Deception and Desire (61 page)

She passed them to Maggie who glanced at the meagre pile, somewhat disappointed.

‘Thank you. And please thank Jayne and Liz for me, will you?'

She carried the things out to her car. The car park was deserted – obviously everyone went out at lunchtime. Maggie reversed out of the space where she had parked and took the road back to the cottage. There she put the scarf carefully away in a drawer, opened the manila envelope and the pink file, spreading the contents out on the kitchen table, and began to read.

Steve came hurrying out of Jayne's back door with something less than his usual self-restraint. As he crossed the courtyard to where he had left his car he was still buttoning his shirt and his tie hung loosely around his neck.

The keys were in the ignition – he had left everything ready for a hasty getaway – but as he revved the engine and roared away from the converted barn he turned not towards the restaurant where his alibi of lunch with Dinah awaited him, but back towards Vandina.

Christ, how could everything have gone so bloody wrong just when it had seemed he was safe, his deception unremarked, his whole future rosy and secure? Even an hour ago, when he had realised that Jayne, at least, knew the truth about him he had thought the situation was redeemable. He had had no scruples about killing her in order to silence her and though he knew he was playing a dangerous game he had been reasonably confident he could get away with it. With the supreme self-assurance that is the hallmark of the most ruthless of men, Steve had thought he could pull it off. When Jayne was found strangled who would suspect him? He would say he had been lunching with Dinah and when she backed him up he did not expect anyone to question the timing too closely. He would have liked more time in which to plan Jayne's demise, he would have preferred to dispose of her away from her home and cover his tracks more thoroughly but circumstances had been such that he had decided it would be better to silence her as quickly as possible and he imagined there would be plenty of suspects the police would look at more closely than him. Jayne had had other boyfriends, he knew, and Drew himself, with his racy background and a drug habit, would probably come under suspicion. The very fact that he had acted swiftly would work in his favour, he had reasoned. But things had not worked out the way he had expected.

He had reached for the scarf with which he intended to strangle her, there in the bedroom, and she had seen him do it. Already puzzled by his response to her question about who he really was – ‘That, my sweet, is something you will never know' – alarm bells had rung for Jayne and she had sat up swiftly, moving away from him.

‘What the hell do you think you are doing?'

‘I'm sorry about this, darling,' he said casually. ‘ But I am afraid I can't let you go around spreading nasty stories about me.'

‘Even if they happen to be true?'

‘Especially if they happen to be true.'

‘You've gone mad!' Her eyes narrowed. ‘Or is this some new kind of sex game?'

He almost laughed aloud. She really was insatiable! And of course, that was the way to play it. Jayne was a big girl, she would be quite strong. If he could have slipped the scarf around her neck without her realising what he was doing it would have been one thing. As it was she would put up quite a struggle.

‘Yes, that's it, a little game,' he said smoothly, though his pulses were pounding. ‘You like games, don't you?'

There were high spots of colour in her cheeks and her eyes were hard and bright.

‘You know I do. But not bondage – not for me. Something might go wrong. And that would be very unfortunate – for both of us.'

Something about the tone of her voice alerted him.

‘What do you mean by that?' he asked sharply.

‘Just that if anything was to happen to me everyone would find out your little secret.'

‘Why?' The scarf felt slippery in his moist fingers.

‘Because in my office is evidence to prove you are not Dinah's son.'

‘Evidence? What evidence?'

She laughed. She loved it when the balance of power changed in her favour, and it had swung her way now.

‘That would be telling, wouldn't it?'

‘And where exactly in your office is this … evidence?'

She shook her head, looking at the scarf which he held in his hand.

‘You really think I'd tell you that, so you could put that scarf round my neck and pull it tight and then go off and get rid of the evidence of what I know? Oh, I'm not that stupid. No, you are just going to have to trust me, darling. And stick to our little bargain.'

‘What bargain?'

‘Surely you haven't forgotten so soon? You keep my secret and I keep yours. I won't spill the beans, Steve. Not even about … this. You and I are too good together. And we're going to be better yet, now that I know what I know.'

