Nothing But Lies

by Lyndon Stacey

  ‘You’re right. Actually, I think he looks a bit like Boo Travers’ son. The one we saw at the show,’ he told Tamiko. ‘Hmm. There’s a thought …’

  ‘You are right! Stella tell me she finds that Dennie had been cheating on her long time,’ Tamiko said. ‘You are thinking maybe Harrison is Dennie’s son?’

  ‘It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, but if that’s the case, your Stella has good reason to be bitter. I’d say Boo’s son must be getting on for thirty, from what I remember.’

  ‘Poor lady. I wonder how long she knows he cheats.’

  ‘It might have come as a complete surprise,’ Jo-Ji put in. ‘You’d be amazed at how long a relationship can go on without one partner knowing anything about what the other is doing.’

  ‘Especially if they don’t want to know,’ Daniel added.

  ‘You make me worried, now,’ Tamiko joked, looking at her fiancé, but Jo-Ji just laughed.

  ‘You’d catch me out straightaway,’ he told her. ‘I’m a hopeless liar.’

  The next couple of days were taken up with arrangements for Hana’s funeral. Jo-Ji had returned to work and the FLO contacted them with the frustrating news that there was as yet no trace of the hit-and-run vehicle, though they were fairly certain that they were looking for a 4×4, possibly a Land Rover.

  With no available DNA evidence and no witnesses, the investigation appeared to have stalled. Of the mobile phone signals that had been picked up at the time and place of the accident, two had been traced and their users cleared but the third remained unaccounted for and was no longer emitting a signal. It seemed that whether the crash had been intentional or not, the driver had been very thorough in covering his tracks.

  A mood of depression descended on No. 5 Tannery Lane, not helped by Jahan, who, after asking for his mother a couple of times, had retreated into his own world, showing no emotion and not offering to talk unless spoken to.

  ‘I wish he would cry or be angry,’ Tamiko told Daniel as they exercised the horses, early on Friday morning. ‘It’s not natural for a little boy to be so quiet.’

  ‘I think it’s probably a survival strategy. I get the feeling he’s learned that keeping quiet is the safest bet. I don’t think he’s had a very happy life, so far.’

  ‘Yes, I agree,’ she said, nodding sadly. ‘The only thing he show any interest in since Hana’s accident, is the horses. He want to know if he can go to watch the horses jumping again, but I have to tell him, not for a while.’

  ‘Are there no shows coming up?’

  ‘Well, yes. There is one on Sunday that I have entered, but it doesn’t seem right.’

  ‘I understand what you mean,’ Daniel said. ‘But there’s nothing you can do for your sister now except look after her little boy, and if you think going to a show would cheer him up, then why not go?’

  Tamiko frowned. ‘I don’t know … What would people think?’

  ‘Realistically, most people won’t know. If you meet friends there, you can explain. Wear a black armband, if you like, as a mark of respect. It’s your call, but personally I think it would be good for you, too. There is nothing more to be done until the funeral and sitting around feeling miserable won’t achieve anything.’

  Tamiko looked thoughtful.

  ‘I don’t mean to interfere,’ Daniel added. ‘But, whatever you do, do it for yourself and Jahan. Don’t worry about other people – it’s none of their business.’

  ‘No, you don’t interfere. I am grateful. I will think about it,’ she said then. ‘Now we should hurry to get back so Jo-Ji can go to work.’

  SEVEN

  Half past seven on the Sunday morning found Daniel, Tamiko and Jahan en route to an agricultural show near Oxford. Tamiko had agonised for a long while about the morality of attending the show but when she tentatively mentioned it to the boy, Jahan’s eager reaction swiftly banished any remaining doubts. They had given him such minor tasks as he could safely carry out during the preparations and now he sat between them, wide-awake despite the early start, with a light of expectation in his coal-dark eyes.

  On the monitor, three horses could be seen in the rear of the lorry: large, placid Samson unconcernedly pulling at his haynet, Rolo, head high and showing the whites of his eyes, and Natalie’s young horse, Raffa, who was leaning against the partition for support but appeared otherwise calm. On this occasion, Natalie’s groom, Inga, was travelling with them in the living area to the rear of the cab, for which Daniel was extremely grateful. Remembering Rolo’s excitable behaviour at the Devon show, he had not relished the idea of having to cope with him, Natalie’s youngster, and Jahan.

