Secrets (15 page)

‘Sounds like a good place,' Gregory agreed.

‘There was this little house, right in the middle of nowhere. Not very big, but with a great garden and you could smell the sea. I don't know, maybe somewhere like that.'

‘A friend of mine died recently,' Gregory said. ‘He had a lovely home out at Stamford, just outside of town. It had this beautiful little walled garden and then you went out through a door into the orchard. Beyond that it was all fields and a little stream. Very rural, very lovely.'

‘Very pricey,' Liz said wistfully. ‘I'd love a bigger place, but it isn't going to happen. Still, mustn't grumble. It's a fine little house and I've no mortgage to speak of. When my parents died, I sold their place and put all the money into getting somewhere of my own, so I've been very lucky really. And there's room for my kiln in one of the out buildings and I've got a little studio.'

‘Really? Gregory said. ‘What do you do?'

Naomi smiled and listened as the two of them flirted over glazing formulas and wondered what Liz would think if she knew what Gregory really was. She had a sneaking suspicion Liz would find it exciting.

The dead friend, Naomi thought. Was that the friend who'd been killed? The first of the murders Alec had been drawn into, that was in Stamford, so obviously, it must be … what was the man called … Arthur, that was it, Arthur Fields a man who imported fine china from somewhere or other, or was it Chinese porcelain he bought? She really ought to have paid more attention. Maybe she was, finally, shaking off her police persona. She wondered where Alec and DI Barnes had got to and how they were getting on and felt an odd moment of resentment at Alec being called away and a less odd moment of resentment against Molly Chambers.

She's an old woman in trouble, Naomi reminded herself and then began to wonder exactly how old Molly was. Alec would have told her at some point, but somehow, things Molly, beyond the fact that Naomi found her deeply irritating, had never really sunk in.

Belatedly, she realized that Liz was asking her something. Pudding? Right, get back with the programme Naomi, she chided herself. ‘Oh, yes, that would be nice. What do they have?'

Having selected brownies and ice cream, and being unable to attract the attention of any passing waiting staff, Liz took herself off to the bar to order dessert and coffee.

‘Penny for them,' Gregory said. ‘You were a long way from here.'

‘Sorry, I suppose I was. I suppose I wanted to be.' That sounded rude, she thought, but somehow knew Gregory understood. ‘Is anything ever over?'

‘No, I don't think it is. Some things just get put on hold for a while. Sometimes a long while, but they always come round again. You know that bit in the Bible that talks about the sins of the fathers being visited on future generations?'

She nodded.

‘Well I never figured that as being an instruction, you know, more like a statement of fact. What we do, well it can echo down the years until we've almost forgotten what the sound of it was in the first place, but echoes always bounce back at us.'

‘And this has to do with Molly?'

‘Molly Chambers and others.'

Liz returned, with news of dessert and a waitress followed with a tray of coffee.

Echoes, Naomi thought. So often they were amplified by time, not diminished. She didn't want any of this any more. She wanted peace and quite and a place to settle, and no more problems. No more threats.

Liz was chatting again and Naomi knew she ought to join in, but a great weight seemed to have descended upon her and sapped what energy she had left. Beside her, Napoleon sat up and laid his head against her knee, sensing her mood. Absently, she stroked the silky black ears and pushed dessert she no longer wanted around her plate.

‘I'd best be going,' Gregory said at last.

‘Oh, must you? We must do this again. I mean—'

‘It's been nice,' Gregory said. ‘Naomi, I'll give you a call, later.'

‘OK,' she nodded. ‘I'd best be getting back to the hotel, if that's OK, see if Alec's back.'

‘Oh, of course,' Liz said, though she sounded slightly puzzled and a little disappointed at being abandoned.

‘He's nice,' Liz said as they drove back. ‘Is he single?'

Naomi laughed. ‘I don't think he's had much time for romance,' she said. ‘Gregory travelled a lot with his job. Some government contract, I think. He doesn't talk about it a lot.'

‘Oh, man of mystery,' Liz said. She sounded pleased about that. ‘It would be nice to, you know, maybe meet up for a drink or something.'

