Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (29 page)

Whatever he was thinking of
saying, he was stopped by Lisa who shook her head and then sat up, wiping the
tears from her eyes.

“
Don’t say it. There’s no need
to say anything. I only saw him yesterday evening…”

She broke down again.

It was with difficulty that
Brakespeare stopped himself looking totally shocked. This was the first time
that Mortimer had acknowledged Lisa’s relationship with Gordon Morrison.
Mortimer gave a half smile. Brakespeare guessed it was because his face was a
picture.

“
Jonny, can you look after
her. There’s nothing to be done now.” Asked Mortimer.

Brakespeare nodded.

“
Come on Lisa.” He stood up
and put his hand on her shoulder. The girl nodded her head, and with a large
sniff stood up also.

“
I really am sorry,” said
Ridley, standing and extending his hand to Lisa. Brakespeare thought that she
was going to say something. If she was, she changed her mind.

“
Thank you”, she said, simply,
taking his hand as limply as it had been offered.

“
Thank you.” she said to
Mortimer, and drawing herself up, made a dignified exit towards the door.

Brakespeare looked at
Mortimer, uncertain as to what to do next. Mortimer inclined his head to
indicate that Brakespeare should follow the girl and smiled a tight smile.

Brakespeare caught up with
Lisa as she reached the front door. He opened it to let her out, and closed it
behind them. As soon as she reached the pavement, her composure gave way and
she wrapped her arms round his neck and sobbed once more.

“
Oh, Jonny”, was all she could
say. Brakespeare put his arms around her. They stood like that for several
minutes with not a word passing between them. Lisa relaxed her hold.

“
I’m sorry.”

“
There’s nothing to be sorry
about. Come on let’s go and sit in the Cathedral Gardens.”

The early evening was warm,
and Brakespeare took the girl’s hand and led her down past the door of the
Cathedral to the West End, where there were wooden benches against the
Cathedral wall.

They sat down. Brakespeare put
his arm round Lisa’s shoulder and she leant against him. Before them the land
sloped down to the river. On the other side of the river was the County Cricket
ground. To the left were the Malvern Hills, and ahead of them lay
Herefordshire, and the Welsh Mountains.

Neither spoke. Brakespeare was
torn between thinking about the possible consequences of what had happened, and
savouring the warm intimacy of Lisa. She turned to look up at him. He kissed
her gently on the cheek. She smiled.

“
Thanks. “

He gave her another gentle
hug. Eventually Lisa to pulled herself together, and moved away from him. He took
his arm from her shoulder. She looked at him with a half smile.

“
Sorry, don’t mean to
complicate your life.” she said.

“
But you’re not.”

“
Thanks.”

Again there was a silence.
Brakespeare decided to break it.

“
We still have to finish this
case. It’s sod’s law that Gordon has to die just as we seem to have made a
breakthrough.”

“
What’s going to happen then?”

“
Does it matter?”

Lisa sighed. “I don’t know.
With Gordon I thought that perhaps I could see a future - eventually.”

Tears started to well in her
eyes once more; her shoulders shook again and her head went down. Once more she
lent into Brakespeare. He decided to try and change the subject completely.

“
Just look at that view.” Lisa
nodded without even looking up.

“
This really is a beautiful
part of the world. I’ll be sorry to leave it.”

Lisa sat up quickly.

“
You’re leaving? When?”

“
No, I didn’t mean that I was
going yet, but I won’t be here forever.” He paused, seeking some reassurance
from her.

“
They’ll be looking for a full
time replacement for Gordon, now that he’s…..”

“
I’m only a locum.”

“
Were. You’re full time now,
whether you like it or not.”

“
What makes you say that.”

“
Gordon told me. Only last
night.” She started sobbing again.

“
Told you what?”

Lisa gulped for breath. She
sat up again and looked hard into Brakespeare’s eyes. “He said that he had told
the other partners that if anything happened to him, that you were to take his
place.””

“
If anything happened? I
thought you said that he wasn’t coming back.”

“
He wasn’t, but no-one told
him.”

“
I see.”

“
So you’ll stay – won’t you.
Stay with me?” She took his hand and held tightly on to it. Her eyes were
pleading with him. What did she mean –“stay with me?” – and with her former
lover only just dead.

Brakespeare had always had a
problem with girls who sought to take the initiative. He liked to be in control
of the relationship. Whatever invitation Lisa was offering made him
uncomfortable.

“
Gordon seems to have planned
everything out.”

“
No, not really. He didn’t
intend to die.”

“
Sorry.”

Again they sat just looking at
the views in the warm summer evening, until Lisa stirred.

“
Well I suppose that life must
go on. D.C. Durkin awaits.”

“
Do you want to go for a
drink?” asked Brakespeare hopefully.

“
No, thanks. I’ll just go home
and think things over quietly if you don’t mind.”

“
Okay. Want a lift?”

Lisa shook her head. ”I’ll
walk. I think better when I’m moving.”

They both stood up and Lisa
took both his hands. “Jonny, you will stay won’t you?”

Brakespeare just smiled. He
didn’t know what to say. He kissed her on the cheek again, and they walked back
towards College Yard.

Brakespeare was in his office
before nine o’clock on the following morning, and was well into re-reading the
correspondence that they had taken from Old Hill Police Station when Mortimer
delivered the post.

“
Jonny, I didn’t think to ask
you yesterday, how did you get on?”

“
Well I think that we were all
a bit shell shocked weren’t we? Fine. We still haven’t found a smoking gun, but
there’s a strong smell of sewage – if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor.”

