The Deadline Series Boxset

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘Natalie and her damned diaries.’ Seaton fell into a chair, shared a glance between them, then shook his head and dropped it into his hands. Alexi sensed he was about to tell them the truth, or his version of it. She remained silent, allowing the absolute quiet in the room to work in their favour. ‘Natalie, in spite of all we tried to do for her, had a genetic fault that meant she would never stay on the straight and narrow. It wasn’t really her fault.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Alexi’s jaw dropped open.

  ‘I warned Fay. I warned her.’ He thumped his thigh with his clenched fist. ‘You just don’t know what you’re getting when you adopt a child. You don’t get told anything about the biological parents’ backgrounds. They could be criminals, drug addicts, small time losers…the list is endless. But Fay stood her ground. She wanted a baby and wouldn’t stop going on about it until I relented. Much good it did her. Bad genes will out, no matter how hard you try to instil your own standards and values into the child. Whatever happened to Natalie is down to genetics. How she can now cry rape is beyond me, especially given her chosen profession.’

  ‘You have got to be fucking kidding me,’ Tyler muttered.

  Alexi was equally disgusted by his pathetic attempts to justify the unjustifiable. Even so, she wanted to punch the air in jubilation. By admitting he knew what his daughter had become, he had also admitted to having had contact with her since she became an escort.

  ‘She was a whore at fourteen?’ she asked scathingly.

  ‘She’d been looking at me in a certain way for months,’ Seaton answered defensively. ‘Flaunting herself in a bikini. Look at me, Daddy as she dived off the highest board and climbed out the pool, swinging her hips, knowing damned well what she was doing to me. I only gave her what she wanted.’

  ‘Which will see you do jail time,’ Tyler snarled. ‘She was underage.’

  ‘She was looking at you, her daddy, for approval, not sex,’ Alexi snapped. ‘She trusted you. Probably couldn’t believe what a hip dad she had.’ She shook her head, feeling sick. Repulsed.

  ‘I don’t know how it all got so out of hand.’ He looked up at them, as though expecting their understanding, sympathy even. Dream on! ‘It’s not as though I planned it. Something inside of me just snapped. Relentless pressure of work made me act out of character. I guess I never was cut out to be a father. Didn’t know how to go about it. My own wasn’t much of an example to follow so I had to make it up as I went along. Kids don’t exactly come with an instruction manual, you know.’ He glared at them, a touch of his defiance in his eyes. ‘But you have to believe I didn’t mean to do what I did, and it never would have happened again.’

  ‘Even though you told her she was yours whenever you wanted her?’ Alexi asked.

  Seaton’s head shot up. ‘Those words never passed my lips. I swear it.’

  ‘And we should believe you because…’ But oddly, Alexi did believe him, even as she voiced the question. It was impossible, in her experience, to fake such genuine surprise.

  ‘When she came back, I tried to tell her just how sorry I was, that I would make it up to her, even if I knew that was impossible. I’d stolen her innocence, lost her respect, and things could never be the way they once were. But at least I could make her see she had nothing more to fear from me. Or so I thought.’ The brief defiance evaporated and he looked like a broken man. ‘I knew when she went the second time that I’d failed to convince her and that she wouldn’t ever come back.’

  ‘Why did you go to Lambourn?’ Tyler asked in an abrupt change of subject.

  ‘Lambourn?’ He appeared confused. A ruse? ‘Why would I go there?’

  ‘To see your daughter. Reason with her. To persuade her to let up on the blackmail.’

  ‘Is that where she lived?’

  ‘Like you didn’t know,’ Alexi said scathingly.

  ‘I didn’t. I’ve never been there. I’ve seen Natalie a few times, to hand over the money she demanded, but always in London, in public locations of her choosing.’

  ‘How many times and how much did you pay her?’

  ‘Three times. Ten grand each time.’

  Tyler let out a low whistle. ‘More than motive enough,’ he said softly.

  ‘How did she make contact with you?’

  ‘The first time she was waiting for me when I left my office in London. I didn’t recognise her at first. Well, it’s been nearly thirty years. We went to a bar and I could feel all the pent up anger radiating off her.’

