Risky Business

by W. Soliman

  I kicked at a loose drinks can. “Yeah.”

  “Why not say you just don’t want to talk about music, Charlie, instead of going all moody and monosyllabic on me?”

  “I don’t want to talk about music, Charlie,” I said. Kara dug me in the ribs. “Anyway, it’s all your fault. You were the first one to make me play again.”

  “And you’re not enjoying it?”

  “There’re other things I’m going to do very soon that I’ll enjoy a hell of a lot more.” I turned back toward the marina. “Come on.”

  * * *

  I hoped that Emily would deliver Harry the following morning and leave again before Kara’s mum arrived with Sergei and Saskia. No such luck. Mrs. Webb called at first light. By the time Emily arrived, two redheaded children were tumbling all over the aft deck, aided and abetted by Gil, and I knew I was in for a grilling. I gave Harry a swift hug and swung him aboard. He immediately joined in the rough-and-tumble.

  “Who are those children?” Emily asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously as soon as I joined her on the pontoon.

  “Friends who’ll be spending the weekend with us.”

  “Friends?” She made the word sound like a contagious disease. “You didn’t say anything about friends coming along.”

  I sighed. “Any reason why I should?”

  “Well, I don’t know. It’s just that it would be nice for me to know Harry’s friends too. Then when he talks about them, I’ll know who he’s on about.”

  She was fishing. Desperately wanted to know about my relationship with the children’s mother. Or in this case, their guardian. And, law of sod, Kara sauntered down the pontoon at that precise moment, hands full of supermarket bags. How did I get myself into these situations?

  “Oh hi,” Kara said awkwardly.

  With no other choice available to me I introduced the two women.

  “Nice to meet you,” Kara said politely.

  Emily muttered something unintelligible, enough for Kara to get the message.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, “I’ll just get this stuff put away.”

  I picked up her shopping bags and hauled them onto the deck.

  “Who is she?” Emily watched as Harry threw himself at Kara. She hugged him back and then disappeared into the boat.

  “Em,” I said, exercising extreme patience, “it’s really none of your business. She’s not an axe murderer and that’s all you really need to know.”

  “She seems to know Harry quite well.”

  “She does.”

  “Well, he’s never mentioned her. Or her children.”

  “Perhaps, even at his age, he knows he’d get the third degree if he did. And they aren’t Kara’s kids, by the way. She’s their guardian.”

  “Oh, now I get it.” Emily scowled at me as if I’d just confessed to some heinous crime. “She’s the woman whose sister was married to that gangster. And you let our son mix with her? Charlie, have you lost your mind?”

  “Get over it, Em. I’ll drop Harry back on Sunday night.” I stepped back onto the boat before I did or said something I might later regret.

  “Oh dear.” Kara came up behind me in the wheelhouse and wrapped her arms round my waist. “That was unfortunate.”

  “That was Em,” I said shortly.

  My phone rang and I inwardly groaned when I saw Cleo’s name on the display. I’d promised to ring her when I got back from Garnet’s but had forgotten all about it. Other things on my mind at the time, if memory served. I didn’t really want to talk to her in front of Kara but couldn’t bring myself to keep her in the dark any longer.

  “Hey, Cleo,” I said. “I was just about to ring you.”

  I lied, telling her that Garnet merely wanted to repay me and show off his overhauled club. Sometimes it was necessary to be cruel to be kind. I didn’t want to give her false hope. I’m not sure if she believed my watered-down account of events but she didn’t challenge it. I promised to let her know if anything new transpired. Typically she didn’t bother to say goodbye and simply rang off.

  “The women in your life don’t give you an easy time, do they?” Kara said sympathetically as I snapped my phone closed.

  “You’re the exception to the rule.” I gave her a brief kiss. “Now, come on, let’s get out of here. If we get to Cowes by lunchtime, the small people can get rid of their excess energy at Robin Hill.”

  The crossing was smooth and the kids loved it. Kara’s two were used to sailing with their mother and Saskia kept asking where our sails were. The boys giggled and told her she was stupid, which almost caused a riot. We calmed them down and Harry started showing off a bit. He demonstrated the wonders of the fish finder and then I let him pretend that he was driving the boat. Gil took a break from three small pairs of hands dragging him all over the place by wandering onto the foredeck. He slumped down by the windlass, big face turned into the breeze as it blew through his thick coat.

  “He looks like a fury figurehead,” Kara said, blowing kisses to the stupid mutt.

  I’d radioed ahead to the marina and they’d arranged a half-day’s car hire for me. We had a sandwich lunch on board and then set off for Arreton Downs. Robin Hill is a great place for children. It has rides, woodland walks, all sorts of animals and a great falconry display that the boys found awe-inspiring. Saskia talked us into four pony rides. We had dinner early and they were all tucked up, fast asleep, by eight o’clock.

  “Peace!” Kara flopped down next to me on the aft deck, a glass of wine in her hand. “And I even got Harry to clean his teeth.”

  “Blimey, what did you bribe him with?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  I grimaced. “Probably not.”

  “Thanks, Charlie, it was a great suggestion going out for the day. They enjoyed it.”

  “So did I.”

