Play With Fire

by Solomon Carter

  “Why do you say that? Is he missing me?”

  “He won’t say much about you, Joanne. But I know he’s missing you like hell. It’s obvious.”

  “He’ll survive. He’ll get stronger too.”

  “You said you loved him. Did you hear it when you said that?” said Eva.

  “Eva… please… don’t psychoanalyse me. They’re words, that’s all. Of course I loved him. I love all you guys…”

  “Classic misdirection, Joanne. I’m a PI, remember. All the targets try it, the clients too, but it doesn’t wash. There’s love and then there’s love…”

  Joanne blushed and looked at Eva, who saw something else in her eyes. Mischief and a glint of something else. A secret spark of her own. Eva nodded once and made a note of it. That glimmer looked off limits, for now.

  “Just take my advice, please,” said Eva. “Quit that council job before it bites you on the backside. And get this Falk to pay what you deserve. If he doesn’t pay you within a couple of months, come back to me, and I’ll see how we’re placed.”

  Joanne grinned. “Really? You’d still think of employing me? Even after the way I walked out and left you guys…?”

  Eva smiled. “It’s an if and when thing, Joanne. There’s a number of caveats, but they’re only financial. Get Falk to pay you, Joanne. Fair’s fair.”

  Joanne nodded. “The money will come. For now I’ll hang onto my last week or two of freelancing.”

  “Freelancing as in Joanne’s special unpaid meaning of the word,” said Eva.

  “Suits me for now,” she said.

  “The way young people think,” said Eva.

  The both looked at the estuary and picked up their cups. Their coffee was no longer hot, the cups less than half full. Eva’s hair was whipped in the breeze and flew behind her shoulders.

  “I know you, Joanne. You wouldn’t waste your time purely on social matters. You’re always busy. I take it there’s a reason you wanted to meet? Perhaps you wanted me to convey a message to Mark…?”

  Joanne shook her head and opened her mouth to speak but seeing the crow’s feet by Eva’s eyes and the line on her brow, she immediately changed tack.

  “Has Dan’s Uber job started yet?”

  Eva searched the girl’s eyes, looking past the question to see what she was really after. But she answered anyway. “I think it’s coming, but the Renton Trust are playing something of a long game. Blowing hot and cold. This whole thing could end up as death-by-committee, or it could come to life any time. The chair of trustees is a man called George Crickle, a guy Dan calls The Whitehair. I think Crickle wants Dan to go all out against the Uber dealers, much as Carl Renton would have done, but they’ve got a few fuddy-duddies who aren’t so sure. Dan’s keen as mustard, of course. He always is. If you want to know more you’d best ask him. He’s already got a file full of clippings on the Uber network. To be honest, it looks less like a work file and more like a kid’s scrapbook. But that’s Dan for you.”

  “Sounds about right…”

  Eva put her cup to her lips and drained it. She returned the cup to the saucer with a hint of finality. It was time to go.

  “Did you ever find out where the Galvan lead came from…? The lead in the Poulter case?” said Eva.

  Joanne opened her mouth as she thought of the various lies she’d told about her source. And then she thought of Toby Falk, of potentially betraying the man she had been sleeping with, because he had been taken for a ride by one Alice Perry. Falk wasn’t the only man to fall foul of Perry. And besides, it wasn’t good form to dump a lover into the dock for a crime he hadn’t deliberately committed. “I’m working on it,” she said. That much was true.

  Eva nodded.

  “Okay… so, if there was something else you wanted to say, then we’d better get to it. We’ve got a number of new client meetings on today. I should really get back to the office. First impressions count with new clients, and I’m not sure I want Dan left as one hundred per cent responsible for those impressions…”

  “You’ve got some new business coming in? That’s great,” said Joanne, with a little too much enthusiasm.

  Eva nodded. “Yes, we’re having a good week on that score.”

  Joanne nodded. “I’m pleased for you.”

  “They’re a little odd, some of them. But at least we’re getting recommended. So, was there anything you wanted to say?”

