Revenge (8 page)

"How do we know
this isn't some elaborate story you've invented to extort money from us?" Shona asked.

Savannah sho
wed them
a photograph of the three women. Shona's blood ran cold and Penelope almost collapsed at the
sight of it.

"Where did you get this
information
?" Penelope demanded, snatching the photograph from Savannah's hand.

"I'm not at liberty to reveal that information just yet."

"I'm calling the police," Shona turned and walked back inside.

Savannah marched quickly down the drive and jumped into a taxi which was waiting for her at the gate.

"What the hell was that about?" Penelope cried. "What's going on around here?"

"I have no idea but
I’m calling the police.”

It was 2.30 a.m
.
when Shona's phone rang again. Her heart almost exploded out of her chest with the
fright. Neither of them
had been able to sleep and
they
were sitting i
n the kitchen drinking endless cups
of sweet tea. Shona stared at the phone. The caller's number was blocked and Shona was too scared to answer it.

Penelope grabbed the phone. "Hello!" she snapped.

"Have you started getting the money together?" Savannah asked.

Penelope took a deep b
reath to steady
her nerves
and exactly
as Detective Leary had
earlier
advised she told Savannah she’d need some time to organise the cash.

"Good," Savannah sounded pleased. "Meet me at the bus station tomorrow afternoon at two o' clock."

"I'll meet you at the bar of
The Westport Hotel," Penelope said decisively. Detective Leary had recommended that this would be the best location if Savannah suggested meeting. It was close to the police station and it would also be much easier to organise a surveillance operation at the hotel than at the bus station.

"I'd like a small white wine please," Penelope perched herself on a stool at the bar
and glanced nervously around the room
. Detective Leary had put several plain clothes police officers in place in a three hundred and sixty degree circle around the hotel. Two female officers were sitting within view of Penelope but she couldn't help feeling overwhelmed by the surreal situation in which she found herself. Who on earth hated her so much that they were willing to kill her? What was the connection between her and Rebecca and Shona? She and Shona had stayed up most of the night trying to make sense of what was going on but it was impossible. They'd tried contacting Rebecca in France to warn her but she wasn't answering her phone and she hadn't returned any of their calls.

Shona was so frightened that she'd contacted Westport Security Services first thing that morning. Penelope had tried to calm
her but Shona had insisted
they needed to take steps to protect themselves. "First the office is mysteriously burgled, with no apparent signs of forced entry and now someone has made a threat on our lives!" Shona cried. "How much more serious is it going to get?" Eventually, Penelope had agreed and they'd contacted Ronan Kelleher of Westport Security Services to discuss bodyguard arrangements. He'd agreed to meet them the following morning to arrange their protection and it couldn't come fast enough for the two women.

Penelope placed her handbag carefully on the counter. The money which Savannah had demanded was sealed in a brown envelope inside. She sipped her wine and waited. The hotel was very busy and the bar was quickly filling up with weekend revellers. People were ordering their drinks and chatting and laughing with friends.  Everything seemed so normal, just
like any other weekend afternoon
in many pubs and hotels around the country, but everything was far from normal for Penelope. She found it difficult to believe that life was continuing as usual.

"Hello," she grabbed her mobile phone and answered it on the first ring.

"Hi, this is Savannah. My colleague will meet you to count the money. He'll be in the lobby of the bathroom in five minutes." She abruptly hung up without even giving Penelope a chance to respond.

Pen
elope immediately telephoned De
tective Leary who was s
tanding outside the hotel,
a few metres away. He advised her to meet the man in the lobby as arranged.

She
drained the last of her wine, figuring that she needed as much courage as possible. Her heart was pounding as she slowly walked to the lobby. She w
as a nervous wreck
and her hand trembled as she clutched her handbag close. A tall, dark-hai
red man approached her. She’d
seen him walk past her in the bar a few minutes previou
sly. He was in his late thirties
a
nd was
dressed head to toe in black. Daniel
Williams
looked every inch the gangster with his black suit and shirt and his trademark metal aviator sunglasses. Penelope noticed the strong smell of ci
garette smoke from him and
when he spoke his teeth were badly stained with nicotine.
They stood in the small carpeted lobby between the glass doors leading to the b
ar and front desk.
Penelope could see the reception area
to her right and muffled behind the doors
people going about their business completely unaware of the covert operation going on in their midst.
She later
described the meeting at
the hot
e
l as having an eerie quality and
felt
s
he was in the presence of someone who had no respect for human life.

Daniel didn't waste any time.
"Do you have the money?" he asked, looking Penelope up and down.

"Do you have the computer?" Penelope retorted, staring defiantly into his close-set green eyes. She drew herself up to her full height of almost six feet tall and squared her shoulders. It was an act of bravado which she certainly didn't feel.

