You Think You Know Me
Page 21
I didn’t reply. I’d already been mentally running through everything Darrick had asked me about the old days. He’d wanted to know how well we all knew Julia, how often we’d gone up to see her. Was he trying to find out if the rest of us had had any idea about the drawings?
‘Well, Anna?’ He wouldn’t let it go.
‘Possibly, Seb,’ I said. ‘But think about it. What you’re saying doesn’t hold water. What about Lawrence Conran for instance? Darrick hadn’t kept the existence of the drawings a secret from him. Wouldn’t he have, if there was anything underhand going on?’
I seized on this point and held on to it for all I was worth. He might not worry about what Lawrence said to people these days, given that he had been sceptical about the provenance of the drawings anyway, but surely Darrick would never have mentioned them to him in the first place if he’d seen a way to make money out of them.
Seb paused, but only for a second. ‘The attack on Julia might not have been planned,’ he said. ‘What if he suddenly had the opportunity to get rid of her? It would have been too late to take back what he’d said to Lawrence then, but he might have risked it anyway, for the sake of such a valuable reward.’
Would he have? But even as I decided I couldn’t believe it, my mind ran through the few indisputable things I knew about him: he was assuredly a liar and an adventurer; rich and with a penchant for taking risks …
‘Anna, you must keep away from Farron now,’ Seb said, breaking into my thoughts. ‘If he thinks you’re onto him you could be in danger. Will he know you’ve seen the photo of Julia?’
‘Probably not,’ I said. ‘I put the album back where it was, so unless he talks to Lawrence and they discuss what I said, it should be okay. And I think Lawrence just saw the conversation we had as general small talk, so he probably wouldn’t refer to it.’
It really depended on how often they were in touch, I reflected. If they went out for a drink tomorrow there was a ninety per cent chance Lawrence would recount our conversation, whereas if they didn’t see each other for a month or so, he would probably have forgotten all about it.
‘What are you going to do?’ I asked Seb.
He shook his head slowly. ‘I’m not sure. I need to work out what we’ve actually got in the way of evidence.’ He looked up at me. ‘I can’t let this lie, Anna, that’s for certain. I’ve got a friend whose sister’s CID. Perhaps I could run it past her and see what she advises. But in the meantime, so long as I know you’re steering clear of him, at least that will be one less thing to worry about.’
But then I suddenly remembered Darrick’s text. He was bound to try to contact me that very evening, and I was going to have to work out what the hell to say.
We walked to Waterloo and went our separate ways so I could take the Northern Line back to Hampstead. ‘Keep your distance from him now, Anna,’ Seb said again, as we parted in the crowds. ‘I really mean it. He may not know where you are now, but he knows where you go to work each day.’
And he knows where I live, I thought.
It was on the platform that I felt someone clutch at the back of my coat.
The area was crowded with people and Darrick manoeuvred me round so that he had tight hold of my shoulder, between my collar bone and my neck, leaning in to push me back against the tiled wall. I guess to outsiders it might have looked as though he was about to kiss me, but the fingers that dug into my flesh were anything but gentle.
‘As a matter of fact I do know where you are now,’ he said, ‘as you can see.’
The implication of his words hit home. How had he been able to follow me so closely?
‘It’s always been rather hard to know whose side you’re on,’ he said. ‘But I think the matter’s becoming a little clearer now.’ His fingers tightened painfully and I held my breath.
I knew he couldn’t do anything. We were surrounded by people – the noise rang in my ears – and, if I wanted, I could shout and make a fuss. I suppose it was only shock and disbelief that stopped me from doing just that.
‘No one likes being spied on, Anna. You should remember that. At least I know how the land lies now.’ His eyes flashed with anger.
And then suddenly he let go of me, and disappeared into the crowds as quickly as he had come.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Sally was horrified when I told her what had happened and all that Lawrence and Seb had had to say. She was up in my room, pacing around and wanting to do something. ‘You really ought to go to the police, Anna. That’s what Alicia would say.’
