Abi's Neighbour

by Jenny Kane

  ‘Me? I told you, I’m the one who’s been conned.’ Justin was getting angrier with each word. ‘I had a sizeable financial interest in that company, and you’ve destroyed it.’

  ‘I’ve destroyed it?’ Cassandra’s blood raced in her veins. ‘Don’t you dare blame this on me, when it was you who sent that bloody letter to everyone. It’s very tiresome listening to you getting angry when you feel threatened or guilty, Justin. I bet you didn’t even know you did that. Each time you know you’re in the wrong you go all belligerent and defensive. It’s so see-through.’

  ‘That’s low even by your standards! I do no such thing. And I haven’t seen any bloody letters. All I know is that Crystal was instructed to send out end of business messages by you.’

  ‘I wouldn’t waste your breath arguing that one, Justin.’ Cassandra’s chest began to tighten. The knowledge that part of her still loved this man, however much she didn’t want to, was beginning to batter its way through the defences she’d managed to create over the day. ‘Justin, please. Will you bloody well man- up and tell me the truth. What happened to make you destroy my business? My whole life was caught up in the agency.’

  As if sensing that perhaps Cassandra’s heart hadn’t hardened towards him as much as she’d first suggested, Justin softened his tone. ‘I miss you, baby, but I’ve been put in an impossible position.’

  ‘You’re in an impossible position!? Have you been dumped in the middle of nowhere, with no friends, nowhere to go, no decent Wi-Fi connection, and no clue as to why the man you love has stolen your life?’

  The sound of Justin swallowing carefully came down the line. ‘I’m sorry about the Wi-Fi. I didn’t know it was so bad there, but you can make friends, can’t you? And the seaside is beautiful. I know how much you love it.’

  If she’d been hurt before, that was nothing to how Cassandra felt as reality hit her between the eyes. ‘You don’t know me at all, do you?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I can’t stand the seaside. I have never liked it. Ever.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Oh indeed.’ Cassandra sucked in an audible breath. ‘Now, your two minutes are up. Were you calling to tell me something worth hearing, like why Crystal is telling everyone you are in the States, when you clearly aren’t?’

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that!’

  ‘Justin, you idiot, you’re at Waterloo Station. I can hear an announcement for a train to Guildford playing in the background.’

  Not commenting on being caught out, Justin said bluntly, ‘Crystal and Jacinta are friends.’

  ‘You don’t say.’ Cassandra felt an acute desire to end the conversation. It was all so obvious. Crystal had been lying to both of them. Playing them off against each other. Of course she has. Crystal had always hoped to grab Justin for herself, so what better way to get revenge on the mistress by siding with the wife? ‘Justin, I have been waiting for you to call me for days. Why phone me now if you aren’t going to say anything worth hearing?’

  ‘I miss you, darling, and I got your call last night.’

  Feeling her cheeks colour, Cassandra snapped, ‘That was more gin-inspired than anything else. Perhaps you could at least tell me the name of your lawyer so that I can get mine to talk to him or her directly, so I can discover what we can do about your wife and PA. I presume that if you had no hand in it, then they are behind the letters?’

  ‘What bloody lawyer? I’m your lawyer.’

  ‘No, Justin, you were my lawyer, and then you stole from me. I could have you struck off. Arrested, even.’

  ‘Don’t be foolish. That would kill your reputation as much as mine.’

  ‘What reputation? I don’t have one worth saving thanks to the letters you had sent to my employees.’

  ‘I told you! It was Jacinta. It wasn’t me!’

  ‘Actually, you didn’t say it was Jacinta. First you denied all knowledge and blamed me. Then, just now, you said it was your PA. Make your mind up!’ Pausing for breath, Cassandra added, ‘Give me one good reason why I should believe you haven’t planned all this with your wife, and that my being here isn’t your way of getting me conveniently out of the way?’

  ‘So Justin wasn’t the one who crashed your company?’ Abi wasn’t convinced, but tried her best to sound objective as she talked to Cassandra across a wooden table in the Old Success’ pub garden.

  ‘That’s what he said.’ Cassandra took a sip from her cola. ‘And the way he said it made me trust him.’

