Nothing But Lies

by Lyndon Stacey

  ‘It’s all right,’ he said to Tamiko but she too had seen the telltale door markings and was already letting herself out of the other door.

  Five minutes later, the bay mare was safely caught and Daniel was driving slowly back down the road with Tamiko following, leading her, and the police car at a safe distance, bringing up the rear. It had been decided that the only sensible course of action was to take Babs back to her stable before embarking on a search for Rolo.

  Tamiko was anxious, very much afraid that the young gelding might have galloped a long way before stopping, but when they drew level with the lane where Daniel’s own drama had played out, they saw more headlights and were astonished to see a Land Rover being driven slowly towards the junction with a horse apparently trotting alongside.

  It turned out to be the neighbouring farmer who had warned Daniel to keep Taz away from his sheep, the previous week.

  ‘Found ’im wandering about in the lane near ours when I got back from the village,’ he grumbled, his arm trailing out the window, holding the gelding on a piece of orange binder twine. ‘Well, now you’re here, you can take ’im. I’ve got better things to do than chase around after other people’s horses all night. Have to be up at five.’

  Daniel clipped his lead rope on the chestnut’s halter, while Tamiko thanked the farmer profusely, explaining that someone had let the horses out of their field.

  ‘Well, that’s as maybe,’ he grunted, unwilling to relinquish the sense of personal injury. ‘But I’ve got better things to do.’

  Relieved of the horse, he backed up the lane at speed, turned round in a gateway and disappeared into the night.

  ‘Scared we’d get the breathalyser out,’ one of the policemen said with a grin. He glanced a little doubtfully at the horse Daniel was holding, which was now sidling restlessly. ‘Do you want me to lead that?’

  ‘How about I lead it and you drive my car,’ Daniel suggested. ‘He knows me.’

  The policeman approved that idea with visible relief and they were soon on their way back to the cottage, once more.

  TEN

  ‘So what now?’ Daniel asked, the next morning, as they met, heavy-eyed, over the breakfast table. As he’d feared, the night had been a long and tiring one and even Tamiko had overslept that morning.

  Only Jahan was bright and full of energy. The effect of the repression of his former life was gradually lifting and aside from occasional questions as to his mother’s whereabouts, he seemed to have settled happily into life at the cottage. Daniel knew he wasn’t alone in dreading the day when it would have to be explained to the boy that his stay must come to an end. Now, he had finished eating and was watching TV in the lounge. Tamiko was in the treatment room upstairs with a client.

  ‘Had a call from work,’ Jo-Ji said. ‘The phone is new, unregistered and on a pay-as-you-go tariff. No surprises there. Only been used a couple of times and they’re working on tracing those calls. Forensics managed to lift a couple of good prints but we don’t have any matches. We can probably find out where it was bought and have a look at the in-store CCTV. The lighter has prints too, but Mr Siddons has confirmed that it’s his, so some of those prints will no doubt belong to him. The paper money, once it was dried out, had hundreds of prints, as you might expect, but as yet, none to get excited about. The receipt is interesting. Nothing on the fingerprint side of things because it’s been rubbing about in his pocket for a while, besides getting wet last night. The India Palace Restaurant and Takeaway is actually in Lynton, on the Somerset coast. Date: a couple of weeks ago. Enough food, you would have thought, for several people – interestingly ordered at midday, rather than in the evening when most people would be getting a takeaway, although not if you’re on holiday, perhaps. We’ll see if anyone there remembers them and have a look for local CCTV coverage, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. I don’t imagine either Lynton or Lynmouth is a crime hotspot.’

  ‘Probably rules out Samir Jafari, then,’ Daniel said thoughtfully. ‘Not that I thought it was him. I’m pretty sure my bloke was a lot heftier, and anyway, it doesn’t make sense for him to attack us.’

  ‘Unless he was hiring local muscle,’ Jo-Ji said, adding softly, ‘but as you say, once he’d got you away from the house, he’d have gone for the kid. Besides, why try now, when he’s already going through official channels?’

  ‘We’re missing something here, we must be,’ Daniel said in frustration. ‘The only thing that makes any sense is for it to be your matey, Roy Bartlett.’

