The One You Trust (13 page)

Emma embraced her brother in the doorway. He was trying to put on a brave face, but she could tell he was really worried about something. ‘Great to see you too.’

‘Sorry I haven’t been around since you got back,’ he said. ‘I’ve been meaning to, but things have been busy.’

‘It’s only been a couple of days.’

‘I know, but it feels like longer.’

She pulled back. ‘Everything’s okay, isn’t it, Will?’

‘Not really,’ he said. ‘Is Lizzy here?’

What on earth can all this be about?
‘She arrived a couple of minutes ago. She’s in the kitchen, with Dan.’

He nodded. ‘That’s good. Then I can tell you all now.’

‘We’ve also got something to tell you,’ she said.

Dan and Lizzy were chatting at the kitchen table. They both said hello as Will and Emma joined them.

‘There’s no easy way to say this,’ Will said, ‘so I might as well just come out and tell you. I’m sorry,’ he said to Emma and Dan, ‘this is going to spoil what should still be a really happy time for you two.’

‘It’s a bit late for that,’ Dan replied.

Will looked across to Emma for clarification. ‘I’ll explain in a minute,’ she said. ‘You go first.’

‘Okay,’ he said. He gathered himself. ‘I’m being blackmailed.’

‘What?’ the group said in unison.

‘Well, it’s Dad who’s being blackmailed, but it’s about me.’

Emma’s stomach felt as if it had gone into freefall. She had dreaded this moment ever since they had decided to keep quiet about Will’s role in the disposal of Stephen’s body. She had always feared that the truth would come calling, and her little brother would be dragged back into its jaws. ‘About Stephen Myers?’

He nodded. ‘They said they’ll tell the police if we don’t pay them.’

‘How much?’ Dan asked.

‘Fifty thousand pounds.’

Dan shook his head. ‘My God.’

‘Do you know who the blackmailer is?’ Lizzy said.

‘No.’

‘How did they get in touch?’

‘They called Dad on his home phone a few days ago. It was a man, but he didn’t recognise the voice. He said that he knew about everything I’d done. He didn’t say what, but he said they’ve got proof.’

Dan looked incredulous. ‘What kind of proof?’

‘No idea,’ Will replied. ‘They just said they had evidence that they could take to the police.’

‘And then they asked for the money?’ Dan said.

‘Not on the first call. They called later in the day, and outlined what they wanted.’

‘But they still didn’t say what they knew about you?’ Lizzy said. ‘Couldn’t they just be bluffing?’

‘Dad thought that too. He came to see me at work this morning, and explained everything. We just hoped that it was a prankster, trying it on, and that they didn’t really know anything. But tonight, when I got back to my flat, there was a letter waiting for me.’

Lizzy leant forward. ‘It gave details?’

‘Yes,’ he confirmed. ‘The letter said that they had proof that I’d helped to dispose of Stephen Myers’ body. It also repeated the ransom demand, and this time it gave a timescale.’

‘Of what?’

‘Two weeks.’

‘Fifty thousand pounds,’ Dan mused, ‘in two weeks. That’s serious money to find in such a short space of time. Does your dad have that much?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Will said, ‘and I wouldn’t want him to pay it – I’ve told him I don’t want him to pay a thing. It’s my actions, I helped Stuart to commit a crime, and I’m not going to let other people suffer for it.’ He turned to look at Emma. ‘Are you okay, Em?’

Emma had been only half listening, in stunned silence, but Will’s last statement had hit home. ‘You’re just going to tell the police?’

‘I don’t think I have any other choice, do I?’

‘If I had any money, I’d gladly contribute,’ Lizzy said. ‘I wish I could help.’

Will smiled his appreciation. ‘Thanks, Lizzy, but it’s not just about getting the money.’

‘Will’s right,’ Dan said. ‘I mean, we have some savings – not enough by far – and we’d be happy to contribute. But I doubt that even if we found fifty thousand pounds it would be enough.’

Emma nodded. ‘You reckon that they’d come back for more?’