  Once the showground was reached, Inga immediately proved her worth as a groom, swinging into action with an efficiency that made Daniel wonder how Tamiko had put up with his own fumbling efforts with such good humour, the week before. Finding his presence around the horsebox surplus to requirements for the present, Daniel offered to take the boy off to see the sights and duly set off with Jahan’s hand held firmly in his.

  It was not so many years since he had led his own son in such a way, but at that age, Drew had been a far livelier youngster. Jahan walked obediently at his side, never lagging behind or pulling towards something that had caught his attention; only his quick dark eyes showing the depth of his excitement. Looking down at him, Daniel decided the boy must have inherited whatever family gene had brought Tamiko halfway across the world to indulge her passion for horses.

  According to a map of the showground, the secretary’s tent was on the far side of the horse rings, and as Tamiko had asked him to fetch another copy of the ring plan to replace one she had lost, Daniel headed that way.

  Horses were being led or ridden all around them as the first classes of a busy day got underway. Although it was a mixed agricultural show, the horses had been assigned a field of their own, presumably to minimise the risk to spectators, and the concentration of horseflesh in that one area could have been daunting to a less interested child. To one side of the field a small city of equine-themed trade stalls had been set up on a grid pattern, and already a good number of people were browsing along the alleyways.

  ‘What colour horses do you like the best?’ he asked the boy as they paused beside a ring where a dozen gleaming hunters were being shown in-hand.

  ‘The white ones,’ Jahan replied, instantly.

  ‘They are beautiful, aren’t they? Did you know that most white horses are born very dark brown, and that proper horse people always call them grey, not white?’

  ‘That one’s white,’ Jahan said, pointing to a very light grey pony in one of the showing rings.

  ‘It is, but it’s still called grey. The only true white horses are called albinos, and they have pink skin under their white coats.’

  ‘Actually, that’s a myth,’ a voice said close behind Daniel. Surprised, he turned to find Boo Travers standing there, her auburn fringe lifting in the light breeze. She smiled, showing perfectly even, white teeth. ‘There are no true albino horses. You occasionally get an albino foal born but they never survive. It’s actually called Lethal White – a defective gene. Something to do with the nervous system, if I remember rightly,’ she added. ‘Hi, again. Daniel, isn’t it? We met last week. Is Tami here, then? I didn’t think – that is, I’d heard there’d been an accident, is she OK?’

  ‘She’s fine. Well, still in shock and grieving for her sister, of course, but she’s doing amazingly well. Where did you hear about it?’

  ‘Oh, you know – the riders’ grapevine, I guess. Nothing much stays a secret for long. Her sister – God, that’s awful! She must be devastated. What happened exactly?’

  Daniel frowned and shook his head slightly, casting a brief significant glance down in Jahan’s direction.

  ‘You should talk to Tami,’ he suggested quietly, adding in a brighter tone, ‘this is her nephew, Jahan. He wanted to come along to see the horses, didn’t you, Jahan? And we thought it would do us all good to get out.’

&nbs
p; ‘I like the grey ones,’ the boy announced, the reference to Hana apparently having passed him by, as Daniel had hoped it would.

  ‘So do I,’ Boo confided, bending towards him. ‘I’ve got a grey one in my horsebox. He’s called Frankie Foo and he’s very friendly. Maybe you can come and see him later.’ Straightening up she said to Daniel, ‘Tell Tami I’m so very sorry, and I’ll catch up with her later,’ and with a wave of her hand, turned to walk away across the showground, her slim figure neat in navy-blue corduroy jodhpurs.

  Daniel watched her go with narrowed eyes. She was undeniably attractive. Had she really been the ‘other woman’ in her eventual husband’s life for the best part of thirty years? She would surely not have lacked other offers and from the little he had seen of her, Daniel found it hard to believe she’d be content to play second fiddle for such a long period of time. She gave the impression of being a woman who would know what she wanted from life and find a way to get it, but he acknowledged that opinion was built on very little substance – his copper’s intuition cutting in – and that had been wrong before now.

