When Night Closes in (30 page)

‘Weren't his parents rich?'

‘Yes, but not so rich they'd give him a brand-new car like that. Anyway I think Timmy was the sort of man who would see himself applying to take silk.' She smiled. ‘But then he always was a bit on the pompous side.'

‘I can't believe the car smash was an accident,' Lainey said.

‘Jim!' Lowri sounded exasperated. ‘Can't you stop thinking like a policeman for once? Accidents do happen to innocent people all the time and opportunists rifle cars and houses. Isn't that how thieves make a living?'

She was right, of course. It was just his gut feeling that told him that the crash was no ordinary accident. He leaned forward. ‘Lowri, why would Jon Brandon be sending software to your brother in Canada?'

She looked at him as if he had grown two heads. ‘Don't ask me! I haven't spoken to my brother in years. We don't get on.' She smiled wryly. ‘Justin deals in wines and spirits but I suppose he'd need to run a network of computers, wouldn't he?'

‘So you had no idea that Brandon was involved in dealings with your brother, then?'

‘Got it in one.' Her sarcasm was evident. He smiled ruefully.

‘I'd like to believe you, Lowri, but it's inconceivable you didn't know anything about Jon Brandon and his business.'

‘Like I didn't know he was married. Why don't you go and question his wife? She's bound to know more than I do about the man.' She rubbed her eyes wearily. Lainey got to his feet.

‘I'd better go.'

‘To ask silly questions of Mrs Brandon, I take it?'

‘I've made inquiries and Mrs Brandon is out of the country,' Lainey said, cursing his bad luck. He had no reason to order Sarah Brandon to return to England; so far as he knew she had committed no crime. Still she needed watching. He could send one of the men out there. Matthew Brown would jump at the chance and at least he would be out of Lainey's hair. And at a safe distance from Lowri Richards, but that was his jealous streak talking.

‘Right, I'm off.' He walked towards the door and Lowri followed him, tying her dressing-gown more securely around her. He stopped abruptly and Lowri cannoned into him.

He caught her arms, felt the thinness of them under the robe and, before he could stop himself, he had drawn her to him and was kissing her with a passion that surprised him.

He felt her lips soft against his. The blood pounded in his head. He felt himself harden. Suddenly embarrassed, he released her.

‘Sorry!' he said. ‘That was out of order.'

Lowri caught hold of his lapels and drew him back into her embrace. ‘Jim,' her voice was thick, ‘I've told you, you must stop thinking like a policeman all the time.'

He kissed her, he just could not resist the lure of her mouth. Her ragged breathing matched his own. Lowri drew away and taking his hand led him upstairs to her bedroom. He could not be rational any longer; his desire to possess this beautiful, challenging woman was too much for him.

He watched her slip her robe from her shoulders and his mouth was dry as he took in the alabaster skin of her breasts tipped with pink, the nipples standing proud. Her hips were gently curved and at the base of her belly her pubic hair shone golden in the soft light from her bedside lamp.

Emotions he had subdued for so long rose to the surface. He lay with Lowri on the bed and touched her tenderly. Her mouth curved into a smile. ‘It's all right,' she whispered. ‘I won't break.'

She drew his head onto her breast and he took her nipple into his mouth, tasting her, wanting to absorb her into himself.

She cried out as he slid inside her and her legs wrapped round him, holding him close. He lost himself then, hearing her cries of delight with a surge of such love and power that he felt he could move mountains.

They lay together in the darkness of early morning and, wrapped in each other's arms, they slept.

Lowri stepped out of the shower and studied her reflection in the long bathroom mirror. A flush of happiness illuminated her features. She was in love, really in love, madly, crazily. No man had ever moved her the way Lainey did.

She heard the phone ring. She pulled on a fresh robe and hurried downstairs. Her hair hung damply on her shoulders and she smiled, feeling reborn.

Before Lainey had left he had held her close and though he had spoken no words of love, she knew deep in her being that he felt the same way as she did.

She picked up the phone. ‘Hello?' After a short pause, a voice came over the line.