Dan smiled, grimly.

Lizzy was thinking. ‘So if we find fifty thousand, they’ll think, hey, they can find fifty, so let’s ask for another twenty?’

‘That’s it,’ Dan replied. ‘If they know that we’re prepared to pay fifty thousand pounds in order for them not to go to the police, then why wouldn’t we pay sixty, seventy, eighty, one hundred thousand pounds?’

‘Because we wouldn’t be able to afford it,’ Lizzy replied. ‘It’s unlikely we could ever find that amount of money.’

‘In which case, the person could just tell the police anyway, and they’ve still got their fifty thousand pounds. Or they could leave us hanging, ready to come back in a few years, when we’re likely to have more money. They’ve got the information, the power, and they’ll use it to their full advantage.’

Emma sat back and stared at the ceiling. ‘So there’s no hope.’

‘Which is why I have to take away the power they have,’ Will said, ‘and go to the police myself.’

For the next half an hour, still sitting on the sofa with Miranda tucked in beside him, Edward Holden considered his next move.

Then he spent another couple of minutes rehearsing his lines.

‘Damn,’ he eventually said. ‘The papers for Clive Munroe – I forgot to drop them off this afternoon.’

Miranda raised her head. She’d been dozing. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘It is. Clive needs them early tomorrow morning for an important meeting.’

‘Can’t you drop them off early tomorrow then?’

‘The meeting is in Sheffield, and he’s leaving really early.’

‘Oh.’

‘Exactly,’ Edward said, standing up from the sofa. ‘I’ll have to drive over now, there’s no other option.’

Miranda nodded. ‘Your clients come first.’

Edward didn’t know whether that was an accusation or not. ‘Well, I wouldn’t say that, but . . .’

Miranda pulled herself upright. ‘Oh, I didn’t mean it badly. I just mean that you can’t afford to let them down. We know what it’s like when clients start to drop off, how fragile it all is. We don’t want to go back there, do we?’

‘Yes, you’re right, we certainly don’t.’ Edward smiled briefly at Miranda, appreciating her understanding. Even if it was misplaced. He shifted uneasily. ‘Especially not now we’ve just bought the rental property.’

They’d recently purchased a small buy-to-let house in Croydon, south London. It was an investment that Edward had pushed for. The dwelling was a repossession, so they’d got it for a good price.

‘Any idea how long you’ll be?’

‘No longer than half an hour. Maybe forty-five minutes if we get talking.’

Miranda nodded. ‘I’ll go and have a bath. Then do some reading in bed. I’ll probably be asleep by the time you get back. I’m so tired recently.’

Edward smiled and kissed her goodbye. She was so beautiful, so trusting, and he didn’t like lying to her. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’

Edward headed over to Will’s flat, knowing that his son had said he was going to visit Emma that evening. Edward had cautioned him against telling her about the blackmail, but he doubted whether Will would heed that warning. He wasn’t very good at keeping things to himself.

That had been the problem from the beginning.

‘If only you hadn’t told me about all this,’ he said to himself now, as he clasped the steering wheel and looked across the road at Will’s place. ‘You could have dealt with all this yourself.’

Will had told his father how he had helped to dispose of Stephen Myers’ body just a few weeks after it had happened. He had been desperate to tell someone, but Edward had never been sure what Will wanted from him: reassurance that he wasn’t a bad person; comforting words that the police would never find out what had really happened; or maybe someone who would convince him that the best course of action was to come clean? If it was the latter, then Will had been disappointed; there was no way Edward was going to allow his son to go to jail.

Edward got out of his car and headed over the road to Will’s flat.

He rang the doorbell, just in case Will had changed his plans. No answer. He knocked. ‘William, are you in there?’ Still no answer, and no signs of movement from inside.

So he used the spare key that Will had left him in case of emergencies, and entered the flat.

He knew what he was looking for. William had an old-style address book – a habit that he had inherited from his mother. It didn’t take long to find it. And there was the name, address and telephone number he had been looking for.

