IN THE SHADOW OF STRANGERS: A wealthy man is about to change her destiny …but it’s a secret.

by Wendy Reakes

  “You weren’t ready,” he said. “You were only young. You had your life ahead of you. I would have just gotten in the way. Besides, I had an accident just after we met. It was a car crash, and so was my face.” He rubbed the bristled beard running on his cheek. “I got it all patched up, but I’m not so cute anymore.”

  “I think you are,” she said, running her finger along the faded scar at the side of his face. “I think you’re gorgeous, actually,” she smiled. “What were you doing there that day? Were you on holiday?”

  “In a way!” he answered evasively. He didn’t expect her to ask him why he’d been there. “It was to do with work.” It wasn’t a lie. He did work for Gordon then, in a round-about sort of way.

  “What do you do?”

  “I have a haulage firm. I run the logistics side and my partner runs the distribution.” Jack said. “I’m a lorry driver by trade.”

  “So what’s a lorry driver doing on the ski slopes?”

  “Enough questions. Come here,” he said, pulling her across the bed towards him.

  Chapter 76

  Jack was watching Katherine circulate among the people at the reception. He was sitting at a table alone, in a corner, out of the way. He didn’t want to cramp her style. “I’ll have you all to myself later. This is your night. It’s your job and I know you’ll want to be all professional about it. You won’t want your boyfriend hanging around like a lovesick puppy.”

  “How do you know me so well?” she asked.

  “I’ve known you all my life,” he answered with a whisper, kissing her again for the hundredth time that hour.

  Jack watched the man who had been with her last night. He was stroking her back. Jack saw her turn towards him and kiss him on the side of the cheek. Then she looked over at Jack and smiled a reassuring smile.

  “Well, what do you know!” a voice said. “Twice in two days. It must be fate.”

  Jack looked up to see Frank Warner standing over him. Jack’s blood ran cold. “Nah, not fate, mate.” Jack said. “Just bad luck!”

  Frank Warner’s face changed. “I might have known you were being a bit too friendly to me yesterday when I saw you with your cop friend.” He pulled out a chair and sat down. “So how did you know I’d be here?”

  “What?” Jack was incredulous. “I didn’t. Why would I be here for you?”

  “Isn’t this a stake-out?” Frank Warner said with a deep cockney accent.

  “I’m not old Bill. I’m just a lorry driver.”

  “Just a lorry driver, eh? So you haven’t got a logistics firm in Gloucester then?” he said, challenging Jack to tell the truth.

  “You obviously know I have.”

  “Of course! I checked you out, Jack. I wanted to know what you were doing with the police in one of my café’s yesterday. Turns out, you run the company my stepson used to ship his illegal cargo.”

  “I don’t know anything about that.”

  “So what are you doing here then?” Frank was testing all his theories and now Jack was worried he’d guess the real reason he was there. Frank was looking about the room. He saw Katherine standing talking to her colleagues and customers. “Ben’s wife!” He turned back to Jack. “I’ve got it. You know my stepson’s wife and you’re trying to find out more about me, through her. Is that it?” He laughed. “You’re wasting your time, Jack. She don’t know nothing about her old Uncle Frank.”

  “Oh, I’m aware of that.”

  “Then why…?” Frank Warner looked back and saw Katherine looking animated and beautiful. Then he looked at Jack. “Oh I see! You know the Killa girl better than I thought.” As Jack stared into his glass, Frank begins piecing things together. “That’s why your mate, Gordon Bentley bought my café from me. It was for her.” He was remembering the deal they’d made a few years back. “Gordon said no one should know about it, that it was some sort of secret. He was doing it for you, wasn’t he? You and the Killa girl were having an affair behind our Ben's back.”

  “What are you talking about, Warner? You’re so far off the mark you sound bloody paranoid. If I know Katherine, it’s got nothing to do with you.”

  Frank Warner looked pleased by the revelations.

