Chapter 23 – A Talk
Danni flicked on the light as soon as she entered the house, the sight of the empty kitchen an immense relief. If she had found those three around the table, she didn’t know what she would have done. The absolute last thing she needed was to have to explain to a villager who had already shown a tendency towards the macabre, in a sense, why she had three strangers sitting in her kitchen. Granted, she could have made the excuse that they were guests, but she didn’t have the energy to explain when or how they had arrived without anyone noticing her there. Putting up her coat, toeing off her boots, she held the door open for the neighbour and giving her the best smile that she could manage. Passing by the fridge, she gently patted the side of it in thanks as she set the kettle to boil. “Make yourself at home. I’ll make some tea if English breakfast is okay?” She called to the neighbour who was hanging up her coat.
“Yes, please.” The woman said, rubbing her arms as she looked around the place, taking it all in. “Beautiful…” She whispered, though not quiet enough for Danni to miss.
“Thank you, I’ll have to tell Tawney that you said that.” Danni called over her shoulder.
“Oh… Is Tawney your partner? Or are they your roommate?” She asked, looking around as if expecting Tawney to appear.
“No, she just owns this place, and I guess you could call that I’m working for her.” Danni explained, bringing down two mugs from the cupboard, poured the water once it was boiled and brought them, the sugar bowl and the milk over to the table. “Still, she’ll be glad to know that you think it’s beautiful.” Sitting down, she passed the mug over to the woman. “By the way, I just realised that I don’t recall your name.”
“I think that may be my fault, you can tell Jane, I’d tell you my last name but I’m afraid it’s quite embarrassing. For now, I just hope that you won’t take what happened in church as a mark against me or Dorothy.”
“Is she your friend? The one in the rather elaborate hat?” As they spoke, Jane’s admittedly lovely coat was hanging up by the door.
“Yes. That one is her favourite, you see. Her hobby is making them. Bonnets, caps, top hats, all kinds, she just can’t resist them, and you see in her eyes when the desire to make a new one comes over her.” Jane had fixed the tea to her liking with surprising rapidity and certain movements. Danni had brought over a separate plate for them to dispose of their teabags into it, but there appeared to be something on Jane’s mind.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Danny asked. In truth, she was itching to ask about what Jane had seen, get answered but the poor woman had looked like she was ready to shake apart, cast in the light of her phone’s torchlight. Having paid for her purchases in cash, Danni had a nice shiny penny in her pocket which she withdrew and offered it to Jane.
Surprised at the gesture, Jane held out her palm to receive it and let out the smallest of sighs. “Don’t suppose you have something sweet, do you? I’m just… oh it’s all so much.”
“I bought some chocolate whilst I was in town? Would that do?”
“Do you have flour or butter?”
“Of course.” She hadn’t been eating much since the house party as her previous desire for baking and cooking had faded with the all the drama that had gone on around here.
“Show me where, what do you say to some cookies?” Jane appeared unable to stay still, springing to her feet and striding across to the counter. From within, she pulled out mixing bowl, measuring cup and spoons, a baking sheet and a sturdy wooden spoon. “I need milk, flour, eggs, some baking soda, sugar, butter and some of that chocolate, if you would be so kind? Do you have any brown sugar?”
“I… I can’t recall.” On cue, one of the cupboard doors shifted, opening and closing with a soft bang. Following the hint, Danni pulled it open to reveal a large, unopened bag of brown sugar waiting to be used. When she had gotten it, she had no recollection, but it was quite the pleasant discovery. Taking the chance to put the strawberries in the fridge, Danni retrieved the rest of the desired ingredients and, right before her eyes, Jane started piling everything together, seeming to tell at a glance where there was too much or too little of something, her hands steady in that way that told of years of experience. It was so new to Danni, as her mother would have never been caught dead cooking a meal, much less baking the ideal comfort food for her daughter. At first, she lingered at the side, watching but soon Jane was beckoning her closer.
“Give me a hand over here.” She was speaking so gently, so warmly, Danni couldn’t say no. Together, they sprinkled chunks of chocolate into the dough, rolled it into a thick log which they broke into smaller balls, rounding those out with their hands and pressing them flat onto the baking tray.
