by Lynda Page
‘I remember my father being very shocked by this news. He couldn’t believe that Trainer was responsible for committing such a vicious crime, not the man he knew so well – or thought he did. And he couldn’t understand why Trainer would need to do something like that for the money, as Father said he hadn’t heard any gossip that the company was in financial trouble. In fact, to his knowledge it was prospering. But all the evidence pointed to Trainer so he must have been guilty. Anyway . . .’
Cait had been listening to him intently, but one particular comment he’d made, made her interrupt him. ‘Did you say, his company?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. Trainer owned the business back then. My father didn’t talk about it any more within my earshot, so that’s all I know or remember. Your mother must have bought the business after Trainer was sent down. I’m surprised she never told you the story about the previous owner.’ He adopted a thoughtful expression. ‘I do wonder what Trainer’s doing working back here, though? Can’t be easy for him, odd jobbing for a firm he used to own. In fact, just how did he wangle a job for himself back here, all things considered? I’m surprised a reputable firm like Rose’s is employing a man with his criminal background. Oh, but maybe he’s recently been released from prison and, with hardly any chance of getting a job elsewhere, convinced Reg Swinton that he was a reformed character and should be given a chance to prove it. From what I knew of Reg, he would be just the sort to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. To me, though, a leopard rarely changes its spots so if I were you I’d have a beady eye kept on Trainer, just in case he’s not a reformed character. He could secretly be up to something which you should put a stop to before it’s too late.’
He then pulled a worried expression. ‘Mind you, I could be branding some poor man a vicious criminal when in fact he’s not that Trainer at all, just looks like him and happens to have the same name. I mean, it’s got to be fifteen years since I last saw him and much water had passed under the bridge since then. I should consider whether the old memory bank is playing tricks on me. Oh, here are the drinks,’ he said, rubbing his hands together as Jane returned, carrying a bottle each of white and red wine. He jumped up from his seat and strode over to her, offering, ‘Let me do the honours and uncork the wine for you.’
This information about Glen had shaken Cait to the core. Her thoughts were flying around like bubbles in a vigorously shaken bottle of lemonade. This had to be a case of mistaken identity. The Glen Trainer she knew couldn’t possibly be a vicious criminal, not a nice man like him. He was her saviour. He had risked his own job to talk sense into her and save the company from possible ruin and the workers from losing their jobs. To her those weren’t the actions of a thoughtless, violent man but of a caring, thoughtful one. She had socialised with Glen and never noticed the slightest thing about him to arouse her suspicions. But then Mr Bowden had told her that everyone who had known him at the time had been under the same impression about him as she was now, only to discover when he was caught that they’d been duped by him. Like she had been.
Then an awful thought struck Cait. What if Mr Bowden was right and Glen Trainer had come back to Rose’s to attempt to make money for himself? She had seen where he lived, noticed what kind of clothes we wore, the food that had been served up to her at Christmas. If he was indeed the same Trainer who had owned the company, then this was a man who had once been able to afford the good things in life. Maybe he wanted that life-style back for himself. He would never afford it on the wages of a maintenance man, and with his record never be able to climb the promotional ladder much higher than that. So the only way he could achieve a better standard of living for himself was to do it illegally.
She started wondering about that morning she had believed Glen had risked his job to talk to her about the firm and the workers’ security. What if that had been just a ruse to cover up his true motivation? That if the firm went under through a long-drawn-out strike, his own plan to do whatever it was to make himself serious money would go under with it. And Jan must be in league with him too. She lived with him, worked at Rose’s. Cait wondered what they were plotting together. Robbing the place somehow, it had got to be. The stock was valuable. So was the machinery. Oh, but then what if Glen was planning to do the same thing he had tried the last time, and which had only failed because he’d made a blunder by parking the vehicle where it could seen by the general public? All he had to do this time was find a more isolated place to offload it.
He’d obviously got a job with Rose’s so he could legitimately check the place over, see if changes had been made, in particular if the abandoned outhouses were still there and still vacant.
She needed to go to the police with all this information and get them to investigate Trainer, find out if he was up to no good and put a stop to it. But then she realised she could be pointing the finger of suspicion at a completely innocent man. First she needed to find out, one way or the other, if Glen Trainer was the man who had committed those crimes or if that was a different man entirely. There was only one way she could do so and that was to ask him to his face. Completely forgetting her arrangement with Belinda, she decided she would do that straight after work tonight by paying him a surprise visit.
Cait suddenly jerked up her head, realising that Mr Bowden was speaking to her. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mr Bowden, I was thinking of something I have to do tonight that I’d forgotten about.’ She then lowered her voice and continued, ‘Look, what we were talking about earlier. Would you please not mention anything about it to anyone here? I mean you could be wrong, and our Mr Trainer might be completely honest and above board. But I am going to make enquiries about him and find out one way or the other, and if he does turn out to be the criminal Trainer I shall go straight to the police, put the matter in their hands.’