  “Frank,” Katherine says as she approached the table. He stood up and they greeted each other with a kiss on the cheek. “What are you doing here? This is…um....an unexpected surprise.”

  “Hello, daughter-in-law.” He winked at Jack who was watching them from the other side of the table. “I heard a restaurant was opening in town tonight, and it turned out it was one of our very own Kathy’s. What luck!”

  “Do you know Jack?” she asked.

  “No, we just met didn’t we, me ol’ son?” Warner said with snarl Katherine didn’t notice.

  Jack kept his eyes on Warner and offered a slow smile in acknowledgement.

  “Let me get you a drink.” Katherine took off in search of a waiter.

  “So she doesn’t know that you know me. Funny that! Because if you run the haulage company Ben used, you must know he was trafficking wine through her restaurant in Ealing. She doesn’t know that, does she Jack?”

  “Keep her out of this, Warner.”

  “She’s already in it, mate. Only she don’t know it.” Frank Warner’s eyes bored into Jack's. “So, here’s what we’re going to do,” he goes on. “You get PC plodding Watts off my back and you get out of my face, too. In return I won’t tell her nothing about your involvement with her poor dead husband. I’ll also let her keep every little hair on her head.”

  Jack stood up and took hold of Warner by the knot in his tie. He stopped when he realised the other diners were watching them. Jack let him go. “Touch her, Warner and you’re a dead man.” Jack said with fire in his eyes.

  “You know what you have to do then, Jack. Don’t you?”

  When Katherine came back with some drinks, Jack was gone.

  Chapter 77

  “Brian, it’s me, Jack.”

  “Jack? Are you okay, you sound as if you’ve been jogging?”

  “Running. For two reasons. I had to run off the idea of punching Frank Warner’s lights out for the first part, and secondly, I wanted to get back to the flat to ring you.”

  “What’s that about Frank Warner?”

  “Katherine’s in danger.” There was silence the other end of the phone. “Katherine Killa,” he reminded him. “Ben Corner’s wife, Frank Warner’s daughter-in-law…Ring any bells?”

  “The Killa girl, yeah."

  “He was in her restaurant tonight. He threatened to harm her if I didn’t get you off his back.”

  “Well, that’s great.”

  “What did you just say?”

  “It’s another notch on Frank Warner’s bedpost.” D.I Watts said. Jack was silently furious. “Frank Warner’s mistress, Eva Long was found dead this afternoon.”

  Jack thought about Katherine. “So you can bring him in for murder.”

  “Well, we were thinking of bringing him in for questioning, but there doesn’t seem to be any witnesses to the fact he was even in town, let alone his connection to Eva.”

  “How do you know she was his mistress?”

  “She came in this morning to give a statement and told us everything. We thought Warner had sent her, so we had her followed. Our man didn’t see anyone coming or going from her flat, but then he didn’t know there was a back entrance from the café to the floor upstairs.” He paused. “She was murdered in her flat about two o’clock, gassed to death actually. She was tied up by the wrists and it was made to look like suicide.”

  “I can’t believe all this,” Jack said. “Look Brian, all I care about now is Katherine. I’ve told Warner I’ll back off and he’s promised to leave her alone, but I don’t trust him, obviously. If you’re going to arrest him, can you tell me?”

  “We’d like to leave it a few more days, Jack. We’re trying to locate Yvonne Warner and we think we may have a witness from the café in Shepherd's Bush who thinks they s
aw Frank Warner leave Eva’s flat. He’s changing his story now though, so it may take us a bit of time. Also, if Warner was in Bristol this evening, you can bet your bottom dollar he’s got an alibi. If we don’t have a good enough case, Jack, he’ll get away with it again. It’s got to be water-tight this time. His brief will hang us out to dry, otherwise.”

  “So, what do I do in the meantime?”

  “Best thing you can do for Katherine Killa is to stay away. If Warner’s watching her, she’ll be better off without you stirring things up. I doubt if she’ll come to any harm. She’s no threat to him.”