  Trying to make sense of what she’d heard, Cassandra frowned into her meal. ‘The remainder of the conversation with Justin was a load of non-answers and bluff, but the idea that I believed him capable of deceiving me seemed to floor him. He kept saying he’d been conned, and that it wasn’t him, but someone else, possibly his wife, who had screwed up my business. All he was sure about was that I’d blocked him from being able to access the remaining company information, but he couldn’t find out why without phoning me. But, of course, I’d only done that after I had discovered my business was being attacked.’

  ‘This is all so complicated! So has Justin’s silence has been because he was embarrassed about not escaping his marriage as quickly as he’d planned after he’d got you down here?’

  ‘I think so – although I’m not one hundred per cent sure about anything.’

  Abi pulled a face; the more she learned about Justin, the less she’d be inclined to have faith in anything he said. ‘The letters came from his company’s office, didn’t they? He must have known. I thought you said he’d signed them?’

  Cassandra sighed as she looked around the pretty pub garden. She may have hated the beach, but her assessment of the seaside resort as a whole was very definitely taking an upturn. ‘It has to have been his PA. She’s been forging his signature with his permission for years.’

  Stabbing a forkful of salad, Abi asked, ‘And if it was Jacinta using the crush Crystal has on Justin to her advantage, what can you do? You’ve been cheating with her husband for years. This revenge is extreme, but if you fight it, everyone will know.’

  Cassandra pushed the remaining food around her plate. ‘That’s why it’s so clever. I’d take my hat off to her in different circumstances. No one knows about the affair. At least, I thought they didn’t. My family certainly don’t know. They all think I’m married to my work. They’d be so disappointed in me.’

  Abi had been surprised by Cassandra already that day, mostly because of her invitation for a meal out to say a belated thank you for being so welcoming, but the fact she had family seemed even more surprising somehow. The slim blonde seemed so self-sufficient, so much a self-contained unit, that it was weird to associate her with parents. ‘Are they in London too?’

  ‘No, they don’t approve of the city. They live in a village in Oxfordshire. My father is the local vicar.’

  ‘No way!’

  Cassandra smiled. ‘It’s OK, you’re allowed to laugh. I know it is an unlikely scenario.’

  ‘It is! Sorry, but it is.’

  ‘So you see why they don’t know about Justin.’

  ‘Quite.’ Abi contemplated a solitary piece of chopped tomato before impaling it on her fork. ‘Did Justin reveal what he was going to do next? I mean, forgive me if I seem nosy, but is he leaving his wife and coming to Cornwall, or not?’

  Wishing that she hadn’t been quite so sensible, and had added a shot of Bacardi to her cola, Cassandra said, ‘Leaving his wife? I don’t know, but I doubt it. Being thrown out by her, maybe; but I doubt Jacinta has made him suffer enough for her own satisfaction yet. As to whether Justin is coming to Cornwall, I’m not sure. He said he’d come down here to sort things out face to face soon.’

  ‘Do you believe that?’

  ‘I want to. Is that mad, after all this? Surely I should never want to lay eyes on Justin again?’

  Abi gave her companion a compassionate smile. ‘That very much depends on whether you love him or not. Do you?’

  ‘I sho
uldn’t.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But, well, perhaps it’s habit, but Justin has been part of my life for years. I don’t feel I can give up on him until I know for sure what’s going on. He made no sense during the phone call, contradicting himself every five minutes. Plus, he did the stupid huffy defensive thing he does when he’s dug himself into a hole and isn’t sure how to get out of it, but otherwise he seemed as confused as I am.’

  ‘You think Justin wants to live with you down here?’

  Cassandra’s voice was small now, reminding Abi of a wounded animal. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t met Justin, and I shouldn’t judge, but I can’t help but ask, do you want to be with someone who treats you like this?’

  Cassandra knocked back a swig of cola as if she was drinking a tequila shot. ‘It’s been so long. Who else would want me? I’m soiled goods, as they used to say.’

  Abi shook her head sharply. ‘You are no such thing!’

  ‘Well, at least I’ve made one decision today.’

  ‘You have?’

  ‘Yes, I’m not going to fight to reform the agency, I’m going to let it go. I will instruct my lawyer in the morning to take steps to dissolve the company – or what’s left of it legally.’

