Games Lovers Play (17 page)

John, now pleased with himself, grinned broadly. ‘Oh, I have every right. She's not the little innocent your mate thinks she is.'

‘Now you just shut your mouth before I do it for you!' Tom stood over him menacingly, and Baker shook off his hold.

As he staggered away, he called back over his shoulder, ‘Sam Knight needed to know, that's all – and now he does.'

Tom watched him to make sure he wasn't going to make more trouble and, taking a deep breath, returned to the bar.

‘What else did he have to say?' Sam demanded.

‘Nothing. The man was drunk. Take no notice.' He sat down, glancing briefly at Harry, who just raised his eyebrows.

Pushing his unfinished meal away, Sam got to his feet. ‘I'll see you two in the morning.'

When they were alone, Tom told Harry what Baker had said to him outside.

‘Bloody hell!' exclaimed Harry. ‘He's put the cat among the bleeding pigeons and that's a fact.

‘Well, it's none of our business. It's for Sam and Connie to sort out.' He grimaced. ‘I do hope it doesn't spoil things for those two; they're so right together.'

‘How would you feel if you were in Sam's place right now?' asked Harry.

‘Not good.'

‘Exactly!'

Sam walked to the park and sat on a wooden bench, stunned by what he'd heard. What made it even worse was that he believed Baker. The old saying ‘a drunken man speaks a sober mind' kept racing through his head. It wasn't the first indication Connie's boss had made that something was amiss. He remembered an earlier conversation where he'd said Connie needed a lot of attention and had told Sam to ask her what he meant. He remembered her excuse. She had lied to him! What a fool he'd been to protect her innocence … as he thought.

He remembered when they had first made love. He'd been puzzled that there had been no show of such innocence, but sometimes with young girls this was so and he'd dismissed it. Why wouldn't he?

He closed his eyes in an effort to shut out his disappointment. But all he could think of was Connie in Baker's arms – making love. It was not a pretty thought. What was he going to do about it? How could he feel the same about her now? He slowly shook his head. His thoughts were driving him crazy. He rose from the bench and walked home.

Kay Baker lay back entwined in Edward's arms, beneath the sheets. The heat from his naked body against hers. She didn't know when she had felt so happy. She gazed into the blue eyes that were looking at her and ran a finger across his mouth.

‘Mmm,' she murmured, ‘that was so good.'

He chuckled softly. ‘I'm so happy to know that I please you.'

She rolled on top of him and slowly kissed him. ‘I'm happy to put it in writing if you like.'

‘Well, Kay darling, a good reference never goes amiss.'

Laughing she said, ‘Would you like that cup of coffee now? Only, Susan will soon be home from Brownies.'

He held her even tighter. ‘That's such a shame as I'm so very comfortable, but it wouldn't do for your mother to find us in bed together.'

She rolled off him. ‘You don't know my mother!'

They were sitting at the breakfast table in the kitchen when Susan rushed in followed by her grandmother, waving a new badge in her hand.

‘Look, Mummy, I got a badge for my knots tonight!' She stopped when she saw Edward. ‘Hello! Would you like to see my badge?'

‘I certainly would,' he said. And proceeded to inspect it carefully.

Kay introduced him to her mother.

He shook hands with her and then said, ‘Thank you for the coffee, Kay. I'll be in touch.' He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, then said goodbye to the child and Kay's mother.

‘I'll call you,' he said as Kay let him out of the front door.

When she returned to the kitchen, her mother smiled at her. ‘What a lovely man! I do hope we didn't come home too early?'

Kay felt her cheeks flush.

‘I see we didn't, I am so pleased for you. Come along, Susan, let's get you undressed and in the bath whilst Mummy gets us something to eat.'

Connie climbed out of bed on Sunday morning and stretched. She hadn't heard from Sam at all during the week which was unusual. She assumed he was too busy – after all, he'd warned her of such times. She'd walk to the garage this morning and see if he was there.

