‘Because I don’t want to.’
‘And why’s that?’
‘I prefer to stay in control of my mind. It’s a bit like your property. If you don’t protect it, people can take what’s yours. I don’t want to surrender my thoughts and my inhibitions for other people to help themselves to what’s private to me because I didn’t guard it carefully enough.’
Solomon said nothing, but he indicated she should take a seat on the small sofa inside the bay window. She was gripping the front door key in one hand and the bottle in the other. Her car keys jingled in her pocket and the words, What the hell are you doing? crossed her mind as she dodged the pool table and sat stiffly at one end of the sofa. Solomon sat carefully beside her at an angle. She was painfully aware that his knees were almost touching hers as she sipped on her drink. She glanced round the room and could feel him scrutinising her. The sensation was almost physical, a creeping across her skin.
‘What’s this about?’ she asked, keen to move things along.
‘What’s what about?’
‘This. Drink, music, cosy little sofa, talk of taking things to the next level. What does that even mean?’
‘Whatever you want it to mean.’
‘I don’t want it to mean anything,’ Naomi replied.
‘Of course you do. That’s why you’re here.’
‘I just want you to answer my questions.’
‘Well, it seems protection has become the theme of the day,’ he said.
She looked at him now, at his unblinking eyes. ‘I don’t follow.’
Solomon licked his lips. ‘Damien Carter isn’t hanging around to threaten you. He’s there to protect you.’
The response was delayed. ‘Protect me from who?’
‘Whoever.’
‘How dare you? I don’t need your protection or want it.’
‘You may not want it, but you certainly need it.’
‘Don’t patronise me.’ She slammed the bottle on the floor beside the leg furthest from Vincent Solomon, and twisted to face him. The anger was back, surging through her, causing her hands to tremble. ‘I’m not one of your little pawns. You can tell that big, ugly brute of yours to stay away from me.’
Solomon’s expression didn’t change. His voice remained calm. ‘Nathan knows where you live, Naomi. He knows your student address and your parents’ new place in Bramhall. He has an agenda and he isn’t as patient or as smart as I am. The only thing keeping him away from you at the moment is my big, ugly brute. But I can have a quiet word with Carter if you like.’
Naomi felt sick. Her hands were cold when she clamped them together to stop them from shaking.
He continued, ‘I understand the score. You want to be free of Nathan, but he won’t let you go, not without money. But you don’t see why you should give him any more. You paid his debt after all, and in return, he escaped justice and tried to twist the knife on you. You’re furious about that, but you’re also afraid of what he might do. You need to sort things out with him so your life can move on, but you never want to see him again.’ He paused. ‘So you have a very big problem, but you don’t know how to solve it or who you can trust, isn’t that right?’
Silence descended on the room until Naomi said, ‘And why did Nathan escape justice?’
His eyes were fixed on hers. ‘That’s complex.’
‘Simple enough question. Why are you stepping up to protect me now if you’re responsible for the need to protect me in the first place?’
He took a shallow sip from his glass. ‘I’m not responsible. Nathan made his choices. Dan made his. The consequences followed. My involvement was minimal, but I did make sure that you and Dan didn’t land up in prison.’
‘But you owe me nothing, and you hardly have a reputation for being a moral upstanding citizen, so why did you stick your neck out for me?’
‘What makes you think it was for you?’
‘Dan?’ Naomi whispered and silence squeezed the room again. ‘Why?’
‘I needed him,’ Solomon said quietly, ‘for a job that no one else could do.’
Naomi swallowed. ‘But he wouldn’t do it.’
Solomon’s eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, he did do it – quite magnificently, as I knew he would. Dan’s a remarkable person, Naomi. Like no one else I know. I’ve wanted him to embrace the brotherhood for quite some time.’
Her gut twisted; she couldn’t respond.
Solomon added, ‘If I may say so, you’ve let an incredible person go. Do you ever wonder if you’ve made a mistake?’
‘Every day. Whatever you say, I know that Dan would never work for you,’ she said.
