anyway?”
? ? ?
The next week went by uneventfully. Work continued on the spa, lost time was made up, and Eiryls and Penny sat side by side in the salon, polishing and painting. She rang Davies from time to time, but there was no real news. Because Andrew Peyton had died suddenly, an autopsy was conducted, but it revealed no cause of death. Perhaps when the toxicology reports come back, Davies had suggested. The bones found in the ductwork remained unidentified, although acting on Penny’s hunch, Davies had asked Merseyside to try to locate dental records for a Cynthia Browning. But dentists retire or sell their practices and X-ray records are lost or destroyed. The human bones were thought to be at least thirty years old, and the smaller skeleton found with them was determined to be that of a small dog. Both skeletons were female but bore no marks of obvious trauma.