also come up with something useful about the sods who’d rammed into Derek and then driven off.
“Morning!” A plump, blonde woman came in and stood behind the bar. “What can I get you?” Lois liked the look of her. She was tidy and neat-looking, with a very pleasant smile. I must find out her surname, she reminded herself. Her dealings so far had been with the landlord, and now that she knew they were not married, she did not want to offend.
“I’m Mrs Meade,” she said. “I rang…”
“Oh, of course, dear,” the woman replied. “Now, how is that husband of yours? We were so sorry…But anyway, you came to talk about Gary. Do you want to come somewhere private, where we can talk? You’ll hold the fort for me, Charlie, won’t you? Give a shout if anyone comes in. Geoff’s gone into Tresham,” she added to Lois.
The old man nodded vigorously. “You go and ‘ave a gossip,” he chortled. “I know what you wimmin are…”
Settled with a fresh coffee, Lois relaxed. She’d be able to talk to this woman. “Betty,” she said, “I hope you’ll excuse me calling you that, but I don’t know – ”
“You carry on, dear, everyone calls me that. Geoff and me, well, we’re not married, but we’re more married than some who are, if you know what I mean. My name is really Betty Betts, but everyone calls me Betty Boggis – Geoff and Betty Boggis. It’s been that for years.”
“Betts?” said Lois, frowning.
“Yep, the same,” said Betty, smiling. “He’s my brother, but he don’t like people knowing it, me being the landlady at the pub. He was the clever one, but I’m nicer!” She laughed now, slapping the table in delight. “He went to college and I went out to work. Married that stuck-up cow, and left his family behind. Mind you,” she chatted on, “when his precious Prue wanted to work behind the bar, he’d never’ve allowed it if I hadn’t been here to keep an eye on her. Or so he thought…but you can’t have eyes everywhere when you’ve got a pubful on a Saturday night!” She stopped then.
Perhaps because she’d said too much? wondered Lois. The revelation that Betty was Mr Betts’s sister had come as quite a shock, and for a moment had driven other concerns from her head. Then she remembered.
“Now, about Gary,” she said. “Have there been any more problems? I did have a sharp word with him, and he assured me it had been a temporary thing.”
“Nope, no more trouble,” said Betty. “I said to Geoff at the time, I said that lad’s got something on his mind, something bothering him. Of course, Geoff turned round and said never mind about that…he’s here to do a job, and I’m paying out good money. I expect the job to be done, and not hot taps left on wasting electricity. You know what men are,” she added confidingly. “No, Mrs Meade, Gary’s fine now. A good worker, really, and keeps himself to himself. Never wants to stop for a chat. So you needn’t worry about that one.” She reached forward and patted Lois’s hand where it rested on the table. “And what about that husband of yours? Is he on the mend?”
Lois told her the latest, and then felt quite easy about bringing up the subject of the accident itself. “The ambulance man said you’d seen it happen?” she said.
“Yes, I did.” All the smiles disappeared from Betty’s round face. “The buggers drove off, you know. Terrible screech of tyres and dust blowing up everywhere, and they were gone. I couldn’t believe it. It was me that called emergency on my mobile. Thank God I’d got it with me…and it worked for once. Then I stayed with Derek until the ambulance came. It was there in minutes – though it seemed like hours, I don’t mind telling you. The police asked me some questions, and then I went back home. I’d been going on to see a friend, but I hadn’t the heart. Geoff was good, though. Got me going again, in time for working behind the bar later on! Show must go on, he said.”
“We owe you, then, Betty,” said Lois simply. “If you hadn’t been there, God knows what…” She couldn’t finish, and they both sat without saying anything for a minute.
“Betty?” Lois spoke first. “Did you see anything special about that car? What did it look like…? The police haven’t told me much at all. I really want to know who could do that wicked thing.” She said nothing about her suspicions, of course. If she just played the concerned wifie – which she was – Betty might be moved to remember something.
