Page 27 of A Village Theatre Murder
The three of them looked at each other, each coming to the same conclusion. But it was Julia who voiced it.
‘Whoever put the bullet in the gun did so after I put it in the cupboard, and they wiped it clean. Whoever murdered Graham put the bullet in the gun after I put it in the props cupboard, but before you took it out. Isn’t that right, Roger?’
The three of them all looked at each other. This put an entirely new spin on things.
14
It was the most peaceful walk Julia had ever had since she had adopted Jake. The Guide Dog School dropout had been the terror of Berrywick and surrounds. Chasing geese, stealing ice creams and biscuits from small children, threatening to topple the elderly. Rolling in lord knew what.
He’d calmed down in the three years she’d had him, that was for sure, but he was still a ball of energy. Unpredictable energy. On a walk like this, he’d usually be tearing about the place.
But look at him now, trotting calmly alongside Jono, with Leo on his other side, their tails wagging in tandem, like a cheerful metronome. The dogs weren’t even on leads, but they stayed on the path, on Jono’s left, keeping pace with his brisk walk. Jono stopped at the junction between the path and the cross path. He made a small hand gesture, and the dogs stopped too. They looked at him, calm but alert, awaiting instruction.
‘It’s like he can control them with his mind,’ Julia whispered.
Sean shook his head in wonder. ‘It’s amazing. But it’s like the dogs have some weird effecton him too. They calm him.’
From her position some feet behind Jono and the dogs, Julia saw another dog approaching. It was a very large dog in a harness, the lead held lightly in the hand of a young woman wearing a bright yellow polo neck under baggy denim dungarees. There was something odd about the animal’s gait. Julia wondered if it was some novel designer breed. A Saluki-Great Dane cross, or something.
As the girl and the dog drew level with Jono, Sean and Julia caught up with them.
‘It’s a goat!’ said Sean, rather unnecessarily, because they could all see it quite clearly now, a tan and white goat, with short, stubby horns and little pointed hoofs. It looked at their group nervously, not sure of the dogs. The animal’s pupils were shaped like slits, which gave its rather sweet, dim face an evil air, up close.
‘Sit and stay,’ Jono instructed the dogs in a calm tone. They obeyed immediately.
‘The dogs are all right,’ Jono said, as the girl hesitated to pass them. ‘Nice goat.’
‘Thank you. Nice dogs.’
‘Thank you.’ Jono smiled, proudly.
‘They are very well-behaved. You’ve obviously trained them well.’
‘I like dogs,’ he said, looking down at his charges, and then up, at her face. ‘Do you like goats?’
She smiled, revealing pretty, slightly skewed teeth. ‘I grew up with them. My parents keep goats, and make cheese from the milk. This one’s mum died and I fed her with a bottle. To cut a long story short, she’s a dog now.’
Jono laughed. It was a sound, Julia realised, that she hadn’t heard before. His face lit up, his frown softened and disappeared. The girl laughed too.
‘At play,’ Jono said, flicking his hand in the direction of the field. The dogs bolted, gambolling and chasing each other acrossthe grass to a drift of early-autumn leaves under the oaks. Jake went in like a child dive-bombing into a swimming pool. Leo tore in after him. They wrestled and played, growling and snapping at each other in good humour.
‘Ah, look how happy they are. Makes you happy to see it. I’m Laine, by the way.’ As the girl spoke, she pulled at her thick dark plait, twirling the end of it, then flicked it back over her shoulder.
‘Jono.’
Julia realised that the older couple should probably not be standing there watching the young ones like two dim-witted chaperones. She tugged Sean’s arm gently to move him on, and walked off in the direction the dogs had taken.
‘Well, that’s a new one,’ Sean said.
‘What, Jono flirting?’
‘No, a goat on a…Wait, what do you mean, he wasflirting? Was he?’
‘Er, yes, Sean. And she was flirting with him.’
‘Goodness, I had no idea. Of course, you are a trained professional. An expert in interpersonal relations. That’s why you can pick up the subtle clues that regular people would miss.’
‘I have eyeballs in my head. Itwaspretty obvious.’
