A Question of Guilt (32 page)

‘You mean like Dawn.' It was out before I could stop it.

‘Mm, poor, foolish Dawn. She couldn't leave well alone, either. She was in love with Lewis, of course. Wanted to know all about him, be part of his life. Except that when she did find out she really didn't like it one little bit. She became far too dangerous and she had to be dealt with. Just as you will have to be too, I'm afraid. Jason has gone to fetch your car. I can't have it discovered outside my home. When he gets back, we'll arrange something.'

Then, suddenly, chillingly, he was solicitous once more.

‘Do have something to drink, Sally. You'll feel a lot better if you do.'

He held the mug to my lips again, and again I twisted away, spitting out the few drops that had spilled into my mouth. I absolutely could not reconcile this monster with the man I'd known since I was a child, the man who had been so kind the last few days. But I knew now that it had been nothing but false concern, a way of keeping an eye on me and limiting any damage I might do. And I'd played right into his hands, going to him, of all people, with the evidence that would send him to jail for a very long time.

Fear was running ice-cold waves through my veins now, but somehow I managed to meet his eyes defiantly.

‘How can you do this to me, Jeremy?' I demanded. ‘I thought we were friends!'

He smiled sadly. ‘We were. In fact, I hoped we might be more. If that had happened, Sally – you and me – there'd have been no need for all this . . .'

‘And you were Dad's friend!' I went on. ‘How could you have got your . . . your henchman . . . to start a stampede that nearly killed him?'

Jeremy sighed. ‘I was very sorry to have to do that. But I had to get him out of the way, don't you see? I had to get hold of his computer to see just how much you'd found out, and also, hopefully, to hamper your investigations. To do that I needed the house to be empty,' Jeremy explained in that same reasonable tone. ‘Jack, I'm afraid, was collateral damage.'

Collateral damage! The ruthlessness of the man was terrifying.

‘Except, of course, unknown to you I'd bought myself a laptop,' I said, ridiculously pleased at that one small victory.

‘Which I was able to take without much trouble, since you'd kindly let me have a key to the house.'

‘And I'd also transferred it all to a memory stick.'

For the first time Jeremy looked thrown. Then he recovered himself.

‘We'll talk about that later. For the moment let's concentrate on Dawn's diary. You told me it was in your bag. I've checked, and you were obviously lying to me. Where is it, Sally?'

I held his gaze defiantly. Dawn's diary, detailing the criminal activity at the warehouse and also incriminating Jeremy, was the one card I held. ‘You really think I'm going to tell you?'

‘Oh yes, you'll tell me.' He tangled his fist in my hair, jerking my head back. ‘Where are they?'

I gritted my teeth against the pain, but kept silent. Jeremy jerked again on my hair, so hard that I thought my neck would snap, but stared up at him, mute and defiant. After a moment, he released me.

‘You really are a very stubborn young woman, Sally. But we'll see how stubborn you can be when I let Jason loose on you. He doesn't have my sensibilities when it comes to violence. Ah . . . that sounds like him now.'

In my determination to resist Jeremy's attempts to force me to reveal the whereabouts of Dawn's diaries, I hadn't heard the car driving up. Now, however, the warehouse door was scraping open and a big burly figure came in. He was still clad in black motorcycle leathers, but he was no longer wearing his crash helmet, and I could see it was indeed the same man who had been working at the warehouse on the night of the auction. I hadn't taken much notice of him then, but now everything about him alarmed me – the bullet-shaped, close-cropped head, the heavy eyebrows meeting across the bridge of a nose that looked as if it had been broken more than once, the earring and the stud in his lower lip. Jason Barlow looked every inch a thug. I could well imagine that not only would he have no qualms about hurting me, he'd positively enjoy it.

Worse. He'd enjoy staging my death, too. Hot and cold waves of fear washed over me. Josh had been right when he'd warned me I could be tangling with very dangerous characters. Why, oh why, hadn't I listened to him? Against Jeremy's ruthless cleverness and Jason's brute force, I didn't stand a chance.

