Murder on the Menu, page 4
Shilpa left the icing to set and turned her attention to the fresh cream strawberry gateau she had made for Olivia’s birthday. Olivia and she were firm friends now that Shilpa had just about got over the embarrassing situation last year; where she had found herself attracted to her old university friend and local police sergeant Danny, who just happened to be married to Olivia’s sister. Her private shame had stayed with her. She still cringed every time she thought about it.
‘She was so young,’ Brijesh said, bringing Shilpa back to the present.
‘Exactly,’ Shilpa said. ‘Too young to die. Don’t you want to know what happened to her?’
‘What’s to know? They were young at a beach party. There were drugs, booze, dancing, etcetera, etcetera. She misstepped and fell. Aren’t you more interested in finding out what happened to Roy?’
‘The past has a way of repeating itself,’ Shilpa said.
‘I don’t think there’s a connection.’
‘So what’s your theory?’ she asked, regretting her words as they left her mouth. She piped the fresh cream on the top of the gateau and retrieved the strawberries from the fridge. Cutting off the stalks, she placed them around the edge of the cake.
‘It was the wife. She had an heir on the way. Maybe the child wasn’t Roy’s and so she had to act fast. That aside, now Annabel gets to have the life she wants without having to sleep with an old man. She probably has a lover her own age.’ Brijesh took another bite of his apple.
Shilpa laughed. ‘Roy Arden was a charismatic man. It wouldn’t surprise me if…’ Shilpa trailed off, thinking of the older woman Roy had been affectionately talking to the night of his party. Was it possible that Roy had been having an affair with an older woman?
Geoffrey, who was married to the woman Roy had been speaking to, was more interested in learning the reason for his failed baking attempts than in his wife’s intense conversation with Roy. Geoffrey was certainly peculiar, but hardly the jealous sort. But she couldn’t be sure as she had only spoken to him for twenty minutes, if that. Shilpa shook her thoughts away. She was going to be late. She put the two cakes in separate Sweet Treat boxes and grabbed her handbag and keys. Then she picked up the boxes and headed to the front door.
‘You coming later?’ she called back to Brijesh.
‘Olivia’s drinks? I’ll be there. By myself,’ he added.
Shilpa rolled her eyes as she opened the front door. ‘Just tell Tanvi to move here and to stop acting so pricey,’ she said, using one of Brijesh’s favourite words for people who played hard to get.
Brijesh laughed.
Shilpa parked outside the Ship Inn, a pub that had recently changed hands on Otter’s Reach estuary. Outside, the tables were busy with the last of the tourists eating dressed crab and fish and chips. The pontoon tethered to the quay was busy too with teenagers awaiting their turn to try a paddleboard. Shilpa took the box containing the gateau inside. Jim, the new proprietor, had transformed the run-down old man’s pub. Inside was now fitted with sumptuous leather sofas and driftwood mirrors, and each table had a pillar candle and a fresh pot of rosemary. The establishment smelled of sea salt and lime, which was rather impressive for a pub.
Shilpa stood with her offering at the unattended bar, waiting for Jim. Among the raised voices at the table closest to the bar she heard Roy Arden’s name. Her interest was momentarily piqued, but it soon waned. What did she expect? A prominent local businessman had died. Yes, the man was eighty, but falling off a cliff at that age wasn’t a regular occurrence. Of course people would be talking.
The four grey-haired locals at the table, each with a pint in front of them, were chatting away. One of the men, who wore a light-blue rain mac, caught her eye.
‘Is that the cake for later?’ he asked. ‘I’m Olivia’s dad.’
‘Hi,’ Shilpa said, leaving the box at the bar.
‘Olivia’s told me about you. Can’t wait to try that cake. I hear it’s the best round here. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t had none yet.’
