by Penny Grubb
Annie saw Pat relax, and then told her about the Longs, about the suspicions she couldn’t ground, and about her text to Scott that had brought Kate to the office.
‘There’s a turn up,’ said Pat. ‘Is young Ronsen going to toe the line from now on, then?’
‘I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s a step in the right direction.’
‘You said a few cases. What else?’
‘The vigilante murder. The innocent victim really was innocent. Yates heard half a story and didn’t bother to check.’
‘Standard vigilante stuff then.’
Annie nodded. ‘Yates is clearly off his head. With luck they’ll put him away forever.’
‘What was the real story? How did it happen?’
Annie told Pat about May and Susan Gow, the eightieth birthday party and the locked box, Eliza Ellis and the hidden diaries. She detailed her visits to the home, taking care to mention at one stage that, ‘Eliza insisted on good brandy. Nothing else would do, and without it she wasn’t going to give me anything.’
Pat’s eyes narrowed, as though recognizing an expenses claim defended in advance, but she didn’t comment so Annie went on with the story.
When she came to burning the diaries, Pat’s eyes opened wide. ‘You destroyed the evidence? Well, you’ve been lucky if the clients have accepted your version without it. What on earth made you do that? That story should have been out in the open, for Michael Walker’s sake if nothing else.’
‘I thought about it, of course I did. But it would have been pointless. There was just enough to spark off a whole new round of gossip and speculation. That wouldn’t have done anyone any good. Eliza was appalled at having to reveal May’s childhood shame, that’s the way she saw it. And without her to interpret and fill in the gaps it made no sense.’
‘Well, she could have done that.’
‘Not a chance.’ Annie shook her head. ‘The deal was that she would tell me once and that I’d see to it that no one could ever ask her to tell the story again.’
Pat raised her eyebrows, clearly not convinced, but letting it go. Then she sat forward and looked Annie in the eye. ‘So, what else is bothering you?’
The question took Annie unawares. She said, ‘Nothing, why?’ but heard the defensiveness in her tone as she spoke.
‘There is. I can tell. That blasted instinct of yours. What have you a feeling about now?’
‘No, really, nothing like that.’ Yet Pat was right. She was uncomfortable over the way the case had panned out. ‘I guess I’m just peed off that a monster like Digby almost certainly lived his life out and never had to account for what he’d done. And an ordinary guy like Michael Walker gets to pay for his crimes. And I couldn’t bring Digby to book even if he were still alive. It would be too much for Eliza.’
‘Could he still be alive?’
‘No … well … no, surely not. I’ve no idea what age he’d be now. To Eliza, he was just a grown-up … old. But, I wonder. Maybe I’ll look him up. I’d like to know for sure.’
Pat smiled and heaved herself to her feet. ‘You did a good job.’
This rare praise tugged at something inside Annie. Pat knew how good she was. It would be hard to cut the ties between them. They could work so well together. But she knew she must. She’d made up her mind and wasn’t going to change it. The only question was when.
Chapter 31
That evening, Annie walked home briskly clearing her head of the day’s clutter. The streets were quiet. The late sun reflected bursts of light from window panes and gave the road edges a sheen as though they had been painted in translucent silver. There was a lot to think about. Notice on the flat, the car to sell or scrap.
She walked into her flat and slung her bag over a chair, but had barely shaped her thoughts on what to do first … shower … coffee … eat … when someone knocked at her door. It had to be her upstairs neighbour. His excuse would be to have his flask back, but his real reason would be to share a hot drink and hear a dramatized account of how it had been used. Perfect company to wipe away the hassles of the day. She felt her mouth curve to a smile of greeting as she opened the door.
‘Hello,’ said Nicole Perks. ‘Sorry to drop in unannounced. I wanted a word.’
Annie held on to her smile, but asked, ‘How did you get in?’
‘There was someone just coming out as I arrived.’
