The knife was retrieved, with Taz’s help, from among the rocks, and bagged as evidence, and Dennie Travers’ injured ankle was stabilised with an emergency splint by the medic winched down from the helicopter.
The throbbing beat of the rotors was immensely loud as, one by one, the policemen and their suspects were winched up to the dark bulk of the aircraft above, and finally, Daniel and Taz were strapped into their respective harnesses and lifted away from the beach. It was a mystery to Daniel that in spite of his fear of heights, he had never minded flying, and even dangling between a helicopter and the ground held no horrors for him. Taz, gung-ho in this as in all things, seemed to positively relish the experience, which had been included in his training at the dog unit.
The Sea King flew them to Barnstaple Hospital, touching down with exquisite lightness on the helipad to offload its human cargo, before lifting up and away into the night, another mission safely executed.
Inside the hospital, in due course, Daniel was reunited with Chris, who was awaiting an X-ray of her shoulder.
‘Ouch!’ she exclaimed, glancing at him as he handed her a coffee and sat down beside her. ‘You’ve been in the wars again.’
‘You should see the other guy,’ he said.
‘I think I just did,’ she said. ‘Unless I’m much mistaken, the walking dead has just been wheeled past in a wheelchair, with a police escort.’
‘Ah, yes, but I can’t take any credit for that. He slipped on the rocks on the beach.’
‘And our friend, Cal?’
‘Being checked over by a doctor, then he’ll be hauled off to the nick, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I haven’t seen Harrison.’
‘Came in with me – well, not the same ambulance, thank God! But at the same time.’
‘All safely gathered in,’ Daniel said, with a sigh. ‘God, I’m tired!’
‘I should think so. By the way, where’s the hero of the hour?’
‘On the back seat of one of the squad cars out there – covering it with hairs, if I know him. Apparently someone has been dispatched to fetch my car. I’m impressed. There’s a lot more available manpower here on a Saturday night than there ever was in the Met.’ Daniel took a sip of the hot latte and shook his head. ‘Taz. That daft mutt saved my skin tonight, and not just once. And what can I give him in return? A beef knuckle bone and a bloody tuggy toy! Crazy.’
His phone rang and, surprised it still functioned at all after being immersed in sea water, he fished it out of his jacket pocket, and looked at the display. It was Fred Bowden.
‘Hi mate,’ he said. ‘What am I up to? Oh, not much, really, at the moment. I expect I’ll be back soon.’
It was three days later when Daniel drove up to the electric gates of Rufford Manor and gave his name. They opened smoothly and he drove on down the drive to the house, parking the shabby Merc between a massive 4×4 and a sporty hatchback.
The house was built of Bath stone in the Georgian style; rectangular, with tall, square-paned windows. Pink and white roses rambled over the façade breaking up the symmetry, and their spent petals littered the gravel like confetti.
The impressive front door opened as Daniel got out of the car and Boo Travers stood there in jeans and a white cotton tunic, flip-flops on her feet. She looked fresh and attractive and just a little unsure of herself, something Daniel had never seen in her before.
‘Thanks for coming, Daniel,’ she said, standing back to invite him into the cool interior.
She led the way to the back of the house where an enormous, well-appointed kitchen opened onto an equally massive conservatory containing a dining table and chairs. At the table sat a good-looking young man with very short sandy hair and blue eyes. He wore a T-shirt and the muscles on his upper arms proclaimed the athlete.
‘My son, Spencer,’ Boo said. ‘Spencer, this is Daniel. Would you like coffee, Daniel? I’m just making some.’
‘Thank you. Milk, no sugar,’ Daniel said, taking a seat opposite her son. He would be in his early twenties, he guessed, and the only clue as to the parlous state of his health were the dark rings under his eyes and the pallor, so marked after the warm and sunny spell they had been experiencing.
Boo retreated into the kitchen and Daniel wondered why Spencer was there. She had made no mention of him when she’d called to request this meeting. It was difficult to know how to open a conversation with the lad. Small talk never seemed so small as when the person you were addressing was terminally ill.
