False Picture (25 page)

Bea was getting a bad feeling about this. ‘How do we know that he's in the Midlands?'

‘Well, Charlotte said … and then Liam borrowed Zander's phone and … why should Liam lie?' Maggie was getting confused.

‘I don't know. What I do know is that yesterday morning when I came here to clean, Zander's shaving things were still here in the boys' bathroom and his belongings were all over his room, though someone had attempted to pack them up for him. There was even a laptop which hadn't been in the room when I cleaned it earlier. At the time I wondered why Zander hadn't taken it with him, and now … everything's gone, shaving things, clothes, laptop and all. Maggie, do you know which firm Zander works for? Yes? Could you get the number and ring them? We need to make sure he really did go to the Midlands.'

Maggie gulped but did as she was told, while Bea went to check on all the wastepaper baskets in the flat. Trust the Green Girls to have cleaned them out. Each empty basket now had a plastic bag neatly inserted into it.

Bea called out, ‘Maggie, what do you do with your rubbish?'

The door at the end of the corridor opened and Charlotte appeared, looking even more dishevelled than before. Her T-shirt and jeans were the ones she'd travelled in and both looked the worse for wear since she'd been stuffing her mouth with chocolate on her return and got some on her clothes. She had a bottle of Coca-Cola in her hand and looked wild. ‘You! What are you doing here? Did I ask you to come? If you don't know where Liam is, you might as well get lost. We've got some proper cleaners now, much better than you.'

‘True,' said Bea. ‘Four people can always work more quickly than one.'

‘You are beneath my contempt,' said Charlotte grandly, and glugged down some of her drink.

Maggie was still on her phone, wide-eyed with distress. She put her hand over the receiver to speak to Bea. ‘His office doesn't know what's happened to him. He wasn't asked to transfer anywhere and he hasn't been seen since last Friday. They're worried that he might have been taken ill. They've tried ringing his home number and his mobile, but no one replies. That would be because there was no one here and,' she swallowed hard, ‘because Liam has Zander's mobile.'

‘Tell them to report him missing,' said Bea. ‘We have to bring the police in on this.'

‘No police!' Charlotte spluttered and hiccupped but got the words out somehow. ‘Don't you dare! I won't have it! Not while Liam's been kidnapped!'

Bea took Charlotte's arm and guided her back into her bedroom. Over her shoulder she said to Maggie, ‘Tell them to call the police and then get on to Oliver, ask him to trace the Green Girls and find out what they did with the stuff they took away from here. Say I'll give them a bonus if they let me see it all.'

She sat Charlotte down on her bed. ‘Now listen to me, Charlotte. Three men have disappeared from this flat over the last week, and the police have to know about it. It's not just Liam, but Zander and Philip as well. I think Philip went voluntarily and is hiding out from his creditors somewhere. With any luck we'll be able to track him down and produce him alive and well.

‘But the others …! We know Liam was involved in trying to smuggle goods out of the country and he's done a runner since we found out about it. I don't know what's happened to Zander, but I'm beginning to wonder if he learned something about the smuggling operation from Liam and has been, well, dealt with. Everything we know about Zander's supposed transfer to the Midlands came from Liam, didn't it? Yet Zander's office say he wasn't given a transfer, he didn't turn up to work yesterday or today, he didn't take any of his belongings away with him when he was supposed to have left, and Liam's using Zander's phone. I think Liam knows what's happened to Zander, and that's another reason why he's disappeared. This is serious, Charlotte. The police have to be informed.'

‘Not in cases of kidnapping.' She hiccupped. ‘Hick!'

‘Charlotte, try to think clearly. Liam's behaviour is criminal. He's out of it. But Zander seems to have been a straightforward sort of person. Don't you think you ought to find out what's happened to him? Suppose he came across the same men who were threatening you last night in the restaurant?'

‘Hick! That's ridiculous! Anyway, they can't do anything to us. We let them have the stolen goods, and they let us go. End of story.'

Well, it wasn't the end of the story, as Bea very well knew. Possibly Maggie had guessed as well. That big suitcase had been as heavy this morning as it had been on the journey out.

Charlotte tossed her head. ‘Anyway, they're in Belgium, and we're in London.'