  “I could see that.” She rolled her eyes. “The kids are supposed to persuade you to go on the rides, you know, not the other way round.”

  I flashed a puerile grin. “What can I say? Boys will be boys. Never have been able to resist those things.”

  We lapsed into a companionable silence as Kara curled her feet under her and settled into a comfortable position against my side. It felt good having her nestled there and I draped an arm round her shoulders and pulled her a little closer. The mellow sound of Fletcher Henderson drifted from the speakers, enhancing the mood.

  But in spite of the comfortable domesticity of the day, I hadn’t forgotten about my problems. I’d been hoping that a weekend away and the distractions provided by three boisterous kids might result in a flash of inspiration. My best ideas often occurred to me when I wasn’t actually concentrating on the difficulty at hand.

  And I had plenty of those to wrestle with. I needed to get Cleo’s father out of jail, me out of Slater’s line of fire, and Hal’s team back on track. Nothing as taxing as world peace or a cure for cancer but it felt like it.

  It seemed to me that I needed to play Garnet at his own game, and a way to do it was taking shape inside my head. Kara asked me what I intended to do next. I wasn’t ready to share my thoughts with her yet but there was one thing she needed to know.

  “I spoke with Hal whilst you were putting the kids to bed.”

  “Has anything else happened?”

  “No, it’s a quiet period for the team. The lull before the storm, he called it.” I paused to take a swig of beer. “How do you fancy stopping for lunch in Portsmouth on the way back tomorrow?”

  “Why?”

  “Because Hal’s yacht is at Gunwharf Quays.”

  “Ah, I get it. Angie will be on board.”

  “She sure will, and on Sundays no one’s on board except Angie and a skeleton crew. It’s a long shot but I reckon she won’t risk communicating with he
r fellow saboteur by email or phone.”

  “Especially if she’s getting him to help her by trading sexual favours.”

  “Very delicately put.” I kissed the top of her head. “And, since you mention it, not a bad idea.”

  “Don’t you ever think about anything else?”

  “Not when I’m with you.”

  “Thank you.” She laughed. “I think.”

  “It’s all this fresh air. It makes a guy randy as hell.”

  “Everything makes you randy.”

  “True.” I drained the last of my beer in one swallow. “Anyway, if we hang about, have lunch somewhere that lets us keep an eye on the comings and goings on Hal’s yacht, pun intended, then we might get lucky as well.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Angie didn’t know who I was when she saw me at Hal’s but she looked at me like I worried her. You can bet your life that Garnet’s found a way to warn her about me—”

  “But if he wants you to work for him, why would he?” She frowned. “He’d think you’re both on his side.”

  “No, it isn’t his intention to let me know what he’s really up to. He just wants to keep me quiet. Besides, I reckon he likes playing people off against each other, never letting any of them into the full picture. That’s how he keeps one step ahead.”

  “He’s not a nice person, Charlie.”

  “That’s an understatement.” I paused. “You know, I was thinking a bit more whilst you were on bedtime duty, and I reckon we’re coming at this the wrong way.”

  “How so?”

  “Perhaps it’s a lot more straightforward than we’re making it.”

  “The best plans usually are.” She snuggled a little closer. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “This all started with Spelling’s murder, right? We know he was a bent bookie and that he was helping Garnet to run his dog-racing scam. When he found out Spelling was skimming off the top, he only meant to warn him but his goon got overenthusiastic.”

  “Which meant the scam was over, unless he found another bookie to help him run it.”

  “Exactly. But I don’t think he managed it.”

  “No, he got into horseracing scams instead.”

  “Did he? We don’t know that for sure. Reg said he thought he did but that his services were no longer required so he couldn’t be sure. But if it had been going on, Reg would know for sure. Not much gets past him.” I pulled the tab on a new can of beer and lifted it to my lips, sucking up the froth before it could spill. “I don’t think the dog scam was paying off as well as he’d hoped, and horseracing cons are even harder to work. The dog world is notoriously shady but the horseracing scene is far higher profiled. Not only do you have to get a jockey to pull the favourite, but you also have to get him to do it so it doesn’t look obvious. The stewards are down on them like a ton of bricks if they even suspect they’re not trying, they finish up having their licences suspended and have no means of making a living.”

  “Don’t they sometimes do horrible things to the horses? Give them stuff in their feeds that makes them slower, giving them water just before they race, things like that?”

  “Not so easy nowadays. They do random drug testing on the horses, just like they do on athletes.”

  “So, let me see if I’ve got this straight. You think Garnet was hard up when he packed the dog-racing scam in but he’s now apparently loaded. Okay, so he got investors to pile into his health clubs but how did he do it?”

  “I’ve got a feeling he’s an old-fashioned blackmailer.”

  She sat bolt upright and stared at me. “You’re joking!”

  “Think about it. Why did that party seem more like a wake?”

  “Well, the men didn’t particularly want to be there, I suppose. But health clubs are more a woman’s thing.”

  “True, but they all know each other, the booze was flowing freely. That usually loosens tongues and inhibitions. But you didn’t get the usual cluster of men talking about manly stuff whilst the women huddled together and talked about…” I looked down at her. “What do you girls talk about at parties, just as a matter of interest?”