“
Meaning?”

“
Meaning I think that we can
show that Mr. Black, Newberry’s antagonist, is not impartial. He, or at least
his firm, were trying to sell the various properties almost as he valued them?”

“
So, he’s utterly
discredited?”

Brakespeare wondered whether
to tell Mortimer about D.C. Durkin’s involvement, but decided against it. If
the news got back to Newberry, then it would raise what could be false hopes.
As if to read his thoughts, Mortimer asked. “Told David yet?”

“
Not really had the chance?”
Brakespeare raised his eyebrows and smiled.

“
Sorry, of course not.”

“
Does Newberry know about
Gordon?”

“
Yes, I told him last night.
He’s upset of course, but don’t worry.”

Mortimer sat down slowly and
looked at him.

“
You know Jonny, it’s been
less than 24 hours since it all happened, but obviously we, that’s Dick and I,
had been wondering what we would do should anything happen to Gordon.”

Brakespeare knew what was
coming.

Mortimer continued, “Now is
not the right time; not before the funeral. But we’d like to talk about your
future.”

Brakespeare made himself look
suitably surprised.

“
Well that’s very kind of you.
But, as you say, perhaps now is not the time.”

Mortimer nodded in agreement.

“
Another thing, would you mind
escorting Lisa to the funeral?”

Brakespeare felt his jaw drop
in surprise, but it drew no reaction from Mortimer who waited for an answer.

“
Well, er yes, of course. I
hadn’t thought about it, I mean, I never met Gordon and…”

“
No, but it would be odd if
you were the only member of staff not to attend.”

“
When is it?”

“
I don’t know yet. I should
explain that I’m one of the Executors of his will and I will be going to make
the arrangements.”

“
I see.”

“
It will be next week some
time, I expect. We’ll close the office again for the day.”

“
But Lisa?”

“
Don’t worry, Annette Morrison
is a forgiving woman.”

“
And Newberry’s wife.”
Brakespeare asked trying to move on.

“
I’m sure she’ll be there.”
Replied Mortimer evenly.

“
What a hoot.” Muttered
Brakespeare under his breath.

“
We’ll talk about it later. In
the meantime it’s business as usual. Gordon would have wanted it that way.”

“
Yes, of course.” Replied
Brakespeare, wondering where all this was leading.

“
Call David, he’ll be
expecting you, I’ll let you know the funeral date. Good morning Margaret” he
greeted the secretary as she walked into the room.

“
Good morning, Mr.
Brakespeare.”

“
Good morning Margaret,
”replied Brakespeare wondering what reaction to Mortimer’s death he was going
to get from her. ”A sad one for you.”

“
For us all Mr. Brakespeare.
For us all. Mr. Morrison was a fine man. He was human, but a fine man.” Her
voice was as firm, and her manner as efficient as ever. Her grief had been
professionally set aside. “ I thought that we ought to write to all the
clients, although I expect that it will be announced in the Worcester Evening
News, and I took the liberty of drafting a letter.”

She handed Brakespeare a sheet
of paper on the firm’s headed notepaper. It was as he had expected a very
formal letter announcing Mr. Morrison’s death, but at the same time assuring
clients that the firm would continue to represent their interests to the
standard that it hoped it had done while Mr. Morrison’s was alive.

“
Seems fine,” said
Brakespeare, handing the letter back. “Are you going to photocopy it.”

“
Good Heavens no,” said
Margaret. “I understand that Lisa has something called mail merge on her
computer, and I thought that I would ask her to prepare the letters. I expect
she’ll be glad of something to do.”

It was the first time that
Brakespeare had ever heard Margaret mention Lisa by her first name. Did he
detect a softness in her attitude as she spoke.

“
That’s a good idea.” He
paused. “Are you keeping yourself occupied?” It was a deliberate, coded
question. He wondered how Margaret would respond.

Margaret smiled a rare smile.
“I am.” She said softly. “We all have our ways of coping, but I am. Thank you
for asking.”

The telephone rang.

“
That’ll be Mr. Newberry no
doubt.” Margaret said, reverting to her usual efficient manner. “I’ll leave you
to him.” She left the room.

To his surprise Tracy, the
receptionist had put Newberry straight through.

“
Morning Jonny, what a shit.”

“
I beg your pardon?” replied
Brakespeare, not certain as to what Newberry was referring.

“
Gordon, dying like that. At
this time.”

“
What”

“
At this time of my case.”

Brakespeare’s temper, never
far beneath the surface exploded.”

“
You selfish bastard.” He
shouted down the telephone. “Someone dies and all you can think about is your
own bloody self. For two pins I’d walk.”

There was a silence at the
other end of the line.

“
I’ll speak to you later.”
said Newberry, and put the phone down.

Brakespeare banged the desk
with his fist in frustration. Why should he stay here? The only reason they
wanted him to, was because of this frigging case for this frigging Newberry.
The man really peed him off. He stood up and walked to the window. Here was the
perfect moment to leave. Bugger Newberry, the man was so undeserving.

He stared out of his window
down Deansway. Walking towards the office was Lisa, but this was not the Lisa
Barnes he was accustomed to. Gone were the flowery blouses and skirts. Instead
she was wearing a pin striped trouser suit. Gone was her embroidered bag, and
instead she carried a brief case. He looked again. It was Lisa wasn’t it?

As she drew nearer she caught
sight of him in the window, and waved before letting herself in at the back
entrance. As she crossed the Courtyard, she looked up again at Brakespeare and
grinned.