Someone to Trust

by Someone to Trust (retail) (epub)

  ‘There was more to it than that.’ He took a bite of cake and kept Lucy waiting. She wondered what more there could be. Eventually he said, ‘Blodwen started taking a big interest in Barney, going round there with cakes and stuff. He was invited round to her mother’s for Sunday dinner. Owen’s mother got the sack.’

  ‘What!’ Lucy could hardly believe that. ‘He loved Mrs Davies’ cooking. Perhaps Blodwen was just trying to be Christian?’

  Rob choked on his cake. She got up and banged him on the back. He spluttered out, ‘I caught him with his hand up her skirt!’

  Lucy was truly shocked. ‘She must have tempted him. What was she after?’

  Rob gulped down a mouthful of tea and said wrath- fully, ‘What was he after, you mean! Trust you to take his side.’

  ‘I’m not taking his side,’ protested Lucy. ‘You said yourself she started taking an interest in Barney.’ She frowned. ‘I wonder why Agnes didn’t tell me about that?’

  ‘Agnes? Barney’s maid? You’ve seen her since you’ve been here?’

  ‘No. She wrote to me. Said he’d been behaving peculiar. Perhaps it was because he was lonely after I left. I mean, he’d lost Mam.’ Rob opened his mouth and Lucy added hastily, ‘Don’t say it! Nothing of that sort ever happened when I lived there. He was like a father to me.’

  ‘Right!’ said Rob, breathing deeply. ‘A father, hey?’ His tone was scathing. ‘Then why did you leave him? Not scared of him one little bit?’

  Lucy was unsure how to answer that and instead said, ‘You read my letter. I left because my grandmother wanted to see me and Timmy. So what was in the letter you wrote to your aunt from Ireland?’

  Rob looked puzzled. ‘What’s this about a letter? What are you talking about? And how did we get on to this from Barney?’

  ‘Dilys said your aunt received a letter postmarked Dublin when you were in Ireland.’

  ‘I sent no letter.’

  They stared at each other. ‘You did go to Ireland?’ said Lucy, surprised.

  He nodded. ‘I traced one of the prison guards.’

  She felt a stir of excitement and leaned towards him. ‘What did you find out?’

  ‘That O’Neill’s brother was a ship’s engineer and in love with the wife of a shipowner whose business is in Liverpool.’

  ‘Did you find out the shipowner’s name?’ she said excitedly.

  ‘There’s the rub.’ Rob reached out and took Lucy’s hand. ‘The guard overheard the conversation between McCallum and Daniel O’Neill but didn’t catch the name of the woman.’

  ‘You haven’t been able to find out what it is?’

  He dropped her hand. ‘Lucy, your mother’s case has been put on file! The trail’s gone cold. I’ve been put on other cases and I’m glad to say we managed to nail the sods who stabbed me. I’m hoping to be made Sergeant soon.’ Lucy was pleased for him but still confused as to why Dilys should believe her aunt had received a letter from him while he was in Ireland. ‘Is there anyone else your aunt knows in Ireland?’

  He shook his head. ‘Dilys must have made a mistake.’ Lucy had to accept that. ‘Agnes told me that a man with an Irish accent called at Barney’s wanting to see me. It can only have been Shaun O’Neill.’

  Rob shook his head. ‘I don’t get it. If that was so, why didn’t Barney get in touch with the police?’

  She shrugged. ‘It’s a mystery.’

  ‘I’m going to have to speak to him.’ He glanced at the clock on the mantelshelf.

  Lucy’s eyes followed Rob’s. ‘But not now. He’ll be working, I guess. I presume you know where he’s moved to?’

  Rob looked surprised. ‘You know that, too?’

  She nodded, and refrained from telling him she had already called at the house in St Domingo Road. ‘Going back to Daniel O’Neill and this woman he was in love with,’ she added. ‘Couldn’t you check up on all the shipping lines and see if any of them have ever employed a Daniel O’Neill?’

  He stared at her as if she’d run mad. ‘Do you know how common a name O’Neill is in Liverpool? And that there are at least sixty shipping lines I’d have to check up on?’ He looked moody. ‘I bet that trail has gone cold, too. The pair of them could be living in Ireland for all we know.’