  ‘I just bet you could,’ Alexi muttered.

  Tyler touched her hand to stop her from interrupting.

  ‘I tried to tell her again how sorry I was for…well, for what had happened. I told her a day hadn’t gone by since when I hadn’t regretted what I did. She didn’t want to know and laughed herself silly when I suggested she come back home. That her mother would have adored seeing her. Instead, she told me what she wanted.’ He sighed. ‘She said she wanted a hundred grand. I said I couldn’t get my hands on that sort of money. We settled on an initial payment of ten, but I knew she’d be back for more.’

  ‘And you couldn’t let her bleed you dry.’

  ‘Actually, I felt kind of relieved in some respects.’

  ‘To be blackmailed?’ Alexi asked, frowning.

  ‘To make amends in some small way. Not that I ever could, of course. I don’t expect you to believe this, but I’d never forced myself on a female before, and haven’t since. Nor have I ever been with one who was under age. It was just…I don’t know, the result of a number of things. Anyway, I’m not proud of what I did.’ He dropped his head and rubbed his forehead with his thumbs, leaving white indentations in the tanned skin. ‘If I could turn back the clock…’

  ‘But you couldn’t,’ Tyler pointed out. ‘Natalie started taunting you, didn’t she, even though you’d paid up? Extracting money from you was only part of her revenge. She wanted to spoil your peace of mind too. Keep you on the back foot by leaving you wondering what she intended to do next. She threatened to phone here and tell Fay what’s you’d done. You couldn’t take the risk. Natalie was the only aspect of your comfortable married life over which you couldn’t control your wife’s reaction. It all got too much, so off to Lambourn you went to put an end to it all.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Cameras don’t lie.’

  Seaton slowly shook his head, clearly not about to fall for the camera ruse. Because he hadn’t been to Lambourn or because he didn’t think he’d been caught on CCTV?

  ‘I think you’d better go now,’ he said. ‘I’ve said all I have to say. I did pay Natalie to keep her mouth shut, but if she’s dead, it’s nothing to do with me. And don’t try coming back with the police and shout rape because I shall deny this conversation ever took place.’

  ‘Deny all you like,’ Tyler replied, indicating to Alexi that it was time to go. ‘Bank records don’t lie any more than cameras do. Enjoy the rest of your day,’ he added with fake sincerity as they made their way to the door.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘Tyler, I don’t believe he fell for that!’ Alexi cried, bouncing up and down in her seat as they drove off. ‘You were brilliant, making him admit to what he did. What made you say we knew what she had on him?’

  ‘Well, I figured there had to be some sort of incontrovertible proof that he did rape her. Otherwise, why pay?’

  ‘We didn’t know for sure that he had.’

  Tyler grinned mirthlessly. ‘We do now. I risked pushing it because he didn’t throw us out the house the moment I raised the subject of rape. An innocent man would have been straight on the phone to his solicitor.’

  ‘Very clever, but what if he’d just denied it, or asked us what the proof was?’

  He paused at a T-junction. ‘I assumed it has to be something super-personal, and embarrassing. I don’t know, a birth mark in an intimate place, a crooked prick. Some habit he indulges in while having sex that no one other than his wife would know about—’

  �
��Something he wouldn’t admit to in front of strangers?’

  ‘Right.’ Tyler nodded, his expression grim. ‘We caught him off guard and the bluff worked, especially when I brought murder into the equation. But he’ll be better prepared now. People like him don’t go down without putting up one hell of a fight. He’ll have explanations for the withdrawals from his account if the police get around to questioning him about them.’

  ‘But if he paid her by cheque—’

  ‘I doubt he’s that stupid. It would have been cash.’

  ‘Ah.’ Alexi was momentarily quiet. ‘Do you think he did kill her?’

  ‘He certainly had motive. But, if he told the truth about how often he saw Natalie and how much he paid her, and I think he did, then he wasn’t the only person paying her to keep quiet.’

  ‘Yes,’ Alexi replied. ‘The same thought had occurred to me. There are more large payments in her account, more recent too, than the ones Seaton made. But we do know he’s the only person to have raped her. He took her virginity and robbed her of her dreams, leading her to becoming an escort instead of a horse doctor. If Natalie had all that bottled up anger, I’m betting it was directed towards the man who set her on the road to ruin. I know mine would be.’