Shilpa waved away his comment and made her excuses. Even at thirty-six, she was still awkward around her friends’ parents. She blamed it on her mother. As a child, she was often scolded for not saying please and thank you enough to the grown-ups. ‘You know, beta,’ her mother would say, ‘you’re Indian. You have to respect your elders.’ Older Indian women were obsessed with their children showing their elders respect. Where was their respect for their children and grandchildren when they stooped low to pinch their cheeks so hard it hurt? Being a shy child hadn’t helped and Shilpa had found the whole experience of dealing with other children’s parents traumatic, never knowing if she was being the right amount of polite. She had clearly carried this feeling into adulthood.
‘You were there last night,’ one of the men said to Shilpa, stopping her as she started to leave. ‘Derek. I was there too,’ he said, with a friendly smile. ‘Me and Roy went way back. We hadn’t met much of late, but the missus always sent him a Christmas card, even after the scandal about the taxes and that, and his people always sent us one back. To be honest, I was surprised me and the wife got an invite to his do, but turns out everyone was invited. It was one of those things. A party to show off, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just a birthday party.’
‘You wanna take a breath, mate?’ another man on the table said to Derek. The group erupted into laughter. ‘So, did you see anything?’ the man asked her.
Shilpa shook her head.
‘From what I hear, there were quite a few locals at this event, but no one saw how the old chap died. I mean, did he fall or was he pushed?’
‘He never liked heights,’ Derek said.
‘And the pope ain’t Catholic,’ said Olivia’s dad. He turned to Shilpa. ‘This man’ll believe anything. He wouldn’t have been sitting on the bench on that wretched cliff if he didn’t like heights now, would he?’
The three men turned to Olivia’s dad. ‘So you do know something, Colin?’
‘I know he was perched on that bench for the latter part of the evening. My Alison was there. She does the lady’s nails, and she told her to come along. That Annabel’s a good woman. She has a reputation of being a gold-digger, but my Alison gets to hear all the gossip and reckons she’s a good one. Just misunderstood.’
‘Good actress more like it,’ Derek said. ‘Your wife sees the good in everyone. And you say I’m gullible. I’m telling you, Roy Arden never liked heights. Not even when we were kids. It’s why no one believed he would have pushed poor Cissy off the cliff back then. He wouldn’t have been able to get near enough.’
‘Her family thought he had something to do with it though,’ one of the men said.
‘Innocent until proven guilty,’ Derek said. ‘I knew the man. He could be a handful, threw his weight around, but he wasn’t a murderer.’
‘We’re not saying that he pushed poor Cissy off that cliff intentionally. It could’ve been an accident,’ the man at the table responded.
Derek shrugged.
‘I think you’re going a bit senile, mate,’ Colin said to Derek. ‘It were Martin that was afraid of heights. Not Roy.’
‘Take no notice of them,’ Jim said from behind her. Shilpa saw her excuse and smiled at the men, not knowing what else to say, and quickly stepped back to the bar. She heard them continue their conversation as she mouthed a thank you to Jim. ‘Everyone has something to say about the accident, and that is what it is commonly known as around here, for those who can remember.’
Shilpa nodded.
‘Roy Arden was a rich man,’ Jim said. ‘He stepped on a lot of people to get to where he was, so naturally things will be said, but most of it, if you ask me, is gossip. Now, is this for later?’ Jim asked.
Shilpa instructed him to put the cake in the fridge and said that she would see him in a couple of hours. She looked at her watch. She certainly had time to visit Elaine before she needed to get ready for Olivia’s party, and after what she had just heard, she was keener than ever to find out exactly what had happened to Cecelia all those years ago.
Chapter Eight
Shilpa parked her car at home, taking out the box containing the mango loaf. She checked her watch once again and then walked the few metres to Elaine’s house. Elaine greeted her with a warm smile and ushered her inside, where she had made her a tea with sugar.
‘Everyone called her Cissy then,’ Elaine said, after they had settled and Shilpa had successfully managed to bring the conversation around to Roy Arden. ‘She was tall and slim and wore some fantastic kaftans with these fancy turbans whenever we were at the beach. Otherwise it was flared trousers and capes. Capes suited her angular frame. She could have been a model if…’ Elaine trailed off.
‘You knew them well?’ Shilpa asked.