“There’s a recipe you can make with mint that makes the edges of the cookies curl up, my cousin showed me how to do it. It’s delicious and she can make them by the bucket! Almost quicker than I can eat them. Almost, though.” Jane explained, placing the tray into the preheated oven. Soon the smell of melted chocolate and baking dough filled the air, as Danni prepared them fresh cups of tea. Somehow, during the proceedings, they had gotten through three cups of the stuff and as she pulled out the piping hot cookies, Jane poured out tall glasses of ice-cold milk for them both.
“This is a rare treat for me. But also, a tradition. One that should always be observed in the current way.” She explained, piling the cookies onto a plate. Danni carried the milk; Jane took care of the cookies and soon they were seated back around the table.
“I’ve never experienced something like this…” Danni admitted. She had been looking forward to trying to plum the answers out of this woman, but the baking had just been so much fun. To her chagrin, she had forgotten.
“You’ve missed out on a lifetime worth of experiences then… and it’s a damnable shame.” Jane chided, handing her the biggest cookie. Danni broke it in half, dipped it into the milk and swore that she had died and must gone to heaven from the first explosion over her tongue. She must have let out a truly indecent sound because now Jane was grinning at her, chewing on her own treat.
“That’s the same face that I had the first time I made these for myself.”
Danni felt her face heat up. Needing to redirect and deciding now was as good a time as any, she decided to focus on the elephant in the room that they both could have won Olympic Medals in dancing around.
“So… I think that we should talk about the… reason you came here.”
Jane paused, the rest of the cookie halfway to her mouth before she set it back down and folded her arms with a deep sigh.
“So… I must say, I don’t know a great deal about what happened, but I can tell you one thing. You see, I get horrible insomnia, so I like to take long walks so that it helps me sleep. I was walking around the night that Joey died… and I saw something.”
Danni’s hands itched with the urge to pick up a pen and jot down what she was hearing.
“First things first, what time was this?” Danni asked, surreptitiously pushing another of the cookies closer to her.
Jane adopted a “Well I always try and go to bed around 10 in case it gets particularly bad… I usually go after walking for about two hours… But I remember I got out a little late that night… so maybe it was around 8 to 8:20…”
Danni prayed that she would be able to recall this information until she got upstairs to jot it all down.
“Alright, so walk me through what happened as best as you can remember. Take as long as you need, I don’t mind waiting all day.” Danni asked, looking around for something that she could use to write. Then she remembered her phone and could have smacked herself. It only took a few seconds to set up the recording, and soon the seconds were ticking away on the LCD screen. “Slow, steady and careful.” She explained.
“Well, I told you about that walk. After I finished dinner, I went out for a walk whilst my husband was cleaning up. I got started on my walk a little late because I had to throw out the rubbish and make a list for the next day… So, I started to walk down my road and reached the Main Street around 20 minutes past 8. I passed by Joey’s place, and I noticed that his back window was open. Now I know him and he’s a creature of habit. I know that he has dinner at half past 6, then goes for a bath an hour later. What’s more, he always keeps the bathroom window open at all times, says that it’s to keep mould from forming on the walls and ceiling.”
“How do you know this?” Danni asked, this sudden wellspring of information sounding all too convenient for one person to know.
“We had an issue with our plumping that they said would last a few days but took about a month last year. Joey, the saint that he was, took us in for that time and we noticed that he had a particular way of doing things. It was strangely calming for us to live like that, and he made us as comfortable as possible. It was like having the roommate from heaven.” Jane praised, smiling wide. “But the point is, Joey had his quirks and… his bath time was one of them. After we would have dinner together, he would settle into the bath for about an hour or two. He said that it was to help him ‘melt the stress away’.
“I can certainly describe it in the same words.” Danni confessed, remembering the first time she had crawled into the massive bathtub here in the house.
“Just the point is this. I walked around the city for about two hours, came back and when I passed Joey’s place again, I noticed that the window was closed! That never happens.”
“Is that all you saw? I have to say, it’s not a heck of a lot to go off of…” As nice as the evening had been, this felt like it had been a waste of time.
“No, no, wait. I saw something else as well!” Jane insisted, putting up her hand quickly and almost knocking over her glass in the process. Thankfully, Danni managed to right it before anything could be lost.