Sweat was trickling down his face.

‘How do I know you have any proof at all?' he asked.

Jayne moved lazily, reaching for her négligé and pulling it over her soft white shoulders.

‘Get dressed, darling. We'll go back to the office and I'll show you.'

Steve did as she suggested. His mind was racing. He still did not know whether to believe her or not, but indisputably Jayne did know the truth about him and he could not take the risk that in her office was something that would blow his whole cover wide open.

‘Come on then,' he said hoarsely. ‘ But for God's sake be quick. Dinah is expecting me to join her for lunch.'

‘Then let's go and have lunch with her and I'll show you when we get back to the office afterwards.'

‘No – we'll go now.' He couldn't wait another minute; he had to know what she had against him so that he could begin amending his plan of action.

Now, as he swung the car back towards Vandina, cold with the fear of carefully laid plans that seemed to have gone haywire, a Frankenstein's monster that was getting out of control, he looked at her sitting beside him in the passenger seat, and felt himself hating this coldly self-possessed woman who was threatening to wreck everything. Oh, he could kill her now, and enjoy every minute of it. Once he had whatever it was that could expose him as a fraud he would do it – and do it in such a way that no one would ever suspect him. But for the moment he needed her – and she knew it.

He screamed his car to a stop in the Vandina car park, composed himself and followed Jayne into the building. The girl at the reception desk was on the telephone; she waved at them as if she wanted to say something but they ignored her and went upstairs to Jayne's office.

‘Now, darling …' Jayne turned to him, smiling that infuriatingly smug smile as she opened her door. Then, as she stepped into the room he saw her face change. She took a step forward, ran her hands over the almost empty desk top as if she could not believe what she was seeing – or not seeing – then turned back. There was alarm in her eyes.

‘Well?' he said harshly. ‘Where is your proof?'

‘Oh Christ!' Jayne said softly. She reached for the internal telephone and buzzed the reception desk. The girl must have finished with the telephone call she had been taking, for she answered almost at once.

‘The files that were on my desk,' Jayne said, her voice sharp. ‘Do you happen to know what has become of them?'

Steve could not hear the receptionist's reply. Jayne put down the receiver and turned to him.

‘It looks as if we're in trouble, Steve,' she said, and there was an edge of panic in her voice. ‘My proof isn't here any longer. Someone has taken it.'

‘Who?'

‘Ros's sister, Maggie.'

He was dumbfounded. ‘Maggie? But why?'

‘Never mind that now.' Jayne's voice was taut with tension. ‘ If you don't want anyone else knowing what I know, I suggest you get those files back – and get them back quickly! They are dynamite, Steve. And Maggie Veritos has them.'

‘I don't understand what can have become of Steve,' Dinah said, looking at her watch. ‘I thought he would have been here ages ago.'

Don smiled at her across the table. He was enjoying the chance of being alone with her. Since Steve had arrived on the scene those occasions had been all too rare.

‘I shouldn't worry, Dinah,' he said gently. ‘Obviously something important has come up. I'm sure he won't mind if we begin without him.'

And Dinah smiled back at him, that lovely smile that could stop his heart beating.

‘I expect you're right, Don,' she said. ‘You usually are.'

Maggie sat at the kitchen table, the files and papers spread out all around her, staring into space. She could still hardly believe what she had read there, and yet already her racing thoughts were beginning to have some order to them and the pieces of the jigsaw were fitting into place.

So, this was what had been on Ros's mind in those last weeks before she disappeared – and it had nothing whatever to do with a mole at Vandina. It was more important, more far-reaching than that, and it had to do not only with the business but with Dinah's personal life. No wonder she had been so preoccupied.

Steve – an imposter! Never in her wildest dreams would such a thing have occurred to Maggie – and why should it? But somehow it had occurred to Ros and she had begun checking it out – the letters in the file, along with Ros's diary and scribbled notes proved that. For some reason Ros had been suspicious and she had set out to confirm her suspicions. But why had she told no one? And where the hell was she now?

