by Ashley Cain
“Miguel!” Rachel raised her voice slightly which surprised everyone including Miguel who looked at her shocked. “We worked with Martha, she has always been nice to us. She is not going to hide anything if it will help April”.
“Wait, wait”. Hope raised her hands in the air before Miguel could respond. “For goodness sake don’t you two start bickering. April didn’t say Martha knew nothing. Just that she didn’t want to talk about it. Although that in itself is surprising given that she spent most of her time at the café talking when she should have been working”.
Hope’s words diffused the tension as they all tried to suppress grins. It was Hope not Martha who had spent most of her time talking. Martha had been one of the hardest workers in the café.
“She did have some news”. April said. “Didn’t know a lot about it, which was why she didn’t like to mention it. Although she was keen to help. After telling me what a nice family they were, how they had always been kind to her, she did say that there had been a lot of rumours just before they left for South Africa. It had caused quite a stir at the time, made the local paper over several days”.
“What were they about?” Miguel put down his knife and fork.
“She couldn’t really remember the detail. She thought it had been about some sort of land deal. Mr Fletcher, Ivan’s father, had been in charge of the development committee at the government and there were some concerns raised that land had been sold cheaply as agricultural land and then given planning permission retrospectively. She was at pains to point out that nothing was proven, even thinks there was some sort of investigation and he was found innocent of any wrong doing, so felt guilty even about bringing it up”.
Hope looked thoughtful. “I’d forgotten about that; it was so long ago” There was a glint in her eye. “Martha downplayed the story a bit, which I guess is understandable given her history with the family, and she is right nothing was ever proved. It was a big scandal at the time though. I’d forgotten that was Harold Fletcher”.
“What was it all about?” Miguel asked.
“If memory serves me right” and it doesn’t always these days, “a family on the coast had sold a tiny cottage on a large parcel of land. Hardly a cottage really, just a one bedroomed shack. Beautiful location looking out over the sea with views as far away as France. Anyway, the old guy who lived there died and the son wanted to extend it in to a proper house, or knock it down and build something else. I can’t remember which it was, but they couldn’t get planning permission so ended up selling it. Move forward a couple of years and the guy who had bought it redeveloped it in to one of these modern white box houses with windows everywhere. Sold for a fortune it did”.
“Happens all the time” Miguel said dismissively. “They are always changing land classifications”.
“Yes, but there was something funny about this one. I can’t remember exactly. Maybe it had been sold to a friend of his. Oh...” she tailed off, a faraway look in her eyes.
“What?” April asked. Hope had a very strange look on her face as though she had remembered something.
“Nothing”. Hope said looking at her.
“I can’t see how that can be anything to do with what is happening to April” Miguel interrupted, finishing the last of his lunch and moving his plate to one side. “Want to hear my news now about James?”
“Go on then” said April putting her knife and fork together on her plate and pushing it sightly away from her. “May be that will give us something to go on”.
Miguel shook his head. “I don’t think so. Although it definitely wasn’t an accident. The police are treating it as suspicious”.
“Really?” said April. “I didn’t know that”.
“Oh yes. It was a deliberate hit and run. He was hit from behind. A car came up behind him very fast on the coast road and rammed in to him at speed. Damn nearly killed him. His bike skidded off the road and it was only because he hit a stone post that he didn’t go over the cliff”.
April shook her head. She wasn’t the only one to have had a lucky escape recently. “Did he see what had hit him?”
“Not really. Caught a glimpse of a blue vehicle speeding off, either a four by four or a van of some sort but that was it”.
“Connor has a blue convertible” April said
“No, it doesn’t match”. James was adamant that it was a big vehicle. The police have been looking in to it and have drawn a blank, no big blue vehicle has been in to any of the garages for repairs and it must have been damaged the force with which it hit James”.
“It does suggest that it was deliberate” April mused.
“It was definitely deliberate” James said. “No other cars on the road at the time and it was a straight stretch of road. He assumed that the driver was still drunk from the night before, it happened early in the morning, but when I told him about fake Connor, he now thinks that it was done to get him out of the way”.
“What we don’t know is why” April said in despair “it is all very well us now believing that James was deliberately got out of the way so that Connor, or whoever he really is, could take his place and start sabotaging the café, but why? It makes no sense at all. Hope, did you get anything from your friend at the Belvedere?”
Hope had been quiet whilst Miguel had been talking and seemed deep in thought. “Sorry” she said, shaking her head. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you had found out anything out from your friend Renee at the Belvedere?”
“Nothing relevant or that takes us any further forward” Hope answered. “Just confirmation that the Connor we met wasn’t the real Connor Monroe. The real Connor Monroe was tall, with sandy hair and freckles and was aged about 40”
“Do we know where he went other than London?”
