The man frowned in confusion.
“Jamie Blane is my brother,” she lied. “Now whatever dirty little story you’ve concocted in your head, I think we’d all rather you kept it to yourself from now on. Don’t you?”
“You’re… his sister?” said the desk man. His face seemed to have taken on the air of a lost child. The last hint of the confident predator had vanished in a cloud of concern about his job security. Even so, Eva felt no guilt in the lie. It seemed she was learning new habits at a rate of knots, or at least rediscovering them..
“Last time didn’t you have a key?” said the man.
“Last time? Tell me, are you here as a concierge or as a snooper?”
“No… nothing like that. I just like to get to know the residents and their friends.”
“Please… just let Mr Blane know I’m here. Tell him it’s Eva.”
“Eva? Yes, sorry, of course.”
The man hastily picked up his desk phone. He dialled through and Eva heard Blane pick up the call. Blane’s smooth voice was distinctly audible.
“Yes?”
“Mr Blane. Visitor for you. Your sister, Eva.”
“My sister…? Um… yes. Send her right up, will you?”
“Yes, Mr Blane.”
The man ended the call and looked Eva in the eye. Now he looked guarded, shut off, the defences all set.
“He said you can go right up.”
Eva gave the man a nod. It was a petty victory, but these days any victory was welcome.
When she reached the top floor, she found the familiar brown wooden door of Blane’s apartment ajar, all ready for her. Regardless, she knocked and waited. Blane came to the door whistling… He opened up and greeted her with a relaxed, stress-free face. His eyes were bright, his beard had been trimmed, and he looked vital and healthy. In fact, the man’s glow made Eva feel in need of a detox and a good holiday. “You’re looking well, Mr Blane.”
“Really? Yes, I suppose I must be. I’m feeling a lot better since Lauren moved out.”
“Moved out?”
“She stopped coming back. That’s a start.”
Eva’s eyes narrowed. Where was she living? Lauren hadn’t mentioned the change of address, though she supposed it was obvious they could no longer live together after what had happened. She would contact Lauren once she’d finished with Blane, find out where she was hiding. It had to be done. The man seemed to have read Eva’s thoughts.
“Don’t think I’m free of her yet. I still get the same endless abusive texts. The same threats. Only from a distance, they don’t seem to bother me quite so much.”
“I’m sure.”
“Did you bring the last of your evidence, Miss Roberts?”
“I wanted to run through the emails. The conversation you had by email which we presumed was with a hitman.”
Blane managed to frown and smile at the same time. He shook his head. “A hitman? Sorry. That’s really not me. The closest I’ve ever come to meeting a hitman is watching Goodfellas. I’m a recruitment agent, not a mafioso.”
“No. You don’t strike me as your typical Don. But it always pays to be thorough.”
“We could do with someone like you at Blane Recruitment,” said Blane, grinning.
“Sorry. Admin has never been my thing. You must have me mixed up with someone else.”
Blane snorted another laugh but it sounded fake. Eva guessed all his welcoming patter was equally fake. But if so, he was still charmingly good at it. She told herself she needed to see through everything.
“Never mind, I believe I’ve got some excellent help in that department already. Haven’t I, Suzie?”
Blane engineered the grand reveal. He stood back from the front door and looked over his shoulder back down the corridor toward the pristine brown and gold living room and the white edges of the kitchen. There was young Suzie Appleby, passing through the doorway, tray adorned with teacups and teapot, the skirt of her red dress all big and flouncy, her hair equally coiffured. The girl beamed at Eva as she passed, a TV commercial image of their domestic bliss come to life.
“We knew you were coming. Suzie wanted to make an effort.”
Blane looked at Eva’s face. Eva wondered what they were trying to achieve. To show her they had moved on, maybe? That he was free? Or was it merely another man trying to prove to her how virile he was by virtue of his latest conquest? Either way, Eva was not impressed. She gave a nod and took the invitation to walk inside.
