Nathan clenched his hand into a fist and thumped it on the counter. ‘I was the expert!’ He released his fist, slid his hand across the counter and grabbed her hand. ‘He was only an apprentice, a boy. Sixteen, maybe. It’s funny how clearly I remember his face. He smiled a lot, was so enthusiastic and watched everything I did, taking it all in, determined to make the most of every opportunity. I remember thinking that he’d go far, that maybe he would work for us one day.’
Keri watched emotions twist Nathan’s face. ‘Did he die recently, is that it?’
‘Recently? No, no that’s not it. He died over twenty years ago, a few months after the job.’
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head trying to understand. ‘Then he didn’t get silicosis–’
‘No, he did.’
Her eyes flew open. She saw Nathan’s tear-streaked face, the guilt that dragged it down and she knew. ‘Oh God!’ Acute silicosis, a form so rare Keri had almost forgotten about it. It could occur after one exposure, leading to death after only months. Sixteen. ‘How did I not hear about this? There must have been a huge scandal.’
Nathan chewed his lip and shook his head. ‘Twenty-three years ago, it was easier to get away with things. I didn’t hear about it until a couple of weeks after the boy died. I bumped into someone who used to work for the company and he filled me in on the gossip over a pint. The apprentice became sick within weeks. Nobody considered acute silicosis. Why would they, he wasn’t a stonemason and his couple of days helping me out weren’t even considered. It seems it wasn’t until the post-mortem that they realised the cause.’
‘But they must have known then what had happened.’
‘The guy I was talking to didn’t know any more. I expected to hear from the company, maybe even from the police. I was pretty edgy at the time, I was afraid you’d ask me what was wrong–’
‘I remember you being fed up with all the going-nowhere jobs we’d been picking up and you moaning about the dodgy practices of some of the companies. That was when we decided we were doing well enough to concentrate on better quality work and we drew up our business philosophy.’ She glared at him. ‘I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me.’
‘Because…’ He spread his hands out. ‘We were only married a couple of years at that stage, and you’d already put up with so much, skimping and trying to make ends meet. I didn’t want to cause you more grief.’
She saw the lie in his eyes and heard it in his voice. He’d been afraid to tell her because he knew she wouldn’t have let it go. Not even to save Metcalfe Conservation. Not over the death of a boy. She would have insisted on holding DS Construction to account. The apprentice should never have been assigned to Nathan without the proper protective equipment.
But she hadn’t known. ‘What happened then?’
‘I decided to speak to the CEO of DS Construction.’ Nathan got to his feet. ‘I need a beer.’ He grabbed one from the fridge, opened it and drank from the bottle downing half before retaking his seat. ‘I don’t think you’ve ever met Dexter Sylvester, have you?’ When Keri shook her head, he continued. ‘He was a big, tough, straight-talking man. Like us, he’d started small, worked hard and built DS Construction into a successful company.’ Nathan took another swig of beer. ‘He was also known to bribe whoever it took to get what he wanted, use the cheapest material he could get away with for his builds, and the cheapest labour he could find.
‘When I called into his office, he was friendly at first but when I asked him about the apprentice his manner changed. He said he didn’t know anything about the lad working with me and insisted he’d been doing nixers for other companies and that’s when he must have been exposed. He said if I tried to say anything else, he’d destroy me and my “poxy little excuse for a company”.’ Nathan drained the bottle, got to his feet, and took another from the fridge. ‘There’s wine open, you want a glass?’
Keri shook her head absently, still trying to absorb all he’d told her. ‘You obviously did as he wanted, and let it drop. So–’ She tilted her head, puzzled. ‘–if this all happened over twenty years ago, what’s going on now?’ Nathan stayed on his feet sucking from the beer bottle until she wanted to get up and pull it from his hands. ‘Nate, it’s been a tough few days, please, no puzzles, tell me straight what the hell is going on.’
