Thicker Than Water (Alexandra Best Investigations Book 1)

by Jean Saunders

  She felt a brief sense of grief not to have known the kind of childhood other kids did, and immediately told herself not to be so bloody feeble.

  ‘It’s this,’ Gary said, stabbing a finger at some of the gobbledy-gook. ‘Michael Caine or Alec Guinness could have deciphered this in a trice.’

  ‘Oh yes? I thought they were movie-stars, not human decoders.’

  ‘And I thought you were the bright private dic— private eye, sweetness,’ he said mockingly. ‘Can’t you see what I’m getting at?’

  She began to find him irritating. He might be great in bed — he was great in bed — but there was no way he was going to show his male superiority over her job. It had been a mistake to let him stay, and to let him see the diary at all. She grabbed it out of his hands and snapped it shut.

  ‘I think you’d better leave the detecting to me,’ she said pointedly. ‘And it’s getting late. Don’t you have somewhere to go? Where do you live, by the way?’

  ‘Kingston on Thames. And what have I said now?’

  Alex had visibly jumped on hearing the name, her skin crawling uncomfortably. Kingston on Thames was where a body had been found in a lake, according to Nick Frobisher — and there was no reason on earth to think there was any connection between it and her case, or with Gary Hollis. She swallowed.

  ‘Just nerves. Wasn’t there a murder there yesterday?’

  He shook his head and spoke quite gently. ‘Are you sure you’re in the right business, Alex? Anyway, it wasn’t a murder; it was suicide. The woman left a note. Haven’t you seen this evening’s paper? It’s all in there.’

  ‘I’ll catch it on the TV news later,’ she mumbled.

  He folded her in his arms, and she wondered if he could tell how sickly her heart was beating. There wasn’t much clothing between them to disguise it. She was a fool, and he may be right about one thing: was she quite sure she was in the right business? She could be serving behind the counter in a nice little corner shop, where nothing exciting ever happened and life meandered on blandly from day to day...

  ‘So do you want me to tell you how to decode this diary or not?’ she heard his voice vibrate against her cheek as she leaned weakly against him.

  She jerked back, instantly alert, and saw the laughter in his eyes.

  ‘You know?’

  ‘What the hell do you think I’ve been telling you all this time? When you were addicted to spy movies the way my dad and I were, we used to spend a high old time making up our own codes and seeing who was the first to crack them.’

  It sounded even more like an idyllic childhood to Alex. A father who took time to be with his kid and share his interests.... She shut her mind to such sweet images, knowing there were more important concerns to deal with now than wishing for something she had never had, and could never have.

  ‘So tell me,’ she said aggressively.

  ‘I’m surprised you haven’t worked it out for yourself. It’s pretty basic stuff. It’ll just take a little time, that’s all,’ Gary said, his voice hopeful.

  ‘All right, so I’ll make us supper when we’ve cracked it, OK? And then you go.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really.’

  He gave a heavy sigh. ‘Get a pad and some pens then, because you can’t work it all out in your head.’

  She did as she was told. Part of her was glad of his help, and part of her was wishing she’d had the sense to discover just what it was he had seen in the coded rubbish. But since she’d never had to deal with this before, she might as well look on Gary’s knowledge as a useful learning process. And in the end it was unbelievably simple, if time-consuming.

  It was the kind of thing any intelligent child could do. Alternate letters in the mangled words were either three or five letters away from the correct one in the alphabet. Except that every fourth and sixth time they occurred, they went backwards through the alphabet instead of forwards.

  Only somebody with a mathematical mind and the kind of brain that could compile cryptic crosswords could think of such a tortuous way of rendering her diary useless to anybody else, thought Alex. And it took a hell of a long time to make any sense of the sentences. But when they did...

  ‘It looks as though your client was a goer all right,’ Gary said, whistling through his teeth in admiration. ‘Torrid nights with M figure more prominently that anything else, and in plenty of graphic detail, too. Who’s M, do you think? Must be a secret lover, and married, I bet. And who’s the lady in question? Am I going to be told?’

