Blue Steal

by Marnie St Clair

  Chapter 15

  Jack winced as he dragged himself up the street. Jesus, those fucking … gorillas had messed him up good. He’d been king hit into la-la-land. Next thing he knew, he was drifting back to consciousness as he was hauled out of a van in the midst of the shipping containers and abandoned factories that made up the industrial wasteland just west of the CBD.

  He’d seriously thought his number was up—what better location for an execution—but they’d only slapped him more awake to administer another round of bruising blows to his mid-section, before leaving him with a warning not to return to the Empire.

  Lewis of course. Jack was lucky Lewis didn’t realise who he was dealing with. The goons had been instructed to give Jack a warning, not the final message.

  A warning he was ignoring. There was something incredibly precious in that hotel, and it wasn’t a sapphire necklace.

  Almost there. Just a bit further, then he’d grab Selina and run for cover while he figured out how to end this once and for all.

  Something was heading in his direction, approaching at a rate of knots. Someone small, light and fast. His right eye, the lucky recipient of punch number one, was swollen, and vision was proving a little tricky, but his hearing was fine, and he could hear the staccato of heels rapping sharply against pavement.

  Selina.

  The blurry figure came to a halt a few feet in front on him. He couldn’t see her in as much detail as he would have liked, but his mind helpfully filled in the blanks.

  Damn she was pretty.

  He tried to smile, but judging by the sound of horror that came out of her mouth, it wasn’t a success. He made out the movement of her hand coming up to cover her mouth.

  ‘Bella,’ he croaked.

  She stepped closer, gingerly raised a hand to his face.

  A moment or two later, he became aware of his best friend’s presence.

  ‘Jack.’ Charles sounded sombre, but that didn’t mean much. Charles always sounded sombre.

  ‘Charles.’

  ‘I’ve put a call into Clanchy.’

  The detective agency’s first port of call doctor. Usually he’d argue about seeing Clanchy. Usually he’d waved it off as unnecessary. It must be pretty bad this time, because he wasn’t making even a murmur of protest.

  ‘Let’s head to your place. Clanchy’s going to meet us there.’ Charles turned, lines of his body grim and determined. ‘The car’s this way,’ he called over his shoulder when neither of them moved.

  Selina’s hand slipped into his, and it felt good there. So warm and soft. He wanted to bring it to his mouth, recipient of punch number two, but since he couldn’t feel his lips, probably not a great idea.

  ‘Who’s Clanchy?’ she asked from his side.

  ‘Our doctor.’

  ‘Good,’ she said.

  He squeezed her hand. ‘We have to talk.’

  ‘I know. Let’s wait till after you’re patched up.’

  Selina’s hand stayed in his as she guided him into the backseat of the car. Did that mean they weren’t fighting anymore? Thank God.

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ he directed at Charles.

  For taking care of Selina. Keeping her safe.

  He made out an answering nod from the front of the car.

  Jack’s Richmond apartment wasn’t far. Charles parked and Jack managed to drag himself unassisted up the stairs. Why had he thought living on the third floor was a good idea?

  ‘You live here?’ Selina asked as she followed him in, the incredulity in her tone so thick it was dripping.

  He could understand her reaction. Home sweet home was a generous-sized apartment in a small block of six which channelled some serious nineteen-fifties Hollywood glamour. There were even palms in the central courtyard surrounding a figure-eight shaped pool. His place had dark polished wooden floors and a matching dining table; dark leather dining chairs and sofas; and white everything else. There were a couple of zebra print wool rugs on the floor, and colourful tropical oil paintings hung on the walls. He’d bought it in the early days of his money-making phase, and let his interior designer girlfriend of the time to go nuts with ‘modern safari’.

  To be honest, he’d come to think of the whole thing as ridiculously extravagant. Maybe it was, but it was also gorgeous, and when he thought of Selina’s digs… He couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at how he took it for granted.

  Soon after, Clanchy turned up. Half an hour later, he left again.

