‘How do you think,’ replied Freddie Fairbrother laconically. ‘Can I come up?’
‘What do you mean, come up? Where are you?’
‘I’m downstairs, Bella, speaking from the phone at reception.’
‘I don’t believe it. You’ve got a cheek after all this time. You could at least have let me know you were coming. OK. C’mon up. Room twenty-four.’
‘Trust me, you’re going to be pleased to see me.’
‘I’m sure,’ said Bella, who couldn’t actually have been less sure. She remained in some trepidation for the two or three minutes until Freddie knocked on her room door.
The man who stood in the corridor was older and, if anything, thinner. His sun-bleached white-blonde hair was certainly thinner, and he had a tan like old leather. He was wearing faded jeans, a slightly crumpled shirt beneath a well-worn leather bomber jacket; the same clothes, in fact, that he had worn for the flight from Australia. And they looked like that, too. All the same Freddie managed to remain vaguely attractive, in a frazzled sort of way.
He smiled his laconic smile. Familiar even after so long. It was the same old Freddie.
‘Christ, you look rough, sis,’ he said, by way of greeting.
She smiled back, a strained little smile. As children they had always indulged in rough banter, casually throwing insults at each other. But there had been a great affection between them all those years ago, until it had been pretty much destroyed by their massively bitter falling out. And Bella would never forget that awful time, as she was quite sure her brother wouldn’t, in spite of what she had always regarded as his carefully cultivated air of laissez faire.
That was history, of course. But could there now be any sort of future for either of them? In the last twenty-four hours Bella had more or less decided there could not be.
Nonetheless she stood back to usher her brother into her room.
‘I haven’t got my war-paint on, and, of course, there’s the little matter of twenty years having passed since we last saw each other,’ she said. ‘Oh, and you don’t look so hot yourself, by the way.’
Freddie was still smiling. ‘I came more or less straight here from the airport,’ he said. ‘But I did stop to be given this. By a courier.’
He held up the calfskin briefcase he was carrying, offering it to Bella. She took it from him, glancing at him questioningly. Although she had a pretty good idea what he was going to tell her.
‘It contains, amongst other things, our father’s will,’ said Freddie.
‘I see. And, I assume you already know the crux of that will?’
‘Of course.’
‘Well, go on then.’
‘Pretty much as was agreed beforehand. Our father’s shareholding is split between us, sixty per cent to you and forty per cent to me, with the proviso that neither of us can sell those shares for a minimum of a twenty-year period. There are letters in there—’ he waved a hand at the briefcase – ‘from our father expressing his wish to the board that you are appointed chairman and chief executive. His wish, as you know, was that I should take no real active part, but that I should be appointed to the board more or less to enhance the Fairbrother presence and ensure Fairbrother family interests. There is also, I was told, everything in that briefcase that you will need to sort out the trust funds and rescue the bank.’
Bella shook her head in amazement, already beginning to feel as despairing of her brother’s lack of grasp of reality as she always had.
‘Just like that?’ she queried.
‘Well, it was always the plan, wasn’t it?’
‘It may have been better had our father trusted me a little more when he was running the bank, don’t you think?’ she asked. ‘And, the plan, Freddie, seems to have gone a little array, do you not think?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Freddie, three people have died, all of them probably murdered, that wasn’t part of any plan I agreed to. I assume you have some conception of that.’
‘Yes, but Bella, the old man only had months to live anyway, at the most. And George Grey had his own reasons for starting the fire. If he did start it …’
‘Of course, he bloody started it. And you really think that was his own idea, do you?’
‘Yes, I do. Of course, I do. It certainly had nothing to do with me, that was for sure.’
Bella found she was beginning to feel angry. She had to make a real effort to keep her voice level.
‘Freddie, I should have expected this from you,’ she said. ‘You always have believed only what you want to believe, and behaved exactly how you wanted to behave. Nothing has ever had anything to do with you, and nothing is ever your fault. You may have spent twenty years lotus eating, but you haven’t changed a bit, have you?’
