Unfinished Business

by W. Soliman

  The weather didn’t get any worse and I settled into a cruising speed of fifteen knots. We reached Weymouth without incident by late afternoon.

  “One of the few good things about a sports cruiser is the lack of height restriction,” I said as we bypassed all the flybridge cruisers and sailing boats waiting for the bridge to lift, and radioed to the marina to say we’d arrived.

  We were directed to a berth in the inner harbour, where Kara handled the lines with economical efficiency. Once I was satisfied the boat was secure, we took Gil for a much-needed walk. By the time we returned to the boat he’d acquainted himself with all the lampposts along the esplanade. I phoned Monk on the mobile he’d given me to let him know we’d arrived.

  “Keep a low profile, Charlie,” he advised. “Stay on the boat as much as possible tomorrow.” He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll be able to think of a way to pass the time.”

  I snorted down the line. “Are you still in Cowes?”

  “No.” He didn’t say where he was and I didn’t ask. “But you know you can always reach me. Oh, and Charlie, there’s some clobber for you to wear to the sports day in one of the lockers on the boat. Jeans aren’t quite the thing for such an occasion and I wasn’t sure if you’d have anything more suitable to hand.”

  I hung up before telling him exactly what I thought of him. But I took his advice to heart. Kara and I only left the boat that night and the following day to walk Gil. There was no point in inviting trouble.

  “What do you think, Mrs. Higgins?” I paraded before her on Wednesday morning in the well-cut grey slacks and expensive polo shirt Monk had supplied. Why wasn’t I surprised to discover that they were a perfect fit?

  “Very impressive.”

  Kara, wearing a printed sundress held up by thin shoulder straps, gave me a twirl. Her feet were thrust into high-heeled sandals and she was wearing her short wig.

  “Likewise.” I kissed her and was chastised for removing half her lipstick. “Come on then, let’s see if we can get a taxi to this school. Ready?”

  My tone was calm and decisive. Last night she’d been trembling at the prospect of confronting her sister but seemed to be holding it together now. I figured she needed manly strength and an attitude of professional detachment from me. I’d do my best to deliver. Simultaneously we donned sunglasses and I handed Kara her floppy hat.

  “This is very impressive.” Kara’s hand was in mine as the taxi deposited us at the doors to the school. She looked up at the façade and nodded her approval. “Wonder how much it costs to send a child here?”

  “More than I’d ever be able to afford for Harry.” I treated her to one of my carefully rationed smiles. When I recalled how we’d filled the time over the last day or so I figured she’d definitely earned it. “Perhaps I ought to consider a life in organized crime.”

  “Don’t you dare!”

  She was laughing when a well-dressed woman came down the steps to greet us, hand outstretched. Unsure how much, if anything, Monk had told the woman about our real reason for being there, we played the part of wealthy parents keen to find the best education for our overindulged little treasure. Kara described our imaginary son in detail, her voice full of maternal pride. It took me a moment to realize she was actually outlining Harry’s physical characteristics. Clever girl! We’d discussed how to handle every aspect of our meeting with Jasmine but, incredibly, hadn’t given any thought to how we’d get through this initial part of the fiasco. Other things on our minds, I supposed.

  After a tour of the building we were invited to take tea with the principal and then, at last, left to mingle with the other parents enjoying the sports day.

  “Where is she?” Kara stood on her toes, trying to locate her sister.

  “Shush, have patience. We’ll find her.”

  It took a quarter of an hour. The place was packed with well-dressed, well-spoken parents who refused to keep still, which meant we kept coming upon the same people time and again. A sharp intake of breath from Kara told me exactly when she saw her sibling. Jasmine Webb, dressed in a plain yet elegant lemon sundress, was seated beside a tall dark man whose eyes darted constantly about. She laughed as she watched a gaggle of young children sprinting in crooked lines down a grass track, cheering and clapping when a little redheaded girl was first to break the finishing tape. She turned to the man seated beside her, her face glowing. He too was applauding.

  Taking advantage of the general mayhem when the race finished, we moved closer to Kara’s sister and grabbed two seats that had just been vacated immediately behind her. Kara’s hand was trembling as she extracted it from my grasp. Before I could stop her she reached forward and tapped her sister on the shoulder.

  Inwardly I groaned. What the hell did she think she was doing? We’d discussed this a hundred times. Jasmine wasn’t alone and we had to assume the man with her was loyal to her husband. As though confirming my fears, he glared at us when Kara touched Jasmine, and he half-rose from his chair. I met his eyes and smiled as benignly as I could, digging Kara hard in the ribs at the same time. But it was like she’d forgotten everything I’d told her.

  “Jas,” she whispered. “Jas, it’s me, Kara.”

  I glowered at her but the damage was already done. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. I lowered myself in my seat, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible as I waited to see what happened next.

  Jasmine started violently at the sound of her sister’s voice and slowly turned ’round to look directly at her. Kara had at least retained her sunglasses and floppy hat but I could hardly believe what I was seeing when she reached up to remove the glasses.

  “No!” I snatched her hand away from her face. “Leave them on.”

