I got it at last. ‘No!’ I shouted. ‘No, Susie, I promise you it wasn’t me. I’m the good guy here, honest.’ I pulled her to me and hugged her, as if to emphasise my innocence.
She pressed her face into my chest. ‘Sorry.’ I felt her say it as much as I heard it. ‘I know you didn’t, or wouldn’t, really. It’s just that when I came round, I saw you and when you said that. . I just had a terrible thought.’ She laughed, nervously. ‘Too many movies, I guess, and with you being in them now and all.’
She slid an arm around my neck, pulled herself up on her toes, and kissed me. Her lips were full and moist, and she seemed to taste of honey; her tongue flicked mine. I should have pulled back, but instead I felt myself draw her to me. I tried in vain to think of mistletoe. It was still Christmas, after all. ‘Susie,’ I murmured, as our mouths managed to unweld themselves.
‘Funny, innit?’ she said, in a voice that matched her taste. ‘We’ve had sex, but that’s the first time we’ve ever kissed.’
‘And the last, eh?’ I tried my best to smile.
‘We’ll see,’ she answered, teasing, as she took her arms from my neck and linked them round my waist. And then she was serious. ‘I’m sorry I got scared then, Oz. Christ,’ she exclaimed suddenly, ‘I’m entitled to be, though.
‘In a way I’d rather it was you that was the homicidal maniac! At least I know you. The thought that there’s a complete stranger out there who’s got it in for me. . that does give me the willies.’
I eased myself out of her grasp and guided her back to the kitchen, then I poured the last of the coffee and steered her though to the living room. She sat beside me on the big soft sofa, big hair, big chest, legs pulled up under her. ‘What’s been happening in Glasgow since I’ve been away?’ I asked her. ‘Have you been making any enemies?’
She shook her head at once. ‘No. Since Mike. .’ She hesitated for a second. ‘I’ve just been running my business; that’s all. I haven’t had any social life, and I certainly haven’t been screwing any other husbands. There are no wronged women after me, if that’s what you mean.’
‘It wasn’t, but anyway, let’s assume that it was a man who got in here. Whoever left those marks on you has hands at least as big as mine. Tell me; what sort of deals have you been doing lately?’
‘Deals? I’m a builder, not a corporate lawyer.’
‘Semantics. What projects have you got on the go?’
Susie threw her head back, gazing upwards. Her thick red hair fell back; she had small ears, I noticed for the first time, surprisingly delicate features for such a robust girl. The skin on her neck, above her sweater was fine as well, soft, milk-white and absolutely unlined.
Her eyes locked back on to mine, making me start, in spite of myself. ‘Since I closed the Healthcare division,’ she began, ‘the Gantry Group’s a lot easier to run. I can keep track of it all, no problem. Our financial control’s a lot better, thanks to Jan’s work. The books all balance; nobody’s been into the till and put themselves in danger of exposure.
‘Let’s start with the housing division. Remember that big conversion project with the old church in the middle of Glasgow? That’s finally under way; the councillors fell into line. I’ve got private housing estates at various stages of development in Milngavie, Whitecraigs, Houston, Bothwell, Troon, and Lanark, and a land bank to follow all that. I’m also doing a big refurbishment project for a housing association in Barlanark, funded by Scottish Homes and a couple of banks.
‘Then there’s the construction division. I’m working on a retail park development on the south side of Glasgow, on a small factory estate in Mossend, and on a specialist hospital. . geriatric. . in Stirling. I’m building a new section of dual carriageway on the A1 in East Lothian, and a lump of trunk road in South Ayrshire. Plus I’ve also just tendered successfully for a project to build a private industrial park in Cumnock.’
‘Do you think you might have any aggrieved rivals?’ I asked her.
‘No. I know my only competitor in that bid. He wasn’t trying too hard; he’d have been overstretched if he’d won it. He was really only in it to help me. I’ll scratch his back some time to make up for it.
‘Finally,’ said Susie, ‘there’s what I called managed investments. I had intended getting out of that sector. In fact I’ve sold off all the group’s industrial estate holdings, all our tenanted factories, to one of the big pension funds. But one of my private banking consultants came to me last May looking for funding for a major golf course, country club and housing development, promising me big returns on my capital, and fast, too; like double it in two years.
‘It looked good, but there were a couple of big downsides to it, so my natural reaction was to say no, and I did, at first. But my adviser told me who the other investors were; serious people with good records, all of them. So I decided to go with their judgement and put a chunk of money into it.’
‘How big a chunk?’
‘A lot less than I got for the estates; only a couple of million.’
I whistled; I knew from Jan’s work with the Gantry Group, just how big it was on paper, but I hadn’t really thought about it. I think of myself, and Prim as being fairly seriously rich, one way and another, but I realised that we weren’t in the same league as the redhead on my couch.
‘What were the downsides to the investment?’
‘One was that I didn’t know the guys who were running the project, but my consultant checked them out and said that they were okay. They’re a couple of entrepreneurs from Manchester, apparently, called Jeffrey Chandler and William Hickok. The other drawback was that the project isn’t in Britain.’
‘Where is it?’
‘It’s in Spain; not all that far from here, in fact. Near a place called Oyastraight, or something like that.’
‘You mean Ullastret.’
‘What?’
‘That’s how you pronounce it. Remember yesterday, and where we had lunch? It’s not that far away.’
‘Whatever. To tell you the gospel truth, Oz, that’s one reason why I decided to come to see you and Prim; so that I could go and see the place and check it out.’
‘Why? Isn’t it kosher?’
‘No, as far as I know it’s fine, but it’s taking longer to get off the ground than I’d hoped. They were supposed to break ground last September, and they reported that they did, but apparently the excavators turned up some archaeological treasure or other, and the government put a hold on work.’
This sounded like a familiar story; I’d been in Spain long enough to have heard others like it. What I had never heard of was a golf course development in Ullastret. . most other places, but not there. . but then I had been away from the Costa Brava for a while.
‘How much of the project are you in for?’
‘One third.’
‘And where’s the money?’
‘We had to lodge it in Spain. It’s being held by something called the Banco Provincial, in Barcelona.’
‘Who knew you were coming over here, Susie?’ I asked her.
She gave another pondering frown. ‘Let’s see. Joe knows, Ann Hay, my deputy chief executive, she knows, and I told Brian Murphy. He’s the consultant who brought me the deal in the first place.’
‘How well do you know Murphy?’
‘Well enough. He’s never lost me any money and he’s given me some good introductions.’
‘What did you tell Ann Hay and Murphy, exactly? Where did you say you were going?’
‘I gave them your address, and I told Brian to make arrangements for me to visit the development next week sometime. I was planning to get you to take me.’
She broke off. ‘Oz, I don’t like where this is heading. Are you thinking. .?’
‘. . that what happened last night was linked to this project? It’s the only local connection I can come up with.’