‘It was a long time ago, and it’s hard to believe it now, but we were the best of friends at one time. All of us. An unlikely combination. I was just working class, but I was accepted into their group because of a postal error, can you believe?’
Shilpa looked at her host.
‘Our surnames are so similar. Alden and Arden.’
‘I assumed Alden was your married name,’ Shilpa said.
Elaine smiled. ‘You may not think it now, but I was quite modern in my thinking when I married. I insisted on keeping my name because, quite frankly, I didn’t like Clive’s. I expected him to put up a fuss, but d’you know what?’ Elaine asked leaning forward.
Shilpa shook her head. There was a spark in Elaine’s eye. ‘He said he didn’t care much for his surname either and he took mine.’ The old lady sighed and put her hand to her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. ‘So where was I? Oh yes, the letters. One day in the summer holidays, a letter arrived for the Ardens. I’m surprised my mother didn’t just tear into it. But for whatever reason she didn’t, so there it was, sitting on the kitchen counter, and I was young and bored, and so I offered to take it around to Arden Copse. I had to take the bus there, but I didn’t mind; it gave me something to do. When you’re that age, you don’t appreciate the benefits of living somewhere coastal like Otter’s Reach. It’s sleepy now, so imagine what it was like sixty years ago.’
Shilpa could understand exactly what Elaine was saying. Her best friend Tanvi had practically called the place a backwater when she had first arrived, but the local charm had got to her friend too. Last year, Tanvi had left Otter’s Reach a different person than when she had first arrived.
Elaine had explained that she had taken the letter around to Arden Copse, but instead of putting it through the postbox, she had rung the bell, curious to catch a glimpse into the Arden house.
‘I’d seen the Arden boys driving around in the flash cars, and of course they only dated girls from the private school. Their parents were known for throwing lavish parties, and I suppose I wanted to see for myself a little of that world,’ Elaine said. She hadn’t expected one of the twins to answer the door, but they did.
Elaine took a sip of her tea and helped herself to another generous slice of cake. ‘This really is delicious,’ she said, catching the crumbs with a paper napkin as they fell from her lips. Elaine described the house with its imperial staircase, high moulded ceilings and art deco chandelier. It didn’t sound too different from the house Shilpa had been at yesterday, but she supposed that grand houses like that retained their style through the years. It must have cost a fortune to maintain. She could imagine one of the Ardens’ staff delicately cleaning the glass of the chandelier weekly while the gardener tended to the chusan palm trees, which were probably as old as the house, if not older. Shilpa too had wanted a taste of the high life when she had accepted Caroline’s kind invitation to stay on once the cake had been delivered. Most people would want to see what life was like behind those doors, so she could completely understand where Elaine was coming from.
‘Martin was the quieter one of the two,’ Elaine said, confirming what Leoni had told her. ‘I had heard that he was an old soul, wise beyond his years, and he put more thought into his actions. The complete opposite of his brother. I took my perceptions about the boys to their house that day. I could tell Martin had been drinking by the grin he wore on his face when he opened the door. He was wearing swim shorts, and I imagined he and his brother lounging by their pool, drinking exotic cocktails at eleven in the morning. I willed Martin to invite me in. I had certainly dressed for the occasion. I had put on my best pair of shorts and this yellow gingham shirt that tied just above my belly button. I just hoped they would invite me in.’
‘And?’ Shilpa asked.
‘They say if you wish for something hard enough, it’ll happen,’ Elaine said with a smile.
Shilpa raised her cup of tea to Elaine. Shilpa had lived next door to Elaine for over a year now and had paid her a couple of visits. She imagined that her friend had a good life. Elaine had travelled quite a bit from what Shilpa could tell just by glancing around her neighbour’s sitting room. There was a large wooden kava bowl from Fiji in one corner and a metal statue of Shiva Elaine had previously told her she had brought back from India, but apart from Elaine’s travels, Shilpa didn’t know much more about her neighbour. As Elaine opened up about her past, Shilpa found herself warming to the woman even more than before.