“What did you see?” She asked, slowly.
“I thought it was a fox or a badger, we see those all the time around here. I’d suggest that you take a look around your garden and make sure that none of them have been using it as a litter box.”
“What did you see?” Danni repeated insistently. She chose to ignore the fact that a fox or a badger should have been hibernating at this time of year.
“A figure! It was hunched over and looked like it was stumbling, like it was trying to run on a twisted ankle or something.” Jane explained, picking up the drink and draining half of it.
“You’re absolutely certain of this?” Danni ventured. “You’re positive that it was a human? I mean, it’s pretty dark out there.”
“I know and that’s why I had my torch with me. I shone it on the person, again thinking it was a fox, and it was wearing a thick hoodie and trousers. I couldn’t see their shoes though…”
“Alright… Sounds like it might have been one of those burglars… Curious… that certainly makes things a lot more interesting…” Danni muttered to herself, though she was sure that the mic must have picked it up from how the sound line had jumped up and down.
“You know… you should come down to the Broken Branch. If you want to get some more information, then that’s the place to go. Maybe someone down there has seen something more than me?”
“Really?” Danni, sensing that their conversation about the window was over, turned off the recorder and munched on the last of her cookie.
“We’ve always got a chair ready for everyone, new or old.” Jane explained, reaching over and giving the back of her free hand a squeeze. “Maybe you’ll get some new information there?”
“You really think that I’ll find something?”
“I think that you might. Otherwise, it would be nice to see you down there.”
This thought reverberated around Danni’s head as they cleaned up the counter space, the table and conversation on the subject died. Jane left soon after and Danni was left in the quiet, phone held in one hand, leaning against the counter, eyes fixed on the opposite wall.
“What to do… what to do…” She mused, looking around as if she were expecting to see Cesare, Victor or Eric appear around the corner. Where they might have gone, she had no idea, but she hoped that they were away from the house. Maybe they were outside again and were looking up at the sky… Checking the time, she found that, despite all their talking and baking, only a scant 2 hours had passed.
“What do you think Poppy? Would it be worth taking a trip down to the pub?” Why was she asking a house, of all things, for advice on what to do with her evening?
Glancing at the whiteboard, she got her answer.
‘Yes.’
“Still a house of few words…”
Deciding that she needed more time to ponder what to do after she had gotten down all the facts, she went upstairs to her room. The first thing she noticed was that the book Victor had been reading had been replaced, though the knowledge that he had, once again, intruded upon her room without permission irked her. Still, that wasn’t the biggest change she saw. On the wall where she had hung all of her sticky notes, there were a series of vivid lines leading between each of them.
“Poppy… I know that these were not there the last time I was up here. Who did this?” Why was she still talking to the damn house, a persistently irritated part of her mind demanded to know. Amazingly, as she stared, the lines began to move! Just not move but, like living paint, they started to form words.
“Wanted… to… help…” It was so simple, but it made her heart flutter. “Oh Poppy, why didn’t you say that you want to help?” Danni made up her mind that she was going to find a way to repay this small token. But that was for the morning. For now, she observed the wall as the lines returned to where they had been. “So… Jane saw the window open around 8 or half past… Then she came back around…” Picking up a pen from her desk, Danni did the mental maths quickly. “10 or so… That’s when they spotted the burglar… who… I still know as well as the Loch Ness Monster… Great…” More out of frustration than amusement, she wrote down ‘Nessie’ on the note concerning these strange figures.
Having them on there seemed to be the most likely suspect aside from the Widow, but until she found out who they were, it was a long shot… What’s more, it just didn’t seem to fit their modus operandi. From what she had heard before, they had only taken petty things, only scaring people by accident and returning what they took mere days later. This kind of violence… It just didn’t fit.
Would there really be something at the pub that might illuminate what she was missing in all of this? It just felt… she had to admit; it was a big step. In her efforts to try and gain the praise that her parents had denied her, she had only ever walked past the clubs and pubs that littered the area around her home. She had ignored the talk of drinking and clubbing and parties and it had only been through Tawney’s intervention that she attended the various formals taking place during her university career. Maybe… since she had been trying so hard to do things differently, she could give this a go?
