Leigh Russell, page 22
‘It’s only temporary,’ she had assured him. ‘Once Dad’s not around, I’ll pay you back whatever I owe you. And if I die before Dad, you’ll be getting my share as well as yours anyway, so either way you can’t lose.’
Her argument had been reasonable, and Nigel had always been willing to bail her out before. Carol had remonstrated that Daisy wasn’t their responsibility but, taking care to keep a careful note of whatever he had lent his sister, Nigel had been confident the debt would be repaid once their father died. But now circumstances had changed and it wasn’t so straightforward. Daisy was no longer going to inherit a small fortune. At best, it might take the lawyers a while to sort out the mess their father had left. In the meantime, Daisy was broke and she had no prospects, and she already owed him a serious sum of money which he might never recover.
Listening to Daisy’s splenetic diatribe about her landlord, her fuel bills and the rising cost of living, Nigel’s attention wandered back to his wife.
He interrupted his sister abruptly. ‘I need to get off the phone. I have to keep the line open. I’m expecting a call.’ With that, he rang off without any further explanation.
His phone rang again almost at once. This time, he checked the screen before picking up and saw that Daisy was calling him again. Furious with her, he ended the call without answering. All his pent-up fear and rage against his sister seemed to explode. He had told Daisy he needed to keep the line clear. She had no business calling him again so soon. Carol was right. He owed his sister nothing. On the contrary, she was indebted to him. Meanwhile, he waited. Daisy didn’t call again and he heard nothing from Carol. It occurred to him that she might have met with an accident so he called the local hospital to find out if she had been admitted. They had no record of her. He didn’t know what else to do. Another hour went past and he finally began to wonder if Carol had actually left him. It was hard to believe she would simply walk out on him without a word. He had no idea what she was playing at and his perplexity gradually gave way to another fit of anger. He spent a while thinking about what he was going to say to her when she finally turned up, but that didn’t help. More time passed and still he heard nothing from his wife.
50
Geraldine and Celia were sitting chatting over a glass of red wine. The two little ones were asleep in the study, which had been turned into a makeshift nursery while Celia was sleeping in Tom’s room. There was a child’s bed in there, ready for when Tom was old enough to be moved out of his cot. The bed was too small for an adult, but Celia assured Geraldine she was happy to sleep there for a few nights. She had only been in York for one night so far, and Geraldine was busy looking for a childminder who was available to take in another infant at short notice. Difficult though it was for Geraldine to countenance trusting another stranger, she knew she had no choice. Celia wouldn’t be able to stay and look after Tom indefinitely. Geraldine had arranged to meet one woman who had been recommended and was going to introduce her to Tom the following evening. After that, she would have to make up her mind about whether she wanted to engage her. It was going to be a difficult decision, but one she couldn’t postpone indefinitely. She would have preferred to hold out until Ian returned to give herself a little breathing space, but she didn’t know how much longer he would be away from home.
On her second glass of wine, Celia began to unwind and talk about her own family. As far as Geraldine was aware, her sister’s marriage was reasonably happy. Some years earlier Celia had confessed that her brother-in-law had been unfaithful, but now she seemed confident that her marriage was no longer in trouble. As Celia chattered cheerfully, Geraldine’s thoughts drifted to Nigel. His wife had been out when she had taken Nigel home. What had struck Geraldine was that he had been expecting to find Carol waiting for him. Listening to Celia talk about her husband led Geraldine to speculate about what might be happening to Nigel’s marriage, and whether that might have any bearing on the murder investigation.
‘How about you?’ Celia asked. ‘What’s happened to Ian? Come on, you can tell me. Where is he at the moment?’
With a rueful smile, Geraldine admitted that she had no idea. ‘This is strictly confidential, but he’s on an undercover job, so for his protection there’s no contact with him and I don’t know where he is.’ She didn’t add that by now everyone at the police station would have guessed he was working on an undercover job. ‘It’s okay,’ she added, seeing Celia’s frown. ‘He’s been away undercover like this before. He’s been gone for five nights and he promised me he would be away for less than a week, so he should be home soon. I expect he’ll be back tonight.’ She smiled in expectation of seeing him again soon.