“She didn’t know. Asked about after we had spoken and called me back just before we were coming here. Apparently one of the cleaners said that he had told her that he had been given a top job in one of Mr Fletcher’s hotels in Scotland, but it was supposed to be secret and she promised not to say anything. He told her he would be sacked if it got out”
“Wait a minute” April jumped up from the table. “That’s it”.
“That’s what?” Miguel and Rachel looked at her in surprise. Hope stayed quiet and concentrated her gaze on the pattern on her plate.
“If Ivan Fletcher had given him a job in Scotland, then he had to know that the Connor Monroe who was working for me wasn’t the real Connor. He couldn’t be in two places at once”.
“Maybe he didn’t know” Rachel said cautiously. “How hands on is he at the Belvedere? He has a lot of hotels; I am sure he doesn’t get involved in the staffing details”
“He told me he didn’t get involved” April admitted, “but he must have known if he was moving one of his employees from Jersey to Scotland. Especially if it was a kitchen assistant who was being given a top job. That is not going to have happened without his permission”.
“And he was involved in offering me the job at the Domar”. Miguel reminded them. “I think we are on to something. What a lousy scheme. Get James out of the way, get me out of the way so you are short staffed and desperate, get the real Connor Monroe out of the way so that someone can take his place and he can place him in the café. It is all making sense”.
“Except that it doesn’t make sense” April almost shouted. “I see how it could have been done but I can’t see why. Why would he go to all of this trouble now? I’ve had the café for four years and he has never tried to do anything like this. Why all of a sudden would he want to do it now?”
Hope pushed her chair back. “I think we all probably need to time to try and think about that. I for one think better when I am out on a walk and I could use some exercise after that delicious lunch”
“I’ll come with you” April started to get up but Hope raised her hand. “No, I think better on my own. You finish up here with Rachel and Miguel and I will see you back at the house in a couple of h
ours”.
“Are you alright Hope?” April looked at her in concern. The old lady looked like she had lost all the colour in her face, and her eyes had a faraway look in them”.
“Of course, I am love. I just think better when I am on my own”. She handed her the key to the cottage. “I am just going to go across the headland to Gorse Point and back. Put the kettle on in a couple of hours, I’ll need a hot drink when I get back”. She retrieved her coat from by the door and went out slowly, with barely a look at the three of them.
“What’s got in to her?” Miguel said, “she went very quiet all of a sudden. It’s not like Hope to not have an opinion”.
“It’s probably all the problems weighing her down” April said. “I think it is getting to us all. I’m going to take the opportunity whilst Hope is out to get a couple of hours sleep. I haven’t slept properly for two nights”.
“Be careful”, Rachel said. “Now we know Ivan Fletcher is involved in some way you need to look out for yourself. He only lives up the road”.
“We think Ivan Fletcher is involved” April corrected her. “I’ll talk it through with Hope when she gets back and will then give Sergeant Tozier a call. I want to wait until I can be sure exactly what I am telling him before I speak to him”.
“Well take care of yourself anyway” Rachel said kissing her on the cheek. “And I’ll see you tomorrow in the bakery”
Little did she know that she would be seeing her much sooner than she had thought.
Chapter 30
Even though she hadn’t slept, when April left shortly after Hope, she did not feel like going back to Hope’s empty house. Walking past the café, and averting her eyes from the pile of timber on the hillside above it that had until very recently been here home, an impulse struck her and she decided to do some cooking. She needed something to do to occupy her time, for there were too many questions in her mind for her to be able to sleep. She had too much to think about, especially since their conversation over lunch had seemed to point to Ivan Fletcher as being somehow involved. It scarcely seemed credible. He was a respected, wealthy businessman. What possible motive could he have for wanting to kill her? Fishing in her pocket for the keys that she habitually carried with her she fumbled with the lock and opened the door.
It had only been a couple of days since she had been inside but it felt a lifetime ago. The temporary wall that her stepfather had put up to shield this part of the café from the burnt-out shell next door was bare, and tables and chairs were stacked up in the middle of the room. The café had an air of desolation about it and April shivered. She wasn’t sure if she would ever open again, even as a bakery. Her dream seemed to have died.
Walking through to the kitchen her spirits lifted a little. This had been where her and Rachel had made the pies a couple of days ago, and although the ovens had been turned off there was still an air of warmth about this space, as though the cheerfulness and the laughter that they had shared when they had been baking had rubbed off on the room. Taking off her coat she threw it over the back of a chair and opened the cupboard to see what there was to bake with. She wasn’t a good cook by any stretch of the imagination, and nowhere near as good as Rachel, but it would be good to bake a cake for her and Hope to have with a cup of tea when she got back from her walk. A memory struck her, of her as a little girl eating flapjack with Hope and her grandma. That was it, she would make them some flapjack. It was quick, it was easy and you could eat it when it was still slightly warm.