  Jack considered it for a moment. “Okay, I’ll do it. But I want you all to stay away from Warner until I know she’s safe. He said he won’t harm her if I get you off his back.”

  “He’s not going to believe you achieved that, Jack.”

  “True, but let’s not give him any more reason to provoke him until you’re ready to go in.”

  “Why don’t you warn her? She could lie low for a few days.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “It always is, Jack mate. It always is.”

  Chapter 78

  She drove back to London two days later. She wanted to get away from Bristol, back to the reality of her office; to work, the only reliable thing she had. She wiped the tears running down her face, thinking about Jack. He’d left the restaurant on Saturday night and she hadn’t seen him since. She had no contact number for him so all she could do on Sunday was wait. She’d stayed in all day, hoping he’d turn up to give her an explanation, but by Monday morning her pride got the better of her. “To hell with him!” That was when she threw some things into a bag and slammed the flat door behind her.

  I arrived at the office in Sloane Street by eight-thirty. Bridget was already there. “What are you doing back? I thought you were staying in Bristol for another week.”

  “I decided to come back. I’ve had it with Bristol.” She pushed open the door to her office. “Tell the guys I want a meeting here this morning.” She saw the look on Bridget’s face. “I know it's short notice but I want to discuss strategies. Things are going too slow around here. Tell the catering team to come in too and Alfred if you can get him. He’s usually around on a Monday morning. Then we’d better go through the post. Come in when you’re ready, Bridget.” She closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. What happened, Jack?

  Bridget came in thirty-minutes later. She sat down opposite her at the conference table in front of the high arched windows. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine.”

  She picked up her bag from the floor and pulled out a mirror. “Oh god! What time are they all coming in?” She looked at her watch.

  “Ten-thirty,” Bridget said. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

  “Yes. It will help actually. Get my mind off things.”

  “What things?”

  “Men!” she blurted out.

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Do you, Bridge? Because I don’t! I don’t see at all.” She wanted to cry again. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that way about anyone before. She was always in control, never letting them walk all over her, or allowing them to make her feel like they were in the driving seat. Now, this man, who she’d fallen in love with two days ago, had turned her into a jabbering wreck.

  “Is this about Jack?”

  Katherine is stunned by her question. She stayed silent for a moment, trying to work out how Bridget knew him. “How do you know about Jack?”

  “Marianne told me she saw you on Saturday night with a man who was very tall with a beard and she said you looked smitten.” Marianne was another director’s secretary and a close friend of Bridget’s. “She rang me at home on Sunday morning to tell me about the man you were seen with at the restaurant. She said you didn’t introduce him, but they could all tell you were an item by the way you had eyes for each other. She said it was like no one else in the room existed but the two of you.” Bridget lowered her eyes. She looked embarrassed about admitting she and her friend had been talking about them.

  “That doesn’t explain how you know his name,” she said carefully.

  “I just put two and two together. Jack’s been in love with you for years.”

  She lifted her eyes and stared directly into Bridget's eyes. “What?” She wasn’t even surprised any more. It was like all her spirit had been dragged out of her, numbing her. She wondered if anything would ever surprise her again.

  Bridget took an exaggerated deep breath and said, “Jack Taylor is a very close friend of my ex-boss.” Katherine shook her head. “Let me ask you this,” Bridget said. “When I came for my interview, didn’t you recognise me?”

  She was suddenly intrigued. “Recognise you?” She thought back two-years ago, to the day Bridget had come to her office for the interview. “Yes, I think I remember wondering where I’d seen you before, but that happens to me a lot. I’d forgotten about it. I didn’t think it was important.”

  “Do you remember going into a café once, opposite Charing Cross station? A woman sat at your table and gave you a piece of paper with a property on. A property in Ealing.”

  Katherine gasped “That was you?” She remembered the woman who had persistently offered her the property details on her first site. She closed her eyes, suddenly not wanting to hear the truth. “This has got something to do with Ben, hasn’t it?”

