A Market for Murder (25 page)

Maggs winced again, and Hemsley uttered a low moan. ‘An innocent witness – one of the most dangerous situations to be in,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Thank God it never happened.’

‘You can say that again,’ chimed Maggs, watching Drew clasping his daughter tightly to him, while telling her that her Mummy would be fine, and very soon everything was going to be all right.

Karen took a whole day to resurface again. In the meantime the hospital had scanned and tested and concluded that there was some permanent damage to her brain, which was likely to lead to some dispraxia, at least for the foreseeable future.

‘Dispraxia?’ Drew echoed. ‘You mean she won’t be able to walk?’

‘She will walk, but probably jerkily. Carrying things will be difficult. Writing, sewing, small movements – they’ll all be compromised.’

‘Gardening?’ Drew asked faintly.

‘Probably that will be possible,’ came the wary response.

When she did finally start talking again, the first thing she said was, ‘It must have had something to do with Timmy’s knee.’

‘That’s right!’ Drew said. ‘It seems that he actually knelt on the crossbow, and Della went mad. Shouted at him, and pulled the thing away so violently, he fell over. Then she was all apologies, kissing and cuddling him. Stephanie and Tim both found the whole business bewildering. They didn’t know what the crossbow was, and Della quickly packed it away in a big blue canvas bag.’

‘Steph knew it was canvas?’ Karen’s woozy brain seemed intent on picking up minor details. Drew struggled to remain patient.

‘No, no. The police found it last night. As well as the gun. It was Justin Henderson’s converted Brocock.’

‘Uh-h-h?’

‘Sorry. You don’t need to know about that.’

‘Justin? Hilary’s boy? But I saw the gun. He fired it when I was there.’

‘So I gather. Hilary told me. She also admitted that she was so angry with him, afterwards, that she took the gun away from him. Then she left it in the back of the car when she went to Grafton’s funeral. She never dreamt it was loaded, or so she claims. Just snatched it and then never got around to doing anything with it. When she realised what had happened she thought Justin had crept up at the funeral and shot Karen. So she pretended the gun had been stolen.’

‘Hilary?’ Karen was barely keeping up.

‘I don’t think Della really intended to do anything at the funeral. But she saw the gun, sticking out from under a blanket, and just took it, as we were all going down to the church. She had it under her coat when we processed back. The thing is, Bill saw her shoot you. He grabbed Della, and rushed her along to get their boys. Afterwards, she admitted the whole thing, and he decided to dump both weapons, yesterday.’

Karen sighed. ‘So that’s the whole story, is it?’

‘Except for Archie and Sally,’ he remembered.

‘Tell me.’

‘For much of yesterday, Sally was crying about Peter Grafton, and Archie was getting more and more angry with her. In the end he hit her. She ran out of the house, saying she never wanted to live with him again. I don’t know where she was
going, but she took the car and headed down towards us. He didn’t try to follow her, but sat down to try and think it all through.

‘He’s a builder, you know. He never bothered much with the Food Chain or any of that – but he was well up with all the local gossip. He knew what people were saying about Sally and Peter. But they didn’t know that he and Sally hadn’t been living as husband and wife for ages – or so she told Julie and Della.’

Karen flapped a feeble hand, trying to encourage him to get to the point.

He smiled. ‘It’s not such a big thing, really. Just that Archie phoned Bill Gray, after Sally had gone. Asked him to come round for a chat. I don’t know the details, but the two of them were in the car together when the police caught up with it. They were parked in a lay-by, not really bothering to keep out of sight. The gun and crossbow were in the hedge, right next to the car. And the men were kissing.’

‘Goodness me,’ Karen murmured. ‘Goodness gracious me.’

A Cotswold Killing

A Cotswold Ordeal

Death in the Cotswolds

A Cotswold Mystery

Blood in the Cotswolds

Slaughter in the Cotswolds

Fear in the Cotswolds

A Grave in the Cotswolds

Deception in the Cotswolds

Grave Concerns

The Sting of Death

A Market for Murder

R
EBECCA
T
OPE
lives on a smallholding in Herefordshire, with a full complement of livestock, but manages to travel the world and enjoy civilisation from time to time as well. Most of her varied experiences and activities find their way into her books, sooner or later. She is also the author of the Thea Osborne Cotswold series.

www.rebeccatope.com