‘Perfect.’

He copied down the details and replaced the address book in the drawer where he had found it.

Chapter 18

It was a quarter past nine, and Emma, Dan, Lizzy and Will were still discussing the blackmail. ‘There must be another way,’ Lizzy said. ‘We’ve got two weeks, right? Two weeks to find another solution, which doesn’t involve paying them, or you going to jail, Will.’

‘I can’t see what other option there is,’ Will said. ‘I appreciate what you’re saying, and I’m really grateful to you all, but I’ve been preparing for this. I’ve always thought I was on borrowed time.’

‘I don’t like you talking like that, Will,’ Emma said. ‘It makes me feel so sad. You’re not a criminal. Stuart lied to you, and you made a stupid mistake, but what good would it do to anyone if you went to jail?’

‘Lizzy’s right,’ Dan said. ‘There must be another way. Or at least we must have hope that there is. And, as you said, Lizzy, we still have two weeks to come up with something.’

Will didn’t look convinced. ‘Like what?’

‘The first thing,’ Dan said, ‘is that we need to find out who these people are, so we know who we’re dealing with. Who might be doing this?’

‘Well, it sounds obvious, but someone who knows what I did,’ Will said.

‘And who knows?’

‘All of us. Then there’s Dad. And Peter Myers. That’s it. There’s no one else.’

‘But there
must
be,’ Dan said. ‘They’re just the people you know about. What if other people found out?’

‘Maybe, yes,’ Will acknowledged. ‘But it wouldn’t have come from any of us, would it?’ He looked at the other three, who nodded their agreement.

‘None of us would breathe a word,’ Lizzy added.

‘What about your dad?’ Dan asked. ‘Do you think he’s told anyone?’

‘No, no way,’ Will said.

‘Not even Miranda?’

‘No way,’ Will repeated. ‘Dad wouldn’t say anything because it looks bad on him that we didn’t tell the police. He would be too scared that if he told someone else, the truth would come out.’

‘I don’t think Dad would have told anyone,’ Emma agreed.

Dan seemed satisfied. ‘Then that leaves two other people.’

‘Two?’ Emma said. ‘Peter Myers and—?’

‘Stuart Harris,’ he stated.

‘Of course,’ Lizzy said. ‘Stuart may have told other people before he died.’

Dan nodded. ‘Or left evidence that someone found after his death.’

And then Emma realised. ‘I see what you’re getting at. The person who had access to the photograph of you and Stuart could also have been told what Will did, by Stuart.’

‘Exactly,’ Dan said. ‘If we assume that the person who sent the photograph is also the person who is doing the blackmailing, then it narrows down our list of suspects, potentially.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Will said. ‘What photograph?’

Dan had forgotten that Will didn’t know anything about what had been going on. He glanced across to Emma, who nodded at him to explain. ‘Someone has been sending letters to Lizzy, including a photograph showing me with Stuart Harris. It was taken a few years ago, before Emma and I first met.’

Lizzy, open-mouthed, looked across at Emma, who hadn’t had a chance to tell her that Dan had confirmed the photograph was genuine.

Emma smiled reassuringly. ‘It’s okay, we’ve discussed it and it’s fine.’

‘The person, whoever they are, is trying to cause trouble,’ Dan said. ‘They’re trying to wreck things.’

‘But we’re not going to let them,’ Emma continued. ‘We have to stick together.’

Will looked troubled. ‘You didn’t tell me this was going on.’

‘I was going to tell you,’ Emma said. ‘This week.’

‘So do you have any idea who this person is?’ Will said.

‘Yes,’ Dan replied. ‘Sally Thompson. Or Amy, as you knew her.’

Will sat back abruptly in his chair and shook his head. ‘I don’t think it would be Sally.’

‘Why?’ Lizzy said. ‘She lived with Stuart, so she would have had access to the photograph, plus it’s possible that Stuart told her about what he had done – including your role in it.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Will said again. ‘I don’t think she knows anything about what Stuart did to Stephen Myers.’