Shannon’s head, which had been shamefully facing the floor, snapped up to look first at her great-aunt and then at Kate. ‘Am I fired, Miss Harris?’ she begged to know.
Kate shook her head. ‘No, Shannon. We’ll talk about the money in the morning and see if we can’t find you a role that pays a little more money. Maybe you might like to be the firm’s new accountant trainee.’
April glared at everyone once more, a look that ought to have turned them all to stone if they lived in ancient Greece, but she left without another word and when the door slammed in its frame, a spontaneous cheer rang out.
A line came to Albert’s mind: Ding dong the witch is dead. He kept it to himself though, and when people began to file out, he gave Rex’s improvised lead and collar a tug. Kate and Victor were hugging in the office, tears of joy falling from the new café owner’s face as relief, joy, and sadness mingled and overwhelmed her.
A nudge to his arm turned out to be from Detective Sergeant Craig. He was facing Albert and holding out his hand to shake. ‘Well done, Mr Smith.’
Albert knew this was the exact moment to rub the detective’s face in how wrong he’d been. However, Albert wouldn’t gain anything by doing so and that made it a petty act for a petty man. He gripped DS Craig’s hand tightly instead, and said simply, ‘Thank you.’
‘How did you know she was innocent?’ Craig asked, his forehead creased with curiosity as he waited for the answer.
Albert gave him a half shrug. ‘It was in her eyes when you came to arrest her.’
If the statement surprised the detective, he showed no sign. He nodded his understanding, let go of Albert’s hand, and left the office, presumably heading for the door.
Seeing Victor and Kate were still babbling about all that had happened in the last few days, Albert followed the detective from the room and wound his way back into the café at the front of the building. He intended to let himself out and quietly walk away but Rex’s lead tugged in the wrong direction and he looked down to find his dog rubbing noses with the little dachshund.
‘It was good to make a friend,’ Rex admitted to Hans. ‘I rarely see other dogs and most of them are smaller than me and tend to bark in defence.’
‘Yeah,’ said Hans. ‘I guess I can see how that might happen.’ All his own false bravado had been because the larger dog intimidated him. ‘You’re going now?’
‘Looks that way. My human and me don’t live anywhere permanent now. Every few days, we move on to a new place. It’s good fun because everywhere we go, something is happening.’
‘That does sound fun,’ Hans agreed. ‘If you’re ever back this way …’
‘I’ll be sure to drop by,’ promised Rex.
Behind the small dog, Kate appeared with Victor just behind her. ‘Albert were you just going to leave? I haven’t had a chance to thank you yet.’
Albert had been watching the two dogs but looked up to see the café’s owner advancing toward him. He shot her a smile and gave Rex’s lead a small tug to let him know it was time to go. Feeling like John Wayne, he said, ‘There’s no thanks necessary, Ma’am.’
‘But you are the one who proved I was innocent. If not for you I might have spent the rest of my life in jail.’
Albert couldn’t argue the point, not without pedantically pointing out she would probably be out in fifteen years. He smiled again and shrugged his shoulder. ‘You were innocent. Helping was the right thing to do.’
There was nothing she could offer him that could ever repay the service he had performed, but she closed the distance to him and wrapped him into a hug. ‘You are a special man, Albert. A very special man. If you ever need anything, no matter where you are. Just call and I will be there.’
A minute later, as Albert made his way up the road and back toward his accommodation to collect his belongings, he felt special. The day was already being replaced by twilight and if he were a younger man, he might have jumped in the air and clicked his heels together. Instead he settled for ruffling Rex’s fur.
York beckoned. It was time to move on.
Walking away from the café, he felt satisfied that he had done the right thing by hanging around to unpick the mystery. But at the same time, he was perplexed by what he hadn’t been able to work out. Francis confessed to killing Joel Clement, but why had the café owner been targeted in the first place? Why then had they come back for Victor Harris? Furthermore, who was it that thought Albert was a high-value target? He might have solved the case, but there was something else going on that remained hidden.
Thinking back to Stilton, Dave the daft security guard had stolen all the cheese, but he hadn’t done it for himself. There was someone else pulling the strings even though Dave wouldn’t admit it. Watching clouds roll across the hills in the distance, Albert made a promise to himself that he would take a broader view and see what else he could find. His children had access to the national crime database, perhaps there were other inexplicable food-related crimes in the recent weeks or months.
It was something to think about, anyway.
Epilogue
Several hours later and almost two hundred miles away, in a location that wasn’t marked on any maps, Earl Bacon was not