‘Did you play rugby?’ he asked after a moment. ‘You look to have the build for it.’
‘Yeah, for my school and then at university,’ Spencer said. His accent suggested that he’d been to a ‘good’ school. ‘Not for a while now, of course, but you never know … Someday, maybe.’
‘Never say never,’ Daniel agreed. ‘The docs don’t know everything.’
‘You know, you’re the first person that’s done that,’ Spencer stated. ‘Got right to the heart of it, I mean. People usually either drown me in depressing sympathy or pussyfoot around the issue, trying so hard not to mention it that it becomes almost funny.’
‘He’s wicked!’ Boo said, bringing three mugs of coffee to the table and sitting next to her son. ‘He watches people digging themselves deeper and deeper and doesn’t lift a finger to help them.’
‘Well, I’ve got to get some amusement out of this bloody disease!’ he protested. ‘It’s not good for much.’
‘That’s for sure,’ Boo agreed. She looked at Daniel. ‘I expect you’re wondering why I asked you to come.’
He shrugged.
‘I guess you’ll tell me when you’re ready.’
‘The police were here, yesterday,’ she said. ‘I suppose you know I told them about Dennie, the night he tried to get away …’
‘Yes. Joey – Tami’s partner – told me.’
She looked down at her mug for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.
‘He told me to. Dennie did.’ She looked up and directly at Daniel. ‘When he knew for sure that you were onto him, he told me to ring them. Once it got out, he knew there’d be trouble whether he got away or not and he said if I reported him they’d go easy on me. And they have, relatively. That and Spencer, of course.’
‘Something else it’s good for,’ Spencer quipped, adding in a more sober tone, ‘it was the right thing to do, Ma. He dropped you right in it, coming back here, and with that bloody psychopath in tow, as well!’
‘I know. How’s Tamiko?’ Boo asked then. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what happened. I just couldn’t believe it when we found out what Cal had done. Dennie was devastated, too. Nothing like that was ever meant to happen. He came back when he heard about Spence. He just wanted to see him.’
‘He shouldn’t have bothered,’ her son said flatly. ‘I preferred it when I thought he was dead. At least then I still respected him.’
‘Spence, don’t!’ Boo pleaded. ‘He’s still your father.’
‘I don’t know how you can take his side after all he’s put you through. It makes me so angry!’
‘I love him,’ she stated simply. ‘I always will. But that doesn’t mean that I approve of what he’s done.’
‘Tami’s still grieving,’ Daniel told her, in answer to her question. However badly Boo had been used, he wasn’t going to lie to make it easier for her. ‘She’s lost her little sister, but she has Hana’s little boy to look after, and that has helped her cope. Looking after Jahan is all she can do for her sister, now.’
‘Is his father not around?’
‘He is but he’s a waste of space and thankfully, it looks like he’ll be denied custody. He has a history of abusive behaviour and the kid’s terrified of him.’ He didn’t add that Tami and Jo-Ji had decided to try for adoption; that was their business and none of hers.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Boo said again. ‘Thank God they caught McAllum. He’s totally out of control.’
‘Tell me truthfully,’ Daniel said. �
�Did you know Dennie was going to fake his own death that night on the boat?’
Boo looked him straight in the eye and shook her head. ‘No, I didn’t. He said he thought my reaction would be more natural if I didn’t know. Harrison knew, but then they’ve always been as thick as thieves.’
‘A rather apt simile,’ Spencer observed, ‘Judging by what we’ve learned since about his reason for going.’
‘I don’t expect you to believe me, but if I had known, I’d have tried to stop him,’ Boo told Daniel. ‘It was a crazy idea! He planned for me to join him once the girls had gone to uni. He’d set up a bogus company out there that Harry was busily paying money into, so that we’d have something to live on. But it was never going to work because, for a start, I wouldn’t have gone. Once I discovered what he’d run from, I wanted him to face the music. After all, it was only fraud. He could have done his time and then we’d have been free of it all. All this –’ she waved a hand at her surroundings – ‘isn’t important to me. All I ever really wanted was the chance for us to have a normal life but to him it represented success. He loved giving me things …’ She paused, looking wistful. ‘But, whatever his faults, he’d never actually hurt anyone before all this started with Cal.’
