‘You could at least switch a light on.’
‘What?’
The owner of the vision on display gave a theatrical sigh. ‘You. All I can see is a set of bloodshot eyes in the middle of a coal cellar. What have you been doing?’
‘Oh! Sorry.’ Billie tore himself away from the laptop and reached for a switch on the wall behind him. He blinked at the onslaught of light and settled himself back on the settee in time to catch a bemused smile flitting across Emma’s face. He smoothed his hair back. ‘How’s that?’
‘Better. I suppose you’ll have to do. Do you actually sleep in that thing?’
‘Er… no. I don’t. It’s my dressing gown, obviously. Why are you—’
‘I bet you’re wearing jockey shorts.’
Emma’s breasts were neither large nor small, but they formed almost perfect orbs surmounted by succulent raspberry nipples. Billie sat transfixed, his brain struggling to accept that he was now awake, having a conversation in the middle of the night with a naked woman on his laptop. This can’t be happening. This is unreal. Mention of his own underwear shook him out of his reverie.
‘Of course I am. Doesn’t everyone?’
‘Hmmm. I don’t. But we can talk about what each other is wearing later. At least I’ve got your attention now. Was it a nice surprise, getting a call from me?’
Billie adjusted his position on the settee, forcing himself to focus on the camera lens above his screen. ‘Emma, it was certainly a surprise, and it is nice to see you in—’
‘In the flesh?’
‘I was going to say in person. But isn’t this… all a bit unnecessary? This Mata Hari cloak and dagger stuff?’
Emma shrugged and held up both hands in an appeasing gesture, the action causing her breasts to give a teasing wobble. ‘I’m not hiding under a cloak, Billie! I’m hiding absolutely nothing from you. But this is a serious matter, and I need you to focus so I’ll put these puppies away for now.’ She glanced down and shrugged a brightly coloured piece of silky material over her shoulders, then tied it loosely across the distracting vista. ‘I don’t think you appreciate how even this conversation puts me at risk. We need to talk.’
‘We are talking.’
‘Good! Then listen up. I’m not totally convinced Skype is secure from hacking so there’s a limit to what I can discuss. I’ve got to be careful mentioning names. Do you understand?’
‘Yes.’ Billie answered her automatically, relieved to be free of distractions.
‘If I talk about someone called Peter, do you know who I mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘He was an extremely powerful man in 1985. I was seven years old, and I lived —’ Emma hesitated, calculating the risk, ‘I lived in a place over the sea but not far away. The British army had a base there. Do you know where I mean?’
Billie made the connection. ‘Would that be somewhere close to Bel—’
‘No names! Over the sea, yes. Near where our ship was born. Okay?’
Billie felt a crawling sensation along his spine. He nodded.
Emma swallowed hard. ‘My great-great-grandfather used to work in a place where he had access to private information. You’ve seen some of the papers he had. But they were never intended to be made public, and he shouldn’t have copied them. He kept them secret and made his son promise to do the same. But then they got lost for a while, until my dad found them. He wanted to make them public, and… he tried to get them published, which made someone very angry.’
Billie leaned closer to the screen, alarmed to see Emma struggling with her emotions as she continued her story.
‘There were only two copies made. My dad probably didn’t dare make any more, and he sent one to someone in the press he thought he could trust. They let him down and… that was the end of him. He was killed by the army, on Peter’s orders, and they took the original papers. Then they came after my brother Brendan because he had the only remaining copy. You don’t know what he went through, Billie. That man Peter—’
Billie interrupted. ‘But how did you get a copy?’
Emma had her head bowed. Now she looked back at Billie’s image on her own screen and took another breath. ‘Brendan thought he’d lost them. But he hadn’t. There was an old telescope in his bedroom. I borrowed it once… Oh God, I was an awful sister! I couldn’t get it to work properly and so I lost my temper and whacked it against the wall or something. Then the end fell off and I found out why I couldn’t see anything through it. These papers fell out just as my mum came in to see what the noise was about. So I never got to see what they were. She took them and put them with her own things. I suppose she just put the telescope back together and never told Brendan.’
‘Did she pass the papers on to you?’
‘Not exactly. We came back to Liverpool in 1987. That’s where I’m from, Billie. We only lived in Por… over there for about five years. After all the tragedy we stopped with my grandfather for a while, and some of our stuff got put in his loft. Mum died fairly recently and then Wally, my grandfather, asked me to sort out her stuff back in Liverpool. That’s when I found them, and I realised why Peter still had an interest in our family. Well, one reason anyway. He wants the document that was inside the telescope, and he’s killed two members of our family trying to get it. At least, I’m positive he was behind both deaths.’
‘But… he’s dead now, isn’t he?’
‘That’s what they say. But I wouldn’t imagine a little thing like dying would stop him getting his own way. He always had help. There was always someone there to carry out his orders. And there still is. I’m a risk to someone. Who would you trust in my position?’
‘Sorry, Emma. I’m not entirely sure what your position is. Surely if you have evidence that someone is a killer, even if that person is in high office, you need to go to the police?’
‘You still haven’t got it, have you, Billie? My dad was the police! That was his job, and in effect it was his boss that killed him. Although I can’t actually prove it.’
Billie sat stunned for a moment. Emma had a point. ‘Is there anything at all you have that would count in a court of law?’
‘Nothing. And don’t forget who makes the laws in the first place. I’ve made it my business to expose that person for what he is, and now I have these papers I’ve at least got some chance of doing that. My immediate problem is I need someone who can help me find the best way of getting the word out. Especially something as sensitive as this.’
‘Aren’t you working with Eric V... with that other guy?’
‘Not any more. His agent, who is also my agent, has told me he’s dropped out of the project, and isn’t to be approached on any account. What does that tell you?’
‘Well… I don’t know. What are you thinking?’
‘That the timing is very odd. The day before Peter’s death I received a very encouraging email from… that guy. I was going to visit him at his house. Two days later and he’s changed his mind. Or somebody changed it for him.’ As Billie digested that thought Emma gave him something else to consider. ‘I still need an ally, Billie. I can’t fight this man on my own any more, and if he sent someone after… that guy, then it’s obvious they’ll be after me too. That’s why I need you here, in person. Will you come?’
There was only one answer he could give. But he still had one more question.
‘Emma, you said Peter had more than one reason to be interested in your family. Why was that?’
A shadow seemed to cross Emma’s face before she answered. ‘Because seventeen years ago I tried to cut his balls off.’