‘That was close, Lady.’ He wondered why Masters looked so angry. Surely it couldn’t be anything related to him? Masters couldn’t know that Fiona had been to see him, although a few minutes earlier and he would have caught them talking. They would have to be more careful in future. Fiona might have been able to fob her boss off with an excuse that she had come to see if Sophie would join her to deliver the bad news to Mrs Sissons on this occasion, but not if it became a habit.
He put the mugs in the dishwasher, changed the note to Sophie and grabbed Lady’s lead.
‘Come on, Lady. Let’s go visit that community centre.’
8
Carlos arrived at the community centre in the village just as a meeting was ending. He tied Lady up outside.
‘Stay, girl.’
From the notice on the door, he gleaned it had been a historical society lecture. A general hubbub echoed around the large main hall with groups of people chatting while drinking tea or coffee. Carlos wandered in with no-one challenging him as to why he was there. He noticed a few people engaging in conversation with a man packing away a slide projector, presumably the speaker. Spying a crowd around a kitchenette serving bar, he made his way over. People mingling close by were being served hot drinks and biscuits.
A vicar stopped him in his tracks.
‘Hello there. I’m afraid the talk is over, but we are still serving tea and coffee. You’re welcome to join us. I’m Barney, Barney Milnthorpe.’
‘Carlos Jacobi.’ Carlos shook the proffered hand.
‘We haven’t seen you here before. Are you visiting the area? We have so many delightful villages in the Peaks. In fact, we’ve just had a talk on the plague of Eyam. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.’
Carlos didn’t know which question to answer first, but realised the vicar wasn’t expecting one at all as he waxed lyrical on the afternoon’s topic of interest. Carlos had to confess he’d not heard of the Eyam plague.
‘Eyam’s just up the road from here,’ the friendly vicar continued. ‘You may have visited it already. The astonishing thing was that while the bubonic plague was running rampant throughout the country, the residents of Eyam, under instruction from the rector, William Mompesson – now famous in these parts – locked themselves in and cut themselves off from the outside world to contain the infection. A selfless act if ever there was one.’
Carlos found himself fascinated by the story despite himself, and momentarily lost the focus of why he was visiting the community centre.
‘They showed incredible bravery,’ Barney continued. ‘Well over half the population died and are buried around here. The village has been a source of local and national interest to historians ever since.’
‘My girlfriend studied history at university. She would love the story if she doesn’t already know about it. She and her father share the passion. Actually, her father’s a vicar in Hertfordshire.’
‘How interesting. Perhaps I’ve met him. We do leave our cloisters every so often and gather for national and international meetings. What’s his name? Forgive me for asking, but Jacobi is a Jewish name, isn’t it? I’m interested in names; etymology is one of my hobbies.’
Again, Carlos was stumped to know whether an answer was required to either question, but as the ebullient vicar had paused for breath, he decided to answer the first one.
‘Brendan Prince is my girlfriend’s father.’
Barney shook his head. ‘No, not familiar, but I might know his face if I saw him. Prince, now that is an interesting surname—’
‘Barney, darling, do let this young man find a drink.’
Carlos was rescued by a tall, slim woman with permed ash-blonde hair. She was around the same age as the vicar, mid-fifties, and presumably his wife. She took Carlos by the arm and directed him to where tea was being served.
‘My husband loves to talk to people he hasn’t met before,’ she apologised.
‘He was telling me about today’s talk, it sounded fascinating.’
‘Oh, it was, although when you live so close, you’ve heard it so many times, but it is an old favourite among our historical society, particularly when Reggie delivers it.’ She turned and waved to the speaker who was leaving the hall. ‘Are you visiting the area?’
‘Yes, I’m staying with my sister and brother-in-law. Sophie and Gary Cole.
‘We’ve met Gary, but I don’t think your sister comes to church, does she?’
‘They’ve not long moved to the area and she’s been busy decorating the house. She works long hours, too.’
‘I see. What does she do? I know Gary works for Rolls Royce.’
‘She’s a paralegal for a law firm.’ Carlos didn’t mention the firm specialised in medical negligence, as he didn’t want his sister inundated with questions about potential claims.
‘Interesting. Perhaps we’ll see both of them at the carol service in church Sunday night. And you, I hope, if you’re staying over the Christmas season. I’m Doreen, by the way. Barney’s my husband.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Doreen. I’m Carlos. I’ll mention the carol service when I get back, and I’d love to come, thank you.’ Carlos knew from Rachel’s home village how the community often congregated around the church in one way or another, if not for religious services, then for other meetings. The community centre was next door to the church, he’d noticed on his way in. ‘You probably know their next-door neighbour, Meg Sissons.’
‘Yes, we do. Poor love. I try to visit her most weeks. She hasn’t been seen much since her husband went missing. Not that she ever came out without Harold. I expect you’ve heard about his disappearance. The police told her he’d run away, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe that. Now we’ve had sad news on that front. A body’s been found in the local woods. It’s sent shock waves through the community, I can tell you.’
Barney appeared behind his wife, clearly not wanting to miss out on what could be the village gossip for some time.
‘We don’t know for certain it was Harold, Doreen.’ Looking back at Carlos, ‘I overheard you saying you’re staying next door to Meg, Carlos. Perhaps you’ve heard something.’
‘Yes, a body has been found, sadly. My brother-in-law and I stumbled across it last night. Well, it was my dog who found the poor man, really.’ Carlos had now drawn a crowd of half a dozen people keen to glean what they could. A woman serving tea craned her neck as she handed him a cup and saucer.
‘And was the body that of Harold Sissons?’ asked an elderly man with piercing blue eyes and an air of military authority. Others stood aside to let him in closer.
‘I believe it was Mr Sissons, yes. Earlier, I met a detective who was about to give Mrs Sissons the tragic news.’
Quiet gasps and a murmuring filled the air, with some people saying, ‘I told you so. No way he would have left Peaks Hollow.’
‘Heart attack, I suppose?’ said Barney.
‘Well, death comes to us all eventually. He did tend to be a stress head, I’m not surprised he’s snuffed it. Can’t say he was popular around here, either.’ The military man sniffed.