Moving On (8 page)

At Merseyside Mansions, 1977 was heralded in with a party for the residents on New Year’s Eve.

The lavish decorations were still up in the communal lounge and it was packed with people. Everyone seemed to be there, all of them dressed in their party clothes. As they waited for midnight they were all standing or sitting around in groups, holding a glass of wine in their hand, chatting away to one another about the wonderful Christmas they’d had with their families.

Jenny now knew most of the residents and was thoroughly enjoying herself until Jane Phillips made it her business to come over to where she was and pointedly ask her if her granddaughter was coming to the party.

‘Not as far as I know,’ Jenny murmured. ‘I’m sure she is out enjoying herself with her own young friends, or she may even be away; she’s out of the country quite a lot. She does a great deal of travelling in her job,’ she added by way of explanation to others in the group who had stopped talking between themselves to listen to what Jane Phillips was saying.

‘Travelling!’ Jane gave a cynical little laugh. ‘Oh yes, I know all about that.’

She immediately launched into a waspish account of Karen and her ‘goings-on’ followed by a detailed character assassination of Hadyn Trimm.

‘I’m surprised you allow your granddaughter to associate with a man like him let alone live with him,’ she commented. ‘It’s asking for trouble. Everyone knows he’s flaunting the law. The police have been watching him for ages and sooner or later they’ll catch him red-handed. Either that or they’ll catch your granddaughter.’

‘Catch them? What on earth are you talking about?’

Jane raised her eyebrows and stared back at Jenny with a look of cynical amusement on her face. ‘The smuggling they’re involved in, of course. All the illegal drugs and stuff they’re bringing in and taking out of the country. Why else do you think your granddaughter is always going abroad?’

Jenny looked taken aback but kept her nerve. ‘What a malicious story,’ she said with a forced laugh. ‘You’ve got it all wrong, of course. Karen’s travelling is connected with her job but not in the way you are suggesting. I told you before, she works for Hadyn Trimm and handles public relations for the shipping line and her travelling is all to do with that.’

Jane’s mouth momentarily gaped then she burst into laughter.

‘That’s what she’s told you, is it?’ she said scornfully. ‘Believe me, it’s not nearly as innocent as that. A good cover story, I’ll give you that, but I’ve no idea who would believe it, except a complete simpleton.’

Jenny was sure that the barbed insult was directed at her and she felt herself bristle. She drew a deep breath to calm herself as an angry retaliation sprang to her lips.

She realized that there was no point in antagonizing this woman and was relieved when someone carrying a bottle of red wine came up to see if they would like a refill in readiness to greet the New Year, making it unnecessary for her to answer. Murmuring an excuse, she moved away while Jane Phillips was having her glass topped up.

Jane’s words had made a deep impact and Jenny wondered if there was perhaps some element of truth in what she’d said. She certainly hoped not but she could see how such gossip might start and be spread amongst Hadyn Trimm’s neighbours, especially if they were envious of his lavish lifestyle.

The moment midnight struck they all raised their glasses in a toast and handshakes, kisses and hugs followed. Jenny slipped away. The joy had gone out of the celebrations for her and she was anxious to seek solace in her own apartment.

She didn’t want to meet up with Jane Phillips again until she’d had a chance to talk to Karen and see if she could discover how such awful rumours had come about. She was sure that it was all nonsense but nevertheless it worried her greatly that Karen’s name was linked with such malicious gossip, especially if there was anything in Jane Phillips’s comment about Hadyn Trimm and Karen being watched by the police.

After a disturbed night, Jenny was unable to get into her normal routine on New Year’s Day. She kept to her own apartment because she didn’t feel in the mood to be exchanging ‘Happy New Year’ greetings with anybody. She wished she could contact Karen so that she could talk to her and set her own mind at rest about the gossip. She was sure Karen would have an explanation as to how it had all started.

