12

Evan peered at AJ over the dinner table and tried not to sigh. This wasn’t how he’d envisaged the evening going when he’d invited Lou to dinner at the manor the previous day. Of course, that was several hours before he’d asked her to move in. “How did you find our lake, Mr. Wilcox?”

“Colder than I expected,” AJ commented with his mouth full. “But fascinating all the same. Did you know that the vast majority of Abernay is still intact down there?”

Evan somehow kept his face straight, despite his heart sinking to the soles of his polished shoes. “It’s intact? I would have thought the flood waters would have destroyed the buildings. Other than the church, which we can still see.”

“Nope, it’s all still there. There’s a cottage opposite the church with a plaque on it saying Dr. David Close. Is he a relative?”

“My great-grandfather.” Surely Lou would have informed her colleague of the connection between him and the dam?

Lou glanced at AJ, and then directed her attention to Evan as she spoke for the first time since the meal began. “You didn’t tell me he was a doctor.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I assumed he was an engineer, as he was part of the team that built the dam. You confirmed that yesterday.”

“He was part of the team, yes, but not in a building capacity. His main role here was as the village doctor.”

Mrs Jefferson came into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Close, but there’s a telephone call for you. It’s urgent.”

“Excuse me.” Evan stood with relief. He’d change the subject when he got back. He headed to the study and picked up the receiver. “Evan Close speaking.”

“It’s Varian. Have you seen her photographs?”

“Good evening to you, too, Varian. I assume by ‘she’ you mean Lou.”

“How many other interfering women do you know?”

Evan sat and swung the chair to face the window. “That depends on how many you’ve sent up here to dive in the lake. And no, I haven’t seen the photographs. Why would she show me? More to the point, how have you seen them?”

“She uploaded them to her private server‒”

Evan cut him off. “How did you get access to that?” He sucked in a deep breath, not wanting to be overheard. “They are called private servers for a reason!”

“I have my ways. She logged out of the company computer account and changed all her passwords first. Covered her track too well, who knows what damage the minx did. Anyway, back to the current problem. A lot of the village is relatively undamaged and still standing. Including your great-grandfather’s house.”

“They were telling me over dinner. Well, her colleague, AJ Wilcox, was. He’s rather a chatterbox.”

“You need to do something about it.”

“I do?” He caught his breath in surprise. “Why me?”

“You’re on site.”

So are you. Evan shook his head. “Newsflash, Varian. I don’t work for you. I never have. In fact, I suggest you do your own dirty work. You proved more than capable of that last night.”

“May I remind you that you stand to lose just as much as I do, if not more, should the truth come out? Undoubtedly it will happen with Lou working to uncover it. The woman is tenacious when it comes to her work.” Varian’s tone became decidedly snotty.

“So, I repeat. Why send her? Why not come up here yourself, pretend to investigate, or whatever you need to make all this go away?”

“I told you. I need to discredit her and her work. This is the only way to do that, because if she uncovers any evidence that points to me, it’ll not look good on her when I fire her.”

“And may I remind you, that both Lou and Mr. Wilcox are guests in my house,” Evan snapped back. “And as such are under my protection.”

“And what are you implying?”

Evan grinned. He could see the expression on Varian’s face as clearly as if they were in the same room. He tapped his fingers on his thigh, pausing before what he was saying materialized into an actual threat. “I’m not implying anything. Merely stating a fact.”

Varian muttered under his breath.

“Well, my dinner is getting cold,” Evan said, swinging the chair back towards the desk. “So, if you don’t mind, I’ll be getting back to it. Good night.” He dropped the receiver back onto the base, loving the old-fashioned phones that allowed him to hang up with a resounding thud. He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed.

“Problems?” Ira asked, as always seeming to appear from nowhere.

“I don’t know. I hope not. Can you speak to your contact at the local police station and have them swing a patrol out past the dam two or three times a day while Dr. Fitzgerald is here? And check all the CCTV footage thoroughly.”

Ira nodded. “What am I searching for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary.” Evan stood. “I need to get back.” He headed to the dining room and resumed his seat at the table. His food was, as expected, stone cold and he pushed the plate away. He glanced at Lou. “What are your plans for this evening?”

“I need to go over the data we gathered today. Is there somewhere we could work? I try not to work in the bedroom if I can avoid it.”

“The drawing room should suit your purpose. It has ample table space and power points.”

Her smile warmed his heart and lit the entire room. “Thank you.”

“I must say I’m intrigued by the photos.”

Her smile vanished like the sun going behind a cloud, leaving the room suddenly dark. “What photos? No one mentioned any photographs.”

Evan looked at her. “No. Varian did. Apparently they weren’t on the company server, so he hacked your private server and looked at them. It might be an idea to change all your passwords on there.”

Lou muttered something in a foreign language. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that, as soon as I get on my laptop. In fact I’ll remove them from my server and put them on a flash drive. And they weren’t on the company server for a reason.” She exchanged a knowing look with AJ.

“Would it be possible to see the pictures of the village?” Evan asked. “Especially the ones of my great-grandfather’s cottage.”

“Once I’ve gone through them, I don’t see why not. We found a few things that don’t add up.”

“Such as?” He picked up his glass.

“A body in the church for one thing,” AJ said. “He and a few mates was sat there on the pews as if waiting for the sermon to end.”

Evan’s heart pounded and his fingers tightened on the glass. “A body?” he repeated, not sure he’d heard right.

“Well, skeleton, obviously. There was four of them, along with another one in your great-grandfather’s house. We also found one in a cupboard in one of the other houses.”

Evan dropped the glass, spilling red wine over the white tablecloth. The stain spread outwards. “I’m sorry?”

“And total spooky it was too. I opened the door and it floated out to give me a hug. I reckon they floated in from the graveyard, but Dr. F thinks otherwise.”

“AJ, that’s enough,” Lou said sharply. “What we discuss privately about the dive stays between us, especially when it’s just a theory. It’s not up to you to tell anyone anything until we have proof.”

Chilled, Evan glazed over, watching the wine spread further into the white tablecloth. One little mistake led to such a huge stain to remove. If it were possible.

“Do you have any of the original paperwork for the village, Evan?” Lou asked. “A map perhaps or photos of how it used to be before the flood came?”

“I’ll go and see what I can find. Excuse me.” He rose and left the room as fast as his unsteady legs would take him. He made it to the library and locked the door behind him.

He leaned against it and sucked in several deep breaths. This farce might unravel around him faster than he could fix it. The best thing he could do was give her what she wanted and hope it satisfied her before she decided to dig any deeper.