  ‘Fancy her, do you?’ Alex parried. ‘How do you see her, anyway? Small and fluffy and blonde, or a bit on the horsy side, with a large nose and no-nonsense stare?’

  He laughed. ‘She’s certainly no horse-face, if all this is any-thing to go by. Just reading it is turning me on. She’s living every moment on these pages. Either that, or she’s got a bloody erotic imagination.’

  If she had tried to trap him by mentioning Caroline’s lack of beauty, it hadn’t worked. She didn’t really know why she had said it. It was just her suspicious nature. Sometimes it was one of the less delightful aspects of the job. But just in case he was the cousin, she’d had to test him.

  She felt suddenly weary of the whole thing. She hadn’t even started the investigation properly yet, and already there was far more to Caroline that met the eye.

  Missing adult daughters either turned up in due course after going on a high old binge, or were tracked down fairly easily, and sometimes the search ended up in the gruesome body-bags. More often, missing daughters were defiant teenagers who weren’t about to inherit vast amounts of money. There had to be an angle to this, but, as yet, Alex simply couldn’t fathom it.

  ***

  ‘Have you ever heard of Price Chemicals?’ she asked Gary abruptly, her gaze unwaveringly on his face, watching for the slightest flicker in his eyes.

  Lying or not, he would deny it, of course. Why was there any reason for him to know of the place? Why, unless he was connected with Norman Price in some way? She still couldn’t quite overlook the coincidence that he had been around at the Rainbow Club last night, coming into her life at the same time as her client. And conveniently overhearing her name.

  Or had he known it already? Had Norman Price told him to be sure and worm his way into the girl’s life, to keep an insider’s check on her investigations? She chewed her lip savagely. Imagination was all well and good when trying to puzzle out a case, but when it went way over the top, it did no damn good at all, except to send your nerve-ends soaring.

  ‘Sure, I’ve heard of it,’ Gary told her now. ‘Run-down place, seen better times, I reckon. Why?’

  ‘How do you know it?’ she countered.

  His eyes narrowed. ‘What is this, twenty questions? Is this something to do with the case?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  His arms went round her, vice-like, and her heart leapt as she heard the aggro in his voice.

  ‘Come on, Alex, we’ve come too far for you to go all coy on me. You’ve trusted me this far, so what’s changed all of a sudden? And what does Price Chemicals have to do with it?’

  ‘You don’t know him then? The owner, I mean.’

  Gary shook his head, his grip loosening a little, but not enough to make her feel comfortable.

  ‘Never seen him. I’ve only ever dealt with his minions.’

  ‘You’ve been there?’

  ‘I am a courier, darling. It’s my job. I’ve been there a few times to deliver packages. So? Are you going to tell me why I’m getting the third degree?’

  She gave in. ‘You have seen him. He’s my client, and he’s the man I met at the Rainbow Club last night—’

  ‘That old fruit? You want to steer clear of his type, sweetheart—’ and then he paused. ‘So where does the girl come in? The girl with the hots for this guy she calls M. Hell’s teeth, it’s not him, is it?’

  ‘She’s his daughter.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And she’s missing. She�
�s been missing for two weeks, and he wants to find her.’

  She wasn’t telling him why. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  Gary shrugged. ‘I’d say it’s a normal reaction when a kid goes missing, for a father to want her found.’

  ‘So you think she’s a kid, do you?’

  ‘Well, now that you come to mention it, no. Not with all the expertise she’s showing in that diary. And I don’t just mean her ability with coded information. I don’t blame her, though. Some of that stuff’s hot enough to burn the pages to a crisp. She could make a fortune selling it to some sleazy tabloid,’ he added with a grin.

  Alex sighed. She wasn’t in the mood for discussing Caroline’s pleasure in M’s sexual prowess, and her natural suspicion of Gary was becoming a nuisance. It was hindering things, and she wanted to trust him. She reached into her bag for Caroline’s photo album and opened it.

  ‘This is the missing daughter,’ she said.

  Before he spoke, he whistled again in the way she was beginning to find more than irritating.