‘Right.’ Annie made a mental note that it was time for the core of sensible residents to go round all the flats and put the fear of God into the newcomers and more careless tenants. Their only robust line of defence was the stout outer door. None of the internal doors was properly secure. The cheap rents came at a price and the tenants had evolved strict rules about letting in strangers.
There was nothing to do other than usher Nicole in, but this would be a lesson to her, too, about being careless with clients.
A folder that Nicole shouldn’t see was lying out in plain view on a chair.
‘Take a seat,’ she snapped, more tersely than she intended, as she snatched up the papers and took them to the drawer where they belonged.
As she bent forward to open the drawer, the red pin from the cork board almost speared into her eye.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake!’ She jerked back, aware that Nicole jumped at her outburst.
She yanked the pin free and shoved it on top of the board, then put the horse woman’s letter along with the papers, back in the drawer. None of this was Nicole’s fault. She shouldn’t take it out on her. It was she, Annie, who had given out her address, who had left papers out that she thought she’d put away. And she, too, who had put that blasted red pin in at the wrong angle. That was something she hadn’t done for years. She must have been more tired than she realized last night.
‘Sorry,’ she said to Nicole. ‘Ignore me. I’m just annoyed with myself for putting that pin so low on the board. It nearly had my eye out. I’ll make some coffee.’
‘No, no. It’s me who should apologize.’ Nicole leapt to her feet and followed Annie to the kitchen. ‘I shouldn’t have stormed off like I did. You’ve done a great job. Michael’s reputation is safe.’
‘Oh right. Great. I mean … uh … I wasn’t sure if anything had been said publicly.’
‘No, there won’t be any big public pronouncement. We talked it through, me and Charlotte. All it would do is stir up interest again. Brittany Booth has withdrawn her campaign and distanced herself from Yates.’
‘Really?’ This was welcome news to Annie who hadn’t expected Brittany to concede so quickly.
‘Yes, she came and apologized to me, said she was sorry for the hurt she’d caused.’
‘Well, that’s good,’ said Annie, surprised. ‘But why you? I mean, if she was going to apologize, why not to Charlotte?’
‘It was me who hired you, not Charlotte.’
Annie nodded, but said nothing. Brittany shouldn’t have been able to trace Nicole, despite the explosive confrontation in the office. In the woman’s first flush of rage, Annie could expect that she’d gone to Vince. But even Vince wouldn’t give one client the name of another, would he? And he didn’t know about Nicole anyway.
It had to have been Kate Ronsen. The woman had been obsessed with raking up trouble for Annie. She’d told Nicole about Brittany, so why not the other way round? Annie could stir up real trouble for Kate over this, but maybe she would hold fire. She had diverted the results of Kate’s efforts, and shipped no real damage. Given recent events with the Longs and that Annie would soon be gone, she could leave this to Kate’s own conscience. The woman must know how close she’d sailed to the wind and how lucky she was to get away with it. Perhaps when she had the leash firmly round Scott’s neck and saw that he was content to be tied down, as Annie was sure he would be, she’d settle down and not be so foolish again.
‘What’s the latest with the business?’ she asked Nicole.
‘Oh that. No, we’re not doing it. I couldn’t go in with Charlotte now, not after all thi
s.’
‘But it all looked so promising,’ Annie bit down an urge to try to persuade Nicole to change her mind. It was nothing to do with her.
‘No, I couldn’t.’ Nicole looked down, her voice slightly edgy with a hint of tears not too far away.
And then it clicked with Annie. Nicole, not Charlotte, coming to her in the first place. Charlotte’s comments about Nicole. She’s more upset than I am. The whole mood and tenor of her conversations with both women.
She watched Nicole closely, as she said, ‘You and Michael …?’
‘Yes … yes.’ Nicole lay back in the chair and put her hands over her face. The hint of tears was gone. Annie heard only a resigned hopelessness in her voice.
‘Were you having an affair? Did Charlotte know?’
