Death on the Lake by Jo Allen (early reader books TXT) 📗

just because she was so clearly in shock but because he sensed she was the sort of witness who would close up on principle if someone put her back up.

‘Of course I assumed it must be. Because of the overalls. And the hair colour. And because…well.’ She looked down at her feet and then back up. ‘You’ll have to know, I suppose. Luke was around here at lunchtime. I’m afraid he had a bit of a run-in with my stepsons.’

‘Oh?’

‘I don’t know what it was about. Only that they fell out and they came to blows. Of course, Luke was more than capable of looking after himself, and the fight broke up when I came out. The twins sustained more damage than he did, I think. Luke was rather abusive to me and threatened me when I tried to smooth things over.’

‘In what way?’

She twisted her fingers together. ‘He said that if I wasn’t careful, Summer wouldn’t be the only person to be found floating in the lake. But then he left — back to work, I thought — and I went back into the house. The twins went back before me, and they were in the house from then on. They’re here now, playing some video game, I think. I had a cup of coffee and came out afterwards for a walk and I came to the bridge and I—’ Words failed her. She nodded towards the bridge.

‘Then I think the obvious thing for me to do is talk to your stepsons.’ He paused. ‘I’m guessing Mr Neilson isn’t home?’

‘No. He had business in Newcastle today and left earlier on, about nine o’clock I think. I called him immediately after I’d dialled 999 and he’s already on his way back.’

Robert Neilson, out of the dale again at the crucial time. Faye would be interested in that. Though of course you could turn that around and argue that whoever had killed Luke — and in his mind there was no doubt that it was no accident — had made sure Robert was elsewhere before they did so. ‘Right. Then I’ll talk to the two boys, if I may.’

Miranda bounced to her feet and went into the hall, with Jude following her. ‘Ollie! Will! Can you come down here, please?’

A head appeared at the top of the stairs, swiftly followed by a second. ‘Everything okay, Miranda?’

‘Everything is not okay. The police are here and they want to talk to you.’

The two of them came skidding down the stairs at that, like a pair of five year olds, wide-eyed. One of them had a swelling bruise under his right eye, the other a split lip from which blood still trickled. ‘We haven’t done anything. Jeez, Luke didn’t call the police did he? It was only a joke. It was him who started it.’

‘No,’ Miranda said, sounding suddenly weary, ‘he didn’t call them. I did. Because,’ (she gave Jude a quick look as if challenging him to stop her) ‘when I was out for my walk I came across Luke—’

‘We don’t know what happened.’ Jude decided to cut her off before she used the word murder and freaked them out. ‘We found his body underneath the bridge at the entrance to Boredale. I’m just asking around to find out if anyone saw anything. Nothing more, at this stage.’

‘Like you did with Summer?’ one of the boys asked, and the other nudged him rather too obviously. From outside the sound of a distant siren split the air, some emergency vehicle coming late to the party, and they exchanged glances again.

‘Yes.’ Jude introduced himself, and caught the look that flicked between them as they registered his rank. Twins. If they had anything to do with it they’d have sorted their stories beforehand, just as they so obviously had done over Summer. For a moment he was tempted to interview the two of them together, just so he could try and read their interaction, intercept the secret signals they were bound to have, but in the end he decided against it. The chances were that they’d be able to read one another’s minds, pick up on each other’s cues, without him seeing anything though it was right under his nose. It was better to take them separately, to see if there were any differences. ‘I’d like a quick word with you, a witness statement. You know the drill by now, I expect.’

‘Shall I start? I’m Ollie.’ The one with the bruised cheek put himself forward with the sort of grim determination you might see on a family trip to the dentist, the child who always goes first to get the misery out of the way. ‘We’ll go to the kitchen. That’s where we were before.’

They went through to the kitchen and sat down, Jude making notes while Ollie rattled through an account of his and his twin’s actions. ‘It was childish, I know. But Will and I had had a couple of beers and we thought it would be funny to hang around in the lane and see if anyone came along that we could jump out on. Miranda said we were immature and I suppose you think she’s right.’

Jude declined to comment. ‘Go on. What happened?’

‘We saw Luke come along, but before he got to us he turned up to the house. The main gates were locked, so he jumped over the wall and went up to the house. There was no-one in, and we reckoned if he was there for a long time he’d have broken in to see what he could get, so we hung around to see. But he was back down the drive straight away.’ There was almost a trace of disappointment in his voice.

‘Any reason why you supposed Mr Helmsley was going to break into the house?’

Ollie had the grace to look ashamed. ‘No, not really. Except he obviously hates us, and I think the only reason for that is because we’ve got so much and he’s got so little.