‘Right, her car's here then.' Jason's voice was gruff, as if he smoked too many cigarettes, and he had a marked local accent. ‘Have you decided what you want to do with her?'

‘Pretty much.' Jeremy's tone was dismissive – he didn't care to discuss his plans with underlings, I thought; simply giving orders was more his style. ‘But first we have to persuade Sally to tell us where something rather important can be found. I've already warned her that you will be very good at extracting information. You won't let me down, will you?'

Jason smirked.

‘Right up my street, guv'nor. Where d'you want me to start?'

Jeremy shrugged.

‘I'll leave that up to you, though perhaps that broken leg might be a good place.' He took a step or two away, distancing himself, then turned back. ‘Are you sure you aren't going to be a sensible girl and tell me what I want to know without any of this unpleasantness, Sally?'

I was shaking from head to foot, so violently that the ropes binding my wrists and ankles cut into the flesh. But one thought was uppermost in my mind – Jeremy wouldn't want me killed before he knew the whereabouts of the diaries so that he could destroy them. But the moment I told him I would be signing my own death warrant.

‘Jeremy, this is crazy!' I said, desperately trying to delay the moment the pain would begin. ‘We've known each other since I was a little girl. You taught me to ride – have you forgotten all that?'

‘Of course not.' Unbelievably, he was the same suave character he had always been, except that now I'd seen the ruthlessness that lay beneath, driven, no doubt, by greed. ‘But it's a long time ago now, Sally. Believe me, I am sorry, but I can't take the risk of too much interest in me, or the warehouse. It's too important to me.' He smiled slightly. ‘Would it surprise you to know that there are treasures worth many thousands of pounds not more than a few yards from where you are sitting? This operation is a very profitable one, which is more than I can say for my investment business. But that makes a very good cover for my travels.'

‘When you arrange the transportation of stolen treasures.'

Jeremy smiled slightly. ‘Something like that. But please, don't let's waste any more time. I need the diaries, Sally. And I will have them, one way or another, make no mistake of that.' He turned to Jason. ‘I'll leave this to you. Let me know when Sally decides to give us some answers.'

He moved away, out of my line of sight, towards the rear of the warehouse, and Jason came closer. He was grinning, getting out a cigarette and lighting it.

‘First things first . . .' He yanked open my top, exposing my décolletage, drew on his cigarette and brought the glowing tip close to my face, so close I could no longer see it, but could feel the heat.

He was going to burn me. This couldn't be happening . . . it couldn't! But it was. I squeezed my eyes shut, gritting my teeth, determined, even now, not to crack, but more terrified than I had ever been in my life as I waited . . . waited . . .

The crash of the warehouse door bursting open made me jump so much that the burning cigarette did actually make contact with my skin, and I screamed. But the pain lasted a few seconds only.

Startled, I opened my eyes. Two uniformed policemen were running across the open space, and Jason was diving for the open door. But a tall figure was barring his way.

Josh. Oh my God, it was Josh.

What happened next is all rather a blur to me. I remember screaming Josh's name, as he and the two policemen grappled with Jason Barlow. I remember struggling frantically and futilely against the ropes that were binding me. I remember trying to tell them that Jeremy was somewhere in the warehouse. Later I learned that he had escaped through a rear door and driven off, but he didn't get far. In the narrow lane he had met another police car racing to the scene and when he tried to squeeze past it he had run into the ditch and been apprehended.

I remember Josh freeing me from my bonds, chafing my wrists and ankles, calling for an ambulance that I was trying to tell him I didn't need. And I remember his arms around me, holding me close, whispering against my hair. Of all my memories of that awful day, it is that one that I want to hug to me and cherish forever.

‘I'm sorry, but I can't come with you, Sally,' Josh said when the ambulance arrived and the paramedics insisted on taking me to A & E to have me checked over. ‘I'm afraid there are things I have to do, and I'm needed here.'

He nodded in the direction of the warehouse, where no fewer than three distinctive police vehicles were now drawn up at crazy angles in the parking area outside, hemming in Dad's car, Josh's and Jeremy's, and Jason's motor bike. I looked at him blankly.

Needed here?
What was he talking about?