‘Now, I suppose you’re expecting me to say that I was invited in and it was nothing like how I had imagined?’
‘Maybe,’ Shilpa said.
‘It was exactly like how I had imagined, but it wasn’t just the twins who were lounging about in the middle of the day, drinking and swimming. There were a couple of other lads there as well, and three girls. One of them was Cissy. We all connected. Little did I know that by the end of that summer, the beautiful girl with the sleek dark hair and the porcelain skin would be dead.’
Shilpa reached out to Elaine, who took her hand and gave it a light squeeze.
‘I got to know the boys,’ Elaine said with a distant look in her eye. ‘The rumours were true. Martin was the quiet one. He let Roy take the limelight and the pick of the girls. Cecelia liked Martin. That much was obvious, but she was with Roy.’
‘Did they get together before you came on the scene?’ Shilpa asked.
Elaine nodded. ‘They were an item, although it took me a while to figure it out. Roy was very handsy with all the girls back then, me included. Don’t get me wrong, it never went further than a kiss, but that’s what summer that year was like. The free-flowing alcohol and good weather helped, of course. The boys’ parents were away, and Martin kept to himself, hardly ever chided Roy for stepping out of line. His parents had one rule, which was not to take their boat out. It was some fancy powerboat that their father had only recently purchased, but Roy often took it without considering the consequences. I once heard Martin raise his voice to him and Roy just laughed at him, like he was a nobody. Then he did something quite peculiar.’
‘What?’ Shilpa asked.
‘He made a buzzing sound, like a bee. And that was that. Martin sulked off. Roy kept Martin in check, making him feel small. Martin kept to the shadows, but he watched his brother, watched him like a hawk.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Sometimes the little boy lost would just be staring at Roy. He looked like he wanted his brother’s life, but he couldn’t see that he already had it. If he had half the confidence Roy had, he would have had his fair share of the girls. Although maybe he didn’t want that. Martin never really committed to anyone till Julia,’ Elaine said. ‘She was much younger than him when they met, but age gaps have a way of evening themselves out as the years go by. I don’t keep track of his movements these days, but I hear he and Julia have stuck it out. One of the girls that summer told me she had tried it on with Martin, but he had rejected her advances. Although she didn’t put it so politely. She was convinced he didn’t like women for that reason alone.’ Elaine laughed. ‘But then another of the girls told me it was because of Cissy.’
Shilpa finished her tea. It was starting to make sense. Martin loved Cecelia but she was with Roy. She wondered if Roy had been dating Cecelia just to get one up on his brother or if he really did like her. From what Elaine had said, she doubted it. It explained why Martin watched Roy like that. If Cecelia was his one true love, then he was an angry man. A shiver ran down Shilpa’s spine. If Cecelia was caught in a love triangle between the two brothers, one of whom was used to getting his way, then maybe her life had been at risk. She just hadn’t known it at the time.
‘This is probably rude of me to say,’ Shilpa said warily. ‘You weren’t at Roy Arden’s party yesterday, unless I missed you. There were so many people there.’ Shilpa regretted her words. The last thing she wanted to do was to make Elaine feel bad about not getting an invite. She wondered how she could extract her foot from her mouth without making it worse, but Elaine saved her.
A smile rose to her host’s lips. ‘We never spoke again after that summer,’ she said.
‘You were just one of the girls that summer,’ Shilpa said. It happened.
Elaine put her cup of tea down and gazed at her frail hands in her lap, still clutching the paper napkin. ‘I’d like to think that,’ she said, looking up at Shilpa. ‘But I have my suspicions that it isn’t as simple as that.’
Shilpa’s interest was piqued.
‘I was there the night Cecelia died,’ Elaine said, touching the napkin to her rheumy eyes. ‘I don’t think they ever forgave me for that.’
Chapter Nine
‘You can’t just go over there,’ Gill said, dumping her Birkin on the console table and walking into the lounge. Christian watched from the study as his wife poured herself a large gin and tonic and slipped in a slice of lemon. She took a sip and closed her eyes.
