Deadly Business

Four

I had to end the call with Susie’s sensational announcement still hanging in the air, as the front door burst open and the house was invaded by the wave of energy that is Tom and his half-sister.

‘How’s foul-mouth?’ Conrad asked me after they had headed off to their rooms to smarten themselves up for dinner and the night ahead.

‘Contrite,’ I told him. ‘He’s going to apologise to you, and ask for mercy. Your shout, though,’ I added. ‘I’m not involved … even though it is my roof you’ll be imprisoning him under over the weekend.’

The minder smiled. ‘I might give him a reprieve, if he’s sincere.’

‘I think he is,’ I said. ‘The wee chap’s had something on his mind. Has he said anything to you about Duncan Culshaw?’

‘Him?’ One word, but it carried a volume of contempt. ‘No, nothing at all. Why should he have?’

‘Because he thought he saw him, in Monaco, before you all came here.’

‘Slim chance, I reckon,’ he murmured. ‘That man’s a gold-digging waster if ever I saw one. I was glad when the boss got shot of him. So were the kids. He scared Jonathan. If he’d been around much longer I’d have had to do something about him, but thankfully, Susie saw the light, although she’s never said anything about it, not even to Audrey.’

My face must have been sending out signals, for suddenly, his eyes narrowed. ‘Little Jonathan was wrong, wasn’t he?’ he asked. ‘That wasn’t really Culshaw he saw, was it?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ I replied. ‘He’s back.’

‘Oh shit.’

‘And there’s worse.’ I dropped Susie’s bombshell on him.

‘What?’ he gasped. ‘She’s …? But Audrey’s with her, I’ve spoken to her just about every day and she’s never said a word about it.’

He pulled his mobile from his pocket and hit a speed dial button. Cellphone reception can be dodgy in St Martí, because of the thickness of the stone walls of its buildings, and so he stepped out on to the front terrace to maximise the signal and probably also for privacy while he interrogated his wife. I left him to get on with it, and I went down to the kitchen to warm up the seafood pasta sauce that I’d knocked up earlier in the day. I was weighing enough linguine for five … yes five; wee Jonathan may be a shrimp, but he can eat with the hungriest of us … when Conrad joined me again.

‘It’s true,’ he announced, not that I’d been in any doubt. ‘Audrey told me that Culshaw turned up in Scottsdale just after they did, “to be with her and comfort her” he said, and moved into their hotel. Susie told her to keep it secret, even from me. He wasn’t with her for the hard yards of the treatment though; it was still Audrey who went to the clinic with her when she had her chemo. He just hung around the hotel and fawned over her when she got back. Two days ago, the day after the course was finished, Susie told Audrey to charter a plane. Audrey wasn’t sure about it, for the chemo had knocked ten bells out of her, but Susie insisted, and yesterday morning the three of them flew to Las Vegas and did the whole Elvis Presley impersonator wedding bit. Audrey thinks that Culshaw had arranged it all last week.’

‘And she didn’t tell you even then?’

‘She hasn’t had a chance. They only flew back to Scottsdale late last night. She had to do her own insisting this morning: she called a doctor this morning to check over Susie, over her objections, because she was so knackered from the trip. He’d to give her a multi-vitamin injection, just to get her out of bed.’

‘Bloody hell.’

‘Indeed,’ Conrad said, hesitating before going on. ‘I don’t know what this means for me, Primavera. I can’t stand the man, and I’ve never hidden it from him. He’s going to want to get rid of me, that’s for sure.’

‘And Audrey?’

‘No, I don’t see Susie ever letting her go. They’re too close.’

‘Then don’t you worry about it. I have a feeling you’ll be okay. Susie didn’t employ you originally, Oz did, and for a very specific reason, one that’s still valid. Do you have a contract?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, twelve month rolling, with the company, but effectively it’s Susie who employs me, and if this guy’s her husband …’

‘If he is. It all sounds as fishy as this here sauce.’

‘He is, Primavera. Audrey was there, remember. She was their witness.’

‘Vegas marriages are as easy to dissolve as they are to do,’ I said. ‘I lived there for a while; I know how the place works.’

‘Maybe they are,’ he countered, ‘but only if Susie wants to do that, and from what Audrey said, she won’t. She says she’s besotted with the guy.’

‘She may have been yesterday, but I’m not so sure about today, not after I filled her in on some background she didn’t know about.’ I gave him a potted version of the previous year’s blackmail attempt and of how it was thwarted. ‘I had my reasons for not proceeding with a criminal complaint,’ I told him, ‘some of which you can probably guess, but if I have to, I can still fill out a denuncio. The tape of our conversation is pretty damning and I suppose the cops will still have it. In fact, tomorrow morning I will do that very thing.’

He frowned. ‘That would be risky. You were right to hold off last year. Oz wasn’t exactly whiter than white, but the truth is, he was blacker than even you know.’

‘Do I want to know how black?’ I murmured, although I wasn’t sure he’d kept any secrets from me.

‘No, you don’t, but understand this, a full investigation into his past wouldn’t just be tricky; it could be calamitous.’

His firmness made me pause. ‘I’ll sleep on it,’ I conceded, ‘and decide in the morning.’

‘Okay, but think really carefully before you do anything.’

I made him that promise and set about the evening meal. The sauce was simmering, the linguine was boiling, and I was making some tomato bread when the phone on the counter rang. I snatched it up, hoping that it was Susie calling to tell me that she’d just terminated the shortest marriage on record, but it wasn’t. No, it was Duncan fucking Culshaw.

‘Ah, the happy bridegroom,’ I said after he’d announced himself.

‘Ecstatic,’ he agreed. ‘Tough luck, Primavera. Your attempt to shaft me with Susie fell flat, I’m afraid. I heard her talking to you … I’m never far from her now. I’d assumed that you’d go nuclear the moment you found out about us, so I’ve been prepared for a while. There are two sides to every story, and I’ve just told her mine. If you’re interested, I explained that I’d gone to you to ask for your cooperation in preparing an authorised biography of Oz Blackstone, and in selling the idea to Susie. Your reaction, I told her, was to twist everything around and set me up with your friendly local cops. I added that they scared me so badly that I made myself scarce … which is pretty much true … until I decided that I really couldn’t live without her, and came back. Naturally, Susie takes her husband’s word over yours, so get used to the idea of her being Mrs Culshaw, and not the widow Blackstone any longer. Naturally also, I take her safety and that of her kids as seriously as she does. To emphasise that I’ve persuaded her to give Conrad Kent a fifty per cent salary increase, with a bonus for every incident-free year.’

‘And what about my kid’s security?’ I hissed.

‘Your Tom can look after himself very well,’ he chuckled, ‘a lesson I learned very painfully. You had best keep him close, to look after you.’

‘Are you threatening me, you idiot?’

He laughed, mocking me. ‘Of course not; I’ve got no need to threaten you. Primavera, you aren’t even a faint blot on my landscape, not any more.’

He paused for a few seconds. ‘But here’s something you should consider; think of it as a promise though, not a threat. As Susie’s husband I’ve now got free access to her considerable resources. I intend to use them. I may not be able to touch you, or your son, not physically, but I’m going to get you both back, you for what you did to me with those cops, and him for that kick in the family jewels. I’m going to investigate everything that your beloved Oz Blackstone ever did. If there are secrets hidden, as I suspect, I’m going to uncover them. If there aren’t, then what the hell, I’ll make them up. Either way, the memory of the blessed man, which Tom seems to hold so dear, that’ll be something you and he will want to hide from rather than worship.’