“It was black, with them smoky windows. I’d stopped at the crossroads, like always. I don’t trust cars, and they mostly don’t give cyclists a chance. So I had stopped. I couldn’t see anything, but I heard it coming, just as Derek started to drive off. He’d stopped, too, but I suppose he couldn’t see nothing either and got going. Me being on a bike, I could hear more, I reckon. Anyway, this great thing comes out of nowhere, at speed. It drove straight at Derek’s van and then swerved at the last minute, hitting the side of the van so hard that it tipped right on to its side.”
“Didn’t the car stop at all?” said Lois.
“For a couple of seconds,” Betty said. “Oh, yes, and the window on the passenger side went down a little bit, and then up again fast. I just got a glimpse of a woman’s face. Yeah, I’m sure it was a woman. I’ve only just remembered that. Suppose I was in shock, too…Geoff said I was.”
“And the woman?” said Lois, her heart beating fast.
“Could hardly see her…” Betty frowned, and covered her eyes with her hand. Lois held her breath. Betty looked up and nodded. “I did just see a bit of blonde hair,” she said slowly, “sort of shiny…but no, that’s all I can remember. Sorry, dear…”
“No, don’t be sorry,” said Lois. She was thinking that it was just like stupid Joanne Murphy to look out of the window. Probably panicked, thinking they might have killed Derek. They wouldn’t want to do that, the bloody cowards! Just hurt him enough to scare me off. She smiled at Betty. “That’s a great help,” she said. “I get around quite a lot in my job, and you never know who I might see.” It was time to let it go now, change the subject. “I tell you what,” she said. “When Derek’s home again, we’ll come over and he can thank you himself.”
Betty nodded. “You do that, dear,” she said. “We got fond of him when he was doing the rewiring. As nice a chap as you could want, Geoff said. And he did a good job. Nothing’s blown up yet!”
And now back to Mr Betts, thought Lois, finding on the spur of the moment a good reason to bring up the subject again. “I must go now, Betty,” she said, “and look in on the Betts’s. I expect you know Sheila Stratford’s started working for them? Seems they’d got in a bit of a muddle with cleaning. I just want to check all’s well there.”
“Oh, it’ll be fine…for a while,” said Betty wisely. “Maybe for a good while, since they had that blow up with Mrs Whatsit. You’d think that their Prue would help out a bit, wouldn’t you? But not madam, oh no. Too posh by half to sully her lily-white hands. She wasn’t much good to me. More good to the young farmers, as it turned out!” This time she put a hand over her mouth, as if to stem the flow.
“Why? What happened with the young farmers?” said Lois innocently.
“Well, our Prue was begging for it, Geoff said. You couldn’t blame the chap…nice lad, one of a big family of lads. Working hard all day and coming in here for a couple of pints and a bit o’ fun. Took a fancy to Miss Prue, and she was only too willing.” She got up and walked towards the door. “I shouldn’t say any more, Mrs Meade,” she added. “Family business, really. All I
Lois nodded sympathetically. “It’s often these kids with over-careful mums and dads who get into the worst trouble,” she said. She followed Betty into the bar, waved goodbye to the dozing old man in the corner, and went out into the village street. So that was it. Prue had had a bun in the oven and tried to get rid of it. And what had Daddy to say about that? And what repercussions had there been? She hardly dared to imagine, but reflected that Hazel must know. She’d have known about it without a doubt, and yet had said nothing. Why?
The schoolhouse was quiet, and there was no reply when Lois knocked. Next door the kids were out to play, and the noise was deafening. She saw a woman out on playground duty, mug of coffee in hand. She didn’t know her, and decided that she’d leave her visit to Mrs Betts until another day. There was quite enough to think about after Betty’s revelations. A woman with bright blonde hair – almost certainly Joanne Murphy – and then the whole Betts thing. Lois needed to mull it over, and decided to drive over to Dalling on the way home. The church would perhaps be open, and she could sit in one of the pews in peace and quiet. It was unlikely she’d run into the Gorilla again. He and Ms Murphy were probably in Spain by now.
She got into her car and drove slowly back down the street, unaware that Mr Betts, standing at the schoolroom window, was watching her intently as she went.
