Episode 1 - The proposal

"You're nervous," said Cleo Hartley as she observed Robert Jones throwing the lamb chops into the frying pan. All his actions were frenetic. He seemed to be turning his cooking into a race to the finish.

"Me? No. What makes you think that?"

"Body language, Robert."

He tried to distract her.

"Wine?"

"Better not. I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. The Norton brothers are being released on bail."

"Are you going to meet them?" 

"Of course not. I'll just park my car so that I can see the prison exit. I'd like to know who is going to be there."

***

The Norton brothers were famous, or rather, infamous. They ran the underworld in Middlethumpton and district. You would not have thought a market town would be home to such an organization, but their pickings were impressive. Some of the credit for putting them behind bars this time - on a relatively minor charge - was Cleo’s. While they were sitting out their sentences, the crime investigation coordinator at Middlethumpton Police Headquarters, Roger Stone, had stepped back after his wife had confessed to murder. His role in the case was up for scrutiny as a matter of course, though no one believed that he was involved, not even the Oxford constabulary that had the overview of what went on in Middlethumpton.

***

Cleo’s divorce from Jay Salerno, a small time crook and bully, had been fraught with hitches, not least because Salerno had been involved in a prison brawl and subsequently escaped by using the identity of a deceased fellow prisoner, only to turn up almost on her doorstep before being removed from of her life for good. To make things worse, Robert had been saved from committing bigamy only because his first wife, whom he had thought dead, reappeared just in time to stop the ceremonials.

***

Gary Hurley, Chief Inspector of the homicide department, with whom Cleo had an intermittent affair punctuated by decisions not to see him again, had had an otherwise stressful winter, and his nervous breakdown was an inevitable result of the pressure under which he had tried valiantly to function. Then one day he had simply not been around anymore. He told his boss Roger Stone that he was being treated at a sanatorium, but did not reveal the location thereof.

***

Roger Stone, who was soon declared innocent of anything to do with his wife’s crimes, had had to promise to tell Cleo only that Gary was still alive and on leave - nothing more, nothing less. Since Gary had been declaring for months that he was going to quit police duty and been obliged to change his mind several times, Cleo was distressed that he had made the decision to disappear from sight without telling her. She was now earnestly trying to come to terms with herself and to fall in with Robert’s plans and idiosyncrasies. That was not easy. Cleo liked and was grateful to Robert, but she did not love him.

***

Robert Jones’s divorce had eventually gone through amicably after 29 years during which he and his bride Rita, who had run away and married while they had both only just left school had each believed the other was dead. That juvenile marriage had produced a child, Julie, about whom Robert knew nothing, since Rita had been sent to New Zealand by her vindictive father. Now Cleo and Robert’s marriage could go ahead smoothly.

***

With Cleo's Chicago-born mother Gloria, one time chorus-line show girl, assisting at Robert’s thriving family butcher’s shop, he could afford to take time off, while Cleo was up to her eyes in detection and thus unaware of the scheme Robert was pursuing.

One morning, quite without consulting Cleo, he had used her involvement in her current case and consequent overtime spent at her office, to find all the necessary documents at the cottage they shared, put them into an innocuous brown envelope and drive to Middlethumpton Registry Office, where he was able to slip into a vacant interview slot which resulted in a vacant marriage slot.

Robert knew the vicar would be upset. Frederick Parsnip was always thankful when something nice happened, but St Peter's Parish Church had been the location of that first disastrous attempt by Cleo and Robert to get spliced and Robert was not going to risk another debacle. The vicar would not be told until after the event.

Gloria was curious. To cover up his belated arrival at the shop, Robert explained that he’d been having his blood pressure checked. High or low or even normal blood pressure did not account for why Robert sang for the rest of the day, not lugubrious spirituals, but musical hits, notably from Oklahoma, in which he had once played a leading role. Gloria countered with a little rhythmic accompaniment, banging the hatchet rhythmically on the resonant wooden carving block. It was a jolly pair that greeted customers and infected everyone with the glad-to-be-alive feeling. Only Robert knew at the time why he was flying high and Gloria was happy to join in even if she didn’t. She did not ask because Robert could not keep a secret for long.