Although she didn’t complain, Celia was tired, having been woken in the night, so she went to bed early. Geraldine sat up reviewing her case notes and had dozed off when she heard the front door close and a voice calling her name. For a moment she thought she was dreaming, then she leapt off the sofa and ran to the kitchen where she found Ian humming to himself as he waited for the kettle to boil.
‘Geraldine!’ he cried out, turning to her with a broad grin. ‘It was so quiet here, I thought you were asleep.’
‘Not yet. I wasn’t tired,’ she fibbed. ‘How are you? It’s so good to see you.’
Breathless in her happiness, she hugged him and for a moment they held each other close without speaking. At last, Geraldine pulled away and studied his face.
‘You look shattered,’ she said. ‘Tell me all about it.’
‘I’ll tell you everything, but not right now.’ He smiled. ‘I haven’t slept properly for four nights. Let’s have a cup of tea and I’ll give you a summary before we turn in. And that’ll have to do for now. But first, I’ll look in on Tom. I take it from the silence that he’s asleep.’
Geraldine gazed at him, wondering how to tell him what had happened with Zoe. She would have preferred to wait until the morning, but she couldn’t hide the fact that her sister was staying with them.
‘It’s not been exactly quiet here,’ she said. ‘Let’s make that tea. I’ve got something to tell you.’
‘It can wait until I’ve seen Tom. I won’t wake him up.’
‘No, it can’t wait. Celia’s staying with us,’ she said cautiously. ‘She’s here looking after Tom, just temporarily.’
‘Is Zoe unwell?’
She shook her head. ‘Not exactly,’ she admitted. ‘It’s complicated. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’
They took their tea into the living room and sat down. Ian leaned back in his armchair and put his feet up, grinning with pleasure and murmuring that it felt good to be home. Geraldine sipped her tea and said nothing.
‘Now,’ Ian said, sitting forward with sudden resolution. ‘Tell me what’s been going on here.’
‘It can wait until tomorrow. You’re tired.’
‘Tell me what’s been going on,’ Ian repeated doggedly. ‘Something happened while I was away. What?’
Geraldine hesitated before telling him Zoe was no longer looking after Tom.
‘What? Why? I’m sorry, but this is all a bit sudden. Couldn’t you have waited until I got home? Tom’s used to Zoe. Do we really want to have to start all over again, looking for a childminder? Surely we should work this out together. What makes you think anyone else will be any better? Better the devil you know and all that.’
‘Not this devil. Zoe’s no longer available,’ Geraldine said grimly.
‘What do you mean? Is Tom hurt?’
‘Tom’s fine, but Zoe’s been arrested for kidnapping an infant.’
Ian looked shocked. ‘Kidnapping an infant?’ he repeated in surprise. And then his eyes widened in horror. ‘Not Tom?’
Geraldine spoke quickly. ‘Tom’s absolutely fine. Everything’s been sorted out and Celia’s here until we find another childminder. Tom’s perfectly safe and well.’
‘What happened?’
As concisely as she could, Geraldine explained what had happened. Ian let out an expletive when she described how Tom had vanished and she had been contacted by the kidnapper.
‘Why didn’t you report it at once?’ he asked.
‘I was scared. The kidnapper threatened to harm Tom if they suspected I had told anyone.’
‘I don’t understand. How could you let yourself be intimidated like that? You should have told Binita. You should have reported it officially. What were you thinking?’
‘I wasn’t sure whether it was a coincidence that Tom was taken while you were away. I was afraid one of our colleagues might have been in contact with Zoe and her family, and as long as it was possible they had let her know you weren’t around, I didn’t dare talk to anyone. Not even Ariadne. Because as long as I could keep the dialogue going with the kidnapper, there was a chance they wouldn’t harm Tom.’