  ‘Christ, she must have something pretty potent between her legs to keep M so interested, because she sure as hell ain’t got much up top!’

  Alex slammed the album shut. ‘That’s just about the most sexist remark I’ve heard tonight,’ she raged, feeling ridiculously protective of Caroline. ‘If that’s all you’ve got to say, then you’d better get out before I throw you out.’

  ‘What in hell’s the matter with you? You can’t tell me you think any guy in his right mind would fall for that mug without some other incentive!’

  When Alex didn’t answer, he ranted on.

  ‘What’s she got then? Is she an heiress or something? If she’s expecting to come into Daddy’s money, I’d say she’s in for a big shock because from the look of his business premises, he’s probably frittered it all away by now.’

  He was suddenly shrewder and calmer.

  ‘Or is the reason he’s looking for her because she’s coming into money from some other source, and he’s expecting her to bale him out?’

  ‘Are you sure you’re in the right business?’ Alex said sarcastically. ‘You’re obviously wasted doing courier work.’

  ‘Not necessarily, though the two combined might come in very useful at times. So am I right?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  He moved away from her and stood up so fast she almost fell off the sofa. He shrugged into his leathers.

  ‘When are you going to start trusting me, Alex?’

  ‘Why should I trust you? Haven’t you ever heard of client confidentiality? Besides I don’t know you.’

  ‘I’d say you know me as intimately as anybody in this world,’ he said, full of innuendo. ‘So what are you afraid of? Do you think I’m some kind of spy for the old boy, checking up on you to see you do the job right?’

  Alex hadn’t blushed in years. But seeing the tell-tale reddening in her cheeks now, Gary pulled her to her feet and shook her, his fingers digging into the tender flesh of her forearms.

  ‘Christ, that’s it, isn’t it? You think that because I happened to be at the Rainbow Club last night when you made your contact, me and the old fruit were in cahoots. You think that was why I made a pass at you.’

  ‘I don’t think that—’ Alex said, wishing he would let her go before the bruising on her arms matched the colour of the love-bites on her neck.

  ‘Good. Because I don’t screw a woman just to give some old fruit a turn-on,’ he said crudely.

  ‘Why then?’ she said faintly.

  ‘Why what?’

  ‘Why did you pursue me?’ She was frosty again, with no intention of using the words he did.

  Gary grinned, and the harsh pressure on her arms faded into a sensual caress.

  ‘Don’t you know? Do I have to spell it out that you’re the sexiest, classiest woman I’ve ever met in my life? And any minute now, you’re going to get the proof of it again.’

  She couldn’t doubt what he meant. Her frostiness vanished as she felt him hard against her through the thin silk kimono. She wound her arms about his neck, feeling the leathers cold against her warmth.

  ‘Much as I’d like to take you up on it, Gary,’ she said, her voice husky, knowing just how much she would like it, ‘I’ve got work to do, and if you really do want to help—’

  ‘OK, so we’ll leave it for later,’ he said. ‘I never forced a woman yet.’

  He wouldn’t have to do much forcing now, thought Alex weakly, but she had already discovered that his brain wasn’t totally housed in his jeans. And if there was no devious reason for their meeting, then it must surely have been fate that sent him to her. He had decoded Caroline’s nonsense, and he knew about Price Chemicals.

  So, unless anybody could prove otherwise, she was smothering her doubts, at least for the moment.

  ‘It’s not that I don’t want to, Gary,’ she said, her hand on his arm, and not at all sure why she was adopting this little-girl attitude. It wasn’t like her. It damn well wasn’t like her at all! ‘But this is work. You understand?’

  ‘Sure, I told you; it’s no problem. So you’re on the trail of this missing woman who, despite her looks, is a raving nympho. Tell me what you know so far.’

  He sprawled out in one of her easy-chairs now, legs wide, and looking as though he owned the place.

  She sat down again, her kimono tucked around her as prim as a nun — if a nun ever wore such a hot, frivolous colour. After studying him for a moment, she spoke abruptly.