‘Oh no.’ Nicole looked surprised. ‘Nothing like that. We wouldn’t have done that to Charlotte. We’d been together before he and Charlotte met. A few years before. We were together for several months but we broke it off for stupid reasons. I suppose we didn’t realize it, not until he and Charlotte were living together. We both knew we had to be with each other, but he was going to end it with Charlotte first.’
‘Did Jennifer know all this?’
‘Oh yes. I knew Jen back when I was with Michael first time round.’
So Jennifer had actually known Michael Walker some years ago. She’d kept that quiet. Old friends with Nicole; acquainted with Michal Walker. That explained her being prepared to overstep the boundaries in digging up information. She did a swift mental calculation. Michael and Charlotte had been together six years.
‘So you knew him at the time of Donna’s first allegations?’
‘No, I wasn’t around then. I knew nothing about it until it all came out just recently. Michael and I had been together a couple of years before that. But after we split up, we saw nothing of each other until I got back in touch with Charlotte – we were at school together – and found out who she was with.’
Annie didn’t comment but worked out that Nicole’s fling with Michael Walker must have been when she was sixteen or seventeen. She was surprised, and disappointed, that Jen hadn’t trusted her enough to confide these details. She’d thought them on a firmer footing than that.
As soon as Nicole had drunk her coffee, Annie kindly but firmly eased her out, then came back into the flat with the feeling of business undone. It had been a jolt to learn that Jennifer had not trusted her with the whole story.
The following morning, Annie was up and out of the flat soon after six. Memories of the conversation with Nicole jangled in her head. But why should it get to her like this? Jennifer had always been careful. They were careful with each other, notwithstanding that they’d become friends over the years.
The office phone started to ring the moment she was through the door. She reached for it whilst slipping out of her jacket and, as soon as she heard the voice at the other end, she grinned.
‘Hi, Pieternel. Barbara told me you’d rung. Why didn’t you try my mobile?’
‘I wanted to know for sure where you were. I thought I’d catch you at this time if you were still working in that hell hole.’
Annie laughed. ‘Yes, still here.’
‘Well settled? Much work on?’
Annie was cautious in her replies as she listened to Pieternel probe for information. She couldn’t openly trash the sisters and their business methods, nor did she want to come clean about her intention to find a new berth, not until she knew what this was about. It had to be a prelude to an offer of sorts, but what? Maybe Pieternel wanted Annie’s help on a specific job and was probing to see if she would work on her own behind Pat’s back, and maybe it was more than that.
‘I notice you’ve disappeared,’ Annie commented.
‘How d’you mean?’
‘No online footprint for several months.’
‘You’ve checked, have you?’ Pieternel laughed. ‘I wanted to duck out of sight for a while.’
‘You must show me one day how you do that.’
‘Yeah, I will.’
After a few minutes of circling each other along these lines, Pieternel’s tone changed. Annie heard the note of caution disappear into a sudden decisiveness as the voice in her ear said, ‘Right then. Let’s see.’
She felt herself tense as she waited to hear what it was all about. The words when they came were not what she expected.
‘Have to dash now, Annie. Look out for an email tomorrow.’
The line went dead. Annie stared at the handset, nonplussed, then dialled 1471.
You were called today at … the caller did not leave a number.
For several minutes, she drummed her fingers on the desk trying to second guess what Pieternel’s email would say. Then she pulled out the files for her cases and began to go through them.
Chapter 32
After an hour or so, Annie felt the building wake up around her with the sounds of footsteps and doors banging. When she heard the post arrive, it was a welcome excuse to leave her desk.
She peered in to the downstairs office, hoping someone might wave her in for a chat, but it was a bustle of people darting about, probably chasing a deadline. Regretfully, she took the mail upstairs. Some routine invoices she put aside for Pat; obvious junk mail she opened and binned. There was one envelope addressed to Barbara and marked as confidential. Annie didn’t need to open it to know what was inside.
Following her advice a week last Friday, Barbara had written a demand for disclosure of a specific document – the letter she had sneaked into the post tray in the small hours, almost catching Annie and Scott in the office. And this looked like it. Annie wondered at it arriving so soon. This document would put the skids right under their opponent’s case. Her fingers itched to rip it open and see it for herself, but that would wind Barbara up for no good reason, so she put it on the desk unopened and went back to her files.