  ‘But I’m as sure as I can be that he wasn’t in Devon ten days ago,’ Jo-Ji said. ‘So we’re back to the hired muscle scenario – which admittedly, is very much his modus operandi. We suspected he had a huge network of dealers and suppliers when he went down but he didn’t give us anything, so I imagine he’s owed quite a few favours now he’s at large again.’

  ‘Anything on the torch?’

  ‘No. You were right, the man was wearing gloves. Torch is standard issue – buy it in any camping or hardware store, or off eBay or Amazon. Hundreds of them sold every day. With the dry weather we’ve been having there was no joy with tyre tracks – the verges weren’t soft enough. They found the rope you used to tie your man up and SOCO got excited about that, but unless his DNA’s on record, it’s not going to help us much.’

  ‘If it’s your mate Bartlett, it will be,’ Daniel pointed out.

  ‘True, but as I said, I can’t imagine he’d actually attack you in person. He’s not the physical kind and I certainly wouldn’t describe him as hefty. Oh, and by the way, they picked up your phone, too. You should get it back soon.’

  ‘Does it still work?’ Daniel asked without much optimism.

  ‘Amazingly, yes,’ Jo-Ji said. He shook his head in perplexity. ‘God, what a mess this all is! When I first called you, I wasn’t even sure there was a problem, and then after Samir turned up, it seemed we had the answer. I never dreamed anything like this was going to happen.’

  Daniel poured himself a second coffee, and sat back, trying to make some sense of the whole thing.

  Jo-Ji’s phone rang and he picked it up off the table and looked at it.

  ‘Work,’ he said, and answered it.

  After a moment he frowned and said, ‘Harrison Allen? No, it doesn’t ring any bells …’

  ‘Yes,’ Daniel hissed. ‘I know him. What about him?’

  ‘Hold on,’ Jo-Ji told his contact, then to Daniel, ‘Two of the phone calls to that phone you found were from a phone registered to someone called Harrison Allen. Who’s he?’

  ‘He’s the eldest son of Boo Travers – you remember, the family history the other night? But what the hell’s his connection to all this?’

  ‘Does Tami know him?’

  ‘Only through Boo. We met him the other night, but she doesn’t know either of them well.’

  ‘OK.’ Jo-Ji turned away again to talk to his colleague.

  Daniel thought for a moment or two, then pushing back his chair, got up and went through to Jo-Ji’s den. On the computer screen, bubbles floated and rebounded continually until Daniel moved the mouse to wake the machine up and then opened up the family history website again. He couldn’t see what possible connection Boo Travers’ eldest son could have to the attempted abduction of Tamiko but there apparently was one, and remembering Boo’s reaction at the fundraiser, he wondered if it had something to do with the mysterious half-brother, Ricky. Perhaps if he could track him down, he might be some way to finding the answer. It was a slim chance but they weren’t exactly overburdened with leads.

  Going to his saved searches he found David Allen’s death record. He had remembered correctly, and not only had Boo’s father died in Dorset, but the registration district was Bournemouth, so if Ricky lived there too, there was just an outside chance that he might have been the one who notified the registrar of his father’s death. But that was always supposing that David Allen had been his father, and that he had recognised Ricky as his son. There had been no
mention of a third child on his obituary. There were a lot of ifs and maybes but Daniel knew from his years in the Bristol Met that ninety-nine percent of detective work involved the methodical following-up of every lead, no matter how obscure. Because of this, and even though he knew if he ordered a death certificate it would take several days to arrive and would probably reveal nothing of interest, he decided to do it anyway.

  On a whim, he then Googled the name Harrison Allen and turned up hundreds of results. Refining his search by adding first Bath and then Bristol helped to focus it and scrolling down, he found something that made him shake his head in wonderment.

  ‘Feel free to use my computer any time you like, mate.’ Jo-Ji had finished his phone call and come to find Daniel.

  ‘Sorry, Joey. But lookee here, this is interesting. It’s the business section of the Bristol Enquirer. I found out the other night that Harrison Allen worked at Travers-King Construction but apparently he holds down quite an extraordinarily exalted position in the company for one so young.’

  ‘And …?’

