Bet Your Life (27 page)

“He won’t be charged. There’s no evidence.”

“You don’t know that. You don’t know they won’t make something up. Ruth, you have to come clean.”

“Sorry. Not sorry.”

“Ruth!”

“It’s his problem.”

“You’ve set him up.”

“Not deliberately. If the police are too thick to look beyond the obvious, I can’t help that.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Well, I don’t want to. I’m not all that worried about Seb—or Guy, for that matter. He’s never been nice to me. He’s never even spoken to me.”

“So he deserves to have his life ruined? For something you did?”

“I didn’t do anything. I played a joke on Seb, along with a few other people. We didn’t hurt him.”

“Much.”

“We bent him a little.” A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth. “He cried.”

“Lovely.”

“He deserved it. You don’t know.”

“I do. I spoke to the others, and I saw his phone. No one is saying he’s a nice person, but he’s in a coma.”

“Which isn’t anything to do with me. That was someone else.”

There was something about the way she said it. “You know who, don’t you?”

“What?” She looked unsettled for a moment. “No.”

“Claudia and Immy saw you walking away from St. Laurence Square. What were you doing there?”

“Just checking the plan was all working.”

“You were supposed to be at home. That was your alibi.”

“I wanted to be sure everything was as I’d planned. I’m a control freak. I don’t like leaving things to other people. They get it wrong.”

“So why did you let them do it on their own?”

“I can’t drive. And I wasn’t strong enough to lift him. I was supposed to pretend Amanda and Lily were at my house, to be their alibi.”

“What about Claudia and Immy?”

“They did the first part. Trapping him. Then they handed him over to us so they could go back and be noticed at the disco. We thought the police would be looking for one person, not a group.”

“Especially not the five of you, who have nothing in common except that Seb Dawson was unpleasant to you.”

“Which you could say about most people he knew.”

“What did you see, Ruth? What made you so upset? I saw you on the cliffs the next day and you were in a state.”

She looked down so I couldn’t see her eyes. “Nothing.”

“Someone you knew?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

She gave a tiny sigh, as if the air was being squeezed out of her. “I went to see if he was still there about an hour after Lily and Amanda dumped him, and he wasn’t. There was no sign of him. I was sorry he’d been rescued. Then I heard a car. I ran and hid in the doorway of the church.”

“Whose car?”

“I don’t know.”

“What make?”

“It was an Audi. Silver.”

That narrowed it down for me, especially in a place like Port Sentinel, where silver Audis were as common as street lamps. “OK. Then what?”

“Someone got out. They dragged Seb out of the back seat and put him on the ground, where we’d left him. Then they got back in the car and drove off.”

“One person.”

“As far as I could tell. I only heard one door open and close.”

“Male or female?”

“I don’t know. I was hiding. I could only see the front of the car and the headlights were shining in my eyes. I could barely see the logo.”

“Did you get the license plate?”

“No.”

“Was it a sports car? A saloon? A hatchback? Four-wheel drive?”

“I didn’t see.”

“Ruth!”

“Sorry. I was hiding, remember. I could only peek out. And when it moved away I was mainly looking at Seb.” She looked utterly sick at the memory. “He was destroyed. It wasn’t how he’d been when we were with him. I knew he was in serious trouble.”

“What did you do?”

“Once I was sure they’d gone, I checked that Seb was still alive. He had a pulse, just. It took me ages to find it and I got blood on me.” She rubbed her hands on her jacket, remembering. “I ran away. I stopped at the nearest phone box to call 999 and then I ran. That must have been when Claudia and Immy saw me.”

“It was nice of you to call an ambulance.”

“I didn’t want him to die.”

“He didn’t deserve that.”

“No,
I
didn’t deserve the stress of a murder investigation. They never let them drop. I’d never be able to relax. Always looking over my shoulder.” She shivered.

“OK. Well, you did the right thing for the wrong reasons. We’ll give you half-marks.”

“Oh, shut up. You’d have done the same.”

“I’d probably have called from my mobile so I could stay with him and do first aid.”