Regrettably for Gloria’s curiosity, she was due to take a class of would-be chorus liners that evening, so she could not accept Robert's invitation to supper. He was in two minds about whether to reveal his news to her there and then, but decided it would be bad form to tell his prospective mother-in-law before informing his bride-to-be of such an important event.

***

The idea that Cleo could go through with a marriage to Robert if it became legally possible, was tearing Gary Hurley apart. His divorce had come through, but though he would now be free to marry Cleo had she left Robert, Cleo’s loyalty to Robert was incomprehensible since she could not live without Gary, nor could Gary contemplate life without Cleo. His current depression was worsened by the continued absence of his daughter, Charlie, who had been taken to Spain by her mother and forced to live alongside her mother’s dubious new partner.

Knowing just how miserable Gary was, Cleo was very worried about his disappearance. Not only were her personal feelings affected, but she could not access the documentation Gary had at his disposal and would have to rely on internet sources for her information. The working relationship between Cleo and Gary was interrupted. Gary had not valued, she decided, though discussing his cases with her had already led to successes.

Robert knew nothing of Cleo’s dilemma, and even if he did, he would be undeterred in his ambition to be the only man in Cleo’s life.

"Why are you in a bad mood,” said Robert.

“Too many lost pets and not enough murder cases to make up for it,” said Cleo untruthfully. Robert was not going to share in her anguish about Gary. He was looking for an opportunity to end Cleo’s association with him and was sure that when he had claimed Cleo as his own for once and for all, that would be the end of D.I. Gary Hurley.

“You don’t like hearing about murder cases, Robert.”

“I don’t like any cases when Gary Hurley is involved,” he retorted.

“That’s stupid, Robert. You know that he supports me.”

“As far as I remember, you help him, not the other way round.”

“We work together, Robert.”

"So what can I do to help? You say the man has scarpered. I’m still here and willing.”

“I cannot do the work of a private detective without the police resources he has,” said Cleo. “And Gary needs me for thought experiments and advice.”

“I have no idea what thought experiments are, so perhaps you would tell me what I can do to help now your pet cop is not available.”

"You could book us a holiday. I need one," said Cleo, sure that Robert would not want to leave his beloved shop for an hour longer than he had to and certainly not in Gloria’s chaotic hands..

"I have done some booking."

Cleo felt a cold shiver go down her spine.

"But not a holiday," Robert continued.

"Oh!"

"A wedding."

"Your daughter's?"

Cleo hoped that Julie's friendship with Gary had been nipped in the bud by his burnout crisis. Cleo had no right to be jealous of Gary’s attempts to find someone he could live with if Cleo did not want to, but she was.

Julie had been upset about Gary leaving  without telling anyone where he was going, and no amount of reassurance could make up for his lack of communication. It wasn’t as if they had had an intimate relationship, but because Gary had nottalked to her before leaving.

That the main problem was Robert Jones’s continuing presence in Cleo’s life would not have come as a surprise to Julie, who was still emotionally attached to her university friend, Colin Peck, even after he had gone back to London to join the Metropolitan Police.  The irony of the situation was Gary wanted Cleo and in his life and Julie wanted Colin in hers. No one talked to anyone about all these different personal conflicts. It was a wordless tussle now aggravated by Gary’s continuing absence.

"Not Julie’s wedding, Cleo. Ours."

“What?”

“Ours.”

"When?"

"Thursday next week. At 11 sharp. Don't be late," said Robert.

To Robert’s relief, Cleo did not say ‘No’, and to his amusement her next reaction was nothing if not practical.

"What shall I wear?"

"Is that all you have to say? I assume you'll come if you're thinking about your outfit."

"I'll have to sit down."

"Have some of this Bordeaux. It'll revive you in no time. It did wonders for the gravy."