Changing into a thicker set of clothes, a vivid purple long sleeve, her favourite warm jeans, she gathered her effects, slid on her coat and boots again and headed for the door. “Thanks for the help, Poppy. If any of the you-know-who ask, tell them I went out.” They didn’t need to know where. Making sure to lock the door behind her and checking her phone’s battery, she stepped out into the encroaching cold.
She picked up on the smell of the pub before she saw it, picking on the scent of stale beer, and layers of cigarettes that seemed to be coded into the very DNA of places like this. But as she stepped inside, she was pleasantly surprised to find none of the usual trappings that she imagined. The bar area was small with a selection of taps and bottles, and there was a small television set up above that had the attention of the few patrons perched on barstools. But there was no snooker table, nor fruit machines or cigarette dispensers. Not to mention, the place was astonishingly clean. Before, she had always imagined that no matter how the proprietors tried, there would be a film of waxy filth clinging to the tops of tables and counters that they could not remove, no matter how much scrubbing had been done. But not here. The carpets were clearly either new or had been lovingly maintained, with no stains or sticky spots, her feet passing over it almost silently.
“Welcome! AH! Danni! Welcome, welcome, indeed!” Richard, red-faced as ever and beaming from ear to ear as bright as lighthouse. The men crowded around the television, which was playing what looked like a football came, craned their heads around to look at her. Her first instinct was to feel intimidated but, as Richard gestured her closer to the counter, she saw welcoming smiles adorning their faces.
“Was wondering when we would see you here!” Called one of them, giving her a hard clap on the back that almost knocked her glasses off.
“Didn’t imagine I would be so welcomed.” She admitted, fixing the frames so they sat a little more comfortably on her nose.
“Nonsense! All are welcome here if they so desire.” Richard insisted. “What can I get you?”
“I think… just a coke. Just for now.” She ordered a little timidly, unsure of what her alcohol tolerance might be. She had always played it safely at university and that was a habit she was unwilling to change now.
“Gotcha, one pint of coke coming up.” She paid and he soon slid over a glass of pitch-black liquid, filled with ice, to her. She took it gratefully, glad to have a welcome cold touching her fingers for once.
“So, what brings you around here? It’s been so long since I saw you, I was starting to think that you had forgotten where this place was.” He wiped away the line her glass had left behind with a cloth.
“Oh, I could never forget. After all, I would just need to look out for your smile, Richard.”
Richard burst out into a hail of laughter, echoed by the other gentlemen. Each of them was holding amber drinks that smelled distinctly of beer but compared to the occasional glasses of whiskey that she had caught her father drinking; there was no pretence about this. This wasn’t a place to put on airs and present a certain face. It was where masks came to be taken off with the stresses of the day.
Danni had only taken a few sips of her drink before Richard spoke up again. “I wanted to say that was a lovely speech you gave this morning.”
Setting her drink down, Danni smiled sadly back at him. “I wish I had thought to write something better… but then I don’t think that I would have had the courage to stand up and say it… Funny how things work out, huh?” To her credit, she felt that familiar pressure behind her nose but didn’t let it show on her face. Now was not the time for the sniffles.
“Joey would have liked it anyway. He preferred people to be honest, say things straight from the heart.” One of the men insisted.
“Thank you… I appreciate hearing that, Mr uh…” She blanked on the name and the face.
“We’ve never been introduced. Call me Jonathan. I work over on the farms down the way as a hired hand.” He explained. Taking this as their cue, his fellows introduced themselves as well.
“Dominic, Don for short.”
“Edmund, nice to meet you.”
“Call me Ishmael.”
“You’re kidding.” Danni deadpanned, looking the broadly built man up and down.
“I wish I was. My parents apparently lost a bet and so I was cursed with this ridiculous name. Since I’ve yet to find a good nickname to shorten it to, I try and find the funny side to it all.” He explained, draining the last of his glass and handing it over to Richard who replaced it with a fresh one.
“Are you all farmhands?”
“We’re jacks of all trades, but yeah, mostly we work over on the farms. Pays good, workers are always needed, you honestly can’t ask for better out here.”
