Country Plot (36 page)

Jenna looked up at the blue sky, and a chestnut tree waving its leaves in the gentle breeze, and agreed with him. She was getting cabin fever again. ‘What had you in mind? And I want the clean version.'

He looked hurt. ‘How you misjudge me. I was going to suggest a picnic. What could be more wholesome and English than that?'

‘Sounds good,' she said, and he blinked, evidently not having expected so easy a triumph. ‘Have you got the basket already packed in your boot?'

‘No, I thought we could pop into M and S and grab some stuff. But I do have the rug.' He beamed. ‘Are you serious? You'll come?'

‘Yes, why not? I deserve a break.'

‘And I've got stuff to tell you.'

‘About—?'

‘I'll tell you later. First, the shopping.'

After a short drive, and a short walk through some woodland, they arrived at a very pretty spot on a grassy bank by a river, where Harry spread out his very handsome tartan rug. ‘My lady – be seated,' he said, waving her to it.

Jenna dumped the M&S bags she was carrying and sat. ‘This is nice,' she said. ‘No, it's more than nice – it's close to gorgeous. That's a very handsome river.'

‘The River Wend,' Harry said, starting to rummage in the bags. ‘Hence Wenchester, saintly Wenhams, various, and even Wenderbridge, a no-horse town over thataway, which does however have a nice pub, The Land of Plenty, with a good line in home-made pies.'

‘Is that the river your flat is on?'

He looked severe. ‘My good woman, have you no sense of geography? Belminster has its very own river, the Bele, spelled B – E – L – E. Otherwise it would be called Wenminster, wouldn't it? Which could be a mite confusing for the BBC.'

‘I'm sorry,' she said humbly. ‘I didn't know.'

‘Actually, the Bele joins the Wend further down, at Corvington, and they make one big river that runs into the sea, so I forgive you. My surname is supposed to come from the river, proving that I had ancestors here from time immemorial.'

‘And that they couldn't spell,' Jenna offered.

‘Well, who can?' he said lightly, laying things out on the rug. ‘Ah, here's the bottle. Now where's the opener?'

‘In this bag, with the glasses. Though I suppose we can't call them glasses, since they're plastic. Is it really done to drink wine from a plastic wine-glass?'

‘Hole in the top, no hole in the bottom – looks perfect to me. Good old M and S.' He had bought everything they needed there, including the opener and an insulated wine bucket, a packet of paper napkins and a set of colourful plastic plates. ‘Any fool can be uncomfortable,' he had said.

Jenna was laying out food. ‘We've got too much,' she said. Four different packs of sandwiches, a pack of mini pork pies, ditto sausage rolls, a pot of hummus and a pack of pitta bread, bag of lettuce, tub of cherry tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, two slices of cheesecake and two of chocolate Swiss roll, a bottle of wine and a bottle of water.

‘We've got all day,' he countered.

‘You're very sure of yourself.'

‘Ah, be nice to me, Red. I need comforting. I'm being turned out of my flat again tonight. I'm a poor homeless waif.'

‘You'll be able to sleep in your car and finish off the picnic for dinner, then,' she said.

‘You're heartless. I've got things to tell you,' he offered beguilingly.

‘So you said.'

‘Be nice and I'll tell you.'

‘I am nice. Look, I'm smiling.'

‘Fair enough. Have a glass of wine.'

‘Thanks. Have a sandwich. Prawn, ham and salad, egg and cress, or – some dubious-looking red stuff. I've forgotten what it is.'

‘Chinese-style chicken,' he said. ‘I'll have one of those.'

Jenna took an egg and cress. ‘So, what's the big news?'

‘Caroline and Xander have had a big row,' he said, pleased with himself.

‘Really? When? How do you know?'

‘Thursday night, it happened, apparently. After he'd been to that dinner party – the Buckminsters, was it? He rang her up and one thing led to another.' He held up a hand to stop her asking another question. ‘Wait, all will be revealed. I was over at Dad's on Friday morning, and Caro turned up, spitting tacks. Dad asked what was wrong, and she said Xander had rung her up and asked her “all sorts of impertinent questions” – I quote. Then she said, “This is getting ridiculous,” and Dad gave her a sort of look that meant
not in front of the infants
, and took her into his study. They were talking in there for ages, but I couldn't hear what about.'

