Authors: Pauline Rowson
‘And Ian? Jack’s colleague? What’s happened to him?’ I recalled his wife’s distraught voice.
‘The police are looking for him. He got depressed over his colleague’s death. He blames himself.’
‘But it was Motcombe who told him to swap.’
‘Was it?’
Of course Motcombe wasn’t around to confirm it or to tell anyone what he had done with Ian.
When Bernard left I couldn’t bear to stay in the same room. The very air was full of his poison. I had been about to leave when Jody had walked in.
‘How did you know I was in that warehouse?’
I had asked her, still unsure of her.
‘Bernard told me.’
‘He knew Davenham and Motcombe had taken me there to kill me?’ A surge of anger swept through me swiftly followed by a chill that seeped into every bone in my body. It would have been more convenient for Bernard if we had all perished in that blaze, or if the river boat had run Jody and me over in the Thames instead of saving us.
Jody said, ‘He told me where I could find my father’s killer. I didn’t ask questions. I just wanted to find the bastard.’
‘You didn’t just happen to turn up at the café that morning I found the message in Jack’s New Testament and Psalms, did you?’
She shook her head. ‘No. I saw you leave Rosie’s and then I was told where you were. The personal CD player was a recorder. When I switched it off I was actually switching it over to tape you. When that man threw paint at your pictures, Bernard told me who he was.’
‘You knew all about Alison?’
She nodded. Lies. Our whole relationship had been based on lies. I felt anger tinged with bitterness and sorrow. She had deceived me.
Jody said quickly, ‘I wanted to tell you but I couldn’t. I needed information and you were my best bet of finding it. I’m sorry for deceiving you, Adam, but I had to get to the truth about my father. Don’t you see it was all that mattered to me.’
‘And now?’
‘It still matters but something else does too.’
I wanted to believe her but how could I? ‘And the police letting me go after Ben’s death? I suppose Special Branch arranged that too?’
‘Motcombe had been seen going into the hotel with Ben Lydeway at about the time of the murder. I knew you weren’t inside the room because I was speaking to you on the telephone not far from where you were on the beach; I was on the pier.’
‘And Simon?’
‘You told me where you were going and what you were going to ask him. I called Motcombe and told him. Now I know he called Davenham who telephoned your brother and fed him the information about my father. Motcombe knew where you were.’
‘And tried to kill me on Salisbury Plain.’ She held my gaze. Had she known that? I thought I saw regret in her eyes but I might have wished it. ‘And Motcombe had no idea you were Drake’s daughter, hence the false name: Jody Piers.’ She nodded.
‘I’m sorry you got involved in this, Adam.’
I should have been too but I wasn’t. Jack’s face swam before me, one moment laughing, his eyes twinkling dangerously, his broad mouth stretched in that cheeky grin, the kind, concerned expression in the pub that night when he’d rescued me from despair; our many sailing trips across to the Isle of Wight, a clear blue sky, a fresh breeze, nothing but the sound of the sea and the wind in the sails. No, I wasn’t sorry I’d got involved. In life Jack had given me unconditional friendship, in death he had given me back my self-respect, my strength, myself.
Jody said, ‘I had to do it, Adam. You do understand, don’t you?’
‘I understand,’ I said slowly and watched the light come into her eyes. It set my pulse racing.
I knew that I cared for her more than I had cared for anyone before, even Alison, but I wasn’t sure I trusted her.
She said, ‘Do you think there might be a future for us, together?’
‘Do you want there to be?’
‘Yes.’
I looked steadily at her fighting every instinct and desire in my aching body to enfold her in my arms. ‘I need time, Jody.’ The disappointment on her face almost made me weaken. I couldn’t.
I had to think.
I had returned home at the earliest opportunity packed my bags, collected Boudicca, who didn’t seem to mind the move, and gone to live on the boat. On New Year’s Day the two of us were going to go sailing for a while. I didn’t know exactly where or for how long.
I sniffed the sea air. It felt good. I watched the waves wash on to the shore and out again. The tide was rising just as it always does bringing with it both sorrow and gladness. I heard a fishing boat chugging out to sea. I saw its lights. Time slipped by.
It was over. I’d done what I had set out to do.
I’d discovered why those fire fighters had died.
I’d completed Jack’s mission and I’d found Jack’s killers. Perhaps one day I would be able to tell the truth about what had really happened. One day I would expose it. For now I had to remain silent, not for my own sake, that didn’t matter to me, but for Rosie. I had to protect her. Jack would have wanted it this way.
I wondered about Bransbury. I guessed that the Prime Minister would be told the facts and that Bransbury would be asked to leave, not only the cabinet, but also politics quicker than you could say by-election. Perhaps Bransbury would be relieved that Davenham had perished in that derelict warehouse; that he would no longer be pulling his strings.
And Jody? Would I ever see her again? I knew I wouldn’t forget her and I didn’t want to. If she came back into my life I’d be pleased, no, more than that, I’d be complete. Perhaps I would seek her out. I didn’t know. Not yet. How could I?
Then there was Faye.
She was oblivious of how my life had changed, ignorant of my brush with death. Even if she knew, or I told her, I could imagine her only half listening before plunging on with her latest new client account. Poor Faye. But that was over.
There was no need to pretend anymore, not with Faye, not with Simon, not with Father. And especially there was no need to pretend to myself.
I had faced fear and I had conquered it.
In the whispering greyness I watched the dawn arrive reluctantly, almost as if it was afraid of a new day and what it would bring. It licked and sniffed the air not sure about it, a little nervous, a little shocked. I thought of Alison with a calmness that I wouldn’t have believed possible before all this. She was the past.
The sun grew in strength; it got brighter and more hopeful until it decided to creep over the edge of the earth. I watched the silvery light in the sky broaden into a pale pink flush in the east and I saw the magic of the sea come alive. In the cold daylight, I had to face the future and I did so with a new but sad heart. I pulled up my collar and started walking.
IN C
BY THE SAME AOLD DAYLIGHT
UTHOR
315
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
TIDE OF
DEATH
A MARINE MYSTERY
FEATURING HORTON AND CANTELLI
‘Hoist the sails for DI Andy Horton and his sidekick
Barney Cantelli. A series with a fair wind behind it
and destined to go far.’
Amy Myers
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
It is DI Andy Horton’s second day back in Portsmouth CID after being suspended for eight months. Whilst out running in the early morning he trips over the naked battered body of a man on the beach. PC Evans has been stabbed the night before, the DCI is up before a promotion board and Sergeant Cantelli is having trouble with his fifteen-year-old daughter. But Horton’s mind is on other things not least of which is trying to prove his innocence after being accused of rape.
Beset by personal problems and aided by Cantelli, Horton sets out to find a killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. As he gets closer to the truth, and his personal investigations start to uncover dark secrets that someone would rather not have exposed, he risks not only his career but also his life…
Coming soon -
In For the Kill
by Pauline Rowson.
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