‘Hi, Lowri! It's Justin, your long-lost brother. I'm in London.' His voice betrayed the Canadian accent that he had acquired during his time abroad. ‘I'm catching the next train down to your little backwater – can you give me a room for a couple of nights?'

‘Justin!' She frowned. Why had he come back now, of all times? ‘Yes, sure, what time is your train due in? I'll meet you.'

When she put the phone down, Lowri stared at it for some time. Her joy of the morning seemed to vanish as she thought of her childhood. Being with Justin had always meant trouble. She squared her shoulders. Surely things were different now they were both adults?

She phoned the office and was answered by the impersonal voice of Mrs Jenkins.

‘Will you let Mr Watson know I can't come in today?' Lowri said. ‘Something's come up.'

‘Not again!' Mrs Jenkins was exasperated. ‘I shall really have to insist on other staff in the office.' She spoke in her usual manner, as though she hated the entire world and all its inhabitants. ‘I cannot continue to man the office alone.' With that she put down the phone.

Lowri shrugged. Mrs Jenkins could do as she liked because Lowri was not sure she wanted to work for Mr Watson any longer. He had let her down when she most needed him. He had lied to the police about her, and the thought hurt. Fathers? A girl was better off without one.

She picked Justin up three and a half hours later. As he came towards her he looked tanned and healthy. His hair, blond where hers was red, gleamed in the pale sunlight. He was smiling and his teeth were white and perfect. Canadian dentists must be a superior breed; Lowri remembered that her brother had once had protruding front teeth.

‘You're looking good, Lowri.' Justin hugged her. ‘Quite the little beauty instead of the bespectacled, pimply sister I remember.'

She slid her arm through his. ‘Same horrid brother then, no change there.' She smiled up at him. ‘Come on, you can treat me to lunch, we'll go somewhere posh seeing as you are the wealthy businessman these days.'

Justin grinned. ‘Yes, I am wealthy and successful, aren't I? I always said I would be, remember?'

‘I remember, you smug bastard!'

As they walked out of the station arm in arm a police car drew up at the side of the kerb. The doors swung open and several uniformed police stepped out. Lowri watched in disbelief as Lainey emerged from the back seat and gave her a withering look that seemed to shrivel her heart.

‘Mr Justin Richards,' Lainey said, ‘I want you to come with me.' He did not look at Lowri again. ‘I have reason to believe you are in possession of certain information that could help me with my inquiries.'

‘Get me a lawyer, sis,' Justin said as he was bundled into the car. Lowri stood in openmouthed astonishment as it drew speedily away from the kerb, leaving her standing on the pavement feeling as if the world had just crashed around her ears.

Lainey sat at his desk and stared at the flickering images on the computer screen with little interest. So far, Justin Richards had given him nothing of value. Lainey closed his eyes. One thing he could be grateful for, immigration had passed on the information that Richards was back in the country. It made up in part for the fact that they had let him down over Jon Brandon.

Lainey had been surprised when the solicitor who came to the station to act for Richards turned out to be Terence Watson. He had been led to believe that there was no love lost between Watson and Charles Richards, so why would Justin retain him? Still, he probably had no choice, Watson might be the only solicitor Lowri could get.

He thought of Lowri with a sinking heart. He had made love to her. Fallen in love with her. She was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. And she had lied to him. He had seen her come out of the station, arm in arm with her brother, smiling up at him, no doubt part of all that had been going on.

The door to his office opened. ‘Shall we interview Richards again, guv?' Matthew Brown stood in the doorway. ‘I know his solicitor got him out pretty sharp but I would like to see the cocky little bastard on his own, if only for ten minutes.'

Lainey shook his head. ‘There's no point. We lost him through lack of hard evidence. The tip-off we received was that Justin Richards was entering the country carrying a case full of contraband.' He sighed. ‘By then he could have deposited it somewhere near the airport.'

‘I thought security there had him watched. Surely they would have searched his stuff?'

‘Maybe, but he could have had an accomplice or even got some unsuspecting fellow-traveller to carry a case through for him. Perhaps I should learn a lesson from this, never trust a caller who wants to remain anonymous.'

He glanced at his watch. ‘Anyway, it's getting late, better get off home.'

