A Brush with Death: A Penny Brannigan Mystery - By Elizabeth J. Duncan Page 0,3
it. Just turned away and changed the subject.”
She squinted at the signature. “A. Jones.”
Davies walked over to her, put his hand gently on her arm, and glanced at the painting.
“Well, I don’t know anything about art, but if you like it, that’s good enough,” he said. “Now, what do you want to do about that one?” They turned their attention to a large watercolour of blowsy pink roses as Penny set the painting she held in her hand in the keep pile.
She wagged her head back and forth while she thought about it. “I think I like it,” she said finally. “Let’s keep it for now. I can find a place for it. Maybe in the new guest room.”
Then, as Emma had always loved music, they started in on her rather extensive record and CD collections.
“We’ll get rid of the old vinyl records,” Penny said. “I don’t want them, and I don’t want the old record player or hi-fi or whatever it’s called. But I’ll keep the CDs. They don’t take up too much space. They’re mostly classical, but as I recall there’s some good old pop stuff in there. She loved the Beatles, Emma did.”
They moved on to the bookcases and started sorting out the contents. Most went into the charity-shop pile, although Gareth kept a couple of thrillers for himself, and by late morning they had filled several boxes. Penny hesitated when they came to the row of Emma’s notebooks and personal journals. Emma had kept extensive commentaries on the day-to-day details of her life, including observations on the personalities and characters of hundreds of her pupils over the years. Her assessment of one student in particular had helped in the investigation of the missing bride.
“What’s the matter?” Davies asked.
“I don’t know what to do about the journals,” Penny replied. “It seems a shame to bin them, but there are so many and I doubt I’d ever need them again. I certainly don’t want to read them.”
She looked at him as if asking him to make the decision. Gareth pulled out a slim red volume marked 1982 on its spine and riffled through it.
“Do you think you’ll want to know what she wore to a coffee morning at the church on October first or what she had for dinner a few days later?”
Penny shook her head, and together they pulled the little books off the shelves and boxed them up for the rubbish.
“Oh, look,” he said a few minutes later, holding up a Scrabble game with two elastic bands wrapped around the box, holding the tattered lid in place. “I like a game of Scrabble every now and then. Do you? Might as well keep it. Could come in handy on a long winter night. As long as all the letters are there, of course. We could count them out later, maybe. Let’s keep it for now, shall we?”
As Penny murmured her agreement, he set it down, then picked it up again at both ends and gently tipped it back and forth.
“Feels a bit heavy.”
Penny glanced at it and then went on with her book sorting.
“I expect there’s a dictionary in the box. Some people keep one with the game so they have it handy for the challenges. I haven’t come across one on the shelves, and Emma must have had one, so I expect it’s in there.”
“Happens you’re right.”
Penny tucked her hand under her chin and pursed her lips.
“Odd, that game of Scrabble, though. We used to do jigsaws together, but she never brought that game out.”
Davies grinned. “Maybe she thought you’d be too much of a challenge for her.”
Penny gave a little snort.
“The other way round, more like.”
Finally, Davies stepped back and assessed the boxes they had filled.
“That wasn’t so bad now, was it? Why don’t we drop the charity boxes off at the shop, just to get them out of the way, and then I’ll take you to lunch?”
Penny nodded.
“Just give me a few minutes to wash up and get changed. Won’t be long.” She touched him lightly on the arm as if to reassure herself, and then turned toward the stairs.
As she disappeared, Davies sat down on the sofa to wait. The place really did have lovely bones, and he had no doubt that when Penny was finished with it, the cottage would be beautiful. Light and airy, in soft, modern colours with all the right accent pieces and looking like the cover spread on an interior design magazine.