  “Charlie,” she said, with an enigmatic smile, “what we talk about at parties stays at parties.”

  “Hmm, probably just as well.” I tweaked her nose. “Did you notice the young ladies on those swings?”

  “They weren’t easy to miss.”

  “No, they weren’t, but I didn’t see many men ogling them.” I shook my head. “That’s just not natural.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  “I know their wives were with them but, even so, they appeared to actively avoid looking at them.”

  “You think Garnet got these men into compromising positions with the girls somehow?”

  “It’s an interesting possibility. Honey traps are amongst the oldest and most reliable forms of blackmail known to man.”

  “And woman.”

  “Obviously.” I rotated my neck, thinking aloud. “If Garnet got men alone with them and recorded it somehow, he could then ask them for investments in return for keeping stum.”

  “Would he really risk doing that?”

  “I think it makes a lot more sense than racing scams that no one knows anything about.”

  “Perhaps, but how will you go about proving it?”

  “Ah well, that’s where my incisive powers of detection come into play.”

  “In other words, you know someone who knows someone.”

  “Better than that, I saw a guy there tonight who I know. We just nodded across the room and didn’t get a chance to speak. I helped his kid avoid a drugs possession charge so he might be willing to talk to me, off the record.”

  She twirled a strand of her hair round her forefinger. “But if you don’t think Garnet’s into betting anymore, why is he so interested in Hal’s team that he’d try to destroy it?”

  “For his goddaughter’s sake. Like I said, the only time I saw a genuine smile on his face was when he looked at her picture. He probably believes she was having an affair and the guy persuaded her to lift the money so they could make a life together. Hal told me the guy’s wife is loaded. She introduced all the money into their marriage and if he left her, she’d take him to the cleaners and alienate him from his kids. The guy’s job probably wouldn’t survive the fallout and having got used to the high life he wouldn’t fancy slumming it.”

  “So he set it up but covered his own back.”

  “Exactly. If the affair did take place then he was clever. When the axe fell it looked as though Katrina Simpson had acted alone.”

  Kara wrinkled her nose. “What a charmer!”

  “Hal agonised over it. He said he couldn’t blame his mate if there was an affair because his wife’s a real ball-breaker. But he had no firm evidence, just an overheard conversation that he could easily have misinterpreted. And you don’t destroy marriages and careers because you suspect all is not well in paradise.”

  “Do you think Garnet asking you to tattle on Hal is just a smoke screen? He’s testing your loyalty by putting you up against your mate.”

  “It looks that way.”

  She frowned. “But this thing about destroying Hal. I don’t buy it, Charlie. He might love his goddaughter but it’s a hell of a lot of effort just to gain revenge.”

  “Ah, but we’re not talking about a normal person here. Garnet’s a megalomaniac. Everything has to be on his terms. Cross anyone he loves and he takes it personally.”

  “Hmm.” She covered her mouth with her hand and yawned. “Sea air always makes me sleepy.”

  “Not too sleepy to play, I hope,” I said, pulling her to her feet.

  “Never.”

  Her mouth, warm and mobile beneath mine as I ben
t to kiss her, assuaged all doubts on that front.

  * * *

  We stretched out our lunch the following day until the kids started to bicker, earning us censorious glances from other diners. The restaurant we’d chosen was part of the shopping complex just outside the marina gates. We could see the Glorianna, which was attracting a lot of attention from passersby, but weren’t close enough to see if anyone was on board. Still, if and when someone left, he’d have to come through the marina gates, and I hoped to recognise whoever. It seemed a bit tenuous but stranger things have been known to happen. Besides, we had to eat somewhere.

  As I paid the bill, distracted for a moment as I tried to stop Harry and Sergei squirting ketchup at each other, someone emerged from the Glorianna. I only caught a glimpse of him as he slunk through the gates. He was obviously trying to look inconspicuous with a hood pulled over his head when the day was warm. It made him stand out and aroused my suspicions.

  “Is that him?” Kara asked.

  “Not sure. It could be. His features aren’t that clear but I think…”

  As soon as he turned the corner into the shopping centre and pulled his hood down I recognised him. He’d been at Hal’s party. A junior member of the maintenance team, perfectly placed to do Angie’s dirty work. I snapped off a few shots of his profile on my mobile.

  “That’s him,” I said. “Don’t remember his name but Hal will know who he is.”

  “Aren’t you going to email that picture straight to him?” Kara asked as she shepherded the kids through the restaurant door.

  “Not immediately, no. Garnet probably suspects Hal’s asked me to look into things, and if Angie and her mate get the push he’ll know who orchestrated their downfall. I don’t want him to think I’m actively working against him—at least not yet.” I lifted Saskia aboard the No Comment and whistled to Gil, who was paying a little too much attention to a female beagle.

  “What will you do next then?” Kara asked.

  “I’m going to start by talking to that guy I recognised at the club.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I didn’t have Gerry Binder’s number but it wasn’t difficult to find in the local directory. He had a massive double glazing business that was bucking the recession. A lot of home improvement businesses apparently were. People weren’t moving but upgrading their existing properties instead. Every lining has a silver cloud.