‘We crossed the Channel. So could they.'

‘You're trying to frighten me and it won't work!'

Bea was silent, waiting for the girl to acknowledge the truth of the case that had been put to her. Charlotte began to retch. All that Coca-Cola and chocolate on an empty stomach! Bea held back a sigh, guided Charlotte into the girls' bathroom and left her to it.

Maggie came to the door. ‘Is she being sick again? Oh, honestly!'

‘Did you get on to Oliver?'

‘He says Florrie Green is calling in at the office later to collect her money and she'll speak to you then about clearing the flat.'

‘Good. Now can you go downstairs and have a word with the porter – what's his name? Randolph, yes – ask him what happens to the rubbish cleared out of the flats. If you can find the bag which the Green Girls used when they tidied up this place, see if he'll let you have it.'

‘He'll think I'm mad.'

‘Tell him you've lost your bus pass, think it might have been dropped in the kitchen and that it could have been thrown away by mistake. Ask him if he saw anyone but Liam from the flat today, or if Liam had any visitors while he was here. Randolph may not have been in the hall all the time, but it's worth a try.'

Maggie was holding herself together with an effort. ‘Do I tell him Zander's missing?'

‘Let the police do that. I want to get clear of this place before they arrive. I don't want to have to answer questions about smuggling and I don't want to draw their attention to Philip if we can help it.'

She knew very well that once the police started to ask questions about Zander's disappearance, the other vanishing acts would have to come out. It was a dilemma. On the one hand she couldn't keep quiet about Zander, and on the other she must try to keep Philip out of it.

Maggie disappeared, and Charlotte came out of the bathroom, still hiccupping, hair plastered to her head and T-shirt sodden. The girl ignored Bea to go to a cupboard and pull out a fresh T-shirt and jeans.

Bea said, ‘I know you don't want Maggie to stick around any longer, so if you'll show me where her things are, I'll pack them up for her.'

Charlotte looked horrified. ‘You're not going to leave me here by myself in this empty flat? This place is spooked! I'd die!'

Bea wanted to tell the girl to get lost, but couldn't. She sighed, telling herself she was terminally soft-centred. ‘Very well, then. You may come back with us and stay in my spare room for a couple of nights. Just till you can get the locks changed and new tenants in.'

Charlotte hiccupped again. ‘I'm not changing the locks. Liam might come back.'

So might Philip, come to think of it. ‘Oh well, we'll think of something.'

Charlotte clapped both hands to her cheeks. ‘I've just realized the rent's due next week. I'm responsible for collecting it from the others, and they aren't here to give me their share!'

‘We'll see what we can sort out later. Now let's pack, shall we?'

Perhaps Velma would be understanding about the rent, since she owned the flat. Perhaps Philip would turn up, with a wad of money in his pocket, having made a killing in the club. Perhaps pigs might fly.

Maggie came out of the lift with a bulging rubbish bag which she'd rescued from the bowels of the earth. ‘This is the only one I could find. Randolph didn't see anyone but Liam and the cleaners coming and going before Charlotte and I came back from our trip. And no, he hasn't seen Zander since Sunday. Liam told Randolph yesterday morning that Zander had landed a job in the Midlands, and Randolph said to wish him well. End of story.'

So, on with the next.

Bea's first priority when she got home was a cup of tea. She told Maggie to help Charlotte settle in and sank on to a stool in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil. Oliver followed her in with his clipboard full of messages but was wise enough not to speak to her until she'd downed her first cup, poured a second and reached for the biscuit tin.

Oliver was tentative. ‘Can you bear to listen to what's been happening here?'

She shook her head. She was developing a headache. Nervous tension.

He said, ‘Did the Green Girls mess up at the flat? Mrs Green wasn't best pleased when I gave her your message.'

Bea shook her head. ‘They did just fine. Any news from the hospital?'

‘Mrs Weston phoned. She wanted you to go round by her house to collect the post and pay her cleaner. I didn't say you'd gone after a lead on Philip because I wasn't sure you'd want her to know about the smuggling. She gave me the code for the alarm and said she'd ring her Polish cleaner and tell her someone was coming and that they were to be asked for the alarm codes before she let them in, to make sure it was the right person. I said you were tied up but I'd find someone to go for her. I got your old book-keeper to go, gave her some cash to pay the woman, and get a receipt. She took the letters on to the hospital. Mrs Weston was waiting outside for them. She asked after you, and I said you'd ring as soon as you were back.'