Freddie shrugged. ‘Look, you get what you want, Bella, you get to run the show, and I get what I want, to live as if I run the show. I won’t interfere. You know that. I don’t see what the problem is.’
‘You never did, Freddie. Not even when you shagged your own father’s wife. Your stepmother, for God’s sake. You saw no problem, at all, did you?’
‘Ah, I might have guessed you’d bring that up. I was stoned. She was drunk. Shit happens. And Pa would probably never even have known about it if you hadn’t told him.’
‘That wasn’t the bloody point, Freddie. You were always stoned. And Antonia was always a slag. I didn’t care about her, but I cared a lot about you, whether you believe that or not. I did it for your own good, Freddie. I wanted you to get cleaned up.’
‘Yes, but it didn’t turn out that way, did it. Pa chucked us both out, me and Antonia. And he threatened to shop me to the police for dealing drugs unless I agreed to be banished to the Antipodean. But now, Bella, I am the prodigal son. Pa wanted me back in the fold. And you need me to help carry the board. You’re the whiz kid businesswoman. You know I’m speaking the truth.’
‘What I know, Freddie, is that this whole wretched scheme has spiralled out of control. I’m not countenancing murder. Triple murder. I just can’t. I have my daughter to consider.’
‘Oh come on, Bella, don’t claim the moral high ground, not with me. You’ve never been bloody Mother Theresa, that’s for sure. Now you have everything you’ve ever wanted within your grasp. All you need do is reach out for it. Just let’s stick to the plan, and we’ll all come out of it smelling of roses, you’ll see.’
‘Freddie, I’m not sure that I can stick to the plan. And you should listen to me. We’re already in very big trouble. I don’t intend to let it get any worse.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ll thank me for it one day.’
‘Like I thanked you for shopping me to our father?’
‘I know we used to ship our convicts to Australia, but I think modern Australia was probably preferable to jail, however modern, don’t you?’
Freddie was studying her anxiously. ‘I don’t like what you’re saying, sis. What are you up to? What are you going to do?’
‘I have an appointment later today to meet the detective inspector in charge of the police investigation. The murder investigation, Freddie. That is what I’m up to. He’s in London. I’m driving back to my place and meeting him there. Why don’t you come with me? If we leave now, you’d have time to have a shower and even grab some sleep before he comes. Freddie, we need to get out of this. None of it was our idea. You and I may both be able to avoid prosecution if we speak up now.’
‘Bella, we aren’t going to be prosecuted. We haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Oh, I think we have, Freddie. We may not be guilty of murder, but we are certainly guilty of a conspiracy which has led to murder.’
‘I don’t see it like that, at all, sis.’
‘No more would you, Freddie.’
‘Look don’t do it. Please. You’ll ruin everything.’
‘You sound like a schoolboy, Freddie. Everything is already ruined. Until the fire, yes, we were involved
in a conspiracy to save our family business, but in terms of human life we were just letting nature take its course. I’m not only being altruistic here. Once murder is suspected, a police investigation goes onto another level. A bit of business skulduggery, even pretty high-level fraud, is one thing. Murder is entirely another.’
Freddie sat down with a bump on the edge of the bed.
‘I didn’t think of it like that,’ he said. ‘I mean, the fire was caused by George Grey. That’s not down to us in any way. And he could have just fallen into the canal.’
‘So, you know the details, then, do you?’
‘Some of them.’
‘Come with me, Freddie.’
‘I dunno, sis. I’ve always been a coward. I don’t think I’m up to dealing with the police. I thought everything was going to be straightforward.’
‘Which is pretty naive, Freddie.’
‘That’s me then, I suppose, a naive schoolboy.’
‘I’m sorry, Freddie, I didn’t mean to have a go at you. I don’t want either of us to get any further embroiled in this, that’s all. It’s gone way beyond what we agreed to. You must see that.’
‘Yes, I do. Of course, I do.’
