“It might be better if you rang her from the café,” Isobel said.
“Why? She might not be home at the time?”
“Yes, there’s that risk – but otherwise she’s likely to tell you to drop up to the flat.”
“You could tell her you’re under pressure,” said Patricia. “That you’re grabbing a quick coffee before a meeting.”
“I guess that’s plausible,” Peter said.
“Right,” Isobel said. “I’m going to ring another friend and see if she has Tracey’s number.”
Peter nodded. “OK, talk to you later.”
Isobel turned to Claire. “I get the feeling that your mum is very close to Thomas, so please don’t tell her anything about what we’re doing.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. She never could see what Thomas was really like and she would probably ring and warn him.”
“Exactly. Not a word to anyone until we find out what’s going on here.”
Claire nodded. “I’m going to stay in London until you know more. I’ll find a hotel.”
“I’ll ring you later about where you need to go to give the DNA sample,” Isobel said.
Claire nodded.
Isobel made some calls to get Tracey’s number then phoned and left a message. Tracey returned Isobel’s call within half an hour and they arranged to meet at a café near her house.
Chapter 18
It was five o’clock when Isobel barrelled into the café. Glancing quickly round she spotted Tracey’s blond hair immediately. Then Tracey was on her feet and walking forward with a warm and welcoming hug.
“It’s so good to see you, Isobel, after all this time. You look great. I know that you weren’t well, but you look fantastic.”
Isobel’s eyes welled up. “It’s good to see you too, Tracey. Thanks.”
She looked past Tracey to the man rising to his feet. Of the two Tracey had worn the best since Isobel had last seen them. Simon was about five feet ten with blue eyes which were still bright but his brown hair, while just as prolific, was now very grey.
“Hi, Simon.” Isobel gave him a hug too.
Tracey chattered on. “Great that you’re in London – a holiday, is it?”
“No, some consultancy work for a solicitor and, actually, I need your help, Simon.”
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
Tracey said, “Oh.” She looked at both of them. “If you need to talk shop why don’t I leave you to it and I’ll finish the shopping. Call me when you’ve everything sorted and we can all have dinner.”
Isobel felt emotional again. “Tracey, thank you. What I need to discuss with Simon is to help a little boy and his mum.”
Tracey smiled and, with another fierce hug for Isobel and a kiss for her husband, left.
Isobel and Simon ordered refreshments and then she told Simon her story from start to finish. He listened silently as she recounted everything, his face giving little away, until her story trickled to a close.
Simon took the lead. “So basically you want me to commit police resources to see if there’s a crime, Isobel. That’s not how things work. We can barely cope with the crimes we have, never mind spend money on imagined ones.”
“Simon, I know that, but a woman is going to lose her home and her child. If we do the DNA test we will know for definite if something dodgy is going on.”
“Maybe this sister made a mistake and there’s nothing going on – maybe what’s going on is exactly what they say, no big mystery, no big deal, just two people trying to sort out their fuck-up the best way they know how.”
Isobel could feel her temper rising. “At the very least this could be fraud. Or, maybe we have a serial abuser who has murdered his wife and to get away with it he’s having someone impersonate her so that he can claim all the assets. Then, his ‘wife’ will disappear or move or fall off the wagon and no one will ever know that the real Anne Banks was murdered!”
Simon looked at her askance. “That’s madness. Isobel, I can’t just get some samples tested because I feel like it. There are procedures.”
Isobel looked at him. “I know that I could research and find a lab that maybe on Monday would help me – but I was hoping that one of the lab men owed you a favour. I know DNA can be processed in 24 hours and I was hoping that with your influence we could get it done quickly and quietly. If it’s Anne Banks, no harm done – if not, then there is a crime about to unfold and we might need your help.”
Simon stared at her.
“Please, Simon, this is going to torment me otherwise. I’ll pay to have it done. I just need it done right and as quickly as possible. The contracts are due to be signed on Wednesday, so the sooner we know the sooner we can do something.” Seeing Simon’s frown, she added, “If something needs to be done.”
Simon looked mulish.
Isobel searched her mind for something to persuade him. “Simon, you must have a case that still bothers you, a case that you wonder about?” She glanced at him and saw his expression had shifted. “This is that case for me. I know in my heart that there’s a problem here. Please do the test so that I can be sure and if I’m wrong I’ll eat humble pie but at least I’ll know that I did everything. I don’t want to always regret this, always wonder. All my years working with people, with couples, tells me there is something here. Please put me out of my misery one way or the other.”
Simon shifted in his seat. “OK, I have a friend in the lab, a workaholic, he has no life really. If I ask him and you donate a bottle of Irish whiskey he might do it, as a favour to me.”
Isobel’s shoulders relaxed in relief. “Great, can you ring him? Now. I need to check about collecting the samples.”
Simon laughed. “You don’t hang about, do you?”
In a few minutes he was handing her the phone. The lab guru was called Jeff. He explained that if Claire came to the lab he could collect her DNA sample. The sample that Peter was collecting would be fine in a plastic bag and the sooner he received it the better. Isobel took the address of the lab and called Claire to let her know. She then sent a text to Peter telling him where the lab was and wishing him luck.
