Cuts Both Ways

by Solomon Carter

  “What a sleaze,” said Lauren.

  “That kind of thing is code, isn’t it? No matter which decade you work in, no matter what line of work, that kind of thing still means the same thing as it used to, right?” said Eva.

  Lauren nodded. “Nothing changes, Eva. And I bet poor little Suzie doesn’t even know a thing about that, does she?”

  “I don’t know, though from her first reaction to my phone call, I’d say she might have a woman’s intuition as to what Jamie Blane is really interested in. She was pretty territorial.”

  Lauren nodded and sipped her coffee. The girl at the counter was so lost in what she was hearing, that she had taken to staring at them while she stacked a set of glasses. Lauren turned her head to the girl and arched an eyebrow until she moved away.

  “Do you see?” said Eva. “From one ten-minute phone call, I managed to establish that Jamie has some kind of thing going on with Suzie Appleby and that he likes to make lunch dates with female clients he’s never met. That tells us a lot. Imagine what we might find if we started digging into his business and his diary for a week or more.”

  “You’re good, Eva. I can see that. You’re very good,” said Lauren. “But you don’t get it. With Jamie, you’re playing with a fire which could turn into an inferno at any time. He’s going to do it, Eva. He’s going to make me disappear. And it could happen tonight, tomorrow, or in three days’ time. I don’t know when, but I do know how. And I don’t want that to happen. Listen to me. I don’t have a week to do all that stuff. I need us to make a move now, if not sooner.”

  “Leverage, Lauren. If we want leverage, that’s going to take time. I can’t move faster than that. If you’re worried then you’ll simply have to leave him for a day or two to buy me the time I need.”

  “I can’t do that either. He’ll pull the trigger on someone else. On my family. This is a matter of life and death, Eva. Life and death. I know you’ve worked under that kind of pressure before which is exactly why I came to you. I’ve read what you two have been through, and what you’re capable of. That’s one of the reasons I contacted you. That and the fact you were… you are my friend.”

  The words had been said. Eva swallowed and placed her cup on the saucer. She swallowed and let the words pass.

  “You said you’d learned something too, Lauren. What was it?”

  “What you said about Suzie Appleby really makes sense,” said Eva. “He stayed late at the office three days last week. I was sure I smelt another woman on his shirts… on him too, the filthy bastard. He hadn’t even had a shower and he still made me go through the bedroom routine. I bet he wanted me to know what he’d been doing…”

  “That’s just suspicion, Lauren. That won’t help us.”

  “Then how about this. I know he’s been scanning my phone, watching my calls and messages. Hell, he even saw our exchanges and convinced himself I was having an affair with you.”

  Eva took it in. “Men almost always think in terms of sex,” said Eva, with a shrug. “I’ve tailed enough scumbags to read their minds.”

  Lauren carried on. “I decided to check his communications too. He’s been so controlling with me, but Jamie’s really not as smart and secure as he thinks. I know his general email address. His webmail opens automatically on his laptop. All I have to do is click on the top of his web browser and there it is. Bingo.”

  “You found something?” said Eva.

  “Yes. Emails. One-liners. Friendly messages swapped between him and an email address in the name of sweet98. That’s part of her email address. Bhe only ever calls her ‘S’ and that’s what she signs off as. Most of the messages are just chatty, but one or two were pretty suggestive. One said about a hot date. I thought it was hot air. You know, I wondered if he’d been going on one of those date apps. Turns out you’ve hit the nail on the head with Suzie Appleby.”

  “So, he is sleeping around. And Suzie sounds like a very good fit. Ninety-eight could be her birth year. I’m guessing the email address was concocted just for their private communications.”

  “Hers, maybe, but Jamie’s had this email address for a while. And as far as I’m concerned, they’re welcome to each other. So long as I can get free of the sicko, I don’t care who else he fornicates with. It’s what else I found that really bothered me.”

  Eva’s eyes narrowed. “Lauren? What else did you find?”

  “I ran a search on his emails, right? You can do that. You can search for keywords, subject headings, email addresses, names. I never knew that until I tried.”