When she arrived outside, she couldn't hear any noise at all. The radio, which was usually blaring out, was silent, there was no banging or sounds of work in progress, but Sam's motorbike was parked outside and one door was slightly ajar. She entered.

‘There you are!' she exclaimed.

Sam was sitting on an upturned box, staring into space. He just looked at her, without speaking.

‘Are you all right, darling?' she asked.

‘No, I'm not, since you ask.'

The coldness in his voice surprised her. He'd never ever spoken to her like that. Usually, his tone was warm and loving. It was as if there was a solid wall of ice between them, and she didn't know what to do. She didn't feel able to put her arms around him, as was her habit.

‘Whatever is wrong?' she asked with some trepidation.

He looked straight at her, his jaw set. ‘You lied to me, Connie!'

She felt her stomach plummet.

‘You led me to believe you were an innocent young girl, and I believed you, but you lied. How could you do that to me?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I was not the first man to make love to you after all. John Baker had you first!'

She felt the bile rise in her throat. Oh my God, he knew! She closed her eyes for a second, her mind racing to find the right words – and failing miserably. She tried to fight the tears which began to fill her eyes. She blinked rapidly.

‘I'm sorry, Sam, really I am. I didn't tell you in case I lost you.'

His gaze didn't waver. ‘He's not only so much older than you, but he's married, for God's sake! Didn't you ever consider his wife?'

There was no further point in lying, she thought. Better to get things out into the open. After all, what choice had she? ‘To be honest, no, I didn't. I was nineteen, young, impressionable. He was smooth, sophisticated. I was flattered by the attention … and one thing led to another. But I ended it with him as soon as we met. I love you, Sam. Please believe me!' She brushed a tear from her cheek. ‘Please don't let this spoil things for us.'

There was such an expression of sadness in his eyes; she thought she'd break down altogether. ‘Nothing can ever be the same, Connie, don't you see? I loved you, trusted you. I cared about you being a young innocent young woman. I loved that about you and the fact you trusted me to take care of you, when all the time …' He couldn't carry on.

‘Don't you still love me?' she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

‘I don't know how I feel about you at the moment, and that's the truth.'

‘Oh, Sam,' was all she could say.

‘You'd better go home, Connie.'

‘But I can't leave things like this!' she cried, gesticulating madly with her hands as if imploring him to say something positive.

‘I'm sorry, but I've got to have time to think. Go home, please.'

She had no choice and walked slowly to the door, where she paused. ‘I do love you, Sam, with all my heart, and I pray you can forgive me for deceiving you. I've grown up since I met you and I now know what's important in my life – and that's you, Sam. Nothing or no one else!'

She walked down the street, her shoulders hunched in rejection, the tears now flowing, unhindered. Her life in ruins.

Gerry Cooper was in a major panic. All work on the building site had ceased ever since Edward Harrington had called to inspect the work in hand, and Gerry thought his scam was about to be discovered. He'd been given the job of ordering the materials for the building. All he'd had to do was take the order form to the suppliers and hand it over, but he'd hatched upon a scheme with one of the workers there. They'd ordered the supplies, but using inferior cement and girders that were lighter and cheaper, pocketing the difference between them and Jake Barton. Jake had acted as a lookout for any trouble from Harrington in case he'd discovered their plan and earned a cut of the profits for so doing. Until yesterday, things had run smoothly. Now the scheme had been discovered and Gerry was trying to find a way that wouldn't implicate him.

He had no choice but to warn his associate at the suppliers, who had immediately given in his notice and left Southampton without telling Gerry.

Edward, when he suspected the reason for the discrepancies, had called in the police and had instructed the workforce to go over the building, testing everything that had been used on parts of the building that had already been constructed.

The results were catastrophic!

A meeting had been called at the Civic Centre, where everyone at the top of the committee dealing with all the building, past and present, had been called. It was only then that Edward was able to give them the bad news.

‘The unfinished building is unsafe, gentlemen. We will have to dismantle everything and start again!'

