Unfaithful (37 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 in 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 Detective Leary who was standing 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 was a nervous wreck and her hand trembled as she clutched her handbag close. A tall, dark-haired man approached her. She’d seen him walk past her in the bar a few minutes previously. He was in his late thirties and 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 cigarette 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 bar 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 hotel as having an eerie quality and felt she 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 could 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 very expensive trip for nothing. “What the hell are you playing at?” Savannah hissed down the phone. “Why didn't you hand over 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 feeling quite weak. Then she 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 police officers 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 understand what all the fuss is about,” she sighed. She was vague and non-committal 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 paintings being 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 recognise anyone in these photos?”

Sa
vannah studied them carefully. “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 attention, whatever the reason. “We've 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 tagging 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 almost 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 around at that late hour so in the end the police had to make do with a motley 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 Savannah 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 peculiar that neither Savannah nor Daniel had mobile phones at their disposal. The calls to Penelope had been traced to several public telephones. Detective Leary believed there was one of two possible 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 operation was in place and unknown 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.

"This is insane!" Jackie cried, staring incredulously from Penelope to Shona as they recounted the incidents of the
past few days. "I find it difficult to believe."

"Well, believe it!
" Penelope snapped, struggling into her jacket and tying her scarf around her neck. "It's very real to us."

"I'm not saying that I don't believe you," Jackie replied defensively. "I'm just having trouble getting my head around the situation."

"I think everyone should calm done," Shona sighed. "Bickering with each other isn't going to solve our problems."

Jackie and Penelope's relationship was strained at the best of times. They were pleasantl
y polite to each other but were far from close. It was blatantly obvious they couldn't stand each other and so Shona tried her best to keep them apart. She could see a lot of similarities between the two women and she put their animosity down to a simple personality clash. Penelope didn't like Jackie's slightly smug, know-it-all attitude and Jackie disliked Penelope's vanity and rather dramatic approach to life. However, it was inevitable they would meet from time to time and unfortunately, this was one of those times.

"I'll drive you to the
police station," Jackie offered.

"You must be exhausted," Shona protested. "You've already driven four hours this afternoon and you said the traffic from Dublin was hell."