Bea rubbed her eyes and yawned. ‘You've done well, Oliver. Just keep everyone off my back for a while, will you?'

The bell rang downstairs in the agency rooms and Bea groaned.

Oliver said, ‘That'll be Mrs Green. Shall I put her off?'

Bea shook her head, got to her feet, clutched her mug of tea and tottered down the stairs to let Florrie in.

‘Sorry to bring you in, Florrie. Oh, you've brought Yvonne and Maria as well? Go through to the room at the back, will you?'

‘You look rough, Mrs Abbot,' observed Florrie, humping a couple of black bags in with her. Yvonne and Maria were also humping black bags. Three large ladies, they installed themselves on the big chair and the settee in Bea's office.

Florrie, aged sixty but dyed to look forty and almost succeeding, had a florid complexion and muscles of iron. The other two had identical blonde poodle haircuts and looked as stringy as long-distance runners. A formidable crew.

Florrie was the spokeswoman. ‘Tillie couldn't make it. Had to pick up her grandson from school. You've caught us between jobs but we can't stop long because we start cleaning the school at the back here in an hour. So what set the alarm bells off, eh?'

Bea eyed the sacks. ‘Is that all the stuff you took from the flat this morning?'

‘All but what Tillie's taken home already, a duvet and some pillows, almost new by the look of them.'

Bea sank into her chair. ‘Sorry, sorry. I know you have a right to keep anything you find when you clear a flat, unless instructed otherwise. This time, well, the man who let you into the flats … it was a man, wasn't it …?'

‘Youngish, rat-faced, on the landline most of the time we were there. His name was Liam, if you can go by the name he gave when he answered the phone. Told us his name was Forbes and he'd pay cash, then found he hadn't got any cash and said Maggie something would pay as she was living there at the moment and worked for you. That was after we'd cleaned, of course. So what's pressed the alarm bell?'

‘Do you know who Liam was on the phone to?'

Florrie shrugged. ‘Wasn't listening. Some girl or other. Kiss kiss, mucky talk about crotchless panties.' She turned to the others. ‘Anyone else hear anything?'

Yvonne nodded. ‘Times of trains. Boat trains. Ireland, at a guess.'

Maria contradicted her. ‘Flights out of Heathrow, I heard. Airport, anyway. Gatwick, maybe Stansted? We usually fly from Stansted when we go on holiday.'

‘Ireland?' asked Bea, sipping tea. ‘Oh, sorry, ladies. Would you like a cuppa?'

‘Just had one,' said Florrie. ‘Thanks all the same. What's this all about, then? He cleaned out the kitty and did a runner?'

‘Something like that. One of Liam's flatmates thought he was going to propose to her on a city-break in Bruges, but he didn't turn up and now he's missing. She wants me to find him if I can.' Which was all true, sort of.

‘Ireland,' said Yvonne. ‘He was asking some friend about a job “back home”. Southern Ireland, by his accent. I know the type. She's well rid of him, if you ask me.'

‘Only thing,' said Florrie, ‘was he going with a boyfriend? He didn't look homo, and I should know with my youngest being that way.'

Bea followed this with difficulty. ‘You thought Liam might have been going off with one of his male flatmates, because he wanted his and another man's room stripped out?' The three women nodded. They'd obviously talked about this already.

Florrie said, ‘Makes sense. He said to clean his room and the one next to it, but to leave the third man's and the girls' room alone. He showed us what we could clear out of the fridge and the kitchen, take the lot except for what was on one shelf. He said that belonged to the girls and to leave it alone. So what are we supposed to have done wrong, eh?'

Bea tried to make sense of this. ‘One of his flatmates – a man called Zander, who kept his room neat and tidy – went off some time last weekend, leaving all his belongings behind. They were still there first thing yesterday morning, but they're not there now. There was a lot of stuff.' She looked at the three bags the women had brought in with them. ‘Did you find a telly, a load of books, a laptop, a briefcase and a really good leather jacket?'