by Faith Hogan
‘And even if there’s not, it’ll certainly enhance whatever happens with the place going forward,’ Carrie said.
‘Let’s take things one step at a time,’ Jane said. ‘You know, if the competition across the road could stand it, I might just look at getting in someone to run the place properly…’ she looked from Carrie to Luke. ‘A lunchtime food trade, all those office workers, maybe we could get a fancy coffee maker in…’ she smiled, it was make-believe stuff, but it was nice to dream, all the same. She had a feeling she’d have lots of help to breathe new life into The Marchant Inn. That was all she had to think about for now, certainly she wasn’t thinking beyond getting the business up and running.
*
New Year’s Eve dawned sunny, a watery thaw was setting in and there was a sense, even in the city streets that they were teetering on a new start. Between Conn’s passing and then the fire at The Marchant Inn, it seemed that time had disappeared like a fox into his den and no matter how Carrie reached for it, there was no pulling any of it back. Now, mostly it seemed unreal as she sat on the couch, wrapped up in a Foxford blanket, listening to the familiar silence of her home
Today, for all of that, Carrie had to do the one thing that she’d been putting off for too long. She knew it was time and so she showered and scraped back her disobedient curls. It was a day for comfort and ease, she pulled out her windcheater and jeans and set off after a cup of tea. She had made an appointment for herself and Kevin with the accountant; it was time to face up to things, for both of them. They needed to know the extent of Valentina’s pilfering. She couldn’t go on convincing herself that things would sort themselves out so long as she kept a tight rein on the finances at The Sea Pear. She had made sure that Valentina had not cashed up since she’d spotted the discrepancies, but this had to be sorted. The last few months had opened up, however brutally at first, a conversation within herself. She had outgrown The Sea Pear and perhaps, she had outgrown Kevin too, long before he’d cast her off. Even still, she couldn’t just walk away from him, knowing that he was being robbed blind.
‘It’s worse than we thought at first. The daily takings certainly, until you noticed it, are well down on previous years. There have been quite a number of days here when the only amounts lodged to the bank are in cheque or card. There was not a penny of cash for a whole week here,’ Don Hemming, the accountant, pointed to the week she’d taken off to sort things out. His carroty red hair had turned to silver over the last five years. Carrie always thought it made him look more severe. Today, it added mild constancy, maybe even a touch of wisdom to him. He had been in college with them, before he’d had a road to Damascus calling to chartered accountancy and she was glad he was the one sorting out this mess for them.
‘Oh, dear God,’ Kevin said, scanning through the figures. ‘We should be making twice this…’ and then he caught a look that passed between Carrie and Don and maybe they didn’t need to spell it out for him. ‘How long has it been going on?’
‘I’m so sorry, Kevin,’ Carrie said gently. ‘It’s been going on a while, she’s taken anything she could get her hands on, from the tips jar to… well, now I’d put my money on her being involved in the break-in.’
‘She will have to find another job…’ but his words petered off, perhaps he already knew.
‘Kevin,’ Carrie said gently, ‘this is much bigger than just dismissing her, we have to tell the police. She’s stolen from us; that means she’s stolen from our creditors and the tax due to the revenue commissioners also.’
‘Are we sure, we need to be sure,’ his normally high colour had washed out to a faded grey and Carrie knew it was better to let the news sink in.
‘And so, have we managed to break even in the run up to Christmas?’ Carrie looked down through the figures before her. Margins were tight, profit came only after other overheads were covered, and even if Dublin was booming, so too were wages, insurance and every other cost that had to be paid out first.
Don took his glasses off, held them over the sheets before him. ‘I’m afraid, it’s worse than not making a profit.’ He pulled out a sheet that looked like an official report. He handed it over to her.
Carrie sighed, ‘How on earth can this have happened?’
‘She’s been taking at every turn and your margins are so tight…’
‘Valentina?’ Kevin whispered as if he might cling on to the woman he had believed her to be and then he covered his face with his hands. Carrie was not sure if he cried or if he still couldn’t quite believe that this was where they’d ended up.
