Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (40 page)

It had even been difficult to
make eye contact because she was looking at him with that intense look that
women have when they’ve fallen for a man. You could see it in the street every
day. It was a look which told the world that a relationship was a romantic one,
and he was not ready for that yet. He was lucky with Mel. She gave him a fond
look, but not that look. Why couldn’t Lisa be like Mel?

Lisa’s face fell.

“
And I don’t want it to end in
tears. I like you too much.” He ended.

He chose his words carefully.
Lisa looked into his eyes, trying to see if he was telling the truth..

“
Is there someone else?” she
asked.

Brakespeare was shocked. Her
intuition had taken her straight to the point.

“
Why do you ask?”

“
I know nothing about you,
outside work. You told me that you were divorced. I never thought to think that
you might have met someone else. I just plunged straight in with both feet.”
She leant back in her chair, and tried to stop her eyes brimming with tears.
“Typical me. Heart on sleeve. Brain disengaged.”

Brakespeare looked hurriedly
round to see who might be watching. There was no-one. What was he going to say?
He had never told her about Mel, because the need to had never come up. Should
he have told her about Mel, and what effect would that have had? Should he tell
her about Sophie? No, she would back right off at that. Oh, shit, why was he
being forced to commit – in the Law Society of all places.

“
What if there was someone
else?” he probed

Lisa put her head down and
sobbed quietly. She shook her head.

“
I’m stupid. I should have
thought. It’s my fault.”

One or two people had started
to glance up.

“
Lisa, not here. Not in the
Law Society.”

“
I’m sorry. She pulled herself
together and reaching into her handbag took out a tissue and blew her nose.

What was he going to do? Was
he going to leave things like that, in mid air? Someone else would be attracted
to her, and he didn’t like the idea of that. What if he ditched Mel? He
couldn’t have both, not now. For all he knew, Mel wouldn’t care about Lisa.
Besides she probably had liaisons when she was working away. With her warm,
open personality, it was the sort of thing that would happen in the microcosm
of the theatre. He didn’t want to think about it too much

Sophie. What was he going to
do there? The children were the tug. The thought of being able to have a normal
family life with them, put them to bed and do all the sort of things that
parents did; watch them grow up and re-live his own childhood experiences
through them thrilled him. But would he have a normal family life with Sophie?
She no longer had the same physical attraction for him that Mel and Lisa had?
Should it be a marriage of convenience with his having a relationship with Mel
or Lisa outside the marriage as Sophie had implied she might accept. Mel might
put up with that, but Lisa wouldn’t. That hurt. Is that what he felt about
Lisa? He would be would hurt if he lost her. But he hardly knew her. Sex with
her might even be a disaster. Sexual chemistry was an important ingredient in
relationships.

What a mess. Did he have to
make a decision here and now?

“
Well if it isn’t Jonny
Brakespeare again. Just the man I was meaning to call?”

Brakespeare was jarred out of
his thoughts by the cheery voice of Joe Gargan, who was bearing down on the
table carrying a tray over laden with food, and a full pint of Guiness.

Brakespeare rose to his feet.
Lisa hastily recovered her composure.

“
Joe, what on earth are you
doing here. You can’t be on C.P.S. business.”

“
Law Society Hockey Club. I’m
Vice President this year. We’re having a committee meeting so I’ve taken the
day off.”

He eyed up Lisa. “This must be
your Miss Brains.”

“
Barnes.” Corrected Lisa.

“
I know what I said.” Joe
grinned at Lisa. “Don Durkin has told me all about you. You made quite an
impression on him. In more ways than one.” Never a subtle man, Joe winked at
Jonny and proceeded to unload his tray on the small table. Brakespeare and Lisa
moved their plates to make room.

“
Mind if I join you?” Joe
eventually said, after he had sat down.

Lisa looked totally puzzled.
Brakespeare quickly introduced Joe as an old friend from his C.P.S. days and
who had first looked at the case before it was transferred to the C.P.S. in
London.

Lisa’s changing expressions
indicated that she had quickly identified Joe as the mysterious person who
Brakespeare had been telephoning. Happy to have another subject to occupy her,
and to Joe’s pleasure, she continued the conversation.

“
I presume you mean D.C,
Durkin.” She asked.

“
The very man. You see he’s
reinvestigating - that case.”

“
That case?”

“
That case.” Confirmed Joe. “I
don’t know what you stirred up there, but he’s come to me, and the Boss says
that I can supervise him.”

Jonny was relieved to have the
opportunity to make eye contact with Lisa.

“
You mean there’s an official
investigation started.” She asked.

Joe nodded. “And I’m yer man.
Of course we’re not telling that lot over there in Ludgate Hill.” He started to
attack a double helping of the starter course.

“
No?” asked Brakespeare.

“
Well it’ll queer their pitch
won’t it?”

“
How so?” asked Lisa getting
the measure of the man.

Joe looked up, chewing, but
not letting that get in the way of talking.

“
I reckon that there’s a bit
of fraud been going on. That man Black, who’s the chief witness against yer
man, has been trying to sell off the properties he valued.” He stopped and
looked puzzled. “But you know that.”

“
We do,” said Lisa, “and we
told Durkin about it, so in a way we started this – for you.” She gave Joe one
of her seductive looks and instantly melted him.

“
Did you know that the one of
the men he was trying to sell to was acting for a company connected with the
National.” asked Joe proudly.

Brakespeare and Lisa were
anxious not to deflate Joe.

“
Go on,” said Brakespeare
ignoring the question.

