A Home On Bramble Hill. Holly Martin

something large on her doorstep. With a shriek she landed headfirst in the nearest bush, the parcel of poo flying out of her hands.

      She wiggled around trying to gain enough leverage with her hands to right herself, but the branches were in the way and there was too much of her in the bush to flip herself up.

      Suddenly strong hands were around her calves, and with the ease of great strength she was pulled free of the bush and righted back on her feet. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and came face to face with Finn again. Well sort of face to face since he was almost two foot taller than she was. He seemed determined to always be present in her most ungraceful moments.

      ‘Thanks.’ She was annoyed that she had to thank him.

      ‘You should look where you’re going.’

      She looked back to the doorstep to see what had tripped her up – there was a bucket of soapy water but that hadn’t been it, it had been something much bigger than that. She glanced back at Finn, who had a scrubbing brush tucked into his pocket and was covered in soapy water.

      ‘You tripped me up, it was you wasn’t it? What were you doing on my doorstep?’

      He flushed. ‘I was … There was dog shit on your doorstep, I was trying to clear it up.’

      She stared at him. ‘Why?’

      He shrugged, snatched the bucket up and headed back into his own house. She stared after him. Was that Finn’s attempt at being nice?

      Just then Casey pulled up outside in a purple Ford Focus, not the neat little convertible he had taken off in the day before with Arielle.

      He saw Joy, and shielding his face, he quickly made for Zach’s front door.

      She smirked as he peered through his fingers at her. ‘Casey Fallowfield, you have some explaining to do.’

      He sighed theatrically. ‘Damn it, how did you know it was me?’

      She indicated that he should go into her house. ‘I think me and you need to have a little chat.’

      He slunk past her like a naughty schoolboy. ‘If this is stage two in the unburdening of our gruesome secrets, you can start off by telling me what you were doing last night?’

      She followed him through to the lounge, so news of it had hit the headlines already. ‘I watched Romeo and Juliet on the TV and was tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and a fat dog for company by ten.’

      Casey pulled out a very official looking notepad. ‘And do you have an alibi, a witness that will testify to this?’

      She sighed, pulling affectionately on Darcy’s ears as the dog sat down on Casey’s feet to be stroked. ‘If only Darcy could speak, she would confirm my story.’ She watched him make a hasty note in his notebook. She leaned round him to see what he had written and he snapped it shut before she’d seen it, though she was pretty sure Casey had just drawn a quick doodle of a flower. ‘What are you, the local constabulary?’

      ‘Actually yes.’

      She stared at him, his eyes were so honest. ‘Really?’

      He fished his wallet out of his pocket and showed her his ID. ‘Detective Inspector Fallowfield, CID.’

      ‘You’re kidding?’

      He smiled and shook his head. ‘As I said before, people interest me, but taking an interest is actually part of my job.’

      ‘That’s so cool, bet you’ve seen some interesting cases.’

      ‘Yes, they’ve been some weird ones. There was a squirrel killer.’

      The smile fell off her face. ‘An actual squirrel killer?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘I wouldn’t think CID would get involved in that.’

      ‘Normally we wouldn’t. The bodies of mutilated squirrels kept turning up on people’s doorsteps. But the first person to receive a squirrel was found dead a week after the squirrel was reported. Then, when more dead squirrels started appearing we thought it might be some kind of calling card of a serial killer, we thought that those that received a dead squirrel would be killed too. Turned out it was just some sicko who liked killing squirrels who used the opportunity to get his own back on a bunch of people he didn’t like. The first death was merely a coincidence.’

      ‘That’s horrible, did he go to prison?’

      ‘For six weeks, and a hefty fine for animal cruelty.’

      ‘Six weeks?’

      ‘Legally you can kill squirrels, grey ones, it’s just the method that has to be humane.’

      She shook her head over the lack of justice.

      ‘Oh there was Bonnie and Clyde, a husband and wife crime duo. Jewellery shops, petrol stations, car jacking, they left behind quite the trail of guilt wherever they went.’

      ‘They weren’t really called Bonnie and Clyde were they?’

      ‘She was, Bronwyn was her real name but everyone called her Bonnie.’

      ‘What was his name?’

      ‘Derek.’

      She laughed. ‘Did you catch them, did they go down in a hail of bullets?’

      ‘Not quite as dramatic. We thought it was mainly the wife, that she was the brains and he was the brawn. We finally caught up with him when their car ran of petrol just round the corner from a petrol station he’d robbed. But all the evidence pointed to him, we couldn’t pin anything to her, even though we knew she was as involved as he was. He went down for three years, she walked away scot free.’

      The legal system really did have a lot to answer for.

      ‘It does sound like an interesting job.’

      ‘It is, I love it, no day is ever the same.’

      ‘But… why aren’t you at work? In fact, you’ve not been at work since I’ve met you.’

      ‘I have a few weeks off, for the erm…’ He trailed off.

      ‘The wedding?’

      Casey flushed obligingly. ‘Yes, this Saturday, a week today, you will come won’t you?’

      ‘I’m your cousin, Uncle Raymond would be very disappointed if I didn’t show my support.’

      He grinned at her, but then the smile fell off his face.

      She squeezed his arm. ‘Casey what are you doing, marrying someone you clearly don’t love.’

      ‘It just sort of got out of hand. I’ve dated a few women in the past, years ago, before I really accepted I was gay. Of course, they never worked out. I’d been single for years and Mum came to me and said one of her friends wanted to set me up with one of their children. When she told me it was one of the Carmichael kids I was delighted. I only knew of the Carmichael boys, big strapping lads, really fit. It turns out they had a little sister too.’

      Casey sighed. He grabbed a flower from a vase and started slowly demolishing it, ripping the petals off one by one.

      ‘Mum was so excited about the date and when I came downstairs to find Arielle waiting for me, I could hardly say, “Urgh a girl!” So I went on the date and when I next saw Mum, she was as giddy as a school girl about how well Arielle had said it went. In truth, there was no chemistry at all, not even as friends. I found myself telling Mum that of course I’d be seeing Arielle again. I didn’t want to upset her. It just spiralled out of control.’

      With the flower ruined and confetti-like petals scattered about his feet, Casey reached for another one. Joy didn’t really mind. She’d only picked them from the garden.

      ‘I’m not quite sure how I ended up engaged. Of course that had never been my intention and to Arielle