Secret Sins: A Callie Anson (48 page)

This was not the time or place to talk to Marco, Callie realised. She made a sketchy gesture of apology in his direction, then followed Angus Hamilton, who—after a brief word with the policewoman on the scene—was striding through the doors of Lochside in a very determined manner. ‘Where is she?’ he demanded to no one in particular. ‘Where is wee Alex?’

The receptionist shrugged. ‘I’m not sure, sir.’

‘I’m her father,’ Angus Hamilton shouted. ‘And I want her, now!’

A quick phone call was made, and it wasn’t long before Dr. Farnsworth re-appeared. ‘Can I help you?’ she said.

‘My daughter is here. I’ve come to take her home.’ He tapped his foot impatiently.

‘She’s with her mother at the moment,’ the doctor told him. ‘Would you like a cup of tea or coffee while you’re waiting?’

‘With her mother?’ he roared. ‘What idiot allowed that to happen?’

‘As a matter of fact,’ said Dr. Farnsworth in a quiet voice, ‘I did. I thought it would be good for both of them. When Alex has had a chance to catch up with her mother, and they’ve had a good chat, I’ll tell her you’re here.’

Angus Hamilton paced the length of the reception area for at least a quarter of an hour, ignoring everyone around him. Callie didn’t dare to speak to Marco, nor did she want to leave, so she slipped into a chair as inconspicuously as she could manage. The other policeman went outside, fumbling with a packet of cigarettes as he went, but Marco remained. He sat down on the other side of the room from Callie, his eyes swivelling between her and Angus Hamilton.

Morag was the one who broke the spell. She appeared in the doorway from the corridor, stopping Angus Hamilton in his tracks.

‘Mother!’

‘Hello, Angus,’ she said calmly.

‘I should have known you’d be behind this.’

‘Behind what? I’m here for the same reason you are, Angus,’ Morag stated. ‘Because of wee Alex.’

He glowered at his mother. ‘Did you put her up to running away? Has she been with you all this time?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped. ‘If anyone’s responsible, it’s that wife of yours.’

His nostrils flared. ‘And don’t you bring Jilly into this! You’ve turned Alex against her. Can you deny it?’

‘I’ve scarcely seen wee Alex for months. How could I have done any such thing?’

‘And you won’t be seeing her for quite some time, if I have anything to say about it.’ Angus Hamilton turned back to the reception desk and banged his fist on it. ‘I want my daughter.
Now
. What do I have to do to make myself clear? I’m taking her home right now.’

‘No.’

Everyone turned to the source of the quiet voice which had uttered that one word with such force.

Alex stepped out from behind her grandmother. ‘No, Dad,’ she said again. ‘I’m not going back with you.’

‘Alex, lassie!’ He took a step towards her; she moved back.

‘I’m not going back to Jilly. Jilly is…horrible. I hate her, and I’m not going back.’

He frowned, then spoke in an unnaturally wheedling voice. ‘I’ll allow, lass, that Jilly’s not always the easiest person to live with. But she cares about you. And she’ll try harder. We both will. I promise.’

‘She does
not
care about me. She never has, and she never will.’ Alex reached into her coat pocket. ‘Jilly is a liar. She’s hateful.’ She drew out a bundle of letters and waved them at him with a defiant scowl. ‘These letters from Mum. Jilly hid them from me. She let me think that my mother didn’t care about me any more.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true.’ He reached out his hand for the letters.

Alex threw them at his feet. ‘Oh, it’s true, all right. I found them in Jilly’s drawer.’

‘No.’ But he reached down and collected them from the floor, then opened one to look at it. For the first time, he appeared shaken. ‘Jilly hid them from you?’

Alex folded her arms across her chest. ‘I’m not going back.’

‘You have no choice,’ Angus said, though in a much more subdued voice. ‘Where else would you live?’

‘With me.’ Morag took a step forward and put her arm round Alex’s shoulder. ‘I’ll look after her, just like I did for all those years.’

Angus stared at his mother. ‘But where?’

‘I still have the house in Gartenbridge,’ Morag stated.

‘I thought you’d sold it!’

She shook her head. ‘There was no need to do that,’ she said. ‘Not with the money your father left when he died. And I decided I might be glad of a bolt-hole at some point.’

‘Alex belongs with her parents,’ Angus stated, but with a great deal less conviction this time.

‘You may be her father, but Jilly is
not
her parent. And when Harriet is better,’ Morag added, ‘she’ll come and live with us as well. Dr. Farnsworth seems to think that could happen quite soon.’

Callie caught up with Marco before it was time for him to depart in the limousine with Angus Hamilton. ‘Listen, Marco,’ she said. ‘I’m really sorry I didn’t ring you and tell you about this. I was afraid you’d be…angry.’

He grinned at her. ‘I suppose I should be. Maybe I would be, if it had turned out differently. But I
did
tell you to stay with the grandmother, and you were following instructions.’

She let out a deep breath, not aware till that moment of how worried she’d been.

‘Cara mia
, I think we need to…talk,’ Marco said. ‘I wanted to apologise for the other night. I was wrong, and I’m really sorry.’

Wrong that he’d almost—she was sure—told her that he cared for her? Callie’s mouth went dry. ‘Oh, you don’t need to apologise,’ she managed.

‘I should never have invited you to go to the restaurant. That wasn’t fair to you, or to my family. Thank goodness it didn’t happen.’

‘What do you mean?’ Her eyes welled with unbidden tears— ridiculous.

‘It wasn’t fair to spring you on each other like that. I was just too eager. I wanted to get it over with, get it all out in the open. But I need to talk to them first and prepare them a bit. Like I talked to you.’ His words tumbled over each other.

Prepare them for
what
? ‘And then…’

‘Then I’ll introduce you to them properly. As the woman I love.’

‘Oh,’ Callie said. She looked down at her feet.

‘I’ll do it soon. This week.’ Marco took both her hands in his; her stomach performed an alarming flip-flop. ‘Listen, Callie. Are you free on Thursday? My niece Chiara has the lead role in her school nativity play. As the Virgin Mary. With a specially written soliloquy, no less.’

She gave a nervous giggle.

‘Will you come with me? Come and meet my family?’

Callie didn’t hesitate—not even for a second. ‘Yes,’ she said, raising her eyes to his face. ‘Yes, Marco. I’d like that very much.’

K
ATE
C
HARLES
, who was described by the
Oxford Times
as ‘a most English writer’, is an expatriate American, though an unashamedly Anglophilic one. She has a special interest and expertise in clerical mysteries, and lectures frequently on crime novels with church backgrounds. Kate lives in Ludlow with her husband, and is a former Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Barbara Pym Society.

www.katecharles.com

Evil Intent

Secret Sins

Deep Waters