Free The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters Page A

from his hand, when he suddenly barked, "Did you say Ranelagh? Any connection with the woman who claimed Annie was murdered?"
    "That's who 1 am," I said. "I didn't realize the name would mean anything to you."
    "Oh, goodness me, yes! You were quite famous for a while."
    "For all of fifteen minutes," I agreed dryly. "They weren't the most pleasant fifteen minutes of my life."
    "No, I don't suppose they were." A pause. "You had quite a tough time of it afterward."
    "Yes."
    He clearly didn't like one-word answers and sought for a change of subject. "Someone told me you and your husband went abroad. Did that work out all right?"
    I guessed it was his polite way of asking me if I was still married, so I assured him I was, gave him a thumbnail sketch of our twenty years away, mentioned my two boys, then asked him if I might pay him a visit. "To talk about Annie's neighbors," I explained, wishing I could put a little more enthusiasm into my voice at the prospect of seeing him again. I was relying on his sense of duty to agree to the meeting, but I didn't believe he had any more relish for it than I did.
    A more noticeably guarded edge crept into his voice. "Is that wise?" he asked. "Twenty years is a long time, and you seem to have done so well for yourselves ... stayed together ... made a family ... put the unpleasantness behind you."
    "You remember our little chat then?" I murmured. "I didn't think you would."
    "I remember it well," he said.
    "Then you'll understand why I want to talk about Annie's neighbors."
    I heard his sigh down the wire. "What good will it do to rake over dead ashes?"
    "It depends what you find," I said. "My father put a log on the fire once and a gold sovereign dropped out of it as it burnt. Someone had obviously hidden it in the tree and a couple of centuries later my father reaped the reward."
    Another pause. "I think you're making a mistake, Mrs. Ranelagh, but I'm free on Friday afternoon. You're welcome to come any time after two o'clock."
    "Thank you." It was my turn to pause. "Why am I making a mistake?"
    "Revenge is an unworthy ambition."
    I stared into a gilt-edged mirror that was hanging on the wall in front of me. It was old and cracked and, standing where I was then, it produced a lengthened image that made my face look thin and cruel. "It's not revenge I'm after," I said with studied lightness. "It's justice."
    The vicar gave an unexpected laugh. "I don't think so, Mrs. Ranelagh."
 
    I had no intention of taking Sam to Exeter so I told him it was pointless for the pair of us to go when the lawn needed mowing and the flower beds tidying. He seemed happy enough although I caught him looking at me rather strangely over breakfast. "What's the matter?" I asked.
    "I was just wondering why everyone seems to be moving to the west country," he said.
 
    Peter Stanhope's parish was in the St. David's area of Exeter. I arrived too early and sat at the end of the road for an hour, watching the world go by through my windshield. I was on the edge of the university campus, and most of the pedestrian traffic seemed to be students-groups of boys and girls carrying books, or young couples clamped at the hip and shoulder like Siamese twins. I found myself envying them, particularly the skimpily clad girls in bottom-hugging skirts and crop tops, who swung along in the sunshine and radiated the sort of confidence I had never had.
    The original vicarage was an impressive Victorian mansion, hidden behind high hedges, with a real estate agent's board outside, advertising a "desirable penthouse flat" for sale. The new vicarage was a cheaply constructed cube, across the road from the church, lacking both charm and character. As I parked outside at exactly two o'clock, I was beginning to wish I'd had the sense to spend the last hour in a pub. Dutch courage would have been better than no courage at all. A part of me thought about driving away with my tail between my legs, but I noticed a net curtain twitch in a downstairs