Dying to Know (A Detective Inspector Berenice Killick Mystery) by Alison Joseph Read Free Book Online Page B

departing congregation, shaking hands, smiling, asking after absent parishioners, ‘How is Joan now? Out of hospital this week? Oh, good, I am glad…’ ‘The cat, yes, I know, all very sad, I heard… Lovely flower arrangement in the Lady Chapel, Mrs. Lynch…’
    There was no sign of Virginia. He watched them go, the tap of sticks on the old paved path, the sunshine silvering the gravestones.
    He went back into church. A relief, to find it empty. He would just finish the last few tasks, and then home for lunch.
    She was still sitting in the pew at the back. She turned as the door clicked behind him.
    ‘Oh,’ he said.
    ‘Didn’t mean to scare you,’ she said.
    ‘Not at all. I didn’t expect to see you in church today, that’s all.’ He sat down next to her. The altar candles were still alight, and he found himself worrying about the wax dropping on to the altar cloth.
    ‘I thought of them all,’ she said, ‘all what they’d say, there’s Ginny Maguire, fancy her showing her face after all this time, and then I thought, let them. Let them gossip all they want. There’s been enough said about me in the past, and there’ll be enough said about me in the weeks to come.’
    He nodded his support, watching the flicker of the candles.
    ‘Your sermon,’ she said.
    ‘Hmmm?’ he said.
    ‘It wasn’t what I expected.’
    He turned to face her. ‘I – I have no idea what I said, I’m afraid.’
    The hint of a smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
    ‘Did it seem like that?’ he asked her.
    ‘Depends what they’re used to, I suppose,’ she said.
    ‘I – ’ he hesitated. ‘I didn’t want to offer you empty hope,’ he said.
    She met his eyes. ‘That’s very kind of you,’ she said. ‘The thing is – we had bad news this morning, Tobias and me. The police came again. It – it wasn’t suicide.’
    He looked at her hands clasped tight together in her lap. ‘Not suicide?’
    ‘Type of injuries, they said, brain injury, bruising… suggests he was already unconscious when… when he hit the water.’
    He looked up at her. ‘But how…?’
    ‘Killed,’ she said. ‘By person or persons unknown.’
    ‘But – who? Why…?’
    She opened her hands, palms upward. ‘I can’t help them, can I? He goes to the lab. He comes home for tea. He talks to Tobias. We watch the television. I can’t help them…’
    A shouting outside, a hammering on the door of the church. Chad jumped to his feet, swung the door open. ‘Tobias,’ he said.
    He loomed in the church doorway, dishevelled and tearful. ‘Can I… ’ he sniffed. ‘Is she here?’
    ‘I’m here, love.’ Virginia spoke from her pew. Tobias screwed up his eyes in the dim light, stumbled towards her, sank down next to her. She put her arm around him.
    ‘I woke up and you weren’t there,’ Tobias said, his face half-buried in Virginia’s shoulder.
    ‘It’s all right, love, I’m here now.’ She looked up at Chad. ‘It’s been awful for our Tom.’
    ‘Uncle Murdo,’ Tobias said. ‘I keep thinking about him and who would do that to him, who would do it? I asked that woman from the police, why? I asked her, why do people do that to other people? She didn’t say anything, did she Auntie? She couldn’t tell me.’
    Chad walked to the altar and blew out the candles. He gathered up the pages from the lectern.
    Tobias had followed him. He stood next to him. The white altar cloth was splashed with colour from the stained glass window. Tobias circled a patch of red with a finger. ‘No one should do that to someone else, should they?’ he said.
    ‘No,’ Chad agreed. His gaze fell on Virginia, where she sat, cold and still, at the back of the church. He took a step towards her, wanting to help, wanting to offer her warmth, kindness. ‘Come to the vicarage,’ he said. ‘Come for lunch.’
     
    ‘He’s the most talented of the whole class, and he spent most of it sitting on the floor.’ Helen tucked the phone under her chin, slipped off