‘But why didn’t the bank contact us, I mean…’ Carrie was shocked, even she hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
‘She’s very clever. She’s seen them off before they got a chance to become too suspicious. She must have all your codes and account numbers.’ Don shook his head sadly.
‘Probably she has Kevin’s. I changed around our accounts, but I left all of his the same… you know what he’s like,’ Carrie said softly, her words held fondness; there was no trace of reproach. At this stage, she pitied Kevin, getting angry wasn’t going to make things better.
‘Well, at least she won’t have managed to clear out your accounts too.’ Don stared at the sheets littering the table between them. ‘I dread to think what state Kevin’s accounts are in now,’ he said sadly.
‘What does it all mean? Are we finished, has she managed to bankrupt us under our very noses?’ None of this gave Carrie any pleasure. After all, apart from the fact that Kevin would be devastated, it meant a pulling apart and maybe even the loss of everything they’d worked so hard for.
‘Honestly, it’s hard to say. The restaurant has bled a lot of vital cash. Really, at this point, or at least from what I can tell, you’re starting back where you began. You’ll be working off cash flow and doing your best to keep on top of paying creditors,’ Don explained sombrely.
‘So, what’s next?’ There was no point thinking about the long-term plan for the restaurant, not really, that was something she’d have to agree with Kevin, and even now it seemed that their options were far more limited than she’d have ever imagined. ‘Surely there are things we should be doing to…’
‘I’m afraid this is a criminal matter, we have to call the police and we need to do it before Valentina gets the chance to enter The Sea Pear again. She has emptied your business of thousands of euro, it isn’t something that you can just gloss over. Fingers crossed the end of year tax cheque doesn’t bounce.’
‘I don’t think I can face all of this,’ Kevin said, staring blankly at the floor.
‘I’ll contact the police, but you’re going to have to confront Valentina at some point,’ Don said evenly.
‘We’ll talk to Valentina together, about the business, but the rest, what she’s taken from you, you’ll have to tell the police too, Kevin. You can’t let her get away with this.’
‘They’ll send her away,’ he wasn’t sure how that made him feel. ‘Back to Colombia, she won’t want to go back there.’
‘In my hat, she belongs in prison and if she thinks she’s going to wriggle out of this she can think again,’ Carrie said flatly.
‘And as to The Sea Pear,’ Don said, ‘you could just fold, liquidate and start again, it might… be less messy.’
‘Close up shop?’ Kevin’s voice was high-pitched; it was obviously the last thing he wanted. Carrie felt for him, bad enough to learn his girlfriend was stealing from him, but to see his business brought almost to its knees was too much to take in.
‘I can’t think about that yet, but of course you’re right. We’ll have to make some sort of agreement about the future of The Sea Pear, can you draw up something so we can see what’s best for all of us,’ Carrie said, gathering up her coat and scarf.
‘We could start over…’ Kevin said through tear-filled eyes. ‘We could start again, I mean, even if The Sea Pear is finished, we’re a great team, Carrie, you know that…’ He was pleading now.
‘I’m sorry, Kevin. We were a great team, but I’m ready to move on now.’ She could hardly look at him, the pain that weaved across his face was too much. ‘I’m so sorry, if there was any other way…’ she said shaking her head.
‘You can’t just leave me?’
‘Oh, Kevin,’ Carrie shook her head sadly, ‘I won’t leave until everything is tidied up, but I’m not going to spend the rest of my life at The Sea Pear. It’s time for something new.’ Carrie hadn’t a clue what that might be, but her future wasn’t with Kevin or The Sea Pear. It surprised her that mixed with the relief of letting go was a real sense of sadness, as if grief might be a part of walking away from this business that had become so much to her over the years.
‘I see,’ Kevin said and pulled himself up out of his chair so it seemed to Carrie that suddenly he was less than he’d ever been before and that just made her sad. She was glad to get out onto the street again.
‘Okay?’ Luke was waiting for her, they’d agreed to go for lunch and she was pleased to feel his arm about her. ‘All right, Kevin, mate?’ his expression full of concern.
‘Well, I’ve had better days,’ Kevin said flatly.
