Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection. Josephine Cox
His dark eyes grew wide with amazement. ‘Oh no!’ Gripping her by the shoulders, he told her reassuringly, ‘I would never want that! If you believe anything, you must believe that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Oh, Kathy! I can’t tell you how much I want to be with you.’ His voice shook with emotion. ‘You’re everything to me!’
Relieved, she clung to him, and for a time they took comfort in each other. Presently, he held her at arm’s length. ‘You knew I would have to go away sooner or later, didn’t you?’
She nodded resignedly. ‘Is that what you have to tell me … that you’re ready to leave me?’
He nodded, a look of reluctance on his face. ‘I’ve already made arrangements to see Inspector Lawson, the man who handled the case from the outset. He’s based in London now. I want us to go through everything again, with a fine-tooth comb. Dorset police say they’ve exhausted all lines of enquiry, but there has to be a way of tracking that car, and the person who sent my family to their deaths.’
His fists clenched and unclenched as he thought about it. ‘The police have missed something, I’m sure of it. A car and its driver can’t just vanish into thin air!’
Seeing how, in spite of him saying his rage was under control, Tom was growing agitated, Kathy wrapped her warm, gentle hands over his fist; it was clenched so tight his knuckles had bled white. ‘Tom?’
‘Yes, darling?’ Calmer now, his dark eyes smiled down on her.
‘Are you sure you’re ready to deal with all that?’
Again, for a brief second, he seemed miles away. ‘If we’re to have any future, yes. I need to see it through.’ He readily admitted, ‘There are still times when the anger takes a hold, but now, at long last, I really can think clearly about what happened. And there’s another thing …’ He hesitated. ‘I’m convinced my wife Sheila knew who it was that drove us over the cliff.’
He let his mind go back to that moment when he first sensed it. ‘Just before we went over the cliff, she glanced back. I saw the look in her eyes, Kathy! I saw the flicker of recognition, then it was too late and all hell was let loose.’ Running his hands through his hair, he closed his eyes in torment. ‘She knew. I swear to God she knew who it was!’
Realising how it was troubling him, Kathy tried to rationalise his suspicions. ‘Did she call out a name?’
‘No,’ he recalled, ‘there was no name.’
‘Did she say anything at all that caused you to think she knew who it was?’
Again he shook his head. ‘It wasn’t anything Sheila said … there was no time for that. It was just that instant when I glanced at her … an instinctive thing. It was there in her eyes … the way she looked back … the way her face fell in astonishment.’
He banged his fist on the hull. ‘There was no time! Later, I forgot all about it for a while. I was too sick with hatred … I couldn’t think of anything else … But, now, I’m certain of it. She did know who it was. There’s no doubt in my mind about it.’
‘And have you thought who it could be?’
‘Endlessly!’
‘And?’
He shrugged. ‘And I’ve come up with nothing.’
‘Surely it couldn’t have been a friend?’
‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ His answer was hesitant.
‘Do you know all her friends?’
He nodded. ‘You could count her friends on the fingers of one hand. They met once in a while, went shopping, and did all the things that women do. They were women just like her, married with children. I shouldn’t think any one of those would want her hurt.’
He described her. ‘Sheila was well liked, had lots of interests, always going to some class or other.’ He gave a small wry laugh. ‘I could never keep up with her!’
Something he said made Kathy wonder. ‘You said she went to classes?’
‘That’s right.’ He cast his mind back. ‘The children were growing up, and she decided she wanted to learn a new language … She started French classes. She went twice a week, and loved it. She was getting very good, too.’
Kathy considered that for a minute, then said, ‘What about the people she went to class with? Did you know any of them?’
Her question hit hard. ‘My God! I never thought of that.’ It was possible, he thought. ‘She will have made friends there, but she never mentioned anyone in particular.’ He grew frantic. ‘There’s something else too – something really strange!’
Digging into his trouser pocket, he took out an envelope, which he handed to her. ‘Read this, Kathy. The letter is from the florist I appointed to deliver a regular supply of flowers to the churchyard. Read it … tell me what you think.’
Curious, Kathy opened the envelope. Taking out the letter, she proceeded to read it aloud:
Dear Mr Arnold,
I know you asked me not to contact you, except in the event of any hiccup with the regular payments for the fortnightly delivery of flowers. This is not the reason for my contacting you. The flowers are delivered as we agreed, and the payments are paid into my bank account on time. There is no problem there.
The trouble is, someone appears to be deliberately destroying the flowers by throwing them out of the container and strewing them about. They then replace your flowers with their own.
I can imagine how distressing it will be for you to read this letter, and I’m very sorry to have to be writing it. I haven’t written before, because at first I thought it might have been an accident, or someone playing a prank. But then it happened again and again, and it began to look like a deliberate and calculated act of wanton destruction.
Of course I quickly replaced the flowers, and kept an eye on them as far as I could. But it’s happened again. This time they were torn into shreds, and were almost unrecognisable as the roses and gypsophila we delivered. Some attempt appears to have been made to burn them on the path close by; the church-warden came to the shop and told me about it. He was most upset, and so was I. It beggars belief that someone could do such a thing.
In all my years as a florist, I have never known anything quite like it. The church-warden has confirmed that no other flowers in the churchyard have been interfered with, so I’m afraid it appears to be a personal attack on either you or your family.
I’m sorry, Mr Arnold, but I really am out of my depth here. Please advise as to what you would like me to do.
Yours respectfully,
Margaret Taylor
‘But that’s terrible!’ Kathy was shocked to the core. ‘Who in their right mind would want to destroy flowers in a churchyard? And why only the flowers sent to your family?’ Knowing the history of his family’s tragic circumstances, Kathy couldn’t help but be afraid for Tom himself.
Tom had been stunned by the letter, and it showed in his voice now as he confessed, ‘The letter came yesterday. I couldn’t bring myself to discuss it with anyone, not even you. Oh, I wanted to! But I thought it was unfair to burden you with it.’
Now she could see why he had been out there walking the beach at such an ungodly hour. ‘That’s why you couldn’t sleep, isn’t it?’ she remarked. ‘That’s why you were pacing the beach when everybody else was tucked up in their beds?’
He smiled. ‘Not you, it seems.’
She admitted it. ‘No. For some reason, I couldn’t sleep either.’
‘But you’re right,’ he murmured. ‘What’s happened is shocking and awful, and whoever is doing