Dan made a face and dragged his hands down the sides of his jaw.
“Between consenting adults. You do know the phrase?” said Dan.
“Yes, doesn’t everyone?” said Ronson.
“Then you’ll know what I’m getting at,” said Dan. “Tell me. Have you ever seen an ambulance arrive next door after one of those noisy nights?”
“No. Not yet,” said Ronson. “But it’s only a matter of time…”
“Okay,” said Dan. “Have you seen any body bags? Any of those student types carrying out anything that looks like it could have been a corpse?”
“How would I know? Maybe. They’re always carrying big bags of equipment around. They could have done that without me noticing.”
“Okay. But you’re not certain, are you? And these people. You might not get on with them, but generally, apart from your current disagreement, do they seem polite to others? Do they carry themselves well?”
The front door opened and Eva walked back into the office. Her face looked pinched. She seemed in dire need of a coffee, or maybe something stronger.
“But bad people have no moral compass, do they? They can seem friendly to who they want to be friendly with. That’s part of the problem,” said Ronson.
Eva paused mid-step, before she carried on walking to her desk. She sat down and stared out of the window at the passing traffic. Dan glanced at her back before carrying on. Lauren Jaeger again. Urrgggh…
“All I was suggesting, Mr Ronson, was that nothing bad may have actually happened. These people are just different to you and different to me. But there are all sorts of people in this world, doing all kinds of things, wouldn’t you say?”
“I know what I hear in that house, Mr Bradley. I hear disturbing things, and they don’t like me asking them about it. Listen to me!”
“But even then, you’re only back to consenting adults. It becomes nothing more than a noise issue once again. Do you see?”
“Consenting adults! Do we really have to wait until it becomes something worse? Is that what the world is coming to!” Ronson frowned. He turned to face Mark, shifting his attention away from Dan altogether.
“Listen to me, then. Something bad is happening in that house. You hear about these things in the newspapers, don’t you? Times when bad things were happening and the police and everybody else ignored the lone whistle-blower until something really, really terrible happened, and by then it was just too late. The damage had been done. We all know that happens, yes?”
There was a new intensity to Ronson’s little eyes. Mark’s gaze was held in the man’s bespectacled eyes, and now he had Mark’s attention it seemed he wasn’t about to let go.
“Nobody has listened to me about this. I’ve been passed from pillar to post. But here I am. You people have to help me. I can’ stand to have something like this happen right next door, and especially if they manage to get that poor innocent Mellot girl… I don’t think I could live with myself if I did nothing to stop them from hurting her.”
“Have you tried speaking to them? Asking them about what they do? Telling them your concerns?” said Mark.
“In the beginning yes, but they shut me down. Now they insult me, mock me, threaten me too. And these people lie. They lie about their whole lives. I can’t take them at their word. Please, you have to do something, young man. I can tell you’re listening to me.”
Eva turned in her chair and cast a sideward glance at Mark, waiting for his answer.
“Yes, I am listening to you,” he paused. “And I think… there might be something in this.”
“At least someone does. Here, look, I can pay for your help. I’ll pay whatever you need, so long as you fix these people and keep the Mellot girl safe.”
The little man stuffed his hand into his jacket pocket. When it came free, there was an untidy bundle of bank notes in his hand, one or two spilling and fluttering down to the floor. A lilac twenty and two tens. He put the pile of loose cash on the desk and hunched over with a grunt of strain as he fetched the banknotes.
Mark, Eva and Dan exchanged glances. Ronson put the stray notes on top of the rest.
“I can’t pay you all of this, obviously. Not until the situation has been resolved.”
“Obviously,” said Dan. He scratched his temple as he tried to sound casual. “Just out of interest. Where did all of this money come from?”
“My savings. I always save for a rainy day. Here it is.”
“You drew out all this money – just in case you engaged us for the job?”
Ronson shook his head. “No, Mr Bradley. I don’t use a bank if I can avoid it. They process my earnings, but then I take it all out. Haven’t trusted the banks since the credit crunch. The banks only use your money for bad things. And what happens if the bank goes under? Your cash goes with it, doesn’t it?”
“You do know there’s a scheme to protect you from losing out if your bank folds, don’t you?”
“Scheme being the operative word, eh? And that’s no more than words on a piece of paper, Words don’t have value to anyone these days. Just like those scoundrels next door. You can’t trust a word they say. I prefer to keep my money where I can see it. That way no one can do me over.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that, thought Dan, but he nodded anyway. “Well, I can’t argue with that now, can I? Just do me a favour, Mr Ronson. Be careful when you go home. I don’t want to hear that you got mugged halfway back to your car.
“Then take some of the money. Help me with these awful people.”
“Look,” said Dan. “I’ll at least need to discuss it—”
“With your boss?” said Ronson, his head half turning back towards Eva. “But please don’t make me wait. There’s a lot at stake here. There’s an innocent young girl to think of.”
“You’ve made your point, I promise. We’ll be in touch soon either way,” said Dan.
“But aren’t you going to write anything down? Don’t you want my details?” said the man.
“Mark here was doing the writing. We just need a while to talk it through.”