He tipped the neck of the bottle towards where his mobile sat on the breakfast bar. ‘Remember last Wednesday I had a message, and I told you it was nothing important? I lied.’
Keri would have punched the air if there’d been anything exciting in proving she was right about Nathan lying to her. Now she was going to find out why.
He glugged more beer before wiping a hand over his mouth. ‘It said, remember JC.’
31
Keri stared at Nathan, puzzled. ‘JC?’ Keri had been a Catholic, way back when. JC would always be Jesus Christ in her head but she doubted if that were who Nathan was referring to.
‘JC. Jim Cody. That was the apprentice’s name.’
‘Okay,’ Keri said, although nothing felt any clearer. ‘I still don’t understand. Where have you been for the last few days?’ When she needed him here with her, dealing with what was happening now, not something that had happened over twenty years before.
‘I went to Stevenage–’
‘Stevenage? What on earth for?’
‘If you’d let me finish!’ He glared at her. ‘That’s where DS Construction has their office. I went to speak to Dexter Sylvester. To see if he’d had a similar message, to see if perhaps he’d heard from Cody’s family. If maybe they were threatening him… or something.’ Nathan ran a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know why really, but the message had rattled me. I couldn’t tell you. You’d want to know why, and I suppose I never wanted to tell you a story that cast me in such bad light.’
Keri suddenly understood. ‘You’ve been harbouring guilt all of these years. You should have talked to me, I can’t believe you kept this a secret. It must have been eating away at you.’
A smile lit Nathan’s face, chasing away the shadows. ‘You’re crediting me with the kind of good virtues you have. You were always a much more honest person than me. No, I haven’t been feeling guilty all these years.’ The smile faded and he shrugged. ‘Maybe a little when Daniel was sixteen. He had the same kind of innocent enthusiasm I remember seeing in the apprentice. But although I didn’t always feel guilty, I never forgot, and when I got that message, I knew…’
‘What?’ She was still lost.
He looked at her. ‘That someone else hadn’t forgotten.’ He got to his feet and paced the room. ‘I decided to go to Stevenage that afternoon but when I got there I found the office shut. I thought maybe they’d closed down, although I would have thought we’d have heard–’
‘We would have done,’ Keri interrupted. ‘Sylvester is one of the rotten apples of the building trade. There’s been rumours of bribery and intimidation going back for as many years as I can remember.’
‘Nothing’s ever been proven,’ Nathan said, settling back on the stool. ‘Anyway, I looked around for a bit, then rattled the gateway till a Doberman came galloping towards me, teeth bared. I stepped back, but the dog stayed snarling at me until a security man came over. He wasn’t particularly friendly until I mentioned I knew Sylvester, then he was happy to lock the dog away and come back for a natter.’
‘And?’ Keri wanted to shake him till all the information poured out. Like any nasty infection, only when all the pus was gone did any healing take place.
‘Dexter Sylvester had been found dead at home the previous week.’ Nathan looked at her, eyes wide, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to get the words out. ‘He’d been murdered.’
32
‘That’s awful,’ Keri said, feeling her way. She still wasn’t sure why Nathan was so upset. The death of anyone was sad, but Sylvester, by all accounts, wasn’t a particularly nice guy. There were rumours of gangland associates. Mixing with the wrong
people inevitably brought bad news. ‘It’s terrible, but I don’t understand why you’re so upset over a man you barely knew.’
‘It’s not because he’s dead, it’s why.’
‘There’ve been rumours about him for years.’ She held up a hand. ‘Yes I know, nothing has been proven, but everyone knew he was on the take and there was all the talk about gangland connections. Maybe he ended up pissing off the wrong people.’
‘I think it was something to do with Jim Cody, and that message I got.’
No wonder he looked so terrified. Keri went to Nathan, put an arm around his neck and pulled him close. ‘You daft thing,’ she said softly. ‘You’re taking huge leaps linking one to the other. You don’t even know if that message you got was relating to this Jim Cody. Maybe JC is a supplier or customer, someone you promised to do work for or to send a quote to.’