Ian’s jaw dropped but he said nothing.
‘I had a lead,’ Geraldine continued. ‘Zoe had disappeared too. It wasn’t as though she had come to me in a panic to let me know Tom had been taken, so it seemed she was complicit. I did what I thought was best at the time. But if I hadn’t traced him within a day, I was going to report it. I just didn’t want to do anything to provoke the kidnapper if I could possibly help it.’
Ian sat staring gravely at his tea, and Geraldine was worried he was furious with her. He would be justified in thinking she had risked Tom’s life by wanting to act on her own. She wondered if she had truly been motivated by fear, as she claimed, or by her own ego driving her to try and save Tom by herself. She held her breath as Ian began to speak.
‘I should have been here,’ he said at last, his voice husky with emotion. ‘I should have been here.’ He looked up and she saw that he was trembling. ‘I won’t go away like that again. Never again.’
He reached out to her and she flung herself into his embrace, sobbing. ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘Everything’s all right now.’
Ian held her in his arms. ‘I can’t begin to imagine what you went through,’ he murmured. ‘You shouldn’t have had to face that ordeal alone. I’m sorry. And I’m sure you did the right thing at the time. You always do. I should have been here.’
‘No, no, you did nothing wrong. It was me. It was all my fault. There wasn’t an informer. It was me. I told Zoe you were away.’
‘Now you’ve lost me, but you’re all right and Tom’s all right so let’s leave it at that for now and we can talk it through tomorrow when we’re not both so shattered.’
Geraldine sighed. ‘It’s so good to have you home.’
51
Nigel had exhorted her to go to the police and confess what she had done. He had been insistent, but there was no way she was going to give herself up. The more she thought about it, the more gutted she felt that Nigel would even think of suggesting it. When even her own husband hadn’t understood her reasons for what she had done, there was no chance the police would view her actions sympathetically. The truth was, she had behaved perfectly reasonably in seeking to thwart a miscarriage of justice. The police were too obsessed with solving crimes and locking people up to see sense, but her husband should have known better. He was a huge disappointment.
It was all clear: Martin’s money belonged to Nigel and she was Nigel’s wife. All she had done was try to ensure the inheritance went to its rightful heir, not to some jumped-up trollop who had leapt in at the last minute and tried to grab it for herself. What Serena had done should have been illegal. It would have been, if the justice system wasn’t so screwed up. Any sensible person would appreciate that Serena had received her just deserts; only Nigel was too small-minded to see that his wife had done the right thing by acting in his best interests. He was being so stupid it was hard to believe she hadn’t seen his true nature before this. Once she had seen how weak he was, she knew she couldn’t stay with him. She wasn’t even sure she could trust him to keep his mouth shut. He had actually advised her to tell the police what she had done, when he must have realised that was bound to result in her going to prison. So much for Nigel taking care of her.
As soon as he left, she ran to the bedroom and packed a small bag with a few necessities. It was difficult to know what to take, but she didn’t have time to deliberate. Money, toiletries and clothes were the limit of what she could cram into the bag. It was a pity but she would have to leave her phone behind so she couldn’t be traced, but she needed to frighten Nigel into believing she had gone for good. She needed to convince him she was serious about leaving him if he refused to comply. Twenty minutes after Nigel left, she was out of the house, long before he was due to return. Their routine had been disturbed and, for all she knew, he might come home early. She used to think she knew him, but she would never have predicted his dismay when she returned his stolen inheritance to him. Far from showering her with gratitude, he had seemed perturbed. More fool him.
She hurried along the street, looking anxiously around as she went. It began to rain and she took shelter in a café, the kind of place Nigel would never set foot in. She felt safe in there, and if the floor looked grubby and the tables were sticky, at least she was dry and the coffee was relatively cheap. Warming her hands on a chipped mug, she sat down at a corner table, wondering what to do. Everything had been so straightforward until she had spoken to Nigel. It was her own fault. She ought never to have told him what she had done. His reaction had taken her by surprise and, what was worse, she didn’t know if she could trust him to be discreet. It had been a mistake to say anything to him. She had always suspected he was spineless, but she hadn’t realised quite how contemptible he was. She couldn’t believe she had been so deluded as to think he loved her. If that were the case, he would never have suggested she go to the police. He would have defended her liberty to the death.
