Edward thought it all through, for a moment distracted from his throat. A madman attacks a local doctor with a crossbow, apparently the one his wife owns. That made no sense. A different crossbow, then? But if so, why did hers go missing? If he shot himself with a crossbow, the weapon could not have gone missing after his death. Did she tell someone else to kill her husband and create a too-obvious alibi, going to the cinema like that? If Wendy’s crossbow was a red herring and it was nothingto do with Wendy or a madman, then you had to work out why a third party would want the doctor dead so badly.
He came back to his certainty:She didn’t do it.Why would a killer, who has got away with it, bring him in to investigate?
‘He’s writing again. Take your time, Edward,’ said Kim.
Edward needed more space, so he had taken Stevie’s napkin, then slid it back towards the other two.
Want to talk to her.
Stevie rolled her good eye. ‘Come on. What’s to investigate?’
Edward stared at Stevie. He was aware of Kim’s gaze on him. Kim said, ‘I think he wants to ask some more questions when his voice comes back.’
Stevie said, ‘You’re thinking we should bring her in?’
Now Kim and Edward both snorted with laughter. ‘Stevie! “Bring her in”! We aren’t the police!’ cried Kim. ‘Edward, love, what are you writing now?’
‘He thinks he’s fucking Columbo,’ said Stevie.
‘If he’s fucking Columbo that would be a major scandal in Sidmouth.’
‘Not like that!’ protested Stevie.
‘This is what happens when you pipe down, Ed. We get to tease you.’ Kim was tender for a second. Stevie chimed in, ‘Ignore us, sir. We love you.’ The younger woman took the napkin. Edward pointed at the words, which had scratched small holes in the tissue, as if he was getting crosser when he wrote them.
I want to see where his body was found
And talk to her again
And then:Delighted to hear your marriage news Stevie.
When Kim saw the last sentence, she shot him a glance he could not comprehend.
Stevie upped and left a minute later, pulling a cowboy hat from a stool where neither Edward nor Kim had noticed it and pushingit hard onto her head. When she was gone, Edward tapped on his phone, brought up a webpage and showed it to Kim.
URBAN SLANG: The emoji is commonly associated with misogyny and incel groups. It purports to mean that 80 per cent of women are only attracted to 20 per cent of men.
‘Oh God,’ said Kim as she read it. ‘Edward darling, is this really happening? Stevie is marrying an incel bailiff and we can’t do anything about it?’
‘Bailiffs do a necessary job, I guess.’
‘He was boasting about burning children’s coats earlier!’
‘Do we intervene somehow?’
‘You think Stevie would let us say anything this close to the wedding?’ Kim asked desperately.
Edward signalled at his throat. His voice was a whisper and he did not want to push the words out.
‘Well that’s convenient,’ said Kim, only half-joking.
Chapter Seven
Kim spread her wedding dress on the thin polythene sheet she had stretched across the bed. It was the classic turn-of-the-century design. The cream satin sheath fitted her body like a child’s glove squeezed onto an adult hand. Along the arms was the lace detailing she had taken a fortnight to settle on. The neckline was bateau – at least, that’s what she had asked for. ‘Bat—? Oh yes, I see,boat neckis what we call it,’ the sales assistant in Sidmouth had replied firmly. Okay – a satinboat neckwith lace arms. Fussy floral appliqués had been sewn on, but only half a dozen, because she had straightaway realized they were not right for her.
Now she took the first paint pot that came to hand, a sage green eggshell she had bought for the hallway. A screwdriver allowed her to prise the lid off. Carefully, she laid the lid upside-down on the polythene sheet.
Then Kim dipped a brand-new paintbrush into it and flicked great gloops of sticky green all over the wedding satin.
