Drowned Lives

49

The realisation that Laura Jenner was involved drove me straight back to my car. I made it to Hints in record time, cutting up a cement lorry in the spray on the A5. I’d brought the photograph of Laura with Godfrey Wheeldon at Chester Zoo — the one that showed her with a frank, happy smile and the sun casting a faint shadow where the scar crossed her forehead.

As I approached Leasow Court through the rain-filled potholes, I saw Leo Parker’s BMW leaving the gates and heading off southward towards the A38. I knew if he made it to the dual carriageway I’d soon lose him in his more powerful car, so I put my foot down and brought the Escort close up behind his rear bumper, flashing my lights and sounding my horn.

I didn’t care about the physical risk I was taking in the treacherous conditions. An unnatural recklessness had come over me. I knew that it was too late for staying on the sidelines and the only way to achieve anything was by confrontation. Even what Leo had told me earlier in the day hadn’t changed that — if anything, it had made me less cautious. There seemed to be so little left to lose.

Leo must have seen the Escort, but he seemed intent on ignoring me until he had to slow for a sharp bend near the woods at Canwell Hall. My bumper actually touched his tailplate with a sudden jolt and a screech of metal. He swung over onto a pull-in of flattened earth and his brake lights came on as he skidded to a halt. I just had time to draw in alongside, ending up at a slight angle to avoid his rear wing.

Leo had started to climb out of his door, but my adrenaline was rushing and I was much quicker than he was, leaping out almost before the Escort had stopped, so that the engine stalled. We ended up face to face at the side of his BMW, with the rain driving on our heads.

‘Are you crazy? What the hell is this?’ he shouted.

I reckoned, in my bravado, that I had the measure of him. He was a man who didn’t fear for his own personal safety, but was terrified that I might damage his precious car. So I leaned deliberately on the roof of the BMW with the flat of my hand.

‘I think there’s something you forgot to tell me, Leo.’

‘Is that all? Is there one more question you want to ask? Have you ever heard of the bloody telephone?’

The dual carriageway was only yards away from us, the width of one field, and we had no alternative but to shout at each other above the roar of the traffic and the blustering slap of the rain.

‘This one happens to be bloody important. It looks like an unbelievable oversight that you forgot to mention it.’

‘I told you everything I know about your family. I’m sorry if it didn’t make you happy, but that’s just tough.’

‘And what about your family? Did you tell me everything about them?’

‘There’s no damn reason why I should.’

‘Just tell me this — how is Laura Jenner connected to you?’

‘Who the hell is Laura Jenner? I’ve never heard the name.’

‘Well, that’s what she’s been calling herself while she led me on and got information from me. While she planned her betrayal. But I dare say that’s not her real name. I presume she’s yet another Parker.’

‘I don’t know who you’re talking about.’

I pulled out the photograph I’d taken at Chester Zoo and slammed it on the wet roof of the car. ‘I’m talking about this woman.’

Parker stared at the photo. He looked genuinely puzzled. ‘I’ve never seen this person before in my life.’

‘You’re lying to me again.’

He took a few deep breaths. He had better self-control than me, and I could see him working out how to resolve the situation to his advantage while I was still burning to kick his door panels in.

‘I assure you I’m not lying. I’ve been very frank with you, despite your aggressive attitude. But the woman in this photograph is a complete stranger to me.’

I faltered, convinced despite myself that he was telling the truth. ‘It isn’t possible.’

‘A lot of things are possible. You ought to know that by now, Chris. I’m intrigued, though,’ he said, ‘to know how this woman comes to be so important to you.’

I looked at the photograph, remembering how I’d met Laura at Fradley as if by accident, how she’d seemed to understand all about Samuel Longden so easily. It had been one of the things that drew me to her.

‘I really wish I knew that.’

‘Well, don’t expect me to be able to tell you.’

‘She’s deceived me all along,’ I said, talking almost to myself. ‘I’m convinced she has something to do with Samuel’s death. And Godfrey Wheeldon’s. Her and Simon Monks.’

‘Monks?’ Leo gave a barking laugh as he climbed back into his car, wiping rain from his face. ‘Do you mean Caroline Longden’s fiancé?’

‘Yes — do you know him?’

‘I know of him,’ he said. ‘My God, you’ve really got yourself in a mess, Chris, haven’t you? Such a mess that I don’t think I can help you any more. So do me a favour — stay away from me from now on, okay? I’ve heard enough about your family to last me the rest of my life.’ He closed the door and started the engine. The driver’s window slid noiselessly down as I stepped back from his wheels. ‘But I’ll leave you with this warning: if you’ve been lying to me and you try to blacken our family’s name in your ridiculous book, it will be me on your tail. And I don’t back down.’

After I got home again, I paced around the house for a while, with no clear idea what I should do next. The adrenaline was still flowing, and every time I thought of Laura I felt a fresh surge of anger that flooded my brain and prevented me from thinking logically. Time and again I picked up the photographs and stared at them, willing them to change. I tried to convince myself that there could be any number of green Mercedes in Lichfield. But how likely was it that any of them would be driven by somebody connected with Great-Uncle Samuel?

Besides, once I’d changed my perspective, everything seemed to fit in the picture too well. It had been Laura who sought me out at Fradley after the funeral, not the other way round. I’d been too intoxicated by the wine and her presence to notice, and she’d taken advantage of that. She’d made it seem as though it was my idea to ask for her help with the research for the book, but surely she’d been the one to plant the suggestion in my mind? Of course she had. Her show of reluctance wouldn’t have lasted long if I hadn’t taken the bait first time, like a besotted fool.

And once she had me hooked, I was truly hooked. I’d been a sitting duck for a seduction. She must have seen me as a pathetic, lonely man with no power of resistance. Which, to my shame, was exactly what I’d been. When I thought of all the things I’d told her on the journey to Cheshire, and everything that had happened between us that night at her hotel, the rage made me smash my fist into the table with frightening violence.

Frank had retreated to his bedroom, keeping out of the way of my bad temper once I’d snapped at him a couple of times in the kitchen as I towelled my drenched face and hair. Boswell had long since disappeared from the house when he sensed my mood. Even the fish in the tank seemed to gape at me in astonishment and derision.

It was as if they all knew what a fool I’d been. I’d passed on to Laura Jenner all the information I’d gathered with Rachel’s help, and I’d betrayed Rachel’s trust at the same time. As a result, Laura knew about everything — about Godfrey Wheeldon, and Frank, about everything.

I recalled that Laura had known only too well that I’d be away from Maybank on the night it was broken into. She knew because she made sure I was with her at the George. The realisation that she must have planned that night with an accomplice was a torment of outrage and humiliation. She’d planned it with Simon Monks — because I was sure it could only be him. I had no idea what the link was between them. I only knew in my guts that he was the one who’d wielded the windlass against my skull and torched Kestrel.

It seemed horribly plausible that Monks had been deceiving Caroline in the same way that Laura had deceived me. But who were they? And what was their purpose? If they weren’t Parkers, why were they trying to destroy the last remnants of the Buckley family?