Daughter of Riches

by Janet Tanner

  ‘Scotch?’

  ‘Anything. I’ll have it neat. No! – I suppose I’d better not. Put some water in it.’

  He handed her the glass and watched her gulp at it as if her life depended on it. Then he said: ‘Sit down, Juliet, and tell me all about it.’

  She refused the invitation to sit, crossing to the window then turning abruptly. ‘I went to see Raife Pearson.’

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘Went to see Raife Pearson. To ask him what he and Louis quarrelled about the night Louis died.’

  ‘Good lord!’ Dan was staggered. Even he, seasoned investigator, had hesitated to take such a rash step. Raife could be a dangerous man. Not that Dan was afraid of him, but he had felt too blunt a line of questioning could well be counter-productive. Up would go the defences, out would come the minders and a promising line of enquiry could be totally lost in the smokescreen Raife would throw up. And if Raife did have something to hide it could be more than that. Raife sailed very close to the wind. He stayed on the right side of the law – just. But he was the sort of man who could very easily step over the dividing line. And when he did anything could happen. Dan had wanted to have a good deal more to go on before he asked any questions of Raife Pearson. Now, it seemed, Juliet had beaten him to it – and judging by the look of her she had got some answers.

  ‘What did he say?’ he demanded.

  ‘Do you know a Senator Frank de Val? Well, he may not be a senator now, but he was then.’

  ‘De Val. Yes.’ Dan was suddenly doubly alert.

  ‘According to Raife Louis was blackmailing him. He wanted his assistance …’

  ‘To get the law on gambling changed,’ Dan finished for her. ‘Blackmail, eh! So that was it.’

  ‘You knew?’

  ‘Not about the blackmail, no. I knew de Val was agitating in the States for a change in the law on gambling.’ He did not add that the newspaper cuttings strewn over his desk right now were on that very subject. He’d picked it up going through back numbers of the Jersey Post and wondered if there could be a connection – Louis and Raife with their ambitions to open a casino, de Val speaking out against the strictness of the gaming laws. But this was better than he had dared hope.

  ‘What was he blackmailing de Val about?’

  ‘I don’t really know. Raife didn’t say, except that Senator de Val had been ‘‘a bit unwise” and Louis knew about it.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Dan laughed grimly. ‘I can guess what that means. Louis lived a pretty wild life – my guess is his path and de Val’s crossed at some time and he knew something de Val wanted kept quiet. It could be girlies, it could be drugs, probably a mixture of a lot of sordid revelations that would have seen de Val booted out of the States if ever they came to light. Well, well!’

  Juliet tossed back the last of the whisky and put the glass down.

  ‘It’s strange,’ she said, ‘all this time I’ve been asking questions I’ve been hoping I might uncover something like this and now it’s happened it’s – well, to be honest, it’s a bit of a shock! I mean, all of a sudden there’s someone with a real reason for wanting Louis dead.’

  Her face was flushed with eagerness. Dan felt something sharp and sweet twist within him.

  ‘Listen, Juliet,’ he said gently. ‘I can understand you being excited about this. But you must realise it may be nothing. It could be a red herring.’

  ‘Do you really think so? It sounds highly suspicious to me. What’s more, it could be the reason the shooting was never investigated properly. It’s been bothering me, the way everyone simply accepted Grandma’s confession without really questioning it at all. At first I thought someone had slipped up somewhere, or been very lazy. Now I’m beginning to think they didn’t want to investigate too deeply. It must have been bad enough, someone like Grandma shooting her son. Imagine if it had come out that a public figure was responsible! And it wouldn’t stop there. The reason for the blackmail would come out too.’

  ‘But just a minute – why, if this was the case, did your grandmother confess?’

  ‘I know it’s odd. I can only think she found him dead and went kind of crazy. Dan, you have to admit this is pretty startling stuff.’

  Dan pulled a wry face. ‘Dynamite.’

  ‘Exactly. That’s why I came straight on to see you. I didn’t know what else to do.’

  ‘You did the right thing.’

  ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘First I am going to get you another drink and one for myself. Then we’ll think.’

  He poured more drinks and handed one to her. She sat down at last, perching on the edge of the over-stuffed sofa, cradling her glass between her hands. She felt shaky now that she was allowing herself to relax, all the excitement and the stress and strain bubbling to the surface like the lava of an erupting volcano.

  ‘Raife said something very odd when I was leaving,’ she said reflectively. ‘He said I shouldn’t take everyone on trust. No, not quite that. What he actually said was ‘‘remember everyone might not be quite what they seem’’. What do you suppose he meant by that?’

  Dan’s eyes narrowed. For a moment he wondered if Raife knew about his alter ego and felt a flash of guilt that he had not told her about it himself. But he thought his secret was pretty well kept, there was no reason Raife should know, and as far as Juliet was concerned this did not seem the right moment to come clean. He’d managed to let her know in conversation that he was a writer – step one to the truth. But at the moment she seemed to be under the impression he wrote books about Jersey – he had his extensive knowledge of the island to thank for that, he supposed.

  ‘It sounds as if he was trying to warn you about somebody,’ he said thoughtfully.

  ‘I know. That’s what I thought. Who, though?’

  Again he thought: should he tell her? She’d have to know some time and he hated deceiving her. There was no reason for her to mind now, thinking as she did that she was on the point of proving a perfect stranger had been responsible for Louis’s death. But supposing she did mind? The whole thing could still come crashing down around his ears. And worse … he couldn’t stand the thought of the look that might come into her eyes. Coward! he thought, angry with himself. You want her to think well of you for just a little longer. Well, perhaps she need never know. Perhaps nothing would resolve itself and she would go back to Australia without ever discovering the truth about him.

  Back to Australia. Back to that damned fiancé of hers. Jealousy flooded through Dan, confused somehow with the pain of losing Marianne. It was so damned ironic, the first woman who had meant anything to him in three years and he was deceiving her. The first woman to touch his heart and she had a bloke waiting for her.

  What the hell is the matter with you? he wondered suddenly. Are you a man or a mouse? Fight for her, for Christ’s sake. If you want her, fight for her!

  He set down his glass, sat down on the sofa beside her and covered her hand with his. It was a small move, yet a very decisive one. She looked up at him questioningly and he held her glance, saying nothing, letting his look say it all, and after a moment he felt her hand move beneath his, turning over so that their fingers clasped. Slowly he drew her towards him, until their lips met, kissing her lightly at first and then more deeply, smelling the faint flowery scent of her perfume, feeling the firm yielding pressure of her breasts against him. God, how he wanted her, and the wanting was somehow like being born again, coming out of the darkness of the last years into sunlight and warmth. He put his hand on the nape of her neck, twisting his fingers in her hair, feeling the desire spiral within him, tenderness and passion all rolled into one. He would have made love to her there and then if he could but he knew it was too soon; the last thing he wanted to do was frighten her off again.

  He released her lips, looking down at her, still holding her hand, still caressing her neck.

  ‘You shouldn’t have gone to see Raife Pearson, you know.’

  ‘Why not?’ S
he seemed to come back from a long way off.

  ‘He’s a strange man. If he had something to hide … I don’t know. But I wouldn’t trust him any further than I could throw him. You shouldn’t get mixed up with people like that.’

  He was feeling very protective. God, if anything had happened to her, as it had happened to Marianne …

  ‘It was all right,’ she said. Her voice was soft, muzzy. ‘He was fine really.’

  ‘You were lucky.’ He paused, smiled ruefully. ‘Still, I’m glad you did. If you hadn’t you probably wouldn’t have come back to see me.’

  She did not reply and he said: ‘Let’s forget about Raife Pearson, Frank de Val and all. I still want to see you again. I hope you are not going to refuse me this time.’

  ‘No,’ she said softly, a little shakily. ‘I don’t think I am.’

  ‘Good. What about this evening?’

  ‘Not this evening. I’ll be expected in for dinner this evening.’