Maggie shivered, all her fears for Ros's safety surfacing once more. She had been afraid that Brendan had been in some way responsible for Ros's disappearance but now she began to wonder if perhaps she had been on the wrong track. Could it be that it was Steve who was behind it? Had he somehow discovered that Ros knew the truth about him and set out to make sure she told no one else what she knew?

Maggie lit a cigarette and drew deeply on the smoke, but for once it did not seem to do anything to calm her – if anything it only made her head spin more and she ground it out again, trying to decide on a course of action and succeeding only in chasing around in circles. She had to tell someone what she had discovered, but who, and in what order? Should she get in touch with the police first, or speak to someone at Vandina? The revelation was obviously going to devastate Dinah and even in her present state of confusion and anxiety Maggie, with her ability to empathise, shrank from being the one to break the unwelcome news.

If only Mike were here! she thought. He would know what to do. But Mike was teaching, and it would be several hours yet before she could count on his support. But at least she could telephone and leave a message on his answering machine so that he would contact her as soon as he got home from school. He was expecting her to be there in any case and would wonder where she was. She dialled Mike's number and drew comfort from simply hearing his recorded voice at the other end of the line – even that nebulous contact seemed to help.

She left a message, simply asking him to call her at the cottage if she was not at the flat when he returned, then went back into the kitchen and packed all the papers together once more in the pink folder. She would go to the police with them, she decided. She was sorry the news would be broken to Dinah by an official rather than a close friend but she could not allow that to sway her judgement. Finding Ros was, and had always been, her priority, and this file was, she felt, vital evidence.

As she closed the folder she thought she heard a car on the lane outside, but took little notice, and a moment later the ring at the doorbell made her physically jump. She went to answer it, wondering if it might possibly be the police. But when she yanked open the door it was not a policeman on the doorstep. It was Steve.

Maggie's heart came into her mouth with a huge leap, cutting off her breath, defying her, for the moment, to speak.

‘Maggie.' Steve's voice was low, as ever, yet she sensed a tension beneath the laid-back exterior, a wary alertness like that of a tiger. Or was that imagination? Had what she now knew simply made her look at him in a different light?

‘Yes?' At least she had managed to speak, but it came out sounding breathless. ‘What do you want?'

‘Can I come in?' Even as he said it he was pushing past her. Taken by surprise she was unable to prevent him. ‘I think you took some things away from the Vandina office. I'd like them back please.'

‘Well I'm sorry, I'm afraid you can't have them. They belong to Ros.'

‘They belong to the company. If you'll just let me …' He was in the kitchen now; he saw the file on the table and reached for it. ‘This is what I want, I think.'

Maggie moved swiftly, snatching up the file and holding it pressed against her chest. ‘Please leave, Steve.'

He froze, all that lazy power bottled up and waiting … for what? His eyes, ice-blue and hypnotic, seemed to bore into her.

‘I'm afraid I can't do that. Not without the file. Give it to me now.'

‘It's too late, Steve. It won't do any good for you to take it now. You see, I've read it. I know what's in it – and why you want it.'

His ice-cold eyes narrowed.

‘Really? And have you told anyone else what you have discovered?'

‘Hardly! I've only just found out myself …'

The moment the words were out she knew she should never have spoken them. His lips quirked into a slight satisfied smile but his eyes were still cold as chips of blue glass.

‘In that case, Maggie, you leave me no option.'

Her trembling fear became sharp, cold terror.

‘What do you mean?'

But she knew, without asking. Unbelievable that this man with his clean-cut, all-American-boy good looks, throwaway elegance and easy charm should be dangerous, but dangerous he undoubtedly was – appearances had misled. This was a man who was totally ruthless in the pursuit of his aims. He had exploited, manipulated, lied and deceived those who stood in the way of his ambition. For all she knew he had already killed. And she knew, with a certainty that went beyond frightened imaginings, that he would do so again.