She walked down the hallway to find the young woman fussing, laying out the cups and saucers, biscuits and cafetière on the dining table, all just so. The girl looked up and a long coil of hair bounced at the side of her face. Yes, Appleby had certainly made the effort. Probably all this just to keep Blane happy, until she felt she had achieved her own personal agenda. Complete ownership of her life as the spouse of a very wealthy man. The girl flashed a smile and Eva recognised the nerves on the girl’s face.
“I hope you haven’t done all this on my account,” said Eva.
“Yes,” said the girl, clasping her hands. “As a sign of our appreciation. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here now. You helped remove that awful woman from our lives.”
Eva paused. “Except that the awful woman is still my client.” Strangely, Eva found herself bristling at the insult to Lauren. Eva waited until Blane joined them in the living room before she spoke again. “Mr Blane, you know what we’re going to discuss. Is it wise to have Miss Appleby here while we’re discussing it?”
“Suzie, please,” said the girl. “I really won’t cause any problems. Besides, you should know that Jamie tells me everything.”
Eva looked at Blane, and he shrugged. “What does it matter? You know I’m in the clear. I didn’t do any of the things Lauren told you I did.”
“Apart from the potential murder weapon kept in your car,” said Eva.
“What?” said Suzie Appleby.
“It was a knife, kept as a precaution,” said Blane. “It was nothing, Suzie. It was a measure I took for my own protection.”
“Yes, but if you’d used it, someone would still be dead,” said Eva.
“I think we’ve both learned something about knives, haven’t we? Point taken, Miss Roberts. Suzie? Would you mind please waiting in another room while I deal with Miss Roberts? I’m sure it won’t take long.”
The young woman’s shoulders drooped and she eyed Eva with a set of daggers of her own. “We are supposed to share everything, darling. That’s what you said.”
“And we will. Right after I’ve dealt with this. Please. I think It would make Miss Roberts far more comfortable.”
Eva said nothing. Suzie Appleby’s sharp eyes flicked between the pair of them. “Fine. But I’m not going out. I’ll only be in the next room. And if that psycho bitch is out there and she knows we’re sleeping together, I could end up her next victim. I should be involved.”
“That’s hardly likely now, is it?” said Blane.
“I’ll wait in the bedroom,” said Suzie.
Of course you will, thought Eva. The girl walked out and slammed a door in the corridor.
“That was a little harsh, Miss Roberts. We’re still in the honeymoon phase, remember?”
“You didn’t waste any time,” said Eva.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion. In fact, I didn’t ask for any of this, did I? It’s happening to me, not because of me. There’s really no need to be so hard about all this. You know I’m innocent.”
Eva said nothing. She followed Blane to the dining table and poured herself a coffee in a dainty, flowery cup. The crockery didn’t look very Jamie Blane. Eva guessed the young woman must have bought it especially. Blane didn’t bother to pour a drink for himself. He steepled his fingers, tapped them together and watched.
“Well?” he said.
“I believe you about the orders. The purchase orders and the eBay stuff could have been done by someone else who had access to your passwords and credit cards.
The Screwfix order checked out too. You didn’t make the pick-up. They told me a woman collected that order but couldn’t give me a description.”
“It was Lauren, you know it was. Lauren was buying those things to frame me as the sicko planning her death. To position herself as the wronged party. Maybe even to build a case for a legal settlement or some other crazy shit. I don’t know. I never knew what she was thinking.”
Eva said nothing. She felt Lauren’s plan was far more basic than that. No less conniving, but far more terrible.
“That’s all possible. Likely in fact. But we need to discuss the emails batted between you and the guy who I believed to be your hitman. Push the button – do you recall the phrase? It was the same term you used when we overheard you and your friend Henry when you met him at The Perryman.”
“And you know now that was all a complete misunderstanding. It was about a planned confrontation that never happened. Because our confrontation happened instead, and the facts came out there.”
Eva kept her eyes on Blane. “Pushing the button sounds a lot like pulling the trigger to me.”
