‘Chris…’ she began slowly, ‘I know I have no right to ask you, but do you think you could find out more?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘About the houses. What’s happening to them after they’re bought at auction, are they sold straight on, developed first or rented out? Who officially owns them?’
‘I can do better than that,’ Chris replied. ‘One of them happens to be on the same street as the house your sister is buying from me. There’s a board up already. All you have to do is call up Little Castles, the estate agents, and pretend you want to buy it. You’ll soon find out who the vendor is.’
‘That’s not a bad idea.’ Graham would know her, of course, if it had anything to do with him, but he wouldn’t know Gina. And if it turned out to be Mitchell himself then Gina had a perfectly valid excuse for looking at the house; although the idea of Mitchell being knowingly involved wasn’t a happy thought. He had once offered to find Gina a house, but he certainly hadn’t told her that he already owned some. If her theory was right–and it was an iceberg of an assumption–and Graham was fiddling the books to buy his own houses to sell on, it was a dangerous game to play by anyone’s standards, even for the man she had never formally met but trusted less and less by the day.
Swiftly, Hannah pieced together the beginnings of a plan. She couldn’t tell Mitchell any of what she had learned until she could be sure of the facts. If it turned out that Graham was acting alone, then she still didn’t know enough about his intentions, and Mitchell trusted him too much to believe it without hard evidence. First, she’d subtly check with Mitchell that he hadn’t actually decide to move into the housing market, and then, if the answer was what she suspected it would be, she’d get Gina to go and pretend she wanted to buy the house.
‘Why do you need to know?’ Chris asked, breaking into her thoughts.
‘Something doesn’t sit right with me, that’s all. I can’t tell you what it is because I might be wrong.’
‘I think you probably should. This is my livelihood at stake and I’d appreciate the heads-up.’
‘I don’t want to get someone in trouble if what I think doesn’t turn out to be true, though.’
‘You have suspicions about Graham Bent?’
‘Is that his name?’ Hannah asked, almost snorting at its aptness.
‘Yeah,’ Chris laughed, in spite of the tone of the conversation. ‘Imagine if he got control of half the company, they’d have to be called Bond and Bent Construction. Would you ask them to build a property for you?’
‘Probably not,’ Hannah smiled.
‘So, am I right?’ Chris insisted.
‘I can’t say. I’m sorry.’
‘If I discover anything more, will you tell me then? After all, I’d probably have worked it out for myself anyway.’
‘Of course. It’s the least I can do.’
The warm air of the coffee shop was sweet with nutmeg and cinnamon and freshly ground coffee. Hannah kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs beneath her as she settled into the vast leather armchair across from Gina’s. She cupped her mug in her hands as Gina shrugged off her jacket and flicked a business card onto the table between them. Hannah reached for it.
Nigel Santiago, estate agent
Little Castles
‘Nice work.’
‘I thought so. I told him I loved the house, and I felt rather sorry for him. He almost did a victory dance. We’re going to really screw up his targets this month.’
Hannah shrugged as she put the card back onto the table.
‘I’ve got another appointment tomorrow at the estate agent’s office. I said I wanted more information. He probably wants to show me a ton more houses or make sure he pins me down to that one,’ Gina continued.
‘Don’t forget this is only a front,’ Hannah frowned. ‘We told Chris you were buying that house and you absolutely can’t back out now; he’d hate us forever.’
‘It wouldn’t hurt to look at a few more though, would it?’
‘Why?’
‘I like looking around other people’s houses.’
‘Hmmmm… So did you get any actual gen on our house – the one we’re supposed to be checking out?’
‘Of course!’ Gina replied, looking slightly offended. ‘Honestly, what do you take me for?’
‘And?’
‘The vendor is one Mr G. Bent.’
Hannah’s face split into a huge grin. Not that Mitchell being ripped off was anything to smile about, but it was beginning to look like her hunch was right. ‘I can’t believe you got that so quickly.’
‘I can be persuasive when I want to; don’t forget I work in sales myself. But you still have to prove that he used Mitchell’s money to buy the house in the first place. You’re only guessing by what Chris has told you.’
‘That bit can wait. We just need to find out how many of these houses he’s bought at auction and then tell Mitchell everything. It’s up to him then to talk to Graham and get to the bottom of it.’
‘Do you still think the ice queen is in on it too?’
‘I’m certain that’s why they’ve been trying to manipulate Mitchell. It must have been a dream come true when he lost his memory. I think that’s why she didn’t want him to leave her too: while he was still living with her in Chapeldown she could keep an eye on him and keep him away from the office by filling his head full of shit. She’s a GP and he’d trust her to give him good advice. It must have screwed things right up when he got his memory back.’
‘You still don’t know they are having an affair,’ Gina reminded her as she took a sip of her divine smelling pumpkin spiced latte. ‘I agree with your hunches but you’re putting a lot of faith in them and we could be completely wrong.’
‘I think we could remedy that. Are you up for a little private detective work?’
‘Are you kidding? When have I not been up for anything?’