“Sounds very fulfilling.” She replied, putting her drink down on the counter. It was still mostly full, but the cold was starting to get to her. Seemingly on instinct, Richard placed a coaster under it and flashed her another smile.
“Gentlemen, could I ask you a few questions?” She asked, her hand reaching for her bag and, inside it, her notebook.
“Is it about Joey?” Don asked so offhandedly and Danni felt her cheeks heat up.
“Am I that transparent?” She replied, rubbing at the back of her neck.
“You’ve not done a very good job at hiding what you’re doing. In a place like this, people are good at a lot of things but keeping secrets aren’t one of them. Trust me, if you ever get into a relationship with anyone, you can bet on everyone knowing by the end of the day. It’s a bad habit, but it keeps things from being boring.” Don explained.
Deciding not to dance around the situation any longer, she pulled out her notebook, pen poised about it. “I need to talk to someone, and I don’t know where to find them. I was hoping that you could give me some clarity.”
“Who are you looking for?” Ishmael asked, taking a long drink.
“Widow Samuel’s. We had something of an altercation that I would really like to make up for.” Danni explained.
“It doesn’t look like she smacked you with her slipper, what did you do?” Richard asked, now leaning over the counter, staring at her.
“I kind of… almost… ran her down with my bike…” Danni admitted and it was like swallowing a stone brick.
“And she didn’t break your leg?” Edmund sounded astonished.
“She… what? She wouldn’t really do that, would she?” Wasn’t the woman meant to be elderly?
“She may be getting up there in years, but the woman is a firecracker. She’s not to be messed with.” Richard sounded as if he were speaking from experience.
“How do I find her? I really want to apologise, and I don’t know how to find her… or what to do to make her like me?” Danni pleaded.
“I can give you a hint, strawberries. She adores them and every time I’ve seen her, I can smell them on her.”
“Does she really eat so much that she smells of them?”
“Of course, Joey was the same. I can smell that lavender he always kept on him in that coat you’re wearing.”
Now the heat had to be a full-blown blush. Over her nose, spreading up to her ears, positive that there had to be steam coming out of her ears.
“I’m really not being subtle… am I?” Hoping to distract herself, Danni drained her glass.
“Means you’re fitting in like a glove. Take it as a good thing.” Richard replaced it with a fresh one, except it was filled with water this time. “Good for the kidneys and you won’t wake up feeling drained.” He explained.
“So… where can I find her?”
“Usually…” Ishmael paused to think, his finger tapping the cleft of his chin. “You can find her in the graveyard on Sundays.” Ishmael explained, his face suddenly turning grave. “Her husband is buried there…”
“How do you know?” Richard asked and Ishmael gave him a look Danni couldn’t explain. He hadn’t said anything in so long, she could have been forgiven for forgetting that he was even there.
“I asked my folks once before they moved. Turns out… they were at the funeral.” Rather than go quiet, Ishmael’s companions gave him hard thumps on the back.
“You ass! We’ve known you for years and you never told us this!”
Danni zoned out this part of the conversation, took her water and scanned the rest of the room. She didn’t need to get involved.
Surprisingly for a Saturday night, it was very quiet. Aside from the squabbling group around the t.v., the only other person had crammed themselves into a corner, a drink on the table in front of them and looking as if their whole world had crashed down upon them. Then she realised that they were wearing an alarming shade of pink!
Slipping away whilst the men were distracted, Danni approached her table with her water glass in hand.
“Maggie, are you okay?” Maggie looked up at her and Danni had to admit that she looked dreadful! Between seeing her at the church, the shop and now, she had cleaned off her face and tried to reapply it. Except it looked patchy and her eyes were surrounded by thick black rings of smudged eyeliner or maybe it was mascara? Danni didn’t know the first thing about makeup.
Maggie tried to say something, but the words didn’t come out. It seemed that all of her crying had done a number on her voice. Danni handed over the glass without a word in a gesture of sympathy, taking a seat at the table. Maggie looked at her sullenly, taking the drink and draining the glass.
“Feeling better?” She asked, hearing Richard moving around behind her. A jug of sweet-smelling water and two clean glasses were placed before them.
“Here ladies, this might help.” Was all that he said and when Danni reached her wallet, he put up his hand. “Don’t worry, water is always going to be free around here.”
