The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves Read Free Book Online Page B

husband.
    Guests at the White Hart were even thinner on the ground than at the crematorium. Godfrey Waugh stayed briefly. He had a short, intense conversation with Neville which had more, Rachael thought, to do with business than with Bella. His wife had not appeared at all.
    A buffet lunch had been laid on a table against one wall. There were thick slices of cooked ham and beef, bowls of lettuce, slices of hard-boiled egg, metal ice cream bowls of a thin salad dressing which looked partly curdled. Bella’s farming friends ate with relish. The hotel had provided thimble-sized glasses of sherry and whisky, but the men disappeared to the bar and returned with pints. Neville had gone to school with their sons and daughters, but they didn’t treat him with the familiarity which Rachael would have expected. In contrast Edie moved easily among them, listening to the conversation, chatting, asking about children who’d been through her class at the sixth form college.
    Peter and Amelia turned up eventually. There was a frostiness between them which made Rachael think they’d had a row in the car. Amelia made a show of ignoring the food, then disappeared into the ladies’.
    “You see,” Peter said. “I came. You know I always take your advice.” Christ, Rachael thought, was I really taken in by that sort of thing?
    His eyes wandered over her shoulder and she realized he was checking that they could not be overheard. “What made you think I was at Bella’s the afternoon she died?”
    “Nothing. It was a silly mistake.” He her but she wouldn’t say any more. At last he seemed satisfied.
    Of the ugly woman with the bags there was no sign. Rachael stayed longer than she otherwise would have done, expecting the stranger to make a dramatic late entrance as she had at the crematorium. She asked around, but no one seemed to know who the woman was. Then she realized that Dougie too was missing and thought perhaps the woman was a relative of his, that they were spending some time together.
    She was just about to gather up Edie to go when she was startled by a touch on the shoulder. She turned sharply to find Neville so close to her that she could see a stray white hair in his beard, smell the soap he had used.
    “I’m glad you were able to come,” he said. “You are Rachael? I wasn’t sure you’d be able to face it. Not after … “
    She interrupted him quickly, not because he seemed in the slightest embarrassed but because there was a real point to be made. “I couldn’t have missed it. We were real friends, Bella and I.”
    “She used to talk about you.”
    “Did she?” Rachael was surprised. She hadn’t realized there’d been that much contact between Neville and Bella.
    “Oh yes.” Because he was short for a man she looked almost straight into his eyes. “Had you been in touch lately?”
    “No.” “Ah, I thought you might have some idea why … “
    “No.”
    “I was fond of her, you know. I was very young when Mum died. I was glad when Dad found someone else. I was pleased for them.”
    “Of course.” Bella had never mentioned him much at all, but that hardly seemed an appropriate thing to say. “How is your father?”
    For the first time he seemed embarrassed. “How can anyone know?”
    “Bella always seemed to.”
    “Did she? I thought that was self-delusion. Her way of facing it. I can’t, you know. Face it. Not really. That’s why I’ve been so bad about visiting lately.”
    “Is someone from the nursing home giving him a lift?”
    She hoped he might put a name to the woman with the bags but Neville said sharply: “He’s not coming here. He’s gone straight back to Rosemount. They say he’s better keeping to a routine.”
    “I see.” Rachael hoped that Neville had at least asked Dougie if he wanted to be ferried straight back to the home. Dougie always enjoyed a party, even after his illness. They’d had a do at Baikie’s at the end of her project. Peter had been there, and all the