Ann Cleeves - Too Good to Be True

‘That was when Gail made her big mistake. The note from Anna was in her pocket and it dropped out on the dressing table. Without the note we would never have been able to prove what had happened.’

Jimmy Perez paused for breath and looked at Anderson, who was listening intently.

‘Gail went back downstairs,’ he continued. ‘Anna would have been quite tipsy at that point. She wasn’t used to drinking. It wouldn’t have been hard for Gail to tip the crushed pills into her wine without Anna noticing. They must have dissolved very quickly. She waited until Anna fell into a deep sleep, then she went into the kitchen, washed out her own glass and put it away. I’m sure you’ll find traces of the drug in the unwashed glass.’

‘Then she drove home,’ Anderson said, ‘as if nothing had happened.’

Perez nodded. ‘The next morning she took Lucy back and seemed as shocked as everyone else that Anna was dead.’

The inspector sipped his beer. ‘Freda, one of the other teachers, had already started the rumours about Anna and Tom. Freda hated the fact that she’d been replaced by a younger woman. Gail spread the gossip so that if you did decide that Anna had been murdered, no one would suspect that she was involved in the killing.’

‘But her brother did suspect,’ Anderson said.

‘He was the only person who knew how badly Gail had been affected by her husband’s death. And he knew how passionate she was about the farm. Sandy heard that I was asking questions and he came to the hotel to talk to me. But he couldn’t quite do it. He couldn’t quite bring himself to accuse his sister of murder.’

Anderson emptied his glass. ‘I suppose I should thank you for clearing the case up for me, Jimmy.’

‘I’m sorry if you felt I was treading on your toes.’

‘Aye well.’ Anderson grinned. ‘Just don’t think of coming to meddle on my patch again. Or I might come up to Shetland to work on one of your cases.’

‘You’d be very welcome, Robbie. Any time.’ Perez smiled back.

‘Are you joking? Ferries and small planes make me feel sick before I step onto them. You’re quite safe, Jimmy. I’ll leave you on your islands in peace.’

Jimmy Perez left the next morning without saying goodbye to Tom and Sarah King. In a place like Stonebridge, news of Gail’s arrest would soon get out and the gossips would have another target for their chatter. Tom and Sarah would be left in peace.

It was a calm sailing on the ferry, and Perez’s friends brought his daughter, Cassie, to meet the boat when it got into Lerwick after the overnight crossing. He dropped his stepdaughter at school and went into work. Over the next few weeks he was busy with everyday police work in Shetland and he’d almost forgotten the case in Stonebridge when a letter arrived from Sarah.

The envelope contained a photo, and it was this that slipped onto the table first. The picture had been taken in the Kings’ garden. It showed Tom and Sarah and the children wrapped up against the cold on a bright, clear day. There were Christmas lights on the fir trees on each side of the front door.

When Perez looked again he saw that there were three children in the photo, not two. The third child was smaller and she had dark curls and a wide, beaming smile. It was Lucy, Anna’s daughter.

Perez read the letter that went with the photo. It had been written by Sarah.

Thanks so much for all your help. You can’t know what a difference you made to our lives. We’ve had a fab Christmas and that was all down to you. I wanted to tell you that we’ve become Lucy’s guardians and we hope to adopt her. You know I always hoped for a big family and her cousins love her to bits. Now my life’s perfect.

Perez smiled to himself and stuck the photo onto the fridge.

Ann Cleeves is the author behind ITV’s VERA and BBC One’s SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez – characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over one million copies worldwide.

Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black , the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside.