Paradise Fields (30 page)

‘Well, if I'm right, and Christopher is dishonest and devious, we'll have to think what he will do, and have a plan ready.'

‘The legal side of it could be very tricky. I don't suppose we could get Jake to help us?'

‘Not exactly! Not when we more or less know he's dishonest.' Nel put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands.

Viv patted her shoulder. ‘Oh, love!'

‘No, no, I'll be fine. I'm just thinking.' What she was thinking was how terribly hard it was to concentrate when one's heart, if not actually breaking, was seriously damaged.

‘I still think you might be wrong about Jake, you know.'

‘Viv, I saw him—'

‘You saw Kerry Anne kiss him. It could have just been an innocent peck on the cheek. Everyone kisses everyone these days.'

‘You don't need to tell me that,' said Nel, head and arms still propped on the table. ‘Bloody mistletoe!'

Vivian shrugged. ‘It was Christmas. He fancied you.'

‘I don't think so, Viv. Think about it. Why should he pick me? Why not just buy the mistletoe and leave? Because someone had told him that I'm on the fundraising committee of the hospice. They may even have said I have a certain amount of influence.' She paused. ‘Don't laugh. I do know a lot of people, and while we don't have a director, the hospice is in a vulnerable position. Perfect for someone to make a killing with.'

Vivian ran her finger up the side of her empty glass. ‘I still don't see that you would be worth seducing for your contacts, however many people you know. Besides, why should Jake do that? He's working for the Hunstantons.'

‘Yes, but if he and Gideon Freebody, and Chris Mowbray and whoever, are planning something dreadful, who better to set it up than Jake? He's perfectly placed to convince the Hunstantons to go with Gideon Freebody. And, if they need the committee to sell him the hospice's land, to get me eating out of his hand, sleep with me, make me fall in love with him' – a pain so sharp it could almost have been caused by an actual weapon stabbed her in her solar plexus – ‘so I won't make waves.'

‘Have you fallen in love with him, Nel?' Vivian whispered her question.

Nel bit her lip and nodded. ‘Guess so. I don't know what other condition makes you feel like I do.'

‘Falling in love should make you happy.'

‘But not in this case. Oh, it did make me happy to begin with, when all I had to worry about was making Simon unhappy, not that I did worry about it much. But now! It sucks, Viv! I don't know what to do with myself, although keeping busy does help. I do nothing but think about him. I hate him, but I can't put him out of my mind. It's like being in a nineteen-fifties science fiction movie.'

‘What?'

‘You know, when your brain is taken over by aliens, you look the same on the outside, but inside you're just a mess of snakes.'

‘Oh, love!'

‘But back to practicalities. What are we going to do?'

‘Well, worst-case scenario, if Jake slept with you because he wanted something, he might find he has to sleep with quite a lot of people, including Muriel.'

‘Hang on, I've just remembered something. When Jake took me out to dinner he hinted I should try and get a good look at the will. What was that all about?'

‘Nel, love, make up your mind. Either he's an arch criminal or a gorgeous solicitor but he can't swing both ways.'

‘Why not? Heaps of people are double agents.'

‘Not exactly heaps.' Viv glanced at her friend and, realising Nel was suffering from logic failure, got back to the matter in hand. ‘We have to come up with a plan. You know, in some ways it's good this has all happened now, when you're so busy. You haven't time to be broken-hearted.'

‘Yes, except it's like when I got married to Mark.'

‘I'm not slow, but I do find you hard to follow sometimes, Nel.'

Nel sighed. ‘I kept thinking, I wouldn't be going through all this wedding thing if it wasn't for Mark. And then I thought, I wouldn't have to go through all this wedding business if it wasn't for Mark.'

‘And your point is?'

‘Oh, I don't know. My mind is a mess of snakes.' She frowned. ‘I've just had a thought.'

‘Is that a good thing?'

‘In judo you make your opponent's weight work against them.'

‘And that's relevant how?'

‘If Chris Mowbray and Jake hatched up this plan ages ago, Chris must think I have influence with the hospice.'

