Sunday lunchtime
Thomas suspended operations on his sandwich to stare at Ellie. ‘Whatever’s the matter?’
‘A girl? On a motorbike. Really?’
‘Of course I’m sure. She took off her helmet to shout at him.’ He half closed his eyes, remembering. ‘Fair hair, cut short. Fair skin. Slender build in black leather. Leather gloves. Tallish.’
‘Oh!’ said Ellie. ‘That matches the description of the person who daubed a nasty word on the window at W & P’s last week. A young mother I spoke to actually saw the girl do it but was too far away to get the licence number and wouldn’t recognize her again because she was wearing black leathers and a helmet. Did Archie arrive on the motorbike?’
‘Um. Not sure. I didn’t notice this girl until after he’d been seen off by Abby. You mean, was this girl waiting for him while he tried to get into the house? Yes, I would say she was.’
Ellie groped for the truth. ‘We knew that Streetwise had made Archie an offer to keep his job when they took over Walker & Price, but we had no idea he was friendly with a girl who was actively involved in their persecution. I suppose I ought to say “allegedly” involved, but it feels right to me. It looks as if Archie sold out to Streetwise while still working for Walker & Price and it follows that he aided and abetted her in what she was doing. Allegedly doing. Or did he only get together with the girl after she’d defaced the window?’
Ellie shook her head at herself. ‘No, that’s not likely, is it? Though I suppose it’s possible.’
Thomas also shook his head. ‘I suppose there may be other girls who ride black motorbikes?’
‘What are the odds on that? All right, it’s not proof positive that he was working for Streetwise while being paid by Walker & Price, but it looks very much like it. Oh, poor Nancy! And Charles as well! They gave Archie a job and look how he’s repaid them! He must be feeling pretty confident that his future looks rosy if he can use the biker girl to get him to and from Nancy’s house. I wonder why he isn’t driving himself? Perhaps he’s lost his licence for some reason?’
Ellie reached for a pen to make a note to herself. ‘I’ll ask Nancy. She’ll know.’
Thomas grinned. ‘I can tell you that the biker girl wasn’t best pleased to let him on to her bike when she saw how wet he was. There was quite an argument as to whether or not she was going to allow him to ride with her, but eventually she let him get on the back of the bike and off they went. I’ve got the licence number.’
‘We must give it to Lesley. She can trace the girl from that and get her for defacing Walker & Price’s window. I wonder if she was responsible for the other nasty things that have been happening there?’
Thomas said, ‘That’s a nasty thought. Anyway, as she drove off, Nancy’s kindly neighbour drove up with a door tied on to the roof of his car, having collected a friend who knew how to fit it. Abby made them tea, I rescued the sodden papers and brought them back to see if we could dry them out and read them. Anything been happening at your end?’
‘Yes, indeed.’ Ellie updated him on the latest with news of Kate’s phone calls, and what she herself had done to get Jocelyn to move back into the student house.
Thomas said, ‘You’re sure Jocelyn is on the side of the angels?’
‘Oh yes. He … he feels good.’
He grinned. ‘I don’t think that comment would be acceptable as a reference in a court of law, but it’ll do for me.’
‘I’m not ruling him out completely. I like the man, but his actions don’t always seem to tie up with what I had expected of him. For instance, why did he flee the student house so quickly after Brandon’s death? Because his mother’s dying and needed him? Well, yes … Why am I not convinced? What’s more, Patsy wasn’t convinced by that argument, either.
‘Another thing; why didn’t he respond immediately to Patsy’s texts about the rent? He says he arranged with Walker & Price to pay everything himself, but they don’t seem to have passed that information on to her. All right, I’ll give you that he might have spoken to Archie about it, and Archie failed to pass the message on. Oh, I don’t know. There’s something going on between Jocelyn and Patsy that I don’t understand. One minute I think he’s serious about Patsy and the next … Why is he blowing hot and cold?’
‘I couldn’t say. Ah. Look at this.’ Thomas pointed to the rescued papers, which were drying out nicely. The ink on the printed sheets was intact but where someone had edited the text in biro, the water had leached almost all the colour from the page.