  She rested her elbows on the table and leaned towards him, saying softly, ‘But Shaun’s been seen over here so what are the odds his brother’s been over here too? I’ve got a feeling they’ve family in Liverpool. There must be a way of finding the brother or the family and through them getting to Shaun.’

  Rob got up and went over to the fire to put on more coal. Then he came back to sit on the sofa. ‘We’ve no proof Shaun O’Neill killed your mother, but I must admit I still want to nail him.’

  Lucy moved over to the sofa and sat next to him. Picking up the hot bottle, she hugged it. ‘So you’ll do something?’

  ‘Maybe.’ He put one arm along the back of the sofa.

  There was silence. She glanced at him and noted again the cut on his head. She touched it lightly. ‘Did you get this in the fight?’

  ‘No,’ he said grimly. ‘I got it when I punched Barney. Blodwen smashed a plate over my head and broke off our engagement.’

  Lucy couldn’t help it. She laughed with delight. ‘You’re well rid of her!’

  ‘I’m starting to believe that myself. She said I was a savage for hitting a cripple.’ He scowled. ‘You do see, Lucy, why I feel I can’t offer you anything?’ he said earnestly. ‘I’m questioning my own judgement when it comes to love. I thought loving someone meant you were prepared to do anything to make the other person happy but that’s not true in Blodwen’s case or mine. I wasn’t prepared to give up my job, and although she changed her mind about that rather than lose me, and I thought everything was going to work out – she was still seething about it. That’s why she started making a fuss of Barney. He apparently made her feel more wanted than I did.’

  ‘And as well as that he’s got money,’ added Lucy helpfully.

  Rob whistled through his teeth. ‘She wouldn’t be able to marry him, though. Without a body to prove your mother’s dead he won’t be free to marry for years. She must have realised that by now.’

  Lucy could only agree and hope Blodwen wouldn’t change her mind and want Rob back. Still, there were other things to think about. ‘We need to find Shaun O’Neill.’

  Rob nodded. ‘But for now let’s forget him. So how was Yorkshire? Are you happy living with your grandmother?’

  ‘It’s sad,’ said Lucy, resting her head against the back of the sofa so that her hair brushed Rob’s arm. ‘My Great-uncle Stan is dying. I’ve promised to go back so I’ve only a few days here.’ She suddenly saw a way of making Rob jealous. ‘He’s been very good to us and that’s why it’s difficult to refuse the thing he’d really like to see before he dies.’

  ‘What’s that, and what’s so difficult about it?’

  She glanced surreptitiously at him from beneath her eyelashes. ‘Wesley! He’s Stan’s son and he fancies me.’ She let the words hang in the air before adding, ‘I’ve spent a lot of time in his company this summer.’

  Rob looked as if he couldn’t believe it. ‘You can’t mean he wants you to marry his son?’

  ‘He needs someone to take care of him,’ she said truthfully.

  ‘You can’t marry him!’ Rob sat up straight, his eyebrows twitching.

  ‘Why?’

  He hesitated. ‘Because you’d only be marrying him on the rebound from me.’

  Lucy heaved a sigh. ‘You could be right but what can I do?’

  ‘Don’t rush into anything,’ he said firmly. ‘Marriage is for life and you don’t want to make a mistake. I intend staying a bachelor.’

  She could have screamed at him but instead stood up and said coldly, ‘Really? Time I was going then. Where’s my coat and hat?’ She glanced about her.

  Rob shot to his feet. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘To Barney’s. I called at the house in St Doming
o Road earlier and found he wasn’t there. You’ll give me his new address?’

  Rob’s expression hardened. ‘I should have known you’d look him up first.’

  She was angry. ‘You betcha! You made it plain you wanted me out of your hair long ago.’ She spotted her coat and swept it up in both arms.

  He went over to the window and drew back a curtain. ‘You’ll get wet.’

  She made no answer, determined to see if he’d let her go out there. Hat! Where was her hat? She found it and put it on, and then her gloves. ‘Where’s my suitcase?’

  Rob looked her up and down and said frostily, ‘You’ll get your feet wet. You’ve got no shoes on.’

  So she hadn’t. Having found them she had no choice but to continue the game. She put them on. He handed her the suitcase with a grim smile. Lucy wanted to spit nails at him but limped out of the room, hoping he would stop her. He didn’t. The swine, she thought. He didn’t care if she drowned in the rain.