‘Why would she tell your dad about quarrelling with Xander?' Jenna said, puzzled.

He shrugged. ‘Search me. But I think there's something devious going on between her and Dad, something in the business line, because he wouldn't take her into his study to discuss affairs of the heart. To begin with, he hasn't got one, and to go on with, neither has she.'

‘So you never found out what it was about?'

‘Not entirely, but I'm pretty sure it was about Kitty and you and your scheme to save Holtby House. Because later on, when she was sitting out on the lawn, Xander rang her on her mobile, and I was up in my old bedroom and the window was open and I could hear bits of what she said. And at one point she said, “I think she's a lot more frail than she lets on. It would be a big mistake.” Which has got to be Kitty, don't you think? And then later she got angry and said, “I resent that. Of course I don't. No one would be happier than me if she could stay.” Which might be Kitty, or might be you. Then she looked up so I had to duck back, and I couldn't hear any more, except that she sounded angry, and then after that she seemed to be trying to make it up with him.' He looked at her hopefully. ‘So, what do you think? Wasn't that worth coming for?'

‘I met him on Friday afternoon,' Jenna said slowly, ‘and he apologized for thinking I was a crook. He seemed depressed, a bit.'

‘You'd be depressed if you'd suddenly woken up to what Caro's really like, but you were still stuck with her,' Harry said.

‘He could get out of the engagement, surely?' Jenna said.

‘He wouldn't do it. Not Xander,' Harry said. ‘Very old-fashioned sort of bloke. He wouldn't let Caro down, if she still wanted to go through with it. Which she does. I asked her on her way out how things stood, and she gave me one of those manufactured smiles and said everything was fine between them and why wouldn't it be.'

‘Xander's gone away on a buying trip for a few days,' Jenna said. ‘I wonder if that's a last minute thing, to give him time to think?'

‘No, it isn't, because even I knew about it. Caroline said last week he was going away this weekend. But he might be glad about it now – chance to get away from her for a bit. Poor geezer.' He topped up their glasses. ‘And poor me, too, chucked out of my flat, and for a rat like that. I'll have to get the place fumigated afterwards.'

‘A rat like who?'

‘Oh, didn't I say? Dad told me yesterday when I was over there. Derek rotten Sullivan is using the place tonight. I have to get it ready for him this afternoon – stock the fridge and change the sheets and so on.'

‘Using it for what?' Jenna asked.

Harry shrugged moodily. ‘The usual, I suppose. Some girl, or girls. I wouldn't be surprised if Dad was supplying them. He's married, you know – Sullivan – so it has to be discreet.'

‘Sullivan's using your flat for an illicit love-fest?' Jenna said.

‘You're talking like a tabloid,' Harry noted with interest.

‘Sorry, it comes from working in the magazine trade. But this could be big.'

‘Big? How?'

‘Because he's standing in the next election, and that sort of thing is frowned on in an MP.'

A slow smile spread over Harry's face. ‘You're right. You're absolutely right. Now, I wonder whether we can't make use of that handy little fact.'

‘What do you mean?' Jenna said.

‘I mean, prepare a welcome for him. Electronically. Film what he's doing. See who he meets.'

‘Can you do that?'

‘Me? I'm an electronics wizard. Besides,' he added, ‘the whole place is wired up already. Apart from all the home entertainments, some of the people who borrow the place from Dad like to film themselves having fun.' Jenna looked disgusted, and he shrugged. ‘That's life. People get their jollies in different ways. But it makes it easy, in the present case. I only have to alter some of the wiring and feed it through to a recorder hidden somewhere he won't look and – Bob's your uncle. I can track his every movement.'

‘Don't these people ever wonder if your dad won't do the same thing?'

He scowled. ‘Are you suggesting my dad's a blackmailer?'

‘God, no! I'm sorry – that's a terrible thing to say.'

Harry grinned. ‘Just yankin' your chain. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, except that I reckon the people he lets use the flat must have as much on him as he has on them, otherwise they wouldn't trust him. So, shall we do it? Get a little something on old Derek Sullivan?'