  “Yes, it’s all there,” said Eva.

  “Just randomly, just for the hell of it, I typed in his ex-wife’s name. The woman I happened to replace in Jamie’s life… And guess what?”

  Eva shook her head.

  “All their old email chats came up, the good and the bad, the sweet and the ugly. Those two really loved each other alright. Until they didn’t. There were arguments on there too, some of them in black and white, some of those emails showed they weren’t even talking to each other, sometimes for weeks at a time. Emails were one of the only ways they were communicating…”

  “I couldn’t do that.”

  “Neither can I. But they could, and they did. But before she died, his wife I mean, it seemed they were back on track. Friendly, lovey-dovey all over again. But then, around the time of her death, I saw her name was mentioned in a couple of emails to another email address. It came up in the search I ran on her. This other email address signed itself off just like sweet98. With just a single letter. But it was a different email address. It was something like ironvelvet@blah-blah-blah dot whatever. I know I wrote it down somewhere.”

  “Iron velvet? That’s an odd name.”

  “Bit kinky, I thought,” said Lauren.

  “What did these emails say?”

  “Not much. But one said that Sally, his wife, was going for a business meeting in Hammersmith the next evening. It was odd really. The email referenced his wife and her meeting and that was it. As if that was the only detail that mattered in the whole exchange.”

  “And then?”

  “I saw the other email. A week later there was another exchange between Jamie and this Iron velvet. Now this time, Jamie seemed really upset. Iron velvet asked how he was and Jamie replied that he was distraught – that his wife had been involved in a terrible accident and had died before he got to see her again. And that was it. Nothing else was ever said between them. They never communicated ever again… Eva, do you get it? Can you see what I see?”

  Eva’s eyes narrowed and her voice turned low. “You’re suggesting that Jamie Blane was involved in the murder of his own wife? You think the car crash wasn’t an accident?”

  “Until I saw those emails, I would never have thought such a thing. But now I can’t think of anything else.”

  Eva’s eyes flicked away to the window, unseeing, lost in a floodtide of thoughts.

  “He organised it, Eva,” said Lauren. “That’s why he never seemed to grieve. He never needed to. He got rid of her so we could be together… and now he’s tired of me too. Can you see, Eva? It’s going to happen again. I’m next.”

  Eva looked at Lauren and leaned across the table.

  “That’s not going to happen, Lauren. I’m on your side. And if you’re right, if what you’ve found stacks up, then between us we just might have all the leverage we’d ever need.”

  “Just might?!” said Lauren.

  Eva nodded. “What you found is useful, very useful indeed. But it isn’t proof. We still need more.”

  Lauren looked away, her eyes filling with tears. “He’s going to kill me, Eva, and you want more.”

  “He isn’t going to kill you. I’m on your side. We’re going to stop him. We’re going to find what we need and we’re going to stop him dead in his tracks. I promise.”

  “Dead in his tracks. And you’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish that, will you?” said Lauren. As she looked at Eva, a rogue tear slipped f
rom her eye and dragged a trail of mascara down her cheek. Eva laid a hand on Lauren’s. Her next words seemed necessary, but even so, Eva struggled over them.

  “That’s what friends are for.”

  The gesture lasted but a moment before Eva drew her hand away. Lauren looked down at where Eva’s hand had been. She sniffed and a thin smile graced her lips.

  “Thanks, Eva. Thank you so much. That’s exactly what I was hoping you’d say.”

  But Eva couldn’t tell which part Lauren was hoping for. The promise of their friendship – or the promise to do whatever it took to rid her of Jamie Blane.

  Eva felt herself sinking deeper into a situation with no limits and no rules. There was no reason the case had to go wrong. It was only a domestic after all. But all the same, Lauren’s fear seemed infectious. Eva had the impression she was standing on the brink of a disaster… yet it seemed there was nowhere else to go but forward. Forward, and right over the edge.

