Chapter Fourteen #3
‘Hmm, that’s odd,’ he says, interrupting my silence.
Leans forward to examine the deed. Then with mocking theatricality, he removes his spectacles, gives them a polish, and places them back on his nose.
Looks again. ‘Yes, that is right. I am afraid it doesn’t look like your name is on here, you know.
It is made out to a Miss Vee Morgan.’ Smiles up at me.
‘But that’s not you, is it? You are Vera Owens. ’
I have the sensation of a terrible machine bearing down on me.
Headlights rushing closer on the road, too fast for me to move away; my body frozen in place anyway.
A sudden image of that struck deer the first night I came here.
My surname, Owens, Reacher had already learned from when he picked up those letters to my parents. But where did he hear ‘Vera’?
‘I realized, of course, that you were lying about your family working for the prison service,’ Reacher says, voice conversationally light.
‘I imagined perhaps they were incarcerated themselves. Well, no business of mine, I thought, Miss Morgan is a good little worker all the same. But how odd it is that her criminal progenitors never return her letters. I was always under the impression that even inmates may send mail. I’ll admit I was curious, so I called in one or two favours with some fellow birders based in Wales – I know all sorts of useful people; you would be surprised.
It wasn’t much work for them to find the story.
’ He places his hands on top of the deed, one resting in the other.
‘So, a little thought game for you, Miss Owens: if Arabella drops dead from arsenic poisoning—’
‘Arabella?’ My confusion moves me to interrupt.
‘Yes. And who do the police believe, then? Her loving cousin? Or the daughter of two convicted criminals who attempted to murder their employers in the very same way? In fact, the woman who purchased the poison in the first place.’ He plucks up the deed, holding it aloft like a proclamation.
‘And see this, she has even tried – no matter how inexpertly – to manipulate Lady Lascy into signing Harfold over to her! It’s just so hard to believe that she didn’t know anything about her parents’ crime. ’
‘Look here,’ I say, fighting to keep my voice steady, ‘I don’t know what you’ve heard, but my name was clean in that business.’
‘Still, rumours stick, don’t they? I assume that was what drove you out of Cardiff.
’ A smug smile when my expression tells him he’s right.
‘Now, I am not sure if you have heard of the law of forfeiture, but it means that a person found guilty of murder can’t profit from their crime – which means that the ownership of Harfold would revert back to its rightful heritor.
’ He taps the table. ‘Me, in case that was not clear.’
A cold sweat drips down my back. I feel like I’m in court again, hundreds of eyes burning into me as I’m hit with a torrent of questions, each one designed to trip me up.
Why did you purchase the poison? Did your mother or father ask you to buy it?
Did you go into the store-shed that day?
How did you come to have the keys? After you’d been in the store-shed, did you go into the kitchen?
Did you see your mother prepare the food?
Did she put anything in it? Did you have any grudge against the Reeses?
Were you aware that your father had been dismissed the previous day?
Is it true he is a socialist? What did he think of the Reeses?
Was he there in the kitchen? Why were you there?
‘Drink?’ Reacher sloshes out two Scotches – neat this time.
‘We are out of soda, I’m afraid. Now, I still haven’t been able to find the answer to my question: why is it that your parents refuse to write to you?
Is it because you appeared in court as a witness for the opposition?
I noticed that tidbit. They must have felt very betrayed.
Still, I admire your mercenary attitude. ’
I breathe slowly. Try not to remember Mam’s and Dad’s faces as I took the stand. ‘What do you want from me, Reacher?’
He raises his glass. ‘To Mutton. I really did love that stupid dog.’ He takes a sip and sighs in appreciation.
Presses a thumb to the corner of one eye, then the other.
It’s possible the tears are genuine. ‘And I do like you. I would have been sorry to throw you into the crossfire, but I wasn’t left with much choice.
Although …’ He pauses in thought. ‘There is an option that could benefit both of us. What if Bellsy were to kill herself? Poor old girl, so terrified of this lunatic curse theory of hers: it all just got to be too much.’ He nods at me.
‘You remember her saying so to you, don’t you, Vee?
How she just wanted it all to end? And in return for your sharing that with the police, I shall rip up this silly deed and forget all about it.
You can go on your merry way. I can even put in a good word with some friends to help you find a new situation. How does Kew sound?’
I don’t believe the nerve of him. ‘You really think I’d betray Arabella like that?’
‘She doesn’t deserve your loyalty, my dear. Why do you think she made you sign this in the first place?’
If I moved quickly, would I be able to snatch the deed away from him, unlock the door and run?
Seeming to sense my thinking, Reacher places a palm flat over the paper. ‘It’s because she thinks Harfold is cursed. She was trying to push you in front of her in the firing line!’ With the other hand, he slides the decanter until it sits directly between us to illustrate the point.
‘That’s not true.’
‘Pew!’ He pushes the decanter’s neck, but catches it before it topples.
‘You know, I wonder if she didn’t have this planned the whole time.
I just could not understand why she wanted so badly to bring in a new gardener from all that way away, then why she invited you to live in the manor with us, to share our meals, to play our games.
But now I realize she was leaving a little breadcrumb trail, and you have come along gobbling it up. ’
I scowl at him. ‘That’s you, who uses people. She’s not like that.’
A long, slow smile. ‘Ah, but of course: you don’t know the whole story behind the curse …
Tell you what, no point in hearing that from me.
You would only say I was lying. Why don’t you go and ask Arabella about it?
Or better yet, read that bloody journal of hers.
Then you will see just what sort of a person she is.
And I already know what sort of a person you are, so you know where to find me when you change your mind.
’ He takes another glug of Scotch, then looks at me, one eyebrow raised.
‘Well, go on, then.’ Makes a shooing motion.
‘You’re letting me leave, are you?’
‘I was never stopping you!’ He gives a self-satisfied wink. ‘Now, you won’t say anything to Arabella or the Allens, will you? Not unless you would like them to learn what happened to that poor family you used to work for. The child … Oh, it breaks one’s heart.’
Kenneth. My throat stings as the memory is forced fresh into my mind.
His hands so cold, as if they’d been plunged into a drift of snow.
But how dare Reacher use what happened to that little boy against me?
As if the tragedy is nothing more than a trump card to be laid out on the table.
I grit my teeth, hearing the squeak of bones meeting echo inside my ears.
He’s got me all wrong, and I will make him pay for this. First, though, I need to warn Arabella.
Cautiously, I rise from my chair and edge back toward the door. Step around the seashells. Fumble with the key, not wanting to take my eyes off Reacher. Finally get it open.
Reacher’s voice follows me down the corridor: ‘Don’t forget to ask Bellsy about that curse!’