“Then the police would have known you were there.”

I shook my head, irritated. “You were more worried about saving your skin than saving Seb’s life.”

“I put myself first. It’s human nature.”

Without expecting much, I asked, “Did you see anything else that might be useful?”

“No. But I heard the car scrape a wall as it drove off.”

And I could think of two silver Audis owned by people who knew Seb that had recent, serious damage to their bodywork. “At last, a useful detail. You’re a great plotter but you’re a terrible witness.”

“There’s no need to be rude.” Her face was flaming.

“Sorry,” I said. “Not sorry. As you might say yourself.”

I wasn’t massively surprised when she walked off. I didn’t mind all that much. You could have enough of Ruth’s company. I found the one-minute mark was usually when that feeling kicked in.

I started jogging up toward the center of town. I still had more questions than answers, but the questions weren’t
who
so much, more
why
. Though the more I found out about Seb, the more I thought
Why not?
I could find a motive for Mrs. Dawson without having to work too hard. I shrank from confronting her, though. Better to rule out the second of my two suspects and then hand the whole thing over to Dan, who would surely do his job this time, when the case was all but solved already.

I was absolutely in my own world, hurrying up Fore Street, when someone shouted my name. I turned to see Nick standing in the doorway of the gallery.

“Where are you off to?”

“I need to see someone.”

“Urgently?”

“Fairly.” I walked back toward him, though. “What’s up?”

“Where’s your mother? She’s supposed to be here.”

“Honestly? Hiding.”

Nick frowned. “From whom?”

“Life, generally. It’s what she does when everything gets too much for her.”

“Everything being her ex-husband and her—” He broke off.

“Her nothing. She has nothing to do with Dan. Absolutely nothing.”

“All right. I get the picture.” Nick grinned at me. “You don’t like Dan a lot, do you?”

I remembered that it was through Dan that Mum had got the job at the gallery, so he and Nick were probably besties. It would be seriously undiplomatic for me to say what I really thought. On the other hand, I wasn’t in the mood to lie. “Nope. Can’t stand him.”

Nick nodded. “How does your mum feel about him?”

“I haven’t asked her lately,” I said truthfully.

“I see.”

I thought he probably did; he was clever enough. “So should I tell Mum it’s safe for her to come back to work?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because you told her not to.”

Nick looked surprised. “She didn’t take that seriously, did she?”

“She takes everything to do with the gallery seriously. She really loves working for you.”

His face softened. “She’s good to have around.”

“Even if she doesn’t sell much,” I said, wary of mentioning it but wanting to know what he would say.

Nick laughed. “You might not know this but the gallery is my pet project. It’s not how I make my money.”

“How do you do that?”

“I started up a software company when I was twenty. I was bought out a few years ago and I used the money to start up another one. Then that company was taken over and I got a pretty sweet deal.”

“So you’re rich.”

“I do all right.”

“And the gallery?”

“A hobby. Losing money on it makes my accountants happy.”

“So you actually don’t care about selling things.”

“I like my artists to feel they’re doing well. I like seeing people fall in love with art that I like. Otherwise, not bothered.”

“I should tell Mum. She’s in a constant state of fear that she’s going to get the sack.”

“Is she that scared of me?”

“Scared of messing up.” I hesitated, not sure if I was saying more than Mum would have wanted. “This job is the best thing that’s ever happened to her. She loves it and it means she has time to take pictures and I can see her getting more confident every day. Or she was, until Dad turned up.”

“I don’t know your father, Jess, but I have to say, he makes a pretty terrible first impression.”

“It’s all downhill from there, believe me.”

“Well, you can tell your mother that her job is safe. And if she needs more time to take pictures, she can have it. She’s exceptionally talented.”

Pride made me glow. “I’ll tell her. It might even get her to leave her room.”

He said good-bye and went back into the gallery, and I headed up the street again. A couple of minutes later a low, sleek sports car rumbled past me and pulled in to the curb. The top was down and Nick was driving.

“Jess, get in. I’ll give you a lift. Make up for holding you up.”