‘I'll let him know you asked,' Naomi promised.

Clay had called twice on her mobile, but she'd ignored him; now, with Bob busy in the studio, she knew she couldn't ignore the third call.

‘I'm assuming you've been playing the good wife,' Clay said.

‘I'm not
playing
at anything. What can I do for you?'

‘The documents we needed, they weren't in the car or the storage locker.'

‘Did you really expect them to be? It was always a long shot. I saw on the news about the men in the van. Why did the security guard have to be hurt, Clay? He didn't do anything.'

‘He shouldn't have been there,' Clay said petulantly. ‘It was a waste of time anyway. There was nothing in the storage locker.'

‘So, maybe there's just nothing to find, have you considered that?'

‘Considered it and found it flawed. Molly must still have it. Molly or Adam.'

Annie sighed. So he was after Adam now, was he? ‘So go and talk to him. Let me go and talk to him.'

‘I don't talk to traitors, Annie.'

Oh, for fuck's sake, she thought. ‘Time was you were all on the same side.'

‘Things change. Sides change. For some people, morality becomes blurred.'

‘But not for you, I suppose. What does Nathan say?'

She knew it was the wrong question as soon as she asked it. Clay did not respond. ‘Look,' she said, ‘it's maybe just time to let things go. Past is past, Clay. Sometimes you just have to let it go.'

Silence built on the other end of the conversation.

‘Your husband, what do you think he would say if he knew about the real you, Annie?'

‘Blackmail, is it, Clay? Look. Bob knows all about me. He knows everything he needs to know. You leave him out of this.'

‘I hope I can, Annie, I really do, but events may well overtake all of us. Sometimes nothing can be done about it.'

He hung up on her and left her cursing softly. ‘So help me, Clay, I'll bloody kill you one of these days,' Annie promised the now silent phone and realized with slight shock that she meant it.

Alec returned to the hotel just after five, kissed Naomi in a rather distracted manner and dumped a folder down on the bed. She could hear from the sound it made that he was not a happy man.

‘What's that?'

‘Case-notes.'

‘You're retired or resigned or whatever it was you did. Remember?'

‘I remember doing it. Doesn't look as though anyone took any notice.'

‘We could just sneak away tonight,' she suggested. ‘Let them all get on with it.'

‘We could,' he agreed. ‘But you could just bet they'd come and fetch us back.'

‘We could go abroad.'

Alec laughed. ‘Don't tempt me.' He flopped down on the edge of the bed. ‘How was your day?'

‘Oh, interesting and not just because of Liz's dead ancestors. Guess who turned up at the cemetery?'

‘Don't want to guess. I'm not sure I want to know.'

‘Gregory,' she told him. ‘We all had lunch together.'

There was a moment of silence as Alec absorbed that. ‘Right,' he said finally. ‘Where abroad? I quite fancy Mongolia. I hear property is cheap there or we could buy a yurt, join the nomads.' He groaned and lay back. ‘Don't tell me, he's a friend of Molly's.'

‘No, apparently he just knows her by reputation, but he was a friend of the man killed in Stamford. Arthur Fields. And he wants to meet up and talk.'

Alec groaned. ‘Just what I need,' he said. ‘I don't suppose he knows who did it?'

Naomi found herself laughing. ‘I don't think so,' she said. ‘I got the feeling he'd like to know, though.'

Alec groaned. ‘That's all we need,' he said. ‘A hired killer on the case as well.'

‘I don't think he's been hired this time,' Naomi reminded him. ‘This time, it seems like it's personal. Alec, maybe we should just stand back, out of the way and let him get on with it.'

‘Seriously?' She felt his weight shift as he turned to look at her. ‘You know I can't do that, even if I wanted to.'

‘Actually, you can and I think you do want to. If it wasn't for Molly …'

‘If it wasn't for Molly,' Alec agreed. ‘But it is for Molly, isn't it? I can't just—'

‘Walk away? No, I know that. Tempting though, isn't it?'

Alec sighed and sat up. ‘You can't imagine how tempting,' he said. ‘No, love, I don't think even you can.'

