Grace Smith Investigates

by Liz Evans

  He sniffed in another noseful of misery. ‘I knew it was all over really when she went off yesterday. I hate her.’

  ‘No you don’t.’

  ‘But I wish I did,’ he burst out. ‘If Kelly doesn’t want me, I wish I was dead. What am I going to do?’

  ‘Get out of here for a start. How did he get you up here?’

  ‘He phoned me. He wanted a quiet place to meet. He was going to pay for ... something.’

  ‘I’ve got the something, Carter. I paid a visit to Great-uncle Cooper this morning.’

  He twisted free. ‘You had no right! Those are my private things!’

  ‘Actually, Carter, a large number aren’t yours at all.’ I was relieved to see that normal colour was returning to his face and his breathing was back to a regular rhythm. ‘When did you take those tapes from Luke’s cottage?’

  ‘That night,’ he muttered sulkily. ‘I nipped back when Kelly

  went home to wash and change. When she said Luke had taken one into the kitchen, I guessed he was using that hole as a hiding place. Loads of the old places around here have that gap. Everyone thinks they’re the first to find it. Did you watch Luke’s tapes?’

  ‘A little.’

  ‘I’m glad Kelly killed him. I wasn’t at first because I really liked him then. If it hadn’t been her who’d done it, I’d have called the police straight off that night.’

  ‘If it hadn’t been Kelly, you wouldn’t have been following her up there in the first place.’

  ‘She took my keys. She pretended to be all friendly coming for my birthday and looking at my space stuff, and then she stole them. I knew she’d go up there. I mean, I could never figure her liking those losers she hangs with, but Luke was a cool guy. I thought he was my friend, but he was just laughing at me like all the rest. I bet he showed that tape to all his friends. I bet they had parties to laugh at me.’

  ‘I doubt it. Why’d you keep it?’

  ‘Dunno. Didn’t believe it. I thought if I kept watching it enough it would change, be something else. That sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?’

  ‘No. I do that with films with unhappy endings. One day I figure the Titanic is going to make it to New York. Did you watch the other tapes, Carter?’

  He flushed a guilty pink. The tip of his tongue moistened his lips. ‘A bit. It was that bird in your photos, wasn’t it?’

  Rather than answer that one, I asked him if he recalled the day he’d looked through Barbra’s snaps. ‘I dived off the church wall under Luke’s car, remember?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Can you remember who was in the two pictures you hung on to? The ones you passed to Luke while I was pulling myself together?’

  ‘The women.’

  ‘Both of them?’

  ‘Yeah. One of each. Why?’

  ‘Never mind, I—’ We both heard it at the same time. The distant throb of a car engine. ‘Move.’

  I dragged Carter to his feet and hustled him to the door. The bike was still propped against the front of the farmhouse.

  ‘Get it out of sight. And as soon as it’s clear, split.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I’ll be fine. And listen, Carter, there’s something else I want you to do .. .’

  I gave him his instructions. He wasn’t keen, but the threat of someone murmuring in a vengeful Keith Benting’s ear was enough to send him trotting across to drag Grannie Vetch’s pride around the back of the farmhouse before the car bonnet appeared at the top of the rise.

  39

  I wasn’t sure which of them I’d be facing. I sat quite still in the barn stall, my chin on my knees and my arms hugging my shin bones, betting with myself, until I caught the blur of movement at the corner of my eye.

  ‘I win,’ I said. ‘You move differently.’

  ‘Differently from what?’ Peter asked.

  ‘Differently from Rainwing. She glides, you saunter. Walk it like they talk it, eh?’

  He squatted on his haunches beside me. The grey trousers and sweater blended into the background, so that I was conscious once more of the gleam of gold skin in the V between throat and breastbone. ‘Something like that. Where’s the kid?’

  ‘Gone. What the hell did you think you were doing, trussing him up like that?’

  ‘He stole something that belongs to me. And he wanted five hundred pounds to return it. I don’t have five hundred pounds. I barely have one hundred at present. I wasn’t going to leave him here. Just give him a few hours to think about it.’

  ‘He has asthma. A few minutes could have been enough with the gag on.’

