Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
TIA SQUARED UP to her brother. Honestly, for a grown man he could be exasperating.
“Good. The kidnapper deserved to be kicked where it hurts. And if Ash did chop off someone’s finger, I’m sure there was a good reason for it.”
Luke wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Stop defending her. What she did to me, and to others by the sound of it, was unforgivable.”
“No, I won’t stop defending her. Ash was my friend, and she saved my life. How do you know all that Black Widow stuff, anyway?”
Silence.
“Come on, tell me. What, did you watch a midafternoon documentary on some obscure satellite channel?”
Because Luke had turned into a world-class slob over the past few weeks. If he spent any longer on the sofa, he might as well upholster himself.
“No, Rob and Mark told me. They’ve come across her before, and apparently it’s well known in police circles that she’s one scary woman.”
“Oh, so they discussed the details of a case with you? Isn’t that illegal?”
Mark’s sister, Arabella, had been Tia’s best friend since they started secondary school. Tia spent a lot of time at their house, but she’d never heard Mark mention any Black Widow. And Mark was always running his mouth off about police business, even though he wasn’t supposed to. He had the discretion of a tabloid newspaper.
“No, Rob read about it on the internet.”
“The internet?” Seriously? “So obviously it must be a hundred percent true then.”
“Why are you taking her side? I’m your brother.”
“And she was like my sister.”
“She lied to you.”
“Maybe so, but she also taught me not to be so quick to judge people. If I’m going to condemn her like you have, I want to hear what she has to say firsthand, not via Rob and Mark and the internet.”
“You’re not contacting her.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d used that firm tone with her, and on past form, he wouldn’t budge. Hmm. More devious measures were called for.
She tried reasoning anyway, just in case. “Why not?”
“She’s dangerous.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I spent as much time with her as you did, and she never showed the slightest inclination to harm me. Or you, for that matter. What she did do was stop other people from hurting both of us. You’ll have to come up with a better argument than that.”
“Okay, well how about because you’re a minor living in my house and I say so,” Luke said, hands on hips, just like their mother when she got cross. Genetics at work. Yes, Tia had listened in at least one of her biology lessons.
“You really are turning into Mother, you know.”
Leaving Luke reaching for the whisky once more, Tia marched off upstairs. Why did her brother have to act like such a jerk? Yes, he’d split with Ash, but that was partly his fault, and drinking and sulking wouldn’t fix a thing. She stormed into her bedroom, kicking the door closed behind her and cursing her stupid brother as she did so.
Men! She hated to lose the argument, but at least she’d stuck up for herself. Ash would have been proud.
Tia threw herself down on the bed, exasperated. Luke could be so closed-minded sometimes. Tia had already judged Ash too hastily once herself, back when she first met her last year. Guilty as charged. She’d assumed Ash was another gold-digger after her brother’s money, same as the procession of shallow tarts who’d preceded her, but that turned out not to be the case.
No, Tia wouldn’t make that mistake again.
She got her laptop out of its drawer and swept away the papers littering the surface of her desk to make room for it. Her gaze was drawn to the corkboard above, to the only photo she had of her and Ash. Just a simple selfie, with Ash smiling beside her into the camera, but as Tia looked at it now, she detected a hint of sadness in Ash’s eyes. Why hadn’t she asked Ash more questions back then? Maybe she could have found out more about her past.
But Ash had always hated talking about herself. Would she have answered if Tia asked? No, probably not. Ash had been a great listener, the best, and that was one of the things Tia had loved about her. Over the weeks, she’d opened up and told Ash her deepest secrets. Ash had never once reciprocated. When it came to Ash’s feelings, Tia concluded that she’d never even scratched the surface, and she doubted Luke had got any deeper.
In front of her, the computer sparked to life. Tia opened up a search engine and typed “Emerson Black” into the box, tapping her fingers on the desk while the page loaded. Lower Foxford’s internet connection came straight out of the dark ages, and even though Luke had installed some fancy satellite system for his work stuff, Tia was left with creaking broadband.
Finally, the page loaded, and she scanned down the results. A band called Emerson released their new album, Black Moon , last week. Emerson Knives Inc. had just brought out a new model of knife with a black finish. An author called Earl Emerson had written a book on a guy called Thomas Black. There were all sorts of permutations of “Emerson” and “Black,” but nothing about a woman called Emerson Black.
Googling “The Black Widow” brought up a zillion references to spiders. Eeeuch, they were ugly little suckers. Tia shuddered at the more graphic photos. Luckily, they didn’t live in the UK, although she did recall a creepy article on the news about one being found in a bunch of grapes at Asda in Watford. She hadn’t eaten fruit for weeks afterwards.
Hundreds of results filled the screen, but still no Emerson Black. It was as if she didn’t exist. Had Luke got things wrong earlier? He’d certainly reeked of whisky when he arrived home.
Tia made one last attempt by entering both search terms together, and was rewarded with a tiny paragraph in The Richmond Times , not a story but an apology for a previous article no longer available. The paper was profoundly sorry for any accusations made and accepted they had no basis in fact. What accusations? What were they talking about? Something to do with that murder nonsense her brother had been spouting?
Tia’s sigh settled over the room. Somebody’s lawyer had been working overtime, hadn’t they?
Shoving her chair back so hard it fell over, she glared at the screen. The internet was a dead end. Whatever stories Rob and Mark looked at must have long since been removed like the article in The Richmond Times .
Why hadn’t she paid more attention when Luke tried to teach her computer stuff? It would probably take him five minutes to write a program that searched dead web pages, but she didn’t dare ask him for help. Even if she said she wanted to learn more about programming in general terms, he’d still be suspicious. She’d always glazed over at the first mention of his work in the past.
Arrrgh. This was so flipping frustrating!
Tia flopped back onto the bed, only to sit straight back up again as she recalled Luke’s earlier words. Emerson had started the charity that ran the ball tonight, right? What was it called? She thought back to the conversation she’d had with her brother yesterday, the one where he’d been moaning that his tuxedo jacket was too tight. Blackstone? Blackrock? Blackwater? No, Blackwood. The Blackwood Foundation. That was it. She righted her chair, typed that into the search engine, and got a sleek-looking website. News of the ball took up most of the front page. The Black and White Ball , sponsored by Blackwood Security.
Tia tried searching for the name of the company instead. Surely they were connected? She clicked on the first website up, a global security conglomerate, and pored through the pages. Jeepers, Blackwood was big—the second largest security firm in the world if its advertising was to be believed.
Received death threats and need a bodyguard? No problem. Need a crime investigated? They had a team for that. Want assistance with training your own security team? Blackwood offered to travel anywhere in the world to do it. Got to have a state-of-the-art alarm system? They’d design something so secure even a mouse couldn’t get in.
Eventually, on a page detailing the history of the group, Tia was rewarded with a small reference to the company’s founders: C Black, N Wood, and E Black. Did the “E” stand for Emerson?
Tia trawled through the rest of the website, her heart rate increasing with every click, and found… Nothing. Not a single hint. With no other avenues to try, she returned to the “Contact us” page, selected her choice of country as the UK, and fired off a short message.
What was the worst that could happen? Only that someone would file it in the bin.
Covering a yawn, she changed into a pair of pyjamas, brushed her teeth, and climbed into bed. Sleep didn’t come easily that night. Instead, Tia lay awake, watching the night sky out of the window. There wasn’t a cloud up there, and the stars twinkled. She wished she knew the names of the different constellations. If Ash had been there, she’d have asked her. Ash knew things like that. Ash knew everything.
And somewhere under that same sky, Tia thought, Ash could be watching the stars as well. The question was where, and who with?