After driving quickly to Brighton, Claire parked her car and, for ten minutes, sat on a bench facing the sea. It did little to calm her.
Still wary of being caught by the mobsters watching out for Harry Stone, Claire let herself in by the back door of Marine House. As Stone came towards her, Claire hesitated. For the first time with his illness, Claire saw Stone in shirt sleeves, and she was stopped in the doorway. His face was gaunt and ashen, his arms thin and his hands almost skeletal. His shirt hung loosely at his waist, and she could see a blue and black bruise on his temple that stretched down his neck to his right shoulder.
‘Come in,’ Stone said with a grin on his face at seeing her.
He walked slowly through the kitchen to the sitting room. Claire followed. She wanted to ask about that bruise, but now was not the time. Almost with his eyes closed, Stone fell into a deep sofa with a heavy sigh.
‘Good to see you again. I didn’t expect you to come so quickly. There’s lots for you to do, Claire.’
‘I’ve only got ten minutes,’ Claire said, her mouth dry as she stood facing Stone. ‘And I’ve got something serious to sort out with you.’
‘You’ve come to help me, Claire. That’s all I want to know. I want you to sort out all my papers and then I want you to look after my medical care. There’s a nurse coming in, and I want you to meet her. And I haven’t heard anything from the Lady Ruth Jackson crowd. And have you found where that inveterate thief Josh has got to? I need that diamond; it’s getting urgent.’
Claire stood the other side of the spacious room and faced Stone. He looked vacant. It was as if she was not there. This was a picture of a sad and broken man. But Claire was sure that he could still erupt with anger at what she was going to say.
‘Do you want a drink?’ Stone raised his voice as if that is what he wanted.
‘No. Not today. I don’t have time for that.’
Stone pointed to the whisky decanter on a sideboard.
‘Pour me a big one will you, Claire?’
Claire hesitated. This is not what she had come for, and the longer she was here, the more difficult it would be. She walked to the sideboard and poured a full measure into his glass. She had done that many times at Arrow Hall, but she would never do it for him again. As Claire placed the cut glass tumbler on a side table, he looked away from her as if he had felt the sharpness in her voice.
‘Is everything all right with you?’ Stone asked.
‘There’s a problem on the Arrow Hall building site,’ Claire said.
‘I’ll come and see it again before I’m finished. We’ll make a date before you go,’ Stone said.
He fidgeted on the deep sofa, but he still did not turn to face Claire.
‘I don’t want to see you at Arrow Hall again. Ever,’ Claire said. ‘You will soon understand why it’s best you keep right away.’
‘So, what else have you come to tell me?’ Stone asked.
Claire walked a few paces until she was facing Stone on the sofa. She looked at him as he sipped his whisky, and there was not even a thin smile on his drawn face. But she saw a slight tremor in his arm.
‘I’ve uncovered some double dealing on the Arrow Hall site. A lot of money’s been raked off into somebody’s pocket. It’s cost Rick £120,000 so far.’
Claire searched Stone’s face for a reaction. But there was none. He just sat quite still, sipping his whisky, and then he slipped lower into the sofa. There were many seconds of silence before he spoke.
‘I hope you can sort it out,’ Stone croaked.
He was still not facing Claire. He was in pain, severe discomfort by the frown on his face.
Claire momentarily felt she should quickly leave, and she turned towards the door. But Claire stopped. There would never be another time to clear up his cheating. She put her bag on the floor and sat facing and close to Stone. He looked up and with a flicker in his eyes.
‘You’ve been getting a feed of cash out of the Arrow Hall site. I don’t know why you’ve done it, but unless you pay it back, Rick will take action to recover it in the courts if necessary before it’s all finished.’
‘How do you know all this, Claire? And don’t try to take revenge on me from times long gone by.’
‘I found a note in your study when I was tidying your papers. It was tucked in your diary. You’re in collusion with James the surveyor who Rick hired to run the site. Between the two of you, there’s over £100,000 skimmed off. Fake invoices, duplicate invoices, altered bank accounts, they’re all there.’