  ‘I didn’t know. Truly, Grace. I don’t want to hurt anyone.’

  ‘Don’t you? You could have fooled me. Well, let’s face it, you have been fooling me - or helping me to fool myself. This whole bloody seduction scenario was to make sure I didn’t spoil your little blackmail scam, wasn’t it?’

  ‘You’ve seen the tapes.’

  ‘I’ve got the tapes.’

  ‘Carter said—’

  ‘Forget Carter.’ I unfolded myself and rose. He followed me so that we ended up looking into each other’s eyes. ‘It’s me you have to deal with now. If you’re thinking of tying me up here, forget it, sunshine. Been there; done that; got the T-shirt.’

  ‘I wouldn’t hurt you, Grace. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.’ He reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind my left ear. ‘ “Give me that man that is not passions slave.” ’

  I knocked his hand away. ‘Can the performance. It stinks. I’m not surprised nobody ever casts you.’

  That one hurt him. I saw the flicker in his eyes and wanted to hug him better. ‘Let’s get some fresh air. I need it.’

  He allowed me to lead the way back to the yard. The car was parked by the house. Perching on the still warm bonnet, I waited for Peter to join me. ‘So tell me more about this scam. When did you and Luke put it together?’

  ‘When we realised there wasn’t going to be any pot of gold from Uncle Eric. The stupid old bastard had promised to invest in Luke’s production—’

  ‘There really was a film?’

  ‘Of course there was. I told you, Luke had real talent. He could have been another Spielberg or Tarantino. Old Eric was tickled pink at the idea of being involved.’

  ‘ “I can get you in the movies”?’

  ‘Exactly. But it wasn’t a con - he would have got his money back. We thought he was loaded. He sent cash out to the States regularly when Luke was there. And then when he checked out—’

  ‘You discovered he’d sold the cottage to a finance company - and the payments died with him.’

  ‘There was hardly anything left. We were desperate, Grace.’

  ‘So you came up with the idea of blackmailing your own mother?’

  ‘It wasn’t blackmail.’

  ‘What was it, then?’

  ‘A publishing deal.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  Up until then he’d been facing me. Now he came to sit next to me on the sun-warmed bonnet. The hand nearest me lightly brushed mine.

  ‘A publishing deal,’ he repeated ‘A book. Serialised extracts in the newspapers. Possibly an electronic package - Internet publishing. My mother is attractive to the media now; she’s different, a bit exotic, rather sexy. A cabinet post would have added the final gloss. Give it a few months to get her face on all the right covers, and then…’

  ‘Dump on her?’

  ‘It wasn’t like that.’

  ‘Isn’t it? I’ve seen the tapes, remember?’

  ‘Where are they?’

  ‘Safe. The photo collection too. That’s how I knew you were in on it with Luke, if you’re interested. You used the uncompromising ones when you pulled that switch on me in Daniel Sholto’s flat.’

  They’d all been there. The pagoda-shaped pavilion with its curly red roof; the lake with its protective swan; the cliff with the teapot rock; the anonymous street with the van propped on bricks. Only in the collect
ion Carter had lifted from Luke’s hidey-hole, Luke and Faye were included amongst the scenery. They were almost charmingly innocent: in one, his head was bent to hers, the highlighted strands mingling with her ebony; in others they were walking hand-in-hand or with his arm around her shoulder. The one kiss was of the peck-on-the-cheek variety.

  ‘I had to improvise fast,’ Peter said. ‘The discards from those reels was all I had at the bedsit.’

  ‘Did you take them?’

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘And it didn’t make you feel grubby sneaking around after your mum and her lover with a long-range lens?’

  ‘No. If you’ve seen them, you know there’s nothing salacious in the whole collection. My mother’s too naturally discreet to behave improperly in public. I doubt she even kisses my bloody stepfather outdoors.’ His voice had changed. There was a bitter edge to each word, like hoar frost riming leaves. ‘That’s why Luke had to get her down here. Give the public something worth salivating over. Who’d have thought the oh-so-cool Faye Sinclair could be such a tart.’

  ‘You watched the tapes!’

  ‘You sound shocked. You really are just an old-fashioned girl under that mean-chick performance, aren’t you?’