  “Sorry, Charlie, but I—”

  “Is it really you, Kara?” Jasmine’s face, at first full of uncertainty, broke into a beatific smile. Tears trickled from behind her dark glasses. “I can’t believe it!” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “How did you find me?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  Kara seemed too choked up to say anything more, and for a long minute the two women simply looked at one another.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Jasmine said. “It’s not safe for you.”

  The man with Jasmine was following the exchange closely. She didn’t appear to feel inhibited speaking in front of him, which I took to be a good sign. I nodded at him and he cautiously returned the gesture.

  “I had to come. Where can we go to talk? There’s so much to say.”

  “It’s better to stay here, Kara, in a crowd,” I said.

  “Yes, I suppose.” Kara bit her lip. I sensed her need to embrace her sister and have a good heart-to-heart, but even she appeared to realize that was out of the question. “This is Charlie Hunter.” Great, so now she was revealing my true identity when we didn’t even know how things stood between Jasmine, her husband and, more expediently, the guy with the mobile eyes. “He’s been helping me to find you.”

  “Oh, so you’re the policeman.”

  So she already knew who I was. I was stunned. Stunned, and worried.

  She must have sensed it because she explained. “I heard my husband talking about you.”

  Was that supposed to make me feel better? “In what respect?”

  “This is Anton,” Jasmine said, ducking my question. “You can say anything in front of him.”

  Just as well, since Kara had already blown our cover.

  “That’s such a relief.” Kara was crying and smiling at the same time. “I want to know everything that’s happened to you since you left, Jas.”

  “Narrow your questions down, Kara,” I said. “We don’t have long.”

  “Do you know about Brett?” Kara’s voice trembled.

  Jasmine nodded, crying again. “Yes, I know.”

  “But you didn’t ring or anything.” When she didn’t respond, Kara got impatient. “Come on, Jas, we know you’ve spoken to Mum often enough over the years. Didn�
��t it occur to you that she just might want to hear from you at such a time?”

  “It was difficult, I didn’t…that’s to say, I wasn’t sure—” She threw back her head and sighed, leaving me with the impression that she was weighing her next words carefully. “I’ve made so many mistakes, and anything I said would only have made matters worse. At least by staying away I could protect you, Kara.”

  Kara looked confused. “How do you make that out?”

  “You see, I think…well, I think perhaps Brett was murdered, and my husband’s business associates might have had something to do with it.” She twisted her hands together in her lap. “It’s not safe for you here, Kara. I tried to tell Brett that and look what happened to him. If anyone other than Anton had been with me today, it would have been disastrous.” Her voice caught. “You must leave at once and never come back.”

  “And what about you?”

  “There’s no escape for me.”

  “You’d stay with a man who possibly ordered our brother to be killed?” Kara stared at her, as though seeing her in a completely new light. “Why?”

  Jasmine, tears in her eyes, nodded towards a nearby gaggle of children. “I stay because of them. If I ever decided to leave him, he’d never let me take the children with me.”

  The little girl who’d won the race barged up to Jasmine, sporting a gap-toothed grin. “I won, Mummy, I won!”

  “So I saw.” Jasmine’s brittle expression softened as she pulled the girl onto her lap and smoothed down her wayward hair.

  “Hello,” Kara said.

  “Hello,” the child responded. “My name’s Saskia, what’s yours?”

  “Kar—”

  I kicked Kara’s ankle. Hard.

  “Ouch!” She glared at me and then caught on. “Oh yes, it’s Karen.” She smiled as she regarded her niece for the first time, her eyes suspiciously moist.

  “Whose mummy are you?”

  “Our son, James, doesn’t go to this school yet, but he might start next term. Do you like running?”

  Saskia nodded. “I won my race.”

  “Yes, I saw you.”

  “I wish Papa had been here to see me, as well,” Saskia said peevishly.

  Anton stiffened. “He is.”

  I grabbed Kara’s hand to prevent her from turning ’round. “Meet us tomorrow morning,” I hissed in Jasmine’s ear, leaning in close as I stood up. “The Prince Regent Hotel.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Then you’d better try because Kara won’t leave until she gets some answers.”

  “Then you must make her.”

  “Don’t think I haven’t tried.”

  Jasmine looked at me and sighed. “All right, I’ll come if I can but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get away.” Her eyes darted towards her husband, who was almost upon them.

  “I’ll take a room there under the name of Harris,” I whispered.

  I grabbed Kara’s hand and moved away as a well-built man with a full head of grey hair, wearing a superbly cut suit, walked up to Jasmine and kissed her.

  “Igor,” she said in a commendably calm voice. “What a lovely surprise. When did you get back?”

  Nadia didn’t know how she was able to face Igor at a time when she was feeling so emotionally drained. Kara’s appearance had totally floored her, and she was overwhelmed with a whole raft of conflicting feelings. Her delight at seeing her sister again warred with very real fears for her safety and brought the whole nightmare of Brett’s death flooding back. If anything like that were to happen to her feisty sister, it would all be her fault and she didn’t think she had the strength to withstand another such tragedy. Kara had her handsome policeman to protect her but he’d be next to useless when faced with her husband’s army of thugs.