Solomon just smiled warmly, which disarmed her.
‘Well, Dan wouldn’t accept payment, so –’
‘I don’t believe any of this.’
Solomon shuffled closer. ‘You came here for the truth, didn’t you? I never promised it would be comfortable. You wanted answers; I’ve provided them. The truth will make you free, that’s what the Bible says – John chapter eight verse thirty-two. Isn’t that the next level, Naomi – the truth itself? What you do with the truth and the freedom is up to you now.’
Naomi stood up too suddenly and her vision vanished for a few seconds. The key was still in her hand. ‘Truth is, I want to leave.’
He stood up too and gave her one of his direct looks. ‘You have the key. Free yourself.’ She turned for the door but he took hold of her arm. ‘If you’re taking on Nathan by yourself, a word of advice.’
‘I don’t want your advice.’
‘I know how Nathan’s wired, and you don’t, which is very dangerous.’ His voice was steely. Naomi stood still with her heart pounding. He let go of her. ‘You can’t reason with Nathan. You can’t plead with him or hope he’ll do the right thing. He’ll never tire of toying with you, intimidating you and hurting you until he gets what he wants. Play him at his own game and out-manoeuvre him if you want to be free of him. As an interesting side-issue, he has a new girlfriend, a policewoman ironically. Be careful, Naomi.’ His hand came out of his pocket and he held out a business card. ‘Call me if Nathan gets out of hand and I’ll step in.’
She shook her head. ‘No thanks. I don’t like your methods. Nathan’s still my husband, so he’s my problem. I’ll deal with him in my way. Please keep your guard dogs on a tight leash. I don’t want them straying near me or any of my family.’
Solomon returned his card to his pocket. ‘I never see you without finding it incredibly stimulating. Don’t leave it as long next time.’
Naomi left the room and headed for the front door. As she inserted the key, she heard footsteps behind her. The key wouldn’t fit in the lock. Her hands were trembling as she looked over her shoulder. Vincent Solomon was standing watching her, both hands in his pockets. Naomi concentrated on the key and managed to make it fit. She turned the door handle, flew out of the house, down the path and back to Annabel’s car with the skin-crawling feeling that she was being watched, every step.
<><><>
Naomi made it home somehow. Thoughts were blinding her and filling her head with pictures. The stage inside her head was more brightly lit than her surroundings. She stumbled to her room. Vincent Solomon’s eyes went with her – the colour, the shape, the way he rarely blinked. The way he tried to peer beyond her eyes inside her head.
She needed a shower; needed to rinse his image away and scrub her body of the memory of his touch. Had he touched her? Her skin had responded to his closeness. It felt like he’d mauled every part of her. She started to unbutton her blouse from the bottom. There was a knock at the door and then her dad’s voice.
‘Naomi?’
‘I’m here,’ she said. She didn’t want to talk. Henry walked in anyway.
‘I’m worried about you,’ he announced.
‘Don’t be.’
‘I spoke to you on the landing just now, and you didn’t know I was there. What on earth is wrong?’
‘Leave it, Dad.’
&
nbsp; He said nothing, just watched her as she took her earrings out and started to take off her shoes.
‘Talk to me,’ he said eventually.
‘I’m not in the mood.’
He watched her for a few seconds. ‘Anything to do with Dave?’ Henry said with a small smile.
Naomi didn’t smile, she shrugged. She didn’t care what impression that gave. If it made him feel as though he was trespassing on private property and needed to leave, then fine.
Henry went on, ‘You know, I heard you talking to him in the treehouse. I know you weren’t alone that night.’ Naomi stared at him, confusion muddling her thoughts. ‘If you’re miserable without him, why not try to patch things up?’
‘Dad!’ she snapped, then lowered her tone to say, ‘You think Dave is Nathan?’
Silence for a moment. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘What are you on?’
‘I heard Nathan’s voice that night. Didn’t I? I thought we’d talked about this.’
Naomi was speechless. She glared at Henry. ‘You’re unreal.’