  ‘Tomorrow evening then? You can make your excuses by then, can’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I expect so.’

  ‘That’s not good enough. I want a firm promise.’

  ‘All right. I promise.’

  Even as she said it she was wondering: what am I doing? What about the promise I made to Sean? But somehow it did not seem important any more. Nothing mattered except seeing Dan again. Tomorrow evening could not come soon enough for her, Juliet thought.

  David was in a meeting when Deborah telephoned. At her insistence his secretary interrupted.

  ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ he asked anxiously when he came to the phone. ‘It’s not Mother, is it?’

  ‘No – no, nothing like that.’ But there was an edge to Deborah’s voice all the same. ‘ It’s just that I’m thinking of flying to London tomorrow. I’m about due for another lot of collagen injections – it’s a good six months since I had the last ones – but I wanted to check with you before I phone Harley Street to make the appointment, just to make sure you didn’t have anything planned.’

  ‘It’s fine as far as I am concerned, but won’t Juliet think it a bit strange, you taking off for London?’

  ‘I don’t see why. She goes out quite a bit and it isn’t as if she arrived only yesterday. Besides, I thought it was as good an opportunity as any for me to go while she is here. She can keep an eye on Sophia.’

  ‘Debs, I appreciate the way you look after Mother but I really don’t think there’s any need for you to play nursemaid to quite the extent you do.’

  ‘David, your mother has been through an awful lot in her life. I intend to make sure she has an easy passage from here on in.’

  ‘Well, you’ve certainly done your best in that direction,’ David said with feeling. ‘No one could have been sweeter than you have been to Mother. So if you feel happier going to London knowing Juliet will be on hand to keep her company then I’m not going to argue.’

  ‘Thanks, darling. You won’t be late home tonight?’

  ‘Certainly not, if you are going jetting off tomorrow.’

  Deborah blew a kiss down the phone, then held the receiver for a moment cradled against her chest. There was warmth within her, a warmth that was always there when she spoke to David, even at the end of a telephone line, and also a small hard edge of determination that had begun when Juliet had begun asking questions this morning about the Jersey Lily Nightclub.

  She loved them both so much, Sophia and David. Between them they had given her the chance to be what she was today. When anything happened to threaten either of them she reacted with the ferocity of a tiger with her cubs. Nothing must be allowed to hurt Sophia again. And nothing must be allowed to hurt David.

  Especially not David.

  But she did not know how to prevent it. There was only one person she could think of who could help her. Deborah put a call through to the airport and booked herself on an early flight to London. But she did not call her beautician in Harley Street.

  Chapter twenty-seven

  When she left Dan’s home it seemed to Juliet she was floating a foot above the pavement. How could she possibly feel like this? she wondered. She should be riddled with guilt at her betrayal of Sean and worried by the knowledge that without a doubt, before this was over, someone was going to get badly hurt. But she wasn’t worried and she did not feel guilty – well, perhaps just a little, but not enough to matter. Instead she was soaring, full of anticipation, happier than she could ever remember being in the whole of her life. Strangely not even the interview with Raife, which had seemed so momentous an hour or so ago, was important now. She had moved, for a while at least, into a whole new dimension and she and Dan might have been the only members of the human race.

  A car horn honked and Juliet swung round, startled. A Metro was pulling up on the other side of the road and to her surprise Juliet recognised Catherine behind the wheel. She waved and Catherine wound down the window.

  ‘Hello there! What are you doing in this part of town? Have you come over to see the Howard David Park? I wouldn’t stop there if I were you. Take your next left, keep straight on, and you’ll see the sign for the Belle Visage car park. There’s always plenty of room there.’

  ‘The Belle Visage?’ Juliet crossed the road to her. ‘That’s not one of our hotels is it?’

  Catherine laughed. ‘No, but who’s to know the difference? With over four hundred rooms in the hotel they can’t possibly know for sure if you’re staying there or not.’

  Juliet laughed too. ‘Aunt Catherine, you are wicked! I can just imagine how cross David would be if our car parking was abused that way.’