Some items were easy to identify. There were two copies of a computer-processed bill of sale for Walker & Price, with spaces left for signature of both buyer and seller. Presumably this was what Nancy had been expected to sign.
Ellie was curious. ‘How much were they planning to buy the agency for?’
‘Not enough.’ Thomas grimaced, carefully separating damp sheets one from one another with a knife. ‘Here it is. Five thousand pounds. Enough for her air fare to New Zealand, perhaps?’
‘Not enough for all those years of hard work, and nothing like the value on the open market.’
‘Mm. There’s something else here. Walker & Price are giving Streetwise the right to manage all properties currently under contract to them. Which includes the student house, I suppose?’
‘Over my dead body.’
Thomas said, ‘It might be legal, if Nancy signs it.’
‘Doesn’t the charity have to agree?’
‘I think you’d better get a professional opinion on that.’ Thomas turned to some more papers. ‘Nothing legible. A draft of some sort, I think. Too waterlogged to read.’
Ellie was poring over another sheet of paper. ‘This is a draft, too. With what looks like handwritten corrections in blue ink on it. Only, the blue is mostly disappearing. It’s a draft for the bill of sale which you’ve got there, only … yes, they’ve included the address of the student house. And that’s the only property which they’ve given the address for.’
She looked up. ‘So why did they take the address out of the final version? Answer: they wanted Nancy to sign it without realizing that this is really all about who controls the management of the student house. Tell me I’m imagining things.’
Thomas didn’t answer. He was frowning over a different piece of paper. ‘Look at this. It’s a list of addresses, mostly in London. Are these the other properties which Streetwise have on their books? No, wait a minute. That can’t be right. The last one on the list is the Ladywood project, the latest acquisition by the charity, the one you’ve just been told is to be compulsorily purchased by the council.’
Ellie took it from him. Was that a draught from the back door? No, it was firmly closed. She shivered. She said, ‘It’s a list of all the properties the charity owns. Which means that Streetwise are not just aiming to take over Walker & Price or the student house. They’re after the charity.’
She blinked. ‘No, that’s stupid. How could they possibly be after the rights to maintain and let all the charity’s properties? No, no. That’s far too big a proposition for even the ambitious Streetwise. Isn’t it? I mean, why on earth would we let them do that?’
Thomas was staring at another piece of paper. He thrust it at Ellie, and went to open the back door, to let some air into the room. He said, ‘We thought this was a small-scale spat between two estate agencies with very different agendas, but if I’m right, whoever is at the back of this is now widening the scope of their activities and yes, they are now intending to attack the charity itself.’
‘No, no.’ Ellie could not believe that. She. Simply. Could. Not. Believe. It.
Thomas said, ‘Look at the timeline of what’s happened. First came the attacks on Walker & Price; small-scale at first, they escalated until it was clear Streetwise wanted to buy them out. But, like the tidying away of Mr Walker’s death which was supposedly at the hands of a random burglar, there was also pressure to play down the death of the student at the charity’s house. I have to ask: in whose interest was that done?’
Ellie let her shoulders rise and fall. The answer seemed to be Councillor Hallett, which was nonsense according to what everyone knew of the man.
Thomas continued, ‘I’ll ignore the fliers claiming the students are running a brothel for the moment, because I can’t see how that fits in. It sounds like a student prank which misfired. But I’m beginning to wonder if these people – maybe Streetwise, or whoever is at the back of them – can also be aiming to get the charity’s redevelopment project cancelled, making everything the charity has invested in that property practically worthless and therefore vulnerable to a takeover. Look at this paper. What do you see?’
With reluctance, Ellie looked at the list of names on the paper. She didn’t want to look. By some fluke this piece of paper had not been soaked as thoroughly as some of the others and most of the words were legible.
The content? A typed list of names half obscured by someone – or perhaps more than one person? – doodling over them in different colours.
The names were listed in alphabetical order with addresses attached, and some had a comment, or a tick in red biro beside them. Yes, she recognized one or two names, but what was the connection between them? Ah yes, she saw it now. They all worked for the charity or were connected with it in some way.
Ellie’s name and address was on the list, but not ticked.
