Diamond (29 page)

Perhaps it was a bad idea, after all. Perhaps she should put him off.

She took out her phone, but it was too late. He was at the door.

His smile was pure, triumphant smarm as she opened it.

‘Good girl,’ he said. ‘I knew you’d see sense.’

‘Come in,’ she said tonelessly, the urge to break his nose never stronger than now.

‘Ah, the old place,’ he said, filling his lungs appreciatively. ‘Soon have it back up to scratch. Harville Hall for the Harvilles. If you want, you can stay over, any time you like.’

‘I’ll be sad to leave,’ said Jenna. It occurred to her that perhaps she should take him out in the back garden, where he would be less likely to hear the police arriving. ‘There’s something I wanted to ask you about – something I found outside.’

‘Oh yeah? I thought you were going to pour me a nice drink, and get comfortable.’

‘We can do that outside,’ she said, leading him through the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of wine and two glasses on the way.

‘Oh, I’ve done it all out here, in my time,’ said Lawrence, stepping out on to the blazing back patio. He took off his jacket and slung it over a rusty garden chair. ‘Up against a tree, on the lawn, behind the bushes.’ He chuckled. ‘Can get a bit waspy, but if you pick your time …’

He put a hand on Jenna’s shoulder, as if it were his God-given right.

She bristled, and put the drink things down on the low wall that enclosed the sides of the patio.

‘The thing I wanted to ask you about,’ she said, trying not to sound too steely. ‘Come down and see.’

She found the paving slab with the iron ring that she and Jason had spotted before and theorised about the existence of a cellar.

‘Here. It made me think you might have a cellar. But the deeds don’t mention anything underneath the house.’

Lawrence put the toe of his shiny shoe against the iron ring and nudged it.

‘It looks like it, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘But no. There’s no cellar. I don’t know why that ring was put there. Maybe one of my kinky ancestors liked to chain his women to it. Hm, there’s an idea.’

The look he gave Jenna was equal parts lust and menace.

She looked around, nervously. Not that she’d be able to see the police cars coming.

‘Or her men,’ she suggested.

‘Yes, I suppose so. Why, are you that way inclined?’

‘Not really. But are you sure there’s nothing underneath? It’s such an odd thing to put there.’

‘Like I said.’ Lawrence sounded surly now. ‘And I’m glad you’re not a Miss Whiplash type. I don’t like pain.’

‘So, about the ghosts you were talking about,’ she said, keen to keep matters away from his expected seduction of her. ‘Do any of them have names, or stories?’

‘Oh, yes, our dear Harville ghosts? Yes. I grew up with little Fay.’

‘Fay?’

‘Fairy Fay. That’s what we called her. I think her name was actually Frances and she was the wife of my great-great-great-grandfather.’

‘What happened to her?’

‘She disappeared. She was there one day, and gone the next. Never found. Never explained. I thought you’d have heard of the case. It was a favourite scary story round here.’

‘Somehow it passed me by. Perhaps it was only known to the circles you moved in.’

‘That’s probably it. Too good a story for the riff-raff.’

‘Thanks. That would be me, would it?’

‘Oh, come on, Jenna, don’t take offence. We both know what we are. I’m old money, you’re new money. I think we should get together and make middle-aged money.’

‘Except you ran out of old money,’ Jenna pointed out. ‘Or you wouldn’t have had to sell up.’

‘Well, I took a few hits,’ said Lawrence. ‘Had a run of bad luck. But I’ve made it all back now, and more.’

‘By selling drugs.’

He scowled and grabbed her upper arm in a painful grip.

‘Don’t start all that again, Jenna. It won’t get you
anywhere. Now where’s that good time I was promised?’

She tried to fight him off but he was stronger and managed to get her into a tight lock. His mouth was almost on hers, and she sensed there would be teeth, when an almighty bang on the door caused both of them to freeze.

‘Who is it? Who are you expecting?’

‘Nobody,’ whispered Jenna. ‘Let me answer it.’

The door banged again.

‘Police,’ bellowed a loud male voice.

‘You bitch, what have you done? Set me up?’

‘No, it’s probably for me, perhaps they’ve charged me with something else. Let me get it.’

‘I don’t trust you.’

He wouldn’t let go and she couldn’t elude him, but both of them heard the footsteps on the stairs, and the opening of the door.

‘What’s …?’

Lawrence let go of Jenna as a squad of police officers burst into the house, truncheons drawn.