“Oh, that’s OK.”

“Get in,” he insisted. “It’s no trouble. I have somewhere to be. I can drop you on the way.”

I did as I was told. “Where have you been hiding this?”

He laughed. “I never drive it. Parking is a nightmare around here. I save it for weekends and trips.”

“It’s beautiful.” It was navy blue. Even sitting at the curb with the engine idling, it looked as fast as a bullet.

“It’s a Lamborghini. My one indulgence.”

“But you save it for weekends.”

“Everything in moderation.”

He moved off and I leaned back against the seat.

“Like it?”

“It’s like they strapped the most comfortable armchair in the world to a jet engine.” I had to shout over the noise the car made, and the wind was whipping my hair around my face.

“So where am I taking you?”

I told him where I wanted to go and he nodded. I wondered if he would ask why but his attention wasn’t on me. “This room where your mother is hiding—is it at Sandhayes?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought I might have a word with her myself. See if I can get her to come out.”

I looked sideways at him, a thought forming very unexpectedly in my mind.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Nothing at all.”

“Until she comes back, I have to open my own post. Which is clearly unacceptable.”

“Clearly.”

“No point in getting you to pass on my messages when I can do it myself.”

I nodded. “I’d probably get it wrong.”

“No, you wouldn’t. But hopefully I’ll get it right.” The car coasted to a stop. “Is this where you need to be?”

“Perfect.” I jumped out. “Thank you.”

“Likewise.” He waved and drove off, the rumble of the engine hanging in the air for what seemed like ages. The sun had come out and the birds were singing. A light wind scattered the fallen leaves and sent them dancing down the road. I let myself enjoy it, just for a moment. Then I took a deep breath and rang the bell by the high wooden gate.

19

I was all set to introduce myself but I got buzzed through the gate as soon as I said my name. A woman holding a duster opened the front door.

“Yes?”

“I came to see Harry. Is he here?”

She nodded and stood back to let me pass. The door at the end of the hall was open, and as I went toward it Harry appeared.

“Jess Tennant. What a surprise.” He looked tired, his hair flat on one side as if he’d just woken up. He was in shorts and a T-shirt, despite the chill in the air, and his feet were bare. “Consolata, you can go.”

“Sorry?”

“You. Can. Go.” To me, he said, “She barely speaks English. They never do.”

“I not finish yet.” She was clutching her duster to her chest, looking nervous.

“It’s fine. I forgive you. Go on. Go home. Have a day off for once.”

She hurried past him, her head down.

“I won’t stay for long,” I said to Harry.

“It’s a good excuse to get rid of her. I am not able to cope with the sound of the vacuum cleaner this morning.”

“Technically, I think it’s the afternoon. It’s just after twelve.”

“You could be right.” He yawned. “My morning, though.”

“Big night last night?”

“And every night.” He ran his hands through his hair, standing it on end. “I’m just tired.”

“Not hungover.”

“I don’t drink.”

“Really?” I followed him through the massive living room, stopping to look at the view in daytime. I could see the entire sweep of the bay, dotted with little white sails. I side-stepped one of the big sofas to get closer to it. “This is incredible.”

“I never really notice it.”

“How is that possible?”

He yawned. “You can get used to anything.”

I stared out at the horizon, imagining the scene later, when the sun had set and the torches were all burning. This would be the best viewpoint in Port Sentinel. I thought about asking Harry if I could come back here to see it, but decided against it, at least until I’d asked him about his Saturday night.

“Drink?”

“I’m OK.”

“Have some orange juice. Consolata squeezes it every morning and I never drink all of it.”

“Thanks.”

He went down the hallway to the kitchen. The house was so quiet I could hear the sound his bare feet made on the marble floor as he walked. I went back to looking out. The garden was not all that big compared to the size of the house, but that was typical of Port Sentinel. Land was too expensive to waste on trees and shrubs. It was immaculately landscaped, though, with a terrace that led down to a pocket-size swimming pool that was currently covered over. To one side there was a long, low building that looked like a pool house.