Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) (26 page)

After sending the leather jacket to the lab for examination, Geraldine set off to visit Celia.

‘You’re seeing a lot of your sister these days,’ Sam said, as Geraldine was leaving.

‘Yes, well, she’s pregnant.’

‘You don’t have to justify it. I think it’s great.’

Geraldine didn’t mention that going to see Celia gave her an excuse to postpone visiting her mother in hospital. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t felt able to tell anyone about finding her mother, but she needed to sort out her own feelings about her new situation before dealing with other people’s reactions to the reunion. Celia would treat the news with suspicion, worried that Geraldine’s attention would be snatched away from her and Chloe. Sam was bound to be enthusiastic about it. Geraldine could just imagine her response.

‘Oh my God, that’s fantastic!’

The trouble was, Geraldine wasn’t elated by the thought of the sick pale woman lying in hospital, barely conscious. Her mother remained untouchable.

49

G
ERALDINE’S BROTHER-IN-LAW ANSWERED
the door. Tall and slim, he gave her a characteristically distracted smile.

‘Hi Geraldine. Good to see you.’

He leaned down and pecked her on the cheek with soft dry lips.

‘Celia’s in bed. I’ll call up and tell her you’re here.’

Geraldine felt a stab of fear. ‘No, don’t get her up. What’s wrong? Has the doctor seen her?’

As she was speaking, Celia appeared on the stairs. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she laughed. ‘I’m not ill for goodness sake. I don’t need a doctor. I was just having a rest before you came. I get tired, that’s all, and it’s good to rest.’

‘My wife likes to take things easy,’ Sebastian smiled.

Celia reached the bottom of the stairs and came forward, arms outstretched for a welcome hug. Feeling the warmth of physical contact with another woman, Geraldine felt like crying.

‘I was just worried about you, that’s all,’ she muttered into her sister’s hair.

‘I feel like a hippopotamus,’ Celia said, pulling away.

‘You look great. It doesn’t even show yet.’

They sat in the kitchen with a pot of tea while Sebastian went to collect Chloe from a friend’s house. Celia chattered about her pregnancy, pausing only for reassurance that she wasn’t boring Geraldine.

‘No, no, of course not,’ Geraldine lied. ‘It’s amazing what a complicated business it all is. I mean, it’s a natural process but there’s so much you have to prepare and do.’

‘Yes. I can’t believe women used to just squat down and drop it, and then carry on working in the fields,’ Celia gave a rueful smile. ‘I tell you what, Geraldine, if you’re thinking of ever having a family, you seriously need to get on with it. The further you go past forty, the more tiring it is, really.’

‘I need to find myself a man first, and I can’t see that happening any time soon.’

‘Did you look at that online dating agency I mentioned?’

‘I looked at it, but I really haven’t had time to do anything about it. In any case, my job’s bound to put men off, isn’t it?’

‘Why?’

‘Well, I spend most of my time going after criminals –’

‘It’s what all the youngsters do these days,’ Celia interrupted her impatiently. ‘Three of the girls at my antenatal class met their partners online. Seriously, Geraldine, you should at least give it a go.’

‘Did you say you’re going to antenatal classes?’ Geraldine asked, seizing the opportunity to divert the conversation back to Celia and her pregnancy.

‘Yes, I know this isn’t my first, but it’s such a long time ago, I’ve forgotten just about everything. I’ve no idea what to do.’

‘I think it’ll happen anyway,’ Geraldine said and they both laughed.

‘Now,’ Celia said when they had discussed her pregnancy some more, ‘enough about me. How’re things with you?’

‘Since last week, you mean? Well,’ Geraldine hesitated, ‘we think we’ve cracked the case. We just need to pick up the suspect and hopefully it’s all sorted. It should go without a hitch from now on.’

‘You don’t sound very confident.’

‘Unless you have credible independent eye witness accounts, ideally more than one, or CCTV evidence, and a plausible confession, it is difficult to be confident. And even then it’s not always cut and dried. There’s always room for doubt.’

