Hand In Glove Part 69

"And maybe you'll find out," Frank had interrupted. "But not from us."

420.

R O B E R T G O D D A R D.

Frank's forbidding tone-and the baleful glare accompanying his remark-had subdued Samantha for a while. No doubt she had found him the greatest puzzle of all. She was not to know what Derek knew-that the circ.u.mstances of her release had cheated him of his chance to avenge the murder of a friend. How-or if-he had reconciled himself to seeing-but not challenging-Delgado there was no way of telling. His thoughts were hidden behind a well-worn mask.

At last they reached Santiago and eased their way through the Sat.u.r.day morning traffic to the police station. It was located in a wide stretch of road, the centre of which functioned as a car park. Thus Frank was able to pull up exactly opposite the Polica Nacional building without attracting the least attention.

"This is as far as we go," he baldly announced. "You're on your own now."

Samantha stared at him incredulously. "You're not coming in with me?"

"We can't," said Derek. "It's part-"

"Part of the deal," parroted Samantha sarcastically. "What do you expect me to tell them?"

"Say the kidnappers let you go on the outskirts of the city after driving you blindfolded from wherever you'd been held. Say you've no idea where that is, who they are or why they decided to release you."

"I haven't."

"Then it shouldn't be difficult, should it?"

"But I'm to say nothing about you?"

"Nothing."

"That's part of the deal as well?"

"Yes."

She looked at him suspiciously. "That man on the bridge-what did you give him? What was the ransom?"

Derek shook his head. There was no point in even trying to answer her question.

"Something belonging to my father? Something they wanted him to give up?"

"In a sense."

"In what sense?"

"Sam, I-"

"Don't call me Sam!" She was angry now and close to tears. "My friends call me Sam. And you're not a friend."

H A N D I N G L O V E.

421.

"I'm sorry. Look-"

"I'll find out what it's all about. I'll say the right things to the police and the consul and Christ knows who else, but I'll still find out.

My father will tell me."

Her trust in Maurice Abberley moved Derek to the brink of an unwise disclosure. "About your father, Samantha. Perhaps I ought-"

"Miss Abberley," Frank cut in, "we've risked our lives to rescue you. We've made sacrifices you can't possibly comprehend. Set against them, the lies we're asking you to tell are trivial-and lily-white. So, why not stop feeling sorry for yourself, walk into that building and ask them to call the British Emba.s.sy?"

His words were harsher than Samantha deserved. But their effect was salutary. The edge of hysteria in her voice vanished. "All right,"

she said, wiping her eyes. "I am . . . grateful, you know. It's just-"

"We understand," said Derek.

"And remember," said Frank. "You're free."

"Yes." Her face was suddenly lit up by a smile. "I am, aren't I?"

She rubbed her eyes and sighed, then announced: "I think I'm ready to go now."

"Good." Derek opened the door and climbed out to let her pa.s.s.

The policeman standing on the station steps was picking his teeth, oblivious to the significance of what was about to happen. Yet still Derek was eager to have done and be gone.

"Thank you, Mr Fairfax," said Samantha. "I'll thank you again when I know what you really did." She started walking towards the police station and Derek climbed back into the Land Rover.

"Poor kid," he murmured. "None of this was her fault. When she finds out about her father-"

"But you're no friend of hers," growled Frank. "She said so herself. Save your concern for those who are-or were."

Derek knew at once who he was referring to. But, in a perverse attempt to exorcise the ghosts still cl.u.s.tering around them, he asked: "Who do you mean, Frank?"

Ahead of them, the policeman stopped picking his teeth and held the station door open for Samantha, who vanished inside without a backward glance. Frank started the engine. He offered no answer to Derek's question, unless it was the remark he made as they pulled out into the traffic and headed away from the centre of the city. "It's time you told me what Delgado said, boy. I want to hear every word."

CHAPTER.

TWENTY-SIX.

The morning glowed with autumnal refulgence, or seemed to, as Charlotte leant back in the cracked leather seat of Colin's Jaguar and watched the golden glades of Surrey flash by.

What she felt was a vast multiple of the joyful irresponsibility the end of a school term had inspired in her as a child, but which adulthood had somehow driven out. As the cares and fetters of the recent past fell away, the sensation grew, filling her with confidence and generosity, convincing her that all disputes could be resolved, all wounds healed, all antagonisms ended. Samantha was safe and her mother should not be denied the pleasure and relief of knowing she was. If Charlotte and Ursula could share nothing else, they could share the happiness of this moment.

The sunlight was sparkling on the water as they crossed Cookham Bridge and casting its mellow balm across the lawn of Swans'

Meadow. At Charlotte's direction, Colin slowed and turned into Riversdale. As he did so, Charlotte caught sight of Aliki, cycling towards them along the road. She asked Colin to pull up so that she could speak to her and leaned out of the window to attract the girl's attention.

"It's me, Aliki! Charlotte."