‘I don’t think Stella would agree with you.’ Daniel couldn’t let it go.
Boo looked shame-faced. ‘Do you know, I convinced myself that she must be cold and unfeeling. Dennie would say that she only cared for her clothes and her smart friends; that she was practically frigid, and I believed him because it was easier than the alternative. Easier than admitting that everything about the life I was leading was wrong.’
‘She loved him, too,’ Daniel told her. ‘And what she wanted more than anything was a family. In her eyes, you had everything she had ever wanted.’
Boo looked down at her hands, cupped around her mug, and Daniel saw tears glistening in her eyes.
‘I think that’s enough, now,’ Spencer said quietly but firmly. ‘Ma’s no angel, but she’s been a victim in this too.’
Daniel nodded, liking the young man better for his stance.
‘You’re right. I’ll say no more.’
His mother extended a hand sideways and grasped her son’s, before looking back at Daniel.
‘However wrong it was, I can’t regret what Dennie and I had, because it brought me my children. But for what happened these past few weeks, I’m truly sorry, and I’d undo it all if I could. Cal ran wild like some character in one of those awful American films, and he swept Dennie and Harrison along with him. I just want Tami to know that. I don’t expect her to forgive me.’
Daniel sighed. ‘I think she knows it wasn’t your fault. I wouldn’t hope for friendship, if I was you, but I don’t think she’ll cut you dead. She’s a girl in a million is Tami.’
He drained his mug and stood up.
‘If there’s nothing else, I should probably be going. I’ve got to go to the police station again this afternoon.’ The prospect of finding himself amongst his ex-colleagues again was not one he relished.
‘No. I just wanted you to know there’s no hard feelings,’ she said. ‘And to try and explain.’
‘OK.’ Daniel nodded briefly then looked at Spencer. ‘Keep on keeping on, mate,’ he said. ‘Prove the buggers wrong!’
‘There’s a new treatment,’ Boo said as she stood up. ‘A kind of immunotherapy. Spence has booked into a clinic in Japan. We’re going next month. We had to try.’
‘I wish you all the best,’ Daniel told him. ‘Let me know when you’re playing rugby again and I’ll come and watch.’
Spencer smiled, nodded and waved a hand as Daniel turned to leave, and he reflected that Boo was right, and however immoral the years of deceit had been, something very good had come of it.
‘Thank you for coming, and for listening,’ Boo said as she and Daniel reached the front door.
‘I’ll pass on your message to Tami.’
Daniel turned as he stepped out into the sunshine, once more.
‘I don’t know whether you’re interested, or not, but I’ll tell you anyway. Your half-brother, Ricky, has just been offered a job by my boss in Devon.’ What Fred had actually said was ‘Well, I could do with someone to cover for you, ’cos you’re never bloody here!’
‘What do you do in Devon?’
‘I drive a truck delivering animal feed. He’s going to pay for Ricky to get his HGV license in return for signing a fixed-term contract and meanwhile, Ricky can pick up his law studies again in his spare time. Ricky’s a nice guy. I don’t know what your quarrel was with him, but he seems to think it was because he was the result of your father’s extra-marital fling.’ He paused, looking at Boo through eyes narrowed against the sunlight. ‘Double standards, if I may say so.’
He walked away to his car and opened the door.
‘It was mostly Steven,’ Boo called after him. ‘It sounds silly but I think he was a little jealous of Ricky. Of how close he was to Dad, when Dad got older. I think he thought Ricky was trying to cut us out.’
‘He wasn’t.’
‘No. Look, maybe I’ll call him. Do you have his number?’
‘How about I give him yours,’ Daniel said, getting into the car and shutting the door.
In the back, the dog stood up, stretched and yawned, his tail waving a welcome.
‘Taz, my lad,’ Daniel said, turning to look at him, ‘take my advice and stick to tuggy toys, eh?’
Nothing But Lies Page 25