By the time she heard the familiar grunts and groans of Pat’s arrival, the sun was high enough to spear light through the glass panels of the door downstairs, half-blinding her as she peeped out to see if Pat was alone. She was.
‘Hi,’ she greeted her. ‘That document’s come for Barbara. The Mellors’ case.’
The reply was a grunt, but after she’d hung her coat over a chair and sat down, Pat reached for the phone and rang her sister.
‘Babs? Letter for you. Shall I open–? Oh, all right, don’t get shirty. And get a move on.’
Annie smiled. Pat was itching to get a look at it too.
‘You about done there?’ Pat asked, surprising Annie who was used to Pat as a monosyllabic companion before midday.
‘Uh … yeah, just about.’
‘So that weird woman from down south’s been in touch.
What did she want?’
It was way too soon to confide any details. ‘Barbara said no message; just that she wanted to speak to me.’
‘Hmm. Well, not to worry. And did you look up that Digby guy?’
‘No, I haven’t. Not yet. But I will.’
‘What if you find him? Will you tell the old lady?’
Annie considered for a moment. ‘Depends what I find,’ she said.
They relapsed into silence and Annie finished what she was doing. She made a half-hearted attempt at looking up William Digby, but it was too common a name and she had insufficient data to pin him down. It needed focus and she couldn’t give her whole mind to it while that letter sat in her peripheral vision. Pat, too, didn’t seem able to settle and twice looked at her watch, then towards the door with an irritable, ‘Where’s she got to?’
When at last the click of the downstairs door was followed by the creaks and groans of the staircase, both Annie and Pat sat up, alert, their stares homing in on the door, which swung open as Barbara walked in.
Barbara gave them each an expansive smile, said, ‘Nice morning,’ and shrugged out of her coat. ‘Right then.’ She rubbed her hands together as if in anticipation of a treat and turned
towards the back of the office. ‘Who’s for coffee?’
Annie felt her fists ball.
‘Bugger coffee, Babs,’ Pat growled. ‘Get this damned letter open and let’s see what’s in it.’
Annie watched Barbara slit the top of the envelope and slide the letter out. Pat peered over her sister’s shoulder, and Annie had a glimpse of a block of text. Very short. Far shorter than she remembered. That must be the cover letter.
‘Oh hell,’ breathed Pat. ‘You were wrong, Babs. This isn’t what you thought.’
‘What!’ Annie leapt across to stare at the letter. This was impossible.
‘You idiot,’ Barbara yelled at her. ‘Why did I listen to you? I must have been mad, and now look what you’ve done.’
‘What’s Annie to do with it?’ Pat looked from one to the other of them.
That’s right, thought Annie. Give me the credit now it looks to be going pear-shaped.
‘Listen,’ she said, ‘this isn’t right. I thought they’d been a bit too prompt sending you a copy. It looks to me like they really thought ahead. They wouldn’t dare forge it. I bet they did two versions at the time, in case the client got wind of it and demanded to see what they’d done.’
‘Rubbish,’ Barbara snapped. ‘You misread the blasted thing in the first place. I’ve always been against these dodgy methods of yours, reading over people’s shoulders, it’s no way to run a business.’
‘Be fair, Babs. She’s been right more than she’s been wrong. She’s got the instinct.’
‘Instinct nothing! I’m the one who’s going to look a proper Charlie now. Oh that’s right, walk off. Look at her, turning her back on her responsibilities. Leave me to carry the can, why don’t you?’
Annie held on to her temper as she headed for the back office. She’d show them who was right and who was wrong.
The sound of the phone cut across the tension.
‘That’ll be the client,’ said Barbara with a groan. ‘I left a message when you told me the document had arrived.’ She heaved a theatrical sigh. ‘I’ll just have to see what I can salvage out of this mess.’
