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  He gave her a curious look. ‘Then I didn’t do a very good job.’

  ‘Sometimes no one can save a person from themselves.’

  His gaze flickered down towards his hands again.

  ‘Sorry,’ Jo said quickly. ‘I didn’t mean that to sound like some shallow piece of psychobabble. All I meant was—’

  ‘It’s okay, I wasn’t thinking that. The trouble was … is … that I didn’t even try to help. Not properly. I was sympathetic when she talked about Linda’s disappearance but it took me a long time, too long, to grasp the true meaning of what she was going through. It was only after we were married that I became aware of how much it haunted her. Over the years, she’d become obsessed with discovering the truth. Susan was only a kid when Linda went missing and the police hadn’t listened to a word she’d said. Her mother hadn’t exactly kicked up a fuss either; she and Linda had never got on and Pat gave the cops more than enough reasons to believe that her older daughter might have taken off.’

  ‘But you believed her, you thought—’

  ‘Did I?’ He sat forward, running a hand roughly through his hair. His eyes looked suddenly guilty. ‘I might have given that impression but … I knew what she wanted me to believe – that Linda couldn’t have abandoned her, couldn’t have just walked away – but I’m not sure if I had any firm convictions one way or another. All I knew was that when I said I believed her, it made Susan happy and when she was happy she became the person I’d fallen in love with.’ A thin, sad smile crept on to his lips. ‘When it comes down to it, all I really wanted was the good stuff and none of the bad.’

  ‘I’m sure it wasn’t that simple.’

  ‘Wasn’t it?’ Gabe’s face contorted as if he was conjuring up a past that had for the last five years been safely locked away. ‘It didn’t take her long to suss me out. Within a few months we both knew the marriage was a mistake. I wasn’t the man she thought I was and she, quite rightly, resented me for it. She was always somewhere else.’ He tapped his chest. ‘I mean in here, inside. She wanted someone who was prepared to go the distance, to stand by her side and fight for her sister, but all I wanted was her. She slowly erected a wall, a barrier; she shut me out. For a brief period of time I’d been her escape but then I gradually became her prison. I didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, and so I only made things worse.’

  Jo, with a sudden jarring of her heart, wondered if it had been the same for Peter, if he too had dashed headlong into a marriage because he’d been trying to run away from something in his past. Had she been the same disappointment to him as Gabe had apparently been to Susan? It was a thought that made her insides ache. ‘And then?’

  ‘One morning I woke up and she was gone. And you know what, the first thing I felt was relief. What kind of a person does that make me?’

  ‘A normal one,’ she insisted, perhaps a little too firmly. ‘You’re being too hard on yourself. It’s not always easy living with someone else’s pain.’

  ‘I wouldn’t know. I didn’t really try that hard.’

  For a while, lost to their own deliberations, they were both quiet. The sun slipped behind a cloud, throwing the courtyard into shadow. A light breeze trembled through the red geraniums. Jo shivered. She had thought she’d known her husband but she hadn’t. You couldn’t know someone who wouldn’t talk to you. Had that been her fault or his? She stared down at the table, her head full of mess and confusion.

  It was only as the sun came out again, as it fell across her arms, that she felt an urgent need to fill the silence. ‘So why has Susan suddenly decided that Delaney was responsible? I take it that is what all this is about? She’s taken Silver for revenge, to get her own back, to punish him.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I think so.’

  ‘So when, how, did she decide that he was responsible?’

  ‘Good question,’ he said.

  He didn’t, however, make any further attempt to respond but instead just extended his fingers and began to drum out a soft steady beat against the surface of the table. She left him to it, knowing that he would answer when he was ready. And eventually, after a minute or two, he did. ‘We always kept in touch, on and off. Susan never completely forgave me but … Well, she never quite let go of me either. We used to talk on the phone, even meet up from time to time. There was always something between us, something that wouldn’t quite go away.’