  ‘Do you want a drink? I’ve got whisky and vodka, and there may be a few cans of beer somewhere—’

  ‘Whisky will be fine. Stop being so nervous, Alex. I’m just a guy who works for a living, same as you, and ready to help any way I can.’

  She poured him his whisky, and then poured herself a gen-erous glass of vodka laced with lime. And then she gave him a brief outline of what Norman Price had told her, and of her visit to the cottage at Wilsingham that morning. She didn’t mention the cousin, just that Price needed Caroline’s money to bale him out, as Gary had suggested.

  Thankfully, Gary merely listened attentively. His whistling had reminded her all too vividly of her father whistling for the dog to recover their renegade sheep in the Dales, and she hadn’t connected it until that very moment.

  ‘Is this case bothering you?’ he asked.

  ‘No more than usual. They always do at first.’

  ‘So why are your hands shaking? I really think you’re in the wrong job, Alex. She’s nothing to you, is she, this Caroline woman?’

  ‘No. except that I take every case seriously, and her father seemed so callous about her, so uncaring—’

  And oh God, if she wasn’t careful, she was going to start blubbering about how she knew all about a father who didn’t care... except that hers had, deep down. He just hadn’t had the vocabulary to tell her so, and she didn’t discover it until he was gone and it was too late.

  Leaving her the farm and everything he owned had been his heartbreaking legacy of love, and she had upped and sold it the minute she could. The thought of it didn’t sit comfortably on her conscience, even now, and she didn’t need reminding.

  She took a deep breath, knowing she was being ridiculous, and that she had no intention of telling Gary Hollis. or anyone else, about her past. Everyone had secrets, and this was hers.

  ‘You saw Price last night,’ she went on more harshly. ‘I didn’t like him from the moment I saw him, and from the way he carried on at Caroline’s cottage, I guessed he didn’t really want her disappearance investigated at all. If it wasn’t for what was in it for him—’

  ‘And what’s that exactly?’ Gary asked casually.

  Warning bells sounded in her head. In the early days, she’d bought a self-help manual on being a private detective, and one of the basic things it had told her was never to give too much away to would-be assistants. Not even assistants who were great in bed... especially not assistants who were great in bed. It hadn’t put it in
so many words, but the implications had been there for all to see: careless pillow-talk, to put it at its most blatant.

  ‘Not losing face, for one thing,’ she invented quickly. ‘Friends and relatives must know he has a daughter, so he could hardly seem to be so unconcerned about her, could he?’

  ‘So your first job should be to look for these friends and relatives, shouldn’t it?’ Gary said. ‘Maybe she’s staying with one of them, or at least they could tell you where she’s gone, or give you some clues. I presume Price’s given you a list of names.’

  She glared at him. After Norman Price’s dismissal of the idea of Caroline having friends or acquaintances, she hadn’t got around to asking the father for such a list. She’d been too concerned with checking out the clinical, crossword-compiling side of Caroline’s life that seemed to have got her nowhere; and now there was the intimate, personal side of it, thanks to the contents of the cottage bedroom and the diary that seemed to bear no relation to her business persona. But she knew damn well she should have asked for the name of the cousin at least. He was obviously worth a visit.

  ‘I’m dealing with that,’ she told Gary coldly.

  Without warning, she gave a huge yawn that was perfectly genuine. She wanted to think, and she couldn’t concentrate any longer while he was around.

  ‘I’m sorry, but we’ll have to call it a day, Gary. Sorry, but I’m out on my feet. Sorry.’

  God, she sounded like a parrot now. Why the hell should she apologize anyway? She hadn’t invited him in. Not exactly.

  ‘It’s all right, I’m going. Oh — and the reason I said I knew Price Chemicals is because I have to deliver a package there tomorrow.’

  ‘What? Why didn’t you tell me before?’

  ‘You never asked. You were too busy thinking I had some ulterior motive for being interested. You can come along for the ride if you like. I’ll pick you up at your office around ten o’clock, OK?And you can forget about supper. I’ll get a Chinese on the way home.’