Page 50 of We Chase Shadows

‘I know it’s murder that’s brought us all together,’ says Amy, as more laughs drift through to the kitchen. ‘But I was just thinking this must be what family feels like.’

Steve puts his arm around her. This wonderful woman who has known such trouble and keeps it all locked up inside.

‘Ames, this isn’t what family feels like,’ he says. ‘This is family.’

27

Rosie is in the garden of The Brass Monkey with Amy. She can hear noises of the quiz coming from inside the pub.

Lee, the one bodyguard as yet untroubled by either knife or bullet, is fetching drinks.

Every table in the garden is taken, pints of cider in pink fists, tipsy locals catching the last rays of the evening’s sun. As drinkers walk by the table, Rosie gets the odd nod of recognition, but in the main she has been left to drink in peace.

Rosie is aware that her novelty at The Brass Monkey has long since worn off. The first time she had visited there was pandemonium. Selfies, autographs, questions about Warren Beatty, drinks on the house. The second time much the same, the third and fourth a noticeable cooling of excitement, culminating this evening with walking through the door of the pub to be greeted with ‘Hey, it’s Steve’s mate.’

Rosie doesn’t necessarily need to be garlanded wherever she goes, she has a fairly healthy self-image, but a bit of light mobbing might be nice.

As if on cue, a portly middle-aged man leans over her table and says, ‘You’re Rosie D’Antonio, aren’t you?’

‘Guilty as charged,’ says Rosie. ‘Selfie?’

The man looks nonplussed. ‘Selfie? No. But if you see Tony Taylor, could you tell him the brake pads have gone on Dave’s Mondeo?’

‘I shall,’ says Rosie. ‘And are you Dave?’

‘Am I Dave,’ repeats Dave, laughing, as he walks into the pub.

Axley, like all English villages, dances to the beat of its own drum.

As Dave opens the door to the back of the pub, he stands aside, and Steve walks into the garden and over to the table.

‘Is it finished?’ asks Amy. ‘Did you win?’

‘At half eight?’ says Steve. ‘What pub quiz finishes at half eight? Ten-minute drinking break, we’re two points off the lead. We’d be one point off the lead if Vern wasn’t convinced that Jude Law was married to Angelina Jolie. I knew he wasn’t, should have had the courage of my convictions.’

‘Sorry that happened to you, Stevie,’ says Rosie.

‘Thanks,’ says Steve. ‘The guy knows his Winter Olympics though, I’ll say that.’

Lee is back with a tray loaded with pints, and Steve budges up.

‘Nice pub,’ says Lee. ‘What’s the one across the road like? The Flagon?’

‘Too try-hard,’ says Steve. ‘It’s all goujons and no fish fingers.’

Rosie had popped into The Flagon once. It is, to all intents and purposes, identical to The Brass Monkey.

‘How do you like The Hunter’s Rest?’ Amy asks.

‘Yeah, nice,’ says Lee. ‘Lots of paintings of horses though, aren’t there? Why are there always paintings of horses in places where there are already horses? Just look out of the window if you want to see a horse. They should have paintings of horses where there aren’t any horses.’

‘That’s a very insightful observation, Lee,’ says Rosie, who makes it a point of honour to be able to hold a conversation with anyone.

‘It’s just … you can’t even picture them together, can you?’ says Steve.

‘Who, dear?’ asks Rosie.

‘Jude Law and Angelina Jolie,’ says Steve.