  ‘Are you sure? That’s so brave after you started it from scratch. What will you do instead?’

  ‘It’s too soon to say, but it isn’t going to be in London.’

  Abi beamed. ‘Well, I hope that whatever it is, it will keep you down here. You may not like the seaside very much, but I think it might like you!’

  Chapter Twenty

  Although she’d been a resident of Miners Row for two weeks now, Cassandra still hadn’t got used to living in an environment where neighbours chatted to each other and where people wanted her company because they liked her, rather than because they needed her business acumen. ‘Are you sure you want me to come?’

  ‘Everyone, that’s what Stan said. And everyone includes you.’ Max opened the door to his van. ‘Hop in. Abi is driving over with Beth and Jacob. We’ll see them there.’

  ‘But I’m not part of “everyone”.’ Still hanging back, Cassandra held her Gucci handbag in front of her like some sort of social shield.

  Max grinned. ‘If you think I’m letting you escape the horror of wedding planning when I have to sit through it, then you are very much mistaken. Anyway, Dora’s issued a three-line whip. You’re required to be there.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She wants your brains and beauty apparently.’

  Cassandra, feeling two spots of pink heat on her cheeks, realised she had probably blushed more since her arrival in Cornwall than she had in the whole of her life. ‘Dora said that?’

  ‘Word for word.’ Max got into the driver’s seat and patted the place next to him. ‘Resistance is futile!’

  Laughing, Cassandra obeyed. ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ***

  As the van pulled into the car park at the Queen’s Hotel, Cassandra realised she had been so engrossed in exchanging plans and ideas for decorating the house with Max that she hadn’t noticed they’d turned, not towards St Buryan and the Chalk Towers flats as she’d expected, but into Penzance.

  ‘I thought we were going to see Stan and Dora?’

  ‘This is where they’re holding the wedding. It’s only two weeks until the big day, so we’re meeting here for an on-the-spot sort out. There is a surprising amount to do, even though it’s only a little affair – I mean wedding.’

  Cassandra smiled at Max as he moderated his language. ‘It’s OK, I’m not that sensitive. But thank you anyway.’

  Not wanting to pursue that line of conversation, Max pointed to Jacob’s car ‘Looks like we’re last to arrive.’

  ‘How about Dora and Stan?’

  ‘Dan drove them over earlier.’

  As they walked towards the hotel’s once grand entrance, now aged and weather-worn, Cassandra tried to make her voice sound curious rather than hopeful. ‘Dan’s here?’

  ‘I expect so. You know what Stan and Dora are like. Letting them loose alone would be like sending two naughty schoolchildren out without a teacher! They’d probably march straight into the kitchen and sample the cakes at source.’

  Cassandra had been expecting the inside of the hotel to be as worn as its exterior, but as soon as she stepped over the threshold she gasped in delight, her eyes scanning the perfectly proportioned marble columns and the crystal chandeliers. ‘It’s so beautiful.’

  ‘It was Mary’s, Stan’s first wife’s, favourite place.’

  Cassandra raised her eyebrows. ‘And Dora’s alright with them getting married here?’

  ‘Dora isn’t in competition with Mary. She sees this as a mark of respect to her memory.’

  Feeling embarrassed, Cassandra mumbled, ‘Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.’ Am I ever going to get used to this level of consideration?

  Abi, Beth, Stan and Dora sat in front of a large bay window, gazing out across the palm tree-lined promenade and beyond the sea wall to the sea itself, which, despite the calm of the summer’s afternoon, was doing its best to see how far it could crash up the defences.

  Seeing Max and Cassandra arrive, Abi got up and waved across the busy dining room. ‘Jacob and Dan are getting some drinks at the bar, if you don’t want champagne, Cassandra, then this is the right time to dash over and say so.’

  ‘Are you kidding? Champagne is always welcome.’ Trying not to feel as though she’d only been invited out of pity, Cassandra gave Dora and Stan her best smile, ‘Thank you ever so much for inviting me. You’re so generous.’

  Dora chuckled. ‘Don’t you believe it. It’s all a plot. We think Dan has the hots for you, so we thought we’d kick things off a bit.’

