Frozen Grave

Chapter 35

Megan looked across the table at the three women opposite. They were sitting in a café close to Paula’s salon in Reading. They had chosen the most convenient location for Paula because she had Fifi and Esme to pick up from school later.

Paula, Lisa and Emily had all arrived within a ten-minute period of one another. They sipped their drinks nervously, watching one another. Megan took charge.

‘Okay, well if it’s all right with everyone then I’ll chair this meeting.’

‘Go ahead,’ Lisa said. She was the last to arrive and she had taken a seat at the end of the table. ‘Although I’m not really sure what we can hope to achieve.’

‘We can at least find out what’s what,’ said Emily. She’d managed to get cover for her lessons today. She’d set all her pupils mock exam papers and someone just had to make sure no one cheated.

‘Yeah.’ Paula had made a special effort with her make-up today. She looked like a young Priscilla Presley. Her black hair back-combed; her eyeliner thick black and her lips pale pink. ‘We need to know the truth.’

‘The truth is that he’s a bastard…’ Lisa was shaking with anger. ‘And an ungrateful twat.’

The rest fell silent. Paula bowed her head as she skimmed the chocolate off her cappuccino.

‘Okay…’ Emily got out a pad of paper and double-clicked the top of her ballpoint pen. ‘I’ll take the minutes.’

Megan smiled at her.

‘Let’s talk facts then,’ Megan started. ‘Is anyone here going to admit to writing this letter?’ She held it up.

‘Wasn’t me…’ went around the table as each of the women shook her head.

‘Okay, well, if it was me, I’d own up and be proud. This is a lot of work. And it looks like it’s long overdue,’ Megan said, putting it in the centre of the table.

‘Won’t the person who wrote this get in a lot of trouble with the police?’ asked Paula. ‘What about spying? What about all this information about other people – isn’t that illegal?’

‘What would the police charge you with?’ said Lisa. ‘Slander isn’t going to stick. These are plain facts, most of them.’

‘Oh, God…’ said Paula, shaking her head. ‘It’s such a mess.’ She stared wide-eyed at the other women. ‘We are never going to get our money back.’

Megan held up her hand for silence.

‘Who, around this table, has put money into his scheme and how much?’ Megan glanced towards Emily to be ready to record the amounts.

They looked at one another, reluctant to answer.

‘Okay, I’ll kick off,’ said Lisa. ‘I’m down twenty thousand.’

‘It’s fifteen thousand for me,’ said Emily.

‘And you, Paula?’ asked Megan.

‘Twelve. It’s all my savings. I really thought we were going to have somewhere together in Spain. The girls, my girls, they’re very fond of him. It’s so hard – so sad.’

‘I know.’ Megan reached out and put her hand over Paula’s.

‘Will the police take our money if they find out it all comes down to fraud? Will we lose it?’ Paula looked for an answer around the table.

‘I don’t know, but in my heart I think the answer’s yes,’ replied Megan. ‘Yes, you will lose everything if they throw Ellerman in prison. So we’d better be careful what we say to the police if they ask.’ Megan lowered her voice for the last part.

‘I agree,’ said Lisa. ‘Just until we get him to sign an agreement. I don’t want to lose my investment. Christ – look at us! How can we all have been so stupid? We’re none of us dumb… but we certainly fell for it.’

‘I know what you’re saying,’ said Paula. ‘I have had such a struggle to build up my business and look after my girls but I fell for his schemes. I can’t believe I wasted all this time believing in him.’

‘That’s because he’s a liar and a scammer,’ said Lisa. ‘We shouldn’t blame ourselves for trusting.’

‘How much do you think his wife knows about JJ’s life?’ asked Paula, looking at them one at a time.

Megan shrugged, Lisa shook her head. Emily looked back blankly.

‘Then I think that’s something we should find out.’ Megan went on. ‘We need to know what and who we’re up against.’

‘As far as I’m concerned, she needs to understand that she’s been conned just like us,’ said Lisa. ‘She is at the heart of all this. She seems to be the one person he really cares about.’

‘I don’t believe that,’ Paula said, averting her eyes as the anger around the table turned to sadness. ‘But I do think she must have a lot more in common with us,’ she said as she played with her coffee spoon.

‘We also need her if we are going to get the money back,’ said Megan in a voice that showed she wasn’t going to allow the group to descend into self-pity. ‘It will be easier if she’s on our side. I’ll talk to her.’

‘How do you know JJ won’t be there?’ asked Paula.

‘Because we must carry on as normally as we can. If we’re not careful and clever, he’ll run if we let him. He’ll move on to greener, fresher pastures. There’s still a lot of the UK for him to cover. What we do is – we pretend we don’t believe it or we do believe it but we forgive him. Whatever we choose it has to be believable.’

Lisa was shaking her head. ‘I’ll try and act like I can carry on with the relationship but I can’t guarantee anything.’

‘Well, that’s okay. Whatever works for you. It would seem odd to him if none of us reacted to the letter. You do what you think’s best.’

‘I can do it,’ said Paula. ‘I can pretend like I’m hurt but I’m willing to see both sides.’

‘Um… so can I,’ Emily said.

Lisa swung her head back and forth in disbelief.

‘Don’t tell me, deep down, you’re all okay with what he’s done?’ She gestured towards the letter. ‘Don’t tell me you’re just going to bend over and take it?’

‘No. Of course not. I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I?’ said Paula.

‘I don’t know. You could be here to check us all out. You could have written the letter and maybe there is a place in Spain and you’re the one who’s going to be living in it.’

‘Please.’ Megan called for calm. ‘I know we are all upset about this but we need to keep to the facts. Paula is fond of JJ; we all are, were. I understand this is going to be very difficult for a lot of women. But we are here to teach him a lesson, not to upset one another. And we are here to come out of this with some justice. It’s a good thing that Paula is still talking to Ellerman, we can use it. What about you, Emily?’

‘I haven’t contacted him since the letter arrived. I just want my money back. I thought he loved me. I feel so stupid. I feel humiliated for all of us.’

‘You mustn’t beat yourselves up about falling for it.’ Megan reached out her hands across the table to the other three. ‘I may not have parted with any money yet – but I can see how it happened to all of you. Maybe I would have before long, who knows? I know he was beginning to try and push me in that direction. I am hurting like the rest of you, I thought I had a future with JJ. I will do everything to help you get your money back. I’ve been pretending to him that I don’t know about any letter. I am going to keep that a secret from him. I would be grateful if you all remember that if he phones you. Don’t mention my name. I think the best thing is to lure him down to Dartmoor and we can all confront him there. We can make him sign a contract about the money and investments. We can hand over power to the investors, you. We will all witness it. We’ll be in this together. How does that sound?’

‘Sounds good,’ Lisa said. ‘Safety in numbers. Plus, we can force him into action. We might even make the Spanish scheme work. We can make him sign a properly worded contract.’

‘I can help with that,’said Emily. ‘I have access to legal representatives through the school.’

‘Okay, then we all need to set out exactly what we were promised and what we want from it. Let’s do that now, round this table, and then Emily can make a start.’ Megan looked at each woman around the table. ‘Shall we decide what our aims are here?’ They nodded.

Lisa answered: ‘It’s to fuck him over and get our money back.’

‘And to be in control of the Spanish investment,’ said Paula. ‘Say we will go to the police if he doesn’t sign.’

‘I think it’s to get justice, to make him realize he’s been wrong and so terribly unfair,’ said Emily.

‘And I want to make sure he’s too scared to ever contemplate doing this kind of thing again,’ said Megan.