Lois Meade 14 - Suspicion at Seven (18 page)

B
etween them, Lois and Aurora helped Milly to a chair in the kitchen. Aurora thanked Lois over and over for helping her daughter, but Lois was concerned only with making sure Milly was fully conscious, and recovering from shock.

After a few minutes, Lois suggested she should leave them together, as they would have lots to talk about. She also intended to warn Cowgill that they should not have the police arriving too soon. It was possible, of course, that Aurora would vanish again, but Lois chose to ignore that possibility, risking Cowgill’s wrath.

Milly and her mother both begged her to stay, but she felt that the two of them would have a lot to say that they would not necessarily reveal in front of her.

“I have to go now, but I’ll pop over in the morning and see that all’s well. Lovely to have you back, Aurora, though I have to say you are not looking your usual calm and happy self. Now, no questions from me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She kissed each of them on the cheek, and left quickly. On the way home she stopped in a lay-by and called Derek on her mobile to give him the news. He replied that she was to go straight home and watch television or something to take her mind off things.

“Going to be difficult!” Lois said. “Will you be home early? I need some sensible advice. It is possible that Aurora will report to the police herself. But she seemed very far from her former self. Turned inward, if you know what I mean. And her voice was strained, and she looked awful.”

Derek said worriedly that he was surprised Lois was able to tear herself away. He agreed that she should leave everything until tomorrow, and then wait to see what was going on before blundering in on something very odd indeed. And, he said, she should not mention it in front of Gran, as she was known to be the best purveyor of gossip in the village.

*   *   *

It was not until Gran had gone up to bed that Lois was able to tell Derek the full story. Not, as she said, that there was much to say. Aurora had appeared out of nowhere, and Milly had fainted from shock. They had all settled down eventually, and Lois was able to leave, somewhat unhappily. Aurora was looking very strange, and Lois worried about Milly’s reaction.

Luckily, Derek was able to help her to a sensible conclusion by asking her to think herself into Aurora’s place. Supposing she was not about to disappear again, there would be a lot of questioning for her to face. And, even more important, she would have to rebuild her relationship with her own daughter.

“They’ll need time, poor things,” he said. “I expect she will start baking again, and everyone around will find they need one of Aurora’s stone-ground wholemeal loaves. At least it will be good for business.”

“You are not saying she did it deliberately?” asked Lois fiercely.

“It’s been known. Business not doing so well. An unexplained fire in an upper room, or a missing person in trouble with a hefty insurance claim. Aurora wouldn’t be the first to be up to that dodge.”

“There hasn’t been a fire in an upper room.”

“How do you know? How do you know Milly isn’t in the same scam? How do you know anything at all about what goes on in Brigham Bakery?”

Lois was taken aback by this full frontal attack. She had thought Derek would give her calm advice on leaving mother and daughter to settle down and sort themselves out, ready to open the shop, do the baking and be nice to customers. What they would say would be up to them. There had been many questions Lois wanted to ask Aurora, but she instinctively gave way to the mother and daughter. First things first, and Milly’s questions must come first.

“I suppose they could say Aurora had been in Brighton for a few days, revisiting places where she and Donald did their courting. When she was ready, she had come home, wanting to get back to normal, with the help of her charming daughter.” Lois was beginning to feel irritated with both Aurora and Milly. Derek as always, enabled her to see more clearly. As far as any explanation was concerned, she was becoming suspicious. “Collusion” was the word that came to mind.

*   *   *

As soon as Lois had left, Milly began hysterically to accuse her mother of cruelty and selfishness. “Wherever you have been,” she said, “you obviously didn’t think of me at all. You just left! The trouble you have caused! Police! Friends! Everyone in Brigham. Even the hotel was overbooked with ghouls wanting to join in dredging the millpond.”

To her horror, her mother had begun to laugh. “They did not dredge the millpond,” Aurora said. “Come on now, Milly, you’ve done brilliantly well. I have been really proud of you. But that sniffer dog was useless! Although at one point I thought you would look up above where he settled and see the warm place above the oven. Was the dog Lois’s idea?”

