Too Good to Be True Read Online Free Page A

children’s parents.’
    ‘But later?’
    Gail tipped home-made soup into a bowl and set it in front of Perez. ‘Later it all seemed to get too much for Anna. It can’t have been easy dealing with a small child and a full-time
job all on her own.’
    ‘You seem to manage,’ he said.
    ‘Aye, well, I’m a little bit older and I have lots of friends in the village. Besides, I’m not really on my own. My brother Sandy lives here too.’ Gail looked up from her
soup and smiled. ‘But not for much longer, it seems! He’s just got engaged and he’ll be moving into a home of his own.’
    ‘You’ll miss him,’ Perez said.
    Gail grinned again. ‘I will, but he’s marrying a lovely girl and they won’t be living far away. Besides, Grace, my daughter, is great company now.’
    There was a knock at the door. ‘That’ll be the feed delivery,’ Gail said. ‘You’ll have to excuse me.’
    She went out into the farmyard. Perez wandered around the kitchen. There was a picture of Gail on her wedding day standing next to a giant of a man with a beard. He must be the husband
who’d died. They were surrounded in the photo by laughing friends and family.
    When Gail returned to the kitchen, it seemed that she’d made up her mind to speak, because she started talking as soon as she came into the room. ‘Did you know that there are lots of
rumours about Tom King and Anna?’
    ‘What sort of rumours?’
    ‘People are saying that Tom and Anna were lovers. He owns that little house in the village where she lived, after all. And Tom’s wife Sarah took against her as soon as she started at
the school. It was as if she wanted to get rid of Anna as soon as she arrived.’
    ‘Do you know who started the rumours?’ Perez pushed away his soup bowl and put his elbows on the table.
    ‘Who can tell where gossip begins in a place like Stonebridge? The stories are like weeds, they seem to grow out of nowhere and then they spread, so there’s no way of stopping
them.’
    Gail was silent for a moment. ‘When my husband died in the car crash there were rumours that he’d been drinking. It wasn’t true and it’s dreadfully hurtful at a time when
I’m still grieving for him. I don’t know who started that gossip either.’
    ‘But you think there might have been truth in the story about Tom and Anna?’ Perez remembered Gail talking in the cafe. It had seemed then that she believed the two had been
lovers.
    Gail shrugged. ‘They’ve been seen together and they seemed very close. Sarah obviously couldn’t stand Anna. Perhaps we’ve all jumped to conclusions, but it seems to make
sense.’ She stood up. ‘I’ll get you back to Stonebridge. The kids will be coming out of school soon.’
    As they drove through the open countryside and into the village, Perez felt a stab of dread. It was as if he was being taken back to prison after a brief period of home leave.

7
The School
    Back in Stonebridge, Jimmy Perez went to his hotel room. He wanted to talk to Robert Anderson, the local police inspector, about the cleaned wine glass in the cupboard at
Anna’s house. He also wanted to find out why Anna’s parents weren’t taking care of their granddaughter Lucy.
    But Jimmy was told that Inspector Anderson was in a meeting and wouldn’t be available all day. Perez left a message for Robert to call him back.
    He stood at his window and watched a flurry of snow blow across from the hills. Parents had collected their children from school and were hurrying home. He saw Gail’s Land Rover move away
down the main street. Back outside, the light was already fading and it felt colder.
    Perez left the hotel and made his way to the school. He found the main door still open. Some older children were practising Christmas carols in the school hall. A woman in reception took his
name and showed him to the head teacher’s office.
    Maggie Redhead was in her fifties, with fine grey hair pulled into a comb at the back of her head and bright