‘Don’t tell her for God’s sake,’ I said, sitting down on the chair by my desk. ‘I don’t think I could stand a dose of Alicia right now.’ Although I’d held my nerve at the station, and had known I wasn’t really in danger, I hadn’t stopped shaking since, and felt as though I’d gone down with the flu.
Sally was putting the kettle on. ‘Have you got milk and sugar up here?’ she asked.
I laughed, but the sound was shrill and anxious. ‘You’re not thinking hot, sweet tea are you?’
‘It’s not just a rumour. It really does work,’ Sally said, heading for the door to go and fetch what she wanted.
It was only at that point that I remembered the text from Darrick again. I took my phone out so that I could read it before Sally came back. ‘Did u get my text on Sunday?’ It read. ‘Back in London now. Can we meet?’
I thought of the sequence of events. He’d called me the night after we’d been together and I hadn’t picked up. Then later he’d texted me and I hadn’t replied. He’d tried again after work today and instead of reading what he’d written, I’d gone off to the pub with Seb. I wondered what had happened then.
Perhaps he had known that Lawrence had been due to visit the gallery. Maybe, when he hadn’t heard from me, he’d called him and asked if I’d been around. Lawrence would have been able to tell Darrick exactly where I was. After all, he’d seen me go off arm in arm with Seb, and Seb had even told him the name of the pub where we were headed.
Small matter for Darrick to follow us there, and tail me to the tube station, especially given the line of business he was in. I wondered if there was any way he could also have heard our conversation in the snug, but I thought not.
‘Here we are,’ Sally said, bustling back in and making her sugary concoction. ‘Now drink that and tell me you don’t feel better.’
I sipped the tea and felt sick. ‘Thanks, Sally,’ I said.
‘So, what are you going to do about all this then?’ she asked. ‘If Seb’s right about Darrick you can’t just carry on as normal.’
‘I’m certainly not going to turn my back on people at tube stations any more,’ I said, experimenting with a laugh.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘It’s no joking matter.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I know. But …’ I knew what she’d say if I said I still thought Seb was wrong.
‘You’re not going to tell me you need more convincing are you?’
‘Not everything adds up,’ I said. ‘For a start, Seb feels it’s terribly incriminating that Darrick found out all about these drawings just before Julia died.’
‘Well, don’t you agree?’
I could tell she was losing patience. ‘It looks awful, of course I agree,’ I said. ‘But what makes him think it has to be Darrick that’s involved? After all, Lawrence Conran knew all about the drawings too. It could just as easily have been him. I mean I’m not saying it was. Lawrence seems like a nice guy. But if you take first impressions out of it, they each of them had enough knowledge to give them a motive.’
‘Yes, but it’s not Lawrence who’s been lying about his identity and keeping his friendship with Julia a secret, is it?’
I sighed. ‘It’s not just Lawrence. Several things have struck me as odd lately.’
‘Like?’
I tried to pull together the various incongruities in my mind, but felt sure they wouldn’t be enough to convince her.
She perched on my bed. ‘Yes, and weirdest of all, why you still feel sympathy for a guy who makes a habit of stalking you and has now added threatening behaviour to his repertoire. Look, Mel’s probably jealous of you and Radley’s a schemer. Ours is not to reason why. It’s got nothing to do with this business.’
‘Except …’ I tried to argue my way out of her logic. ‘… except that Maxwell-Evans and Mel are both contacts from the old days, just like Darrick is.’
Sally shrugged her shoulders. ‘Mel’s current. You only bumped into her because she’s still friends with Alicia. And as for Maxwell-Evans, he’s an arts contact, right, if he’s Seb’s old professor?’
I nodded.
‘So maybe Radley’s after a job with him, and doesn’t want Seb to know about it until after it’s all fixed up. You might try looking at the most plausible explanations for a change – particularly when it comes to the most plausible explanation for Darrick’s actions, viz, he’s a crook.’
