Obsession (31 page)

‘But you’ll have some before you go?’ Luke insisted. ‘In fact, you can’t go until the programme’s been transmitted.’

‘Just lead me to it,’ Corrie said, holding out her arms to both of them, and suddenly realizing she was already slightly drunk on adrenalin.

‘Are you sure you won’t come for dinner with us?’ Luke said, a few minutes later, as he poured champagne into Corrie’s glass. Annalise had slipped out to the ladies, so Corrie and Luke, for the moment, were in the office alone.

‘Quite sure, thank you,’ she said, looking up at him and smiling.

He smiled too, but to her surprise she saw that he looked genuinely hurt. She lifted a hand, intending to take his, but then stopped herself. It was too intimate a gesture should Annalise come back, and besides, Corrie didn’t want him to think that he still meant anything to her.

She’d done a lot of thinking since the night she’d met her father at Luke’s, and had now attributed her reaction to shock. Nonetheless, she still didn’t quite trust Luke. Though suspecting him of all that she had, and deciding to guard Annalise against him, now seemed to Corrie an extreme over-reaction on her part. Besides which, when a woman was as obsessed with a man as Annalise was with
Luke
there was little anyone could do. And Corrie had finally come to the conclusion that Luke probably didn’t know that Phillip was her father, since if he did, he would have been sure to have said something by now. Or at least to have given himself away somehow. But his only reference to that evening had been to tell Corrie how upset he had been that Annalise had got so drunk in front of her parents.

‘She thinks her mother and I are having an affair,’ he’d gone on to say, ‘and I guess I can hardly blame her for that. Of course, you don’t know Octavia, but she’s like that with just about every man she meets. Especially any man who shows an interest in Annalise.’

There had been plenty Corrie had wanted to say to that, but since they were standing in the corridor at TW at the time, she’d judged it wiser to remain silent.

As for their own relationship, such that it was, Corrie could only hope that it was over. Luke had neither called her, nor invited her out since the night of the cocktail party, though Corrie had caught him watching her from time to time, with a strange expression in his eyes.

He was looking at her that way now, and again, like all the other times, Corrie felt that he was trying in some way to reach out to her. She wasn’t proud of herself for turning away, she hated to do that to anyone, but it was her own sense of self-preservation that made her do it. She truly didn’t want to get caught up in any part of his life.

‘What is it about you that makes me feel I can trust you, Corrie?’ Luke said quietly.

‘Trust me with what?’ she asked.

He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I get when I look at you. You don’t trust me though, do you?’

‘No,’ she confessed. ‘You’ve never really given me any reason to.’

‘I gave you your promotion.’

‘Yes.’

‘But that’s not what we’re talking about, is it?’

‘No. Or perhaps, yes. Sometimes, Luke, you give me the impression that you’re playing games with us all. Will you explain now about Watkins?’

He smiled, then putting down his drink he walked around his desk and took a buff file from the drawer. ‘It’s quite simple really,’ he said. ‘I told Watkins that if he were prepared to pay me twenty thousand pounds then I would see to it that his name was removed from the programme. He paid.’

Corrie’s eyes dilated. ‘You mean … Are you saying that you blackmailed him?’

Luke nodded. ‘Yes, I blackmailed him. But only after he had made me an offer himself.’

‘But Luke, that’s illegal.’

Luke laughed. ‘My darling, innocent Corrie. Of course it’s illegal. Now, aren’t you going to ask me what I did with the money?’

Corrie watched him suspiciously as he started towards her. ‘No,’ she said, when he took two pieces of paper from the file and handed them to her. ‘No, I don’t think I want to know.’

‘OK, then I’ll read it to you myself.’ He glanced up as Annalise walked in, and holding out a hand towards her he pulled her into the circle of his arm. ‘I was just about to tell Corrie how we gave Carol a cheque for twenty thousand pounds to help with the prostitutes’ cause,’ he told her.

Annalise turned to Corrie, but Corrie was still looking at Luke, shaking her head in disbelief.

‘This here,’ Luke said, indicating the top page, ‘is a letter to Watkins telling him precisely what I did with his money. And this one here, is a letter from Carol to the Editor of the
Sun
newspaper informing him of Watkins’ most generous donation.’