A police officer in plain clothes walked past the lobby at that moment and Daniel hastily took off. He didn't notice the police officers who followed him from a discreet distance.
Savannah came out to meet him;
from where she was sitting she co
uld see him leaving the hotel. “We've got to get out of here,”
Daniel said, without stopping. Savannah quickly fell into step beside him and they walked hurriedly towards their rented car which was
parked a short distance away. They
stopped at a public telephone box and
Savannah
once again rang Penelope, desperately trying to salvage something from what was rapidly becoming a ve
ry expensive trip for nothing. “
Wh
at the hell are you playing at?”
S
avannah hissed down the phone. “
Why didn't you hand o
ver the money as we'd arranged?”

“No computer, no money,” Penelope promptly retorted
and hung up the phone. She
leaned against the wall for support, suddenly feel
ing quite weak. Then s
he went back to the bar and sat in a quiet corner by the fire, trying to compose her thoughts.

"You did very well,
" Detective Leary smiled at her, making her jump.

"That was probably the most frightening moment of my life," Penelope replied. "What happens next?"

"We'll be in contact with you over the next few days," Detective Leary advised. "Come on, I'll give you a lift home. You look like you could do with
a
strong cup of tea."

"That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day," Penelope grinned as she followed him to his unmarked car.

Across town p
olice of
ficers swooped on Savannah the moment
she stepped out of the
phone box. Daniel and Savannah
were immediately taken to the local police station for questioning. Savannah said nothing of any significance but Daniel began to confess and was quick to tell the investigators that he was simply a pawn and
an
unwilling partner in Savannah's subterfuge. He spoke
in quiet tones and seemed
stressed.

Savannah, on the other hand, was unhelpful when it came to answering any questions; her manner alternated between irritated belligeren
ce and incredulous jocularity. “
I really don't underst
and what all the fuss is about,” she sighed.
She was
vague and non-com
mittal throughout her interview
. She denied any involvement in the burglary at M&R Photography and also denied trying
to extort money from Penelope Garrett
.

“How do you explain
the items we found in your hotel
room?”
Detective Leary asked
.

“What things?”
Savannah asked, still playing dumb.

“
How
do you explain
the laptop and the paintin
gs
b
eing in your room at the hotel?” He showed her some photos of the stolen items.

“They are beautiful paintings,” Savannah smiled. “Unfortunately, they’re not really to my taste. I’m more a fan of abstract art. Besides I've never seen those paintings
before in my life.”

“
We know the items were stolen from the offices of M&R Photography.
”

Savannah was adamant. “I
don't know anything about any office
.”

Detective Leary then showed her the pho
tographs she'd shown Penelope. “
Do you re
cognise anyone in these photos?”

Sa
vannah studied them c
arefully. “Yes, I recognise that man. He’s
Mark McNamara. We’re lovers.”

The detectives immediately pounced on th
e information
and Savannah began to warm to her story. She loved being the centre of a
ttention, whatever the reason. “
We'v
e been having an affair for a while
! I even visited him on his boat when
his wife wasn't there. I’d
planned on travelling to France to see him at the end of my visit to Ireland but then Daniel insisted on ta
gging along so I had to cancel. After all, three’s a crowd.” She winked coquettishly at the officers.

However, the police didn't believe her story. When they checked with Mark he was convincingly scandalised and dismissed the idea as being completely preposterous.
Although
the police didn't trust
Savannah's story of clandestine love, it was the first time that Mark's name had been mentioned as anything other than a victim in the whole extraordinary mess.

The
interviews with Savannah were going nowhere fast. She refused to admit to anything and so they decided to organise an identity parade. It was alm
ost midnight
when the police started scouring the local pubs to rustle up a suitable line
-
up. There weren't many petite blonde women with olive skin wandering a
round at that late hour
so in the end the police had to make do wi
t
h a motle
y assortment of villagers
.

"Would you be able to come down to the police station tonight?"
Detective Leary asked Penelope.

"I'd really rather not," Penelope sighed wearily down the phone. "I've had a hell of a day and all I want to do is curl up by the fire tonight."

"Well, I'd
appreciate if you came in," Detective Leary insisted. "We've arrested Savanna
h Kingston and Daniel Williams
, the man you met at the hotel today and we need you to formally identify them."

Penelope sat bolt upright on the couch where she'd been slouched for the past few hours.

"I'll be right there," she said decisively. "I want a resolution to this situation and Savannah
is
the only person who can give us the answers we need
.”

"Okay, that's great. I'll see you soon." Detective Leary hung up the phone and sat back in his chair. It certainly had been one of the most eventful few days he'd experienced in a long while but he could almost guarantee that it would take more than a few questions to get to the bottom of the strange situation in which Penelope and her friends found themselves.

He
thought it was pe
culiar that neither Savannah n
or Daniel had mobile phones at their disposal. The calls
to Penelope had been traced to several
public telephone
s. Detective Leary believed
there was one of two possibl
e reasons for
not having mobile phones
on their person; it meant
they could not be traced in Ireland or it was simply a basic error by them. Savannah and Daniel had had to rely on line of sight to maintain contact with each other in Westport town centre that afternoon. However, the surveillance o
peration was in place and unknow
n to either of them, their moves had been closely monitored.
It was becoming more and more obvious to the detective that he wasn’t dealing with criminal masterminds.