‘In here.’ Kayley’s voice was high-pitched and urgent. ‘He’s got Jenna, in here.’

He was surrounded. There was nothing for him to do but to surrender himself into custody.

‘This isn’t over,’ he snarled to Jenna as they led him off.

‘No,’ she shouted after him. ‘I’ll be giving evidence at your trial.’

There were more statements to be taken, heels to be kicked at the police station, photos to be papped, disgusting cups of coffee to be drunk, but eventually the story seemed to be straight, and understood in everyone’s minds, and Jenna was sent back home.

Jason was released the next day.

Jenna’s PR had been on the phone until she had earache from the number of entreaties not to go and meet him from prison, but she ignored them all.

The photographers were lined up along the road on either side of the prison gates. Jenna stayed in her car, parked a few hundred yards away, watching the great grey gates between the high blank red brick walls. There really was something about a prison that struck a unique kind of horror into the heart, she thought. And Jason had not just been observing it from a distance – he had been in there, inside those cold walls with their barred windows.

At least it was only for a couple of days. He had been prepared for a lot longer.

Her hands flew to her handbag, and a strange flame rose from her stomach to her throat as she saw movement at the gate. It was being opened.

She lunged for the door handle and her eyes filled with tears at the first sight of Jason, impossibly small in front of those huge grey spikes, accompanied by a uniformed officer who stood looking after Jason as he pulled his cap down over his face to hide from the press.

He ran the gauntlet of them, and at the end he found Jenna, who had abandoned her resolve to wait in the car until he found her and bounded out on to the tarmac, shouting his name.

‘Jen,’ he cried, spotting her.

The feel of him, his reality, in her arms again, lifted a burden she hadn’t even been fully aware of. She felt light again, and capable of anything. There was nothing that could spoil this, nothing, ever.

‘I love you,’ she said, and he repeated the words back
to her before preventing further utterances by sealing her mouth up with a long, extravagant, passionate and very public kiss.

‘Tomorrow’s front page,’ she whispered, breaking apart.

They had somehow staggered, lips still locked, across the forecourt to the car, in a hail of click-click-clicks.

‘Who cares?’ he said. ‘They can print what they like. Perhaps it’s just as well they’re here.’

‘Oh?’

‘Otherwise I might have you right here, up against this car.’

She shivered with the thrill, letting him kiss her again with her back to the car door and his jeans-clad erection grinding into her, before they were interrupted by something other than the relentless photographing.

‘Our Jay! Hello! Remember me?’

He buried his face in Jenna’s neck, breathing a heavy sigh into it, before straightening up and turning to the voice.

‘Mum,’ he said. ‘Have you met Jenna?’

‘We have met,’ she said, eyeing Jenna dubiously. ‘She never said you two were …’

‘He was supposed to be in hiding,’ said Jenna. ‘Or I would have mentioned it. I didn’t want to lie to you.’

‘You could have said he was alive, at least! I was in
bits
.’

‘Look, can we have this conversation somewhere out of the public eye? Get in the car – we’ll talk at the Hall.’

‘Ooh, the Hall,’ said Jason’s mother. ‘It’s been a while. No, let me give my own son a hug. Thank you!’

Jason submitted to a quick squeeze, then sloped into the back seat of the car, keeping his head down as they
drove off through the predictable phalanx.

The same predictable phalanx met them outside the Hall, but the three of them hurried past and into safety.

‘Now,’ said Jenna, shutting the world outside. ‘I think we could all use a drink.’

‘How did you swing it?’ Jason was first to speak, taking a glass of red wine and sitting down at the kitchen table. ‘I thought I were in for a five-stretch, minimum.’

‘It was Kayley. She knew the details of the raid, and Mia and Lawrence’s part in it.’

‘She knew more than I did, then. What happened? Attack of the guilty conscience?’

‘Pretty much, yeah.’

He stared into the glass. ‘I’d hoped Mia might …’

‘Well, she’s being questioned, right now. I can’t see her sticking to Harville’s story.’

‘So she’ll go down?’

‘I don’t know. Possibly. Probably.’

He swished his wine around in the glass, his dark eyes fixed on it as if hypnotised.

‘Have you ever put in way more than you’ve got out?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ replied both Jenna and Kathy.

He half-smiled at them.

‘That was me and Mia.’

‘That was me and you,’ said Kathy with an ironic little laugh.

‘That was me and, oh never mind,’ said Jenna. ‘You loved her more than she loved you. It happens. But it never stops hurting until you can take courage and move on.’