  ‘Well, if he is, as the newspaper account of his father’s accident said, the natural born son of Dennie Travers, who was the Travers part of Travers-King, and Dennie was still married to Stella King until just a few years ago, that’s a monumental cheek! Not only was Dennie having an affair, he apparently introduced his bastard son into the company that was founded by his wife’s grandfather and fast-tracked him to a position on the board, no less. I mean, this was a couple of years ago and the guy’s only twenty-seven now.’

  ‘When you put it like that it is a bit cheeky,’ Jo-Ji agreed.

  ‘There’s a picture here from four years before that, too. He would only have been twenty-one but he’s got more of a beard than he has these days. Probably thought it made him look older.’

  ‘More likely trying to disguise his likeness to his father,’ Jo-Ji said.

  ‘You’re right. Dennie would still have been married to Stella at that time. Look, there’s a bit here about Aubrey King’s death, too. If Dennie had been married to Boo for three years at the time he disappeared, he must have divorced poor old Stella before the funeral flowers had even wilted. Tamiko said she was very bitter and, to be honest, who can blame her?’

  ‘But what possible connection can any of this have with Tami?’ Jo-Ji wanted to know. ‘Last night was pretty full on, from what you say, and if – which scares me witless – the crash which killed Hana is linked to all this, then someone has a serious grudge against her or, more likely, me. I’ve never had anything to do with any of these people, and until Dennie died, they weren’t even on the police radar, as far as I know.’

  ‘Which brings us back to Bartlett. But then, what connection has he got to Harrison Allen? They would appear to make unlikely bedfellows.’

  ‘Extremely, I would have thought,’ Jo-Ji agreed. ‘None of it makes any sense, at all.’

  ‘Do you know anything about an Internet security consultant called Chris Haynes?’ Daniel asked. ‘That’s Chris as in Chrissie or Christine, not Christopher.’

  Jo-Ji shook his head. ‘Where does she come into this?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Maybe not at all. It’s just that she was at the fundraiser the other night, too. She’s a friend of Boo’s, but apparently she did some work for Travers-King in the past. Harrison remembered her.’

  ‘Well, that’s not surprising, is it?’ Jo-Ji asked. ‘I mean, if Boo’s husband employed her, it’s quite possible he introduced them to each other.’

  ‘But that’s just it – he didn’t. Introduce her, I mean. It seems they met by accident when Chris Haynes stopped to help Boo on the road and the friendship developed from there. Apparently she had never spoken of her connection with the company until Harrison brought it up. Doesn’t that seem odd to you? I mean Boo would surely have spoken of her husband at some point and you’d think that would have jogged her memory, if nothing else did.’

  Jo-Ji made a face and shrugged. ‘So what are you getting at?’

  ‘I don’t know. It’s just another thing that doesn’t sit right, and that’s not all; I saw Ms Haynes talking to Stella Travers-King that time I went there with Tamiko. She was just leaving as we drove by but they appeared to be deep in conversation. When I mentioned it to her, she said she was picking up an eBay purchase.’

  ‘Well, I suppose that’s possible …’

  ‘Possible, yes, but a bit of a coincidence, don’t you think? I mean, she worked for TK Construction, she’s become friendly with Boo, and I see her chatting cosily with Dennie Travers’ ex-wife. Too many coincidences for my liking.’

  ‘Even if you’re right – and I’m not convinced – how does it help? You don’t think she’s anything to do with the attacks on Tami? I mean, she doesn’t even know her, does she?’

  Daniel shook his head. ‘No. I haven’t got the foggiest how she fits in to the picture or even if she does. Sorry, Joey. I’m not helping much, am I?’

  ‘Not helping?’ he repeated. ‘And what do you suppose would’ve happened to Tami last night, if you hadn’t been there, you daft bugger?’

  ‘Yeah, well. Gotta earn my keep. So what happens about Harrison? I suppose it’s hands off, for now.’

  ‘I expect so. We don’t want to go in half-cocked. But they’ll be ferreting out every scrap of info there is to find about him, so if there are any dark family secrets, I imagine they will be dragged kicking and screaming into the bright light of day.’ He slapped Daniel on the shoulder. ‘Well, I’m off to work in a minute. You happy looking after things? We’ll try and send a car out this way occasionally to put the wind up anyone who might be hanging around.’

