Cherringham--Death on a Summer Night by Neil Richards Read Free Book Online

looked over at Michelle, and that — at last — made Michelle smile.
    “We always made her laugh …” the sad woman said.
    Hard to see that now, Sarah thought.
    “That we did. Remember that time when we put one of those rubber snakes in Mrs Gimmel’s handbag? Thought she was going to croak right there and then, I did!”
    And now they both laughed. The stolen boyfriend turned middle-aged husband maybe now forgiven.
    “Do you think … did you believe that Tim Bell could have done something to hurt Dinah?”
    They both went silent. Then Michelle spoke first.
    “He liked his drink, the girls …” A look to Jen … “and there were stories of drugs. But he was cute …”
    “No doubting that.”
    “As I said,” Jen continued, “Maybe Dinah wanted to — dunno — spread her wings a bit. But would Tim Bell hurt her? It didn’t seem to make sense at first.”
    The hairdresser then turned to Sarah. “But I watch a lot of crime shows — you know? Mysteries. And you never know what people are capable of, isn’t that right, Sarah? I mean — you actually deal with this stuff.”
    “Yes,” Sarah said, weighing her words. “But always there is a motive. A reason. There just didn’t seem to be one with Tim Bell. Or much evidence either.”
    “But there was,” Jen said, “the blood, bits of a torn dress. He had our Dinah’s blood right on him, didn’t he?”
    Quiet for a few seconds. Then Michelle, finishing her beer — a bit too quickly, Sarah thought — cleared her throat.
    “Yes … course, there was all that. But you’re right, Sarah. It never did make sense to me. Like you said … why?”
    Again quiet.
    Outside of some doubts here, nothing really useful.
    But as Sarah learned from Jack, quiet itself could eventually be useful.
    Michelle went on: “Hard to think who’d want to harm lovely Dinah. Everyone liked her, her teachers—”
    “Especially that Mr Chase!” Jen said. “I think we all liked him quite a bit too!”
    And Sarah knew the man they were talking about.
    Mr Chase. The school’s music teacher.
    Had to be near a kid himself at the time if he was teaching this lot, Sarah thought.
    “Mr Chase was your music teacher?”
    “Oh yes. Think it was his first year. And with Dinah’s talent, he spent a lot of time with her, ‘grooming her for greatness’,” Jen said.
    “Apple of his eye,” Michelle said.
    And Sarah had to wonder was there something she wasn’t saying?
    About Dinah, about the music teacher?
    Probably not. But Sarah knew from her own days at school: a trusted teacher could also become a trusted confidante.
    Someone you could tell secrets to.
    And if Dinah had any secrets, she might have told her mentor.
    “You think I should talk to him as well?”
    “Can’t hurt,” was Michelle’s non-committal reply. “Though I doubt he knows anything. He was as crushed as the rest of us.”
    “I don’t remember him at school,” said Sarah. “But I was a few years below you.”
    “Just teaches privately now, I think. Doing well though, from what I hear.”
    All beers gone save for hers, Sarah was about to end this reunion … wondering if the two friends turned enemies would revert to their previous silence …
    When she had one more question about that summer night.
    “That night. Hot. Like this, yes?”
    “God — you couldn’t breathe.”
    “We just melted,” Michelle said.
    “But back then, it was also carnival week, yes?”
    They nodded.
    “And with that heat, the carnival had to be jam-packed I imagine, everyone there, trying to stay cool, getting on rides? That night … did you two go there?”
    They said “yes” in near unison.
    “And did you see Dinah there that night, with Tim Bell?”
    “I did,” Michelle said. “On the rides, playing the games …”
    Jen added: “And I also saw Tim talking to one of the carnies like they were old pals. Huddled together, kind of secret-like.”
    “And what did you think of that?”
    “Well — you know what