“So...” Maggie whispered to Ellie, leaning in close. “By rights, you should be in shock right now. You’ve just caught a murderer, and you’re smiling at that pub like someone is waving a first edition Jane Austen with your name on it.”
“Granny Maggie,” Ellie said. “I have no idea what you mean. C-.”
“C?”
“What was it you said to me when I was two years off with my 1818 guess?” Ellie asked, relishing in the moment. “As impressive as that observation was, we don’t have time for that kind of thinking. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open, and don’t go too far into your own head.”
“Hmm,” Maggie grumbled, tapping Ellie’s leg with her cane.
Ellie felt a warmth spread through her chest as she looked at Daniel again. Despite the chaos of the night, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment and... something else. Something she wasn’t quite ready to name yet. She turned back to her grandmother, who was watching her with a knowing smile.
“From where I’m standing, sweetie,” Maggie said as they set off into the night, fighting against the sea of villagers flooding towards Blackwood House from just about every direction, “a C is still a passing grade. But you keep your secrets. I’ll be here when you’re willing to share.”
“Hmm,” Ellie grumbled right back as the police drove Anne Collins away from Blackwood House for the final time. “After seeing what was capable of, I didn’t think I’d feel empathy for her, but… I did like her.”
“She did have a certain charm, but perhaps you’re giving her too much credit.” Exhaling through flared nostrils, Maggie looked back at Blackwood House with a look of such disgust, Ellie thought she might double over. She didn’t, instead turning away with her eyes closed. “Do you remember what happened when Emma’s dressing fell off?”
“Anne took her away to change it. But before that, Anne spilled the unused invisible ink all over Edmund’s office rug when she heard the police had made the invisible connection. That’s why Emma was covered in the stuff.”
Maggie nodded, though that didn’t seem to cheer her up. “And what happened after that?
“The police arrived and Emma came back in.”
“B.”
“But that’s what…” Ellie’s stomach flipped, and flipped again, and then she felt like she might double over as she stared back at that house. “We were standing there watching and Anne brought her in by the hand.”
“And intentionally sat Emma in the chair directly under the sculpture,” Anne delivered. Taking a moment to let the words clear. “And then she left the girl alone to defend herself against the police, knowing she was innocent and was about to meet her end. I’m not trying to poison your view of Anne, but it’s something to think about.”
“You know what, Granny,” Ellie said, resisting the urge to give that red window one last glance as they followed the lane away from the green towards Maggie’s cottage, “the less we all think about Anne Collins and her short reign of cherry-scented terror around this village, the better.”
“An astute observation, Eleanor.”
Chapter 29The Corpse’s Big Comeback
Ellie sank deeper into the plush beige sofa, her neck craned to stare at the screen that dominated her mother’s sitting room. The soft glow of the projector cast dancing shadows across their faces. Carolyn sat perched on the edge of her seat, her eyes wide with anticipation as she waited to reappear on the screen. Auntie Penny was cross-legged on the carpet, sitting to attention as she scratched Duchess behind the ears.
Carolyn bounced in her seat like a child waiting for their first birthday present, and Ellie couldn’t help but feel a twinge of affection for her mother’s enthusiasm. She’d called off the screening party due to ‘recent events’, wanting ‘just the four of them’, though Penny had still spent the afternoon putting up the screen.
“Oh, this man played my husband,” Carolyn suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a distinguished-looking actor on the screen. “We never filmed on the same day—I had a stand-in for my parts—but wait! Here’s the big emotional climax.”
Ellie watched as her mother cleared her throat, her eyes never leaving the screen. Carolyn’s hand flapped at the remote control, and Penny sprang into action, fumbling with the device. In her haste to increase the volume, she accidentally sent it skyrocketing from a modest 24 to a thunderous 73.
The sudden burst of sound made Ellie wince, and Duchess let out a startled yap. But Carolyn remained unfazed, leaning forward even more, completely engrossed in the unfolding scene.
On the projector sheet, the man stepped into the frame, the camera quickly cutting to show Carolyn lying motionless on the metal morgue slab. Ellie had to admit, her mother did look dead.
A fist banged on the wall from Daniel’s nan’s side, fluttering the sheet.
“That rehearsing paid off!” Ellie said, turning to her mother to stop her from throwing a reactionary shoe at the wall.
“Shh! This bit.”
The man on the screen leaned over the body, sobbing thickly. “My beautiful wife... always with her head in the clouds, never on the road. If only you’d seen that bus coming, you might not have chased that pigeon across the street and straight under the wheels of the 32 to Clapham.” His sobbing convulsed his body. “Pigeons were always your favourite bird.”
As the man thrashed, sobbing dramatically, Ellie found herself utterly confused by the scene. She glanced at Penny, who was dabbing at her eyes as if witnessing the height of romance.
“That’s it!” Carolyn announced, satisfaction evident in her voice. “The end.”
But the man on the screen wasn’t finished. “My dear wife... at least we had sixty-five wonderful years of marriage together.”
Carolyn leapt to her feet, pointing accusingly at the TV. “The sneaks! They added that in after. Nobody said that on set when I was there. But that would make me... mid-eighties? I’m sixty-five!”
Ellie couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease her mother. “I guess forty-two was too much to ask for.”
The bass-heavy Casualty theme tune played as the credits rolled, and Penny and Ellie looked at each other, waiting for an explosion they all knew too well.
Penny chirped, “You were a fabulous cadaver, Carolyn!”
“You didn’t move once,” Ellie added, trying to keep a straight face.
Carolyn took a moment, then shook out her hair, and in a know-it-all voice, said, “Yes, well, I really dug deep for my motivation for this role, you know? I had to feel it.”
“Oscars!” Penny exclaimed.
“Penny, I will not win an Oscar,” Carolyn said, laughing at the suggestion. “We’re in the UK. I’d win a BAFTA.”
Ellie couldn’t resist chiming in, “I don’t think ‘Best Corpse in a Medical Drama’ is a category.”