He looked at her, impressed. ‘I won’t say another word about it. Drink?’ he said, handing her a glass of wine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cait lingered behind a little longer at work after everyone had left, to allow time for Glen and Jan to arrive home before she got there. Her nerves were jangling. On one hand her actions could be responsible for catching a criminal in the act; on the other she could be about to cause bad feeling between herself and two people she had come to regard as friends.
As she left work, though, and was making her way towards the steps leading up to the main road by the canal bridge, she stopped short on seeing the shadowy figure of a man loitering at the top. He seemed to her to be acting suspiciously. The night was a dark one and she was too far away to make out any of his features. Immediately she worried he was sizing her up before robbing her. It was too late to go back to the factory and make her way out of the front entrance instead as the night watchman had locked the door behind her and would have the gates closed by now. She had no choice but to continue the way she was going. Tightly clutching her handbag, her only defence from a possible attack, she continued up the steps. As she drew nearer, although it was still too dark for her to see his features clearly, the man seemed familiar to her. It was the way he was standing, with his hands thrust in his pockets, his head tilted to one side. Neil used to stand in just that way when waiting for her to arrive. Then Cait’s heart leaped inside her chest as she realised it was Neil.
As soon as he saw the woman approaching him was Cait, he bounded down the steps to join her then stood looking at her awkwardly.
‘Oh, it was me you were looking for. I’d no idea you knew I worked here.’ Or that you could possibly want to see me, she thought to herself.
‘I . . . er . . . didn’t until I bumped into a mutual friend of ours, who mentioned that they saw you heading into Rose’s as they were taking a short cut down by the canal. Said you looked very smart . . . and, I have to say, you do, Cait.’
She smiled in appreciation of his comment. ‘Thank you. Did you come looking for me for any particular reason?’
‘Well, as a matter of fact I did. You see . . . well, er . . . that night we
bumped into each other at the cab office . . . well . . . the Cait I knew wouldn’t have apologised for her behaviour like you did, and I rather liked the new Cait and would like a chance to get to know her better. So I was wondering whether . . . er . . . you know, you’d like to go out with me one night and see how it goes?’
Cait couldn’t believe she was being given another chance with Neil. She just looked at him for several long moments, wondering if she was dreaming this or not. In fact, she actually put out her hand to confirm he was real. She smiled happily at him. ‘I would like that very much.’
He grinned. ‘Oh, good. What about next Saturday night?’
‘That would be lovely. So tell me what time you’d like to meet me and where, and then we can decide together where we would like to go.’
He thought, Wow, Cait really has changed. The old Cait would have dictated the time they met as well as where they would go. He told her, ‘Saturday at eight, outside British Home Stores.’
Cait suddenly remembered tonight’s pressing engagement. ‘I’ll be there. Now if you will excuse me, Neil, I have to be somewhere.’
His face fell. ‘Oh, not . . . er . . . meeting a boyfriend?’
She was pleased to see that he hadn’t liked the thought of that. ‘No. This is to do with work.’
‘Oh, good. I mean . . . right you are. I’d better hurry home too or my dinner will be cold. See you Saturday then,’ he said as he turned away.
‘Yes, see you,’ she called after him.
Cait was so happy that she almost skipped all the way to Glen’s and Jan’s flat, but as she approached it the reason why she was visiting them hit her full force again and swept aside all thoughts of Neil. On the tiny landing outside the flat she paused just long enough to draw a deep breath then rapped her knuckles purposefully against it.
Glen had just lit the fire and was washing his hands at the kitchen sink. Jan had made a pot of tea and was about to pour them both a cup before she made a start on their dinner. The knocking resounded against the door.
Drying his wet hands on a shabby towel, Glen told Jan, ‘I’ll go.’
He opened the door and Cait barged past him and into the living area, to stand with her back to the fire. A confused Glen shut the door and hurried after her, wondering what on earth was going on. That she was deeply upset about something was very apparent to him.
From her position at the kitchen table, Jan heard the sound of outdoor shoes pounding the linoleum and knew the visitor wasn’t their landlord as he always wore slippers when he was indoors. Coming out to investigate, she saw Cait, smiled and went to welcome her and offer her a cup of tea, but was stopped when Cait held up one hand warningly. A perplexed Glen came to stand by Jan’s side, both of them puzzled by Cait’s odd behaviour. She addressed Glen. ‘I need to ask you a question, and I would like an honest answer from you.’
He looked taken aback. ‘Well, I wouldn’t answer you in any other way, Cait. What is it you want to ask?’
She took a breath, tilted back her head and demanded, ‘Are you the Glen Trainer who used to own Rose’s years ago and was sent to prison for viciously attacking a man and hijacking his lorry?’
The unexpected question had rendered Jan speechless.
Glen didn’t hesitate to answer, ‘Yes, I am.’ Then he asked, ‘How did you find out?’
Cait took a moment to answer, deeply distressed to have been told what she hadn’t wanted to hear: that the two people before her were not the friends she had believed them to be. Finally she managed, ‘Our visitor today was sure he recognised you. That’s why I came, to find out if he was right or not.’
‘Well, you now know he is. But I can only ask you to believe that I was totally innocent of the accusations made against me, Cait.’