  A tug on his sleeve recalled his attention to his small charge.

  ‘Can we go and see the lady’s grey horse?’

  ‘Not now, Jahan. We’re supposed to be finding the secretary’s tent for Aunty Tami, remember? Come on, let’s go.’

  With Inga in attendance, Daniel found he had little to do to help apart from looking after Jahan, which wasn’t onerous. Tamiko had a very successful morning, both with her own horse and the two belonging to Natalie, and watching her performances with his semi-educated eye, Daniel felt that she was a horsewoman of some considerable skill. Although diminutive in stature, she seemed to have developed a strong rapport with her equine partners that completely counteracted any disadvantage her size might have conferred on her.

  ‘I worry that my sadness might upset the horses and make them difficult,’ she confided to Daniel as they had a quick lunch in the horsebox. ‘But it is the opposite. It’s as though they have make me calmer. Or perhaps they are not feeling me as much as I thought,’ she added with a small shrug.

  ‘I think they are very in tune with you. By the way, have you seen Boo Travers? We ran into her earlier, didn’t we, Jahan?’

  ‘We’re going to see the grey horse,’ the boy responded, waving sticky fingers. ‘The lady promised.’

  ‘We were talking about grey horses and she invited Jahan to go and meet hers,’ Daniel clarified.

  ‘That’ll be Frankie. He’s lovely. Mind you say thank you,’ Tamiko told her nephew. ‘Yes, I see her in the distance but not to talk with.’

  ‘She’d heard about the accident but I have a feeling she may have thought you’d been involved. Anyway, she asked if you were OK, and said she’d catch up with you later.’

  ‘Well, it was my car, so I suppose it would be easy for someone to have the wrong idea,’ Tamiko said. ‘I hope she doesn’t come. I don’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘I’ll warn her if I see her first.’

  With this in mind, straight after lunch, Daniel took Jahan by the hand once more and began to walk down the rows of horseboxes and trailers, searching for the one driven by Boo Travers. From the Devon show, he knew it was cream-coloured and, according to Tamiko, had ‘Rufford Manor Showjumpers’ and a picture of a horse painted on the side, so in spite of the large number of vehicles, Daniel was confident of locating it fairly easily.

  Knowing Boo had arrived early, as they had, he started his search at the front of the field, and for safety, hoisted Jahan onto his shoulders and held his ankles. There were a lot of horses coming and going and a rider in a hurry could easily overlook a small boy.

  He quickly spotted the lorry at the far end of the second row and headed that way, but it seemed he had timed it badly, for as he walked down the side of the horsebox, he could hear voices involved in an angry exchange at the rear and paused, not wanting to intrude.

  ‘I don’t care!’ That voice, though low and furious, was recognisable as Boo’s. ‘It doesn’t change the fact that I specifically told you not to come looking for me here! What if one of my friends sees you? How am I supposed to explain that?’

  ‘Tell them I’m your lover,’ a second voice suggested with amusement and the hint of a Scottish accent. ‘What’s the big deal?’

  ‘The big deal is that I don’t want you hanging around.’

  ‘The way I see it, you don’t have much choice, so you may as well get used to it.’

  ‘I thought you were supposed to be visiting a friend in Oxford – though it beggars belief that you’d have any!’ Boo returned.

  ‘She was out.’

  ‘I don’t blame her!’

  ‘Ooh, but you’re a little spitfire, aren’t you, my love?’ the soft tones said with evident appreciation.

  ‘If you call me that once more, I swear I’ll drive off and leave you here!’ Boo said furiously.

  ‘We both know that isn’t going to happen, don’t we?’ The Scotsman dropped the lilting charm. ‘So you might just as well suck it up and treat me nice. It won’t be forever.’

  ‘Don’t you touch me!’

  Daniel decided it was time he made an appearance.

  He strode forward, saying chattily to the boy, ‘This looks like it might be the right one. What d’you think?’

  As they rounded the rear of the lorry, the quarrelling pair fell abruptly silent and turned to face him, Boo looking flushed and annoyed, the Scotsman, with his hand on her arm, merely curious. Behind them a horse stood tied to a ring on the tailgate, partially tacked up.