Thomas’ name had been crossed through, three times, in red. The biro had slashed through the paper there.
Kate, their finance director, was included in the list, as was Stewart, but neither of their names had been ticked. Stewart’s name had been followed by someone with a blue biro writing the words, ‘Not yet!’
Pat – who had been Ellie’s part-time secretary for many years – was featured and her name had been ticked. The remark by Pat’s name was ‘Yes!’ Pat had actually stopped working for Ellie some time ago so … what was that about?
Last but not least was Nirav, the clever lad who worked for Stewart in the lettings department, and who was being seconded to help out at Walker & Price the following week. His name had been double-ticked while Red Biro had marked his name not only with another ‘Yes!’ but followed by two stars.
Ellie couldn’t make sense of the doodles. There were all sorts of scribbles. Blue Biro had drawn a children’s version of a house and Red Biro had drawn an expanding explosion.
Ellie felt rather sick. She said, ‘These are papers that Archie was carrying, but he didn’t make the list, did he? No, because he wouldn’t know who worked for the charity. We know that the bill of sale originates from Streetwise so presumably that’s where this list comes from, too? It’s a horrible thought, but I see they’re interested in people who work for us. I see they’ve made Nirav their number one target?’
Thomas said, ‘Think about Walker & Price, and Archie. Streetwise got to Archie, didn’t they? I think they promised him the earth if he helped them to bring down Walker & Price and he fell for it. We don’t know exactly how much of the persecution was down to him, but he was certainly thinking more of what Streetwise could give him when he pressed Nancy to sell, than he was of what she would be wise to do. Is it possible they’re now going after Nirav, presumably hoping they can seduce him into working for them, too?’
Ellie could see what an asset Nirav would be to Streetwise if he could be bribed to work for them. It made sense to go after him instead of one of the principals.
If Nirav were offered a large sum of money or if his family were threatened, then how would he react?
Ellie said, ‘Do you think they’ve got to him already? We can’t have him attending the meeting tomorrow if he’s already been bought and sold.’
Thomas muttered something about Ellie being in denial.
She ignored that. She had something much more important to do than worrying about doodles on a draft.
She reached for the phone and got through to Stewart. As general manager, he would know how Nirav was doing. Once through, she said, ‘Sorry to trouble you on a Sunday again, but something’s come up. I know you’ve asked Nirav to work in the Walker & Price office next week. Did that cause any problems for you?’
‘No. He’s a good lad, saw the point of getting a look at their books before we decide what action, if any, to take. As a matter of fact, at our next meeting I intend to recommend him for a rise in salary.’
‘Has he asked for one?’
‘No. Well, not openly.’ Stewart laughed. ‘What he did was, he came to me recently saying he’d been headhunted by some agency or other, that he’d considered their very attractive offer, but before making a decision he wanted to know if we thought he had a future with us. He’s taken on more responsibility of late, and developed an excellent rapport with our builders whom, as you know, can be somewhat temperamental. I said he’d done well – which he has – that we hoped he’d stay with us and that I’d put in for a raise for him.’
‘Which agency?’
‘What? Oh, he didn’t say. Does it matter?’
Ellie thought it mattered a great deal.
Stewart went on. ‘It did cross my mind that he’d invented the offer so as to give him an excuse to ask for a raise, but no; I think it was genuine. He said that he wanted to stay with us but he had to look out for his future as his wife is newly pregnant and they’re going to have to find a larger flat or even a small house soon. I congratulated him on the forthcoming event and we talked about what this would mean for him.
‘I said we’d be happy to help him find a suitable house and we discussed various possibilities we have on our books at the moment. We also talked about him taking paternity leave. I was going to suggest that we take on someone he can train up to help him with his workload and act as his assistant in future, and he said that he could always work from home part-time when his wife gave birth. I said I’d raise the matter at the next meeting, but of course this Streetwise business has rather put that on the back burner.’
Ellie thought that Nirav was a high-flyer and his first loyalty would always be to himself and his family. This time Stewart had offered him more than the opposition and so Nirav would stay with the charity, but he would probably leave to work in a bigger organization in due course.