Her initial shock was replaced by anger over what she suspected this pair of criminals were planning to do. Clearly they had used her, befriended her in order to get the information they needed from her. She laughed harshly. ‘All guilty men profess that, don’t they? I don’t believe you any more than the jury who found you guilty. You’ll be trying to make me believe you were framed next.’
Jan found her voice. ‘That was what happened, Cait.’
She retaliated, ‘Oh, you’ve both missed your calling. You should have been on the stage.’ Eyeing them both in disgust, she continued, ‘Since you were recognised by our visitor today, I’ve been trying to rack my brains for a plausible reason why you would return to the scene of your crime. The only ones I can think of are that you are either planning to rob the place or else repeat your former crime – taking more care this time not to be observed. You obviously thought it best to have a legitimate reason to be on the premises while you perfected your plans, just in case anyone saw you having a nose around and reported you to the police. Poor Mr Swinton was under the impression he was helping you make a fresh start by giving you a job, and all the time . . .’
Glen exclaimed, ‘Cait! Please, stop. You have this all wrong. I wasn’t planning to do anything like you’re suggesting.’
She sneered, ‘Well, I’d prefer the police to be the judge of that. I’m going there next, to report my suspicions of you.’
Jan was looking horrified. ‘If Cait goes to the police, Glen, and they start showing an interest in you because of your background, you could end up losing your new job – and then you might never get another and land up back where I found you. I can’t let that happen to you. You have to tell Cait the truth about why you got a job back at Rose’s.’ Then, terrified of Glen refusing and running the risk of a police enquiry, Jan couldn’t stop herself from blurting out to Cait, ‘There was nothing sinister about Glen deciding to get a job at Rose’s. It was because it was the only way we could come up with for him to get the information he needed.’
Cait looked baffled. ‘What information?’
Jan blurted again, ‘About his daughter.’
Cait looked even more baffled. ‘But why would you need to work at Rose’s to find that out?’
‘Because it’s the only way he could get to speak to the person who has that information, that’s why.’
‘Jan, that’s enough,’ Glen ordered her. He then said to Cait, ‘I think it’s in your best interest to leave now. Do what you feel you have to.’
Jan spun round to face him, alarmed. ‘Glen, don’t do this! Think of the consequences for you. Do you really want to end up back where I found you?’
He shook his head. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘Then tell Cait the truth. Please, Glen, please,’ she implored.
‘The truth about what?’ Cait demanded.
He shook his head and said with conviction, ‘I can’t. You know why, Jan. I can’t do it to her.’
‘Well, I can if you can’t,’ Jan responded fervently. ‘You’re a good man, Glen, a decent man, and you’ve suffered enough after what that woman did to you. I can’t stand by and see you suffer any more, not just to save Cait’s feelings I can’t.’
‘My feelings?’ she said, bewildered. ‘What have my feelings got to do with this?’
Jan blurted out, ‘Because . . .’
Glen grabbed her arm. ‘All right, Jan, you win. I’ll tell her.’
She sagged with relief. ‘Thank goodness.’
He then said to an utterly bewildered Cait, ‘I think you’d better sit down. This story I have to tell you is going to come as a great shock and perhaps cause you distress.’
Cait began to feel afraid. She stepped over to the armchair Jan usually sat in and sank down into it, looking at Glen expectantly and waiting for him to explain.
Jan was sitting on the sofa, anxiously wringing her hands, ready to give comfort to the girl, which she knew she was going to need very shortly.
Leaning forward, hands tightly clasped, face grave, Glen began, ‘I had recently lost my wife and been left with a young baby to care for when I met your mother . . .’
Astonished by this, Cait declared, ‘My mother! You know her?’
He nodded. ‘I do, Cait. I was married to her.’
Astounded she cried out, ‘What! My mother was married before she met my father? And to you?’
‘I don’t know whether it was before she married your father and was committing bigamy when she married me, or if she married him after she divorced me. If that is the case then as you were about a year old at the time, it could mean the man you think of as your father may not be at all.’
She snapped, ‘Of course he’s my father. His name is on my birth certificate.’ Her face clouded in confusion. ‘But then, if I was about a year old when my mother married you . . . well, that means you were my father too for the time you were married? But I don’t remember you.’
‘You wouldn’t, Cait. The first I knew of your existence was when I met you that morning in the office and realised you weren’t who I thought you were.’
‘Who did you think I was?’
‘My daughter.’
‘Oh! But where was I then while my mother was married to you?’
‘I have no idea, Cait. Living with your father, I presume.’
This was getting all too much for her to take in and make sense of. She just stared at Glen speechless as he continued.
‘As I said, I had recently lost my wife when I met Nerys. She was serving behind the bar of a hotel. She was young and very attractive, vivacious, funny, with such a warm and caring nature, and . . . well, she just bowled me over. I was . . . and still am . . . an ordinary-looking man, and I couldn’t believe that a woman like her was showing any interest in me. But she was, wanting to know all about me, and before I left she had got me to agree to take her out on her next night off.’