6.THE COTTAGE IN THE WOODS Part6

The two teenagers learn a little bit more about Billy Pearce

THE COTTAGE IN THE WOODS

6. Back with Billy

Constable Pierce made his way to where Anthony and Enid were waiting patiently by a tree for permission to see Winifred. They had been ushered away from the cottage but even though she had discharged a gun in their direction which in itself was very frightening, they both felt a kind of responsibility for her. For starters, it is they who had involved the police in her, and it was plain to them that there was something really wrong with a woman living like she seemed to.

“Look you two,” said the Constable, his expression serious, “I’ve had the scare of my life and I’d not be doing my duty if I didn’t suggest to you that if you hang around here you might see somerhing you’d spend the rest of your lives wishing you hadn’t seen.”

“What sort of something?” asked Enid, reluctant to be moved on.

The policeman shuddered. “Her mother’s bones,” he said, “sitting up in bed as if she was alive, motionless, but dead and the most gross imitation of life I could ever imagine. And we’ll be taking Winifred away too. There’s no way ahe can be left in that cottage, getting more and more confused as the days pass, and increasingly trapped in a world that’s about as real as Frankenstein’s castle!”

“So her mother’s really dead?” asked Anthony.

“Like she must have been, for twenty years or more or that,” muttered the constable.

It was then that Sergeant Goodbody approached them and indicated that he wanted to talk privately to the constable.

“It was you who discovered the remains?” he asked.

Billy Pierce nodded. “Pretty scary,” he admitted.

“I tell you what, constable, there’s enough of us here, and a couple of policewomen on the way to help with the old bird who isn’t dead. Would you like to return to the station and make your statement? And go with these two young ‘uns, get them out of the way before old Grimm gets here? You know what he’s like, a stickler for doing the job right. You did walk here, with them I suppose?”

Billy grinned at the sergeant. “They sort of latched on to me,” he admitted. “It was them who alerted us to the Miss Winterbotham who isn’t dead.”

“You take ‘em, then, son, and watch out for traffic. Not much of a road, this, but there’s still wheels to come along it.”

“Right, sarge,” responded a grateful constable, and he turned to Enid and Anthony. “Come on, you two, we’ll go back together and if the Inspector wants you can make a statement regarding what’s been going on here. There’ll be an enquiry about the gunshot I wouldn’t be surprised, and there was only me and you as witnesses.”

“If we have to,” muttered Anthony with assumed reluctance because, in truth, he really wanted to get as far from the cottage in the woods as he could but didn’t want to give the ipression of being at all wimpy. The talk of old bones had reminded him that he might have the odd bit of school homework outstanding at home.

Enid took him by one hand like she never usually did, and squeezed his fingers. “We better had,” she said, “I just remembered: I forgot to feed the goldfish before we came out,”

“That decides it then,” sighed a relieved Anthony, “come on then!”

“I’ll come with you, if you don’t mind,” the constable told them, “I’ve got to get to the station and report back. It’s al paper work these days. Once, we could have grabbed hold of villains and sorted them out with our truncheons, but these days we have to use paper!”

“I suppose it’s a bit kinder if you’ve got it all wrong and the criminal isn’t a criminal at all,” suggested Enid

“You’ve got a point there, I suppose, he grinned, “and you never told me how old you are?” added when the cottage lay behind them, “I might need to mention it in my report.”

“How old do you think we are?” grinned Enid.

Billy suspected a trap, but he could deal with it. “I’d have put you down as young adults,” he suggested, “but I guess you’re younger than that seeing as you’re still at school.”

“Fifteen,” Anthony said, “we’re both fifteen, not that it makes any difference to what we saw if we’re witnesses. Young eyes are just as good as old ones.”

“Often better,” agreed Billy. “Now let’s watch out, looks like the pathologist’s on his way and he often thinks he’s at Brands Hatch on race day!”

The car with a dumpy pathologist behind the wheel was going so slow it was almost stationary and Billy waved him past them. “Not far now, Henry,” he shouted, and the pathologist waved back.

“I wouldn’t fancy his job,” Billy told the two teenagers as they continued through the woods, “slicing up bodies all day long, poking his fingers in the nastiest corners on Earth.”

“Urgh!” shuddered Enid.

“It has to be done, though,” sighed Billy, “if someone dies and we don’t know why then we must try to find out or someone might get away with murder, and if someone murders once and gets away with it, who’s to say he won’t do it again and again?”

“But there can’t be much if the old lady’s mother is no more than dusty old bones like you said,” Anthony suggested, “I mean, how can he tell what caused a skeleton to die?”

“Smashed bones, maybe,” replied the Constable thoughtfully, “and if there’s a bullet that might indicate what sort of gun fired it.”

“But the body will still be dead,” sighed Enid.

“True enough, but hey! You’re too young to be worried about life and death like that!” exclaimed the constable, and he added “and come to think of it, so am I.”

“Are you married with kids?” asked Anthony.

He shook his head. “Not yet,” he said, and grinned at them. “Later this year, I hope. There’s Amy, and she’s the prettiest lass on Earth.” He blanced at Enid, “Maybe present company excepted,” he added.

“That must be Amy Cinders from across the road from us,” smiled Andrew “and she is a good looker. Everyone says. Pirty about her husband, dying like he did, he didn’t seem to be much older than me.”

“He was twenty-something, and my best friend,” agreed Billy. “But even though he was young he was struck by cancer, poor devil. He’d not been married to Amy for long, and I hated myself for starting to look at Amy when he was so ill. But she’s not only a good looker, she’s a nice woman too.”

They were approaching the end of the unmade track and about to put their feet onto a proper road.

“Do you want to to come to the station with me, or is there something else you plan doing?” asked Billy, replacing his helmet, which he’d been carrying under one arm.

“We’ll come,” shivered Enid, “then we’ll go home. You’re staying for lunch Anthony with me, aren’t you? Mum’s done stew, or so she said.”

“Can I come, then?” he asked awkwardly.

“Of course, silly. You’re my boyfriend, aren’t you?”

“Am I?

She looked him in the eye. “You’d better be,” and she smiled suddenly, “so come on let’s go with Billy, do our civic duty and go home for some of mum’s extra special stew sooner than soon.”

© Peter Rogerson 17.01.23

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