‘Could be worse,’ Luke said. ‘I’ve just left the hospital, Jane Marchant is doing much better.’
‘What? Well, that’s good?’ Kevin said distracted.
‘She’s lucky to be alive,’ Carrie said.
‘Those two men who broke into the pub, they torched the place and left her for dead. We’re only lucky that Teddy was with her and we got her out before it was too late,’ Luke said softly.
‘Lucky, indeed. Luke was a true hero, he ran into the pub while the fire was raging and pulled her out.’ Carrie looked up at Luke and she couldn’t hide the love and pride in her eyes.
‘Do they know who…?’ Kevin asked.
‘They were Colombian, two really nasty types, they’ve been hanging about Finch Street for months, one way or another. Seriously, they should be thrown in jail for attempted murder, the pair of them, if they’re ever caught,’ Carrie said.
‘Colombian…’ Kevin’s voice seemed to filter in the morning air, as if something had knocked the clout from it. ‘Colombian, dear God…’ he said and he turned from them and headed in the direction of Finch Street.
Carrie felt a yawning sadness as they walked away from Kevin and the life they had built up together. Today, this meeting with the accountant was the beginning of the end; on her terms. Then Luke’s arm around her brought her back to the present, it was time to start again and it felt as if she was starting on the right path, even if she wasn’t quite sure where it was going to lead.
*
They couldn’t put it off forever, and Carrie for one wanted it over sooner rather than later. She called to the apartment after she organised someone to drop by and change all the locks on The Sea Pear. Valentina would never set foot in the restaurant again. It was Carrie’s first time here and she couldn’t help but take in the opulence of the place. It really was like stepping into another world. In the elevator, she’d bumped into a couple of models that she recognised from the gossip columns. The apartment was even more impressive than she expected, with breath-taking views out across the Dublin skyline. Yet for all its opulence, it had an empty feel to it, as if it was fully furnished, but there was no ambience. Someone had forgotten to add in a vital ingredient – it was the antithesis of her lovely, homely little house.
‘What is she doing here?’ Valentina hardly lifted her head from the important job of painting her toenails. It was obvious that Kevin had shied away from any of the conversations he needed to have with her.
‘I’m here to talk to you, actually,’ Carrie said and she knew that it must have been something in her voice, because Valentina’s head jerked up sharply as though alerted to some clear danger about to present itself.
‘Kevin, what ees thees all about?’ She dropped the nail polish and was on her feet in a turn.
‘Valentina, we need to talk.’
‘Oh, I see it now, she ees putting the poison in your ear about me, she ees jealous, Kevin, she always has been.’
‘Oh, dear,’ Carrie shook her head. ‘No, Valentina, I am not jealous, but I am annoyed. I’m angry that you stole from me.’
‘I didn’t steal Kevin from you, he wanted to be with me, because I am more beautiful.’
‘Actually, Valentina, I’m not even sure that you are that anymore,’ Kevin said from behind her and Carrie watched as something close to madness flashed across Valentina’s’ face.
‘Oh, so now we see the truth of eet. You have no backbone, I always knew that…’
‘Valentina, we know that you stole money from the restaurant,’ Carrie said calmly.
‘I stole money? No, now you really have lost your minds.’ Valentina threw her head back and laughed hysterically, as if nothing could be further from the truth.
‘We know that you stole and we know exactly how much.’
‘Really? You come here, with your beeg hair and your broken heart and you think you can accuse me. Just because I am from a poor country, does not mean I steal your money.’
‘We have proof, Valentina,’ Kevin said firmly.
‘So you are een thees too. How, deed she turn you against me?’ She was appealing to him now, pouring every ounce of charm she could conjure into the space between them.
‘I’m not in anything. We are telling you now, because earlier today our accountant reported the theft to the police.’
‘You… you, you…’ and then a torrent of Colombian words filled the room and Valentina was moving in a frenzy towards Carrie. Suddenly, she was upon her, shaking her with venom that could only come from hatred. Carrie heard her jacket rip, a distant unreal sound so quietly insistent amidst the manic screaming of her attacker.