It took a moment of silent staring before Danni took the initiative to pour glasses for them both. Unfortunately, as it came splashed into the glass, her stomach gave a warning rumble.
“Oh boy, please excuse me, Maggie. I need to head to the bathroom.” Without waiting and forgetting her bag, she headed to the back where the bathrooms were. As she went past the gentleman and the TV, they let out a triumphant cheer.
Five minutes later, feeling considerably lighter, Danni ventured back out. Only… there was something different about her bag. It wasn’t where she had left it!
“Did someone touch my bag?” She asked, hurrying up to the table and starting to look around, underneath and on each of the chairs.
“Oh! Yeah, it fell off the table, so I was just holding onto it. I don’t think anything fell out.” Maggie said for the first time, pulling the large shoulder bag out from underneath the table.
“Thanks, did you see what happened?” Danni asked, pulling it over. Looking inside, it didn’t seem that anything had been disrupted or taken.
“It was those lot, they were jumping so loud, it rocked the entire floor. Made everything shake.” Maggie jabbed a talon like thumb over at the group surrounding the TV. Sure, they were all chatting animatedly, but it didn’t seem that they were really making all that much noise. Tucking that aside, Danni settled for being relieved that nothing was missing.
“So… how are you feeling? I noticed you looked a bit… out of sorts earlier. When I came to visit you at the shop?” Danni asked, wondering if Maggie even remembered.
“It’s just been a lot lately. First, I have to come all the way just for my brother to be so rude to me. Then I find him dead in his own bathtub! That funeral was awful, everyone was laughing at him, like they thought he was a big joke! It’s been exhausting.”
Was that how she thought of everyone trying to alleviate their grief? Did she think they were really making fun of her brother?
“I don’t… That’s not…” She tried, only for Maggie to start again.
“I’ve been trying to run that shop, but it’s a mess! I didn’t know that my brother could be so abysmal with his money!”
“I didn’t realise that—!”
“My husband is being just the worst! He won’t listen to me! I had to come here just to get away from him and his madness! He keeps saying that we should try and stay to run the shop, then he says we should leave, he can’t make up his mind! We keep fighting and I just can’t stand it anymore. Everyone is being so horrible to me and it’s like I’m all alone here.”
“I’m sure they’re not… I mean, I got them to like me by holding a kind of house party.” Sure, it had been an accident, but she wouldn’t tell her that. “I made them a sponge cake and all. If you just give it a try, I’m sure you’ll make friends around here.”
“I don’t bake, can’t stand it and these nails weren’t made for it.” She flashed her claw-like fingers at Danni. They were so highly polished, Danni swore that she could see her own face staring back at her from their surface. “No one likes me so what’s the point? They wouldn’t come.”
“Well… I like you. If you wanted to, then feel free to come up to my house. I’ll make sure to have a warm pot of tea waiting for you.” Danni offered in as supportive a tone as she could manage.
Maggie gave her a look that she couldn’t translate. Somehow, they both finished off the jug, with Danni insisting that Maggie take the most of it so she could recover from crying so much before Danni made her excuses to leave. She had already done so much socialising; she could tell when her battery was low and right now, it was running on fumes. She bid goodbye to the men around the bar and headed for the door, holding her bag close to her. There was something about what Maggie had said that didn’t sit right with her. She had hoped to get a little more information, yet she was satisfied with what she had been able to glean.
She was walking through the door before she was even aware of her feet hitting the pavement and saw Cesare, Victor and Erik gathered around the table again. Each of them was holding onto a crimson bag and looked up at her in alarm, as if they had been caught doing something criminal. But Danni didn’t have the energy to do focus on that.
“Where were you?” Cesare asked, rising to his feet but Danni pushed past him.
“You smell awful!” Victor remarked behind her and she paused only long enough to give him the finger.
“Are you okay?” Eric asked.
Danni didn’t answer. It had happened when she’d been walking up the road, but her whole body seemed to sag with fatigue. It wasn’t just physical anymore; she was completely exhausted on every level. She didn’t think to strip off and wash the smell of the pub off herself, only changed into her pyjamas and fall into bed.
Her last coherent thought to cross her mind was that tomorrow was Sunday.