The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

turned her nose up at him. She was sure something had scared David, but he wasn’t saying. Whatever it was he quickly shared it with his brother, she suspected, when they both vanished upstairs.
    “I tell you, there was something not right with David when I met him,” she said, turning to Cal. “Call it mothers intuition if you like.”
    “He took the dog for a walk, nothing happened, he looked quite happy to me.” Cal didn’t even glance away from the T.V. You’ll be sorry, when we all wake up murdered in our beds one morning, Meli thought sulkily, pulling a face at him.
    Cassie came into the living room, head bopping to the beat of some obscure band blaring from the personal CD player tucked into the belt of her trousers. Meli could hear its buzz across the room.
    “You’ll go deaf,” she mouthed at her daughter, who flashed her a frosty smile as she passed en route to the kitchen. Meli heard the kettle go on. As usual there was no offer of a cup of tea for anyone else. Where had she gone wrong? She asked herself. Things had improved since their set-to on her birthday, but they still had a long way to go. She decided that they needed to do some serious mother/daughter bonding. She’d have to give that some thought.
    As the credits rolled at the end of Changing Rooms, Cal returned to the planet, suddenly attentive. “You must stop worrying about the kids. They’re growing up now, they’re not babies. You know that was one of the reasons we moved here, to give them a safe environment to live in.” Cal always amazed Meli. He could totally ignore a remark or only give it half an ear while absorbed in something trivial (like the telly), then thirty minutes later he would suddenly pick up the threads of the conversation as though it had only just happened. It was almost as if he had a pause button.
    She allowed herself to relax against her husband when he wrapped both arms around her and she nodded into his shoulder. Maybe he was right, maybe she did worry too much. A giggle escaped her lips as Cal began to nibble her ear, sending shivers down her spine. They had an early night that night.

Chapter 12

    Standing in the queue in the Post Office, which was almost out the door, Meli remembered why she usually avoided a Thursday morning like a dose of flu. The village had a high proportion of pensioners, and they all converged on the Post Office today to collect their pensions. A great social occasion in the village week. The aisles were filled with grumbles and complaints about everything from unpleasant sounding, and probably highly contagious diseases, to the gory details of operations, to the weather, and of course, not forgetting the latest deaths. And Mrs. Barber did not rush anyone. Each customer seemed entitled to a minimum of a two minute chat as they exchanged gossip, which often involved several people at the same time. Meli shifted her weight from one leg to the other; she only wanted some stamps. If the letters did not urgently need to go today she would have left it, as it was she had a birthday card to post (for a birthday today) and an estimate for a set of six masks, which would bring in a substantial amount of much needed income, if she was successful.
    Fifteen minutes after stepping through the door, she was at the head of the queue. “Ah, Mrs. Noble,” Mrs. Barber greeted her with a mild note of surprise in her voice. Meli noticed that her pupils were wildly dilated, her square flat cheeks a bright shade of raspberry that clashed with the flamingo pink of her overall. She looked like she was on a high, possibly about to overdose from an excess of gossip mongering.
    Tearing the number of requested first class stamps from a strip, Mrs. Barber suddenly commented. “Don’t usually see you here today. How’s that husband of yours?”
    “Fine,” Meli replied cautiously. To her knowledge Mrs. Barber had never met Cal, so it seemed odd that she would be asking after him.
    “That could have been such a nasty accident,” Mrs. Barber told somebody over her shoulder as she passed Meli her stamps.
    “What accident?” Meli asked frowning, handing over the exact money. Had Cal been involved in an accident on the way to work? Her heart began to quicken.
    “Why, the one with the washing line.” Mrs. Barber was now directing the full force of her gaze at Meli as though she was stupid. Meli’s lower jaw swung open, and hung there. How on earth could anyone know? There were no witnesses outside