  Jack would live. A slight concussion, a lot of bruising, the possibility of a fractured rib. No organ damage or internal bleeding. He was lucky. Clanchy had cleaned him up, got ice-packs on the bruising and insisted on watching as Jack swallowed a decent amount of painkillers. Jack hadn’t been about to argue. Not this time.

  The good doctor departed, leaving Selina, Charles and Jack to talk through their next steps. Selina settled herself next to Jack on the couch, Charles pulled up one of the leather dining chairs.

  For a long moment, there was nothing but silence.

  He knew what Selina was thinking. When she’d run to him on the street, he could feel her frantic worry for him, her overwhelming sense of relief that he was basically in one piece. Now that the initial fear for his life had subsided, she had started to think again. She’d been watching and listening while Clanchy had tended to him, but she’d also been thinking through everything that had happened today, and what it meant.

  ‘You knew, didn’t you?’ she said, swivelling on the couch to face him. ‘You knew about Lewis.’

  He shifted, uncomfortable in a way that had nothing to do with his injuries. ‘Yes.’

  ‘You didn’t tell me.’ She sounded angry. Worse: hurt.

  If he had a choice, he would choose not to have this conversation in front of Charles. But he’d made his bed and now he’d have to lie in it. ‘No.’

  She pulled back a little. What could he say? He’d had his reasons.

  He was looking at his hands, but he could feel her eyes on him.

  ‘When did you work it out?’

  ‘I had suspicions but I didn’t know for sure until yesterday morning.’

  Silence greeted that one. Yesterday morning didn’t sound like a long time, but a lot had happened since then. They’d made love.

  He glanced at Selina, who still looked stiff and uncompromising along the couch from him. ‘Let’s save it, Selina.’ They would have to talk about it, but not immediately. More important was that they came up with a plan of action from here.

  Charles swooped to the rescue. ‘I have Selina’s version of events. Perhaps you could lead us through what led you to conclude Lewis was responsible for Andrew’s death, Jack?’

  He brought Charles up to date on the week from his point of view. ‘I had my suspicions, but it wasn’t until yesterday morning, after I talked with the first cop on the scene, that I knew for sure. He was sure when he first walked in that night, the gun was in the guard’s right hand. He left the scene to phone it in and when he returned, the gun had been moved to the other hand.’

  ‘Why didn’t he say anything at the time?’ Charles interjected.

  Jack shrugged. ‘He’d made a mistake by leaving the scene unattended. He couldn’t prove anything and he didn’t want to risk losing his job.’

  Charles pursed his lips in disapproval.

  Perhaps if Ross had spoken up all those years ago, they wouldn’t be sitting here like this right now, but somehow Jack doubted it would have changed much. The Holloways had enough clout to have a rookie cop buried.

  ‘But you believed him,’ Selina said slowly. ‘And if the gun did switch hands …’

  ‘Yes,’ Jack agreed. He’d forgotten this was new information to her too, but she’d picked up on the implication. ‘If the gun switched hands, there’s only one way it could have played out, because there was only one man left standing. Lewis. I suspect some of what Lewis told you is correct: that the twins did argue and that the guard did appear. No doubt
they panicked. One of them clobbered him. Probably Lewis. After that, for reasons we don’t understand yet, Lewis took the guard’s gun and killed Andrew.’

  He was sure that was how it had happened. After all, they’d been arguing about something before being interrupted. Whatever had caused the argument had been sufficient to motivate Lewis to murder Andrew. Or perhaps it was the death of the guard himself—perhaps that had been the catalyst for the shooting. He supposed they would never know.

  ‘Andrew wanted to leave. He wanted—needed—to get away from Lewis,’ Selina said quietly. ‘Lewis couldn’t allow that to happen, so he killed him.’

  He waited for her to fill in the blanks, curious to know what had happened—something obviously, since he’d left her in the lobby all those hours ago.

  ‘When I searched the linen room on Tuesday night, I didn’t find the necklace …’

  Selina paused and shot a quick glance at Charles, worried perhaps about whether Charles would be scandalised at Selina’s purpose for being at the Empire. Jack nodded for her to go on. No doubt Charles had already figured it out for himself, and he wouldn’t be concerned about an intended but not actual theft, not when there was a dangerous lunatic on the loose.

