Sarah had never met Nick’s sister-in-law, a teacher with a little baby. She wondered why the woman had it in for him.
‘That’s interesting to know,’ she told Eric. ‘What about the thing I asked you to check for me: Ed Clark. Has he resurfaced yet?’
‘No, but he’s on an Interpol watch-list. I’ve talked to them. Clark’s bought a place in St Lucia, is setting up some kind of property business there. Nineteen-year-old girlfriend, place on the beach. Sounds like paradise to me. How did we end up in such mundane jobs?’
Sarah didn’t answer this. She liked, no, loved her job. Whereas Eric was brushing fifty. In the police, that was retirement age. No wonder he was jaded.
‘We’ll never find out, will we, what really happened that afternoon?’
‘Probably not. You get used to that in my line of work. But if anything does crop up, I’ll let you know.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Want me to keep tabs on Cane, too, update you as and when . . .?’
‘I don’t think so, Eric. He’s entitled to a private life.’
Sarah stood up and Eric followed suit.
‘Talking of private lives,’ he said, ‘there’s a weekend get-together coming up – the police committee and one or two interested parties. Hambleton Hall, do you know it? Lovely hotel on the edge of Rutland Water. Michelin Star chef. We could really use your input on a couple of matters. Not too heavy an agenda, mind. Plenty of time for relaxation.’
There it was, the quid pro quo.
‘I should be able to manage it,’ Sarah said. ‘Fax me the details and I’ll run it past my diary secretary.’
Eric gave her his most suave smile and kissed her on the cheek. When he was gone, Sarah poured herself a glass of water and tried to collect her thoughts. She was about to meet the press officer of the Prison Governors’ Association to coordinate her tour of the UK’s most improved jails, but she had other things on her mind. She couldn’t, she decided, betray Caroline Cane. Telling Nick would solve a mystery for him, but it would poison his relations with his sister-in-law. And Sarah was still Nick’s friend. Friends didn’t get involved with each other’s family feuds, not if they wanted to stay friends. As for Ed Clark, the guilty went free all the time. So, he was living a life of luxury. So what? Get over it.
The phone rang, announcing the arrival of her next appointment.
Nick didn’t see Polly for five months. Then, one October night, he happened upon her in the Lion. She had more slap on than she used to. The mate she was with had pulled and Polly was adrift. It would have been churlish of Nick not to buy her a drink. Polly looked wary, but accepted the offer. She bought the second. After two more rounds she let him walk her home. Nick figured she’d already drunk enough to talk openly, but he produced a quarter-bottle of scotch anyway.
‘Have you heard from him?’ Nick asked, when she’d sent the babysitter home.
‘Ed? Not even a card. He got what he wanted from me.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘He wanted to prove he could get me back, after being inside. Me being with him stopped people thinking he was guilty, saying he only got out on a technicality. He was always going to piss off when the compensation came through.’
‘But you dumped me for him.’
‘I didn’t dump you,’ Polly reminded him. ‘I tried to, but I couldn’t. Then you walked in on me with him so I couldn’t stay with you.’
‘You mean you’d have kept seeing me if I hadn’t found out?’ Nick asked this gently, without recrimination in his voice.
‘Ed didn’t know about you at first. I wanted you, not him.’ She gave a hard frown. ‘Turned out you were knocking about with Sarah Bone anyroad.’
‘Sarah wasn’t after me,’ Nick said. ‘Not really.’
‘Happen she wanted to prove she could still have you, same as Ed with me. If Ed sets his mind on something, he gets it. Is she the same?’
‘I suppose so,’ Nick said.
He’d glimpsed Sarah in town one day, heading past the Royal Concert Hall to the Labour Party offices on Talbot Street. Despite the summer heat, she wore a tailored trouser suit. She’d had her hair restyled, cut a little shorter. He saw then that nothing could resume between them. Sarah lived on a different planet from him. He’d been chasing the ghost of a relationship.
Polly kissed him and he kissed her back.
‘It was always you I wanted,’ she told him. ‘Why don’t you get in bed while I check on the kids?’
He’d not meant to sleep with her, but would do whatever it took to get what he wanted. And the sex, ten minutes later, was good. Sex with Polly was always good. Over too quickly, but that was because it was so intense, for both of them: a visceral, animal pleasure. Afterwards, she found it easier to talk. That was what he was banking on. They cuddled.
‘Why couldn’t you say no to Ed? Would he have hurt you?’
‘Not in the way you mean.’
‘Explain.’
‘Listen to him: explain. There’s always the schoolteacher in you.’
‘Sorry.’ He waited for her to explain anyway.
‘I did a stupid thing and Ed knew about it. He could have got me into trouble.’
‘What was it?’
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘I think I’ve guessed already.’
‘You can’t have,’ she muttered, head turned away from him.
‘You want to tell me,’ he insisted. ‘You have to tell someone. It can’t be right that only Ed knows. It gives him too much power over you.’
If he was wrong about what had happened, she would ask him what he meant. But she didn’t. Nick waited, nuzzling her chest, listening to her heartbeat speed up and slow down. When she began, her voice was little more than a whisper.
‘Me and Ed, it started out as a bit of fun. I’d married Phil too young, never been with another bloke and there I was all of a sudden, stuck at home with two kids. Ed chased me, spent money on me. I was flattered, but it weren’t meant to go anywhere. We’d have finished in a month or two if Ed hadn’t got arrested. Then, when Ed got out of prison, first time, he came round, wanted to start up again. I didn’t want to know. Until Ed told me how Terry had bugged my bedroom. That was how he got caught.’
She paused, collecting herself. When she started again, her voice was louder, colder. ‘I had no idea. That my own brother could . . . I went straight round there. Terry didn’t deny it. He said we both got what we deserved: Ed in prison, me – separated, halfway to being divorced. That’s when I hit him. Terry hit me back.’
‘It was self-defence.’
‘Yeah. Terry were too strong for me. He pushed me away, would have hit me again if I’d given him chance. I picked up the nearest thing I could reach. A golf trophy. The base were made of slate.’
Polly stopped, leaving him to fill in the blanks. She had killed her own brother. How did you deal with that? On the drive to the airport, Ed had warned him, only Nick had lacked the imagination to understand. It had taken him months to figure out what Ed was getting at.
‘How many times did you hit him?’ he asked.
‘Once was enough. When he fell, I could tell how bad it was. An ambulance would’ve done no good. And he weren’t just my brother, he were a policeman. I should’ve called the ambulance anyway, but I was terrified. I did the only thing I could think of. I called Ed. And he sorted it. Said he’d throw the golf trophy in the Trent for me, then told me to go home, make sure I wasn’t seen. I thought he were going to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. I didn’t know Terry had a gun. It was unregistered, hidden under the bed. Police reckon he bought it in case of a revenge attack. I told Ed what time Liv got home from work so he’d be gone by then. I had no idea what he was going to do to her. He found the gun while he was waiting.’