Collecting a bag of oats and a jar of golden syrup she walked out of the store cupboard and gave a gasp. The oats fell from her grip and burst open on the floor, joined seconds after by the tin of syrup, the clattering noise it made as it hit the tiles making her jump for the second time in as many seconds. Standing in the doorway to the kitchen was Connor.
“I’m not here to hurt you” he said in a quiet voice, barely more than a whisper really. It had lost all of the confidence and arrogance of their previous encounters. “I just want to talk to you”.
April darted for the knife block that stood on the counter next to her and grabbing the largest knife she could find spun round so that she was facing him. The island unit was between them and she wanted to make sure that it stayed that way.
“Don’t move” she shouted, annoyed with the slight tremble in her voice that gave away how frightened she was. “I’m going to call the police”.
It was a lie, although Connor wasn’t to know that her mobile phone had been left behind when she had fled from the fire and was no doubt somewhere up the hill behind her, a blob of molten plastic. The café phone was by the cash desk in the café itself, behind the door that Connor was blocking. There was no way she could call anyone.
The keys to the back door were on the ring of keys that she had put back in her coat pocket that was slung over the back of the chair next to where Connor was standing. She was trapped. She may have a knife in her hand, but she was in no doubt that Connor, with his gym homed physique would soon disarm her if they got in to a fight. The odds of her getting out alive were not stacked in her favour. But if she was going to die, she was not going to die without a few answers.
“Why?” she shouted. It was the one question that she wanted to know above everything else. “What have I done to deserve this?”
He didn’t say anything, just stared at her. She looked back in puzzlement. It looked like Connor, but there was something different about him that she didn’t recognise. It was as though the old Connor had been replaced with someone who looked almost but not quite the same. It took her a few moments to process what it was. It was the arrogance that had gone from his face, replaced by something that looked very much like fear. But that didn’t make sense. What did he have to be afraid of?
“I don’t know April. I promise you, I don’t know”. He held his hands out, palms outstretched. “It was just supposed to be a bit of harmless fun. I thought it was going to be a bit of a laugh, something to do to stop getting bored but then it seemed to get out of hand”.
“Harmless fun” screamed April, advancing towards him with the knife outstretched in her clenched fist. If the island unit hadn’t been between them, she would have stabbed him there and then. “You burnt down my business and my home, you tried to kill me and you thought it was a hit of harmless fun?”
“No, no, no”. Connor shook his head violently from side to side and tried to take a step back, but the closed door behind stopped him. “That wasn’t me. What do you take me for? I didn’t do any of those things”.
“And you expect me to believe you?” April was so angry her fear had gone completely and she leaned over the island unit brandishing the knife at him.
“Honestly, I didn’t” Connor raked his hand through his hair. “Look, I know what it looks like and I admit that I have been really stupid and what I did was wrong, but I promise you I did not do any of those things that have happened. I wouldn’t. I’m not that sort of guy”.
“Stop lying” April shouted “You would stop at nothing to get what you want”.
“But what is it that you think I want April? Jeez, I’m only here on holiday, I don’t even know you. I was just bored and when my uncle suggested this idea, it seemed like a bit of a laugh. But then all these other things started to happen and it kind of got out of hand”.
“Your uncle. Who is your uncle?” April was still suspicious, but it genuinely seemed as though Connor wasn’t planning on hurting her. He could have lunged at her over the island unit, tackled her to the ground, grabbed the knife and slit her throat without breaking sweat, but he seemed disinclined to do any of those things. In fact, he just looked beaten. As she looked at him, he slumped to the ground and sat wearily with his elbows on his knees.
“Ivan Fletcher is my uncle. I came across to visit him a couple of months back with my mum and my grandparents. My grandparents only stayed for a couple of weeks, but I agreed to stay on to keep my mum company but I was bored, so when Uncle Ivan suggested
something to do it seemed like a laugh”.
“I bet it did” April stopped short. “Imelda Van Leeuwen is your mum? I thought she was one of your girlfriends”.
“That was the idea”. He grinned for the first time since he had come in to the café, but the grin soon left his face. “I thought trying to make you jealous would be an added bonus, but it didn’t work”. He looked at her seriously. “I’m used to women falling at my feet, the fact that you didn’t put me out a bit if you really want to know”.
“So, you tried to kill me because I was immune to your advances?” April was stunned. “Are you a psychopath or something? Stay where you are” she shouted as he started to clamber to his feet.
“I told you I didn’t do any of those things. All my Uncle Ivan asked me to do was create a bit of chaos in the café to disrupt your business, and to help get the Bay Harbour Grill off to a good start. But then all these other things started to happen”.
“So, burning the café, and setting it on fire, and then setting my house on fire. That wasn’t you, that was just a coincidence was it?”