‘I want to try and catch them in the act.’
‘That’s a tall order. Are you going to shove a ladder up to the bedroom window and try to film them shagging?’
‘Not quite that, but I am going to go and watch her house, see if I can get some photos.’
‘Ooooh, it sounds like a cheesy seventies cop drama – I like it. But I should go. Martine knows you too well and if she catches you she’s likely to turn nasty, GP or not.’
‘She knows you too.’
‘She’s only seen me for a minute or two in a dark room when we went to the salsa night. She won’t remember me.’
‘I don’t know…’
‘It’ll be fine. I’ll blend into the background like some human spy/chameleon weird creature thing.’
Hannah laughed as she set her cup down. ‘I’d like to see you blend into any background, but perhaps it is a better idea.’
‘We could go tonight. Why don’t we take Trixie, walk her around Chapeldown and keep swinging past Martine’s house?’
‘What about the long range camera lens and the dirty mac?’ Hannah asked. ‘Don’t you need a battered old Ford Cortina too, full of chip wrappers?’
‘Very funny. We’ll have to make do with my iPhone and clean black quilted jacket. Maybe Ross will come too, it would do him good to get out for a walk.’
‘Really? Do you think Ross would approve of all this?’
‘I think he’d be on the side of what’s right.’
‘That’s a bit of a grey area at the moment… Besides, it would mean whipping him out from under Briony’s over-protective nose.’
Gina let out a frustrated sigh. ‘Sunday. D-Day. It can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned; then again, I don’t want it to come at all. I wish it was all just out in the open and less complicated than it is now. It would be lovely to do a simple thing like go to the pub and hold hands over a pint without opening a whole can of nasty worms.’
‘I know. I feel for you. Stick it out, though. You can tell his parents on Sunday.’
‘They’re not going to l
ike it.’
‘They might surprise you. They might not feel it’s the best match at first, but they want what makes Ross happy, and if that’s you then I’m sure they’ll get used to the idea.’
‘Do you really think that?’
‘Yes,’ Hannah lied.
Gina was silent for a moment. ‘Okay,’ she finally decided.
‘So how are we going to catch Martine and Graham out? They’re hardly going to shag on the lawn for us, are they?’
Gina sipped her latte as she stared into space. ‘Maybe they don’t need to,’ she began slowly. ‘Maybe we can find a way to get them to come out of the house in flagrante, as it were.’
Hannah raised her eyebrows. ‘Go on then, Columbo. How?’
‘Shhhh, I’m thinking about that bit.’
‘Could you think a bit faster? The suspense is killing me.’
A slow smile spread over Gina’s face. ‘I think I’ve got it.’
Normal people didn’t do things like this. Why had Hannah let Gina persuade her that this was a sensible idea? Not to mention that now the sun had gone down, the car was absolutely freezing.
‘God, this is a boring place,’ Gina said. ‘Village of the well-heeled damned. Nobody is out doing anything remotely antisocial or unrespectable. It’s all good evenings and smug smiles.’
‘So you don’t fancy living here?’ Hannah grinned.
‘What do you think?’
‘And he hasn’t been anywhere near yet,’ Hannah said, diverting the subject back to what they had come to do. ‘I don’t think he’s coming tonight.’
‘Give him a bit more time, it’s early yet.’
‘I’m freezing.’
‘You want to catch them, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but –’
‘And it was your idea to do a little snooping.’
‘I know but –’
‘Stop moaning then.’
‘All I’m saying is can’t I run the engine and have the heaters on?’
‘Draw more attention to your car?’
‘My car isn’t that bad.’
‘Hannah, your car can be seen from space and that’s not due to its size.’
‘Rude!’ She let out a sigh.
‘Shhhh!’ Gina hissed. ‘I think someone’s coming.’
Hannah watched, subconsciously sliding down the seat to make herself as invisible as possible, as a car pulled into Martine’s drive. Moments later, Graham emerged from the driver’s side of his black BMW and strode up to the house. He pulled a key from his pocket and let himself in. So, Mr Bent… Hannah thought… pretty cosy for a casual visitor. None of my friends or acquaintances have their own front door key to my house. But she still didn’t know exactly what it signified.
The front door slammed behind him.
‘That’s him?’ Gina asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t go there but there’s no accounting for taste.’
‘Believe me, I think they’re probably well suited.’
‘So, what do you wanna do?’
‘We might as well go with the original plan now he’s here. She’s definitely in there because we saw the lights on earlier. It’d be daft not to bother…’ Hannah tried to ignore the vague sense of misgiving that was fluttering around in her stomach.
‘Right. So we wait?’
‘We wait. I’ve no idea how long for. I hadn’t really thought about that bit.’
‘I’m not sure we’ve really thought about any of it,’ Gina retorted. ‘But when did that ever stop us making tits of ourselves?’
‘I suppose it is kind of funny.’ Hannah smiled. ‘Also extremely stupid. You know what, though, I could murder a bag of chips right now.’
‘What about the stake out?’ Gina asked.
