Nine Ten Begin Again: A Grasshopper Lawns affair Read online

  ‘Yes. When did you—oh, after Alistair died.’

  ‘Pretty much. I wanted something to end it all, without me having to actually do anything. I had Vivian and her husband Gordon, and they forced me back. I suddenly realized one day that the sun was shining, and it hasn’t been a particular problem since, but it was a very, very bad place. I don’t know how you coped on your own.’

  His frown cleared and his mouth quirked. ‘Ten minutes after the movers left, one of my new neighbours was ticking me off. No blue rinse. In fact, quite a pretty woman, but if there was one thing I knew for sure, I wasn’t going to be allowing any flirtations on my home ground. When I saw her at breakfast twenty minutes later, I thought I would make it clear and went over to make a chilly apology.’

  He glanced sideways.

  ‘You gave me the straightest look I’d seen in—well, in years. There was no artifice in it at all. You didn’t like me, and you didn’t want to be bothered by me. I was absolutely furious.’

  Edge laughed. ‘I thought you were awful. Arrogant and chilly. You do realize that if Betsy hadn’t been murdered, we’d probably still be nodding politely at each other in the walkway? If I hadn’t just met William I wouldn’t have joined you both for breakfast the next day. But it wasn’t being furious at me that pulled you back.’

  ‘It was the strongest emotion I’d felt in quite a while, and you were the first person who had registered in any way for as long as I could remember—years. But you’re right, it was the murders that towed me clear. Solving murder as a cure for depression, we should tell the NHS. The pills, were you on pills? They keep you level, no ups, no downs, a safe but very boring middle road. I quit them in March and started wondering if I could ever pounce on you. I decided I couldn’t. I’ve got a fair track record for friendship, none at all for relationships, and I was enjoying ours.’ He turned into the Lawns and put the car in neutral outside his garage, engine quietly running. ‘As long as the supply of murders keeps up, I should be fine. Are you worried about taking up with someone with a history of clinical depression?’

  ‘I could ask you the same. Anyway, it wasn’t the murders that cured you, it was sharing a hobby with friends. That’s what my therapist kept telling me, anyway. Get a hobby so you can make more friends. Easier said than done, but it really does work after all, because that’s what you did. Are we going back to yours so you can model your dressing gown for me, or are you too tired?’

  He grinned. ‘Hop out the car so I can put it in the garage. I’ll model, but you can only look, not touch. No sweaty fingerprints allowed, you’ll have to control yourself.’

  Doll man

  Vivian was talking over her shoulder to Edge as she opened the kitchen door into her apartment, and was nearly unbalanced by Buster suddenly jerking the lead out of her hand and rushing forward snarling towards her living room. A man shouted in protest and Buster barked angrily and backed into view, his hackles on end as he half-crouched. Vivian took one step into the kitchen, pressed her panic button smartly, and stepped back to the doorway as the wall phone rang.

  ‘Megan?’ She snatched the phone up and retreated another step back to the walkway. ‘There’s someone in the apartment, please call the police. Oh. Oh, okay. Actually, not okay, but thanks.’ She leaned back inside the door to hang up the phone and looked at Edge, wide-eyed. ‘It’s the new maintenance guy. Doll man. Megan said he’s doing apartment checks.’

  ‘Without you knowing? That’s not on!’ She walked into the kitchen, and Vivian followed slightly nervously.

  ‘No, I agree. Megan thought he had cleared it with me first. Buster, here boy!’ The dog came reluctantly, reversing all the way. She picked up the lead and took a firm grip, smoothing down the Labrador’s hackles. ‘Mr Morrison?’

  ‘That’s my father. Please, Doll, call me Thomas.’ He appeared in the doorway smiling slightly uneasily and both women stared at him. Despite the cold outside, he was wearing a tank top and baggy khaki shorts, his powerful shoulders gleaming with sweat and his belly pushing against the fabric. ‘That’s a dangerous dog you’ve got there, I thought it was going to bite me. Be a shame to have to put it down.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. The dog was attacking an intruder. Why are you in my apartment?’

  ‘Not only yours, Doll. With the old man retiring, I’ve got to do a maintenance check on every apartment, make sure they’re all up to spec. He’d been letting it go a bit, poor old fellow.’