Freddie looked unusually thoughtful. ‘You really don’t think we’re going to get away with it, do you?’ he said glumly. ‘Not any of it. Not now. Not with three deaths.’
‘No, and anyone who thinks we will is barking mad. Which of course, I have always suspected to be the case …’
Bella thought of her phone call the previous evening. She was speaking the truth. The man who had been so casually dismissive of those three deaths, the man who had sent Freddie, armed with his briefcase full of vital papers, to find her, was surely mad.
‘You’re right,’ said Freddie suddenly. ‘You have to be.’ He sounded totally deflated. ‘I guess I was kidding myself.’
‘I guess we were all kidding ourselves. Look, I’m still extremely fond of you, Freddie. Come with me, now. Before it’s too late for us both.’
‘I can’t, Bella. I just can’t.’
Bella studied her brother with care, weighing up the man behind the easy charm. The eyes that rarely met yours, the weak mouth. Just like the boy she had once known so well.
‘OK. Well, I intend to leave soon. If you are not going to come with me, what are you going to do? I think at this stage you must be either with me or against me, Freddie.’
‘I’m with you, of course I’m with you,’ said Freddie. ‘You’ve totally convinced me. The whole thing is a disaster. Like I said, I was kidding myself as usual. So I guess there’s only one thing I can do. I’ve got a hire car outside. I’ll head straight back to Heathrow and catch the first available flight back to where I’ve just come from.’
‘You may not have your allowance for much longer. If you stay here I’ll make sure you’re provided for. You can move in with me in London, for as long as you like. Until we’ve sorted something out, anyway.’
‘You may be in jail, we may both be in jail.’
‘Perhaps. But if we speak up now, perhaps not. Neither of us expected anything like this to happen, after all. And we certainly didn’t have anything to do with it.’
‘No, I’ll go back,’ said Freddie quickly. ‘I have my house in Australia, well, more of a shack, but right on the beach. I like the life well enough. And I did get a welcome home present.’ He reached into the pocket of his jacket and produced a thick wad of fifty pound notes. ‘Fifty grand, a down payment apparently.’
‘Well, that’s about the only welcome you’re getting, I’m afraid,’ said Bella. ‘If you want to go, then go. All you’ve done is make a very fleeting visit back to the UK after learning of your father’s death. I will tell the police that. And if you go now, your involvement will surely appear to be so slight it’s quite likely nobody will come after you. Not to the other side of the world, anyway. And even if they do, I don’t see how anything can be proven against you.’
‘Which leaves you taking the rap, sis.’
‘Not me alone. And I intend to make quite sure of that. I’m going to tell the police everything. I don’t see that I have any choice. That any of us have any choice. I thought there was nothing I wouldn’t do for Fairbrother’s. But I didn’t even consider murder might be on the agenda. I mean, that’s for gangsters and secret service agents. Not people like us.’
‘Are you sure we really are talking murder here, though?’
‘Honestly, Freddie, “talking murder here”? What sort of language is that? Anyway, the answer is yes. I thought we’d clarified that. Or are you still just being naïve?’
‘No. OK, sis. I told you. I realise you are right. Quite right. I don’t know what I was thinking about.’
‘Nothing new there then.’
The words were potentially harsh, but Bella softened them with a gentle smile. And she reached with one hand to lightly touch her brother’s cheek.
‘I have missed you, Freddie,’ she said.
‘And you’re going to have to miss me again,’ Freddie responded. ‘I’m heading for the airport. But I have a room booked here, so first I’m going to use it to clean up and have a kip for a couple of hours.’
‘Goodbye again, then,’ said Bella.
Freddie glanced at the briefcase, which lay, still unopened, on the sofa. ‘I should take that,’ he said. ‘Return it.’
Bella shook her head. ‘No, I’ll make sure it gets to the right people. The new acting chairman of the bank, and our father’s solicitor. They may still be able to salvage something.’
‘OK, whatever you say.’ Freddie stepped forward then, and enveloped her in a hug. ‘I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you opened the door,’ he said, smiling at her.