Given the nature of the job, Jeff reckoned that the result would take not much more than 24 hours.
Isobel breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Simon. I really appreciate this.”
Simon nodded. “I’ll phone you when Jeff gives me the results.”
Tracey arrived back. Business out of the way, they all adjourned to the Indian for a meal and a decent catch-up.
Chapter 19
A good meal and a few glasses of wine later, Isobel made her way back to Peter’s flat. It was almost ten o’clock. During the evening she had received a text from him saying ‘sample collected’ and she was keen to hear the details.
“Well, tell me everything. How did you manage it?”
Peter, sprawled on the couch beside Patricia, grinned. They were both sipping glasses of wine.
Patricia said, “He did great.”
Isobel rolled her eyes at her.
Patricia laughed. “Wait till you hear!”
“Well, first I had to get the staff of the café to co-operate.” Peter grinned. “The manager, a Mrs Marie Frost, was very helpful. In fact, when she heard about the allergies she couldn’t do enough for me.”
Isobel grinned.
“As luck would have it, it turns out that her nephew has a pretty serious dairy allergy too. Marie was great. I explained that I wanted her to be discreet and she completely understood. She had no problem about bringing both of us any cups, glasses and cutlery straight from the dishwasher and only handled by someone wearing gloves. I offered to pay for the extra work and the inconvenience involved and the discretion of not mentioning it to the lady I hoped to meet. She wouldn’t hear of it and said she was delighted to help. All she wanted to be sure of was that I wasn’t going to have a reaction. I assured her that all I wanted was a coffee with a friend and no big deal made of the extra precautions.
Marie told the other waitresses to leave me and she would serve me herself.”
“So far so good,” Isobel said.
Peter smiled. “Yes. Now I had to get Anne Banks to come. I told Marie that I just needed to let my friend know where to come and I went out into the street and phoned Anne, praying she would be home. Luckily she was. She picked up quickly and, needless to say, she wasn’t happy. In fact she was very snappy, saying, ‘Not another problem’. Initially I said that it was a case of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s but she was annoyed and I realised I really had to lay it on thick. I said that I needed to meet to finalise some things with her personally, as she was my client not Thomas – that since Thomas has been with her each time I hadn’t had a chance to ask a couple of simple but necessary things.” Peter took a deep breath. “I was improvising like crazy.”
Isobel laughed. “I’m sure in court you have to do that all the time.”
Peter grinned. “Yeah, but this was different. I then suggested that we do it today to ensure that I didn’t delay the signing. I told her that I was working a few streets away and I was squeezing in this quick meeting with her as I would be really busy next week. To be honest, I thought she wasn’t going to bite. I had to really play up my busyness and the risk of delaying the signing if I couldn’t clarify the couple of outstanding things. I said we would meet in the café – that I needed to grab a quick coffee before a meeting – as you suggested, Patricia. Then I emphasised that I needed to see her alone. She wasn’t enthusiastic. In the end I said that if it didn’t suit her today then we would probably have to postpone the signing. She asked me why I hadn’t mentioned this before.” He grimaced. “I had to tell her that it was only when I was going over the case for Wednesday that I realised that she and I had never talked alone. I sort of talked up how prepared and organised they were and how quickly things were moving in their case and that it had slipped my mind. I thought she wasn’t going to come.”
Isobel bit her lip. “What changed her mind?”
“She said something about checking her diary and ringing me back in a few minutes.”
“She wanted to talk to Thomas,” Isobel said.
Patricia nodded. “Definitely.”
“I was getting impatient so I said that I had something on later and, if she couldn’t let me know immediately, we would just leave it and I would reschedule the signing.”
Isobel grinned and nodded.
Peter grinned back. “A bit of urgency, not so much time to think about things. She’d phoned back in two minutes to say that she would meet me. I was relieved. I went back to Marie and told her that my friend was coming and emphasised again that she must not say anything about my allergy.”
“My God, it really was all touch and go!” said Isobel.
“You’re telling me! The next problem was getting Anne Banks to drink something. I decided to order two black coffees immediately, just in case Anne wouldn’t order anything. You know the old adage – you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. I thought that if I had already ordered something, then out of politeness and because she would want to hurry, she might drink it.”
“Good thinking,” said Isobel.
“I ordered the coffee from Marie and she brought two black coffees wearing her gloves. I said to Anne when she sat down, ‘Oh, I hope you don’t mind but I took the liberty of ordering you a black coffee. It’s really good here and I don’t want to delay you.’ She wasn’t happy but she put up with it. I tried to chit-chat to get her to relax. You know, ‘You’ll be relieved when you have all the documents signed and sealed and can get on with the next phase of your life’ and so on. It kinda made her relax but she wasn’t inclined to drink. I started into my spiel again, ‘Rather than slow down your schedule, I decided to sort things over the weekend. As I said on the phone, just a few quick, clarifying questions. To be honest, this will be the quickest case to resolve ever. I know our firm prides themselves on efficient service, but this is a record. I should advertise it as an inducement for other couples!’ I was willing her to take a sip. She fiddled with her cup but didn’t drink.”