  Joanne made a face. “Actually, there is. But perhaps I’m being a little reticent about it because it’s about Lauren Jaeger. I know she was your best friend.”

  Eva sighed, and looked suddenly apathetic. No, not apathetic. It was something more like disdain. Eva was preparing to be taken somewhere she didn’t want to go.

  “She was my best friend when I was still in school uniform. Then as you know, she dropped me like a sack of the proverbial and never looked back. But you know that part by now. The new Lauren is a bit different in some ways, similar in others. To be honest, I’m beginning to think she did me a favour by walking away. I really don’t need the drama in my life. Or the angst.”

  “Yeah, I see that,” said Joanne. “She’s still weighing on your mind, isn’t she?”

  “She hasn’t paid up yet. I know she will, but still, I’d like to get the payment sorted so I know I can move on and close the door on her. That case was like drinking a little bit of poison every day. You hope it’ll make you immune eventually, but in the meantime it’s still making you ill. Seeing Lauren so often took me back to a place I didn’t want to go – every time I saw her – and then she was pushing me, always prodding me to go further every time we discussed it.”

  “Further? I thought she was pushing you. How much further?”

  “She knew how to turn my words against me. And she’d read up on our exploits, good and bad. She almost drove me to hurt Blane, Joanne. I thought I was beyond all that, but when it came right down to the moment when Jamie Blane was shouting into my face, I lost it. I could hear Lauren in my head. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and I turned it on him. It was self-defence, in the heat of the moment and all that. I kept looking at his chest. I kept thinking how easy it would have been to stick the knife in him, to stop him from hurting Lauren and every other woman who he might crack on to in future. He’s a menace to women. I could blame Lauren, saying how much she’d gotten into my head. But I have to be honest with myself. I know I wanted to do it. That wasn’t Lauren’s fault, that was mine. Lauren showed me what I was capable of, what I had done before… but when the next opportunity came, I almost did it. She opened the door on something I’d put behind me.”

  “Do you really think Lauren wanted you to kill him?”

  Eva looked at Joanne. There was a serious, sad look in her eyes. “I never thought of myself as being so easily played. I suppose I was wrong. But what Lauren found, that was all in me. It was already there.”

  “The guy was a scumbag, Eva. He still is. And you were under a ton of pressure. Lauren was leaning all over you for a result.”

  Eva took a long deep breath. “And I think she still is, from afar.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t do what she wanted. She wanted the man dead, but instead I gave her only the bottom-line result she paid for. She wanted out, so I gave Blane an ultimatum to let her go. He agreed. At least I think he did.”

  “You think?” said Joanne.

  Eva nodded. “All the evidence Lauren had against him, everything she said, everything she presented to me… Blane was able to discredit every single piece of it. The evidence was fabricated, Joanne. Blane wasn’t a good guy, but neither was he the sole villain. They’re both as bad as each other, both were victims as well as perpetrators. Turns out she even stabbed Blane not so long back.”

  “Stabbed him? That’s serious,” said Joanne.

  “You should have seen the scar. Lauren doesn’t know that I’ve been working through the evidence with Blane, checking if it was true or false. All she knows i
s that I’ve called it case closed. She’ll get what she asked for, including any money Blane owes her. Trouble is Blane says there was no money. His version of events is that Lauren was no recruitment wunderkind, not the way she tells it. Blane says he virtually scraped her up off the pavement and gave her a chance in the job because he was falling for her. In his story, Blane was grieving for his wife, and she took full advantage of it. Before he knew it, she’d moved in. That’s his story, and she has hers. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.”

  “Or nowhere at all,” said Joanne.

  “And never the twain shall meet. But she’ll soon work out that Blane won’t pay up, then I suppose there’ll be trouble. But I did the job alright. The only request I didn’t deliver on was murdering the man. Because no matter what the past says of us, that’s not what we do.”

  Joanne noticed the look on Eva’s face. It was as if she didn’t believe her own words.

  “So, she lied about her success at Blane’s agency too?”