Nathan called her late in the early evening. Bob was out walking the dogs again while she cooked; creature of habit that Bob was, Nathan would have guessed it was a good time to call.

‘Can you talk?' he asked.

‘Yes. Clay called earlier. What is it with that blasted man? Nathan, I swear—'

‘I know,' Nathan soothed.

‘No, you don't. He threatened Bob. I'm not having that, Nathan. No one threatens my husband and gets away with it.'

There was a beat of silence as Nathan absorbed that; she could almost hear the shift in his thinking as he measured this new position. ‘No,' he said finally. ‘No one should be able to do that.'

‘So, what do we do now?'

‘You've seen the news?'

‘The robbery at the storage warehouse, yes. Any news on the security guy?'

‘Nothing good. Hopefully he'll make it, but … you know who the two in the van were?'

‘No, there've been no names released, so far as I know.'

‘Gilligan and Hayes,' Nathan told her and Annie laughed, unable to help herself. ‘Well, Clay still has a sense of style; you've got to give him that. What's he trying to do, start a war?'

‘Wouldn't be the first time. No, I think it was just personal revenge this time. He was happy to make use of them when he was on the winning side, but with all the post colonial complaints coming into the courts now, I think he felt they knew too much about Clay and what he might have been up to. He's not said much. I'm guessing.

‘I get the feeling the police weren't supposed to get the van doors open. Clay wanted them to wake up long enough to make noise, but not long enough for anyone to let them out.'

‘What did he use?'

‘Xenon to knock them out, apparently. Simple CO2 to finish them off, on a very slow seep. Too slow as it turned out.'

‘Will they make it?' Annie asked, curious rather than concerned. Neither Gilligan or Hayes registered very high on her scale of ‘people to be worried about'.

‘Don't know,' Nathan told her. ‘Annie, any chance you could take Bob away for a bit? Have a holiday somewhere?'

‘Can't be done,' she said. ‘He's got a new exhibition coming up, I've got a new job to start. Whatever has to be done will have to just work around that. I can't just try and drag him away.'

‘No, that's fine,' Nathan said and she could hear the cogs turning. ‘OK, well, just watch your back, I'll keep in touch.'

Annie put down the phone and turned back to the range. Nathan was worried, she thought, she could hear it in his voice, even though she knew no one else would have noticed. Closer than brother and sister, they had grown up together since Annie had been thirteen, and Nathan however old he had been back then. Annie sighed and wondered if anything ever truly came to a proper end.

N
aomi hadn't really expected to hear from Gregory so soon, so was surprised by the phone call half an hour or so after Alec's return. He asked if they could meet him later, in the hotel bar.

‘Dinner is still on,' he said. ‘But I think Alec may be too tired to want that tonight. I thought a drink might be better.'

Naomi did not respond immediately; she took in the inference that Gregory knew about Alec's day and then agreed to meet up with him around nine.

‘
Do
you think he's working for someone?' she asked Alec.

‘Could be I suppose. From what little I found out about him, his old associates are mostly retired or dead. It could be he's freelancing or it could be just as he told you, he's curious about the death of an old friend. I don't imagine you acquire a great many friends in Gregory's line of work. I suppose you come to value those you do hold onto.'

‘I suppose.'

‘He's right about Arthur Fields' house, though. The one out at Stamford. Lovely place, not too big but the garden is just gorgeous and it's made of that golden limestone that looks like it should be sandstone, if you know what I mean. The sun was on it and the whole house positively glowed.'

‘Think they'll put it on the market?' she asked.

‘I wouldn't know. But you know a man was killed there, don't you? How does it make it different from our place?'

‘Because. … it would have happened before we lived there, if we bought it, I mean. And because it wasn't someone out to get to us.'

‘There's no logic to that.'

‘Did I say there was?'

‘No, you didn't say there was.' He flopped back on the bed. ‘I met the girlfriend today, Herbert Norris's. You know, when I went to his flat, it struck me. No pictures out on show of the two of them together. Not a one. There were plenty in an album that she'd put together, but it was as if, at some point, she'd become his girlfriend and he hadn't noticed.'