“No, it was Mrs. Tollervey-Jones’s. At least, I think it was. Either hers or Gloria’s. You remember Gloria?”

“Of course I remember Gloria. A bottle redhead. One of your father’s little bits of fluff. I should have thought Gloria would not want me around, not after Donald was drowned and his ex-lover Sylvia was thought to be inheriting his estate . . .”

“What d’you mean? You’d be in the way? Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mother, be sensible. I don’t know where you’ve been, but you clearly need some tender loving care, so up to bed, and we’ll talk later.”

“Thanks, Milly love. I will go and have a rest. There’ll be lots of sorting out to do tomorrow, I expect, but with you here to help, I’m sure I will get through it.”

Milly took a cup of hot milk up to Aurora when she was in bed, and wished her sweet dreams. There was strain in her voice, and Aurora blew her a kiss and turned away.

“W
here’s she been then? And what did she have to say about causing so much trouble? That poor daughter of hers. I should think she was pretty sharp!” Gran looked as if she was about to fly off to Brigham and tackle Aurora herself.

“It wasn’t at all like that,” Lois said. She and Derek had agreed that they should give Gran an edited version of what had happened, but now she realised Gran would winkle out the whole thing in the end. Best to tell her now, before she concocted her own version. “We were going into the back kitchen for a cup of tea when Milly said she had heard a noise from the backyard. So we went into the bakehouse, and Milly yelled suddenly and her knees gave way and she fell. Then I saw it was Aurora, and she rushed with me to help poor Milly. After that, we calmed down, and when I was sure they were going to be okay, I left. That’s it, Mum, straight from the horse’s mouth.”

“Mmm,” said Gran. “So you don’t know where that Aurora went and why? Well, thanks for giving me some of the facts, because without a doubt, the gossips will be busy with the whole thing, not to mention the police. I hope Cowgill sends our Matthew to see them. He’s got such a good heart, bless him.”

“And don’t forget Josie in the shop,” said Derek. “She’ll be bombarded with questions. Let’s hope business will be good, and she’ll make a fortune in one day.”

“That’s all you think about! Money! I think everybody should leave the pair of them alone for a bit to sort themselves out . . .” Before she could finish her sentence, the phone began to ring, and she went off to her office to take the call.

“Cowgill? You haven’t wasted any time. I was going to call you after we’ve finished our breakfast.”

“Sorry, Lois. I had a call from an unnamed informer that the woman at the bakery was back and had been seen through the window. Another solid citizen called and claimed they had seen a light in the shop window, and there she was, the missing Mrs. Black.”

“Why are you calling me, then?”

“Strangely enough, because I thought I would be giving you the good news.”

“I was there when she reappeared. Seems there was a secret hiding place—maybe a kind of priest hole?—above the oven, and that’s where she went. And where Henry refused to leave. Poor Aurora. Panic attack times six. Couldn’t bring herself to come out again until she did eventually. Maternal instinct finally triumphed!”

“Quite right. So I shall be going along there this afternoon, and I’d be glad if you could find time to meet me there. About three o’clock, shall we say? I’d really appreciate it, Lois.”

“Is that an order, nicely wrapped up?”

“However you like to take it, Lois love. See you later.”

A wily old fox, thought Lois. He may be partly retired, but he knows what he’s doing. Most of the time. She returned to the kitchen, and told Derek and Gran.

“What about going with Joan and me to the jewellers? Mrs. Prentise asked if she could come along and choose the stuff with us. She hoped Gloria would be free, too.”

“Could you put it off until tomorrow? I would really love to come along.”

Gran sniffed. She would have to ring round the others. But Lois had a ferretin’ look in her eye, which alone would be sufficient warning that whatever she planned to do this afternoon would come first.