By midday Jenny felt so much on tenterhooks that she knew she could stand her own company no longer. She might not be able to contact Karen by phone but she knew where she lived and since she’d made the journey once before she’d have no problems in finding the house again.

It was a cold grey day so she put on a warm topcoat, a fur hat, and a thick scarf. Then, picking up her fur gloves and handbag, she set off. What she hadn’t taken into consideration was that since it was a bank holiday boats and buses were restricted and it took her until almost mid-afternoon to reach the Calderstones area.

The street looked deserted and there was a hollow echo when she rang the doorbell. She followed it up by knocking loudly, and when that had no effect she was about to turn away, disappointed that they were obviously not there, when the curtains at the front window of the next door house twitched and a woman tapped on the glass.

For a moment Jenny was inclined to ignore her, then the thought that she might know when they would be coming home made her hesitate and she smiled at the woman.

The woman mouthed something that Jenny couldn’t understand but within seconds her front door was opening. Jenny was surprised to see that she had on an apron and that she was pulling a coat around her shoulders as she came out into the driveway that separated the two houses.

‘I’m afraid they are out so it’s no good you ringing their bell or knocking because there’s no one at all there,’ the woman said. ‘They sacked the young girl who worked for them at Christmas,’ she went on lugubriously.

‘Thank you for telling me,’ Jenny said as she turned away.

‘I come here next door to them to clean and one day they were there and the next morning they’d gone,’ the woman went on. ‘Moved right away. I work for a couple of other houses along the road and I did hear someone say that the pair of them had gone to live in Cardiff but I don’t know for sure if that’s right or not. They’re a bit of a mystery though and there’s always a lot of gossip going on about them.’

Jenny felt stunned. ‘Are you sure they’ve moved and not just gone there on business?’ she asked. ‘I only saw Karen a short time ago and she never mentioned that she was thinking of moving.’

Her voice trailed away. The woman’s green eyes were bright with interest, greedy for more information and Jenny knew that by thinking aloud not only was she giving away far too much information but in next to no time it would be passed around the street.

‘Oh, it was a moonlight flit all right if ever I saw one though I’m not sure why … but one of the other ladies I clean for said …’

‘Thank you for telling me they’re away,’ Jenny interrupted, pulling herself together, her voice sharp.

‘Well, you might have stood there knocking all day or even have hung around thinking they’d be back soon. You could have been half frozen doing that on a day like this. There’s sleet coming down and I wouldn’t mind betting it will snow later on tonight.’ She pulled her coat tighter around her. ‘The best place to be is indoors sitting round the fire.’

‘Yes, you are quite right,’ Jenny agreed. She looked again at the house, this time noting how empty it looked and she felt quite disorientated. She couldn’t believe that Karen had left there, left Liverpool, without telling her. She felt vaguely unnerved.

‘Have you come from very far away? You look as though you’re worn out. Either that or you’re shocked by the news that they’ve skedaddled.’

‘You’re a relative are you?’ the woman went on when Jenny didn’t answer. ‘You are very welcome to come in and have a cuppa and a warm by the kitchen fire, luv,’ she invited when Jenny remained silent, ignoring her questions.

‘No, no. That’s very kind of you but I agree it does look as if it is going to snow and I’d like to get home before it does. If I leave now I should manage to do so,’ she added as she began to walk down the driveway.

She was still puzzled by what could have happened and why Karen had left Liverpool without a word to her; that was, if what the woman said was true.

As she remembered the vicious accusations Jane Phillips had made and her character assassination of Hadyn Trimm she was worried in case Karen really was in some sort of trouble.

As they drove across the Severn Bridge into Wales, Karen glanced apprehensively at Hadyn’s grim profile. They had been driving for hours; a devious route down through Birmingham and the Midlands to Bristol instead of taking the more direct route through Chester and the Welsh Border towns to Chepstow.

When they reached the other side of the Severn, Karen felt that it was almost like leaving England for a foreign country. British law still applied in Wales, of course, she reminded herself, and if Hadyn was apprehended and she was with him would the police decide that she was as guilty as him?