Ronson looked as disappointed as he was agitated. “Maybe those recommendations were exaggerated. I was hoping for better, to be honest.”
“Don’t we all,” said Dan. He stood up and offered the man his hand, but it was Mark’s hand that Ronson shook first. The man took his money, pressed it into a tight bundle, and stuffed it back inside his jacket pocket. Ronson gave Dan the briefest of handshakes, barely looking him in the eye. The man walked away, pausing to look at Eva as he passed by. Eva offered a polite but weary smile.
“I wish you’d been here. He might have listened better then.”
“I wish I’d been here too, Mr Ronson, I assure you. We’ll call you soon, I promise.”
The man gave Eva a grateful nod and walked out of the door. He looked in through the window before he disappeared from sight. Eva looked back at Mark and Dan.
“He thinks I’m your boss?” said Eva. “You couldn’t work under anyone else’s authority if you tried to. So, was the lead any good?”
Dan and Mark offered different verdicts at the same time.. “No,” said Dan.
“Yes,” said Mark. They looked at one another before looking back at Eva.
“The guy’s story is haphazard and based on nothing but his opinion of some disruptive student types who live next door,” said Dan.
“They might not be students,” said Mark.
“But they sound like students. No, they wouldn’t be my ideal neighbours, but we’re not neighbourhood mediation. We’re private investigators. This guy needs something else altogether. And frankly, I think he could have made it all up. The guy is an oddball. I get the feeling he’s delusional.”
“He wouldn’t be the first one we’ve had lately,” said Eva with a sigh.
“He’s troubled, yes,” said Mark. “But I’m not sure he’s delusional.”
“Mark, the guy stares at you like he’s looking at one of those magic ey
e pictures. He stares like he’s been hypnotized.”
“Magic what pictures?” said Mark.
“It was a nineties thing. A picture made of dots and eventually you could see another image through the dots if you kept looking.”
“Like a colour-blind test?”
“Yeah. But you’d pay ten pounds to hang it on the wall of your student dorm. This guy’s neighbours probably love them. My point is the guy is a weirdo. And we’ve definitely had our full quota of weirdos already this week. Am I right?”
“Maybe,” said Eva, with a shrug.
“Oh, hang on,” said Dan. “The boss is pulling rank on me. What? I’m being overruled?”
“No. But I’m interested to hear Mark’s opinion. Ronson seemed to form a rapport with you.”
“Only because Mark pretended to be interested,” said Dan.
“I was interested. He’s implying these film students, or whatever, are doing something really nasty. He kept saying it. He implied they were deviants or something.”
“Deviants? To him that’s probably anyone who doesn’t keep their dead mother in the attic.”
Eva raised an eyebrow. Dan shrugged but closed his mouth.
“Mark?” said Eva.
“This guy had gone to great lengths to get a lot of people interested in this.”
“But they didn’t,” said Dan. “That’s a clue right there.”
“They wrote him off, like we almost have,” said Mark. “But he’s persistent. And yes, he might be a bit weird, but he could be right. He said he hears people crying out. Someone might be in pain. And he’s worried about some little girl.”
“Mark, I’m not so sure those were cries of pain,” said Dan.
“Consenting adults and all that, I know,” said Mark. “But I think we owe it to the man to give him the benefit of the doubt. Have any of those other recent leads come off yet?”
“No,” said Eva.
“No,” Dan agreed. “Most of them were timewasters to some degree or other. But we spotted them early enough to prevent us wasting our time. Sounds like we’re about to indulge this one. Next time that phone rings, I want a decent case out of it or I’ll disconnect it. And it better not be your friend Lauren, either.”
Eva made a face of agreement with a slow nod. “I do wonder if someone’s put something in the water. First Lauren returns into my life, then today I had a weird chat with…” Eva stopped herself when looked at Mark. “…with an old friend of mine. She seems to be going off on a tangent too.”
“Not another nutball from your school days, I hope,” said Dan.
“No. Not that kind. A more recent variety,” she said, turning abruptly to her desk. “So, after all these recent inquiries, we’ve still got hardly a thing to show for it…”
“Exactly,” said Mark. “So, I really think we should try and help this guy, before we rule it in or out.”
“You really want us to waste out time on Mr Delusional?” said Dan.
“We won’t know we’ll be wasting our time until we check it out. Think about that girl he kept mentioning. If we don’t do it for Ronson, wouldn’t it be sensible to look into her situation?” “Sensible, yes,” said Dan. “Probably one of the least interesting words in the English dictionary.”
“But also one of the most useful to remember,” said Eva. “If some young girl is in danger, then Mark is right. I think we’re obliged to check it out.”
“We only have this guy’s word for it,” said Dan. “This girl is could be Ronson’s Barbie doll, or his imaginary friend.”
Eva’s eyelids were set to half-mast as she looked at Dan. He decided to stop arguing. Instead he snapped his fingers. “Okay… you want a cup of coffee? You look like a girl who could do with a cup of good strong coffee.”
“Finally, someone said something I wanted to hear.”
“I’m always saying stuff you want to hear, you just don’t notice.”
Eva shrugged and smiled. “Now who’s delusional,
Dan nodded and looked at Mark. “I’m going, okay. One coffee coming up. Strong.”