Stone pulled himself upright on the deep sofa.
‘I had hoped you would keep on sorting my papers. I know what you’ve seen. Claire, just leave it; I’m too tired even to talk about it.’
‘I’ve kept the sheet of paper which tells all that you’ve done. And we’re going to deal with this now. It’s a fraud; it’s a nasty little scam. Do you want to be remembered by the big lump of cash that has been creamed off? A last deal that was downright thieving?’
‘I sold the wreck of Arrow Hall too easily, too quickly. Rick grabbed it before I could think about it properly. I was not feeling good at the time. I was hustled into the deal when I was low. He can’t grouse now if I try to get some back. He’d do the same.’
Stone, just for a few short minutes, was lively, just as Claire used to know him. He looked at his whisky before he took a long sip.
‘You’ve got to repay it.’
‘Come on, Claire, I’ve not had much. Rick’s wealthy; he won’t miss it.’
‘You knew what you were doing. You probably set up the scam and drew James into it.’
‘I did it because I wanted the money back that Rick underpaid on Arrow Hall. So, it now leaves us square,’ Stone said.
Stone spoke slowly in a controlled and determined voice.
‘No, only when you’ve repaid it to the last penny does it leave you square.’
‘Don’t try to bully me, Claire. I’m not well enough for that. I haven’t got the cash, so I couldn’t repay even if I wanted to. And I sold Arrow Hall—’
‘You leave me with no option then. I’ll have to call the police,’ Claire cut in. ‘I desperately had hoped I could settle with you and your accomplice James without bringing in the heavy arm of the law. The fraud squad will come and ask a lot of questions. They won’t give up on some shallow answers.’
‘How much?’ Stone snapped.
‘£120,000. That’s the exact figure; I’ve traced it all.’
‘That’ll dent my hopes of raising the missing cash for Marine House. The lease ends next week, and then I’ll be a squatter waiting to be evicted.’
Stone’s voice had gained strength and an edge that reminded Claire of days with Stone at Arrow Hall. But if this was begging for sympathy, it would not work.
‘Marine House, that’s finished – I’ve had that straight from Lady Ruth. Even if they would sell to you, I’d still take back this money you’ve cheated Rick for.’
‘But that sticky-fingered lot have still got my money, £75,000 and a valuable diamond, maybe worth near a hundred grand. They’re not going to get away with this blatant stuff, treating me as if I’m an idiot. Go and tell ’em I’m never leaving here.’
‘It’s time you saw the other side of the coin, now you know what it’s like to be cheated,’ Claire said.
Claire placed a sheet of paper with Rick’s bank details on a low table.
‘The details for repayment to Rick are there. Make it by this time tomorrow and that will be the end of it.’
But Stone stood. He hobbled slowly to the whisky decanter and refilled his glass.
‘I’ll repay Rick half and the other half, £60,000, I’ll pay to the Plaistow Children’s Hospice.’
He looked at Claire, almost pleading in his sunken eyes. And Claire smiled, unsure how far to press Stone on this. She nodded.
Stone opened his laptop and for a minute fumbled with the keys until he found his bank account. Claire then watched closely, silently, as he keyed in the payment of £60,000 to Rick’s account and £60,000 to the children’s hospice. It was a slow and painful process for him.
‘And don’t leave it beyond a few more days before you come to see me in Marine House again, Claire. It’s a big house, too big just for me. I’d like you to be there when the cancer finally does its job.’
Claire did not want these few minutes to be the way that summed up all she had known about this man. His days were now numbered, and what she had now made him do would last in her memory. Certainly forever. Claire’s emotions wavered between unease at his abject state and the trust that had been severed.
She quickly left the room. And once at the back door, tears were running freely down her cheeks. For Claire, this was the end of knowing Harry Stone. She would not now ever be able to face up to returning to Marine House to see him again.
And she was trembling.