“It’s just a metaphor, Miss Roberts, like many others. Both of them are metaphors, in fact. There were no guns here, there never were. This was all about facing up to a seriously aggressive life partner and forcing her to move out. That was it. Henry was involved in that plan.”
“That’s what you said.”
“Yes, and everything else is fabrication.”
“I might be tempted to believe that Lauren wrote those emails as well as placed all of those orders as evidence, but for one small thing. Two even. The deleted emails in your work account. One deleted conversation was between you and Suzie., about your secret plans for once Lauren was gone. That showed a degree of certainty that your plan would work, that it was final and absolute. That reflects very badly on you, Mr Blane.”
“Of course it had to work. It was my last chance to be rid of her. I had to win.”
Eva checked the man’s eyes.
“But the timing chimed nicely with your other deleted email conversation to the supposed hitman. Ironvelvet. The push the button emails.”
“It’s not a coincidence, Miss Roberts. It’s a set-up. You can see that, can’t you? Lauren created both sets of emails and played email tennis to make me look like the villain. She’s always playing games. You need to see that before you get played yourself.
The words hit home like a needle in her chest. He was right, but Eva didn’t want to show it.
“But your choice of words, Mr Blane. I heard you say those very words. Push the button. You said them at The Perryman. They were in your email too.”
“That’s because I use that metaphor all the time at work. I’m the top man. The decision maker. I push the button and other people do it for me when I tell them to.”
“In the email, you told this guy to push the button.”
“There was no email. Lauren knows me very well. She wrote using my voice, my words, to add authenticity. That’s all. When are you going to admit it, Eva? This is all fabricated.”
“Please don’t call me Eva. You don’t know me at all.”
“Don’t I? You told reception that you were my sister.”
“I had my reasons.”
“And I’m telling you the truth and you know it. Every piece of evidence you’ve brought me, I’ve knocked out of the park. It’s all fake. The only one I can’t disprove is the smartest one of all. The email. But it is fake. You have to take this on trust.”
“That’s a very difficult call to make. So these emails weren’t sent to Henry?”
“No. My friend Henry is real, but those emails aren’t”
“And there is no Ironvelvet.”
“No. There never was.”
Eva blinked as she remembered the first set of Ironvelvet emails Lauren had spoken of, then promptly lost. It made a lot of sense. Everything she was hearing made sense in the ugly puzzle of Lauren Jaeger’s grand game of manipulation. It was all about destroying Jamie Blane – using someone else to do the deed. The thought left Eva feeling bitter, upset and angry. The feelings must have shown on her face.
“What?” said Blane, leaning away in his chair.
Eva sipped her drink.
“You can tell Miss Appleby she can come out and carry on playing housewife now.”
“That’s not what Suzie was doing. Suzie just wants us to be happy. Why are you judging us? Don’t you think there’s other people you should be judging right now? People like your lunatic client?”
“I don’t get the right to judge, Mr Blane. What I get is an awful stinking mess to clean up.”
“Join the club, Miss Roberts. Just don’t take it out on me. I think we both ended up with the short straw when we met Lauren Jaeger. She was your friend, wasn’t she?”
Eva pursed her lips. “It looks to me like your short straw days are already far behind you.”
Eva stood up, and Blane followed suit, sticking his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.
“She’s still out there, though – isn’t she?”
“And does that bother you?” said Eva.
“Yes. Doesn’t it bother you?”
Eva sighed. Yes, it did. But Eva wasn’t going to say so.
As Eva walked to the front door, Suzie Appleby appeared from the bedroom with a swish of her big red dress. “You’re all finished then?”
“For now, yes,” said Eva. The woman’s over the top girlish happiness was hard to stomach, seeming as fake as any of Lauren’s fabrications. Eva’s eyes narrowed. She needed air. She shot Blane a parting look, not friendly, not unfriendly, just one that said she believed him. Eva walked out of the apartment, shutting Blane’s decadent world firmly behind her.
“Not guilty,” she muttered. And immediately Eva’s mind turned to the one who was… And what she intended to do about it.