  ‘Thanks for the “girl”. How did Carter’s work-out get in on the act?’

  ‘Luke wanted to test out the cameras. See he’d got them set up correctly for my mother’s ... performance. I didn’t know he’d kept it. It probably gave him a buzz - all that boyish flesh.’

  There was only one way to interpret that last remark. ‘Luke was gay?’

  ‘Ragingly so.’

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘I already told you - no. Although I think Luke always had hopes of converting me.’

  ‘But he had an affair with your mum!’

  ‘One of us had to for this to work. And I don’t think she’d have jumped into bed with me. Although I’ll grant you, it would have added a few noughts to the publisher’s cheque if she had.’

  ‘You really are the pits, Peter.’

  ‘What the hell do you know about it? Have you any idea what my life has been like?’

  ‘Pretty cushy, I’d say. Even that commune wasn’t exactly brown rice and loos in the vegetable patch, was it?’

  ‘The commune was great. I loved it. I wanted to stay there. But that didn’t suit Mr Hamish Alastair Sinclair. Didn’t fit the image to have a stepson hanging out with the hippies. Might look too much like child neglect. So he put pressure on my mother to send me to that goddamn-awful boarding school. And when she wasn’t convinced, he recruited good old Selwyn to the cause. There are some people who thrive on being patronised by the great and the good - and believe me, Selwyn is one of them. Between them they managed to convince mother my best chance lay in the public education system. Children sense things. They know when you’re different. That’s where I first realised I could act. Believe me, I acted for my life at that school some days.’

  ‘Did you tell anyone?’

  ‘You don’t, do you? Because it will make things worse. You just hang in there and pray you’ll get through it. And the vacs weren’t much better. Do you know what it’s like to always feel like the odd one out? The child that doesn’t fit into the cosy family set¬up?’

  Actually - yes. But I wasn’t in the mood to start slagging off my own lot, so I let him keep going, pouring out fourteen-odd years of resentment.

  ‘They never said anything - well, apart from my maternal grandfather, who didn’t say plenty, if you see what I mean - but I felt it. How much they’d prefer it if it was just my sisters in all those family snaps and official party pictures. I was a living reminder of the skeleton in the closet. I kept popping up like a fault in the lens that leaves a trace on every print.’

  ‘I think you’re being a bit hard on your mum, Peter. She seems to care about you.’

  ‘What would you know? Do you know what my father told me? My real father, I mean, not Hamish. He wanted to marry my mother. I’d always thought I was a case of hard-luck-sweetie-and- here’s-five-hundred-for-the-abortion. I was actually grateful to my mother for having the courage to go ahead and have me. I could have been the oldest son; the oldest legitimate son. Instead of being invisible, I’d have been my grandfather’s favourite. But it seems my mother decided she didn’t want to ruin both their lives by tying them together in a loveless marriage. She didn’t care about ruining my life, though, did she? So why the hell should I care about ruining hers?’

  ‘It’s hardly ruined, is it, Peter? You’ve got the career you wanted. This time next year you could be the next DiCaprio.’

  ‘Or I could be cleaning up after rich bitches. Or working split shifts as a waiter serving Hooray Henrys and bored bimbos who lunch.’

  ‘That what you usually do?’

  ‘Mostly.’

  ‘I thought you had a professional touch with those champagne bottles.’

  His hand moved fully over mine. ‘That was a magical night for me, Grace.’

  ‘Oh, sure. Just two kindred souls touching across the glorious infinity of space - and lying like hell to each other.’

  ‘I thought we’d sorted that.’

  ‘The only reason we met at all was based on a lie. All that rubbish about worrying that I’d taken pictures of Rainwing that could embarrass your mum. It wasn’t the picture of you in your frock that bothered Luke that morning I met him. It was the shot of your mum. The pair of you thought someone else was about to break the news of the big affair and ruin your scam. It’s lucky that bus didn’t run thirty minutes earlier. You could have bumped into her yourself and trashed the whole plot.’

  ‘Luke was supposed to keep her in the house. We didn’t know she’d even been out until—’

  ‘Carter waved the evidence under Luke’s nose that morning and launched you both into conniving mode. Was it you who trashed my flat?’