‘She didn’t deserve you,’ said Kathy, stoutly. ‘I never
liked her.’

‘You never thought anyone deserved me,’ said Jason, patting his mother’s arm. ‘Did you?’

‘Well, I was right an’ all. You’re made of better stuff than that shower on the estate.’

‘So you were always saying,’ he replied. ‘But that’s what all mothers think, isn’t it?’

‘Not all of ’em have my grounds,’ she said, a tad darkly.

‘You are an astonishing talent,’ Jenna reminded him. ‘I saw some of your pictures on your mum’s wall. Amazing stuff.’

‘So,’ said Jason after a pause. ‘Harville’s inside now? Hope he’s got the same cell as me. My cell mate’s a big lad with a short fuse.’

‘It must have been awful for you.’

‘Not much different from school, to be honest. Most of the same people, even. Food was better.’

‘I always knew you were innocent,’ said Kathy with a dramatic depth to her voice. ‘I told everyone. My Jase isn’t into drugs. It’ll be that Mia, putting him up to it. But I couldn’t prove it, of course. Was it really Lawrence Harville behind it all?’

‘It really was,’ said Jenna. ‘Bastard. I hope he gets put away for a long time.’

‘He’ll wriggle out of it,’ predicted Jason. ‘Mia’ll be too scared to say a word against him, even if Kayley isn’t.’

‘I won’t be!’ said Jenna.

‘I bet they don’t even call you,’ said Jason. ‘He’s got good lawyers.’

‘So have I.’

‘You could’ve told me,’ wailed Kathy, apparently not
happy to be left out of the conversation. ‘Your own mother and you couldn’t find a way to tell me whether you were alive or dead. I’ve been to hell and back, I have.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Jason. ‘I know. But I thought you’d know I was OK. You know me. I can look after myself. I’ve had to.’

The last words were a little pointed, a little resentful, but not quite enough to shut Kathy up.

‘I’ve had it hard,’ she said. ‘You two can’t imagine what it’s been like for me. I’ve been let down in life, let down by everyone I ever knew. Even you, son. It’s like a slap in the face.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m back now, so everything’s sound, right?’ Jason sounded bored. ‘Where’s Bowyer?’

‘In the garden, I should think. He deserves a treat, too. Let’s have a little party, to celebrate your freedom, shall we? I’ll get some food and drink in.’

‘Sounds nice,’ said Kathy. ‘And I can get to know my boy’s new lass. At last he’s started to punch his own weight with the girls.’

‘Mum, I think you ought to be getting home,’ said Jason. ‘You know what you get like when the booze is flowing.’

Kathy didn’t take kindly to the suggestion.

‘How dare you? Your own mother! I can’t celebrate seeing my own son, what I thought were lying dead in a ditch, come back to life? You’re heartless, that’s what you are. Just like your dad.’

‘Oh, not this again, Mum.’ He turned to Jenna. ‘Whenever I do something she doesn’t like, I’m just like my dad. Convenient, isn’t it, that I can’t exactly argue, because I don’t know who the bastard is.’

‘The truth’ll come out, one day,’ said Kathy, rising from her seat and downing her glass of wine in one. ‘Believe you me.’

‘You don’t know who he is,’ said Jason, sounding bored. ‘It could be any number of fellas. Probably some loser with a wife and six kids of his own. I’ve probably played darts with him at the pub.’

‘You talk to me like that,’ said Kathy, now full of wounded dignity, pouring herself another glass. ‘But you’ll eat your words one day, you’ll see.’

‘I’ll give you a lift home,’ offered Jenna, alarmed to see Kathy necking back the second glass in one.

‘Don’t you trouble yourself,’ she said, the wounded dignity now so insistent that she was quite stiff with it. ‘I can walk. I’m still a capable human being, whatever
he
has to say about it.’

She banged down her glass and shuffled out of the kitchen, followed by Jason.

‘You’ll come and visit your old mum sometime, will you? When you’re not too busy with your love life?’

‘I’ll come round tomorrow. Stop being such a drama queen. Jesus. Anyone’d think it was you who’d just got out of prison on a false charge.’

She flounced out, banging the front door behind her.

‘Oh dear,’ said Jenna. ‘I hope she’ll get home all right.’

‘She’ll be fine. Two glasses is nothing to her. This was what it was like growing up. Everything was always about her. All “poor me” and veiled hints about some bollocks made-up story she’s dreamed up about how I came to be.’