  Jo heard the regret in his voice. She felt a pang of compassion but was careful not to express it. Gabe Miller, she suspected, was not a man who would appreciate her sympathy. Accordingly, she kept it short and simple. ‘And?’

  ‘About nine months ago she called me. It was late, about three in the morning. She sounded excited, said she knew who’d killed Linda. I was barely awake. All I remember is grunting “What? Who?” but she wouldn’t explain. She wouldn’t give me a name. She just kept on saying “I know, I know who it was.”’ He sank his face into his hands and groaned. ‘God, I should have listened. I tried to call the next morning but she didn’t pick up. She didn’t respond to my messages either. I presumed she must have been drinking, that she’d had one of those brilliant revelations that didn’t seem quite so brilliant in the cold light of day. It wouldn’t have been the first time. To be honest I didn’t think that much about it. She’d often ring and then disappear for months on end. And that was the last I heard until …’

  ‘Until we were sitting in a black cab and I described her to you.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, raising his head again.

  ‘Which still begs the question of how Vic Delaney ended up as the prime suspect.’

  ‘Yes,’ he repeated thoughtfully. ‘Either I was wrong about him and she discovered things that I didn’t know, or someone with their own personal agenda has been whispering more than sweet nothings in her ear. And whatever the lies are, they must be pretty convincing. Susan might be desperate but she’s not stupid; she wouldn’t go to these lengths unless she was sure of his guilt.’

  Jo weighed up the options. She knew what Gabe thought, and what she privately thought too, but decided to play devil’s advocate. ‘Maybe Delaney was prepared, ready for the questions you asked him that night. Perhaps he’s smarter than you think. You might not have been the first person she’d asked about Linda.’

  He considered it for a second but quickly refuted the suggestion. ‘No, if she’d been doing the rounds, Delaney would have heard about it. He’d have chucked her out. Innocent or not, he wouldn’t have given her free rein to go wandering around asking awkward questions. It might have happened years ago but a missing girl wouldn’t do much for his reputation or staff morale.’

  ‘True enough,’ Jo agreed. ‘So I guess it’s more likely to be option number two. And if someone has been feeding her false information, I take it we’re presuming it’s the same person who murdered Ritchie Naylor and then tried to put you in the frame for it.’

  ‘That would seem likely.’

  ‘So what do we do now?’

  Gabe’s brows arched up. ‘We?’ he said.

  Jo looked directly into his dark grey eyes. If someone had given her a get-out clause a week ago she would have grabbed it, but things had changed a lot since then. Now, whatever the consequences, she refused to be pushed aside. ‘Oh, sorry, I forgot. For a moment there I thought I was involved in this too. I have this dim, distant memory of having been set up by a so-called friend, of being chased by a pair of oversized goons, of discovering that a girl had been kidnapped, of harbouring a man suspected of murder and then providing an alibi for that very same man.’ She folded her arms. ‘But clearly I’m not that important in the scheme of things so let me put it another way: what are you going to do?’

  That familiar grin crept across his mouth again. ‘No need to be so touchy, babe. No one’s questioning your credentials as a fully paid up member of the victim club, but what I’m going to do, if you don’t object, is precisely nothing.’

  Jo did object. ‘I thought we were beyond all that,�
�� she said sharply. ‘Please don’t lie to me. Don’t pretend that you’re going to do zilch because it simply isn’t in your nature.’

  Gabe leaned forward, folding his own arms in a mirror reflection of hers. ‘I’m not pretending. What I meant, what I mean, is that I’m not going to do anything today or tonight. I don’t need to. It’s taken me a while to work it out but I finally understand – I think – where this is going.’

  Jo spread her hands out in a questioning gesture.

  ‘It’s to do with timing,’ he said. ‘I should’ve realised. Tomorrow night is the anniversary, if that’s the right word, of Linda’s disappearance. That’s when Susan’s going to want to do the exchange. She’s making a point.’

  ‘And so?’

  ‘And so I’ve got over twenty-four hours to work out what to do.’

  ‘And your first thoughts are?’

  He picked up his empty bottle and dangled it by the neck. ‘That I could do with another drink.’

  ‘Or a coffee back at the flat,’ Jo suggested. He might be coping fine but two strong beers on a stomach containing only half a tuna sandwich were beginning to take their toll on her. She wasn’t drunk but could feel the edges of her reason beginning to fade a little.

  ‘Er …’ Gabe looked longingly towards the bar.

  ‘I’ve got some bottles in the fridge.’

  ‘Well, if you put it like that.’ He nodded as he got to his feet. ‘And on the way, you can tell me what’s been preying on your mind.’

  Deliberately avoiding his gaze, Jo looked across the courtyard. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I never took you for a hypocrite.’

  ‘What?’ she said, her startled eyes flicking back to meet his.

  Gabe reached out and lightly touched her arm. ‘No more secrets, right? Now I’ve taken the trouble to spew out all the details of my miserable life, you are morally obliged to return the compliment.’

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Leo stood by the High Street entrance and stared nervously across the Green. He was not sure what he had been hoping for more, that Stevie would be there or that he wouldn’t, but the dealer was in his usual place, slightly to the left of the main central path with a black holdall at his feet and a trio of punters huddled around him.

  As Leo watched the tattooed hands expertly palming the cash and almost invisibly delivering the tiny packages, his own hands were clutching the handlebars of the bike. He was still in two minds as to whether he was going to go ahead or not. There was still time to do a bunk.

  Perhaps the whole gun idea wasn’t so smart after all. For starters, where was he going to hide it? The flat wasn’t that big and his mother’s avid cleaning habits meant that nowhere was completely safe. He frowned. Although there was the shed, a place she rarely ventured into; there were too many cobwebs, too many large black spiders, even for her. But that wasn’t the point, he reminded himself. Just possessing a gun could get him into all kinds of trouble.

  Leo shifted anxiously from one foot to another. He had to make a decision. If he did a runner now, he’d be throwing away the thirty quid deposit but that was maybe a price worth paying. It was the other price he was more concerned about. There was no saying what Stevie would do if he ever caught up with him. Leo would have to spend the next few months avoiding him and that would mean going the long way home every day, not to mention looking over his shoulder every five minutes in case …

  But it was too late anyway. While he had been lost in his deliberations, Stevie had finished his deals. He was standing alone now and looking directly over. He raised a hand, not so much in a wave as an acknowledgement of his presence. It was accompanied by the kind of cold blank stare that not only defied Leo to walk away but also reminded him of why he was so scared. Even if he’d wanted to escape, he wouldn’t have been able to. His knees had begun to shake and it was not the kind of tremble that was conducive to jumping on a bike and cycling for your life.

  No, there was no other choice than to face up to the problem he had created. Slowly, Leo began to wheel his bike across the Green. While he walked, he prayed that Stevie might not have been able to acquire a gun. It was possible, wasn’t it? Perhaps he would say that it hadn’t been that easy, that it would take a few more days. That would be good. That would mean that he could shrug his shoulders, claim that the deal had been broken and that he was going somewhere else.

  But, as he approached, he knew his hopes were about to be shattered.

  Stevie’s hands moved on to his hips. There was nothing even slightly apologetic about his manner. ‘Jesus, man, I’ve not got all day. What’s with the snail pace? You on bleedin’ Valium or what?’

  ‘So you’ve got it?’ Leo said.

  ‘Of course I’ve got it. You got the rest of my cash?’

  Leo instinctively reached for his pocket, checking that the notes were still there. ‘I want to see it first.’ He was still trying to think of ways to avoid the purchase, of any get-out clause that might not involve his head being beaten to a pulp.

  ‘Here,’ Stevie said, bending to open his holdall. He looked up at him. ‘Don’t just stand there. You want the whole fuckin’ world to see?’

  Leo obediently laid his bike on the grass, knelt down and stared into the bag. What he saw was the last thing he wanted to see: a small dark revolver was nestled in the corner of a plastic carrier. He ran his tongue across his dry lips. ‘Where’s the ammo?’

