The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

interesting, Meli was having difficulty concentrating. In fact, although she’d registered that he was looking very smug, she hadn’t really absorbed much after he said he’d been down to the farm. Her mind kept dragging her thoughts back to the things she’d found in the lean-to, and the burning question: who had been in here and stolen from them? Could it have been Elsa, she tried to reason with herself, before she died?
    “We went to the Solicitors yesterday, for the reading of the will.” Meli nodded politely, not listening at all now. What would Elsa want with some tins of beans and some Wagon Wheels? She suddenly realised that silence had fallen, and that three pairs of eyes had fixed themselves on her speculatively.
    Unable to ascertain from their expressions whether she would get away with a simple yes or no, she was forced to apologise. “I’m so sorry. My mind was elsewhere. What did you say?” She squirmed in her seat, and dug her nails painfully into the soft flesh of her thigh to help keep her mind focused.
    Ken exchanged a disappointed look with his son. “I was just telling you, that Elsa left, apart from the house and land, just over a million quid.”
    This time they were not disappointed by her response. Meli sprung from the seat, staring at the others with eyes the size of pudding bowls, before collapsing back into it. “But, but,” she couldn’t find any words. Why would Elsa steal food from them if she had all that money? The question flapped around like a floundering haddock on the tip of her tongue.
    “Precisely,” agreed Ken helpfully, his mouth spreading happily to consume the lower half of his face. “My sentiments exactly.”

Chapter 25

    When Meli eventually prised herself from the ceiling, she realised just how relieved she was knowing that Ken and Dean would be their neighbours after all, not some strangers in the guise of gentry, or some money grabbing developer who would want to flatten the land to erect some hideous housing estate or superstore in the heart of the picturesque valley. Meli knew that the whole village would be pleased. Ken had asked for a miracle, and he ’d been granted one in the very unusual guise of Elsa. But how on earth had Elsa accumulated so much money? Probably because she was stealing from me, she thought acidly.
    Secreting herself in her bedroom, before Cal arrived home, Meli added more notes to her pad, and then hid it in its new home at the back of the wardrobe. Somehow writing everything down really seemed to help; put things into perspective. The notes were beginning to take the form of a diary now. Elsa had certainly left a legacy behind her, of riches as well as all those mysteries!
    Taking a moment to straighten the bed where her bottom was imprinted in the quilt, she wandered along to the boys room, to see what they were up to. She had hoped that now there were only a couple of days left of the holidays, that they might have cracked, and made some effort to tidy up, especially as Meli had lived up to her end of the bargain, and had not touched their room in weeks. Peering through the door at the growing mayhem, her hopes were dashed; would they never lift a finger in here? Still, the battle wasn’t over yet and she wasn’t going to crumble.
    George was on his own, engrossed in The Living Dead. She wasn’t sure if this was the kind of film he should be watching, but it was certainly in keeping with his fascination with anything macabre.
    “Where’s David?” she enquired. George hit the pause button before prising his gaze from the screen.
    “In the garden with Quassi, I think,” he blinked at her, his finger hanging over the play button, waiting for her to move off so he could get back to the film.
    “Is it good?” she asked. George nodded. “Not too scary?”
    He cast his eyes at the ceiling. “It’s a comedy,” he told her.
    Staring at the grotesque face frozen on the screen, Meli wasn’t sure she agreed. “But that looks horrible,” she nodded her head at the image.
    “Looks a bit like Finn,” George grinned, finding the comparison funny. Rolling over he sat up so he was facing his mum. He crossed one gangly leg over the other.
    Meli flicked her eyes at the screen again. She didn’t need Mystic Meg’s crystal ball to see the opening that had presented itself. She lowered herself down onto David’s crumpled quilt. If Finn did look anything remotely like that, it was no wonder he kept himself hidden away. “In