*   *   *

At a quarter to three, Lois set off for Brigham. Cowgill was there before her, and Milly and Aurora were obviously not surprised to see her.

“I have told Milly and her mother that you would be coming, Lois. I think you may be able to help in remembering things that perhaps in the extraordinary nature of Aurora’s disappearance may be forgotten.”

Milly nodded, and Aurora looked as if everything was so confusing that Lois’s presence was welcome. Cowgill said that they would begin at the beginning, the day when Milly first discovered her mother had gone.

Milly cleared her throat and reached for her mother’s hand. She began when her mother did not come home when expected, and how she had gradually worried more and more. Then, when her mother did not appear again, she thought of a million things that could have happened to her. Lois had been very helpful, and Milly described how she had tried to get the bakery going again.

“And baked some very good loaves,” said Aurora proudly.

“How do you know that, Aurora?” said Cowgill.

“Because she is my daughter, and has always been a lovely, talented girl,” she answered. Except that she hadn’t really answered, Lois decided. She said nothing, and waited while Cowgill tried and failed to get some hard facts from Aurora.

Finally, he turned to Lois and said he realised she would be going over the same ground as Milly, but could she describe in detail the shocking moment when Aurora reappeared?

The whole episode was so clear in Lois’s mind that she was able to give a very detailed account, starting from when Aurora appeared like a dark shadow from the bakehouse and Milly had understandably fainted. Cowgill stopped her there, asking how Aurora had seemed. Was she confused, or injured in any way? Had she mentioned, even casually, or given any indication where she might have been? Had other people been involved? Had she been sleeping rough, and if so, where, and under what bridge?

At that point, Aurora, who had seemed in a daze still, said the inspector should not question Lois about these things, as she was not, of course, able to answer them, since only she, Aurora, could know what happened to her, and she was about to tell them.

“I had been feeling quite rough since Donald was murdered, and thought I should probably take it easy for a bit. But then I had no idea that I was really sick. The afternoon I disappeared, Milly had gone shopping, and I couldn’t face the dentist. Terror, I think. I felt sick, and I thought I would do what the old baker used to do, which was crawl into the warm space above the oven, completely out of sight. It has an exit under the eaves with a let-down rope ladder to the ground outside in the yard. That’s been rolled up and forgotten. No one knew about the warm space except me, and I knew I would not be disturbed. Then, when I woke, I still felt odd. Frightened, really. I realised I could not go back into the bakehouse, nor could I bring myself to talk any more to Milly. The longer I stayed up there, the less able I was to confront anybody. I crept down the rope ladder when necessary, and made sure I wasn’t seen.

“I suppose I knew what I was doing was stupid and wrong, but my courage had vanished. I was worried about my dear Milly, but could do nothing about it. I guess I needed some professional help, but was too scared to go out and find it.

“Finally, I realised that I had to face people. I could not secretly see my daughter bravely carrying on when it was in my power to make things all right again. So, like some evil zombie, I came down out of the warm space and frightened Milly to death. But not to death, thank God. We have had enough death, Inspector, and now you have your hard facts, and I have to find some way of repairing the damage I have done to my own daughter.”

Silence engulfed them all, until Cowgill asked Lois if she had anything to add.

Lois then continued with her account up until this morning, when she had come to help. Things that Aurora had said now made sense of her conversation yesterday, and she added that her friend looked so fragile and unwell that it would be a good thing if the interview continued tomorrow.

Cowgill agreed reluctantly, and advised Aurora to get plenty of rest, as they would need to talk again. After he had gone, Lois insisted on making more tea, and settled Aurora in a comfortable chair in the tiny room that acted as an office for the bakery.

The three women, Aurora, Milly and Lois, were like hens on a perch, sitting in silence for half an hour. Aurora’s eyelids gradually closed, and Lois could see she was sleeping peacefully. The shadow of a smile crossed her face every so often, and Lois guessed she was having pleasant dreams. Thank God, she thought, and wished she could be an invisible presence in those dreams.