  Lucy opened the outside door and stepped on to the platform at the top of the steps before realising she had forgotten her scarf. She turned and he was there with it dangling from his hand. ‘You forgot this.’

  She snatched it from him and swung it round her neck, picked up her suitcase and clattered down the stairs. If he calls me back now I won’t go, she thought.

  As she walked down the yard, he called, ‘What d’you think of my motorbike?’

  The words stopped her in her tracks. What motorbike? He had a motorbike? She gazed wildly about her, trying to make out a shape that was in any shape or form a motorcycle’s. Then she heard his feet slapping the iron staircase. She turned and watched as he lifted a sheet of tarpaulin to reveal a condensation-misted motorcycle.

  ‘It’s a brand new Rudge,’ Rob said with the pride of possession in his voice. ‘I didn’t get round to telling you the great-aunt who died left me some money, did I? Not a lot but enough to buy this and the gramophone and to furnish the flat. I could run you to Barney’s on it tomorrow. And by the way, I didn’t tell you where he’s living.’

  ‘What about your shoulder?’

  He smiled lazily. ‘I told you, that’s on the mend. You can have my bed. I’ll doss down on the sofa. Your virtue’s safe, honest.’

  Pity, thought Lucy, going back to the flat with him.

  They sat on the sofa and he told her his aunt had moved to Wales when Dilys had married and Mrs Davies had gone with her to keep her company. Then he made two cups of cocoa and left her a moment to tidy his bedroom. He returned with a blanket.

  ‘I hope you’ll be warm enough with just one blanket,’ Lucy said.

  ‘It’s warmer in here than my room,’ he said with a grin. ‘You’ll need that hot water bottle heating up again.’

  ‘I don’t have to go to bed already, do I?’ Lucy was dismayed. ‘How about some music?’

  Rob flung the blanket on the sofa and went over to the gramophone, searched through his records and placed one on the turntable. He put in a new needle, then wound up the gramophone. ‘Swannee! How I love you, how I love you, my dear old Swannee. I’d give the world to see –’ He jiggled about in front of her, matching the music to his actions. She laughed and joined in before collapsing on to the sofa when the record came to an end.

  He put on another and wound up the gramophone again. ‘Ma, he’s making eyes at me! Ma, he’s awful nice to me. Ma, he’s almost breaking my heart…’

  ‘“I’ve decided,”’ sang Lucy, ‘“Mercy, let his conscience guide him. Her voice trailed off as she looked at Rob. For several seconds they stared at each other. Then he went over and took off the record and put another on, jazz this time which made Lucy’s feet want to dance.

  ‘Do you still have that frock?’ asked Rob casually.

  How he thought she’d automatically know which one he meant she didn’t know, but she did. ‘Somewhere at the back of my wardrobe,’ she murmured.

  ‘No chance of seeing you in it tonight then?’

  A giggle escaped her. ‘No chance.’

  ‘Then I might as well switch off the music and you can go to bed.’ He suited his action to his words. ‘I’m sure you’re tired.’

  ‘No,’ she said softly. After the music the silence seemed to press in on her ears: a cinder dropping on the hearth sounded loud. She was aware of him sitting a few inches away and thought it incredible that it was less than twenty-four hours since she had left Yorkshire and here she was, about to spend the night in Rob’s flat. She shifted a little until she felt the warmth of his thigh against hers.

  Minutes passed and she was starting to doze off when she felt his arm go round her and his lips against her neck. Immediately, and with her eyes still shut, she turned to face him. Her hands felt their way up and around his neck. He kissed her with a strength of feeling that forced her flat on the sofa. Kiss followed kiss. His fingers felt for the openings on her blouse and she pushed his hands away and looked at him. He smouldered like a damped down fire. ‘Let me do it,’ she said.

  He dragged off his pullover and unbuttoned his shirt.

  So there was going to be no stopping him this time, she thought, and dropped her blouse and camisole on the floor. He was taking off his vest when Lucy saw his wound for the first time. She let out a little cry of distress and fingered the healing scar, which still looked painful. She kissed it. He wrapped his arms round her and gazed down into her face. ‘You care,’ he said, the words slurred with emotion.

  ‘Of course I care.’ She pulled his head down and stood on tiptoes so her lips could meet his. He was trembling and so was she. He swept her off her feet but before she could cling to him he dropped her.

