Winner Takes It All (38 page)

Layton House was full; a
couple of Ben’s RAF colleagues had dropped by to pay their respects
and Christian was entertaining the old gentleman on the front
terrace. Alex had joined them and seated next to her was Robin, his
hand pressing Alex’s against the table. This was the first time Tom
had seen him since Ben died. It had been Jack who’d been doing all
the consoling.

Alex looked as though she
wished she could be anywhere other than here and when she noticed
Tom, she actually looked pleased to see him. She got up from her
seat and rushed over to him.

‘
Any luck?’
she asked.

‘
I hope what
I’ve got is satisfactory.’

‘
I’d better
introduce you then we’ll go in and Jack will sort it all
out.’

She led Tom over to the
table, gesturing to the white haired old men; one was thin and
spindly like Andrew McDonald, the other one much more sturdy in
appearance – like Ben.

‘
Tom this is
Flight Lieutenant Giles Fraser.’ She pointed to the thinner one.
‘And this is Captain John Cavendish. They fought with grandpa in
the war. This is Thomas Montague, my cousin.’

‘
Nice to meet
you Tom,’ the old men said, shaking hands with him. Robin then
grasped his hand.

‘
Hello Tom old
chap, how are you doing?’ he asked in that jolly hockey sticks
voice of his.

‘
I’m well
thank you Robin. Good to see you.’

Robin reached out and put
his arm around Alex’s waist, pulling her to him. Tom noticed his
cousin’s body freeze somewhat.

‘
This one’s
been trying to cope without me,’ he said. ‘She forgets that in a
few months time we’ll be married.’

‘
Tom can’t
hang around all day Robin,’ Alex snapped, squirming away from him.
‘He’s got the estate to run.’

She broke away from her
fiancé and marched back into the house, followed closely by Tom.
Did she mean what she’d just said? That he had to manage the
estate? Did that mean he wasn’t fired?

Jack was waiting for them
in the games room. Alex explained that Ben had the small reception
room converted for the children when they visited Layton House.
When Alex was a child all that had been in there was a Subbeteo
game and an ancient Commodore 64 that Dan and Michael used to hog.
Now there was a TV and Xbox; an actual arcade racing game and a
dance mat - although with all the Cusack youngsters being male,
that rarely got used. Jack was seated between Benny and Lucas,
playing a fighting game on the Xbox. Tom felt sorry for the little
boys, apparently they had seen their grandfather dying - not
pleasant at any age and they were both under ten.

On seeing the adults
enter the room, Jack passed the children the control and got up.
Tom wondered why exactly he was here. He and Alex were only
business partners after all.

‘
Any luck
Tom?’ Jack asked in his thick, Scouse accent. Tom half admired
Jack, half feared him. He’d lived such an adventurous life;
fighting in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, the first Gulf War, only to
come home and take up boxing. He was like a real life action hero
and Tom found him a little intimidating despite his friendly
nature. Maybe it was just the fact that he was very tall, very good
looking, very confident and had done something with his life. Being
next to him made Tom feel very small and insignificant.

‘
I’ve done my
best,’ Tom replied. ‘I hope he said enough to land himself in
it.’

Jack reached up and
detached the microphone from Tom’s ear, pulling it up through his
t-shirt and taking the recording device from his back
pocket.

‘
I’ll get and
sort this out now,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to be leaving at
six.’

‘
You can stay
another night if you want,’ Alex said, and Tom could swear he could
hear pleading in her voice.

‘
I can’t
queen, I’ve got to be up in Liverpool for a meeting tomorrow
morning. Anyway, let me go and decipher this.’

He rushed out the room
and Alex slumped down on one of the brightly coloured beanbags. Tom
sat beside her, wanting to ask her if things were going wrong
between her and Robin but he knew it wasn’t his place. He was still
walking on thin ice.

‘
So has
Bannerman been ripping us off?’ she asked with a sigh.

