Turning into his arms, Bede wanted to burrow into his chest. She had always been able to make her own decisions. She would never allow anyone to influence what she thought was right, but there was something about Gabriel that made her want to lean. ‘Gabe, I don’t know what they were up to, you have to believe me. But you’re right, they were planning something. They were on the phone to Meredith every day, and although I’ve since asked her what it was all about, she would only say that it was to do with the past and no business of mine.’
Gabe and Bede continued to sit quietly side by side now, staring out the window, watching the soft breeze play with the curtains.
‘Tell me what you suspect, Gabe, I’m starting to be really worried.’
‘I think Meredith, with my mother and aunts, had a contract taken out on George. I think that Edmondo, being with George, was just bad luck, and he had to be disposed of as well. I also think that its roots are in the past, back when they, Meredith and my mother, were young. The aunts are much older, and they are also much more ruthless.’
‘You’re suggesting that Meredith arranged for George to be killed?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s insane, why would she do that? I know about what happened all those years ago with George, but I think she felt much more bitter about what Justin did.’
‘I agree, but what if they, I mean Mother and the aunts, uncovered proof that George was involved with James’s death? How do you think Meredith would react then?’
Bede caught her breath, and silently considered the implications of what Gabriel had just said. ‘You’re right, of course, she would be more than furious. But when she was explaining the workings within the family, she stated that she doesn’t approve of the Family’s way of dealing with problems. She wouldn’t have arranged for George to be killed, it’s just not her.’ Still leaning against his shoulder and feeling the tensions building in her stomach, ‘So you think George arranged for James’s death?’
‘No, in fact, I’m sure he didn’t. I’m fairly certain that George had been trying to involve James in some drug smuggling using your established freight deals. And I’m fairly certain it was George behind Damian’s problems in Perth. George actually needed James alive to finally be able to pay him back for the Turner thing. Involving him in drug smuggling would have been the perfect retribution. He’s been planning it for years. George was brilliant, incredibly patient, and he never forgave James for that debacle. He lost a huge amount of money and status. It took him years to re-establish his credibility.
‘Bede’, he took her hands in his, and turned her to face him saying carefully, ‘Bede, Martin and I are now fairly certain it was Justin who arranged for James to be killed, but at the moment, we can’t prove it. I need to clear up what happened to George, just in case I’m wrong.’ He touched her cheek gently. ‘I need you to be very careful for the next few days, and I really need you to think carefully back to Paris, and tell me everything that you heard and any impressions you have from the week we stayed there.’ He looked into her eyes and kissed her softly. ‘But it’s really late now, I think we need to get some sleep even if it’s only a couple of hours.’
Bede rested her head on his shoulder. ‘Christ’, was all she could think of to say, then, ‘stay with me for the rest of the night, please?’
With a slow grin, ‘It will be my pleasure, my pet.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
Justin is Very Worried
Very early the next morning, with the sky still showing the deep indigo of night, but with golden light just seeping across the horizon, Justin groaned and pulled himself to a sitting position. He sat back against the headboard of the bed and gazed out the window. He could see for miles it was so flat. He was desperate and felt trapped. What had made him think he could come here to this outlandish place with impunity? He quietly left his bedroom, moving silently down the hallway, making his way to what he knew was Meredith’s room. He hadn’t been in there before, but assumed it was the same layout as all the bedrooms on this floor. He opened the door quietly. It was dark, of course, but there was a little light from the dawn, just showing through the open window. Did no one in this house bother to shut the windows or pull the curtains? He wondered.
Looking around, he saw this was actually not a bedroom, but a sort of sitting room. In the low light, he could make out a desk under the window. There was a settee and a high backed armchair grouped around a low table. Another door across the room probably led to the bedroom. He moved across the room on silent feet, and started to turn the handle.
A voice spoke from behind. He turned quickly to see Meredith rising from the armchair. She was holding a rifle in her hands. Bloody hell, he thought, these bloody women and their rifles.
‘Meredith, what are you doing with that?’ He indicated the firearm held casually, but competently in her hands.
‘Justin, I’ve been waiting for you. You had to approach me tonight. It’s all got out of hand, hasn’t it? And you’re feeling a little trapped.’ Her lips lifted into a cold smile. ‘I wondered when you’d finally work it all out?’
‘What do you mean? Meredith, put the gun down. This is me, you don’t really believe I would cause you or the girls any harm?’
‘No, you thought that by having James murdered, you could just move in, or at least persuade me to go back to Prague with you. But unfortunately for you, I’ve been talking to Marina and Josephine daily for the last few weeks. It’d been years since I spoke to them in depth. I always thought they had been involved in that swindle all those years ago. But in fact, it wasn’t even George really, although you did manage to implicate him along with James.’
He held his hands out to her. ‘Meredith, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I did not have James killed. You know I’ve always loved you, but over the years, James poisoned your mind against me.’
