‘I’m here.’
Helen looked up from her beer to see Tom sliding into the booth across from her. ‘I got you a pint.’ She nudged his glass over.
‘Thanks.’ He shrugged off his jacket and laid it aside. ‘No one knows you’re here, I take it?’
‘No. Archie and Pen went out for dinner and a film,’ she said. ‘And the rest of us…well, let’s just say we’re all going a bit bonkers, stuck in that castle for the last few weeks. Everyone’s escaped for the evening.’ She leant forward. ‘So tell me what this is all about.’
He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a photo and laid it on the table, then slid it across to her. ‘Have a look.’
Helen picked it up. The photograph showed Pen Park and Graeme Longworth coming out of a mansion flat in Marylebone. Judging from Pen’s crocheted mini-dress and Longworth’s sideburns, it was taken around the same time as the snap at Annabel’s, in the mid-seventies.
The pair shared an umbrella, and they both looked straight into the camera, their expressions startled, and more than a little guilty.
‘So I was right,’ Helen said softly. ‘They were having an affair.’ She lowered the photo and gazed at him. ‘Why wasn’t this picture published?’
‘I’m getting to that,’ Tom grumbled as he took the photograph back and tucked it in his pocket once again. ‘When I took that snap, I was young, barely twenty. I was desperate for a big, splashy story to make my name. One day, I got a tipoff over the phone about Longworth and his dolly bird, and I got my story, all right – with bells on.’
‘So it seems,’ Helen murmured.
‘This man – he said he was connected to a senior member of the coalition – wanted a story, with photos, that would implicate Longworth in an affair with a certain up-and-coming British model.’
‘Longworth was married, I take it?’
‘Yes. So the next day, I staked out the front of the mansion flat in Marylebone where Miss Park lived, and I waited. I waited outside ‒ in the rain ‒ for fucking hours. But I got the goods. I messengered the photos to this bloke, as agreed. He called to say he’d got ’em and asked me not to file the story for twenty-four hours.
‘So I waited. The next day, he sent the pictures back and told me to kill the story.’ Tom scowled. ‘I was furious! Longworth’s affair would’ve been the making of me. But he offered me plenty of dosh to keep it out of the paper, so I did, and I took the money. I locked the photos away in my safe, where they’ve been ever since.’
‘But if the story never ran,’ Helen asked, puzzled, ‘then why did Longworth withdraw from the election?’
Tom shrugged. ‘Someone showed him the photographs, I reckon. He was made to understand that if he didn’t withdraw, the photo – and the story of the affair ‒ would run in the next day’s papers.’
‘So that’s how you came by the infamous Aston Martin,’ Helen remarked, and quirked her brow. ‘I always wondered.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘How’d you know about that? I sold the Aston years ago.’
‘Are you kidding? That car is a newsroom legend! We all thought you must’ve been shagging the owner’s wife.’
He nearly spit out his lager. ‘I’ve never been that desperate for a car,’ he retorted. ‘Or a shag.’
‘So who was he?’ Helen asked as she leant forward, her eyes intent on his. ‘Who tipped you off about Pen and Longworth and paid you to keep the story quiet?’
He shrugged. ‘I never knew the bloke’s name. I saved Pen Park from a world of trouble, though, and no mistake. If that story had run...’ his words trailed off.
Helen traced a finger around the rim of her glass. ‘Someone obviously wanted to force Longworth to stand down.’
‘It happens all the time, love. Politics is a dirty business. That fling with Pen ruined Longworth’s career. Hope she was worth it. It put paid to her career, too.’
‘It did? How so?’ Helen asked curiously.
‘She gave up modelling, didn’t she? At the top of her game, she was, and then she just...disappeared.’
‘Poor Pen. She had to give up Graeme Longworth...and her modelling career.’
‘Oh, don’t feel too sorry for Miss Park. She married into the Campbell family a year or two later, after all. Filthy rich, the Campbells, as you’ve no doubt seen for yourself, with a castle, and that distillery fortune of theirs. She didn’t need to model any more.’
‘No,’ Helen said, a thoughtful expression on her face. ‘No, I suppose she didn’t.’
They were just sliding out of the booth to leave when Archie Campbell and his wife entered the pub.
‘Shit,’ Helen muttered. ‘Speak of the devil…the Campbells just walked in. Put your happy face on, Tom.’
‘I don’t have a bloody happy face,’ he grumbled as he reached for his wallet.
‘Helen!’ Penelope Campbell called out as she spotted them, and gave a little wiggle of her gloved fingers. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’ She cast a curious glance at Tom. ‘And who is this?’ she enquired as they arrived at the booth.
Before Helen could respond, Archie thrust out his hand. ‘Archie Campbell. Pleased to meet you.’
Tom, momentarily nonplussed, regained his equilibrium and shook hands with Campbell and Pen in turn. ‘Tom Bennett. Pleasure.’ He added, ‘Sorry, but I’ve got to run, it’s been a long day. I’m off to check into my hotel. It was great seeing you again, Helen.’ He gave her a meaningful glance. ‘We’ll talk soon.’
‘Bye, Tom.’ She lifted her hand and watched as he beat a hasty retreat out the door.
‘Well!’ Pen said brightly as she unwound her scarf. ‘Is Mr Bennett a particular friend of yours?’
‘No. He...we used to work together. In London.’ Eager to change the subject, Helen said, ‘Why don’t you take our booth? We’re just leaving, and the place is heaving.’
It was true. In the hour or so that she and Tom had spent talking in the back corner, the Draemar Arms had gotten busy, crowded now with locals anxious to escape for an evening of drink and darts and conversation.
‘Won’t you join us?’ Archie invited her as he shrugged off his coat. ‘You’re more than welcome.’
‘Thank you, no. I need to go and buy a tin of shortbread to take to Colm’s tomorrow.’ Instantly she regretted the words. Why in hell had she said that?
‘Oh?’ Pen arched her brow. ‘Are you invited to the gatehouse for tea, Miss Thomas?’
Helen managed a polite smile. ‘No. Colm’s invited me to Sunday dinner, actually. Nothing fancy. But I do hate to show up empty-handed,’ she added. ‘So if you’ll excuse me, I really should be going.’
Her mobile rang just then. With a glance down at the screen – it was Tom’s number – she hurriedly said her goodbyes, and left.
‘What is it, Tom?’ Helen said into the phone as she walked back to her rental car. ‘Didn’t you just leave?’
‘Thank God he didn’t remember me.’
She scrabbled in her purse for the key and unlocked the door. ‘Who? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about Archie Campbell.’
‘Oh...had you two met before?’
‘You could say that. Although we never actually met.’
‘Tom,’ Helen said impatiently as she slid behind the wheel, ‘stop being so bloody cryptic and tell me what the hell you’re on about.’
‘He’s the one, Helen. He’s the bloke who called me all those years ago and tipped me off about Longworth.’
She blinked. ‘Archie? No, you must be mistaken.’
‘I never forget a voice,’ Tom said firmly. ‘And it was definitely him I spoke to on the phone.’ He paused. ‘It was Archibald Campbell who put paid to Graeme Longworth’s career. And you can take that to the bank.’