MURDER IN PEMBROKESHIRE an absolutely gripping crime mystery full of twists (Tyrone Swift Detective by GRETTA MULROONEY (free reads .txt) 📗

In the meadow, she led him along the hedgerow and pointed to an area of low-growing plants with broad, oval leaves and purple spiked flowers.

‘There you are. Greater plantain.’

‘Isn’t that a weed?’

‘It is, but it’s also okay to eat. The young leaves are best. I use them in salads. They were in the salad you missed the other night, when you blew me off for supper. Here.’ She nipped a small leaf from the plant and gave it to him.

It was slightly tart, rather like Kat. ‘Not sure I’m that keen.’

‘It grows on you. Afan didn’t like it at first either.’ She took a cloth bag from her pocket, knelt down and opened it out. ‘I’ll pick from this plant if you do another.’ She added despondently, ‘Better make the most of this while I can. I might be homeless soon.’

‘Bryn and Bruno are hopeful that the Merchants will sell to them. They were going to discuss it with them last night.’

‘Yeah, maybe. We’ll see. It’s been a crap week, that’s all I can say. Everything coming apart at the seams.’

‘Where will you go if you do have to leave?’

‘I’m not sure yet.’

They picked in silence and then carried on along the edge of the meadow. Swift noted that her limp had improved. Kat gave an informative commentary on the riches of the hedgerow and the uses of flowers, nuts and berries. Sharing her learning seemed to lift her mood. She was much better at this than at woodcarving.

She commented briefly on the hazelnuts they gathered. ‘Best to pick them now, when they’re still green. The shelled nuts make tasty nibbles, or you can roast them in the oven, or make hazelnut butter. If you wait till later in the year, they’ll probably all have been taken by squirrels.’ When they moved on to rowanberries she told him that they were once planted to protect farm cottages from roaming witches. ‘You can’t eat them raw, but they make great jams and jellies. You can make schnapps with them. I was planning to ask Afan if he wanted to try making schnapps with me this autumn. Best laid plans. He’s gone and I’ll probably be gone too.’

‘If you do stay, you can organise foraging expeditions for the public. I understand that people here have lots of ideas about developing Tir Melys and branching out.’

‘Maybe. Just can’t see it working, somehow.’

‘Well . . . you’re good at this foraging business. You have skills you should share. You’d get people to come along if you publicised it.’

‘Really? You mean that?’

‘Of course.’

‘Thanks. Thanks a lot.’ She smiled, her eyes locked on him, brightening.

He did mean it, but he was deliberately softening her up. He disliked her so much that he couldn’t bother sparing her feelings. He bent, cracked two hazelnuts on a stone and handed her one of the nuts. She had a child’s plaster on one of her fingers, decorated with Elsa from Frozen.

‘I’ve found out about the bouldering group and what happened to Afan at Ogmore,’ he said. ‘You were there in another group when Dru Knight fell.’

She rolled the nut in her hand. ‘Did Afan tell you about that?’

‘Never mind. Were you in touch with him in the years since then?’

She rolled the nut with the tip of a finger. ‘Not as such.’

She can never manage a simple yes or no. ‘Did you realise that Afan was living here when you arranged to move in?’

‘I might have done.’

‘I’ll take that as a yes. Let’s see. Was your decision to move here anything to do with that knowledge of the Ogmore incident and a desire to revisit it with Afan?’

She pulled a mulish face. ‘You can mind your own business. You’re not the slightest bit interested in my company or foraging, are you?’

‘I might be, having tried it. Foraging, that is. Did you fancy Afan back then, when you were a member of MOVE? Were you following up an old flame or was there more to it?’

‘What are you on about?’ She seemed rooted to the spot and her hands were clasped tight around the hazelnut.

‘I’ll tell you, Kat. Afan must have spent years trying to get over what happened to Dru Knight. He found peace here and then you turned up. I can’t imagine what that must have been like for him.’ In fact, he could, only too well. Demanding, predatory Kat had arrived and lurked across the way, hungry for Afan’s attention and affection, a constant reminder of the awful event. ‘Did you blackmail Afan? Did he pay you to keep quiet about Dru Knight?’

She threw the hazelnut into the hedge. Her expression was peevish. ‘I’m not talking to you. You’re so nasty. I can’t imagine why Afan was friends with you. He was nice. He was sorry that I’d suffered my own trauma back then at Ogmore, seeing that woman with her head split open. Brains and blood all over the place. I never got over it, actually, and when I had my own injury, it brought it all back.’

‘I’m sure it did. And you decided a trauma could be exploited, in more ways than one.’

‘I hate you!’ She seized the foraging bag and swung it at him, catching him on the arm. It bounced off. Leaves and nuts weren’t much use as weapons. She stomped away, back along the meadow, barely limping.

He picked, cracked and chewed a couple of hazelnuts and walked on towards the coast path. He needed to see the horizon, scent the salt air. His phone picked up a signal. He had a missed call from Sofia.

‘Aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital this morning?’ Swift said when she answered.

‘I am. I’m hanging around. Hospitals are ninety-nine per