“You owe me several and I will come and collect the next time I am in Galway,” his friend replied and put down the phone.
Eliza had several doses of chemotherapy each week and it was really taking its toll. But for the fact she had read up on it and sort of knew what to expect, she would have thought she was going to die of exhaustion.The nausea and her hair loss added to her woes and when she looked in the mirror she hardly recognised herself, so old and drawn did she look. Everybody rallied round but they could feel that she was starting to get depressed.
“Even my eyelashes are falling out!” she wailed. She had the most gorgeous deep blue eyes which her unusually long lashes enhanced beautifully.
Alice was in her apartment when the Garda car drew up outside. She could see it from her apartment window.The garda, who looked quite senior, knocked on the main front door.Alice decided not to answer it. If he wanted to speak to anyone other than Hugo or Eliza he should look at the bell panel and ring the appropriate bell.
She knew Eliza and Hugo were due home from the hospital any minute and had prepared a light lunch in case they hadn’t eaten, even though it was after three. They were picking up the girls at the school on the way back.Just as Alice was about to move away from the window the jeep swept into the drive.
The girls got out and ran to the front door.Eliza was moving slowly since the chemo had started to affect her bones and Hugo had to help her out of the car.He looked at the garda and hoped that the fact that it was such an obviously senior guy didn’t mean bad news.
“Good afternoon,” he said, ever the gentleman.He opened the front door.“Go up and see your mum,” he said to the girls. “Please come in, Garda.”
In the sitting room Eliza sank down on the sofa and just wished she could sleep.
“I am Chief Superintendent Tom McEvoy,” the garda said when he and Hugo were also seated.
“I am Hugo Lynch and this is my wife Eliza – but I suppose you know that.”
“Yes, sir. We confiscated two laptops from this premises earlier in the week on a tip-off.We found nothing and I am here to return the property. I have the two laptops in the car.”
“Thank you, Garda,” Hugo said amiably. “It will be good to have ours back.We use it a bit, both for business and to speak to our grandchildren on Skype. Mary will be pleased as well. You can leave hers with us. She is out at present, I think.”
“I am at a loss to know why somebody would make up an accusation against you.You must have annoyed somebody very badly and that somebody must have connections at the very highest level.”
The garda was speaking as if he were thinking out loud. It struck Hugo that, strictly speaking, he shouldn’t have said that to a member of the public.
“Garda, I can’t think how that could have occurred.We don’t know people in high places.But I am glad to have my computer back. Would you like a cup of tea?”
“No, thank you, sir.Your wife looks tired.You should attend to her.”
“Yes, I should.”
“I hope you’ll feel better soon, Mrs Lynch,” said the garda and Eliza managed to muster a smile.
The two men went outside. Tom McEvoy went to his car, took out the laptops and handed them to Hugo.
“What did you say your name was again?” Hugo didn’t quite know why he asked.
“Chief Superintendent Tom McEvoy. Call me any time.”
“I hope I won’t have the need but it’s good to know that you would be available should anything else untoward happen.”
“Good day, Mr Lynch.”
“Good day, Chief Superintendent.”
When Hugo came back into the room Eliza was asleep and Alice was coming down the stairs with lunch.
“I’ll put on the kettle,” Alice said.
“Thank you, Alice. I could do with a strong cup of real tea.I am so relieved to have my computer back and that they found nothing.”
“Yes,” Alice replied.“Even though we knew that you had nothing to hide, it was still a worry.Particularly after what Nicola said about the possibility of planting evidence.”
“Yes, but in general the Garda are a trustworthy bunch, thank God,” Hugo said and he sat on the sofa and held the hand of his sleeping wife.
Chapter 28
Jack Madden was decidedly disgruntled. When Hugo Lynch’s computer was confiscated he was in Strasbourg.It wasn’t an ideal time but he couldn’t exactly have given his timetable or announced his plans to Chief Superintendent McEvoy and instructed him to confiscate the thing at a time when he was in the country.Initially he didn’t worry much about it.When he got home he would immediately contact his friend in the Serious Crime Division and ensure that something unsavoury was found on the hard drive.He thanked God (or someone up there) that the Garda was like any bureaucracy and that in general they moved with all the alacrity of a geriatric sloth. He hadn’t bargained for a Superintendent who had a very refined sense of right and wrong and who didn’t automatically think that, because an instruction came from the Taoiseach, it was in order.It had never occurred to him that anyone would speed up the enquiry.Indeed, it wasn’t until he got back from Strasbourg that he found out that the computer was back in Galway and that nothing had been found.He was spitting nails.
His intention had been that when Hugo was arrested there would be a question-mark over the safety of the women and children and that they would have to be moved to other quarters.Alice and the girls, along with the other occupants, would have to move and hopefully would just go back to live with her parents and forget this business about the apartment. Even if Alice stayed in contact with Hugo and Eliza Lynch (he had taken to calling them The Odd Couple in his head) they would have a major worry of their own and wouldn’t be in much of a position to support her.