‘
Yes,
apparently he set up a fake company to tender proposals for jobs
Sheridans were putting forward, taking the money and spending it on
cheaper labour. Now he’s escaping with his ill-gotten
gains’

‘
Where’s he
going?’

‘
Panama. He’s
leaving on Friday morning from Heathrow.’

‘
I’ll check
flight times; hopefully the police will be able to stop
him.’

Tom remembered the cheque
Bannerman gave him and took it from his jeans pocket, passing it to
Alex.

‘
Bannerman
gave me this; perhaps you should give it to your father as part
payment for all that Bannerman’s swindled him out of.’

Alex looked at the
cheque, then scrunched it up, throwing it across the
room.

‘
That’s what
Maurice Bannerman can do with his money,’ she spat. ‘I know it’s
irrational, but I still blame him for grandpa’s death. Grandpa was
scared by the shouting and it was too much for him. No money or
prison sentence can replace what that man’s taken from
me.’

‘
And me. All
this started with my arrival.’

‘
You were a
puppet Tom. Your greatest failing is that you’re an idiot who
thought he could play with the big boys.’

‘
Harsh but
true.’ He paused. ‘Alex, what you said out there about me managing
the estate. Did you mean it?’

She looked at
him.

‘
Can I trust
you?’

‘
I hope I’ve
proved you can.’

‘
Okay. For now
you can carry on as you were. Tara isn’t in a fit state to do it at
the moment, but once she’s better we’ll review it. You’re still on
probation Tom. You could have done serious damage to this
family.’

‘
And
Tara?’

‘
She’s a grown
woman; I can’t stop her seeing whoever she likes.’

‘
She won’t be
disowned or anything?’

‘
Don’t be
silly,’ laughed Alex. ‘We’re not like your family!’

The door opened and Jack
came back in.

‘
Do you two
want to come into the study?’ he asked.

Alex and Tom got up and
walked into the old study (no one had been able to go in there
since Ben’s death). Tom noticed Alex start rubbing her arms, as if
she were cold, as she walked over to the coffee table where Jack
had set up his laptop. Christian was leaning against the
mantelpiece, a look of anticipation upon his face. Tom wondered how
he felt, knowing his oldest friend had stabbed him in the
back.

Jack opened up a sound
recording software package and pressed play and very soon - quite
clearly - Tom and Bannerman’s voices could he heard. Everything was
there; Tom’s fake confession and Bannerman’s real one.

‘
Quantum
Holdings,’ hissed Christian. ‘It was a fake company all along. That
man is a blood sucking leech.’

‘
Well I’d say
he’s given himself enough rope to ‘ang himself,’ said
Jack.

‘
Good work
both of you,’ Christian said to Jack and Tom. ‘Alex, drive me up to
headquarters. I’m going to have a good look at all Sheridans
dealings over the past twenty years and see exactly what Bannerman
has taken from us. Tom, can you check flight times to Panama for
Friday?’

‘
Yes of
course.’

‘
Oh and Tom’
Christian smiled.

‘
Yes.’

‘
Welcome to
the family.’

Twenty One

The funeral of Ben Cusack
was one of the saddest days ever known in Abbotts Leigh. It seemed
the entire village came out to line the streets as the cars made
their way to St Matthews Church. Alex sat in the back of the
limousine, holding on tightly to her father’s hand, crying and
wishing she could turn the clock back and have just one more day
with her wonderful grandpa. She made a mental note to write a piece
in the village newsletter, thanking the people for their kindness.
So many cards and flowers had been sent. But it wasn’t surprising –
everyone loved Ben Cusack.

After a full Catholic
mass, the eulogies were made. Christian spoke of a beloved father
and man who would be missed by his family for the rest of their
lives. He also spoke of his mother and how happy he was she now had
Ben to look after her. When Paula got up, everyone was a little
shocked as it was Cusack tradition for the men to speak at
funerals.

Paula looked frail and
gaunt, her black dress hanging off her. She stepped up to the
lectern.