‘Absolutely not,' Jenna said. ‘Apart from the idea of watching him have sex being nauseating in the extreme, it's wrong.'

‘OK,' he said, suspiciously easily.

She looked at him narrowly. ‘You're going to do it anyway, aren't you?'

‘Well if I do, I won't tell you, so you'll never know. But I've found out some stuff about Sullivan, stuff you wanted to know. About this Benson business. Shall I tell you, or are you too virtuous?'

‘Depends how you found out,' she said warily.

‘Dad told me.'

‘Oh, well, that's different. Tell away.'

‘OK. First, it was Dad's firm that was going to buy Benson's land with the planning permission. It surprised me a bit, because Beale Cartwright doesn't usually go in for Mickey Mouse little developments like ten holiday chalets. But anyway, Dad was doing it under the name of BC International – that's the holding company – because it wouldn't have made him very popular locally.'

‘You can say that again,' Jenna exclaimed. ‘It would have finished Caroline's reign as county belle, too, given that she's his stepdaughter. He was wise to keep it secret. And he
told
you that?'

‘I found some papers in his desk when he was out. Well, that's a
kind
of telling me, isn't it?' he protested at her stern look. ‘But he did tell me the rest. When he said Sullivan was getting my flat, I said, “What's that in aid of? Has he done you a favour over this Benson land?” Just guessing, you see, to make him think I knew. And he said, “ECH is buying it, if that's what you mean.” That's English Country Homes, Sullivan's firm. Then he said, “But the favour's the other way round. He'll make plenty on it.”'

‘How will he, without the planning permission?' Jenna asked.

‘Dunno. But I do know that ECH has been buying up all sorts of bits of land – banking them, it's called. Tesco do it, partly in case they can ever get planning permission, and partly to stop anyone else buying it. I was looking at Yew Tree Farm in Wenham St James for Dad's firm just recently, because the Coopers are selling up, but the planning officer said there was no way we'd ever get permission to develop, so I left it alone. Then I heard that ECH had bought the land for a very low price, because obviously without planning permission it's just farmland.'

Jenna shook her head. ‘I don't get it. Your dad said he did Sullivan a favour letting him buy Benson's land? But how was that a favour? And if he had done him a favour, why would he have to bribe him with use of your flat?'

‘God knows. They're as crooked as a pig's tail, the pair of them. But I'll tell you another thing – Dad's firm's given Sullivan big money for campaign expenses.'

‘I suppose he told you that, too?' she enquired ironically.

‘His desk told me,' Harry said. ‘I wish I could have a good poke round in his office one day, but he doesn't often leave it unlocked. I only managed to nip in that time because he was in the loo.'

‘So we know there's some kind of connection between Sullivan, your dad and the Benson land,' Jenna said.

‘And I did see the planning officer get into Sullivan's car after the meeting,' Harry said. ‘But what it all means I haven't worked out. And I'm sure there's a connection as well with Holtby House, and that maybe Caro's in on it. Because she's been very suspicious of you from the moment you arrived. I thought at first it was because of Xander, but then she encouraged me to go out with you, which I'm sure was to find out what you were up to. And she seems to be against the rescue plan you've worked out. Enough against to make Xander quarrel with you over it.'

Jenna nodded. ‘There's something else,' she said. ‘Something you don't know.' And she told him about Patrick's visit. ‘I can't prove it, of course, but it looks as though she tracked Patrick down to convince him that I was longing to go back to him, in the hope that he'd come and fetch me away.'

‘Before you did any more damage,' Harry concluded. ‘Phew. Lucky escape, Red! And poor old Caro, thwarted at every turn! But I didn't like seeing her go into my dad's office for a private chat. That girl's too ambitious to be let loose around a rogue like my dad.'

‘You don't mind talking about him like that?'

He shrugged. ‘I've got used to it. He's a bad hat. But he provides me with the necessary, and I'm not qualified to do anything else.'

‘You could break away. Give up his money and make your own way in life.'

He looked sulky. ‘You don't know what it's like. Once you've been rich it's hard to face not having things. I'm not cut out to be poor. Anyway, what else could I do?'