  Igor hadn’t entirely convinced himself that he was responsible for the locked bedroom door and had ordered her to be more closely watched in his absence. Nikolay, produced from the same mould as Viktor, had accompanied them to the school and stationed himself outside. Igor had never considered it necessary for her to have two minders before, which implied that he was suspicious of her. Did he know that Kara was here? The thought turned her blood cold. He’d come home from Russia two days earlier than anticipated, which meant he could hardly have been in the country for more than a few hours before turning ’round and coming straight back to England. And now he’d caught her in close conversation with two strangers, which would not please him.

  “Who were those people?” Igor asked her. Paranoid as always about her safety, he didn’t encourage her to get too friendly with other parents at the school. He’d promised her that soon, when they left England, she’d be able to live a more normal life and develop a circle of friends.

  But Nadia didn’t delude herself. Theirs could never be a normal existence, and the only friends she’d ever be able to have would be those approved first by Igor.

  “I didn’t catch their names. They’re thinking of enrolling their son in the school and were asking me if our children were happy here.”

  “I see.” His smile didn’t trouble his eyes. “I wonder why they chose to quiz you about the school. Surely the Head would have given them a tour.”

  “Yes, I dare say.” Nadia shrugged. “But they happened to sit behind me and I suppose they wanted to know what a parent had to say.” She took his hand. “Sometimes you’re too curious about inconsequential things, Igor.”

  “Perhaps, but—”

  “Papa, Papa!” Saskia’s tone was accusatory as she jumped from foot to foot, desperate for his attention. “I won my race but you didn’t see me.”

  Igor smiled, properly this time, and scooped his daughter into his arms. “Well, of course you won!”

  “I was second in the high jump,” Sergei pointed out.

  “I’m very proud of you both. Now, come along, let’s have some tea and perhaps we’ll find your new friends and you can introduce me to them.”

  Still with Saskia in his arms, Igor ushered Nadia and Sergei towards the school building. Anton, his expression brooding, fell into step behind them.

  Nadia thought back to the person she’d once been and marvelled at her guilelessness. Never once had she doubted her ability to right all the wrongs in her world. After all, hadn’t she kept the mighty Igor Kalashov dancing to her tune for months? Only now did she realize just what a hash she’d actually made of everything.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kara fell into the taxi beside me with a deep sigh. I slipped an arm ’round her shoulders, feeling awkward but knowing better than to try to find the words to comfort her. I’d always known that she’d come away from the confrontation with her sister with more questions than answers rattling about inside her head. What she needed to do now was work through her feelings without me sticking my clumsy oar in.

  We got back to the boat and received an enthusiastic greeting from Gil. This tub was too small for a dog of his size to be cooped up in for any length of time. He bounded between us with scant regard for anything that came within range of his wagging tail, hoping, as always, for an energetic game of tug. Kara absently rubbed his ears with one hand and blew her nose on a piece of kitchen paper with the other.

  “Thanks for not saying you told me so.” She dashed at fresh tears with the back of her hand before they could get past the corners of her eyes.

  I shrugged in a manner that suggested I understood. “It’s something you had to do.” I found a bottle of white wine in the fridge and opened it. “The sun has to be over the yardarm somewhere in the world,” I said, handing her a glass.

  “Thanks.” She offered me a watery smile and plonked herself down on one end of the small seating unit.

  I sat at the other end and examined her face. “Well, you’ve seen her,” I said, stating the obvious. “So how do you feel about it?”

  “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.” She sucked in a long breath. “I’ve looked forward to the moment for so long that my mind wen
t a complete blank when I was actually face-to-face with her. There was so much I wanted to say, so many questions I wanted to ask her, but when I actually got my mind into gear we’d run out of time.” She took a large gulp of her drink and lifted her eyes to mine. “I suppose, most of all, I want to understand what made her act so dramatically but I’m no further forward in that respect than I was before I saw her.”

  “It was probably something to do with her argument with your father.”

  “Yes, but I still don’t know what they fought about. Perhaps I’d be able to understand better if I did.” She shook her head. “Face it, Charlie, most kids fall out with their parents at some point during their adolescence but find a way ’round the problem without running away.”

  I didn’t reply. Not being able to set Kara straight about what I knew didn’t make me feel good about myself.

  She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “It’s all been one big waste of time.”

  She drained her glass and reached for the bottle. Whilst she refilled our glasses, I used Monk’s mobile, called enquiries, obtained the number of the Prince Regent Hotel and booked a room for the following day.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You want to talk to you sister, don’t you?”

  Her expression was priceless. “You arranged something? Is that what you were whispering with Jas about?” When I nodded, she uncoiled her legs from beneath her and threw herself at me. “I get to see her again? Charlie, I don’t know what to say. ‘Thank you’ sounds kind of inadequate.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.” I slid my arms ’round her. “It may come to nothing but I mentioned we’d be in that hotel tomorrow and she said she’d try to drop by. Nothing’s definite but I have a feeling she’ll make it.”

  “But why? Why put herself in more danger if nothing can come of it?”