Free A Market for Murder by Rebecca Tope Page A

behind. ‘All clear?’ he asked.
    Karen wished he’d been slightly earlier, so she could have slammed the front door. It would have alerted him to her mood. Instead she merely nodded.
    ‘You kept them out here all that time?’ he marvelled. ‘Poor blokes.’
    ‘You knew who they were then?’
    ‘I saw the car outside. Thought I should keep a low profile, as they say. It’s made Steph awfully late for bed though.’
    ‘Drew, it was horrible,’ Karen burst out. ‘Stop making it sound as if the vicar just dropped by.’ She watched him bite back a quip about vicars, before adding, ‘And I’ve got to go to their IncidentRoom tomorrow morning. With all the kids.’
    ‘You can’t. It’ll be bedlam. And you can’t get them all into the car.’
    ‘So I’ll leave them here for you to watch, shall I?’
    He frowned.
    ‘How long will you be?’
    ‘An hour or so, I imagine. Don’t worry – I can ask Della. She probably isn’t doing anything.’
    Drew glanced down at the little girl at his side. ‘Well, I’ll do bedtime then, shall I? I’ll be down again in a bit.’ And he led Stephanie upstairs, where her little brother was almost certainly already fast asleep.
    When he came down again, Karen was on the sofa with a brimming glass of white wine. ‘I need this,’ she said, as his eyebrows rose. ‘You can get yourself one too, if you want.’
    When he’d settled in an armchair at right angles to her, without any wine of his own, he leant his head back and gazed at the ceiling. ‘Mrs Grafton phoned today,’ he said. ‘I haven’t had a chance to tell you. We’ve got the funeral.’
    ‘Congratulations,’ she said, half sincerely. ‘When?’
    ‘Don’t know yet. Still lots to do.’
    Karen laughed abruptly, a harsh sound without humour. ‘Maybe they think I killed him, to bring you some business.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Why do I seem to be slap bang in the middle of it all, that’s what I want to know? It’s horrible, having the police pestering me, and Geraldine making scary hints, and Mary telling me to get lost. I feel as if I’m falling down a long dark hole, and every day takes me deeper. It’s got nothing to do with me, and yet I’m reminded of it at every turn.’
    ‘What exactly is it? ’
    ‘That’s the trouble – I don’t know. It must have something to do with the farmers’ markets, or the Food Chain people, I suppose. Something’s been going on that I must have missed out on. There’s a meeting tomorrow evening; I suppose I’ll find out a bit more then.’
    ‘Assuming you want to,’ he murmured.
    ‘Oh yes, Drew,’ she said with feeling. ‘After having my little girl almost blown up, I do most definitely want to.’
    Karen was distracted and short-tempered even before Della arrived with her boys on Thursday morning, ten minutes earlier than usual. Karen had phoned her, and asked if she could stay at Karen’s with all four, while Karen went to do her duty as a police witness.
    The reply had been unenthusiastic. ‘Well, try not to be long,’ Della had said. ‘I’ve got plans for the day.’
    When she turned up, she seemed to have forgotten all about her fainting fit of two days earlier. ‘Sorry I’m a bit ahead of myself,’ she breezed. ‘I thought you could get this police stuff over with quickly and let me get going.’
    ‘Oh?’ Karen was unsure what to make of this.
    ‘I thought I’d go to Taunton and find some things for the summer. Is there anything you want?’
    ‘Like what?’ Karen had a bizarre vision of Della buying a swimsuit or pair of shorts on her behalf.
    ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Della waved a careless hand.
    ‘So you’re quite recovered then?’ Karen asked coolly. ‘After Tuesday?’
    ‘Gosh – sorry. I should have thanked you, shouldn’t I. It seems ages ago now. I was back to normal right away. It wasn’t like me at all. I suppose it was just the shock.’ She eyed Karen accusingly. ‘You did tell it rather, well, baldly .’
    ‘We’re