‘Surely no one can disprove a confession? Don’t you record everything?’

Geraldine smiled. ‘You wouldn’t believe the number of false confessions we get.’

‘No way! Why would anyone do that?’

‘Protecting someone else, nutters, pathological liars – we had one old boy who used to come in on a weekly basis to confess to some crime or other, it didn’t seem to matter what. Always on a Thursday. He hasn’t been in for a while, now I come to think of it. I wonder what happened to him.’

‘That’s nuts.’

‘The people I deal with in my job aren’t always what you might call normal.’

She smiled at Celia. It was a relief to visit her sister and take a break from all the crazy people who inhabited her own world. She sometimes wondered if she was one of them. She wanted to say something to Celia, tell her she was sorry about all the time she had wasted resisting a relationship with her adopted sister. They had never been close when they were growing up together. Now Geraldine was beginning to realise that their shared memories were unique. Before she could think of the right words, Chloe came running in.

‘Mum! Mum! Guess what! Lucy’s having a disco for her birthday. I have to go! I have to!’

‘Chloe, look who’s here.’

Celia smiled apologetically at Geraldine. Chloe was nearly a teenager. A visit from her aunt was no longer as exciting as it had once been.

‘We must go shopping,’ Geraldine said. ‘I don’t know what to buy you any more.’

‘Oh that’s OK.’ Chloe turned back to her mother. ‘I can go, can’t I? I told her you’d let me go.’

Geraldine helped Celia clear away the tea things. It was nearly time for supper.

‘I can’t stay late,’ Geraldine said. ‘I have to visit someone in hospital on the way home.’

‘Nothing serious I hope?’

Geraldine hesitated. Celia had her back to her, checking something in the oven.

‘No.’

‘Anyone I know?’

‘No.’

That, at least, was true. Before she could become embroiled in any more lies, Chloe and Sebastian came in asking when supper would be ready, and they all sat down at the table. The conversation moved on to Chloe who had given up dancing and was now desperate to own a pony.

‘Why not? Lucy’s got one.’

‘Lucy’s parents have got a lot more money than us,’ Sebastian said.

‘It wouldn’t cost much,’ Chloe pleaded, ‘and I’d look after it.’

‘A pony is not like a kitten,’ Celia said.

‘Well, d’uh!’ Chloe retorted.

Celia turned to Geraldine. ‘See what you’re missing?’

Geraldine raised her eyebrows, trying not to smile.

When they finished eating, she stood up and explained once again that she had to go.

‘But you’ve only just got here,’ Chloe protested. ‘I’ve hardly seen you.’

‘I’ll come back next week,’ Geraldine promised.

She was too late to visit her mother but called in at the hospital anyway to leave flowers.

‘Milly’s asleep,’ the nurse told her, ‘but she wants to see you. She was asking for you this afternoon.’

Geraldine left, promising to return the next day.

50

L
ENNY WAS UP
early on Monday, intending to leave before Gina was stirring so there was no risk of her insisting on accompanying him to the jewellers. He was dressed before she woke up.

‘What you up so early for?’

‘Jesus, you made me jump. What you doing, creeping up on me like that?’

‘You’re the one what’s creeping around. Where you off to?’

‘I’m going to get your ring, like you wanted.’

‘Wait up. I’m coming with you.’

‘No time now. You should’ve thought of that before. I’m going now.’

‘You better do right by me, Lenny, after all I done for you. You better get me my ring and I don’t want no crap.’

She was still railing at him when he slipped out and banged the door shut. Hurrying along the corridor, he was out of the building and away up the street before she could even get dressed. So far so good. Now he had to see what was happening with the jeweller.

Nearly two weeks had passed since his former cell mate, Berny, sent him on what had seemed to be a wild goose chase that had started in East London and ended in a dank basement flat in Dalston. He struggled to remember where it was. At last, after walking for hours, he found the right place.

A skinny man opened the door a fraction and squinted up at Lenny. In the darkness behind him, a dog let out a deep throated growl.

