The Loner Read Online Free

lunch. Besides, he’s lived in that cottage all his life. I don’t think he’d want to move.’
    â€˜That’s what Ben said.’
    â€˜Well, Percy’s his father so he should know. Ben’s looked after Percy just like you looked after your mother. The two of you deserve some time to yourselves.’
    Morwenna pressed a palm to her pink cheek. ‘I can’t hardly b’lieve it, Jess. Me getting married. Truth is I’d given up hope. Now I got some job keeping on top of it all, there’s that much to think about.’
    â€˜Enjoy every moment, Mor. You’ve earned it.’

Chapter Three
    Jess went into the shop just before midday on Saturday to pick up milk and other shopping for the weekend.
    â€˜You could have come in and told me,’ Gill said coolly. ‘I had to hear about it from Maggie Collins. Her husband Mark works for Angwin’s funeral directors.’
    â€˜I thought I recognised him,’ Jess said. ‘But they were there and gone so fast –’
    â€˜Yes, but you weren’t.’ Gill folded her arms. ‘He said it was you that found the body.’
    Jess nodded. ‘You know what the weather was like last week. By Thursday I was going stir-crazy. I needed a walk so I took my spare tomato plants to give to Mr Preece. I thought he’d be in the garden like he always is, especially after all that rain. I called out three or four times. But he didn’t come and I couldn’t see him anywhere. Something didn’t feel right. So I climbed over the gate –’
    â€˜You never!’ Her grudge forgotten, Gill leaned forward over the counter, her face close to the Perspex barrier.
    â€˜I didn’t have any choice. There was a chain and padlock on it and no other way in. It’s a good job I did, or he might still be lying there.’ Jess’s skin tightened in a shiver.
    â€˜That’s what comes of cutting yourself off from everyone,’ Gill said. ‘Mark wouldn’t say what happened. Was it a break in? He wasn’t attacked, was he?’
    â€˜No, nothing like that. PC Davey made me wait outside while he looked round. When I asked what he was looking for, he said drugs or weapons. And no, he didn’t find any. His sergeant came, then the doctor and the coroner’s officer. They’re writing it up as an accident. The sole on Mr Preece’s slipper had come away from the upper. It looks like he tripped and cracked his head on the granite hearth when he fell. He was so cold, he must’ve been lying there all night.’ Jess cleared a sudden thickness from her throat. ‘It was an awful shock finding him like that. I felt so sorry for him, Gill. When PC Davey finally let me go all I could think about was getting home and having a cup of tea.’
    â€˜I don’t blame you, bird. I wonder what’ll happen to the place now.’
    â€˜Was he local? Did he have any family here?’
    Gill looked along the counter to where owner Gerry Eustice had just finished serving a customer. ‘Ger, do you know if John Preece had any family?’
    â€˜He never said. But you’d need a crowbar to get more ’n two words out of ’n.’
    Gill nodded. ‘Even when I charged the key card for his electric he never spoke, just gave me the cash.’
    â€˜We’ll miss his fruit and veg,’ Gerry added. ‘Lovely quality it was.’
    Gerry’s wife, Sandra, came over. ‘Who’s going to pay for his funeral? You read terrible stories in the paper about bodies being left in they fridge drawers for years because there’s no one to give the poor soul a decent send-off. If he ’aven’t got family –’
    â€˜Hang on a minute, Sandra –’
    Jess bit back a smile at the panic on Gerry’s face.
    â€˜No need to go off half-cock, Ger. I aren’t saying we do it all by ourselves. But what about a collection here in the