She looked at me for a moment, obviously noting I was about to say something else, and let out a heavy sigh. ‘What is it now?’
‘Well, it did occur to me that if Seb’s barking up completely the wrong tree, Darrick’s behaviour this evening could still be explicable.’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Well this I have to hear.’
‘He’d been trying to get hold of me ever since we saw each other last week and I hadn’t taken his calls or replied to his texts. He was already a bit jealous of Seb and then, lo and behold, he finds out from his friend Lawrence that I’ve gone out on the town with him, when, in the normal way of things, I should have been his date for the evening.’
‘Anna, did the feminist revolution somehow pass you by? It is not all right to ram someone up against the wall of a tube station just because you don’t like their choice of companion.’
My head was starting to ache. ‘No, no,’ I said. ‘I know that.’ I knew I was going to start crying in a minute. The numbness that had enveloped me was wearing off. ‘But I’d rather he was jealous than a murderer.’
Before she left my room that night Sally said, ‘Just promise me you’ll take care on your way to work tomorrow. If he comes within fifty metres of you, you’re to call the police.’
After she’d left me I flipped open my laptop and sat there for a moment, irresolute. Of course, Sally might well be right about Radley schmoozing Maxwell-Evans in the hope of landing a new job. She was just the sort to do all her manoeuvring in secret, and also not the type to stay second in command for long. I Googled Maxwell-Evans to see if he might be in a position to further her ambitions.
He’d done well for himself. He was tipped for a peerage, according to a piece I found on the BBC News website. The article also revealed that he was on the boards of several top art institutions and there was a photo of him alongside a couple of minor royals. I paced up and down my room. He would certainly have it in his gift to find Radley some nice high-powered role. On the other hand, it was possible Radley and he were meddling in Seb’s affairs in some way behind his back. If either of them had something to hide – even if it was unrelated to Darrick – I wanted to know about it.
In the end I emailed Seb. I didn’t want to come across as a bitch, all eager to drop Radley in it, so I tried to be subtle, dressing the message up with some other queries about work. Then, in a cheery little aside, I added, ‘By the way, are you and Radley working on any new projects with Professor Maxwell-Evans?’ This way I might be able to find out the background to the situation without stirring things up.
The following day I looked around very carefully on each stage of my journey to work but saw no one I recognised.
For some reason I couldn’t account for, I didn’t want to tell Seb about my run-in with Darrick. It didn’t make any difference to what had been said the night before.
So instead of dropping by his office, I went straight to my own. I tried to focus on normality and shut out everything else, going through the motions of a catch up with Elsie and Sinem and then getting down to the business of the day.
‘By the way,’ Sinem said, ‘Monica wants to see you.’ She saw my face. ‘Sor-ree! More about budgets I think. Something to do with the brochure you’ve proposed for the Jabez Clark exhibition.’
‘Oh yes. I was trying to get away with some silver on it, to tie in with his work, but it did come up rather expensive.’
‘Well, it’s caught the attention of her mean little mind,’ Sinem said. ‘And she’s around all morning, so whenever you want to go down you can bask in the warmth of her company.’
‘Lucky me.’
I decided I might as well get it over with. It would only occupy my headspace otherwise, and I had enough things doing that already.
Monica was hunched over her laptop when I went in. ‘Ah!’ she said, looking up.
‘I gather you’re not keen on my use of silver in the Jabez Clark brochure,’ I said.
‘It’s not the silver per se,’ she replied, looking at me over the top of her reading glasses, ‘but the cost.’
‘If it’s too expensive then I can change it,’ I said, ‘but sometimes you have to pay a little more to get something to look really good. And, after all, if that draws in twenty more buyers, the costs are quickly covered.’