Annalise laughed. ‘Isn’t he a genius, Corrie?’ she said, gazing up at Luke.

Luke’s eyes were still on Corrie.

‘Yes,’ Corrie mumbled, ‘isn’t he?’ Then standing up she excused herself, saying she must powder her nose before the programme began.

It wasn’t so much that she completely disagreed with the ethics behind what Luke had done, it was more that she couldn’t bear the way he was looking at her, as though seeking her approval. She didn’t want to feel responsible for his actions, and much less did she want to feel that he had tricked Watkins to please her. But that was the way he’d made her feel.

Making a supreme effort she tried to shrug it off, what Luke did was his business, she just wished he wouldn’t make it hers by telling her about it. Maybe she’d discuss it with her father, after all he was the chairman of TW, and surely wouldn’t approve of what Luke had done either. A quick fantasy flashed through her mind, of seeing Luke pushed out of TW and she and Annalise appointed joint-heads. What a miracle that would be, she and her half-sister heading up their own TV company under the guiding hand of their father. She almost laughed aloud then, as she thought about all those hours she’d spent in Amberside, dreaming of what her life could be like, but never had she imagined that she might one day succeed with a father and a sister. There was a long way to go though, before anything like that could happen, but tonight was going to be a first step in that direction. Blood ties, she now realized, really did mean something, for it didn’t seem to matter about the way Phillip had treated her, she still wanted, more than anything else in the world, for him to accept her as his daughter – and Annalise’s sister.

It was just after eight o’clock when Phillip Denby pushed his way from the bar of The Man in the Moon to a seat
in
the corner of the lounge. He set his glass of Guinness down on the round table, then took out a packet of cigarettes. It would be at least an hour before Corrie arrived, but he’d needed to get out of the house, not only because he couldn’t bring himself to watch the programme, but to get away from Octavia. God, how he hated her. Every vein in her body ran with venom, and there were times when it seemed to seep through the very pores of her skin. She was so corrupt that he could feel soiled just to have her eyes look upon him. She had destroyed his life, totally, he couldn’t even call himself a man anymore. Now, all he wanted was to lose himself, if only for a while, in the anonymity of a public house, where crowds of young people shouted and swilled their pints, flirted and popped their Ecstacy. He watched them spilling out onto the pavement of World’s End, and felt an overwhelming sadness at how rotten the world had become. Children, getting drunk, taking drugs and living day after day with the ever-encroaching threat of AIDS.

He took a quick gulp of his Guinness then lit a cigarette. The panic was threatening to engulf him again, but he must force himself to stay calm. Corrie would be here soon, Corrie would make it all right. He wasn’t quite sure when he had reached that conclusion, but it had happened some time over the past week, after he had seen her at Luke’s. But even now he couldn’t be sure if he was right, if he really had felt … Felt what? He didn’t know. Was it sympathy he had sensed in her? Perhaps it was strength. Whatever it was, he knew, deep down in his heart, that she was the only one he could turn to. Not Pam, though God knew he’d wanted to, and he’d tried so many times, but in the end he just hadn’t been able to bear the thought of her turning on him. Every woman he’d ever known had ended up despising him, and once she knew what he’d done Pam would prove no exception, no matter how much she claimed to love him. And who could blame her? But Corrie was
different
, she would help him, he was certain of it, she would help Annalise too. Corrie would find a way.

He drank some more Guinness then crushed out his half-smoked cigarette. His hands were shaking.

He pictured Corrie in his mind’s eye and started to smile, then suddenly his face contorted with the agony he felt inside. Could he really do this to her? He was her father, he should be protecting her, not burdening her with the terrible tragedy of his life. And why should she want to help after the way he had treated her? He hadn’t even had the guts to speak to her that night at Luke’s. But if she knew the truth, if she knew what was really going on, surely she would understand.

Choking back a sob Phillip dug his fingers into the sockets of his eyes. For Christ’s sake, he told himself bitterly, five prostitutes were dead and an innocent man had been arrested! How could she ever begin to understand that? How was he going to explain that he knew McIver was innocent without incriminating himself? Did he really want Corrie to know that he had been visiting whores, or what he had been doing to those whores? Did he want to see the suspicion, the accusation then, God forbid, the fear come into her eyes when he told her? And once he had told her, what then? The answer suddenly seemed so brutally clear that Phillip could hardly believe he was sitting there. But of course that was why he had let Corrie down before. He was afraid of what she would do once she knew. She would go to the police, she’d have to. It wouldn’t matter that he was her father, she would do what was right. And then they would come for him.