She had never been to Cardiff before but Loudon Square sounded quite imposing and she imagined it would be full of large Regency or Victorian houses and hotels.

She felt rather guilty about not letting her grandmother know that she was leaving Liverpool but Hadyn had been insistent that they told no one and that they should leave immediately. He was right, of course. If she had phoned Jenny then she would have wanted to know what was going on.

There were so many things she hadn’t told her grandmother in the past few months, Karen reflected. She hadn’t told her the truth about where she was living but had let her think she was sharing a flat with a girlfriend.

How could she tell her that because Hadyn was her boss she had not only let him make love to her after a rather wild party but had spent the rest of the night with him.

He was a wonderful lover and their love-making was so very different from the rough, boisterous coupling she’d known with Jimmy Martin. Although Hadyn was a gentle and sensitive lover he made her feel like a real woman. She had fallen crazily in love with him and had been more than willing to move in with him when he’d asked her to do so.

Her grandmother would have to be told eventually, Karen thought uneasily. Or would she ever need to know? If everything turned out all right then perhaps Jenny need never know the whole truth, especially about why they’d thrown their belongings into Hadyn’s car and left Liverpool in such a hurry.

She studied Hadyn’s jet-black hair and saturnine profile more intently. He might be almost thirty years older than her, old enough to be her father, but he really was devastatingly handsome; and charming. He exuded charisma; there was no doubt that she was completely under his spell. She must be or she would not have done all the things he’d asked of her, she reasoned.

It had all started innocently enough a few weeks after she’d moved in with him. He had asked her if on her next trip she would mind taking along a small package and handing it over to a friend of his who would contact her at her hotel.

Hadyn was her boss as well as her lover and she felt flattered, especially when he asked her not to mention it to anyone else as it was a personal matter.

After that it happened more and more frequently and became a regular chore. He seemed to have friends in every country she went to and when she handed over the package to them they usually asked if she would take one back for Hadyn.

She would probably never have known what was in the packages if she hadn’t been caught in a torrential downpour as she was making her way from Liverpool Pier Head out to Calderstones and the wrapper had become so damaged that it split and the contents had been revealed.

At first she’d believed him when he told her that it was samples of vitamin pills. It was only later that she suspected that the pills might be drugs and that if that was so then she was acting as a courier.

When she voiced her suspicions, Hadyn had tried to laugh it off and tell her she was imagining things, but this had made her angry. ‘They’re simply different kinds of vitamin tablets that I’ve been asked to get for a friend,’ he assured her.

‘I’m not a fool,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘They’re drugs of some kind, aren’t they?’

‘You’re quite right, of course, they are,’ Hadyn said, laughing. ‘All pills are drugs of some kind or the other.’

‘Yes, I suppose they are,’ Karen agreed, ‘but these are the kind of drugs that are termed illegal and I’m not prepared to carry them for you any more.’

‘Why not? You’ve been doing it for months and what harm has it done?’

Karen felt taken aback. ‘Surely you must know the effect they have on people; and what if they are getting into the hands of children …’ Her voice trailed off. She had no idea what she was talking about except that she knew there were lots of dangerous drugs on the market and that they were reputed to ruin people’s lives.

‘I’m going to report what has been going on to the police,’ she threatened.

‘I see. And what proof are you going to offer them?’

‘I’ll tell them what I’ve been doing all these months and all about the men who collect the packages you ask me to take for you and the ones I am asked to bring back.’

‘That would be very foolish,’ Hadyn said quietly. ‘If you do that you will be considered guilty because you have been carrying them backwards and forwards through customs.’

‘I don’t care!’

‘You might not but I do. I thought you trusted me.’

‘I did,’ she admitted, ‘but now I’m scared because I know what we’re doing is so wrong.’

It was two nights after this that Hadyn had come rushing into the house and told her to pack and that they were leaving instantly.