  ‘I’m sorry about that. I’d never done anything like that before. I was panicking. I wanted to, find those negatives and get out as fast as possible. I kept expecting you to walk in on me.’

  So while I’d been looking for clues about him in Daniel Sholto’s flat that Friday, he’d been doing the same in mine. ‘How’d you get the address? I don’t keep anything with it on in my bag.’

  ‘There’s a man off Tottenham Court Road ... If you give him a telephone number, he’s got this computer program that can back-trace to the address. Some of the crowd use him to find the homes of producers, casting directors and the like. Means you can work out which is their local and start hanging out there.’

  ‘Same trick with the office as well?’

  He nodded. ‘I had to wait for it to close. Even then, I wasn’t sure I could get in.’

  ‘You were lucky you didn’t kill yourself swinging across the gutter.’

  ‘I know. I nearly did die when I saw the alarm systems. All the time I was listening for sirens. That’s why I smashed my way around. I couldn’t be neat - I hadn’t the time. Especially when Luke had flunked it. Of I thought he had.’

  ‘Luke was supposed to be there?’

  ‘Of course he was. I didn’t see how I could do it by myself. I rung him up and told him to meet me at ten. I thought it would be dark enough by then. Only he didn’t show.’

  ‘So you left him a couple of reminders on his mobile. Using my voice.’

  ‘Did I? It wasn’t deliberate. I like to practise other voices when I hear them. Yours was in my head. It has been a lot recently, Grace.’

  He squeezed my hand gently. I moved it away. ‘Didn’t you wonder why he hadn’t shown up?’

  ‘I thought he’d bottled it. He didn’t want to do it in the first place. He was terrified.’

  ‘Of getting caught.’

  ‘That. But more of slipping from that gutter and ruining his precious face. He was a vain bitch. We had words. I was going to go out there and tell him what I thought of him, but I didn’t have the price of a mini-cab. I had pictures of him refusing to answer the do
or and the cab driver calling the police when he found out I was broke. It was the last thing I needed. I couldn’t even get home. I’d only bought a single train ticket. Luke was supposed to drive me back after we’d—’

  ‘Stolen my photos?’

  ‘Yes. Sorry.’

  We sat in silence for a few minutes, then I asked how he had got back. ‘Slept in a prom shelter that night, hitched back Saturday.’

  We’d probably passed each other. Me fuming on the train because he’d taken me for an idiot. And him on the motorway because he hadn’t taken me for as much as he’d wanted to.

  Abruptly Peter said, ‘I thought he was sulking. When he didn’t ring me. He could sulk, you know. I was going to let him stew in it over the Bank Holiday and then stage the big reconciliation scene. He liked those. Always raised his hopes that he could get me to cross over to the other lot. And then suddenly there were those news reports of a suspicious death. I knew it was him before they named him - I just knew.’

  ‘So you thought you’d rush down to Mummy and see if the police had been round yet with a set of dodgy DVDs?’

  ‘Partly. Although to be honest ...’ He paused at my involuntary snort of derision. ‘... to be honest, I needed to bum some cash and the use of her car to get over here and find out what the hell was going on. It’s not easy being a crook when you’re flat broke and you’ve got no wheels.’

  ‘It’s not easy catching them either,’ I said with feeling, recalling the past weeks’ adventures with Grannie Vetch’s bike.

  We exchanged a grin. Without meaning to, I’d let him under my guard. And he knew it.

  ‘Just because I met you under false pretences, that doesn’t mean that my feelings towards you were false, Grace.’

  I wasn’t ready to let him off that meat hook yet. ‘You mean, when you shared your soul with me the other day and claimed you’d bolted because you couldn’t handle the possibility we’d break up later over the frocks, that was really genuine? Call me a cynic, but I had this nasty little idea you’d dumped me after we’d dug Carter’s Whiplash Wendy and friends out of the sofa because you thought they were Luke’s home DVDs - albeit in camouflage packing. And then when you watched them and realised they weren’t, you decided you’d better hang in there and keep an eye on me in case I found the star prize before you.’