False Picture

by Veronica Heley

  Meanwhile, he’d been keeping an eye on the Weston house. From a neighbour, Rafael had learned that Philip’s father was seriously ill in hospital, with his wife at his bedside. But, someone was still taking in the milk and newspapers.

  Obviously, Philip was hiding out in the family home. Rafael couldn’t think why it hadn’t occurred to him before. He’d rung the bell but no one had answered, though he’d thought a curtain had moved at an upstairs window. Philip might not want to open the door to Rafael, but he’d have opened it for Liam, wouldn’t he? Now Rafael would have to think of another way to get in.

  Van called from Bruges to say the old woman travelling with the girls had pulled a fast one, shoving the goods in a locker at the station, and posting the code to him. Van would have to stay another night in an expensive hotel, till he could get the key and retrieve the goods. He was not best pleased.

  Rafael found that amusing. As if Van couldn’t afford it!

  Now to phone Liam at work.

  Fourteen

  Tuesday afternoon

  By the time Bea got back home, Oliver was shifting from one foot to the other on the doorstep, on the lookout for her.

  ‘Mrs Abbot, Maggie’s been on the phone, in something of a state. Can you get back down to the flat straight away?’

  Bea closed her eyes. She’d been dreaming of a cup of tea and a rest in her own bedroom, with the blinds drawn against the sun. Various bits of her were feeling unhappy, including her temper. It wasn’t Oliver’s fault, but if he didn’t help her out with the luggage, she’d kill him or give him the sack or run him through with a bread knife or something!

  She curbed her rage with an effort. ‘I need to get this hired car back to the garage first.’

  ‘Shall I drive it for you? Oh, and there’s tons of messages, lots been happening.’ He swung Maggie’s case out of the car, and ran up the steps with it.

  ‘I don’t want to know,’ said Bea, retrieving the bag from Rubica. ‘What’s Maggie on about? Can’t it wait?’

  ‘She said it was urgent. Go on, let me drive the car. I can, you know.’

  ‘No, you can’t,’ said Bea, weary to the bone. ‘Not till you’ve passed your test, and we can’t leave it here or it’ll get clamped. You take my stuff inside, I’ll drive the car round to the garage and take a taxi down to the flats. You can give me all the news later.’

  ‘Are you all right, Mrs Abbot? You look sort of, I don’t know, not quite as usual.’

  ‘I don’t feel it, either,’ said Bea, inserting herself with an effort back into the driving seat. ‘But at least the girls are safely back home, and that’s the main thing.’

  The girls were safely back home, and so were the goods. Tired as she was, she smiled, remembering Mr Goldstone’s excitement when she handed the fabulous treasures over to him. He’d hummed with pleasure, touching each miniature, caressing each gold box even while he complained fretfully that there were still only nineteen in the consignment and not twenty. He said he knew exactly how to get the lot to the insurance people without any questions being asked, and volunteered that he’d split any reward money fifty-fifty.

  Tired as she was, Bea had informed him that he must be in his second childhood if he thought she’d accept his offer. Ninety-ten, she said, with the larger amount to the agency. Her expenses on this trip had been enormous, and although Velma had said she’d pay, Bea couldn’t really bill her because the trip hadn’t produced anything to help them find or clear Philip. Bea felt really bad about that, because she could have spent the time searching for him, instead of rushing off to the Continent.

  Mr Goldstone had haggled for a while, saying it would cost him something to set up a deal, no questions asked, with the insurance people. Finally he’d suggested a split of eighty-twenty, keeping her name out of all negotiations, to which she’d agreed.

  He’d wanted all the information she could give him about Mr Van and Liam in order to track down the man who’d killed his friend. Bea got it down to a few sentences and, remembering the photograph she’d taken of Mr Van in the restaurant, punched buttons to send it to the old man’s mobile. In return she asked him for a description of the twentieth box, in case she came across it anywhere.

  About Philip and the missing picture … did Mr Goldstone have any news for her? No? Ah, well.

  She spared a thought for Mr Van as she got back into the car. She didn’t think he was going to coo with pleasure over the two litre bottles of mineral water which was all he’d find when he opened Hamilton’s bag tomorrow. Which reminded her to put an overnight bag down on her expenses sheet.

  Now Maggie had called for help again. No time for a cuppa, but she simply must change her shoes before she went out again, and grab a bottle of water from the fridge. Oliver followed her around, with a clipboard full of messages.

  ‘Sorry about this,’ said Bea, not listening to what he was saying. ‘Can you hold the fort for another hour or two?’

  Question marks were shooting out of his eyebrows, but to do him justice he reined in his tongue.

  ‘Speak soon,’ she said, and dashed out of the house again.

  The porter wasn’t in his little box in the foyer at the flats and she’d forgotten to pick up her keys to the flat, but when she announced her name into the speaker entry system, Maggie let her in and met her as she got out of the lift on the second floor.

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘You’ll see.’ Maggie was tense, looked worried.

  The flat smelt of bleach, mingled with polish. Someone had been cleaning the place. Maggie threw doors open, one after the other. ‘Zander. Liam.’

  Their rooms were neat, tidy and bare. All traces of the previous occupants had disappeared. Even the beds had been stripped. It was as if the two men had never existed.

  Maggie opened the door to the boys’ bathroom. Spotlessly clean and shiny, there wasn’t even a crumpled towel to be seen; in fact, there were no towels at all.

  The kitchen. Every single shelf had been stripped of its contents except one. ‘That’s my food on the shelf, next to Charlotte’s. Everything else has gone.’

  Bea gaped. ‘What about Philip’s room?’

  Maggie opened the door. The room looked the same as when Bea had last seen it, down to the black plastic bags that Bea had filled on her first foray into the flat. ‘What remains of his belongings are still here, but his food’s gone from the kitchen. I suppose clearing out both bedrooms is Liam’s farewell trick. Charlotte disagrees, of course. She thinks Liam’s been kidnapped so she’s sitting by the phone, waiting for someone to ring and demand a ransom.’

  ‘Come off it!’

  ‘Agreed. He knows we’ve tumbled to his smuggling operation and has scarpered in case we set the police on him. He’s covered his tracks by getting in a cleaning firm to expunge all traces of his occupancy, fingerprints and so on.’

  ‘That makes sense, but why clear out Zander’s room as well?’

  ‘I haven’t a clue.’ Maggie was close to tears. ‘Guess which cleaning firm he used?’

  Bea put a hand to her head. ‘He knew that you worked for a domestic agency, so he asked our firm to arrange it?’

  ‘The bill is on the kitchen table. It was made out to Liam Forbes, but he’s crossed his name out and put mine on instead. Oliver must have accepted the job because he knew that I was living here.’ Maggie picked the bill off the table and handed it to Bea, who put on her reading glasses to note that Oliver had sent the Green Girls team to do the job. Four women aged forty to sixty, all experienced cleaners. Oliver had chosen well.

  Bea supported herself against the nearest wall. She’d just had a horrid thought. ‘Surely there’s only one reason why Liam cleared out Zander’s room? He knows Zander’s not coming back. Was Zander also involved in the smuggling, I wonder?’

  ‘I can’t believe that. I expect Zander came back unexpectedly to claim his things, and Liam saw him and … no, that doesn’t make sense. I suppose we could try to contact Zander in the Mi
dlands to see if that’s what’s happened.’ Maggie declined to look into the abyss.

  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.