  Five

  They said the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Lately, Dan was beginning to believe that. Eva was busy dealing with her problem case – Lauren Jaeger, the ex-best friend with the toxic boyfriend problem – which left Dan alone to start work on tracking down Poulter’s missing sister. After sensing the cloud of Eva’s bad mood descend ever since Alice Perry’s name had surfaced in the news clipping that morning, Dan had known what to do. Perry had penned the article about DJ Toxic’s gig at Maison Sol, so it stood to reason the little hack had been at the same venue as Alma Poulter that night. If so, Perry was a link in the chain they couldn’t afford to ignore just because of a little personal history. Eva understood that. Dan had seen the realisation dawning on Eva’s troubled face as soon as she’d read the name on the screen. But Eva didn’t need any more trouble, so he had to keep them apart. They still needed what Perry knew – and she always knew something. No matter how little he relished the prospect, Dan knew he had to deal with Perry himself. He considered taking Mark with him, but someone was needed at the office, and as Joanne was back at the council, he would go alone. Besides, Joanne had proven too suspicious of him where Perry was concerned. For all the danger Alice Perry presented, Dan knew he was best off handling her alone. And just as he expected, it wasn’t so hard to get the girl to agree to a meeting. The road to hell was easy to find.

  Perry selected the venue. At least this time she didn’t try to engineer a private meeting back at her flat. Instead she chose the Slug and Lettuce pub in the centre of town. The Slug was the smart, lady-friendly pub at the top of Southchurch Road. Funny. Not more than a couple of hundred yards down the street, Dan’s regular snitch Vic Norton would have been drinking pints of dark soupy ale at a cost of two sixty, tops. When Dan handed over the cash for his usual pint of choice, he received only a few coins back from a ten-pound note. But here at least the glass was clean and the beer tasted good. Dan looked around and found Alice Perry already sipping a fizzy green concoction at a high table for two towards the back of the plush venue. He was glad he hadn’t been forced to pay for Perry’s long drink. It looked like a designer choice. Perry shifted in her seat and shot him a beaming smile as he approached the table.

  “So, here we are. You finally wanted to meet me again. I knew it would happen sooner or later, Danny boy, didn’t you?” She beamed at Dan as he took the barstool opposite. He perched up on his seat and looked the girl in the eye, trying hard not to notice that she looked a good deal better than usual. Yep, it was all in the power-dressing. Perry looked more upmarket than he remembered. The neckline on her top was a little higher too, a little classier. Maybe the change in style was a result of a pay rise. Her eyes shone at him with a mix of confidence and interest. That gleam was alluring but Dan was already wise to it. Those eyes were classic bait. He had to handle the girl with kid gloves, the same as ever.

  “You know how it is,” said Dan. “You’re the girl with all the information, and all the know-how.”

  She sipped her drink. “Sounds like you’re back to flattery mode. Last time we spoke. I mean last time we properly spoke, alone, as I recall, you were busy photographing my naked body. And then, you spoilsport, you ran out on me. Talk about leaving a girl high and dry. Next thing I know you’re threatening to have your sordid little snap published. Now I’m not sure that was such a good idea, are you? Especially not seeing as you want to be friends again.”

  Friends? As if. Dan bristled but kept right on smiling. He sipped his beer.

  “Come on, Alice. You know it wasn’t the way you make it sound. You set that whole thing up to make Eva think I was cheating. You tried to make it look like we were having an affair when nothing had ever happened.”

  “Wrong. A kiss happened, remember? And the rest almost did. We were that close.” She pinched her fingers together, leaving a tiny gap. “You know that, deep down, I know you do.”

  “Kid yourself as much as you want,” said Dan. He sipped his beer and swallowed. Alice Perry kept her eyes on his. Her eyes were still smiling.

  “Look, Alice,” he said, trying again. “That photograph. I reversed your trap back onto you to make sure Eva would see the truth.”

  “Really? Come on,” she said. “You only ever needed the audio recording to prove that, Dan. Come on. You already had what you needed. Which means you took that snap as something extra. I’m sure you had your reasons, but maybe your real reason was a little more… how shall we say, personal? Perhaps a little souvenir for your private moments…”

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Alice.”

  “I don’t think I need to. You’re here, aren’t you?”