Ellie said, ‘You’ve already asked Nirav to work with Walker & Price next week and that stands, but a lot has been happening on that front, and he’ll need briefing before he goes there. Let me bring you up to date, too …’
There was a lot that Stewart didn’t know about the bigger picture, and how the emphasis seemed to be shifting from the destruction of one estate agency to an attack on the charity itself.
She had wondered how Stewart would react at hearing that he was on a list of possible targets but scheduled for later on. Ellie had thought he would be worried about that, but he laughed. He was a very well-grounded man, content in his job and with his young family.
Ellie decided not to remind him of the inconvenient fact that he had once endured a miserable few years married to her ambitious daughter Diana, who had left him to bring up their son, who was now – heavens, how could that be! – about to apply to the university of his choice. No, Ellie would not remind him of that.
Sidetracked into thinking about her daughter, Ellie realized she didn’t even know where Diana might be living at the moment.
It was ridiculous to even entertain the thought that Diana …! Stop that thought before it took hold!
Ellie kept looking down at the Streetwise list. If you were of a suspicious turn of mind you might have tried to make out a ‘D’ in one of the more convoluted doodles by Red Biro.
She pushed the paper aside. Think, Ellie! Think!
Nirav had been double ticked, and they now had confirmation that he’d been approached with an offer he wasn’t supposed to refuse. Nirav had been level-headed enough to see that he was better off staying with the charity, who could offer better accommodation, paternity leave and a raise. Streetwise – if it was them, and surely it must be them – had miscalculated there.
The question was; who else had Streetwise approached? Her hand hovered over the phone. She could ring Pat, the part-time secretary she used to have before she went to Canada. But no, Pat had moved away some time ago, hadn’t she? Devon? Cornwall? If she’d been approached, she wouldn’t have had anything to offer Streetwise.
Ellie rubbed her forehead. She was probably running a temperature. ‘I think I might have a nap this afternoon.’
Thomas said, ‘I don’t think that will help.’
She didn’t want to listen. ‘Of course it will.’
‘That list was made up by someone who didn’t know that your secretary had stopped working for you some time ago. They’ve been out of touch for a while, haven’t they?’
Ellie didn’t want to listen. ‘You’re imagining things.’
‘Why is my name crossed out three times? She’s never made any bones of disliking our marriage.’
‘You’ve no grounds for saying that.’
Thomas said something inarticulate and removed himself to his Quiet Room. He was going off to pray.
Prayer was a good idea. Except that Ellie didn’t seem able to calm herself sufficiently to pray.
Come on, Ellie. It can’t be Diana behind the campaign to discredit Walker & Price and nibble away at the charity. Of course, that idea made sense in a weird way, as Diana always thought she had an inalienable right to whatever piece of the action she came across, whether she deserved it or not. She had asked – no, demanded – that she be appointed a trustee of the charity. That idea had quickly been kyboshed by Ellie, Kate and Stewart. Was this her way of trying to force her way in?
Diana had got through several fortunes in her time. Her late – and latest – husband had left her nothing but debt and when last heard of Diana was trying to get the charity to buy her another estate agency. Running an estate agency was really the only skill she had. Which might have been why she was attracted to Streetwise … if that was where she was working now.
Stop right there! Diana couldn’t possibly have anything to do with all this. No.
Back to basics, where was Streetwise getting the money from to launch this campaign?
Which took Ellie back to Jocelyn. Could the Halletts possibly be involved? No, she’d been wrong about that, hadn’t she?
Thomas loomed in the doorway and waited for her to acknowledge his presence.
She reached out to him. ‘Sorry. Sorry. You’re right, of course. I still can’t quite believe it, but … No, it has to be her.’
‘You haven’t heard anything from her since we got back? For some reason I got the impression she’d gone abroad.’
‘Susan next door told me Diana left a couple of expensive presents for the children soon after we went to Canada but didn’t want to see them. She was expensively dressed and went off in a limo with someone.’ Ellie caught her breath on a sob. ‘She didn’t even want to see her children! How could she!’
Thomas sat and put his arm around her. ‘They are much loved now. They have a stable home and are doing well.’