  “So he says. When a relationship goes toxic, the truth dies, Joanne. There is only her truth and there is his. Ordinarily that’d be a good enough reason to get out of a case like this. But this situation is seriously warped. It’s personal. But to be honest, a part of me would be glad to just get my fee and walk away. Case closed. Seriously, I think these two deserve each other.”

  “Case closed would be good. How long is it since you last dealt with her?”

  “Lauren? About a week ago. Oh, don’t get me wrong. She’s sent a few check-in texts. But no face-to-face meetings – not since I fronted Blane in his apartment.”

  “But you’ve been dealing with Blane since?”

  “Yes, here and there. Just running through the alleged evidence of his preparation for killing Lauren, step by step. As I say, Lauren fabricated almost everything.”

  “Damn,” said Joanne. “I can see this is churning you up. You haven’t stopped thinking about it the whole time, have you?”

  Eva sighed and pinched her brow above her nose.

  “Once someone tries to prove that you’re actually a cold blooded killer. That you’re the kind of person you never ever wanted to become, then it’s kind of hard to forget. The thoughts just come at you. Not only that, but situations come at you too. Last night, I worked an infidelity case. I tracked a housewife to a tryst in a Westcliff back alley. Clothes were literally torn off and they went at it on the floor.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. They were like animals. But get this. The client asked me if I can kill the lover and maybe not just the lover but his wife as well. Tell me, Joanne, do I look like kind of woman who might kill a person? Because it’s beginning to feel like I’ve got ‘evil bitch’ tattooed on my forehead.”

  Joanne stared at Eva and slowly shook her head. “Eva, don’t let that woman mess with your head. I know she hurt you once and she probably hurt you very badly. But she doesn’t have any power over you. You are one of the kindest, most steadfast people I’ve ever met. You’re the total opposite of evil. I mean it.”

  Eva nodded. “Well, it’s good to hear someone say it. Especially now you’re Miss Independent, I know I can trust your opinion as much as anyone else’s. I’m glad things are working out for you, Joanne. But I’d better go.”

  “Wait,” said Joanne.

  Eva stared in her seat.

  “Just one thing? What was Lauren like back when you were at school?” said Joanne.

  Eva frowned. She put her hands on her knees and looked at the water again. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I’d like to get an insight into the kind of woman who can blank her very best friend for twenty years and then come back from nowhere and spin you a ton of lies, and then try to get you to hurt someone for them.”

  “Joanne. Take the past out of this and what do you get? A messed up woman in the middle of a nasty, poisonous, violent relationship who wants out no matter the cost. Do you see? She’s every client we’ve ever had, using different words. It’s the business, Joanne. You’ll get used to it. Deep down they’re all twisted. I’m coming to see that deep down, we all are.”

  “I don’t think so, Eva., and I don’t think we’re all the same.”

  Eva shook her head. “Where are you going with this? Why are you asking me these questions anyway? You’ve got your own life now. You’re a young woman on the fast track to becoming a PI. You don’t need to get caught up in anyone else’s rubbish and certainly not mine.”

  “Eva. I want to help you. What happened then wasn’t your fault. I’m sure of it. Just as much as I’m sure you don’t deserve to be punishing yourself for it now. I want to help and I’ve been working on something…”

  “Something about Lauren?”

  Joanne nodded.

  “Joanne, please don’t get involved, and please don’t turn this into some kind of case. It’s not a case, Joanne. It’s my life. Look at you. You’re happy. You’ve moved on. So do yourself a favour, live your life, meet me for coffee and tell me all about your new world, but please leave this well alone. That part of my past has been off limits for me for the best part of twenty years. The only reason it’s back is because Lauren Jaeger came back and stirred it all up. So do me a favour and let it settle down again.”

  “Eva… she was bad news then and she is bad news now. If we could both just take a look at this woman together, we could review what happened back then, what really happened, what her motivation might have been… and maybe we could understand what she’s doing here now. There are new question marks about her, too. You’ve been uncovering stuff. So have I. Eva, she lied to you about her career in the fashion trade press. She told lies about her work at Blane recruitment too. It’s all lies, Eva, see? We need to find out what’s true. I can help you with that. In fact I’ve already started.”