  ‘Dora!’ Abi and Beth exclaimed in unison, each stunned at Dora’s bullish approach, which had sent Cassandra bright pink.

  ‘Well, it’s true,’ Dora carried on regardless, ‘you need to dump that Justin, and get some good people in your life. Even if they are bossy, interfering good people like me!’

  It was impossible not to feel affection for the old lady whose mischievous eyes twinkled at her across the table. ‘I appreciate the sentiment, Dora, but I suspect that I’m not Dan’s type. And to be honest he isn’t mine. I tend to avoid tattoos, I prefer a proper haircut and, if I’m honest, southerners. And even if Dan was my type, I’m not looking for anyone. Too much mess to sort out myself before I inflict my baggage on someone else.’ Not wanting to think about all the worries that awaited her once she returned to the house, Cassandra said, ‘Anyway, let’s not worry about my car crash of a life today. This is all about you and Stan.’

  Jacob arrived with a tray of glasses and a jug of orange juice, followed by a preoccupied-looking Dan holding a bucket of ice and a very good bottle of champagne, and Max, who was bringing up the rear with a pile of menus.

  Sitting next to Beth with as big a smile as she could muster, suddenly Cassandra couldn’t escape the feeling that she was somehow separate from everyone else at the table. It was as if she wasn’t actually there, but was watching them all from the wrong end of a telescope.

  As Jacob poured Beth a generous serving of orange juice, Cassandra tried not to peep at Dan, who had been creeping into her thoughts far more often than anyone with tattoos and a services haircut had any right to do. Instead she added her belated congratulations to Beth.

  ‘Thank you. It’s so exciting, although having to drink juice and not champers is a bit of a blow!’

  Stan pushed a glass in Beth’s direction. ‘I’m sure you could have a very weak Buck’s Fizz, Beth.’

  ‘Do you think it would be OK?’ She looked at Jacob, who shrugged. ‘Isn’t alcohol a total no-no when you’re pregnant?’

  Dan picked up the champagne bottle. ‘Well, speaking with my medic’s hat on, a tiny amount as it’s a special occasion won’t hurt. I can do the honours if you like.’

 
‘Medic?’ Cassandra was surprised; even though he was in care work, the last thing she’d seen him as was a doctor or nurse. Had she got Dan wrong as well? Were the people skills she had always been so proud of, her ability to read people’s business requirements on sight, all been wrong?

  ‘I was a medic in the forces. Midwifery wasn’t exactly my field, but I’ve done the basics.’

  Cassandra caught Dan’s eye, and for a second she saw that Dora could be right. There was a flash of something that could have been interest. A medic in the forces. She couldn’t help speculating on which one, and had to physically stop herself asking by clamping her lips together. The idea of Dan in uniform was doing things to her insides that were shockingly inappropriate for taking afternoon tea in a posh restaurant.

  Oblivious to Cassandra’s internal battle, Beth, who could see Jacob was about to launch a whole heap of baby-related questions at Dan, put her hand up in the nick of time. ‘Before you drown Dan in a gory medical inquisition, Jacob, remember it is Stan and Dora’s afternoon. We’re supposed to be planning the perfect wedding.’

  Jacob laughed. ‘I hadn’t said a thing.’

  ‘No, you hadn’t, but you were about to.’

  The potter rolled his eyes. ‘Stan, mate, you’ll have to watch it. Live with them for five minutes and they can read your thoughts so well that speech is often rendered unnecessary!’

  Opening his afternoon tea menu, Stan laughed. ‘You don’t have to tell me that, m’andsome. This old biddy had me sussed from the off!’

  ‘Cheek!’ Dora wagged a finger affectionately at her fiancé before she addressed the table as a whole. ‘I don’t know about you folk, but planning stuff makes me hungry. Do we go for a massive cream tea or do we go for the little bits of loads of different sorts of cakes on those three-tier stands, Miss Marple style?’

  Cassandra read her own menu; her mouth was watering at the prospect, her stomach informing her she hadn’t eaten since a slice of toast at breakfast. ‘It’s like being in Claridge’s! Better, even; have you seen this list of cakes?’