Six
Eva’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly her fingers had turned white and she hadn’t even noticed. Her eyes stayed on the traffic light in front of her, but she didn’t see it. In her mind’s eye, she saw Lauren Jaeger in her school blazer and skirt, standing at the back of the history and geography block, embracing John Tomley, long after the bell had sounded for going back to class. John Tomley had been one of the outer ring of the school rugby boys. Not exactly a thug, but certainly not a keeper either. The school-aged version of a bit of rough. Eva remembered their faces were stuck together like limpets, and his hands were all over her backside. She and Lauren were due at the cinema that weekend, but Lauren cancelled on her, last minute. And when the rumours circulated that she’d had sex with John Tomley at the park, Lauren got upset and furious in turns. The following week, Bella, the girl who led those accusations was off sick and the rumours suddenly stopped. Lauren never spoke to either John Tomley or Bella, ever again. But even though Eva never asked, Lauren went out of her way to swear that she never did the deed with Tomley and Eva had no reason to disbelieve her. Until now. That whole episode had been deleted from her life, but here it was again, remerging from the time shortly before the big parting of the ways. Did it mean something now? Eva frowned and the car behind her beeped its horn. The traffic light was already green and she hadn’t noticed. Eva hit the gas and her car burst forward with a screech. But Eva drifted again as she drove. Rural Science, a class taken in the portacabins at the back of the school, on the corner of the playing fields. A weird hybrid science and gardening lesson which everyone was obliged to take shortly before their GCSE options kicked in. It was the class which included slicing a sheep’s eye, shooting the black gooey contents a foot into the air. The class where Vicky Drubbington flirted with the teacher every week, and he seemed to like it. The class where they were given postage stamp sized allotments to work on in groups of two, growing crops, learning from the soil. The teacher, Mr Allington, was benign. He was like a politician who loved himself a bit too much, but at least he tried to manage the class. But some days he sti
ll failed no matter how hard he tried. Vicky flirted with him every week, regaling everyone too loudly about her weekend’s flirting and more besides… and then… then there was the day that Eva got into her first and only serious trouble. The dreadful day.
Mr Allington had taken to showing Vicky Drubbington how to dig the soil ready for planting seed potatoes. The girls in blue blazers shared snidey smiles behind his back as Allington gladly toiled on their behalf. The girls made rude jokes about fertiliser and root vegetables, as if Allington was too dumb to understand them. Meanwhile, the rest of the class worked on, digging up the soil, chucking in their seeds, raking it over. Jake Allen and one of the other moody cows, Patty Howard, had taken to mocking Eva’s patch. There was no good reason for it, just the usual bullying victims must have been off school that week. Class comic Jake Allen must have been trying to impress Patty too hard. Eva knew he only picked her because she was an introvert. Easy pickings. Eva forgot how Jake had gotten to her, all she remembered was his laughter, the jibes and the mockery. She remembered her festering temper, and good old Lauren supporting her, calling from her own patch on the other side of the lawn. “Take no notice. It’s only because Jakey wants to bone Patty….”
Lauren’s words of support… Jake Allen’s jibes... But then Jake Allen tipped a wheelbarrow full of soil from his patch over Eva’s and the introvert saw red. Lauren saw it coming. Before Eva even knew she was angry, Lauren was alongside her, an arm across her shoulders, whispering words into her ear. Eva recalled it as if it was yesterday.
“He’s a sad little boy. Mean but sad. He’s only goading you so as he can get in her pants.”
“I know… I know, but I’m doing all this and look what he’s done…”
“Yes. He’s weak but he’s treating you like you’re the weak one. Like you’re something he can wipe his boots on. Making you look small. As if you’re nothing. But we both know who’s the weak one, who’s the nothing…”
Eva remembered holding back tears of rage as she looked into Lauren’s eyes. She remembered thinking Lauren’s words were born of love and encouragement. That Lauren was the big sister she never had….
Play With Fire Page 6
