Read Butterfly Grave (Murder Notebooks) Online
Authors: Anne Cassidy
Butterfly Grave (Murder Notebooks)
To Alice Morey and Josie Morey
My favourite teenagers
Contents
Rose Smith thought about murder a lot. On the bus, on the way home from a Christmas shopping trip she stared at the passengers sitting opposite her as image after image forced its way into her head. There was the girl floating face down on the waters of a silent lake, her hair fanning around her like seaweed. A boy lying on a railway bridge, a single stab wound letting the life haemorrhage out of him; days later his girlfriend dead on the path of a rose garden. The drowned man who had his hands tied behind his back, his body washed up against a pier while holidaymakers looked on.
It was not something she talked about to her grandmother, Anna. Nor did she mention these morbid preoccupations to her stepbrother, Joshua. She kept them to herself, tightly shut away in her head. She only brooded over them when she was on her own.
She hoped they were the last deaths.
She got off the bus and wove her way through the late afternoon crowds and headed back to Anna’s house. When she got to the corner of her street she was surprised to see Joshua waiting for her. He was wearing the grey tweed coat that he’d bought in Camden Market a few days before. It reached past his knees and made him look like someone out of an old film. His hair was cut shorter than normal and he had stubble and looked a bit distracted.
‘I tried ringing you,’ he said, walking with her. ‘Your phone kept going to voicemail.’
‘I must have turned it off.’
‘Your gran said you’d be back about five so I thought I’d wait.’
‘What’s up?’
‘My Uncle Stu has had an accident. He fell off a cliff while walking his dog.’
Rose stopped walking, shocked.
‘He’s all right, I think. Broken bones. Cracked ribs. A touch of hypothermia. Well, he’s not
all right
of course . . .’
‘How big a cliff?’
‘Big enough. It’s called Cullercoats and is somewhere we used to walk the dog. The policeman I spoke to said that my uncle just lay there all night. It seemed that he fell on to a ledge that had bushes and stuff so he was sheltered from the worst of the cold but he must have been there for hours, not being able to move.’
‘That’s horrible.’
‘I know.’
‘Didn’t he have a phone?’
‘Usually, yeah. It must have fallen with him and landed somewhere out of reach.’
‘He’s all right, though? He’s not . . .’
‘No, Rose. He’s not going to die.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I didn’t . . .’
‘It means I’m going up to Newcastle tomorrow instead of on Christmas Eve.’
‘ ’Course!’
‘Skeggsie’s happy to go a few days early so we’re packing tonight. It means I’ll be away longer than I planned but . . .’
‘You have to go. ’Course you do.’
‘Why don’t you come with us?’
They’d reached Rose’s house. Rose knew that Anna would be inside beautifully dressed as ever and possibly listening to classical music.
‘Me and you and Skeggs? Would we fit in the car?’
‘Sure. It would be a squeeze but it would be OK. In any case, with Stu in hospital it would be good to have you there.’
‘Anna is expecting me to be with her over Christmas.’
‘You can ask her. She can only say no.’
‘I will. I’ll ask her. I’ll call you later.’
Joshua smiled and hooked his arm around her neck and gave her a kiss on the side of her face. Then he went off up the road. Rose’s fingers touched her skin where the kiss had been. She stared after him, the familiar feeling of longing stirring in her chest. It was so good to see him, to be with him, if only for a few moments. She took a deep breath and got her front door key out of her pocket and walked into the house.
She put the shopping bags in her rooms and went downstairs. Anna was in her drawing room, sitting at the small antique desk writing in a notebook. There was music playing at a low volume. Rose decided she had to come straight out and ask about Christmas. She knew that Anna had made plans for both of them to visit some of her friends and for trips to music concerts at the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She also said that she’d like Rose to accompany her to church on Christmas Day.
None of these things appealed to Rose but she’d kept telling herself that it would only be for a couple of days – the real Christmas holiday would be the time she spent with Joshua.
‘Anna, I’ve just had some bad news.’
‘Really?’
‘Joshua’s uncle has had an accident. He’s fallen off a cliff and is in hospital.’
‘A cliff? Goodness, that sounds dreadful. Is that why he came here earlier? I wondered. He looked a little upset. Is the poor man in hospital?’
‘Yes and the thing is . . .Well, Joshua’s going to Newcastle tomorrow to see him and I wondered . . .’
Say it, Rose
, she thought.
Say it out loud
.
‘If you didn’t mind I thought I might go with him. Stay in his uncle’s house. Try and help out a bit. I know it means leaving you alone . . .’