  “No, not Ben. Gordon Bentley.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll have to remember a lot further back than that.” Bridget spoke quicker now. Clearly she had a lot of information, and Katherine was about to hear more. “Gordon Bentley was my ex-boss. You helped his family once when you were sixteen. You saved his daughter from a cruel fate.”

  She shook head. She remembered the man who came to collect his daughter from the police station…the man she never saw again until…. she remembered the hospitality evening at Kathy’s…Gordon Bentley! It was him! She looked at the expression on Bridget’s face while she unravelled her thoughts.

  “What does he have to do with me, with Jack, with you, with all of this?” Katherine’s eyes sweeped the room. “Just tell me everything, Bridget.”

  Chapter 79

  “Well, good morning,” Gordon said, as Jack strolled into the kitchen.

  “Where’s Alice?” Jack pulled out a chair from the long country pine table.

  “Gone to work.”

  “Glad to see someone in this house works.”

  “That was a good night down the pub last night.”

  Gordon was way too cheerful for Jack to cope with so early. “Was it? I’m surprised you remembered considering the number of jars you put down your neck.”

  “Yes, but I can do that now. I’m retired. I don’t have to get up on a Monday morning.”

  “Don’t remind me.” Jack poured himself some coffee from the pot on the side. He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to be at the depot by nine.”

  “You’ll make it. The Swansea traffic is nothing like the chaos you get in England.”

  “Don’t start that again.” Jack grinned. “Wales, England, no difference to me.”

  “No difference! Are you insane, mun?”

  Jack laughed. He’d had all the banter last night down the pub.

  He’d driven over to Swansea on Saturday night. He knew if he’d stayed in Bristol he would have gone to see her, so he got out of town as fast as he could. He'd gone straight to Gordon’s place on the Gower Coast. He and Gordon had spent most of Sunday in the local pub, apart from the time when Alice rang the landlord to tell him to send them back for a home-cooked Sunday roast. Gordon had been insatiable, as he always was, and even though Jack had been pining for Katherine, Gordon’s wisecracks had kept him distracted long enough to know that he was doing the right thing, staying away from her. God knew what she must have been thinking. She’d be hurt and angry, she wouldn’t understand. He’d have to
make it up to her when he saw her in a couple of days, when it was safe.

  By late afternoon, Jack was ready to finish his work at the depot and go home. He’d be staying at Gordon and Alice’s again tonight. Perhaps he’d go back to Bristol tomorrow. He wondered if he could last another night without seeing her. The buzzer on the phone sounded. “Jack, there’s a lady here to see you.”

  “Who is it, Paula?”

  The door opened. “It’s me.”

  He looked up. Katherine was standing across the other side of his desk, looking down at him. He got up swiftly and walked around it towards her.

  Her eyes were filled with tears. “I wish you’d told me, Jack,” she said. He moved closer and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his strong arms about her and held onto her, stroking her hair falling down her back. He moved her face away from his, just a little, and then he kissed her, wanting her with every nerve in his body.

  “Huh, hum!” a voice said. “Knock, knock!” Gordon was leaning against the door frame

  “We’ve met,” Katherine said when she saw the quizzical look in his eyes. “Bridget and Gordon told me everything.”

  Jack let her go. The relief he felt was overwhelming. Years of secrets, out in the open. Thank god, but then he wondered how much Gordon had told her?

  “He told me about how he sent you to Switzerland to look out for me, and about Kathy’s. He even told me it was you two standing under the elm tree at Ben’s funeral.” She turned to look past Gordon, through the open door to the reception area where Paula was sitting. “I came here once. That was you, wasn’t it? It was you who told the girl out there to transport my counter to Ealing?”

  He nodded and stroked her arm. “Did Gordon tell you about Frank Warner?”

  “Yes, but I’m not surprised about that. I’ve never liked him very much, but he was Ben’s family.”

  “I think Ben got himself in too deep with Frank Warner. I don’t think he knew how far Warner was willing to go.”