  Dan’s jaw tightened. Perry stayed calm, her eyes sparkling as she sipped her drink. “Don’t worry. I don’t think Eva ever saw through it. She’s so very straight-laced, isn’t she? How the hell did you two ever get it on? And honestly, I really don’t mind about the nude snap. Not once I saw your real motive. But please, humour me. How often did you sneak a look at it?”

  “Damn it, Alice! Is this how we start? Right where we left off?”

  “You asked to meet with me, remember. And from the look on your face, I think Eva doesn’t know, does she?” The girl took a moment to read his face. “No, I didn’t think so.”

  “That’s only because you keep going back to the past, about what happened in your apartment. Just like what you said to Eva on the beach.”

  “You mean what didn’t happen in my apartment. But it almost did, didn’t it? Any regrets?”

  “Alice!” said Dan.

  “Okay, then, okay,” she said. “We’ll do it your way. Let’s pretend this whole little meeting is about something else entirely. I’ll go with that for now. So then, what do you want to pretend?”

  “Whatever you say, Alice. Just as long as we can move on. This is a work thing. Just work.

  “Of course it is,” she said, with a chuckle.

  “Jeez, Alice. Surely you must have another boyfriend by now. A successful journalist like you…”

  “And this is a purely innocent inquiry?”

  “It’s a rhetorical question.”

  “Funny how your rhetorical question takes you right back to my personal life. Then, rhetorically speaking, yes, I currently have a close male friend.” Alice smouldered in silence for a moment. “He’s quite an interesting guy. Quite successful. But it’s nothing serious – if you know what I mean. I could end things in a blink for a real prospect…”

  There was a silence between them.

  “That’s your business, not mine,” said Dan.

  “Shall we return to your business questioning, or do you prefer this line of inquiry?”

  Dan coughed. “Let’s move on. You’re The Record’s lead journalist, right?”

  “Yes. I’m the one who writes the stories which bring the readers in. Basically, I’m the one who sells newspapers. I think the editor sees it that way.

  Dan nodded and the girl swished her hair.

  “And, I wouldn’t be boasting to say that I’ve alre
ady surpassed whatever Gemma Cassidy achieved at The Record – and in less than half the time.”

  “Then bully for you,” said Dan. He watched the girl blush at her rejected bluster. “But what I want to know is, why would The Record’s star journalist waste her valuable time and talent on a silly little event review in the Entertainment section? You’re made for bigger things, surely?”

  “The Ents section? No way. That’s below my paygrade. What? Oh, wait. When exactly are you talking about?”

  “Two months back. You reviewed a gig at a venue called Maison Sol. I’ve worked this town for fifteen years and more and I’ve never heard of the place.”

  “Maison Sol? You mean the club night for DJ Toxic?”

  “Exactly,” said Dan.

  Perry’s eyes sparkled again, this time with curiosity and maybe something else. He watched the girl’s eyes turn shark-like, as she scented a chance at a new story. Then her eyes deliberately softened and she relaxed as she remembered not to seem too obvious. Dan smiled inside.

  “Maison Sol, Alice? Where is it?”

  “Dan, you really should get out more,” said Alice. “It’s on the Market Place, the mews at the back of town. I think the place used to be called the Sun Rooms, right? It’s not called that now. New ownership and all that. Nowadays it’s called, Soleil. And for a weekend in June they changed it to a pop-up nightclub, and called it Maison Sol, a play on words – to do with house music, and about the bar’s original roots. It was nothing huge, but Toxic coming to Southend was a big deal. That guy plays some mind-blowing sets. I just had to go. I put my foot down and told John the editor that I was going to cover it. And it was worth it. I even got to meet Toxic. He’s a cool guy. He’s going to be a massive star soon.”

  The girl’s eyes momentarily misted over and Dan noticed she looked coy for a second or two. The gesture told Dan that maybe Alice had done a little more than just meet the star DJ. But Dan was hardly surprised.

  “Not my scene,” said Dan. “I’ve always preferred guitars and drums.”

  “Do you like being a stick in the mud?”