  Selina continued. ‘I didn’t find the necklace, but I did find letters. Andrew had hidden them under the floorboards. I thought they were love letters, from him to nonna. That’s what nonna said they were. I didn’t read them at first. I was going to give them to nonna. But after we fought this morning …’ A pointed look at him. ‘I found them again and since no one else seemed to care about them …’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, they weren’t love letters. They were … hate letters. About Lewis.’

  She looked composed but sad. So Keith had been right after all, Andrew had hated his brother. It must have hit Selina hard, having defended him so fervently on more than one occasion.

  ‘I went to meet Lewis, and—’

  ‘You saw him? After you read what Andrew had written?’ Maybe he was playing with fire, seeing as Selina was already cross with him, but he couldn’t contain himself. ‘What were you thinking?’

  ‘What else was I supposed to do?’ she retorted. ‘Make Lewis more suspicious by not turning up? And besides, at that stage, I still wasn’t sure about what Andrew had written, whether it was true.’

  ‘What did Lewis want?’ he asked, attempting to stay calm.

  ‘He was angry. He knew we’d been to Keith’s house and he didn’t like it. Then he said he’d taken care of you, and also …’ She paused, her breath almost hitching. ‘If I disappointed him … like Andrew had disappointed him …’ She trailed off, looking down. ‘That was when I knew every word Andrew had written was true.’

  Words couldn’t describe the rising suffocation Jack felt at what Selina was saying. It was one thing that Lewis had tried to get rid of him, but Selina … He took in a sharp breath, then let it go. ‘Selina—’

  She looked up, eyes burning him. ‘You should have told me.’

  ‘I tried to stop you.’ He’d begged and pleaded and threatened. But he hadn’t told her the one thing that surely would have prevented her going in.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  He could hear the hurt in her tone, and maybe it was the painkiller but he couldn’t think how to respond. The silence stretched uncomfortably.

  Charles cleared his throat. ‘I suggest we stay focused on where to from here. Do either of you have anything you haven’t disclosed yet?’

  Selina was silent and so was Jack.

  ‘Right. We’ve established that Lewis is a threat, to both of you. The only way to ensure your safety is to put him behind bars. The key question is, how?’

  Jack was grateful for his friend’s diversionary tactics. Putting Selina’s glare to the side for the moment, he focused on what Charles had said. ‘The only way we’ll get him for Andrew is if we can get a confession out of him.’

  ‘And can we?’ Charles asked.

  Jack grimaced. ‘Unlikely. He’s not looking for absolution.’ The reason so many undercover ops were successful was because the perpetrator was desperate to confess. All it took was enough time to build a little trust, and bingo, out it all came. That seemed unlikely with Lewis. ‘Selina? What’s your take?’

  ‘No,’ she replied. ‘Lewis still loves Andrew in his own way. He misses him. But I don’t think he feels guilty about what he did. I think he considers it Andrew’s fault.’

  What he’d thought. ‘There’s another option. I’d stake my life on the fact that Andrew is the tip of the iceberg. I’ve started looking, and I’ve already hit on a couple of unfortunate accidents that led to outrageous fortune for Lewis. If we start digging, we’ll find bodies. But it’ll take time. There are no guarantees we’ll find enough to put him away, and in the meantime …’ In the meantime, Lewis would be trying to hold Selina tight in his slimy grasp. He turned to Charles. ‘I know human resources is an issue at the moment—’

  ‘We’ll pull everyone onto this,’ Charles said, firm and simple. ‘You’re both in danger. That takes priority. We’ll organise some kind of safe house while we—’

  ‘I can do it,’ Selina interrupted.

  Charles had paused, waiting for Selina to clarify. Jack already knew what was she was going to say. He ran a hand through his hair, then tapped it on the arm of the couch.

  No.

  ‘I can get a confession,’ she added.

  ‘No,’ he said out loud. He didn’t need to think it over. The thought of Selina willingly going anywhere near Lewis again made his blood turn to ice.

  Selina turned to him, ready to fight. ‘If he’s going to confess to anyone, it’s going to be me. I can do it.’