It wasn’t that he really minded for himself, he just wanted this torment to be over, it was the shame it would bring upon Annalise and Corrie that he couldn’t accept. But maybe, just maybe, he could save Corrie. Yes, that’s what he would do. He would save her from the shame. It was too late for Annalise, but not for Corrie. Tears welled
in
his eyes. It would probably be the only thing in his entire life he would ever do for Edwina’s daughter, and it would be worse than tearing out his own heart, but he was going to do it. He had to, for Corrie’s sake.

When at last Corrie arrived Phillip was still sitting in the same seat, with the same glass of Guinness in front of him. He saw several heads turn as she glanced about the bar, trying to find him, he even heard one man ask her if she’d like to join his party. He didn’t hear Corrie’s response, but whatever it was it made the man laugh. Phillip felt a quick swell of pride, but when Corrie spotted him, he looked away. He didn’t want to watch her walk towards him, he didn’t want to acknowledge how astonishingly lovely she had become during these few short months in London, and neither did he want to read whatever expression there was in her eyes.

‘Hello,’ Corrie said.

Phillip nodded, but did not look up.

‘Can I get you a drink?’ Corrie offered.

‘No. I won’t be staying, thank you,’ Phillip said curtly.

He felt Corrie bristle. ‘Then what can I do for you?’ she said, sitting down.

With his eyes still averted Phillip consciously tightened his jaw, and said, ‘You can swear to me that you’ll never tell Annalise who you are. I don’t want her to know about you, I don’t want anyone to know about you, do you understand? And no matter what you do, or whatever you might claim in the future, I want you to know that I will always deny that you’re my daughter. Have you got that straight? You are no relation to me, you never have been, nor ever will be. And keep away from Luke Fitzpatrick. He’s got Annalise, he doesn’t need you too, so keep away from him.’

Still he didn’t look at her as he jerked himself to his feet. He could feel her pain, but forced himself to move away. His legs were shaking so badly it was all he could do to
get
himself out of the pub and into his car. He knew he had just cut off any hope he’d ever had of being able to confide in anyone, but it was for the best. This way she would never have to suffer the humiliation of pointing fingers as she walked down the street, ‘there goes the daughter of that psycho. You know, the one who chopped up the whores.’ But, dear God, Annalise would, and he could only pray that Corrie would be there for her. He should have seen to that,
dammit
he should have seen to it! Instead he had made a mess of it, just like he did everything else in his life. But it was too late now. He couldn’t go back. His only comfort was how mindful Corrie had seemed of Annalise that night at Luke’s. Corrie knew Annalise was her sister, Corrie wouldn’t let her down, she just wouldn’t.

Now all he had to do was force himself to drive to the police station and give himself up.

– 13 –

‘SITTING HERE ALL
alone?’

Corrie looked up from her desk and smiled as she saw Luke coming in through the office door. ‘All alone,’ she confirmed.

‘Where is everyone?’

‘Lunch or filming.’

He nodded and Corrie watched him as he walked across the office and wondered how he managed to look so cool when it was so unbearably hot outside. His blond hair had been bleached almost white by the sun, and he was wearing a pair of faded denims with the sleeves of his red and white striped shirt rolled back to reveal his tanned forearms and the gold Rolex he always wore. He looked so at ease with himself, and Corrie could only wish that she could be so comfortable with herself. But summer was not a season she
enjoyed
– at least not so far as clothes were concerned. She didn’t like to reveal too much of her pale skin, but it was unavoidable when the temperature was soaring so high. Nevertheless, T-shirts were out of the question, her breasts were too large and she was horribly self-conscious about the way her nipples always showed through. Georgie had helped out again though, choosing soft flowing cottons and muslins with silk camisoles to go underneath, tailored short-sleeved dresses and vivid flowery shirts to wear with her jeans. Right now Corrie’s newly trimmed hair, which seemed to her thicker and heavier than ever, was curling happily about her neck and shoulders, though it felt like it was clinging to her skull.