Henry said, ‘I don’t understand.’
Naomi took another few moments to organise her thoughts. ‘Dad, I don’t understand why you don’t understand. Dave is Dan, Nathan’s brother.’ Henry wiped his face. ‘OK? I love Dan, but it’s too hard for us to be together. Trust is a real issue for me, and even if I could trust Dan, which I can’t, it isn’t really practical for us to be together.’
Henry’s mouth had dropped open. ‘I’m sorry. I’m absolutely flabbergasted. I had no idea at all.’ Henry went quiet and stared at the floor. ‘So every time we mentioned Dave –’
‘We were talking about Dan.’
‘But I was sure –’
‘Yes, Dad, you did hear Nathan that night. Nathan was the intruder in the garden. When you and Mum searched the grounds of the house, Nathan got in and hid under my bed, and he waited there all day. And when you talked to me in the treehouse, he had a knife to my face.’
Henry’s voice modulated into a higher key. ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’
‘Lower your voice, Dad. Because there was no point. Mum was in a state. We moved out right after that anyway. There was nothing you could do.’
‘We should have involved the police.’
‘Ideally, yes, but things are not ideal. Things are very dark, haven’t you noticed? I don’t trust the police, not after Nathan was let off. As you know, they suspected I was lying and that I’d actually been on honeymoon with him. They let me go. They let Nathan go because of a lack of evidence or something. No one really knows what happened. The CPS just threw the case out as if nothing noteworthy had happened.’
‘Why didn’t you fight it? Your mother wanted to.’
‘She wanted to fight an enemy she didn’t understand. Nathan was involved with a gang.’
‘What gang? You’ve never talked to us about this.’
‘Because you and Mum have enough problems. I don’t want to talk about the gang, Dad,’ she said, with the colour of Solomon’s eyes still vivid in her mind. ‘I’ve tried to move on. I want to forget.’
Henry had gone pale. ‘This is a lot to take in.’
‘For me too. It’s just best to leave well alone and not to shake things up too much, Dad. Trust me, there was no way I was going to tell the police that my husband got into my bed and put a knife to my throat.’
Henry gasped.
‘Yes, Dad. He dragged me outside and we talked in the treehouse. He wanted money. That’s what he married me for. I thought you understood that very clearly.’
Henry shook his head. ‘We’ve had our wires crossed here, right from the beginning.’
‘It’s always been this family’s problem. We don’t communicate properly. Everyone’s too cagey to be honest.’
Henry nodded, then closed his eyes and sunk his face in his hands. From behind them, he said, ‘I thought you’d been seeing Nathan, so I thought that his end of the story must be true.’
‘Dad! You have to wake up. What planet are you on? Nathan is dangerous, OK? Lorie set me up with him. She’s dangerous too. They expected me to die. It was attempted murder, and they’re both out there. Free. The police are unconcerned. How can you not know that?’
Henry shook his head and could summon no words. His head hung low.
‘But the money,’ he said, weakly. The sentence had no end.
‘What money?’
Henry sighed. ‘Lorie borrowed ten thousand off me months before the wedding, then the police searched her flat while she was being questioned. They found and brought an envelope, which had the money in cash and my name on the envelope. She couldn’t have planned that. There wasn’t the time.’
‘So someone planned it for her and planted that money in her flat to make her look innocent. Isn’t it obvious?’
‘Not to me.’
‘Why did no one tell me about this money?’
‘It didn’t seem relevant.’
‘Everything’s relevant. Everything.’ She panted. ‘Look, Dad, I’m going to ask you a question now and I want the truth. Did you cut ties with Lorie?’
Henry swallowed.
‘Well?’ She was losing patience.
‘Naomi,’ he began apologetically. His eyes were watery.
‘No,’ she said, barely a whisper. ‘Dad, no!’
‘I’m so sorry –’
‘You don’t get it at all. You’re putting us in danger, our whole family. We moved here for safety and seclusion and you’re putting that in jeopardy. Lorie almost destroyed us and you’ve flung the gates wide open for her again. You’ve been really stupid, Dad.’