  ‘Mr Morrison, I don’t like being called Doll. My name is Mrs Oliver and this is Mrs Cameron. And we’re both a little taken aback that you let yourself into my apartment without so much as a by-your-leave. I’m going to ask you to go now, and I will speak to the administrator about making an appointment for you to return, if it is genuinely necessary. If you don’t leave I am going to set my dog on you and it will not be put down because it will be defending me from somebody who is in my apartment without my permission, and who refused to leave when I told him to go.’

  His swarthy complexion darkened but he stepped back into her living room to pick up his hoodie and tool-kit and walked past them without another word.

  ‘Vivian, you were magnificent!’ Edge applauded when the kitchen door had shut behind him. ‘Boy, will he regret that threat against Buster!’

  ‘Buster was doing exactly what he’s supposed to do. What a horrible, horrible man he is.’ Vivian was quite flushed. ‘Edge, he’s got to go!’

  ‘Yes, I agree. Joey was doing a great job but if he really feels he wants to retire, there’s no need for us to be stuck with a sleaze-ball like that. There are other Joeys. Coffee?’

  ‘Yes, sorry.’ Vivian put the kettle on, looking slightly distracted. ‘I feel thoroughly unsettled. The thought that a man like that can walk into my apartment any time he likes, day or night, makes me feel a bit shaky.’

  ‘The fact he has a master key makes me feel queasy too. I’ve barely started getting used to hearing a key in my door at night, and the thought that it could be him instead is chilling. The half-naked and sweaty look didn’t help. He looked for a horrible moment like one of those scary guys who swaggered into the club that night.’

  She frowned at what she’d said as Vivian made coffee for them both.

  ‘Vivian—he looked like one of those guys at the club.’

  ‘Yes, I heard you.’

  ‘No, I mean I think he was one of those guys at the club. The ones that had Jemima with them on a chain.’

  ‘No! But she’s supposed to have had nothing to do with his appointment! What did Katryn say when you spoke to her?’

  Edge sat down at the kitchen table, still frowning. ‘She said Joey had gone to her saying he wanted to start tapering off, and recommending his nephew. He suggested a trial for a couple of months. She was relieved, because Jemima had been really nipping at her heels about Joey being over retirement age. She also said that most of the residents liked Thomas. I think she was a little impatient with me for bringing it up. I did ask her how she liked him and she said he was really helpful and surprisingly good at admin, that he’d been helping her and even Jemima with office stuff. I slunk away feeling like a troublemaker, to be honest. Once you get past the hot eyes and calling people Doll, he’s just a sweaty man trying to be friendly. Well, that’s what I told myself then. But if I’m right about the club thing, that’s too much of a coincidence. I’m trying to think if Donald has ever seen him because he’d know at once if he was one of the club guys. I was riveted by their freaky outfits but he’d have been looking at faces. So would Hor—’

  She bit her lip, but too late. Vivian, ever-observant, was looking at her curiously.

  ‘Horace?’ She put their coffees on the table and sat down.

  Edge looked at her dumbly, her lip still caught between her teeth and Vivian’s eyebrows rose. ‘Beulah Edgington Cameron, are you telling me Horace was at the club? Oh! Was he the leather fetishist in those blackmail photographs?’

  ‘You’re too bloody quick, yo
u’ve been hanging round William too long,’ Edge grumbled. ‘And yes, he was. But I was wrong about those photos. He really was wrestling, apparently he challenges for women. He’s the club member who rescued us—it was his reputation as a lunatic that got us out of there safely. But we can’t possibly ask him, not without him realizing who he rescued. And I kissed him thank you, you know, and he said to look him up when I wanted a change. I think I’d rather die than have him find out it was us.’ She stared slightly indignantly as Vivian whooped with laughter. ‘Anyway, if you can stop having hysterics, he said they were very bad men. He certainly wouldn’t be happy to have one of them running tame here.’

  Vivian sobered abruptly, dabbing away the tears of mirth under her eyes. ‘Oh, Edge. No, remember he paid rather than be exposed before. He’d shut up rather than be exposed now. Just like you. Where’s Donald? We have to get him to have a look at Thomas. And I think we should find Joey and have a word.’ She looked sidelong at Edge and started to laugh again. ‘And I have to go to this club!’