  ‘Already loaded,’ Stevie said.

  Leo didn’t have a clue as to whether that was true or not. He had never seen a real gun before and was simultaneously terrified and intrigued by it. Too scared even to touch, his fingers roamed around the edges of the bag.

  ‘It wasn’t as easy as I thought,’ Stevie said. ‘The cops are having a crackdown. It cost a bit more than I thought it would.’

  ‘How much more?’

  ‘Another fifty.’

  Leo quickly stood up and shook his head. Stevie had just handed him the perfect excuse and he was going to make the most of it. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I haven’t got that much.’

  ‘We made a deal.’

  ‘For a hundred,’ Leo said. ‘We agreed on a hundred. I can’t afford any more.’ He shrugged his skinny shoulders and took a step back. He would have been glad if Stevie had just picked up the holdall and walked away but he didn’t. Instead his eyes took on a harder look.

  ‘What are you talking about? I’ve put my arse on the line for you. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to get hold of one of these?’

  ‘But I can’t—’

  ‘You want it or not?’ Stevie snarled.

  Leo was about to say no, was absolutely determined to say no, when he lifted his eyes towards Barley Road and saw a figure standing in the window of Jo’s flat. His stomach took a dive. Jesus, it was him! It was the evil bastard she had brought home last Friday. And suddenly Leo was back on the path with his arm twisted up behind his spine and the man’s hot breath on his neck.

  ‘I can do an extra t-ten,’ Leo spluttered, suddenly determined to have the weapon. He dug into his pocket and thrust the notes towards Stevie. ‘Here, eighty quid. That’s all I’ve got. Take it or leave it.’

  Stevie hesitated – but not for long. It wasn’t as much as he’d hoped for but when all was said and done, it was still clear profit. After grabbing the cash, he bent down, picked up the carrier bag and threw it ungraciously towards Leo. ‘This is between you and me, right? You ever tell anyone where you got this and I’ll fuckin’ kill you.’

  Leo nodded. He could have mentioned that he was now the one holding the loaded gun but knew that he wouldn’t appreciate the irony.

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Susan had never seen him so animated. Marty Gull’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes shone with a bright sadistic pleasure as he recounted the events of the night before. She watched him as he paced around the kitchen, his gestures expansive, his voice creepily elated as he relived every vile and lurid
detail.

  This was what they had planned for, sweated over, for almost ten months. Susan tried to concentrate, to look suitably joyous and impressed. She was happy, she knew that, but somehow she just wasn’t quite happy enough.

  ‘You should have seen him,’ Marty said ecstatically. He threw back his head and laughed. ‘You should have seen the look on his fat bloody face.’

  ‘Mmm,’ she murmured.

  He stopped abruptly, leaned back against the sink and glared at her. ‘Are you listening to a word I’m saying?’

  ‘Of course I’m listening,’ she lied.

  ‘Well, try not to look so fucking pleased about it all. I thought this was what you wanted.’

  Sensing his irritation, a volatile, dangerous emotion that could quite easily flip over into anger, Susan made an effort to placate him. ‘I did. I mean, I do. I am glad – you did a great job … but it’s not going to bring Linda back, is it?’ She buried her face in her hands. ‘She’s gone for ever. Nothing’s going to change that.’

  Marty was partly mollified, if not especially sympathetic. ‘Yeah, but just don’t forget who’s doing all the hard work here. I’m the one who has to be with him. All you have to do is sit on your arse and watch the brat.’

  Susan resented the implication that she’d got the easier side of the deal – it was no great shakes having to listen to Silver whine all day – but had the sense to keep her opinion to herself. Looking up, she wiped away her tears. ‘You’re right,’ she said softly. And then, because she knew it was what he wanted, promptly added: ‘Go on, I want to hear the rest. What happened next?’

  He thought about it for a while, pretending not to be that bothered, but ultimately couldn’t resist the joy of telling. His chest puffed up with pride. His eyes regained their shine as he continued with the story.