  ‘Well, let’s see if my dig about surveillance cameras gets us any closer to finding out.’

  ‘He’s not stupid, Ty. If he did kill her and dumped her body anywhere near Lambourn, he won’t go near the place again.’

  ‘No.’ Tyler’s smile was tight. ‘But if he thinks there’s anything in writing about what he did to her he might try to recover it, just to cover his back. If the police find her papers first, they’ll be all over him. He knows that, especially since he’ll assume we’ll tell them about the conversation we just had. But, if we do go to the police with what we know, it means Mrs Seaton will learn how her daughter’s been making her living all these years.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Precisely. If she is still alive, I don’t want to do that to Natalie, or her mum.’

  ‘I agree, but it means that slick pervert continues to get away with it,’ Alexi protested indignantly. ‘And, to start with, he had me fooled.’

  ‘I noticed.’

  ‘Well, he was convincing.’

  ‘Even if he didn’t kill her, he knows we know about the blackmail and he thinks something exists in writing to incriminate him. That’ll be enough to spoil his beauty sleep.’

  Alexi screwed up her features. ‘I really want to be there when they slap the cuffs on him.’

  ‘I’ll book you a front row seat. You’ve earned it.’

  ‘He’s a womaniser, all right. The way he looked at me, undressing me with his eyes.’

  ‘I wanted to push his teeth down his throat for that. I couldn’t, so I hit him with words instead.’ He winked at her. ‘Trust me, that sort of pain will last a lot longer than a busted lip.’

  ‘So, what do we do now?’

  ‘We go back to Lambourn, I’ll buy you dinner and we have another think about where Natalie might have hidden her papers. We now know that something definitely exists and it must be somewhere in that cottage of hers. We just didn’t search thoroughly enough.’

  ***

  Tyler’s phone rang just as he pulled off the motorway. Cassie calling him. Again. He’d already missed two calls from her while they’d been talking to Seaton. They hadn’t ended their conversation the previous evening on the best of terms and Tyler was still annoyed with her for being so petulant, so overprotective. Still, he’d deal with all that shit later. Now wasn’t really a good time to pick up. Not when he had Alexi sitting right next to him and Tyler would have to use the hands-free facility because he was driving. There was no telling what Cassie might say and Alexi would hear every word. Still, she might have something for him relating to Natalie so he took the call.

  ‘Hey, Cas. What’s up?’

  ‘Where are you? I’ve got some information on Natalie’s phone records but, more to the point, there’s some important stuff in the office on your paying investigations you need to see.’ She placed heavy emphasis on the word paying.

  ‘I’m ten minutes away. I’ll stop by.’

  ‘See you shortly.’

  Tyler disconnected. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’ he asked Alexi.

  ‘I don’t mind, but I don’t think your partner will be too happy to see me.’

  Tyler executed a one-shouldered shrug. ‘She’ll get over it.’

  ‘I’ll wait in the car.’

  ‘Not a chance.’ Tyler firmed his jaw. ‘We’re in this thing together. Besides,’ he added flippantly, ‘I’m not ashamed to be seen with you.’

  ‘Good to know.’

  He drove to his office, situated in a converted flat above a tobacconist’s establishment on the outskirts of Newbury. Everyone has to start somewhere. Since they almost always went to their clients, the humble nature of the premises didn’t seem important. And at least the rent was cheap and it was always possible to park. Well, nearly always.

  ‘Be it ever so humble,’ he said, sliding his arm along the back of Alexi’s seat as he reversed his car into the only available space. ‘Come on, let’s face the inquisition.’

  ‘You are such a wuss, Maddox.’

  He chuckled. ‘Not a wuss precisely. More a pacifist.’

  Tyler opened the outside door with a key and led Alexi up a narrow staircase. Cassie was on the phone when he ushered her into their two-roomed office suite. She smiled when she saw Tyler. Then her eyes fell upon Alexi and that smile didn’t stand the test of time. She finished her call and stood up. Tyler made the introduction and sensed the two women sizing one another up as they shook hands.