‘What you after?’ he asked in a hoarse voice, and coughed.

‘It’s me, it’s Lenny. You remember me. It was Berny what sent me.’

Des opened the door just wide enough to admit his visitor. Lenny entered, glancing nervously at the dog.

‘Shut it, Bonnie!’ Des snapped, and bent double in a fit of coughing.

The dog retreated, still growling.

‘You remember me? I brought you a ring to fix.’

The other man nodded his head. ‘What you after?’ he repeated, and was shaken by another fit of coughing.

‘Can’t you stick that dog in the bedroom like you done last time?’

‘I got company in the bedroom. She don’t like Bonnie.’

Lenny didn’t believe him, but he was in no position to argue. He knew dogs could sense fear and did his best to hide his nerves as he explained that he had come to collect the ring he had left with Des.

‘You was going to do a little job on it for me. I don’t want to hassle you or nothing, only my bird’s driving me nuts to get her ring back and I could do with the dosh right now anyway. I been cleaned out.’

It was difficult to make out the expression on the jeweller’s gaunt face. One of his eyes was permanently half-closed, so that he looked as though he was sizing Lenny up. Apart from that, it was very dark in the room. Little daylight penetrated the dark curtains at the windows.

‘You want me to give you back your ring and you want me to hand you over some dough?’ Des rasped.

Lenny went through the whole thing again. He had already explained it all to Des when he had given him the ring in the first place. Des had agreed to do the work, claiming it would be easy.

‘You can’t have forgotten,’ Lenny concluded, struggling to hide his desperation. Something stank, and it wasn’t just the dog.

Des walked over to the far end of the room and switched on a lamp to illuminate a workbench covered with a hotchpotch of tools: pliers, files, hammers, saws, a soldering torch, lengths of delicate wire, tweezers, goggles, batteries, pots and brushes. He opened a drawer and pulled out a tangle of gold and silver chains. Putting them aside, he took out a handful of rings, some of them sparkling with gems. In the light of the lamp, he picked through them, searching.

‘I forgot your face, but I remember the ring,’ he muttered. ‘Nice little piece.’

In his relief that Des remembered, Lenny babbled on about what he wanted, the diamond removed and paid for, replaced with a replica piece of glass. Des nodded as his fingers deftly sorted through the rings. At last he picked one out and held it up for Lenny to see.

‘This one yours, innit?’

Lenny stepped forward. ‘Looks like it.’ He didn’t add that they all looked the same to him. ‘It had a bloody big diamond, anyway. Must be worth a good few grand.’

Des cackled, and began coughing again. ‘A few grand? You’re having a laugh,’ he gasped when he was able to speak.

‘What you on about?’ Lenny demanded, although he knew well enough where this was heading. ‘That’s a bloody big rock and I want what it’s worth. I could pawn it and buy a cheap one with all the cash they’d give me, and still be better off without you.’

‘Your bird would know the difference. Them birds, they always know. You try and trick her, you got to do it clever or you won’t get away with it.’ Des paused to cough. ‘You need it done proper or you’re in deep shit.’

‘So can you do it?’

‘Ain’t nothing I can’t do.’

‘I need it now. And how much will you give me for the rock?’

Des stared at the ring for a moment, then he studied it carefully through an eye glass. ‘Looks like a decent stone. I’ll give you a grand for it.’

‘Make it five.’

Des put the ring down and shook his head ‘A grand, or you can take your ice and walk. It ain’t worth no more to me. In fact, the honest truth, it ain’t even worth that much, what with all the work you want done. It’s a skilled job, that. I must be mad, offering you so much. But I know what it’s like to have a bird on your back. You got my sympathy, Lenny, that’s the honest truth of why I’m giving you such a good price. You’d be mad to walk away. Tell you what, I’ll throw in the work for nothing. A grand in your pocket and you walk away with a new ring and she won’t never know the difference. I’ll put a nice bit of zirconia in a gold-plated ring and it’s going to look the business. Even another jeweller won’t know, not unless they test it.’