‘Of course you must go, Rose.’
Anna stood up and closed the book she’d been writing in.
‘It’s just that he might need someone to . . .’
‘I understand. It’s good of you to offer. I’ll be fine here. There are a number of events I turned down because I didn’t want to bore you but I’ll go to them now. I’ll keep myself busy. You go off to Newcastle with Joshua. And of course give my good wishes to the poor man when you see him.’
Anna left the room. Rose frowned, puzzled, as she watched her go. Later on, after ringing Joshua to tell him the news, she could have sworn she heard her grandmother singing quietly to herself as she went down the stairs. Rose hadn’t been looking forward to spending Christmas with Anna. Was there any reason to suppose that Anna had felt differently? She sighed. Her grandmother had changed a lot over the previous weeks. There was a time when Rose couldn’t mention Joshua’s name. Now Anna had accepted that he was part of Rose’s life. Indeed she seemed relieved that Rose had someone else.
The next morning she lay in bed after her alarm went off. The rain peppered the glass and the wind slipped in and out of the trees making them shiver. She rubbed her eyelids. Even though the room was still dark she could see the outline of the clothes that she’d hung on the back of her door. A black jacket. Black trousers. Grey blouse. On the carpet were her black boots and her bag and rucksack. She was really going to Newcastle.
The clock showed 6.18. Joshua and his flatmate Skeggsie were coming for her at seven. Just before going to sleep she’d got a text from Joshua to say that his uncle was having an operation today on his leg. Other than that he was
comfortable
.
This certainly wasn’t the Christmas they had planned.
Joshua and Skeggsie’s term at Queen Mary College had finished the previous Friday. Rose’s college had broken up for the Christmas holidays on the same day. Skeggsie, Joshua’s flatmate, had intended to take Joshua up to Newcastle on Christmas Eve; Joshua to his Uncle Stuart’s and Skeggsie to his father’s house nearby. Skeggsie was actually excited about the trip. He’d told Joshua that he wanted to go and see the Angel of the North. He’d had an idea for an art project linked to it, involving photography and animation. He had a new camera that he wanted to try out and had asked Joshua to help him.
Joshua and Rose had shopped for gifts at Camden Market and Rose had bought an old crystal vase for Anna from an antique shop. Joshua had bought a second-hand leather bomber jacket for his uncle and a blanket with paw marks on it for his uncle’s dog, Poppy. Skeggsie hadn’t gone with them. He’d ordered his Christmas gifts online and they were sitting in plain brown cardboard boxes under his computers.
Now things had taken a different turn and Rose’s elation about going with Joshua to Newcastle was tinged with guilt. She had to keep reminding herself that Joshua’s uncle had had a bad fall. She was going to
help
, not to enjoy herself.
She carried her rucksack and bag down to the hallway. She placed them by the front door. She went into the kitchen to give her grandmother her Christmas present. She’d wrapped the vase in silver tissue paper and ribbon.
Anna was sitting at the table eating a croissant. Beside her plate was a miniature jar of jam. There were dozens of them in the cupboard. Anna liked a fresh jar every time. It was one of the things that sometimes made Anna’s home seem a bit like a hotel.
‘You all ready?’
Rose nodded. She placed the wrapped vase on the table.
‘Here’s your Christmas present. As I’m not going to be here.’
‘How lovely! And here’s yours.’
Anna held out an oblong package. Rose smiled but took the package without enthusiasm. Anna bought all her presents from two or three West End stores and she had everything wrapped in-house. The wrapping was like a small work of art, its corners at right angles, evenly tied with a ringlet of ribbon springing from the centre.
‘Open it whenever you like. I thought you might like it.’
‘Thanks,’ Rose said. ‘I’ll take it with me.’
The doorbell rang.
‘That’s them.’
‘You will tell Joshua how sorry I was to hear about his uncle’s accident.’
‘I will.’
The doorbell rang again.
‘I should be off.’
She bent down to her grandmother who paused from buttering her croissant and offered her cheek for a kiss. Then Rose dashed along the hallway and picked up her bags. The Mini was a few parking places along the street. Joshua took her luggage and put it in the back of the car beside the stuff that was already tightly packed there.
‘You all right?’ she said, looking up at him.
He nodded. He held the door open so that she could climb in the back. They drove up the street and turned out of the main road into slow moving traffic. After a few moments Joshua half turned in his seat.
‘I called the policeman dealing with Stu’s accident late last night,’ he said. ‘Stu’s not talking much. He’s had painkillers but it seems that he also has a head injury.