Apart from being annoyed, he couldn’t figure it out.How the hell did the computer get examined within a few days of its confiscation? There was something going on and it made him uneasy.
Meanwhile the court case was coming up and, along with his wish to avoid publicity, Jack Madden was anxious for it to go his way.He presumed that nobody would believe Alice that he was the father of her children but the matter of the apartment could be tricky. He certainly did not want Alice getting such a valuable asset.Who did she think she was?Hadn’t she got enough already from him?The past twelve years had been materially very good for her and unless she was completely naïve she must have known that it was not a permanent arrangement. But then again it was her child-like innocence and trust that had made her so attractive in the first place.Jack Madden’s thoughts flitted momentarily to the first day that Alice had come to work as his au pair.
But he was a man not prone to sentimentality and he had a few surprises in store for Alice’s other friends. But the outcome was by no means a foregone conclusion.His legal team was not optimistic about the chances of Tower Properties holding on to the apartment. He got some comfort from the fact that the judge had said the situation was complicated but his reference to rights under more recent legislation had rattled him. While they were still looking for a loophole, they were promising nothing and they hadn’t worked out yet if it was possible for the case to be heard in his absence, thereby hopefully avoiding publicity unless some eagle-eyed hack from the Clare Champion was in court.
Of course, he hadn’t told Rosemary about the case.Indeed she didn’t even know that Tower Properties Ltd., a company of which she was a director, owned a property on Taylors Hill.If it got out the tabloids might start digging and the opposition would have a field day. That social worker hadn’t tried to contact him for months and rather than being happy about that he felt she had something up her sleeve. He didn’t know what but it was like waiting for the second shoe to drop.
To top it all, some gobshite of a developer had got on the phone to him that morning and threatened to report him to the Tribunals if he didn’t at least try and use his influence with one of the major banks not to force a liquidation.Apparently back in the nineties this guy had
given Jack a hefty sum of money in exchange for a vote on the rezoning of land when he was a County Councillor.Jack had absolutely no recollection of it but of course that was not the type of payment that went through the books so he couldn’t be one hundred per cent certain that it never happened; in fact, it probably did, even if it couldn’t be proved. But mud sticks in these situations and what was to stop someone who could prove that he took money from coming out of the woodwork? It never failed to amaze Jack Madden how nasty people could be, even people he had helped significantly.
There was no end to the worry.There were even rumblings of discontent within the party. Just rumblings! No immediate talk of a heave but if he didn’t play his cards right these rumblings could escalate into a full-blown vote of no confidence so he had to be sure not to put a foot wrong there either. If he could go into the next election, which would probably be within the next twelve months, as leader, he’d be home and dry.
On the bright side Rosemary had been wonderful in all of this.He knew he had chosen well when he had decided to marry her.She was a very beautiful young woman, of good political pedigree, who was more than willing to play the part of the politician’s wife.She had worked as an air stewardess so was well used to dealing with difficult situations and she had moved in all the right circles.The fact that she spoke French and German fluently was no burden and she also spoke Irish with the fluency of a native speaker which made her a very good canvasser in the Gaeltacht when election time came around.Rosemary had given up her job when she became pregnant with their first child, Caoimhe, and had never had any regrets as far as he could tell.Her job for nearly twenty years was as a wife and mother and he really respected her for that.Yes, she was a great woman and, yes, he loved her dearly – not in the hearts and flowers way he had once loved Alice or in the volcanic-eruption way he had loved the Spanish MEP, Francesca Olazabal – more in the way you’d love a family retainer – with a comfortable affection where he always knew where he stood.
Yes, Rosemary was really great!After the late Taoiseach’s death there were comings and goings to their house in Monkstown at all hours of the day and night.Rosemary served up all that was required, whether it was just a cup of tea or a four-course dinner.She did it with elegance and aplomb.Of course she had staff in the kitchen but she always served the guests herself and was a most gracious hostess.A real touch of class was Rosemary and she wanted to be the Taoiseach’s wife just as much as Jack Madden wanted to be Taoiseach so all worked well on the home front.If he could get over the few hiccups about which Rosemary knew nothing, all would be well.
Alice was trying unsuccessfully not to worry about the impending case but there was one thing to be cheerful about.She had put a proposition to the whizz-kid hotel manager when he rang her to arrange for her to pick up her last cheque and again he was impressed.She had proposed to provide the desserts for all of their special-occasion catering – not the run-of-the-mill stuff but weddings, corporate events and other special occasions.That way the hotel could get a reputation for these events and she would not be working full time. She could arrange her work fairly easily around her family commitments – at least until this whole uncertainty about their future was sorted out.
“When could you start?” Whizz Kid asked her.
“How about immediately?”she replied, hoping in her heart that he wouldn’t have any special occasion in the near future.
“Great, I can give you a trial run.We have a corporate function on Thursday night and you could provide 200 mixed desserts for that. I can judge from the reaction if it is worth continuing.”
“What type of people will be attending?”
“Internal auditors. A stodgy bunch but they like their food and can be very picky about each course.They are not the easiest to please.Can you do it?”