‘I have my doubts about that, to be honest,' said Vivian, but not unkindly.

‘But I don't think it's my influence in particular. I expect Chris believes you're influential too, but they probably decided I was the softer target. You obviously have a full and varied love life. Unlike me.'

Vivian sighed, clearly debating whether to bring out her usual lecture on how Nel was a very attractive woman, or to say that actually, her sex life was very discreet. ‘I wish you wouldn't think of yourself like that. And I may be getting plenty elsewhere, but I wouldn't have turned Jake down if he'd tried it on.'

‘Wouldn't you?'

‘No. He is very attractive. Very attractive indeed.'

‘So you don't think I'm a complete idiot for succumbing?'

‘No! But we do need to focus. What do we think Christopher's next step would be?'

‘Well, he knows I wanted to look at the deeds, so he may suspect I know more than I should. He fobbed me
off, but I expect he'll call a meeting. He'll want to nail this before I think of a way to stop him.'

‘We could call a meeting ourselves. Pre-empt him, tell the committee what we know,' suggested Vivian.

‘We could, but it would be easier if he called it. For a start, he's used to calling them, and no one will think it odd if he does. And for a second, if we call one, he'll know for certain we're on to him.'

‘True. But supposing he comes out into the open, puts the plans for the building scheme and everything that entails – selling the hospice land to Gideon Freebody – on the table, and the committee vote to go along with it? It would look very appealing. No more worry about keeping up the building, no more wretched fundraising, cash for brand-new premises at some point. It will save everyone so much work.'

‘What he will have to do is convince people it won't matter about the hospice not existing for a couple of years,' said Nel. ‘Have you got a pad and a pencil? I need to scribble.'

Vivian produced them from the first drawer she looked in.

‘Everything in its place, eh?' Nel said wistfully. ‘My worry is, among other things, that there is no intention to rebuild the hospice, that the money would quietly filter away into Chris Mowbray etc.'s pockets.'

Vivian sighed. ‘We do need professional legal advice. I know, not from Jake, obviously, although I'm sure you're wrong about him.'

‘Viv! I saw him with Kerry Anne. And he was in that picture! I know cameras lie all the time, but they don't if they don't set out to.'

‘OK, so we need to lobby. We need to think who on
the committee would be on our side, and produce our own plan.' Vivian gathered up the glasses and then started washing her juicer.

Nel picked up the pencil and began to doodle.

Viv looked over her shoulder at her. ‘When you said scribble, I didn't know you meant it literally.'

Nel ignored her. ‘Wait a minute. I've had a thought!'

‘Another one,' Viv said sarcastically.

‘Hang on, let me spell it out. I need to get it clear in my mind. If what Abraham says is right, and Gideon Freebody wants to build as many houses as possible, then he'll need to pull down the hospice building.'

‘Yes. There did seem to be an awful lot of houses when I saw the plans for that tiny minute.'

‘But he needs that strip, because without it he can't get to hospice land. There's no point in pulling down the building without it.' Nel thought for a moment. ‘No one seems to know who owns that strip—'

‘That's why Abraham's digging up the will,' Vivian interrupted. ‘The will must say who the land's been left to.'

‘Yes, that's what I mean,' Nel carried on excitedly. ‘Sir Gerald told me before he died that he'd made provision for us, that the hospice would be safe. So what if
we
own the strip? What if that's what he was talking about? He's bequeathed the hospice a ransom strip to protect it.'

‘But surely the hospice committee would know if it had been left some land,' Vivian objected.

‘Not necessarily. As we don't have a proper director at the moment, the solicitors would just have to tell Chris Mowbray. And if we're right about his interest in the building plans, it's not the sort of information he'd be likely to pass on.'

Vivian paused. ‘But the hospice owns the house. What's the difference?'

‘The difference is, we could sell the strip! To other people! We divide it into tiny pieces and sell them off, one by one! That way, Chris Mowbray has no control over it, and can't persuade the committee to sell it to Gideon Freebody!'

‘How do we stop Chris Mowbray – or Gideon – buying them all himself?'