“Peter, you’re stressing me out here,” Isobel said.
“Well, it was stressful. I then said that the reason I needed to meet her was that firstly I wanted to be clear that she was happy with the deal. She didn’t answer, she just fiddled with her spoon. I know that mimicking body language increases rapport – it’s an old trick I sometimes use in court, so I started copying her body language by fiddling with my spoon too. She seemed to relax a bit, you know, be less defensive, more chatty. So I laid on the part about my concern for her and then asked straight out if Thomas was coercing her in any way. I explained that I was asking this because she had never come alone, and I was worried about that. She laughed it off, but I think at this stage she really believed me about my being concerned. I was mirroring her movements but honestly I thought she wasn’t going to drink anything. I sort of pushed it then by saying, ‘Oh, you don’t like the coffee – let me get you something else’. She refused and picked up her cup so I hoped we might have fingerprints at least. I took a sip of my coffee, hoping that she would mirror me, but no. She put her cup down again. Anyway I went on – pointing out that there was no guarantee for her in the agreement and I explained that if things with Thomas deteriorated then she would have no legal protection. These were my real concerns from the start, as you know. At this stage she touched my arm and smiled at me. She said, ‘Oh, you’re looking out for me, how sweet!’. I told her it was my job. She definitely didn’t suspect anything. She said that she was very happy with the deal and that, though they were divorcing, it was amicable and that they both felt this was the best way to go forward.”
“Peter! You’re dragging this out – the suspense is killing me!” said Isobel.
“At this stage I was sipping my coffee and willing her to do the same. There was really only one more thing that I could talk to her about.” He looked at Patricia and then Isobel and blushed a little. “I sort of took a risk and talked about my mum.”
Isobel raised her eyebrows.
Peter looked at Isobel. “I apologised for getting personal and then said that as a boy who didn’t see his own mother I wanted to beg her to reconsider and maybe prioritise resuming visits with Tommy.”
Peter looked at Patricia who said nothing.
“Peter, that was brave,” said Isobel.
Peter shrugged. “She thanked me for caring so much about Tommy. She said she was glad I was her solicitor and she promised that she and Thomas would sort out a meeting with Tommy very soon.” He looked at Isobel. “Do you think I overstepped the mark?”
“Not at all. I think that was a very genuine thing to do and, to be honest, from her point of view, it was probably a very credible reason for wanting to talk to her.”
Patricia reached out and touched his arm.
Peter smiled at her and gently rubbed her hand. “Well, back to the coffee. I took a sip and this time Anne also took a drink. Honestly, I had to stop myself from cheering.”
Patricia and Isobel laughed.
“So, Isobel, there was just the dairy allergy thing to do now. I said, ‘Oh, I love this café. I have an allergy to dairy products and here they’re so good about being careful. The lady who owns it has a nephew who has the same problem so she understands that I have to be careful about what I eat and drink.’ Anne said nothing so I laid it on with a trowel. ‘When I was young it was a real problem and caused me a lot of serious digestive trouble but it’s easier now and more widely understood. I suppose now nearly everyone knows someone who has this issue’.”
“And?” Isobel said.
“Nothing. She just said, very off-hand, ‘Yes, yes, I’m sure’. And then it was all about leaving.”
Isobel nodded.
“I know I was a bit sceptical about your suggestion, Isobel, but she behaved exactly as you said.”
“Not conclusive.”
“But sugg
estive,” Patricia said,
Isobel nodded. “Especially when she had such a good story about Sharon’s son to tell. Anything else, Peter?”
“In the end she drained her coffee before leaving.”
They all laughed.
“I was so relieved. I just had to get the cup then. I considered taking Marie into my confidence but since the café is so close to where Anne lives I decided against it. I stood up and, using my body as a shield between me and the staff, I opened my briefcase and put Anne’s cup in the plastic bag along with the teaspoon. I stacked the remaining saucers and cup on the table, to try to disguise the fact that I’d taken one as you suggested and hoped that no one would notice. Obviously then the results of this test are outside of the law.”
Isobel rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, we just need this sample to prove what’s going on. If we need evidence we can get that later. I just need you to believe me.”
“To be honest, I’m a bit more open now.”
Isobel laughed. “Her non-reaction about the milk convinced you?”
“No. But evidence is mounting.”
Isobel shook her head. “You’d think that Claire’s statement would have been enough.”
“It shook me up admittedly. It was so unexpected.”
Isobel nodded.
“I thanked Marie and then I took the sample to the lab.”
“What time did you get there?”
“It was about six. Jeff met me and said about twenty-four hours. He’s going to call Simon when the results are in.”
Patricia was quiet and seemed distracted.
Isobel said, “Let me check with Claire if she got her sample in before or after you – then we’ll have a rough idea of when the results will be ready.” She stood up and, pulling out her phone, walked into the kitchen. Behind her she heard a muffled conversation begin.
“Hi, Claire.”
“Hi.”
“Did you leave the DNA sample in?”
“Of course, but I don’t see the point of doing all of that. Surely my statement is enough.”
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