“
Well it seems that what the
National has been doing, through this company, which is owned by it’s American
investors, is trying to buy some of the properties it has repossessed. That’s
not right. They’re all properties which had been valued by Black”

“
Do you think that he has been
undervaluing them then, so that they can come in at a low price and get them before
anyone else.” Asked Lisa.

“
Well done. I hadn’t thought
of that.” Said Brakespeare.

“
Don’t be such a condescending
shit.” retorted Lisa. The insult flew over Joe’s head.

“
That’s what it looks like.
I’ve got Durkin looking into all the purchases by National Property Investments
over the last 3 years.”

“
How are you doing that.”

“
Land Registry. Got access to
Land Registry records. If you remember, Jonny, I used to be a conveyancer
before I joined the C.P.S. Knew it would be useful one day. Durkin’s looking to
see who sold the properties to the company, and picking out those where the
Seller was the National Bank.”

“
And then?” asked Lisa.

“
We’ll get a warrant and go to
the solicitors. The National used one firm of solicitors.” He lowered his
voice, and looked round. “They may be in this room.”

The cafeteria was now almost
full with men in pin striped suits looking for spaces at tables. “They’re
registered foreign lawyers It’s Bernstein, Fingle, Dulay and Masters.”
whispered Joe.

“
Masters!” Brakespeare and Lisa
chorused.

“
Clive Masters has a brother
who’s a solicitor. Got him to join in with the Yanks to form the Company. Makes
sure that all the Society’s work goes his way.”

Brakespeare sat back in
astonishment. Lisa’s brain worked more quickly.

“
What will the solicitors
files tell you?”

Gargan looked at her, and then
took another mouthful.

“
They’ll tell us who the
selling agent was, because they’ll have a letter of instruction from them.”

“
And if it’s Redshaw Linden
and Steele?”

“
Bang.”

They watched Gargan finish his
starter and begin to attack his main course.

“
Joe?”

Joe looked up to see Lisa’s
sweetest smile.

“
How long is this going to
take.”

“
Piece of string question.” He
replied, spreading his arms, knife and fork still in each hand.

“
Only we have a problem, Joe.”
she purred.

Joe stopped chewing and
pouched his food in his cheeks. Lisa had caught his interest.

“
We’re in Court for Directions
next week. We’re going to make an application to have the Prosecution case
struck out.”

“
What, next week.”

“
No, but it can’t be too long
after that.”

Brakespeare broke in.

“
But it’ll take months to do a
thorough job, won’t it Joe? Are the Police up to it?”

“
Oh they’re up to it all
right, boyo. This has gone right up to the Chief. He has talked to the Boss, and
they both want to get Masters if they can.”

“
But only Durkin’s on the
case.”

“
So, far but he has a mate.
Don’t underestimate Durkin. He’d be an Inspector at least by now if his knob
hadn’t got in the way. If he starts pulling in the evidence then the Chief will
allocate more resources.”

“
That’s official?”

“
Don’t forget that I’m the
supervising solicitor. Of course it’s official.” Joe unpouched his food and
continued to enjoy his meal.

Lisa was her usual animated
self again.

“
It doesn’t matter how long it
takes; it’s started. Once Durkin goes into the solicitors….”

“
Soon” Joe interjected.

“
Then the alarm bells are
going to be deafening. If there is an organised fiddle going on, then news of
the Police investigation is going to spread like wildfire. It’ll destabilise
Black and the basis of the prosecution.”

“
Are you sure that you don’t
want to tell Ludgate Hill?” asked Brakespeare.

Joe stopped chewing, swallowed
and put his knife and fork on the table.

“
Jonny Brakespeare. They made
me look bad by going ahead with this case after I had advised against it. I
don’t want them stopping the investigation to save their own faces.” He lowered
his voice to a whisper. “There will be a promotion in this for me. The Boss has
said so.”

“
There is something that you
both seem to have overlooked,” Said Lisa. “D.C. Durkin’s position.”

“
Oh, God, yes.” Said
Brakespeare. “Joe, how can he be investigating the National, when he’s the
officer in the case against Newberry?”

Joe hardly paused. “He’s just
continuing with his investigations around the case. That’s all.”

Brakespeare looked hard at
Joe. He had always wondered whether or not Joe was stupid, or whether he acted
as if he was stupid.

“
We’ve never had this
conversation, have we, Joe?”

Joe had finished his main
course, and put his knife and fork on his plate. He sat back in his chair, and
looked at Brakespeare.

“
Why not? We’re old mates
aren’t we. We’re both solicitors, and here we are in the Law Society.” He
gestured around him. “By the way the Boss has been asking about you.”

“
Really?”

“
There’s a job for you if you
want it. He’ll have you back any day. Nice secure job with a Civil Service
pension at the end. Security; that’s what you need.”

“
Are you sure about that?”

Lisa was watching
Brakespeare’s reaction closely.

“
Sure? Sure I’m sure. He said
the very thing to me. Now would I lie to you, boyo?”

“
Right” said a slightly taken
aback Brakespeare, thinking . “I’ll bear that in mind.”

He looked at his watch.
“There’s a train at 2.05 from Paddington. I think we’d better get moving. Joe,
it’s been great to see you again.” He held out his hand to Joe.

Joe stood up. “We’ll keep in
touch.”

Joe held his hand out to Lisa.
“You’re everything Don Durkin said you were – only better.”

“
I’m not sure how I should
take that, but thank you.” replied Lisa. “Jonny, would it be all right if I
stayed on in London?”

“
What?” Brakespeare was unable
to control his surprise.

“
I looked up the timetables
yesterday. The train doesn’t get back until nearly six o’clock. We shan’t be
going back to the office and there’s things I can do in London.”