‘No, Justin, you did that when you tried to seduce Mette all those years ago with such a cheap trick. I know Dominik forgave you, but James and I never did. I found your behaviour insulting.’ Meredith shrugged her shoulders. ‘We’d been engaged for only four weeks, and you had declared undying love for me. You seduced me, and persuaded me that you were sincere, but in fact, it was a ploy. Mette was more beautiful and incredibly wealthy in her own right, but obviously preferred your brother. You thought to upstage him by becoming engaged first. You had already planned to entice Mette into bed by pretending to be Dominik.’ Meredith snorted, ‘At the time, I was too stunned and hurt to enquire about details, but eventually, I spoke to everyone who had been in the house at the time, including Mette, Marina, and Josephine plus all the servants.’ She paused briefly, and looked at him with contempt read clearly on her face. ‘You hadn’t really expected Mette to be able to tell you apart so easily, not many people could.’
Justin was white around the mouth. ‘Meredith, all that happened years ago, and please, would you put the rifle down and talk to me rationally.’
‘No, Justin, you see, I don’t trust you. I don’t think you’ve changed at all over the years, although you seem to have convinced most of the family that it had been a moment of madness never to be repeated. You’ve convinced them that you are now a paragon of virtue. That you really did regret what happened, and would spend the rest of your life making it up to Dominik! Piffle, you hate him and envy him as much now as you did all those years ago, and you’ve tried to seduce the two boys away subtly. It hasn’t worked, you know, they are both extremely bright, and you and Dominik have both trained them well. Dominik made sure they evaluate everything and everyone. They take nothing on trust and check all their facts. It hasn’t made life particularly easy for them.’
Justin spoke harshly into the small silence following this statement. ‘Meredith, believe me, I did not have James killed. Why do you think I’m here? Do you seriously imagine I am trying to resurrect our relationship from all those years ago?’ He wa
s gazing at her with cold eyes now. ‘Believe me, you are the lonely spinster here, I have no need to come crawling. I am here just to help solve the mystery of James’s death, then I plan to leave.’ He was very pale under his tan, his shoulders back, and he was standing proudly. His beautiful silver hair a halo around his head in the dawning light. But Meredith saw the hint of perspiration on his forehead, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off the rifle. He held his hand out to her. ‘Please Meredith, can we sit down and discuss this in a civilised manner?’
Martin walked quietly across the room and put his hand gently onto Gabriel’s shoulder. He really didn’t want to wake Bede, and he knew any movement too fast would have Gabe throwing him to the ground with his knee in his windpipe.
‘This had better be important. I had plans for this morning,’ Gabriel’s quiet murmur came out of the darkness.
Martin grinned to himself, and crouching down by the bed, spoke directly into Gabriel’s ear, ‘Justin has just gone into Meredith’s room very, very quietly.’
‘Umm, interesting, I’d put my money on Meredith. But okay, just give me a moment.’ He untangled his legs and arms gently from around Bede and kissed her on the cheek. She grumbled sleepily, but turned over and settled deeper into the sheets. Gabriel pulled on jeans quickly and quietly left the room. ‘Okay, what’s he up to, do you think?’
‘I think he’s finally making his move, but we need to hear this.’ They moved quickly down the corridor and slipped into the room next to Meredith’s. ‘This actually abuts Meredith sitting room, but there’s no way we can listen in on the bedroom, so I hope these devices are sensitive enough to pick up what’s being said.’ He handed Gabriel earphones with a small listening device attached, and together, they moved across the room. Placing the head of the devices against the wall and the small buds into their ears, they concentrated on what was happening in the next room.
Gabriel, chuckling softly, spoke quietly, ‘Well done, Meredith, I knew you were on the ball.’
There were the sounds of someone waking behind them, much groaning and coughing, and both turned to see Damian struggling to a sitting position. ‘What the hell are you two doing here?’ he muttered while rubbing at the stubble on his chin.
‘Quiet,’ Martin whispered with a smile curving his lips. ‘I thought you hit the bottle a little too hard last night.’
Another deep groan, ‘What?’ Damian peered blearily across at them
Gabriel held his finger up to his lips, while keeping the device still pressed firmly against the wall. ‘We’ll explain later, just stay quiet.’ Damian sank back down into the bedclothes with a groan and pulled the sheet firmly over his head.
‘You think I’m the lonely spinster? You know nothing about my life, nothing about the girls’ lives. James made sure they were independent and clear thinking. He also made sure they evaluated every situation. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but in this family, it’s essential, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Meredith, I think you’re being cynical and bitter. You never did get over our relationship, I think you’re still in love with me.’ He smiled charmingly at her and started to move across the room. ‘Put the gun down, you’re not going to shoot me.’
Meredith snapped, ‘Stay put, Justin, while I tell you a story, and I’ll tell you why I think you had James killed. I suggest you sit down. This is going to be a shock I’m afraid.’
‘What are you talking about now?’
‘When you left me all those years ago, you left me pregnant.’