‘Oh dear. Please don’t tell your mother. Things are difficult enough.’ A tear escaped Henry’s eye. He was unmoving.
Naomi panted. ‘Of course I won’t.’
Silence a beat. Henry wiped one eye.
Naomi, ‘What have you told Lorie?’
Henry shook his head. ‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing? How can you tell her nothing? If you’ve been communicating with her, you’re telling her everything she needs to know. Small details are enough. Think, Dad, this is important.’
Henry squeezed his lips together hard. His eyes were examining the floor. Naomi kept watching him and waiting. A new expression crept over his face. He bent down and collected a piece of paper off the floor and looked over it carefully.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s nothing,’ Naomi said. ‘It’s eight years old. Doesn’t matter now.’
‘Where did you get it?’
Naomi sighed and dropped down onto her bed. She was exhausted suddenly. ‘The day I was kidnapped in Jo’burg. I was wearing some blue shorts. Mum brought a box of stuff from the old loft for me to sort, and I found the shorts in there. I’d kept them to remember my life there. The last time I wore those shorts was the last time I was carefree and happy. Everything changed after that.’
‘And this note?’
‘It was in the pocket. At the time, I missed it. I think the men must have planted it on me. I can’t be sure. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. We left, so that’s that.’
‘Dear lord.’ Henry turned and began to stagger towards the door, still clutching the note.
‘Dad?’
Henry took hold of the door handle. ‘Don’t worry, Naomi. Things are going to change. I promise.’
‘What do you mean?’
But the door had already closed and Henry had disappeared on silent footsteps.
PART FOUR
29
It was hard to remember when it had last rained. News channels were reporting the driest period on record. Water levels were low in several parts of the country. Then the dry spell turned into a warm spell, the first of the year. Temperatures soared into the late sixties Fahrenheit, which for April following a long dark winter, felt tropical. It could hit seventy on Easter Monday, they said. People were being asked to preserve water. They warned of hosepipe bans if there wasn’t a generous dow
npour during spring.
Bored with dull reports of struggling wildlife and dried-up streams and dipping river levels, Nathan flicked off the TV in his room, towel-dried his hair and fingered some gel through it, then dressed in a pale grey shirt and black jeans and loaded on the aftershave. Why change a winning formula?
It was almost six-thirty. His parents had left to travel miles for a candlelit anniversary meal in the hotel that had hosted their wedding reception. They were staying there overnight. Nathan had scraped together enough cash to buy them a card. He’d written a cheque for twenty pounds because he knew for certain they’d never cash it, and noted with satisfaction that Dan had forgotten. Openly, they’d mentioned nothing about Dan, but had been whispering about him for several weeks. Nathan had gone to the trouble of listening in to quiet conversations and had gathered that Dan had gone into hibernation and wasn’t communicating. Dan switching to hibernation mode meant one of two things: either he was very busy, or very upset.
Nathan wandered into his parents’ room and made a careful search through the drawers until he found a hundred and fifty pounds rolled up in a pair of socks in his mum’s underwear drawer. Valerie Stone had always stored cash like this – smallish sums hidden in random places.
‘Thank you.’
Nathan put the money in his wallet. He’d pay her back soon. Probably. He hurried down the stairs. The scent of a potted hyacinth drifted from the kitchen window sill as Nathan located his car keys on the table. He snatched them and then exited the front door and locked the house.
The evening was cool but pleasant, and not a cloud. It was exquisitely perfect. The sun was sinking during the twenty-mile drive from Bury to Saddleworth which took thirty minutes to reach. He left the M62 and threaded through the heights of moorland, and travelled up slim lanes lined with dark stone walls until he reached a stunning country pub that had a border of spruce trees and spectacular open views.
Kerry Marshall was already there. The sight of her silver sports car in the little car park brought a squeeze of saliva to his mouth and the pleasant buzz of anticipation. For the car or for her? A close call.
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