‘Where are we going and why?’

‘Right away from here. I know someone who will let us stay with him and the police will never think of following us there.’

When she’d hesitated and said that she didn’t want to do that, Hadyn had laughed harshly and told her she had no option.

‘In the eyes of the law you’re as guilty as I am,’ he told her sharply. ‘Pack your bag and stop arguing. The sooner we are on the road the better.’

It wasn’t until they were approaching the Severn crossing that he had told her exactly where their destination was to be. When she questioned him about it and asked where they would be staying in Cardiff he’d merely shrugged. ‘Loudon Square, but I haven’t any idea what it’s like there,’ he told her crisply. ‘This chap has a hotel but I’ve never been there before. We won’t be staying long, only until the heat dies down.’

‘Will we go back to Liverpool then?’

Hadyn shrugged again. ‘Depends,’ he snapped.

Karen looked at him in stunned silence. This was a new side of Hadyn, one she hadn’t seen before. He seemed so hard and ruthless, so different from the kindly boss or the charismatic lover who had won her heart.

Although he claimed that he had never visited Cardiff before, Hadyn seemed to know precisely where he was going and was able to drive directly to Loudon Square without pausing to ask anybody for directions.

Karen felt her heart sinking as she looked around her. Loudon Square was a large ‘square’ of stunted grass with a couple of sad-looking trees surrounded by grim-looking grey terraced houses and a modern tower block of flats at one end.

‘We’re here,’ Hadyn said as they drew up and he switched off the car engine. He waited for her to get out and, taking her arm, accompanied her to one of the terraced houses.

A dark-skinned man who was wearing a smock-type shirt over grey baggy trousers opened the door. Hadyn pushed her inside the door and said abruptly, ‘Go with Jamil. I’ll get the cases.’

‘This way, please,’ the man said with a little bow. He turned and led the way up a flight of stairs to the second floor leaving Karen to follow him.

He showed her into a drab room furnished with a double iron bedstead that was covered with a multicoloured candlewick bedspread, and then he stood by the door as if he was keeping guard.

Apart from the bed there was only an armchair, a small brown wood table pushed up against one wall with a mirror above it and a brown wood cupboard in the room.

Karen walked over to the window and was about to draw aside the heavy net curtain when Jamil let out a warning noise and grabbed at her arm, shaking his head in disapproval. ‘No, no!’ he scowled. ‘Keep away from the windows, please.’

Before she could ask him why, Hadyn was in the room. He heaved their two suitcases on to the bed and then nodded at Jamil who had indicated with a movement of his hand that he wished to speak to him in private.

As the two men left the room, Karen returned to the window and, carefully moving an edge of the curtain away from the side, stared out into Loudon Square.

Within seconds she saw Hadyn leaving the house and get into the car. As he pulled away from the kerbside and drove off, Karen was panic-stricken for a moment in case he had deserted her. Then common sense came back; he was probably only going to garage the car somewhere out of sight, she told herself.

Sitting on the edge of the bed she drummed her fingers impatiently on one of the suitcases as she waited for Hadyn to come back. This place wasn’t at all like she had expected it would be, she thought with a shiver as she looked round the drab room.

Loudon Square had sounded quite grand and she had expected to be staying in a luxury hotel or at least somewhere comfortable. This place was little more than a slum, she reflected in dismay and wondered how long they would have to stay there.

‘How the hell do I know?’ Hadyn said brusquely when he came back from garaging the car and she questioned him. ‘We stay here as long as is necessary so shut up and make the best of it. I don’t want to be here any more than you do,’ he said irritably.

Karen stared at him in dismay. She felt hurt; he sounded so curt and unfeeling and completely oblivious to how she felt.

‘It’s so drab here and that man Jamil frightens me,’ she whispered.

She expected Hadyn to put his arms around her and comfort her but he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he opened up both their suitcases. ‘You may as well unpack, we’ll probably be here for quite some time,’ he told her curtly.