‘
I know this
isn’t Cusack tradition,’ she said, her voice choked with emotion.
‘But I just wanted to say thanks to my wonderful daddy. I know I’ve
always been the maverick in the family, the one who never really
fitted in, but daddy always made me feel like one of you.’ She
wiped a tear away. ‘I am going to miss him so much and I hope mummy
isn’t up there telling him off like she always did.’

There was a small chuckle
around the church from those who knew about Lou and Ben’s legendary
bickering.

‘
I was so
lucky to have him for my father,’ she continued, starting to cry.
She stepped off the lectern and walked to the coffin, kissing it.
She then broke down and had to be escorted back to her seat by
Wesley. This set Alex off crying as well, but once she stopped and
the hymns began once more, she thought about what her aunt had just
said. It was almost a veiled admission to Michael’s suspicions of
Ben not being her father. Was it true? Did she know?

They left the church,
stepping out into the beautiful late August sun. As planned, three
spitfires flew overhead, their tail steam the red, white and blue
of the Royal Air Force. This brought great smiles from Captain
Cavendish and Lieutenant Fraser and even more tears to Alex,
wondering if her grandfather was somewhere watching.

Ben was being privately
cremated and Christian and Paula were taking his ashes to Donegal
to be scattered on Lou’s grave. As a Cusack, he wouldn’t be allowed
to be buried in the Sheridan grave, but there was nothing stopping
his ashes being mingled with the soil above where his beloved wife
lay. So with no burial to attend, everyone headed back to Layton
House.

After Lou’s death, they
had held a proper Irish wake, with everyone sitting around quietly,
drinking whisky and becoming more maudlin. This wasn’t the case for
Ben. He had informed his children that upon his death he wanted a
celebration, with lots of fun and games for the younger Cusacks and
this was what happened. Benny and Lucas ran around the garden,
chased by Antoine - whose little legs couldn’t carry him fast
enough, making him laugh when he fell over. Alex stood and watched
them, remembering the last time she saw her grandfather, in this
same spot and like Antoine struggling to keep up with the little
boys because his old legs couldn’t steady him.

The dining hall just
managed to hold all the guests and it was packed to capacity. A CD
player pumped out Ben’s favourite Abba tunes and there wasn’t a
person in that room who didn’t have some memory of him, at a party,
getting drunk and dancing with his grandchildren. Alex was so
unhappy she couldn’t eat or drink, just sat like a wallflower,
watching the proceedings. She smiled on seeing Tara and Tom, over
in a corner, in a little world of their own. Tara was gazing
lovingly up at Tom, who looked quite different to how he had
before. Without Jackson Pearce’s influence he had gone back to the
scruff he said he’d been beforehand. His hair was getting longer,
and even though he wore a black suit, he wore a black t-shirt
underneath it, and black plimsolls. Alex didn’t take offence of
this though; Ben would have liked his individuality. Indeed Ben
thought quite highly of Tom; fortunately he never learnt of the
deception he was involved in.

That was all forgotten
now. The police had arrested Maurice Bannerman just as he was about
to get on his flight to Panama. He’d been refused bail because on
investigation they’d discovered Sheridans wasn’t the only company
he was defrauding and he was looking at a very long prison
sentence. For Alex it was a shallow victory – they had eliminated
the viper from the nest but in the process she’d lost the
grandfather she adored. She’d willingly have Bannerman and his
scheming back just to have one more day with Ben.

Robin slumped down beside
her, lacing his fingers through hers and bringing her hand to his
lips, kissing it.

‘
Hopefully the
next occasion here will be a happy one,’ he said. ‘Our
wedding.’

‘
We’re getting
married in Claremont Hall.’

‘
But can’t we
have the reception here?’

‘
No. I want
those in Summerset to be invited to a Cusack wedding at Claremont
Hall. We nearly had our inheritance taken away from us and I want
to show we mean business.’

‘
Well,
technically you won’t be a Cusack anymore will you? You’ll be a
Lancaster.’