The Magic of Christmas. Trisha Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ isn’t it? – could make some tea,’ she suggested.

      ‘I think I’ll stay here,’ Jasper said thoughtfully, settling down on the sofa next to me.

      ‘Can you tell me what time your husband left here on the Wednesday? You said you last saw him then, didn’t you?’

      ‘I don’t know when he left, because I went for a walk in the late morning – a long walk in the woods – and when I got back my car had gone.’

      ‘Did he often borrow your car?’

      ‘No, practically never, because I usually made sure he couldn’t find the keys. His van had broken down, that’s why he took mine.’

      ‘So you were surprised to find your car gone?’

      ‘Yes, and annoyed when he didn’t come back in time for me to go and collect Jasper from the dig … or at all. I needed my car.’

      ‘He would probably have come back in good time if the accident hadn’t happened, Mum. His mobile was in the workshop and I expect he’d have taken it with him if he hadn’t just popped out for something,’ Jasper said. ‘Wonder where he was going. I checked it for messages, but he’d wiped them, so that was no help.’

      ‘I don’t know,’ I said dubiously. ‘He probably just forgot his phone.’

      ‘Where do you think he might have been going, Mrs Pharamond?’

      ‘I’ve no idea. But he told me earlier he had to finish a surfboard to deliver this weekend, so I was surprised when he didn’t come back.’

      ‘Finish a surfboard?’

      ‘He customised surfboards for a living. You know – spray-painted designs on them? He was a keen surfer, too …’ I stopped, having a sudden vision of Tom freewheeling into space off the quarry road and wondering if he found the sensation exhilarating? I wouldn’t put it past him, and of course he’d never expect anything he did, however dangerous, to actually kill him.

      ‘And you were here all evening?’

      ‘Yes. After I got back from the Mystery Play Committee meeting in the village hall I was experimenting with candyfloss, so I was pretty busy.’

      She gave me a strange look but didn’t follow that one up. Instead she turned her attention to Jasper.

      ‘And you were at this archaeological site all that day?’

      He nodded. ‘Occasionally I cycle there in the mornings, but Mum usually picks me up in the evening. The narrow roads round the site have become a bit of a rat run since everyone got satnav and she thinks I’ll get knocked off the bike,’ he said tolerantly. ‘When I got home she’d been making lemon candyfloss. Yummy.’

      ‘Right,’ she said, scribbling away. I nearly asked her if she would like me to whip her up some Cornish Mist, but I could see she had no sense of humour.

      ‘So, Mrs Pharamond, you must have been angry about your husband taking the car?’

      ‘I was, and even more so when he didn’t come back. But I knew if I didn’t turn up at the dig, Jasper would cycle back, he really didn’t mind.’

      I was starting to feel strangely worried, despite knowing I had nothing on my conscience other than guilt for that profound moment of relief I’d felt on hearing that it was Tom who’d had the accident and not Jasper.

      ‘Jasper, perhaps tea would be a good idea? Or coffee. Would you mind?’

      He gave me a look, but rose to a gangling six foot and, stooping under the low beam, went to the kitchen, though he left the door ajar. This is not a cottage where you can have private conversations … or indeed, private much of anything.

      ‘Can you tell me how the accident happened yet? I thought he must have had a seizure, perhaps, or a heart attack, even though he seemed a bit young for that? Or perhaps the brakes failed, or something?’

      ‘Actually, it looks as though one of the Citroën’s wheels came off.’ Her eyes were fixed on my face to gauge the full effect of this pronouncement.

      ‘A wheel came off? But would that have caused him to veer off the road?’

      ‘Not necessarily. It’s usually possible to drive on three wheels to a safe halt.’

      A sudden, rather nasty, thought struck me. ‘Do you know which wheel came off?’

      ‘The front driver’s side.’ She looked at me intently again, and I realised I must’ve turned pale. ‘Why?’

      ‘I had a flat tyre … it must have been that same morning, so I changed the wheel for the spare and took it in to be mended. Jasper undid the last nut – it was stiff – but I changed the wheel and put the nuts on again,’ I said firmly. ‘Jasper had gone back into the house by then. And what’s more, it was absolutely fine on the drive to the dig and back!’

      ‘Mrs Pharamond, I’m not accusing you of anything!’

      Wasn’t she? It began to sound amazingly like it!

      ‘Isn’t it just possible you didn’t tighten them up quite enough, so they slowly worked loose? Accidents do happen.’

      ‘You mean I might have accidentally killed my husband?’

      Now I saw which way she was heading with this, I thanked God it was me who had tightened the nuts and not Jasper!

      ‘If they were a bit loose, then the tight bends of the quarry road could have completed the job,’ she said. ‘It’s a possibility. We haven’t found any of them yet.’

      ‘But I’m sure they were tight, because I used a wheel br—’ I stopped as Jasper came back in carrying a battered tin tray of mugs and an open carton of milk.

      ‘Yes, they were,’ he said, putting the tray down on the coffee table with a thump that slopped some coffee over the rims. ‘I could hear what you were saying from the kitchen and Mum put the wheel back on and tightened the nuts. And then when she went in to wash her hands, I tightened them up even more.’

      We gazed at him, though presumably not with the same mixed feelings of affection and exasperation.

      ‘Oh, Jasper,’ I said, ‘I’m not being accused of anything except carelessness, so you really don’t have to try and protect me!’

      ‘I’m not, Mum, it’s quite true. I left you putting the wheel back on, but I checked it was tight enough later, when you weren’t about.’

      I wondered how often he’d felt he needed to check up on me, and from my expression he deduced that he ought to add something. ‘It was fine – I thought it would be.’

      ‘Of course it was! Any idiot can change a wheel,’ I said indignantly.

      PC Perkins had lost interest in the ins and outs of our dispute, and turned to Jasper, notebook at the ready. ‘So you are quite sure that the wheel was in a safe condition?’

      ‘Absolutely. And I often checked them СКАЧАТЬ