Josh grinned faintly. ‘I know, I've got some explaining to do. But I expect you've realized by now that newspaper photographer isn't my usual day job.'

‘Well, yes, but I thought . . .' I broke off. I didn't want to admit what I'd thought – how could I ever have suspected for a moment that Josh was an international criminal? But my brain still wasn't working properly – I was still a bit woozy from the drugs Jeremy had given me, and reaction to what I'd just been through had kicked in too, so that I was shaky and confused.

‘I'll fill you in properly later,' Josh went on. ‘But the fact is the job at the
Gazette
was just my cover story. Actually, I'm afraid, I'm a policeman with the regional crime squad. We've known for some time there was a clearing house in the locality for art and curios coming in from the continent – stuff worth millions that's been stolen to order. I've been working under cover, gathering information, and waiting for the evidence – a big shipment and the brains behind the outfit both to be in the same place at the same time.'

‘Oh!' I was too startled to say more, but suddenly things were falling into place. The very things that had made me suspicious of Josh when I found Dawn's diaries in his cottage were pointing now in exactly the opposite direction.

‘I'm really sorry I had to deceive you, Sally, but I absolutely couldn't blow my cover. Too much depended on it – not to mention the best part of a year's work,' Josh went on. ‘And now, I'm afraid I've got a full day's work, and the rest, ahead of me tying up my side of things. I'll see you just as soon as I can – OK?'

I nodded. ‘OK.'

The paramedics were hovering, anxious to get me to A & E.

‘Off you go then. See you soon.' He gave my hand a quick squeeze.

As I climbed into the ambulance I glanced back. Josh was still standing there, watching me. ‘I love you,' he mouthed. Then the doors closed, and though I could no longer see him the look on his face as he said it remained with me.

‘You've no idea the trouble you caused me, Sally,' Josh said. ‘Quite apart from worrying me half to death, I was afraid you were going to blow the whole job wide apart with your investigations.'

‘Well, that's nice!' I said, mock-sarcastically.

It was early evening. It was some hours now since I'd been sent home from A & E with a clean bill of health, but only twenty minutes or so since Josh had arrived to see me. He'd been kept busy all day working on his case and still had to go back to the police station to complete yet more paperwork, but he'd snatched a break of an hour or so, and now he was sitting at the kitchen table with me and Mum.

‘You just wouldn't be warned off, would you?' Josh chided. ‘Wouldn't accept the danger you were in, even though you were convinced Dawn had died because of what she knew. At least Alice had the sense to realize the gravity of the situation. When I learned she was about to talk to you I had a word with her, and she agreed straight away to let me get her to a safe house until it was all over. But you . . . no, you had to go right on, ploughing in deeper and deeper. If I hadn't found you when I did, I dread to think what might have happened.'

I shuddered. I didn't want to even think about that.

‘How
did
you find me?' I asked.

‘When I realized you'd gone I went out looking for you. I passed your car heading for Stoke Compton, but I was pretty sure it wasn't you driving it, so I called for reinforcements and turned around myself. By the time I caught sight of it again I guessed it was heading for the warehouse and radioed in. The local officers and I arrived at more or less the same time and the rest you know. It was a bit of gamble to come in with all guns blazing, but it paid off. We caught the man behind the operation and one of his goons red-handed, and there'd been a shipment just a couple of days ago – art and curios worth a king's ransom that had been stolen to order on the continent and were stored in the warehouse awaiting delivery to the collectors in this country who had placed orders for them. Result. Though I have to say at the time we barged our way in I was thinking more about you than the job. Jeremy Winstanley would have had no more scruples about dealing with you than he did in disposing of Dawn when she became a threat to the operation. There was just too much at stake.'

I closed my eyes briefly. I knew all too well how close I had come to ending up as Dawn had.

‘I just can't believe the Jeremy I knew could be so evil,' I said. ‘To dispose of anyone who got in his way without a second thought . . . risking Dad's life by stampeding the cows, having Dawn killed . . . I know he was squeamish about actually doing the deeds himself, but that thug was acting on his instructions, which is just as bad.'