Justin fell back into the chair in astonishment. He was pale now and shaking. ‘What? Good God, Meredith, I had no idea, believe me.’
She smiled at the expression on his face. ‘You really didn’t care as you blithely manipulate everyone around you. James helped me. Over the next year, I was quite young you might remember, and James wasn’t that much older. Our experience of the family was a shock, and for the first time, we realised exactly why we had been brought up as far away from Europe as possible. Several members of the family did suspect something and offered to help, but you definitely weren’t one of them.’
There was a heavy silence in the room.
‘I have something else to tell you, Justin.’
‘What else are you accusing me of now?’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Meredith Shocks Justin
‘You have a son, Justin, a very clever and talented son.’
Justin now started out of his chair. ‘For God’s sake, Meredith, what are you saying?’
‘Just that we brought him up mostly in the Czech Republic, and as for being a lonely spinster, I met a wonderful man whom I loved with every part of my being. Between us, we kept your son safe for years, but then Josef died, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Prague. We were with him that day, your son and I. He had literally just left us to continue with our shopping. I was in hospital unconscious, in a coma for weeks. When I finally recovered consciousness, my son was missing. The authorities didn’t know what had happened to him. In the confusion he had simply disappeared, been spirited away. He was 4 years old.’
Justin was white-faced and gripping the arms of the chair, as if he wanted to launch himself across the room. ‘Why did you never tell me? I had a right to know I had a son.’
‘No, Justin, by that time, I’d heard enough about you to realise that I didn’t want anything to do with you nor did I want my son to have anything to do with you. We’d made a life well away from the family and you. James vowed never to let you know what had happened. It took me a long time to recover physically and emotionally, and by that time, it was too late. There was no information about that small boy. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead.’
Justin was on his feet, his arms flailing around him. ‘That was my son?’ his skin was white, and his hands shaking.
‘Yes, Justin, that was your son that you managed to disappear into an orphanage under another name.’
‘But, but’, Justin was pacing now around the room, he held his head in his hands as he paced, ‘no, no, no, I had nothing to do with any of that. I heard Josef had been killed, but believe me, I had no idea you were involved with him. You must have been using another name. I remember that the child disappeared, but we, the Family had nothing to do with it.’
‘The authorities never did solve it. No one accepted responsibility for the bomb, and the police finally wrote it off as an unfortunate accident. But I always thought the Family had been behind it. I really wanted to kill you, I wanted to make you suffer, but James would never allow it. He was never convinced the Family was behind it. It wasn’t their style, he said. He didn’t believe in revenge per se, he had an insane notion of universal justice, but even so, he took every opportunity to undermine any of your financial schemes he was aware of.’
In the next room, both Gabriel and Martin were reeling from these revelations. Gabriel turned around and looked at Damian still sleeping with the sheet pulled over his head. He turned to Martin, astonishment written clearly on his face, and that connection that is so strong between twins meant that they arrived at the same conclusion at the same moment. They both now turned back to the bed, and contemplated Damian’s sleeping form.
‘Christ, what next?’ Martin suddenly grinned, and spoke very quietly, ‘I knew I liked him more than I normally would. He’s the ultimate revenge even if James didn’t believe in revenge. What do we tell him?’
‘Martin, we don’t know anything for sure yet, so we tell him nothing until Meredith decides, presuming she has proof.’ Gabriel turned back. ‘We need to keep listening. This is fascinating, but we can’t really let Meredith shoot him, can we?’
Martin grinned. ‘No, but this does explain why James threw Damian off the property. He’s their first cousin.’
Justin was talking again. ‘Where is my son, Meredith, you malicious, cruel, spiteful bitch.’ He lunged toward her.
Justin pulled up abruptly. ‘Okay, Meredith, what exactly do you want?’
‘Information, the truth, if you are capable of speaking it, did you have James killed? We know someone within the family did. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. We know that George was trying to use James to smuggle drugs into Europe along with our flowers, and we know that James discovered the plans and put a stop to them. But George didn’t take that contract out on him. He needed him alive. Was it you?’ Meredith almost spat the words with the rifle still held steady pointed at his midriff.
Justin looked at the furious woman in front of him. Had he really imagined he wanted to marry this virago? Kill James, yes, he’d imagined it many times over the years. But in his imagination, he’d been the one to push a knife into his heart. ‘No, I did not have James killed. I actually needed him alive. I also needed George alive, I certainly wouldn’t have had him or even Edmondo killed for that matter.’ He sank slowly down into the big comfortable chair and let his head fall back. The silence was almost deafening.
Meredith spoke calmly now, ‘What are you doing in my room, Justin, what do you want?’
‘Gabe, I think we have to go in and take the rifle away from Meredith. And although I hate the idea, I think we do have to rescue Justin.’
Gabriel looked at his brother for a moment, and with a grin, shrugged, ‘Okay, let’s go.’
A Conundrum Page 22