  ‘No.’ Just no.

  ‘You think you have a reasonable chance of success?’ asked Charles, and Jack shot him a warning glare.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, no doubt in her tone. ‘He … likes me. He needs me. He gets confused—I swear he thinks I’m Andrew half the time. We can use that. I can do this.’

  ‘Jack?’ asked Charles. ‘Your thoughts? I know it’s difficult, but try to be rational.’

  Jack sent this friend another foul look. Try to be rational about putting Selina back in danger? Cursing under his breath, he considered the idea. Selina was right. She might be able to do it. But taking advantage of a violent sociopath’s vulnerability … If it all went wrong … And it could, so quickly. He shook his head. ‘It’s too risky.’

  ‘He doesn’t know I suspect him,’ she argued. ‘I told him I was glad he’d taken care of you, glad you were out of the way. He thinks all I want is Holloway Industries. He thinks I’m exactly like him.’

  ‘He could turn at any moment and you know it. Look at me, Selina.’ Jack waited until her eyes were on his face, trailing over his black eye, his swollen lip. ‘You think I’m about to risk this or something worse happening to you?’

  She didn’t look away. ‘I know it’s risky, but hiding away is even riskier. I look at you and I see what Lewis is capable of. Yes, it scares me, but the thought of him out there, free to do things like this at any time … That scares me more. I’ll do whatever it takes to put him away.’

  He’d always loved her audacity, but today he’d trade it for some nice, sensible fear. ‘We can get him on another crime. Do it from a distance.’

  ‘You said it yourself, Jack. You don’t know if you’ll find enough to be able to make it stick in court. I know Lewis. I know how smart he is. You think he doesn’t know how to cover his tracks?’

  He knew all that. And maybe they’d never get him, but he’d live with that over sending Selina back in to wrestle a confession from him. ‘No.’

  ‘I want to do this.’

  Selina could handle herself, he knew that, but this was Lewis they were talking about. ‘No.’

  Her answering glare let him know how she felt about his high-handedness. ‘I’m sorry but you don’t just get to say no. It’s not up to you, Jack. He killed my grandfather. That’s
the crime he’s paying for. And he hurt you. He’s mine to take down.’

  No.

  ‘Selina’s right, Jack. Until we get him put away, he’s a danger. If Selina feels she can do it, it’s worth a shot.’ A slight pause. ‘And you don’t just get to say no. It’s her family business.’

  He knew how Charles felt about family business and why, but right now the well of sympathy was dry. He caught the look of gratitude Selina sent towards Charles, and he gave his friend another venomous glance. Usually he’d be happy his best friend was getting on so well with his girl, but this time … Charles wouldn’t be so frigging supportive if it was his woman putting herself in the firing line.

  ‘He’s already expecting a meeting with me tomorrow. We’ll do it then. The sooner, the better.’

  It didn’t help that they were both making a lot of sense. It was the rock and the hard place again, and he was sick of being stuck between the two. A high-risk up-close operation that might take Lewis out of the picture as early as tomorrow, or a lower-risk attempt that would leave him free and a threat for longer. How the fuck was he supposed to choose? And as Selina and Charles were so keen to point out, it wasn’t just up to him.

  ‘We’ll plan it thoroughly,’ Charles, sensing weakness and pressing advantage. ‘We’ll lean on our contacts, Kelly’s contacts, organise a police presence. You and I will both be there, Jack, waiting in the wings. It’ll be as safe as these things can possibly be.’

  Jack closed his eyes for a moment. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one little bit. But he liked even less the idea of Lewis on the outside, a constant threat to Selina at every turn. And he would be. He’d been obsessed with his brother and the jewels for fifty years, and now that obsession had switched to Selina. Could he ask her to live with that hanging over her? ‘We’re setting this up properly. There’s to be no chance—no chance—of any harm coming to Selina. If there is, we pull the plug.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘We’re only going to get one chance with this,’ Charles cautioned. ‘We going to have to get it right first time around.’

  ‘So,’ Selina said silkily. ‘Let’s talk strategy.’