Murder Most Royal

One of her friends dropped her off back here afterwards. Judy usually got out by the Scout hut, near my cottage, and walked from there. The lane to her house is round the corner, see? The way she was lying, it was clear she was hit by a car travelling out of the village, so it wouldn’t have seen her until just before the impact.’

Rozie tried to see a way in which the car could have known in advance where Judy would be. She failed. If you wanted to stage something that looked like a genuine accident, this was the perfect place to do it.

‘She wasn’t found for at least fifteen minutes,’ Katie said. ‘Luckily, the woman who spotted her is the local GP so she got good care until the ambulance came. It could have been fatal if she’d been there much longer.’

‘Did she usually cross in that place?’

‘Probably. I’ve done it myself. You don’t exactly get rush hour traffic in Dersingham. You can normally hear cars coming a mile off, especially in winter. But if the car was going fast . . .’

‘Was there any CCTV?’

Katie laughed.

‘In north Norfolk? I think there’s a camera in Fakenham but I’m not sure. And nobody remembers anything out of the ordinary. If they did, I’m sure they’d have said something.’

Rozie stared back down the main road. It was difficult to imagine a car being parked far enough away to build up enough speed to do damage, and yet close enough to time its impact precisely. If it had suddenly revved up, surely it would have attracted attention, even in a sleepy village like this?

Katie carried on.

‘I know you’re going to ask if it’s possible to find out when the meetings are, and it is. They’re on the WI website, so any local who knew where to look could’ve worked out roughly when Judy would be coming back. But she often stayed on to chat to people. You wouldn’t be able to know exactly when she’d get here. And how would you guess when she’d cross the road if you couldn’t see her until you rounded the bend?’

‘Mmm,’ Rozie agreed. ‘You’d need someone loitering at the bend. They’d have to make a phone call to the driver just as Judy approached.

’

‘Wouldn’t that be obvious?’

‘Not if they had earbuds in. It would look as if they were just muttering to themselves.’

‘I can ask if anyone spotted a loiterer,’ Katie offered.

Something had been puzzling Rozie. ‘How?’ she asked.

‘How do you ask a village? How d’you know so much already?’

‘Oh!’ Katie smiled. ‘Well, you could just mention something in the queue at the Co-op. That usually does it.