‘No, Valentina, no.’ Kevin was pulling her off, dragging her away from Carrie.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Carrie said and she straightened out her clothes, looking at Valentina now; she was only showing her true colours. ‘It doesn’t matter, the police will come and you can try and wheedle them, but the facts speak for themselves, Valentina. You are never to cross the threshold of The Sea Pear again because, if you do, I won’t be responsible for my actions.’ Carrie turned on her heels, a nervous wobbly feeling in her legs. She wasn’t used to this kind of confrontation, she didn’t like it, but she knew she had to face Valentina and show her that she was no fool.
‘You, with your beeg bum and your bad shoes… you can’t prove one theeng, not one theeng, and just wait and see, you haven’t heard the last of this yet,’ Valentina was shouting as Carrie made her way to the door.
Outside, Kevin walked her towards the elevator.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said and she could see he was distressed at what had happened.
‘I’m okay, really, she’s all bark. Will you be all right?’ For all of that, Carrie was glad to be getting away from Valentina; she was a very angry woman.
‘I’ll just go for a walk, around the courtyard. Actually, I think I’ll stay outside until the police arrive.’
‘Well, they should be here soon, I just spoke to them on the way over and they’re going to take her in for questioning, so you’ll have the place to yourself for a few hours.’ Carrie wasn’t sure if that was what he wanted, but she figured it was better than sharing the apartment with Valentina at this point.
Then Kevin cleared his throat. ‘There’s something else,’ he said, his eyes digging deep into the wall behind her as if he would bury his way through it if he could get away from what was coming next. ‘You should know,’ Kevin’s voice was leaden with news that couldn’t be good, ‘the two men the police were looking for in connection with the break-in?’
‘Yes? They were Colombian?’ Carrie had a feeling there had to be a connection to Valentina – it was just too coincidental, especially when you saw what kind of a person she really was beneath the gloss and glamour.
‘It was…’ he sighed,
a long weary sound as if he was going through the details for the umpteenth time. ‘They were arrested earlier today and…’ He sighed again. ‘You’re going to find out anyway, they’re all going to know about it in the restaurant soon enough.’
There was silence for a moment, but it didn’t frighten Carrie, she had a feeling that it was just Kevin being theatrical. God how hard she’d worked over the years to keep life on an even keel so she didn’t have to endure those long drawn out pauses.
‘For heaven’s sake, Kevin, just say it, will you.’
‘Okay, they were cousins of Valentina’s – the men who broke in to the restaurant, were Valentina’s cousins. I had a feeling when you told me about Jane Marchant, I knew it had to be them, so I told that grumpy detective Coleman and I gave him an address to pick them up for questioning.’
‘You knew where they were staying?’
‘They were staying with us after they left their flat.’
‘They were staying with you when the police were looking for them?’ Carrie knew she sounded like a parrot, but really it was too much to take in. Kevin Mulvey, harbouring criminals – wonders would never cease, she had a feeling that one day she and Anna would laugh at this, but not yet. Not for some time to come, perhaps.
‘Yes. But, I had no idea then that they were involved. Valentina said they were thrown out of their own place. I assumed they hadn’t paid up the rent, or maybe had a run-in with the landlord or something like that.’ Silence again.
‘If they can prove it was them, the police will charge them with attempted murder, you know that?’ Both Luke and Jane could identify the men they had seen in the bar. She wasn’t sure if fingerprints could survive the smoke and fumes of the fire, but there was CCTV on the street and enough compassion among the detectives to make sure they got the men who left Jane to die in her own home.
‘Honestly, Carrie, I had no idea.’ He sounded like he might cry. ‘I’m so sorry.’ There was another pause. ‘For everything.’
‘Heaven’s sake, but it’s been one heck of a day for both of us,’ Carrie smiled. She was looking forward to getting home, putting her feet up and having a good strong cup of tea with Teddy sitting on the hearth rug. ‘At least you did the right thing, turning them in to the police. I mean, for Jane, knowing that they are behind bars, it’ll give her peace of mind.’ She was about to reach out, put her hand on his shoulder, when the arrival of a police car, siren raging, broke the silence between them. Just as well, perhaps, she thought, just as well.