It was all well and good Nigel saying she wouldn’t go to prison if she confessed, but he couldn’t be sure of that. No one could. Not even his stooge, the lawyer Higgs. The fact that she had committed a murder meant that prison was almost inevitable if she was convicted. The truth had to remain hidden from everyone. She didn’t actually believe Nigel would betray her to the police but if he did, she would deny it and denounce him in turn, claiming he was accusing her to avoid the risk of being blamed himself. It would be no less than he deserved, if he was condemned for a crime his own wife had committed. As for the victim, there was no question in Carol’s mind that Serena had got exactly what she deserved. She had no right to barge into their lives, grabbing what was rightfully theirs. She was no better than a thief and Carol had done nothing wrong in fighting for Nigel’s inheritance.
For now, she had more pressing concerns to occupy her than whether Serena had deserved to die, or if Nigel would keep his mouth shut. The truth was bound to come out eventually. The police would subject the crime scene to forensic scrutiny and come up with a tiny fleck of dandruff, or a skin cell, that would suggest she had been present when the murder was committed, but they couldn’t prove she had killed her. In any case, before that happened she planned to be far away, somewhere she could never be traced. As soon as Nigel got his hands on what was rightfully his, she would take her share and be gone, with or without him. But for tonight, she had to find a place to hide where no one would think of looking for her, so Nigel would believe he had lost her for good. Once he was convinced she was prepared to leave him, Nigel would do anything she wanted.
She wasn’t used to roughing it and couldn’t possibly countenance sleeping on the street. Fortunately she had possessed the foresight to transfer some of the joint funds into her own private account before she had confided in Nigel. As soon as he discovered the transaction, he might reverse the process. She wondered if she should act quickly and withdraw some of the money, but it was probably too risky to try and access it; the police might already be searching for her. She had been careful enough to take out five hundred pounds in cash. It wasn’t much – nothing compared to what she could have had – but it would be enough to get her out of the country if Nigel let her down. She was still fairly confident he would cave in when he realised he risked losing her, but she had to be prepared for the worst. Once she was safely away from the UK, she would assume a different identity and start again. She was still young enough to find another husband, and this time she would target a man who possessed wealth of his own, not someone who was waiting to inherit a fortune. That had been a blunder.
She would need a passport, and while she was making preparations to escape she had to avoid the police. They were bound to question Nigel and she wasn’t convinced she could trust him. In the meantime, she had to stay out of sight somewhere he wouldn’t expect her to go. She sipped her coffee and considered her options, which were looking bleak. Glancing around anxiously, she noticed a man at the next table watching her. For a moment, his attention made her feel uneasy and then it crossed her mind that she might ask him for help. But if she couldn’t rely on her own husband to look out for her, she couldn’t risk relying on help from a stranger. She turned away from the man and tried to make it obvious that she was ignoring him. A few moments later he was joined by a woman, and Carol realised she must have been mistaken in thinking he was interested in her. She wasn’t sure if she felt relieved or disappointed.
The café wasn’t busy, but she couldn’t stay there forever. The man behind the counter seemed to be watching her suspiciously, so she pretended to study the menu and went up to the counter for another coffee and a cheese and tomato sandwich. Taking her order back to her table, she realised she was ravenous. The sandwich was dry and tasteless, the bread stale and the cheese slightly hard, but she bolted it down; she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. As soon as she finished, she regretted having eaten so quickly. The hard bread and cheese were difficult to digest. The coffee was now cool enough to drink and gulping it down helped. She ordered another coffee, but she knew her time there was running out and she would be forced to move on soon.