“That’s not why I looked at you,” said Dan. I’ve been overruled. You took the lead on interviewing the guy, and you think we need to check out his story, so we will. Besides, he did just produce the biggest mound of cash I’ve seen in several years. And he put it on my desk. That part was pretty convincing.”
Mark nodded. “And we’re not busy. The Renton Trust case hasn’t started.”
“I don’t know if it ever will,” said Dan, shaking his head.
“And this one could be easy money. If he’s delusional it will be even easier,” said Mark. “The case will be closed soon as we start.”
“Good point. Getting paid for proving there are no monsters under the bed? That seems fair to me. Who knows, we might be finished and ready for the next job by the end of the day.”
“Shall I call him?”
“Yes, right after you make that coffee,” said Dan, “and get the bacon sandwiches.”
A smile broke across Mark’s face for the first time in days as he headed into the kitchen and started work on the coffee machine.
As soon as the noise was loud enough, Dan looked at Eva.
“How’s Joanne?”
“Fine, but she’s been meddling again,” said Eva, keeping her voice low.
“Habit of a lifetime,” said Dan.
“But she thinks she’s helping me. She been digging into Lauren’s past. She says Lauren is big trouble, as if I didn’t know.”
“Shows her heart is still here.”
“Yes, but not all of it.”
Dan frowned, his face a question mark.
“I think she’s got a new boyfriend. I just got that vibe from her. I think she’s sleeping with him already, too.”
“Already? The girl wastes no time, does she? How did you work that out?”
“She had that look. A certain coyness under pressure. I could tell.”
Dan raised his eyebrows. “You’re a dangerous woman to be around. So, who is she sleeping with?”
“I’m not that dangerous,” said Eva.
“We’ll find out. And speaking of dangerous. What did Lauren want?”
“She’s not satisfied that her Jamie Blane problems are over. As far as I’m concerned, they are. He won’t try anything with her again because he knows I’m watching. Case closed. And I’m not going to let Lauren manipulate me into hurting anyone. Especially not after all the lies she’s told.”
“She doesn’t know you’re on to her lies…?”
Eva shook her head. “No. She would freak. I know she would and I don’t need that in my life. It’s hard enough work just to keep her at bay.”
“Did she lie about everything?”
“Almost,” said Eva. “I’ve still got to run the last pieces of Lauren’s so-called evidence past Blane, but if he proves those were fabricated too, then that’s it. It’ll be one hundred per cent lies. I’ll have to cut the woman out of my life forever, whether she pays or not.”
“Life is weird like that,” said Dan. “What goes around comes around.”
“Not for me, Dan. It’s not revenge. It’s self-preservation.”
“What was the point of her call, anyway?”
“She says she’s being watched. But seriously, I’ve heard it all before and once I know how badly she lied to me, I’ll just block her calls and move on.”
“An eye for an eye, a blank for a blank,” said Dan. Eva sighed.
The very moment a fresh coffee thudded onto the desk in front of Eva her phone buzzed with an incoming text message
Eva didn’t want to look at it, but after the first sip of her coffee, she relented. As predicted, it was Lauren. Not even ten minutes since her last call, the endless communication train had started up all over again.
Eva – I’m not just being watched. They’re following me. I can’t even get out. I swear. Please call me, ASAP. I’m scared. I need your help.
Eva grim
aced and set her phone aside. She sipped her coffee. She would have to do something, but when she did, she was going to do it her way.
Five
The last time Eva had visited Blane’s fancy tower block, it had been under very different circumstances. The familiar tension was still there – but when was she ever free of tension? But this was a different feeling. This was from working cloak and dagger against Lauren’s interests, cheating on her client at the time when she had requested help. It went against the grain, but Lauren had done little to warrant her concern or her due care as a client. Which was exactly why she was here. To ensure due diligence was taken care of before Eva cast her verdict. This time around Eva didn’t have a door card or a key. She walked into the reception lobby like any other visitor, her shoes tapping gently on the polished marble floor. The man behind the desk looked up and recognised her immediately. The big mid-thirties security man-slash-concierge. He automatically had that look in his eye; the typical predatory male look of ‘I bet I could have you if I wanted’. Eva knew the look was because he thought she had slept with Blane and had come back for more. Men. Just because they assumed you actually enjoyed sex, why did they always have to think they could get a piece of the action? Eva met the man’s eyes with a silent dismissiveness.
“Morning. Can I help you?” said the man, his eyes invasive.
“I’m here to see someone on the top floor.”
The man’s mouth crinkled – a stifled smile, or maybe a grimace. “Mr Blane?”
“Yes.”
“You know, I think he’s got company at the moment.”
“Company?” said Eva. “What do you mean by that?”
The man nodded, as if it was a secret between only him and Eva. Conspiratorial.
“Yes. He’s had another young lady up there these last few days. Just thought I should let you know.”
Eva quietly bristled.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re telling me for,” said Eva.
The security man let his eyes do the talking. I think you do.
“Maybe I should tell Jamie that you’re organising his visitors like some kind of voluntary PA. I wonder what he’d think about that, don’t you?”
Play With Fire Page 5