‘Me too,’ said Bella, realising, rather to her surprise, that she meant it. After all, Freddie was still the brother she had once so adored.
She found she was fighting back tears. Over the years she had occasionally dreamed of a reunion with him. But this reunion, in circumstances so shocking and potentially dangerous that they would almost certainly destroy both the Fairbrother family and the Fairbrother family business, was the stuff of nightmares.
‘See you in another couple of decades, then,’ said Freddie.
He stepped back. He wasn’t smiling any more. He looked sad, and vulnerable. Frightened even.
Well that was understandable. Bella was frightened too. Both of what she had already done, and what she was about to do.
Freddie took the lift down to reception and headed straight out to his car. He intended to fetch his bag and then try for an early check-in. He really did need to get some sleep before he did anything else. That part of what he had told his sister was the truth. There was, however, very little truth in any of the rest of it.
First he had a phone call to make. And he needed to make it immediately, before he had time to think about it any further. Freddie had never been able to carry the burden of responsibility. Any sort of responsibility. Unlike most of the rest of his family, past and present, he was a follower, not a leader. But he was not prepared to follow his sister along the path she had now chosen. He’d come home to England to retrieve his birthright. And now that the opportunity to do so was in reach, he found that it meant more to him than he’d ever realised.
He walked to a secluded corner of the car park. The hotel’s grounds stretched before him. He wasn’t quite sure, but he thought he could just see the beginning of the Blackdown Hills in the distance, the hills where he had grown up. He and his sister had been so close then. And Bella was right, of course, neither of them had ever agreed to the sequence of events which had now engulfed them. But, in Freddie’s opinion, there could be no going back. He wanted the future that he now felt was so nearly his. And, as far as he was concerned, people may have died, but there was no proof at all of deliberate intent to kill. Murder was something he preferred not to even think about. And Freddie Fairbrother had always been extremely good at dismissing from his mind
almost anything which might concern or offend him.
He reached into the pocket of his jeans for his phone and called up a contact number. The recipient answered almost at once.
‘Make this quick, I told you not to call again on your own phone.’
‘I know. I’m sorry. I had to speak to you right away.’
‘Is something wrong?’
‘Yes, It’s Bella,’ Freddie began.
EIGHTEEN
Vogel called Det. Supt Clarke just as Saslow turned off the M4 onto the slip road leading towards Hounslow and Brentford. He checked his watch. The time was 10.40 a.m. The traffic had been heavy around Heathrow, heading into central London, as Vogel had expected, it nearly always was nowadays, even past what would normally be regarded as the rush hour.
‘I reckon we’re about twenty minutes away,’ he said. ‘Where are you?’
‘I’m at the scene,’ replied Nobby Clarke. ‘Come to the Brewery Tap, in Catherine Wheel Road. It’s right by the canal. The postcode is TW8 8BD. Your satnav should take you straight there. You’ll want to meet the landlord. I’ll get him to open up for us. Seems almost certain he saw George Grey very shortly before he died. May well be the last person to have done so, apart from his murderer – assuming he was murdered, of course.’
Vogel sat up straight in the car seat.
‘Well, that sounds interesting,’ he said.
‘Indeed. And it appears that Grey wasn’t alone either. Look, I’ll tell you when I see you.’
By the time Vogel and Saslow arrived at the Brewery Tap, Nobby Clarke, accompanied by a young black man Vogel did not recognise, was already at a table by the window.
She waved to Vogel and Saslow who made their way to join her. Nobby greeted Saslow warmly. Vogel was glad that there was clearly such mutual liking and respect between the two women. Saslow could only be helped by the support and friendship of a senior officer like Clarke. Vogel was well aware that the events of the previous year, which had had such a profound effect on both he and Saslow, had made the young DC wonder if she would, or even could, remain on the force. He was extremely glad that she had decided to stay on, and now seemed so determined to overcome any disquiet she might still be experiencing.
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