  “No,” said Eva.

  “I’ve done a heap of stuff already—”

  “No!” Eva turned abruptly in her seat, turning so she could face Joanne more fully. Her eyes were bright and serious and full of fire. The lines around her eyes looked as if they had been carved in stone.

  “No. There’s no need to start delving into my past hurts. It happened. I moved on. I put that behind me, I grew up and fixed up a life with Dan. I don’t intend to go back and start digging up ancient history. You said you didn’t want me to psychoanalyse you, now I’m asking you for the same courtesy. Leave it, Joanne.”

  “But, Eva, there must have been some signs back then – some outward sign that she wasn’t such a great friend. That she was a total liar.”

  “Everyone lies, Joanne. Every client you’ll ever have will hide their motivations, even from themselves. You just learn to see through it and deal with it.”

  “There are lies, and then there are lies like this. You must remember her doing something before she cut you off.”

  Eva’s eyes misted for a moment, her mind returning to a time which felt too recent to be so far in the past. In her mind she felt no different. But her body must have been different, smaller, lighter, thinner, but it didn’t feel that way. She remembered the feel of the rough nylon school blazer – teal and navy with gold trim. The school jersey and the stiff white collars of the blouses and cheap nylon navy tie. She remembered Lauren, the same but younger and thinner and softer faced, but those eyes were still exactly the same. It could have been yesterday. In her mind’s eye Lauren was talking to her. And in the next moment, she remembered Lauren passing her by in the playground, wordless, not even glancing her way, walking away with a pack of her new best friends. The hard girls who did whatever they liked. The second memory was almost painful. Stupid, but it still hurt. It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did.

  “Twenty years back, Joanne. What good is there in going back – for you, for me, for anyone?”

  “Eva, I only wanted to help. But, look… why don’t I carry on looking at Lauren. I might find something you can’t. I’ve got a bit more distance from her than you, a little more clarit
y.”

  “I’ve got all the clarity I need, Joanne,” snapped Eva. “Thanks all the same.”

  Eva made a show of checking the time on her phone screen. It was still mid-morning.

  “I’d better go back for those client meetings. And won’t your new boss be missing you?”

  “The advantage of still being freelance,” said Joanne, leaving her emphasis on the word free.

  “Enjoy it while you can. I’d better go,” Eva stood up, her face still firm, though she tried to soften her features enough to give a faint parting smile. It didn’t quite work. But smile deployed, Eva pulled her handbag strap high over her shoulder and turned away towards the parking bays just a few yards ahead. “Need a lift?” Eva offered, without much enthusiasm. Joanne shook her head and stayed in her seat. “I may as well enjoy the last of this coffee.”

  Eva nodded. “Fair enough. How about another coffee in a week or so?”

  “Sure,” said Joanne.

  Eva gave Joanne another smile with a hint of apology.

  “Whoever he is, Joanne, he’s a lucky guy.”

  “What?” said Joanne.

  Eva offered an enigmatic smile. “As for Lauren, it’s best left alone.” She kept her tone light and even, then turned away. Joanne watched Eva walk down the line of cars to the red Alfa hatchback parked outside the Estuary Restaurant at the end of the row. She got in and a moment later her red car drove away down the seafront, heading back for central Southend and the office beyond. Joanne tipped the cold dregs of her coffee down her throat and made a face at the taste. Even so, cold coffee dregs here were better than hot instant at Falk’s.

  “Sorry, Eva. I can’t leave it alone. Not until I know…”

  Four

  Dan looked up at the wall clock as his fingers jabbed at the keyboard of his laptop. He was hunched over the desk like an old-time piano maestro, but his two fingered typing gave more the impression of a toddler with a Casio keyboard. What Dan didn’t have in qwerty typing skills, he made up for in speed. His email was almost done.