  Donald was discovered stretched out reading on his bed. He listened with interest to their theories, although he frowned reprovingly at Edge when Horace’s name came up and Vivian started giggling again.

  ‘I have seen Morrison, but in the distance. He could be. I didn’t get a clear look either, I was deliberately avoiding eye contact. But you’re right, we can’t possibly ask Horace. Anyway, either he didn’t recognize him, or he did and is keeping quiet, and either way he wouldn’t say anything. What does William think?’

  Vivian looked at her watch. ‘We didn’t ask, but it’s nearly one so he should be finished for the day. I’ll phone—if he doesn’t answer, there’s no point going over, he won’t answer the door either. He simply doesn’t hear it. We usually do meet for lunch. If you want to join us, we can talk it over then?’

  William joined them within fifteen minutes in the conservatory with his tray.

  ‘Let Donald tell me,’ he stopped them sternly as both women started talking at once. ‘You’ll confuse me.’

  He frowned as he listened and ate, and pointed a chicken leg when Donald had finished a succinct summary.

  ‘So Edge thinks Joey’s nephew is in fact Jemima’s wossname, handler. That sounds unlikely. Either he’s not Joey’s nephew, in which case why would Joey say he is, or he isn’t one of the men with Jemima at the club. Are we even one hundred percent sure that it was Jemima at the club?’

  Edge nodded. ‘Completely sure. Movements are as distinctive as features, and she flinched exactly as I’d seen her flinching away from both Donald and Patrick. She wasn’t heavily disguised, only a mask, once you knew you could see it was her.’

  ‘Charming.’ William leaned back, looking thoughtful. ‘At its most boring, Joey’s nephew has the temporary bursar trained to heel and they party together secretly, and who cares? But Vivian, you’re the most observant person I’ve ever met. You said last night that Joey’s nephew is the twin of your sleazy loans and investments bloke. I didn’t like that last night, and I really don’t like it now. If there’s any chance, any chance at all, that Thomas and Slimy Si are related, or even one and the same, we’ve got a banker and a bursar with access to our accounts pulling the wool over our eyes. That makes me nervous. As to why Vivian’s banker would dress up as the new maintenance manager and force Joey to propose him to Katryn, well, I have no idea. But I doubt it’s because he wants to drive a minibus and have access to people’s apartments.’

  ‘I love your imagination,’ Edge said appreciatively. ‘You leap tall buildings in a single bound. But can we check any of it?’

  ‘I’m frighteningly good,’ William agreed modestly and patted her hand. ‘Vivian, my lovely, would you know for sure if you saw your slimy Si again, clean-shaven and in a suit, whether he was Thomas or not?’

  ‘Yes, of course. I haven’t seen Simon in months so it could just be an uncanny likeness. But I have a very clear mental picture of Thomas.’

  ‘Then you should call and make an appointment to see Slimy Si about your investments. I’ll go with you. That’ll sort that bit out straight away. Whether he’s left the bank, or turns out not to be the same man, whatever, we either confirm the theory or brush it away. Pity we can’t track down a way of seeing Jemima out with her bloke, as well. Then we get to look at all three men.’

  ‘You could.’ Donald put his knife and fork together and sat back and William looked at him, surprised.

  ‘Say what?’

  ‘You could go to the clubs. You said you had the kit.’

  Vivian’s eyes brightened. ‘Oh yes, I said I wanted to go!’

  ‘Not you, cailleach.’ William put his hand on her arm, still looking at Donald. ‘I’m not taking Vivian into any of those places. I told you that you shouldn’t take Edge.’

  ‘You were right. I hadn’t realized until we were there and I saw it through her eyes. But a man, especially a man as big as you, is safe.’

  ‘You and me, then?’

  ‘I can’t. You’re going to be with a man who knows me from the clubs, and I don’t want him connecting you and me and realizing who I really am, then making the link to Edge. He knew them and they knew him. There’s something you should know—’

  He dropped his voice and told William about Horace. William’s shout of laughter turned heads.

  ‘Sorry, sorry.’ He quietened to a murmur. ‘I tell Horace I know he’s Sputnik and that I want to trawl around the leather clubs with him? Why? He’s going to want to know. He’s not going to believe I’m looking for a woman, not when I’m royally suited already.’

