Free LS 13 - Murder in a Different Place by Lesley Cookman Page A

with Matthew.’
    Libby led the way round the house to where they found Honoria digging in a raised bed amid a forest of bean sticks.
    ‘So this is where you can see down into Candle Cove,’ said Fran, peering down through a screen of scrubby trees.
    Honoria straightened up, a hand in the small of her back. ‘Where we sat during the storm.’ She nodded at the house, where two tall windows stood open. ‘Help you?’
    ‘If you don’t mind,’ said Libby. ‘We’ve just been talking to Amelia.’
    ‘We wondered if any of the people at Matthew’s funeral could have known about – well – Harry’s family,’ added Fran.
    Honoria grunted. ‘Shouldn’t think so. Not many of ʼem around.’
    ‘Around years ago, do you mean?’ said Libby.
    ‘Dead, most of ʼem,’ said Honoria. ‘Old Lady Bligh and the Dougans about the only people.’
    ‘So most of the people at the funeral wouldn’t have known anything about a scandal back – well, whenever it was?’
    Honoria shook her head. ‘Ask Alicia.’
    ‘We shall,’ said Fran. ‘You’d know everyone, though? You’ve lived here all your life?’
    Honoria shrugged. ‘Most of it.’ She returned to her digging.
    ‘You lived on the mainland?’ persisted Libby, making a face at Fran. ‘So you could have missed something that happened during that period?’
    ‘Would have been told,’ said Honoria, without looking up.
    Libby opened her mouth and shut it again at a look from Fran.
    ‘Thank you, we’ll let you carry on gardening,’ said Fran. ‘Perhaps we’ll see Alicia another time.’ She turned and shooed Libby in front of her.
    ‘I wanted to know –’ began Libby.
    ‘I know – when she was away. But it was beginning to sound like an interrogation, and she obviously wasn’t as proud of her time off the Island as Amelia.’
    ‘So what’s she hiding?’ said Libby as they came out in front of the house and The Shelf.
    ‘Probably nothing,’ sighed Fran.
    ‘What do we do now?’
    ‘Wait for Alicia?’
    ‘We don’t know how long that’ll be.’
    ‘Oh, not long,’ said Fran with a grin. ‘I can hear a car.’
    Alicia appeared from the direction of the car park at the top of the cliff laden with shopping bags. Libby and Fran hurried forward to relieve her of some of them.
    ‘Thank you, dears.’ Alicia pushed a wisp of hair off her forehead. ‘Were you waiting for me?’
    ‘We’ve seen Amelia and Honoria,’ said Libby as they followed her into the house, ‘so we were actually just leaving.’
    ‘Well, now I’m here you can have a cup of coffee and tell me what you talked to them about.’ Alicia led the way into the large kitchen and filled a kettle before beginning to unpack her bags.
    ‘We were asking if either of them thought any of the funeral guests would know of anything in the past,’ began Libby, as Fran took tins out of a canvas bag.
    ‘Do you mean connected to Harry?’
    ‘Well – to his – um – relatives.’
    Alicia took instant coffee out of a cupboard. ‘Let me see … when would it have been?’
    ‘We don’t really know,’ said Fran. ‘Going by Matthew’s age, which was – what? Mid-eighties?’
    ‘Eighty-one,’ said Alicia. ‘We’re all in our eighties. Except poor Celia, of course. She was the baby, only seventy-eight.’
    ‘So if someone had a baby, they were either your sort of age now, or at least in their sixties, given how old Harry is.’ Fran was emptying another bag.
    ‘Thank you, dear.’ Alicia poured water into a tall coffee pot. ‘Just leave them on the table and I’ll put them away later. Now, let’s think.’ She pulled out a chair and sat at the table, resting her chin on her hands. ‘Who did the girls say might remember?’
    ‘Only a couple of people,’ said Libby, sitting on the other side of the table. ‘The Dougans and Lady Bligh.’
    ‘Yes, they’re all our generation. Most of the others are younger, so it could have been anyone. I didn’t know everybody there, you