‘It seems like a big if,’ she said. ‘As a matter of fact, Melanie Rice did the publicity for the first Jabez Clark exhibition we had here. She used flyers, not brochures, and they were printed in black and white.’
I sighed. That’s what all this was about: Monica’s old, old connection with the gallery and the fact that I wanted to try something different, even though I was the new girl.
‘Back in those days a Jabez Clark was a lot cheaper,’ I said, ‘and I bet Mel was trying to draw in the young arty set.’ I wanted to meet Monica halfway. It would be hopeless if we were always at daggers drawn like this. ‘Look, I know it was Mel that first had the idea for this gallery, and I’m sure she was a true professional, but things do move on.’
She looked up at me. ‘And I know it was you who put Mr Rice on to this place, even though Melanie already had her name down for it. You did her a bad turn that day.’
‘They seemed like a dream team for a long while,’ I pointed out. ‘And when I put Seb on to Sir Anthony’s agents I didn’t know anything about Mel. Anyway, I thought Seb’s involvement solved all her problems. Didn’t he come up with the money she needed?’
Monica made a face. ‘Sir Anthony was a friend of Melanie’s family. He was holding the lease for her as a favour; she’d have come up with the finance sooner or later, with or without Mr Rice’s help.’
‘Still, it clearly suited them both to go into business together.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Her judgement was clouded. Mr Rice had got his hooks into her even before they made the gallery deal official.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked. I didn’t want to encourage her, but if there were undercurrents I didn’t understand I wanted to know.
‘The first time they turned up to discuss matters with Sir Anthony it was quite clear that Mr Rice had already become Melanie’s lover.’
And this coming from the woman who also thought Seb and Radley were having an affair. ‘How could you be sure?’ I asked.
She had the grace to lower her eyes a little. ‘I was there don’t forget,’ she said. ‘I still worked for Sir Anthony then and I just happened to see them waiting in the corridor. They hadn’t noticed me, but their behaviour made it all quite obvious.’ She shuddered slightly. ‘I suppose they were excited about what they were planning. Anyway, they were all over each other.’
She took her glasses off, folded them and put them on the desk. ‘It was an awful shame that she let him steal her ideas, and then ultimately push her out, so he could carry on as he pleased. I wonder if he’d planned a
ll of that, right from the beginning.’
‘Oh, Monica,’ I said. ‘I’m sure he hadn’t. He really seemed to care about Mel and they were together for quite a long time.’
‘But I imagine you didn’t know how quickly he’d made his move towards her, did you?’ She caught my look. ‘No, I thought not. He had that other girlfriend, didn’t he, up in the Lake District? That’ll be why he was keeping his affair with Melanie quiet.’
She sat back in her chair. ‘I expect he was too ashamed to tell his friends.’ She spat out the last words and I thought back to Seb’s constant insistence that he had let Julia down. Was this what had been on his mind all these years? When he had stayed in London rather than going to Julia the weekend she died, had it really been Mel that had kept him down south, rather than the pressure of work? I knew they were meant to have been together during those crucial hours when Julia had given up hope, holed up in a room somewhere …
‘I’m surprised at Mel, too,’ I said eventually. ‘I presume she must have known about Julia, in which case you wouldn’t think she’d have wanted to get involved with Seb.’
‘Oh it was the usual story,’ Monica said, her tone exasperated. ‘I asked her, point blank, about that. I thought it was my duty to show her what he was up to. He’d told her that it was all but over between him and the girl in Cumbria, but that he had to be kind and handle the break-up carefully, because of everything she’d been through. Mel felt sorry for her and swallowed that one hook, line and sinker. I’m afraid I thought she was being a fool. I told her I was quite sure the Cumbria girl would remain on the scene, unless she did something to make it clear she wasn’t going to be part of a threesome.’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I’d brought in my own sandwiches for lunch but now I found I couldn’t face eating them. The conversation with Monica had sent adrenaline coursing through my body and this was layered on top of the constant tension that had been with me since the evening before.