  ‘You’re a writer, William.’ Edge was a little impatient. ‘All writers are known to be nuts, and prepared to do anything in the name of research.’

  ‘Donald, would you know where to find him tonight? Or tomorrow night?’ Vivian asked intently. ‘Because if William approached him as Sputnik, rather than as his neighbour Horace, it would be better.’

  ‘I’m rather distinctive,’ William said plaintively. ‘Once seen, never forgotten. He’s going to know who I am.’

  ‘Yes, but he’s not distinctive. If a well-known writer asks the notorious Sputnik to take him round seedy clubs—and you don’t know how seedy you’ll have to get—he’s not going to let on that he’s also your neighbour. That keeps him quiet here, which frankly I think is not a bad thing. And he’s much more likely to take you to seedy places.’

  ‘Does Angie know Sputnik?’ Edge asked suddenly. ‘You said she goes to the clubs.’

  ‘Everyone knows Sputnik.’ Donald nodded. ‘Ask her to introduce them?’

  ‘It could work. Just say you’ve got another writer on your hands, and can’t be bothered. And yes, ask her to do the introduction.’

  He looked thoughtful. ‘Depends when she’s next going, of course. And how often he goes. And if she can find him.’

  William looked alarmed. ‘I’ll do this once. Perish the thought I’m going to get myself up like a dog’s dinner on a nightly hunt.’

  Donald was unsympathetic. ‘It was your idea. And it won’t be that bad. Most regulars go during the week, the weekends are for the thrill-seekers. I’ll find out when she goes. Sputnik was nearly always at my usual, at least for a while, whenever I went. If she doesnae ken when or where else to find him, she’ll find him there. We’ll be in Devon by then but I’ll call her this afternoon to set it up.’

  ‘Then she’ll know your club,’ Edge pointed out uneasily and he raised an amused eyebrow.

  ‘I’m not going clubbing again, Miss Prim. It doesn’t matter.’

  ‘You’re going at least once more,’ Vivian said a little indignantly. ‘You keep saying your club is okay, and I do—no William, shush—I really do want to go once. Between the two of you and that security door, how could we not be safe? And Edge said it was such fun. A couple of drinks, maybe dance a bit, and then leave. What could the harm be? William, you call me old woman, I’m the youngest of the four of us. I also want a bit of fun.’
/>   William started to laugh. ‘I love this woman,’ he told the other two. ‘Of course we will, my lovely. When this is over, you and I, and Donald and Edge if they want to come with us, will go walk on the wild side.’ His eyes gleamed. ‘You’ll have to wear my collar and leash. I’m not letting you out of my sight for a minute.’

  Vivian chuckled and shook her head mischievously and William looked disapprovingly at Donald. ‘Any other chaos you want to cause?’

  ‘No, I’m done,’ Donald said politely. ‘So Vivian is going to have a look at the banker and you’re going to find Jemima and her handler. If I think of any other chores we need to leave for you before we go jaunting off to Devon, I’ll let you know. ’

  Chapter 8 - Thursday November 28th

  William’s adventures

  ‘Okay, time to pack up,’ Shona Black said resignedly and Edge looked up, surprised, and took her glasses off her nose.

  ‘So early? Are you going out tonight?’

  ‘No, Edge, but it’s after six and Donald has looked through the door four times. God, I hope when I get to your age I’ve got a lover that keen. No offence. About the age, I mean.’

  ‘None taken. You’re getting better. Hardly mention it more than three or four times a day.’ Edge smiled at her. Shona was missing the polite gene but had other qualities that more than made up for it, and Edge was enjoying herself thoroughly.

  ‘Be fair, you’re older than my mum, and she’s plump, doesn’t own a lipstick, has a red face and is in bed by nine o’clock every night of her life.’

  ‘Tell her to change her name from Beulah. It’s a curse.’ Edge put her spectacles away, stood up and straightened with an involuntary groan. ‘Stiff! But we got a lot done. Good session.’

  ‘How much of this is from your on-line dating experience?’ Shona asked with interest and Edge shrugged.

  ‘I wasn’t on the senior singles websites very long, so only about ten percent. Another ten, fifteen percent is from stories I was told, suitably jigged. The rest is fiction, but based on general fact. So, are we ready for the read-through tomorrow?’