  ‘I didn’t realise you had company, Ty,’ Cassie said, making it sound like an accusation.

  He told Cassie where they’d been and what they’d discovered.

  ‘You think the father killed her to stop the blackmail?’

  ‘We think someone did,’ Alexi replied. ‘We don’t think her father was the only one she was blackmailing but don’t know who the other person was yet.’

  ‘But not anyone connected to your sister’s agency,’ Cassie said pointedly to Tyler.

  ‘What do you have on Natalie’s phone records?’ Tyler asked, avoiding a direct response.

  Cassie handed over a sheaf of papers. ‘I haven’t had a chance to check them all out, but two numbers that she called regularly stand out. One is to a floral supplier. Another is a local trainer, Graham Fuller.’

  Fuller again, Tyler thought, recalling the incident in the cloakroom the previous night.

  ‘Fuller.’ Alexi’s head jerked up. ‘A lot of the people working for him live in Cheryl’s annexe.’

  ‘It might be worth having a word with them when we get back to Lambourn,’ Tyler said. ‘If she was interested in buying a share in one of his racehorses they’ll know about it, and it will explain the calls.’

  ‘You’re going back?’ Cassie asked. ‘Is that really necessary? All the stuff you were waiting for on the credit fraud case has come in.’ She indicated a pile of paper on Tyler’s desk. ‘The client’s been on the phone several times. He wants to meet with you tomorrow.’

  Tyler knew she had a point. Still, Lambourn and Newbury weren’t far apart. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow to take care of it,’ he said, scooping up the papers. ‘I’ll take a look at them tonight and call him.’

  Cassie pursed her lips. ‘Fine,’ she said shortly, returning to her desk and immersing herself in whatever was on her computer screen.

  ‘Nice meeting you,’ Alexi said as she walked through the door Tyler held open for her.

  Cassie mumbled something unintelligible in response.

  ‘That went well,’ Alexi said with a wry smile as she slid back into Tyler’s car.

  ‘Sorry she was so rude. There was no call for that.’

  ‘She’s under pressure. I recognise the signs.’

  ‘Sometimes Cassie makes her own pressure. We’re bus
y, but not that busy.’

  ‘She likes to control things,’ Alexi replied. ‘Especially you.’

  ‘She’s certainly welcome to try.’

  They remained silent for the short drive back to Lambourn. When they got close, Tyler pulled his car into a space outside the George.

  ‘This place was built in the eighteenth century, apparently,’ he said, cutting the engine. ‘It’s the oldest licensed pub in Lambourn.’

  Alexi smiled. ‘You sound like a tour guide.’

  ‘I am such good value.’

  She laughed. ‘Keep thinking that way, Maddox.’

  ‘You ever been here?’ He clutched both hands over his heart. ‘They do real ale from Arkell’s Brewery.’

  ‘O…kay, just so long as you don’t expect me to drink any.’

  ‘Leave that to the experts,’ he replied, chuckling as he opened the door to the bar and she preceded him through it.

  A short time later Tyler had a pint of the desired ale; Alexi a large glass of wine.

  ‘So,’ he said, once they’d ordered their food. ‘Your thoughts on what we discovered today.’

  ‘I think we need to go back to that cottage, tear it apart and find Natalie’s private papers,’ Alexi replied, toying with the stem of her wine glass. ‘The longer she remains missing, the more convinced I become that she’s dead. The police could pile in at any time and if we don’t find her documents, they sure as hell will.’

  ‘The police won’t take too much interest unless there’s a body.’

  ‘So you keep reminding me,’ Alexi said, shuddering.

  ‘Got to hand it to the girl, she was clever. We know Seaton paid her three lots of ten grand but she didn’t bank all of it.’

  ‘Different amounts each time to avoid raising suspicion, and keeping it below the level that would have the bank’s regulators asking questions about its origins.’

  Tyler took a swig of beer and wiped the foam from his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘I can see why the police wouldn’t take our concerns seriously without anything to back them up. Now, if we find her papers, it would be a whole new ball game. We’ll have to hand them over, of course.’