Ellie reached for the phone. ‘Perhaps, if Diana’s just got back from wherever it is she went, she’ll have been in touch with her children? Yes, surely she’ll have done that. I’ll check with Susan.’
Thomas shook his head. ‘You know that Diana cuts her ties with anyone who might hold her back in her climb up the ladder. Didn’t she dump her first child on Stewart, and leave Evan and Jenny with Susan as soon as it was convenient? She didn’t want the hassle of looking after any of them, did she?’
Ellie couldn’t cope with this. Diana was self-centred and in financial difficulties; yes. But if she were back in town, surely she must have got in touch with her children again?
Ellie dialled Susan’s smartphone and got through straight away. ‘Susan, my dear. How are you feeling?’
Judging by the clattering of pans, Susan was in the kitchen. She sounded distracted. ‘I’m OK, Ellie. Had a good rest. Just doing the kids’ tea.’
‘I won’t keep you a minute. Have you by any chance heard from Diana lately?’
‘What? No. Or rather, I’ve just this minute taken delivery of a couple of boxed games bought from Harrods, both intended for far older children. I assume they’re from Diana but there’s no message, no money and both Evan and Jenny need new shoes. I must admit I’m feeling rather cross about it. I told Rafael I’d have to sell the games on eBay or something, but Rafael says to keep them and he’ll up my allowance.’
Ellie tried not to grit her teeth.
Oh, Diana! How could you!
‘Susan, my dear, you should have said. You manage beautifully, but children do cost money. We’ll have a session together next week; you, me and Rafael and see what can be done to help. So you haven’t had anything direct from Diana? Do the children miss her, do you think?’
‘No, I don’t think they do. There’s been such a big change in their lives since they came here, what with Evan going to big school and Jenny starting at nursery. He’s a little soldier, and Jenny is beginning to trust me enough to come for a cuddle every now and then. Aaargh! My back! I’m a bit achy today. I really do need some help in the house. Rafael’s suggesting we should all go away for a holiday by the sea. As if! With me not a fortnight from my due date.’
There was a cry of alarm from one of the children, and Susan hastily ended the call, with a quick: ‘Must go!’
Ellie recounted to Thomas what Susan had said.
Thomas reflected, ‘So Diana’s back and, from the evidence of the papers we’ve rescued it seems likely she’s involved in some way with Streetwise’s attack on Walker & Price and may be behind the other things that have been happening, too.’
Ellie fought a rear-guard action and said, ‘No, no way! She wouldn’t have arranged for bricks to be thrown through windows, or fliers advertising the students’ house as a brothel. Nor the firebombing of Nancy’s house.’
Thomas said, ‘My dear, it was you who said the King Rat didn’t get involved himself but had little people to carry out his wishes rather too enthusiastically.’
Ellie shrugged and sought for a tissue so that she could blow her nose. She didn’t want to believe it! And yet she had a sneaking feel that yes, Thomas was right. Diana might well have conceived a plan to upset Walker & Price. Nasty phone calls, dogs’ doodahs thrust through letterboxes, and also … Ugh … the spider. Ellie had to admit that it was, perhaps, the sort of petty aggravation that might have appealed to Diana.
She said, ‘Diana wouldn’t have killed Mr Walker. No way!’
‘Agreed. It might have nothing whatever to do with her.’
‘You don’t believe that. You think it all ties up.’
‘I think that the police would have done some door-to-door enquiries along the shops. They would check the footage on any security cameras which had been installed there. I wonder if they’d managed to find any footage indicating a visitor who might have been trying doors on the off chance? But no, the intruder caught Mr Walker in the yard at the back of the shops, didn’t he? I doubt if there were any security cameras there.’
Ellie thought about what else had been happening. ‘I suppose – I hope – that the police will take the arson attack at Nancy’s house seriously? Surely they must investigate that?’
‘Yes, but if there were no witnesses they won’t get far.’
‘Surely they must see that it ties in with the persecution of Walker & Price? If no one else will explain about that, then I will.’ She drew the phone towards her and dialled Lesley’s smartphone. Engaged. Voicemail.
Ellie left a message. Surely Lesley would see the point of further investigation now?