  ‘Hi, Boo. I hope you don’t mind, but you did say Jahan could come and see your horse.’ Daniel stopped and looked from one to the other, affecting discomfiture. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Are we interrupting something?’

  Boo smiled brightly, disengaging her arm. ‘No, not at all. We’re all finished, here. Cal was just leaving.’

  Not above average height, her male companion was, however, built like a power-lifter, the black vest and denim waistcoat clearly chosen to display his tanned muscles and tattoos to advantage. His face was lean, hard and deeply tanned, with a dark moustache that drooped to the jawline each side of his thin-lipped mouth, and the ghost of a scar that ran through one eyebrow. What Daniel could see of his hair under a denim baseball cap was grizzled and pulled into a rather wispy ponytail at the back, and he wore an earring, but he was emphatically not the kind of man you would tease about being girly, if you had any sense.

  ‘I was, an’ all,’ the man agreed. ‘I’ve got an appointment with the beer tent. I’ll see you later, m’darlin’.’ He blew a kiss at Boo. Stepping towards Daniel, he put a hand up to tweak Jahan’s foot and gave an exaggerated wink. ‘Take my advice, little one. Don’t be in a hurry to chase the ladies, but when you do, treat ’em rough and don’t take no for an answer. They love it!’

  ‘You’re delusional!’ Boo hissed at his departing back, but he merely raised a hand and carried on, whistling under his breath, and she uttered an incoherent groan compounded of deep annoyance and frustration.

  ‘Er, I should probably mind my own business.… . .’ Daniel said, glancing significantly in the direction the Scotsman had taken.

  ‘Oh, Cal’s just a family friend. Well, friend is putting it too strongly – more an acquaintance, really.’

  ‘Of your brother’s?’

  ‘My brother?’ She frowned.

  ‘Sorry, I’m being nosy. Tami said she met your brother when she dropped the martingale back the other day.’

  Her brow cleared. ‘Oh, of course. No, my brother was just visiting for a couple of days. Cal was actually a friend of my father’s. My dad died five years ago, but Cal won’t take the hint that I don’t want him hanging around. Since Dennie died he seems to think I need looking after. Having said that, he’s not usually as bad as that. I think he’s been drinking.’

  ‘Army mate?’ Daniel had recognised one of the tattoos.

  ‘Er … yes, tha
t’s right.’ She transferred her attention to Jahan who had begun to wriggle on Daniel’s shoulders, bored with the direction the conversation had taken. ‘Now, have you come to see Frankie Foo, little man?’

  Jahan agreed that he had, and the next few minutes were taken up with unloading the grey horse from the lorry so that the little boy could stroke him and then, which clearly thrilled him to the bone, be lifted onto his broad back.

  ‘And now I must put him away and finish getting Rocky ready, because we’re due in the ring soon,’ Boo said after a while. ‘Are you going to come and watch me jump?’

  Jahan nodded, his eyes still round with wonder as he watched the big grey being led back up the ramp and into his stall.

  ‘Are you going to be all right? Or would you like me to hang around in case your friend comes back?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘What, Cal? No, that’s all right. I’m not scared of him. He just winds me up, that’s all. I said I’d give him a lift home, so I can’t really avoid him.’

  ‘Personally, I’d leave him to find his own way home, if I were you, but I know it’s none of my business.’

  ‘Thanks for your concern, but I really can take care of myself,’ Boo told him, and there was just enough steel in her voice to dissuade Daniel from further comment.

  He put up his hand. ‘Well, thanks for letting Jahan sit on Frankie – he’s absolutely made-up,’ he said.

  ‘My pleasure.’ The attractive smile was back, and Daniel could almost have believed he had imagined the Keep Off signal.

  He took Jahan’s hand and turned away, then remembered his promise to Tami.

  ‘Oh, and I meant to say—’

  Daniel’s abrupt change of direction surprised her and she reacted sharply. ‘What?’

  ‘Just that I passed on your message to Tami, and she’s grateful for your concern but really can’t face talking about it at the moment.’

  Boo’s countenance relaxed into sympathy. ‘That’s OK. I understand. I know what it’s like. Thanks.’