Becks and Judith were stunned. Suzie had tried to cross a river she couldn’t swim?

‘And did you really ring the church bell?’ Judith asked Becks.

Becks blushed.

‘And cut down one of the bell ropes, now you mention it.’

‘How?’ Suzie asked.

‘With a sword.’

‘What sword?’

‘You know what?’ Judith said, interrupting her friends. ‘I owe you both an apology. I was wrong to try and deal with Danny on my own. Not when I’ve got friends as resourceful and brave as you two. I won’t make that mistake again. I promise you.’

‘Thank you,’ Becks said, deeply touched.

‘Sorry,’ Suzie said, ‘I feel we’re missing the main point here. What sword?’

‘You know what, ladies?’ Judith said as she moved over to the drinks table and poured three generous measures of whisky into cut-glass tumblers. ‘Before we go any further, I suggest we have a small glass of Scotch. Or two. For purely medicinal reasons, of course.’

Judith returned with the drinks and handed them to her friends.

Becks raised her glass.

‘In that case, I think this calls for toast,’ she said.

‘Bollocks to that,’ Suzie said and downed her drink in one.

‘She’s got a point,’ Judith said, and downed her drink as well.

Becks smiled, happy for once to be teased by her friends, but she still took a moment to look about the room, noticing the upturned card table and the smashed glass of the window, and what improbably looked like an explosion of icing sugar that she could see in the middle of the parquet floor. Someone would need to run a hoover over that, she thought to herself. But that could all wait for later.

She turned back to her friends with a smile.

‘I think I agree with you,’ she said, and downed her drink in one.

Chapter 39

It was a few days later, the country was bathed in sunshine again, and Marlow was still abuzz with the news that Andy Bishop, Elliot Howard and Danny Curtis had been arrested and charged with murder, and that Judith Potts, a local dog walker called Suzie, and the vicar’s wife had somehow had a hand in their capture.

Judith had no idea the town was talking about her as she spent the day after her encounter with Danny in bed, eating toast with honey on, and even more toast, and staring out of the windows as red kites wheeled high in the summer sky. Her feelings of shock and fear were soon replaced with a deep sense of pride at what she and her friends had achieved, but she liked her bed too much to get up just yet, so she carried on dozing and mulling what had happened for the rest of the day. And the next for that matter.

On the third day, she rose from her bed and her first thoughts turned to her friends.