  ‘Well, if you’re squeamish about it, forget the Howard Davis Park for today and let’s go into town for a cup of tea.’

  Juliet had wanted nothing more than to be alone to explore her new found emotions but she did not have the heart to turn Catherine’s invitation down. She had become very fond of her great aunt.

  ‘That sounds a lovely idea. Where do you suggest?’

  ‘I know just the place. You’d never find it though unless you follow me and then you’d probably get lost in the traffic. Look, leave your car where it is after all, hop in mine, and I’ll bring you back for it later.’

  Juliet hesitated. Wouldn’t Dan think it odd if her car was still outside his house in half an hour’s time? But Catherine was opening the passenger door.

  ‘Jump in. Between us we’re blocking the road. And if I get booked for yet another traffic offence I expect I shall lose my licence.’

  Juliet smiled. ‘You are the limit!’

  Catherine smiled back and the wicked twinkle in her eyes was totally infectious.

  ‘Yes,’ she said mischievously. ‘ I know!’

  The Copper Kettle was an old-fashioned tea room with lace table cloths, potted parlour palms and a three-tier trolley laden with tiny delicious French pastries.

  ‘So, tell me how you are enjoying Jersey,’ Catherine said, pouring tea into the bone china cups. ‘I know your grandmother is delighted to have you. She feels she has missed out on so much where you are concerned and of course she is right.’ Her gaze was direct – and also shrewd. ‘There’s no chance, I suppose, that you might decide to stay on?’

  Juliet coloured slightly. It was almost, she thought, as if her aunt had been able to read the innermost hopes and dreams she had as yet scarcely acknowledged, even to herself.

  ‘It’s far too early to be thinking on those lines but Jersey does have its attractions,’ she admitted.

  ‘Ah!’

  Juliet laughed, a trifle embarrassed. ‘I expect you were wondering where I had been just now. Well, I have to admit it wasn’t the Howard Davis Park.’

  ‘No.’ Catherine’s mouth twisted with wry amusement. ‘ Somehow I didn’t think it was.’

  ‘I’ve met someone. You remember you told me when I first arrived about Grandma’s advocate, Dan Deffains? Well, this is his son. He’s a writer and he’s widowed …’ She broke off. Catherine’s face was
alight, a picture of pleasure and disbelief.

  ‘Dan Deffains! Really? Oh Juliet!’ It was Catherine who was blushing now, her small round face rosy beneath the mop of soft grey curls. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t be telling you this, but once upon a time Dan Deffains and I … well, we were rather fond of one another.’

  ‘Aunt Catherine! You dark horse! Come on, now, you must tell me about it!’

  ‘Oh Juliet, there’s really not much to tell. And I haven’t thought about it for years …’

  She broke off, remembering the attraction that had sparked between her and Sophia’s lawyer twenty years ago. She had come dashing home to Jersey when she had heard of her sister’s arrest and practically her first port of call had been to Dan’s office. Across the years she pictured him, a slimly-built man with gold-rimmed glasses perched on a hooked nose and hair that receded slightly above each temple. He had been slightly disconcerted that morning, not only because he was horrified at finding himself in the position of having to defend Sophia, whom he had known socially for many years, but also because Catherine had more or less forced her way past his secretary and caught him unawares. But that slightly ruffled air had not detracted from the impression of strength and competence and it had, in Catherine’s eyes, only made him more attractive.

  Catherine, to the surprise of all the family, had never married. She had had her boyfriends, of course, in her youth, one of them Jeff McCauley, whom she had met when he had come to Jersey for Nicky’s funeral. When she had gone to London she had looked him up as she had promised that day in the garden of La Maison Blanche and for a while they had seen a good deal of one another. But Jeff was too footloose to settle down and similarly none of the other young men she met ever seemed to be just right for her. Unwilling to settle for anything but the perfect relationship, always optimistic that her ‘Mr Right’ was just around the next corner, Catherine had pressed on with her career and her single life until one day she had woken up and realised it suited her very well and she was unlikely ever to want to give up her independence for anyone.