  From her position on the floor she looked up at him, laughter in her eyes. Only for the expression to change as she saw that he was in real pain. ‘You’d best come down to me,’ she said.

  He lowered himself on to his knees, his hand still covering his shoulder. ‘It’s not going to be tonight, Josephine,’ he said. ‘Which is just as well because those sods at the station will be laying bets. I’d like to look them in the face and say your virtue’s intact.’

  She reached up and stroked his cheek. ‘Another time,’ she whispered.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lucy gazed across the table at Rob. Last night she’d insisted on his having the bed and the hot water bottle while she slept on the sofa. This morning she had prepared breakfast, having been down to the bakery for fresh bread. ‘It’s a smashing place to live over,’ she said. ‘The smell of baking is worth a bob extra a week.’ She spread strawberry jam on another round of bread and added, ‘Will you be able to give me a lift on your motorbike with your shoulder so sore?’

  ‘You still plan on seeing Barney?’ There was an edge to his voice.

  She nodded. ‘I’ve got to. I want to find out who this Irishman is. I don’t think I’ve got anything to fear – although if I’m honest, I’d rather not see Barney alone.’

  Rob’s expression lightened. ‘Then go to the cinema and see him there. I’ll go with you if you like? They’re reshowing The Sheik and an old Stone-face film called Daydreams. We could go to the afternoon performance.’

  She accepted his offer gratefully. ‘What’ll you do this morning?’

  ‘I thought I’d catch a bus to the Pierhead and do some detecting.’ He smiled lazily. ‘Pleased with me? Plenty of shipping offices down there. What about you?’

  ‘I could come with you,’ she said tentatively, although an idea had surfaced while she lay awake thinking of those moments on the sofa.

  Rob shook his head and said firmly, ‘I’d rather go alone. If you’re with me my whole approach will have to be different. You could go and see Dilys.’

  Lucy accepted his rebuff meekly. ‘Is she living at your aunt’s old house?’

  He nodded. ‘I’ll meet you back here at lunchtime.’

  She thanked him, swallowed the last of her jam butty, and prepared to go out.

  He went one way and Lucy went another, to Aunt Ma
c’s house. She was feeling a little unsure of her welcome. After all, it had been months since she had last been in touch with the old lady and Lucy felt guilty for not having written to her and told her she was now living with her grandmother.

  She hesitated in front of the door, then, taking a deep breath, she rapped a tattoo on it with her fist. Would Aunt Mac tell her to beat it or would she be prepared to give her more information?

  The door was opened somewhat furtively and then flung wide. ‘Now here’s a nice surprise,’ said Callum sarcastically.

  His presence came as something of a shock but Lucy recovered quickly. ‘When are you going to shave off that beard? It makes you look ten years older. Is your mam in?’

  ‘No, she isn’t. You’ve taken your time calling round, haven’t you?’ He glowered at her, keeping his hand on the door and blocking the entrance.

  ‘I’m sorry. But Mam disappearing the way she did came as a terrible shock. I still haven’t got over it. I admit, though, I should have written to Aunt Mac and told her I was living in Yorkshire with my grandmother.’

  His eyes hardened. ‘So that’s where you were? Maureen always said you had a yen to live with them. You grabbed your opportunity and don’t care a sod anymore about your mam.’

  Lucy went white. ‘That’s not true! You’ve no idea how Timmy and I have suffered. We still feel terrible about everything! I don’t know how you have the cheek to speak to me like this. You’ve caused nothing but trouble to our family!’

  ‘Oh, yeah! I bet those are your stepfather’s words.’

  ‘No, they’re not! They’re mine. And if you had any conscience at all you’d do something to make amends. I need the name of the shipping line Daniel O’Neill worked for before he got involved in the troubles.’

  Callum stared at her as if she’d run mad. ‘What bee have you got in your bonnet now, girl?’

  ‘Shaun O’Neill! You want Mrs Jones’ murder clearing up, don’t you? He could have done it. You’re still wanted for questioning, you know! It must worry Aunt Mac.’

  ‘It does. But you’re crazy thinking…’

  ‘Oh, I’m crazy, am I? Well, I told the truth when I was asked whether you had a gun or not. You might have been strung up by the neck by now if I hadn’t. Right now I’m wishing I’d told a lie!’