‘Cross my heart.’ Verity made the sign.
‘It’s Jon.’
‘Jon?’ She thought hard, unable to think of a single Jon. There was no Jon on the school bus, no Jon in her sister’s friendship group, not a single Jon came to mind. ‘Jon who?’
It was then that her sister leaned close and, with a blush to her face and neck, whispered into Verity’s ear, ‘Jon Morton.’
‘But,’ pulling away she stared at her sister. ‘Mr Morton, Dad’s friend?’
‘He’s hardly Dad’s friend, but yeah, him.’
‘But,’ again words failed her. ‘He’sold!He’s married!’ Verity pictured the wealthy farmer whose kids were in the year below her at school.
‘Age is just a number, V, and, as for married, he won’t be for much longer. He’s going to leave her, for me. Well, actually, he’s going to ask her to leave. You’ll be able to come and visit me up at the big house, I’ll make you a cuppa tea. I’ve already told him I’ll need to redecorate. Can’t be living with another woman’s wallpaper.’
It was as sad as it was ironic that her sister naively announced she couldn’t live with the woman’s wallpaper but was happy to live with her husband. It was new information, terrible and revealing new information!Jon Morton!A man who stood to lose a lot if his affair with his young neighbour were to be made public and if Gracie had told her …
Verity didn’t know what to do, what to say! But the pressure to do something was almost overwhelming.
‘Gracie…’ Verity took her sister’s hands into her own. ‘I, I don’t think seeing him is a good idea. He’s married! You’d be better off with someone your own age!’
‘Two things. First, we’re in love, and second, as if I’d take advice from you!’
‘Please, Gracie, please.’ It was as close as she could come to begging, and then it occurred to her, the time was running out anyway, what if there were the slightest chance… Verity took a deep breath and spoke with urgency. ‘I love you, I love you so much, don’t go to the party tonight, please, Gracie! Don’t g—’
It felt as if she were being flung backwards with force. Her spine hit the sofa and she found herself back in the lounge of the house she shared with Patrick. Dottie barked in the kitchen before she came trotting in. Winded, it took Verity a minute, as she moved onto all fours, head hanging down, trying to catch her breath.
‘Jesus! Oh, Jesus!’
Jon Morton. The question now was what was she to do with the information?
Reaching for her phone, she fired a text off to her Dad. The man who had inadvertently given her a clue –a place where everyone pulled together to face whatever came their way, looking after each other, like family, protecting their own.
YOU AWAKE?
He called her almost instantly, as she’d hoped he might.
‘I don’t require half as much sleep as I used to, Hen, everything okay?’ She hated the note of concern in his voice. ‘Not like you to call so late on a Saturday night!’
‘Dad, this is going to sound very odd.’ She closed her eyes, it made it easier somehow. ‘Are you sitting down?’
‘I am now,’ he whispered. ‘You’re scaring me, Verity.’
She decided to cut to the chase. ‘This is going to sound mad, but I think I know who killed Gracie, and why.’
‘Goodness me,’ he breathed heavily down the line, ‘I… I don’t know what to say, tell me!’
‘I believe she was having an affair with Jon Morton. A man who had a lot to lose if that ever got out.’
‘Jon Morton…’ He spoke the name quite calmly, a surprise in itself. ‘Now that’s a very strange thing.’
‘How so, Dad?’
‘Your mother said something very similar just before she died. I assumed it was the morphine talking. She wasn’t making a lot of sense. God love her.Jon Morton?’
‘Yes, old enough and clever enough to let a waste of space like Dale McCurdy fall under suspicion. But I’m sure it was him, Dad. Did Mum say anything else?’
‘Ah, my beloved wife, I asked her how she knew, I mean it sounded so far-fetched, and she said that, she said that,’ his voice broke then, giving way to tears, ‘she said Gracie had told her.’