‘Hold on there, Cagney, I think you’re getting a bit carried away with all this. Let’s just pull my cheese on wheels up somewhere out of sight of the Hubble telescope and eat our box of police issue donuts while they get warmed up in the house.’
Gina laughed. ‘No, we can’t. What if either of them leaves and we miss it?’
‘Ugh,’ Hannah said, patting herself around the arms to try and get warm, ‘next time I suggest something this daft, please slap me.’
‘That’s a very tempting offer. Can I slap you retrospectively now?’
‘Shut up!’ Hannah tried to frown but it turned into a grin. She looked back at the house. An amber glow was coming from the downstairs windows, but the upper floors were in darkness. Not that it meant anything for sure – there were no accepted rules about where intimacy took place and it might be that they had decided to get down and dirty on the sofa as soon as he’d walked in. But then she saw a shadow at the blinds and, sliding down the seat, ducked out of sight. As she peered over the edge of the car window again, she saw them closed, the light immediately muted to glimmering pencil stripes. She couldn’t be sure, but it was as good idea as any to give them a bit of time. She turned to Gina. ‘Do you think we can at least get that flask of hot chocolate out now, as you’ve insisted I wait until I’m almost frozen to death?’
An hour had passed and the windows of the car dripped with condensation from their breath and the steam from the hot chocolate. Hannah was warmed enough to feel human again. It was almost March, but winter still clung on so that it felt as cold as it had been in January. At least, it did when you’d spent an hour in a cold, damp car.
‘I feel like a new woman.’ Gina smacked her lips as she handed her empty cup to Hannah, who stuffed it with kitchen roll and wrapped it in a spare plastic bag until she could wash it at home.
Hannah blew out a long breath. ‘Do you think we’ve given them enough time to get jiggy? Time to move on to phase two now?’
Gina shot her a look. ‘You know we don’t have to do this? We could go home now. You’d be lovely and warm and I’ll buy you chips on the way.’
‘But we wouldn’t know the truth.’
‘We know the truth. But Mitchell doesn’t. He’ll only have your word for it.’
Hannah chewed on her lip as she gazed into the blackness beyond the windscreen. ‘That should be enough, though, shouldn’t it? So why do I feel the need to go to all this trouble to prove it to him? I should tell him and that should be enough.’
‘Because of your guilt complex.’
‘My what now?’
‘You feel you have something you’re not entitled to – happiness with Mitchell. So you need to justify it somehow, by proving what an undeserving woman Martine is. Which is not really how you are because you would never do that deliberately, even though you’d want to. But you have to in order to make yourself okay with Mitchell.’ Gina gave her a bright smile. ‘It’s quite simple.’
Hannah cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘I know you had words coming out of your mouth just now but how they were supposed to fit together is anyone’s guess.’
‘Of course, you’re far too close to the situation to see it objectively.’
‘I’ll take your word for that…’ Hannah shook herself. ‘So, are we going out there or not?’
‘Yes.’ Gina shoved the passenger door open. ‘Not that we have a hope in hell of succeeding, but let’s do it.’
Together they made their way to Martine’s house, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. As previously agreed, Hannah positioned herself behind a sprawling rhododendron bush at the outskirts of Martine’s driveway and got her phone camera ready. She was hidden but could clearly see the front door. With a bit of luck, Gina would raise the alarm as they had planned, Martine or Graham (ideally both) would come dashing out in a state that would incriminate them, and in the chaos, Hannah would snap a quick photo and leg it with the evidence. They’d recognise her, of course, but if she got away fast enough she’d be able to show it to Mitchell before the consequences of her spying could catch up with her and the deed would be done.
With a brief and silent nod, Gina strode up the pathway to Martine’s front door and swung in
to action. She hammered at Martine’s door and started yelling, ‘HEY, HEY! YOU INSIDE…GET OUT, QUICK!’
A strange, echoing silence followed, all the more eerie for the ripple it seemed to leave in the fabric of the night air. Gina thumped on the door again.
‘FIRE! YOUR PLACE IS ON FIRE!’
This time, after another brief pause, the front door opened and an enraged Martine shouted back.
‘What the bloody hell do you think you’re playing at?’
‘Are you deaf?’ Gina cried. ‘I’m telling you that your place is on fire and you’re standing here demanding a written report or something!’
‘I don’t smell smoke,’ Martine returned haughtily. ‘I’m quite sure that if my house was on fire I’d know about it. Now go away!’
Most people would have given up at this point, but Gina had developed the sort of blind determination to succeed that athletes often cited for their gold medals. ‘There are flames!’ she insisted. ‘Coming from the roof! If you don’t believe me come out and see!’
She’ll bloody well set the place on fire herself in a minute if Martine doesn’t come out, Hannah thought.
‘No!’ Martine replied, not a bit rattled. ‘If you don’t get off my property right now I will call the police.’
‘But your house is on fire!’ Gina shouted.
Martine shouted back down her hallway. ‘Graham! Call the police!’
Once Upon a Winter: A totally perfect festive romantic comedy Page 29