“Of course I can,” Alice replied.
After the call she raced upstairs and looked up the few recipe books she had bought since the eviction. She would provide about ten different desserts and suggest that the hotel use dessert trolleys. She knew that they probably wouldn’t be too happy to do this but it was the simplest if she was to provide such a variety.Two hundred wasn’t too bad and if she picked the desserts carefully she could prepare at least half of them a day or two in advance. She chose the desserts, mixing the traditional and the modern.She weighed up whether apple pie would be too traditional or lemon pots too far out and in the end she decided to include both.She included her granny’s sherry trifle which was like no other, a blackberry mousse which she had cooked for the first time over the Christmas period and a delicious chocolate sorbet which always went down well – with Jack Madden in any case, so she crossed her fingers that it would go down well with these auditors as well. It didn’t take her long to decide on the ten desserts.She took a few risks choosing bread and butter pudding for the traditionalists and a chocolate crème brulé for the more adventurous. She decided not to try anything she hadn’t made before and she knew that she could produce all of the desserts to standard. Also by deciding on ten different ones, she had only to make twenty of each, thus the proportions would not be too intimidating.
She was not used to large numbersbut she was going to do this.She had the future to think of and Nicola had been right – no matter what the result of this case she would be in a new phase of her life and that would almost definitely involve earning a living to provide for herself and her girls. Thank God for Eliza’s enormous kitchen, she thought to herself.She was still cooking for everybody and intended to continue to do it for some time to come, because after her chemotherapy Eliza would have to undergo radiotherapy and this could mean that she would be very tired until well after the treatment was completed. Eliza was definitely feeling the strain and Alice wanted to help ease that as much as she could.
She borrowed the jeep from Hugo the next day and drove all the children into school.She then went to McCambridge’s and bought the more unusual ingredients for her desserts and then to The Vineyard to get some special liqueurs. She had a significant slush fund left after her work before Christmas and she knew she could make another tidy profit from this venture if it worked.The only thing that concerned her was that she was on a sort of a trial.If these desserts weren’t perfect it was unlikely she would be asked to do it again – but that’s business, she said to herself, and Alice the entrepreneur was once again about to set out her stall.
Eliza and Hugo watched Alice wide-eyed.She worked diligently and with great organisation.This was the first time she had to work to such a short time-line. On the Thursday she delivered all the desserts at two o’clock. She borrowed cool boxes from Eliza’s kitchen and left instructions with the hotel staff on how to keep the desserts up to standard and the best way to serve them.Afterwards she collected the girls from school herself.
“You are an amazing young woman,” Hugo said to her as they sipped hot chocolate in the large kitchen.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way,” Alice said grimly.“Let’s hope that they like them now.”
“Of course they will,” Hugo replied.“How could they not?”
“You are so kind, Hugo. You know I couldn’t have done this without you and Eliza.”
“Mum, can you help me with my reading?” Orla called.“I really find it very hard today.”
Alice suspected that she was just looking for attention from her mother who had been somewhat distracted of late, so she went upstairs with her daughter and they settled down on the sofa to read the required piece. Orla snuggled into Alice as she read the piece perfectly and Alice hoped that soon she would not be so worried and would be able to pay the children the quality of attention that they so deserved.
Chapter 29
Alice’s new venture into business was a welcome distraction, not to mention a good little earner.The first group for whom Alice had made the desserts – the picky bunch of internal auditors – had been fulsome in their praise and indicated that their conference would be held at this hotel the following
year “if only for the desserts,”according to the very happy hotel manager.
“One of them described your blackberry mousse as orgasmic which I thought was a bit gross.” Buthe couldn’t have been more pleased.
“Well, if the quality of the rest of your service is as good as my desserts,” Alice grinned, “you deserve the business.”
He laughed out loud. “God, you’re so modest!” He handed her a cheque. “But, seriously, do you think you could do starters as well?”
“Not just now,” she replied.“I have another commitment which is quite time-consuming.I may consider it in a month or two.”She was delighted to be asked but there was no way she could commit to such an undertaking at this time.
Nicola was busy but not with Alice’s case.In fact there was nothing she could do about Alice except provide her with emotional support when that was needed. Her main function as a social worker was to look after the welfare of the children but in this case she was well aware that the best way to do that was to look after the emotional welfare of the mother. There was no doubt that the children were being very well cared for by their mother but if Alice became too stressed that would show and the children would undoubtedly be upset. She was relieved to see that Alice was holding up well under the stress and demands of her new business.
“You must be very proud of yourself,” she said to Alice one day over lunch.“You’ve come such a long way since October.”
“I’d be proud if I wasn’t so scared. I just wish this was all over and then I will be able to be proud.”
“It will be soon, Alice.You’re doing exceptionally well in thecircumstances.”
“I know, but that doesn’t stop me from being scared,” Alice said and they both sipped their coffee thoughtfully.
As soon as Nicolareturned to her office she rang Séamus.
Who is Alice? Page 21