  ‘Yeah. No probs. I imagine they’ll lie low and lick their wounds for a day or two, don’t you? Er … can you look up a numberplate for me?’

  ‘Let me guess … Chris Haynes?’

  ‘I wrote it down, just in case,’ Daniel said, handing a piece of paper over and smiling sweetly. ‘Wouldn’t hurt to know a little more about the lady, would it?’

  The day of Hana’s funeral dawned overcast and humid. Worried that Tamiko might be a target on a day when her movements would be predictable, a police car was sent to escort the black Daimler that picked up the funeral party, consisting of Tamiko, Jo-Ji, Daniel and Jahan.

  Although it was doubtful whether the boy understood the meaning of the occasion, he seemed to assimilate the mood of those around him and remained solemnly quiet throughout the service at the crematorium, his hand in Tamiko’s.

  There was a pitiful turnout for the ceremony. From what Tamiko had said, Hana had had little time to make friends when she had shared lodgings with her sister, before Samir came along, and once he was on the scene, he guarded her jealously from any other influence. She had spoken of a friend in Manchester, with whom she’d stayed after leaving Jafari, but they had found no contact number for her amongst Hana’s things and so had no way of letting her know about the funeral.

  Samir Jafari was present at the service, but Jo-Ji made sure he was seated on the other side of the aisle, and aside from looking across at his son at frequent intervals, he behaved himself. This in itself wasn’t surprising, when the major part of the small congregation were either police officers or social workers.

  Daniel noticed that on the occasions when Jahan saw his father looking, he shrank back and must have gripped Tamiko’s hand more strongly, for she looked down at him and smiled reassurance.

  Following the service and the cremation, Tamiko, Jo-Ji, Daniel and Jahan went to a nearby pub, accompanied by two of Jo-Ji’s colleagues, where they had sandwiches and coffee in the lounge bar. Tamiko and Hana’s parents had been unable to make the journey from Japan, but arrangements were in place for their daughter’s ashes to be flown back to her childhood home.

  ‘It is sad that she was so much hoping when she arrive but she was never really happy here,’ Tamiko had said with tears in her eyes, when the decision was made. ‘I must take Jahan to visit when he’s old enough t
o understand. That’s if …’ She didn’t finish the sentence, but the worry was there in her eyes.

  ‘We won’t let him take Jahan,’ Jo-Ji had told her.

  Now as they watched the boy making friends with the pub’s cat, Tamiko said, ‘Did you see Samir watching him in there? Jahan was terrified.’

  ‘I did, and I’m pretty sure the social worker noticed it, too,’ Daniel said.

  ‘Do you suppose …?’ Tamiko hesitated. ‘I’m thinking about it a lot, and I know it is not what we can afford, but would they let Jahan stay with us?’

  ‘You mean, permanently? Adopt him?’ Jo-Ji said.

  ‘I’m sorry. Now is not the time to say this,’ Tamiko said, glancing towards the two police officers who were sitting a little apart. ‘I should not put you on the dot.’

  ‘The spot,’ Jo-Ji amended, mechanically. ‘You haven’t. I’ve been thinking about it, too. He’s a sweet kid, but it would be a huge commitment. We’d need to think about it very carefully.’

  After the emotional strain of the funeral, the next few days were mercifully uneventful. Tamiko wasn’t riding at any shows that weekend but she and Daniel exercised the horses when Jo-Ji was there to look after Jahan. They kept to the fields as much as possible, away from the roads where dangerous chaos could be provoked by a vehicle driven with intent, but Daniel kept a sharp lookout and saw nothing untoward. It seemed that for the time being, at least, the enemy were indeed keeping a low profile.

  The worrying thing was, as Jo-Ji confided in Daniel over a beer on the Saturday evening, if the motive was revenge, then it wasn’t just going to go away. If they failed to discover the who and the why of the attacks, then the threat would remain, and sooner or later, when Jo-Ji and Daniel relaxed their guard or grew careless, the aggressor would succeed.

  ‘We won’t let that happen, mate,’ Daniel told him. ‘We’ll keep pushing and prying by fair means or foul until we find a sore spot, and then we’ll poke it with a sharp stick until the bastards are forced to show their hand. Then we’ll have ’em. It’s only a matter of time, don’t you worry.’