Robert fetched two tumblers and filled them to the brim with the heady ruby liquid.

They toasted one another unemotionally.

"Now get out of my kitchen," said Robert. "Dinner will be on the table in a few minutes."

Robert had made no romantic gesture. He was, compared with Gary, an emotional desert, whereas the cop was an oasis. It could be said that Robert’s decision to marry Cleo now was almost like taking advantage of Gary’s absence, though he tried not to see it that way.

Cleo did. She wandered into the living-room and flopped down on the sofa. She could not remember ever being as surprised as at this moment and she was in a panic about the pending inevitability of an enduring partnership with Robert. Why had Gary disappeared? Could she enter into marriage to a man she quite liked but did not love? After the first failed attempt Gary had said it was nemesis – the answer to her wanting to marry the wrong man. Where was he now?

The phone rang.

"We're out," called Robert. "Don't answer it."

"I have to. It might be a case."

Cleo Hartley hoped that her agency could survive despite Gary’s protracted absence and the departure of Colin, arguably her best assistant, not counting Dorothy Price. You might think that a village like Upper Grumpsfield did not need a detective agency, but it was surprising how busy the residents kept it, even if their problems were petty and the fees consequently low.

But despite Upper Grumpsfield declaring itself to be tolerant and not racist, Cleo still had to contend with her olive skin after years in the village. She was not as dark as her mother, but her skin colour rendered her conspicuous in a mainly white village community.

Gloria was an Afro-American show girl who had once lived with Cleo’s stiff-upper-lipped English father before returning to Chicago disillusioned with village attitudes and not least the Hartley family. There she had given birth and raised Cleo, who had never set eyes on her father, but inherited his cottage.

Cleo had experienced resentment and unfriendliness when she arrived to claim her legacy. Robert had for some time been her only friend. Eventually they had become involved in a sort of love affair and he had moved into Cleo’s cottage. Gloria had finally settled in Upper Grumpsfield and was living in the flat above Robert Jones's butcher's shop. As his assistant, Gloria had turned the selling of prime cuts of meat into an art and taught Robert how to prepare the meat cuts that were now all the rage. Gloria also dispensed cooking advice on the US style meat cuts. She was immensely popular and made the most of it. Robert saw her as a necessary evil.

Everyone else thought Gloria was great improvement to Robert’s shop. Her snappy repartee and infectious vivacity were welcome there even if they did get on Cleo’s nerves As Robert pointed out, these days you didn't just buy genuine Porterhouse or T-bone steaks, you were also served by a genuine American lady, who knew exactly how to cook the cuts of meat that were now all the rage for miles around. People had been known to drive all the way from Oxford to buy their beef at Robert's shop, and Robert had a hard job keeping up with all the orders.

"We'll have to expand, Bobby," Gloria told him.

"And lose the family butcher character? No deal!" Robert replied.

"The little shop next to Cleo's office is up for grabs," she told him. "How about opening an extra outlet there?"

That was not such a bad idea, Robert had to agree. He was so charmed by the thought that he secured the lease on the property. He would think seriously about expanding, but did not tell anyone.

"The sign has gone, Bobby," Gloria informed him a few days later. "You've missed your big chance."

"Oh dear, what a shame," said Robert. He was still weighing up the pros and cons of actually going ahead with Gloria's project when it occurred to him that signing a lease without consulting anyone was so easy that organizing a registry office wedding might also be achieved without much effort. Now Gary had disappeared, it was the right time to secure his lease on Cleo, he decided, and that was what had triggered Robert’s enthusiasm for the wedding. Entrepreneurship was several steps beyond Robert's conservative way of going about things. He was, however, determined to marry Cleo and finally lay the ghost of Gary Hurley.

"When did you arrange that?" called Cleo, who was now getting into something more comfortable than her office outfit.

"This morning," Robert shouted back from the kitchen. "Don't you like the idea?"

"It's OK, but I haven't got anything to wear," Cleo called.

No protests? No discussion? Robert felt gratified.