"Charlie!" Aliki skidded to a halt beside her. "I did not recognize the car. And . . . You look so 'appy." She put her hand to her mouth. "Is it . . . Is there . . ."

"There may be good news. But I must speak to Ursula first. Is she in?"

"Oh yes. She 'as 'ardly gone out since . . . since it 'appened. She is . . . so sad."

"Are you going shopping?"

"Yes. But only in Bourne End."

"Well, by the time you come back, Ursula may not be so sad."

"Really?"

Charlotte held her finger to her lips. "Wait and see."

H A N D I N G L O V E.

423.

With a puzzled smile, Aliki cycled off, leaving Colin and Charlotte to head on along the road, then turn down the drive to Swans' Meadow.

"Quite a place," said Colin, as he pulled up in front of the house.

"Your brother didn't stint himself, did he?"

"Let's not talk about Maurice, please."

"All right." Colin shrugged his shoulders and grinned indulgently. "Shall we go in?"

"I think I'd better go in on my own to break the news. I'll come and fetch you when I've explained everything."

"Suits me."

Charlotte climbed out and hurried to the door, suppressing a desire to skip at every pace. She had expected a swift response to the bell, but there was none. She tried twice more with the same result.

Yet Aliki had been quite specific. Ursula was there. She could not have left after Aliki without pa.s.sing them. Could she be out of earshot in the garden? It seemed the only possible explanation. Miming her intentions to Colin, she walked round to the side of the house.

As she entered the garden, she saw at once that, short of hiding in the shrubbery, Ursula could not be there. At the same moment, she remembered the July afternoon when she had arrived in search of Emerson McKitrick and followed these same steps, only to find far more than she had bargained for. But she was now the one bearing surprises. There were surely none left to lie in wait for her. A little irritated by having to go to such lengths, she tried the kitchen door and was relieved to find it open. Yet she was also perplexed, since it suggested Ursula really was at home and had simply chosen not to respond to the bell. Calling out her name and receiving no reply, she walked through to the hall and turned into the lounge.

She saw Ursula, seated stiffly and expressionlessly on the sofa, a split-second before she saw the reason for her blank and staring silence. A man was standing near the window, dressed in jeans, short leather jacket and sweater. He was stockily built and bull-necked, with a craggy weather-beaten face and crew-cut hair. Charlotte recognized him instantly as Brian Spicer, Maurice's former chauffeur.

He was holding a blunt-nosed revolver in his hand and it was pointing straight at her. She had never seen anything smaller than a shotgun before and for a moment thought it might be a toy. But Spicer's cold unblinking gaze and the nervous motion of his tongue between his lips told her it was not.

424.

R O B E R T G O D D A R D.

"Spicer," she said numbly.

"Miss Ladram," he sneered. "Sit down beside her ladyship." He waved her towards the sofa with his gun.

Ursula looked up at her. "Do as he says, Charlie. He's quite capable of using that."

Charlotte obeyed, moving slowly and cautiously. As she settled on the sofa, the frantic pace of Ursula's breathing became apparent to her. Then she realized her own was equally fast. Her heart was racing too, beating like a drum inside her head. "What . . . What's going on?"

she asked.

"We were having a private chat," said Spicer. "I'd waited for Aliki to go out so we wouldn't be disturbed. I didn't know you were going to barge in."

"Why are you here, Charlie?" asked Ursula, clutching her hand for comfort.

"Never mind why," snapped Spicer. "Maybe she can be more illuminating than you."

"About what?"

"He thinks Maurice stored a large quant.i.ty of cash here," said Ursula. "I've tried to convince him he didn't, but-"

"I know he had some stashed away here," interrupted Spicer.

"Ready cash for the sort of transactions he specialized in. Ones that didn't go through the books. Pay-offs. Back-handers. Sweeteners. You know the kind of thing."

"We don't," said Ursula. "Unless you mean the sort of work you did for him."

Anger flared in Spicer's eyes. He moved closer to them, then stopped and said: "Yeh. That sort of work-since you mention it. I'm still owed some. Which I intend to collect-plus enough to set me up abroad. Thanks to Maurice, I've got the police on my tail, trying to pin the old girl's murder on me. So, I need to make myself scarce. And I need spending money to do it with."

"Take whatever you like," said Ursula. "But there's no h.o.a.rd of cash."

"Pull the other one. I want all of it. And I want it now."

Could it be true? Had Maurice hidden money somewhere in the house? Was it the source of what he had foolishly offered Delgado's men at their meeting on Walbury Hill? If so, Ursula probably did not know where it was. But Spicer would never believe that. Desperate to H A N D I N G L O V E.

425.

distract him, Charlotte said: "You were responsible for Beatrix's death, then?"

"What do you think?"

"And for the robbery at Hendre Gorfelen?"

"The Welsh job? Yeh, that too."

"All at Maurice's bidding?"