Brown nodded. ‘I expect you're right, sir, but what about putting a tail on Richards? He might try to contact someone a bit iffy.'

‘Are you voluntering, Sergeant Brown?' Lainey rose to his feet and shuffled the papers on his desk. ‘If so, go ahead with my blessing. I assume his sister has taken him back to her place at Jersey Marine?'

‘Yes, guv, and I don't mind a bit of extra work. I had enough of time off when I was on holiday.' He grinned. ‘It was a case of nothing to do and no-one to do it with.'

Lainey looked at him. ‘No girlfriend, Brown?'

‘No sir, not at the moment. I'm playing the field until I meet the right one.'

Lainey moved to the door, wondering if Brown considered Lowri a candidate for the ‘right one' spot. ‘Grab what you can when you can, Sergeant,' he said. ‘Life has a nasty habit of sneaking up on you and before you know it you're a lonely old man.'

‘You're not old, guv.'

‘I was speaking hypothetically,' Lainey said, ‘but by God, at times like this I feel a hundred and one!'

Lainey left the office and climbed into his own small car. The Golf was past her best but she was a reliable old thing and, in any case, Lainey did not have the sort of money to splash out on new cars, his ex-wife saw to that.

‘Women!' he muttered as he turned on the ignition. ‘Why do they always let you down?'

‘What on earth do the police suspect you of?' Lowri and her brother were sitting in her living-room, drinking coffee. Justin shook his head and his bright hair fell across his forehead. It was hard to believe he was the same person who used to torment her when they were children.

‘I'm not sure.' He smiled. ‘Perhaps I look the criminal type.'

Lowri wondered what had made Lainey suspicious of Justin in the first place. The police usually had a good reason for picking someone up and carting them off to the station. At least Mr Watson had turned up trumps and come at once when she telephoned him.

Lowri had been tempted to ask him why he had lied to the police about her, denying he had asked her to bring the CD to him. He had forestalled her.

‘Let's get this little matter sorted out, Lowri, and then we can have a talk.' But would he ever find the time to talk to her?

‘Ah well, let's forget all about the damned cops.' Justin smiled and his teeth gleamed whitely against his tan. ‘Have you got any good-looking girlfriends you can fix me up with?'

‘Sorry, you'll have to sort out your love life yourself. Anyway, I thought you were living with someone in Canada.'

‘So? A man likes a bit of variety in his life. Didn't you learn that from Dad?' For a moment Justin looked serious. ‘I often felt sorry for Mother, but then she should never have put up with it in the first place.' He looked carefully at Lowri.

‘Mother took the blame for having me,' Lowri said. ‘But a premarital fling isn't the end of the world, is it?'

‘It is when there's a child involved, I suppose,' Justin said. ‘I don't think I'd like to take on another man's baby.'

‘Mother had a great deal to offer, mind,' Lowri said. ‘In return for a wedding ring Charles was able to live in luxury. He never had to worry about money because Mother had enough for all of us for the rest of our lives.'

‘Still, you've got to admit that in their day illegitimacy was a stigma, and Dad saved her from that.'

Lowri changed the subject. ‘When are you going down to Summer's Dean?' She looked at Justin, wondering how much he knew about the split between their parents.

‘I'll stay here with you for a few days,' he said. ‘That's if you'll have me. Then I'll pop over to see Dad. My car is being sent directly to the old homestead, so once I'm mobile I can drive up to see you any time.'

‘Your car is being sent over? Wouldn't it have been cheaper and easier to hire one when you arrived?'

‘Maybe I like to show off my swish American job,' Justin said. ‘She moves like a dream – wait till you see her.'

‘You always were a show-off,' Lowri said. ‘Anyway, if you want to see the hot spots of Jersey Marine for yourself I'd better shower and change. You'll have to put up with a ride in my little red Mazda and be glad I've got a car at all on the money I earn.'

‘Surely the old girl makes you an allowance?' Justin said. ‘You always were her favourite.'

‘No, I get nothing from Mother, I am young, free and independent.'

‘And working in a crummy office for a worn-out solicitor! I thought you had more ambition than that.'