Nel frowned. ‘We make them quite expensive – we'll need to find out how much we could reasonably charge. We could ask Simon.'

Vivian dried her hands, came over and put her hand on Nel's wrist. ‘I know this is going to sound really horrible, but could we
not
ask Simon? I know you trust him with your life, but I just feel . . .'

‘You've never liked him.'

‘I have tried. And I will go on trying. And if you marry him I'll try really, really hard! But could we not tell him our plans at this stage?'

Nel sighed. ‘He is the obvious person to ask about property values, but if you feel that strongly, we'll find someone else.'

‘There must be loads of people we could ask. I wonder if we could make it that you were only allowed to buy one bit each?'

‘Good idea! Only, of course, it would mean having to find lots more people to buy bits. I wonder how many we'd need. Or how we should work it out.'

‘You mean, should we divide the land into a certain number of sections and sell them, or should we calculate how many we're likely to sell and then divide it.'

Nel nodded. ‘I wish I was better at maths.'

‘Are your boys any good at it?'

Nel brightened up. ‘Actually, yes! Sam's very good at that sort of thing. Takes after Mark. I'll get him to come down next weekend. It'll cost me the train fare, but that would be a good investment.'

‘If we go into the meeting really well prepared, knowing who's on our side, we'll be fine. God, this is all assuming we own the strip. I hope Abraham finds something concrete soon. What else have you got on today?'

‘Well, I've got to see the ice-cream maker I had to take a rain check on the other day. What about you?'

‘I've got a—' She stopped as the phone started ringing. ‘I'll just get that. With any luck it's my afternoon client cancelling, which means we could make a proper plan and perhaps start lobbying. Hello! Oh, Chris.'

Nel watched in horror as her friend confirmed with her expression that it was Chris Mowbray she was talking to.

‘A meeting? Why?'

It was far too soon. They were in no way ready to go into a meeting and take on the committee.

‘The twenty-seventh?' said Vivian. ‘But that's only a week away. Yes. I can make it. It just seems rather short notice. What's it about? The building on the fields?' She made desperate faces at Nel, to make sure she was listening. ‘But what's it to do with the hospice? Oh, all right. See you then, then.'

‘What did he say when you asked him what the building has got to do with the hospice? What's the official line?'

‘He said he'd tell us at the meeting.'

‘Oh my God!' said Nel. ‘He must have something he thinks we'll swallow. And what can we do in a week? I can't even remember the names of all the committee, let alone work out if they'd be on our side or not.'

‘If we just think carefully, we can work out quite a few.'

‘We can rely on Muriel,' said Nel. ‘What about Father Ted?'

‘He's not called Father Ted, it's Ed.'

‘I've got an appalling memory for names.'

‘You should take some of the supplements I take. It would really help.'

Nel put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands again. ‘Are we just bailing out the boat with a teaspoon when the waves are coming in over the bow?' At Vivian's frown she went on, ‘I mean, are we just thinking of who we can get to raise their hands at a committee meeting, when in fact we should be doing something much more major?'

‘Like what?' Viv produced a snow-white dishcloth and wiped away a tiny spot of juice off the table.

‘Like convincing Pierce he'd do better out of Abraham than he would out of Gideon Hardy and Willis.'

‘But he won't, will he!'

‘Well, maybe not. But if Abraham builds very lovely, expensive houses, it might be a lot nicer for Pierce to look at,' said Nel. ‘That would work for me.'

‘I don't think your priorities are quite the same as Pierce's. You realise if they're going to reveal their real intentions, the Hunstantons will probably be there, and invite Jake too. How will you feel about that?'

‘OK! Now the scales have fallen from my eyes, I'll know him for the snake he is.'

‘You may have got your metaphors a bit mixed there.'

Nel shrugged. ‘We'll divide the committee members into two lists and take half each. I'll get as many promises to buy bits of land as I can . . . There's one person you have to do, though, Viv.'

‘Who?'

‘Pierce Hunstanton. You need to convince him that he really doesn't want a whole huge housing estate on his doorstep, however rich it would make him. It's perfectly possible he doesn't know everything that Gideon Freebody has in mind.'