There was pandemonium around the table. Cries of, ‘That will cost thousands!'

Another said, ‘We don't have the budget to rebuild!'

And so it went on.

Many tried to apportion the blame. ‘Who is responsible for this? Surely someone is at fault for letting such a thing happen?'

All eyes looked at Edward.

‘Gentlemen, whoever planned this did it with great precision. My foreman had no reason to doubt that the building materials delivered were not the ones that had been ordered. After all, he followed my instructions to the letter. The invoices were clearly marked to supply the goods we had talked about whilst going over the plans. As far as we were concerned, there was nothing amiss. I have called in the police to look into it. Whatever happened, it was when the invoices left our hands. When everything was delivered it was checked against the invoices and the number of items tallied. What we didn't know was that the actual supplies had been tampered with.'

There was more huffing and puffing from those around the table as Edward said, ‘Unfortunately, the council will have to cover the cost of dismantling the building as we cannot leave it standing as it is.'

The committee had no recourse here and had to agree, but it was a very frosty atmosphere in the room as they left after the meeting.

Edward let out a deep sigh and walked to his office. Standing by the window, looking out at the cars, and at the pedestrians going about their daily lives, he was dispirited. He took great pride in his work, and if anything was wrong, it reflected on his professionalism. He'd been proud of this rebuild. It was for a block of offices built on two floors to be used by the council. Much-needed space for the staff. It had been simplistic in design but with his usual flair – and now it would have to be destroyed! Who could have done such a thing? Had this remained undiscovered, at some time in the future the building would have collapsed, perhaps causing fatalities. Well, the police were now making their enquiries, and he prayed they'd find the perpetrators of such scandalous behaviour!

He sat at his desk. The one good thing in his life at the moment was Kay. Thank God for her! At least when he was with her, he could put all these worries out of his mind for a short while. He smiled softly as he thought of little Susan and her badge for tying knots. Could he envisage taking on another man's child? He had to contemplate such a move if his relationship with Kay was to grow and mature.

He was falling in love with her, of that there was no doubt. Already he could see her living in his house, cooking in his kitchen, curled up with him on the settee before a log fire. Sharing his bed. He wanted her in his life on a permanent basis, but he would have to wait. After all, her divorce was so recent. She deserved a bit of freedom, time to make up her mind about once again taking on the trappings of marriage. Well, there was no rush; he'd been single for a long time, and another few months wouldn't matter. In any case, he had to get this present situation sorted first, before making any personal plans of his own.

Jake Barton and Gerry Cooper were in Jake's kitchen poring over their predicament.

‘That bastard at the suppliers has upped sticks and pissed off out of it!' Gerry declared angrily. ‘I was good enough to give him the nod about the situation and the next thing he'd buggered off!'

‘How do you know that?'

‘I rang the place to talk to him this morning and they told me. I went round to his gaff and it was empty.'

‘Where does that leave you then?'

‘Holding the fucking baby if they find out, that's where!'

Jake frowned. ‘So what's the next move?'

‘I'm keeping a low profile at the moment at work. I'm hanging on there for the time being as then if anything's happening I'll know about it. If I have to, I'll scarper.'

‘Can they find anything to put you in the frame for this?'

Gerry looked uncertain. ‘Nothing they could prove now my mate has scarpered. I would just deny all knowledge and throw the ball into his court. After all, I just handed over the order form and took delivery. I'm no builder; I'm just the gofer, so how would I know if anything was wrong?'

‘But if they go looking for your pal and find him and he drops you in it, what then?'

‘If they find the rotten bugger, you won't see me for dust! I'll be off to the smoke; they'll never find me there.'

Jake wasn't convinced. ‘Well, let me tell you, Gerry, if you try to implicate me, you won't have enough breath in your body to make the journey! Do I make myself clear?'

The other man nodded. Although he and Jake were cohorts in this scheme, he knew enough about him to know he had a dangerous side, one not to invite.