‘You think?’ Nathan wrapped an arm around her waist.
‘I do. Maybe you were rattled because of Roy’s death.’ She pushed him away to look into his eyes. ‘I think you’re fooling yourself too, I think you do feel some guilt for that boy’s death even after all this time, so I think, when everything with Roy dies down, you should go and speak to a counsellor.’
She left him thinking about that idea and went to the fridge for the glass of wine she richly deserved and was pleased to see he was looking a little less tense when she returned.
He picked up his beer and tipped it against her glass. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
Fall apart or more likely find another woman to take care of him, Keri thought with few illusions. But there wasn’t another woman now. One worry off her mind.
Nathan slurped noisily from the bottle before putting it down. ‘Sylvester had obviously made an enemy somewhere.’
‘I bet it’s gang-related.’
‘You might be right. The security man said that a couple of days before Sylvester was murdered, a wreath had been delivered to the office with RIP on the card. Then the following day, animal entrails were left outside the main gate. Sheep entrails, the police said, as if it mattered.’
Keri had been sipping her wine, listening as Nathan spoke. It was good to watch him talk through it and unwind. She was still annoyed he’d abandoned her but was starting to relax now she knew the reason. His words were drifting over her head until wreath dragged her abruptly back.
Her fingers tightened on the glass and her eyes narrowed. A wreath and animal entrails left outside the Stevenage premises, a wreath and mangled rat left outside their home. Dear Lord, she’d been wrong. She’d been blinded by her guilt over that tawdry affair into thinking Barry had been to blame. A lump of painful truth was suddenly lodged in her throat and she swallowed convulsively.
She’d been wrong, too, in trying to convince Nathan that there was no link between the message he’d received and what had happened to Sylvester.
Sylvester who had been murdered.
Nathan was still talking, she tuned back in.
‘I think I was simply stressed out over what happened to Roy and let that blind my judgement. JC is, as you suggested, probably a supplier or someone. I’ll check my records when we go into the office tomorrow.’
Keri saw relief sweep across his face, his colour already brightening, the look of terror gone from his eyes. It would have been easier to leave it, to let him live in ignorance, but Keri, unlike Nathan, never took the easy option.
A frightening thought slammed home. If Sylvester was killed by someone because of Jim Cody then Nathan was at risk. Not only did she need to tell him, but they also needed to inform the police. Their dirty secrets were going to be discovered.
‘No,’ she said, abruptly startling him. ‘There’s something you don’t know.’ She’d barely touched her wine, she picked up the glass and swallowed a mouthful. ‘Sunday before last, someone left a wreath on the doorstep. There was a card with it that said, RIP. The florists who delivered it said they were given this address. They were told to leave it on the step outside the door without ringing the bell.’
Nathan had lifted the beer bottle to his mouth but took it away without drinking. ‘What? How come I’m only hearing about this now?’
Because she thought they were from the man she’d been having an affair with. ‘You were watching the football and I knew you had those two new contracts coming up, so I didn’t want to worry you.’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, I thought it was a mistake. The florist came and took it away. Then a couple of days later there was the horrible mangled rat. I never connected the two.’
A lie. She had but she’d made the wrong connection.
33
When Nathan headed to the fridge again and took out another bottle of beer, Keri smacked her hand on the counter. ‘Getting plastered isn’t the answer.’
‘You’re the one who always has an answer for everything, the great fixer, I’ll leave it to you to find the answer to this conundrum.’ He popped the lid off the bottle and slurped the foam that oozed up.
‘We have to ring the police.’
‘And say what exactly? That twenty-three years ago, I was culpable in the death of a sixteen-year-old.’
‘You don’t know that you were. Maybe the lad was working elsewhere and got exposed that way.’
‘I know I’m right.’ Nathan sat back on the stool nursing his beer. ‘I don’t want to be but I can still see him wiping that dust from his face. Sandstone dust. Sixty per cent silica.’
‘Seventy.’ She held a hand up when he frowned. ‘Yes, I know I’m being pedantic. You’re right, of course, there’s little doubt about where the poor lad was exposed. And someone, after all this time, is looking for revenge.’
‘It must be a relative. If I could find them, I could pay them off.’
She looked at him guzzling his beer and thought, not for the first time in all the years they were together, that he wasn’t that bright. ‘If they’d wanted money, Nate, they could have blackmailed us. You’d have paid any amount of money to keep this quiet, and I have no doubt Dexter Sylvester would have done the same rather than paying with his life.’
‘What are you saying?’
She groaned and shut her eyes. It had been an impossible day. She was so tired she wasn’t sure of anything anymore. When she felt Nathan’s hand curl around hers, she opened her eyes again and met his sad, worried brown ones.
Stupid, foolish man. But she loved him. Always did, always would.
She turned her hand to clasp his and for a minute they stayed like that, saying nothing. Her voice was soft when she finally spoke. ‘I’m saying they don’t want money, Nathan. They want revenge. Good old-fashioned biblical revenge. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
‘Someone. A member of his family, or maybe a friend, wants someone to pay for that young boy’s death.’ She pulled her hand away and stood. ‘He didn’t mention anything about his family when he was with you, I suppose?’
‘Not that I remember.’
‘And you didn’t make any enquiries after you heard about his death?’ She wasn’t surprised when he looked away. Of course he hadn’t asked about the family, he’d felt guilt for his part in the boy’s death but not enough to do anything effective. Like ensuring that companies like DS Construction were held accountable.
She thought best on the move and paced the length of the room, turning at the far wall to cross the floor again, and again. ‘I don’t understand why they waited all this time? Twenty-three years.’ She rubbed a hand over her face, then reached for her mobile phone.
‘You’re ringing the police?’
She should, of course. The wreaths, the animal remains. Too much of a coincidence. But she needed time to think. Involving the police would mean secrets coming out, his and hers. If she could avoid that… ‘No, at least not yet.’ She wanted to believe that Nathan wasn’t in any danger but she wasn’t sure. The inner workings of the mind of someone seeking vengeance was beyond her experience. ‘To be on the safe side
, though, I’m going to ask Abbie and Daniel to stay with their friends. If there’s a problem, I don’t want them involved.’ She tapped her mobile against her palm. ‘I’ll tell them there have been reporters hanging around and we don’t want them to be hassled.’
She sent a message, asking them to ring her as soon as possible. It was Daniel who was first to reply. He agreed to stay with friends until he heard from her. ‘Much better idea, I’d probably throw a punch at reporters if they stuck a mic in my face.’
Keri smiled at the thought of her gentle son coming to blows with anyone. ‘I’ll throw some stuff in a bag for you and leave it at the university admin office tomorrow, okay?’
‘Sure,’ he said, laid-back as ever.
Abbie was more like her mother, instantly suspicious. ‘Reporters! I can handle them, don’t worry. I’d prefer to be home with you, to help keep your chin up.’
Mini-me, Keri thought with affection. ‘No, honestly, I’d be happier with you safely out of the way. It would be one less thing to worry about. I’ll pack some stuff in a bag for you and drop it off at the university. If you need anything else, pop it on your credit card and I’ll make sure I top it up with funds to cover.’ It was giving Abbie carte blanche to shop, but it would also stop her worrying about Keri.
‘Oh wow, great. Okay, I’ll stay away till you tell me the reporters have buggered off.’
‘Good, chat soon, love you.’ Keri put the mobile down and looked at Nathan. ‘They’ll stay where they are until they hear from us.’
‘Right, so what now?’
‘I’m starving, it’s time for something to eat.’ She didn’t feel the slightest bit hungry but doing something was better than sitting staring into Nathan’s helpless face. The freezer was well stocked with frozen dinners, she took out two and slipped them into the microwave.
What now? She’d absolutely no idea.
The Couple in the Photograph Page 12