CHAPTER NINETEEN
As they drove away from the cul-de-sac with James Prosser waving them off from the garden gate, Cristy said, ‘It would have been inappropriate to ask what sort of pay-off was involved, wouldn’t it?’
Checking the road was clear to pull out, Connor said, ‘Probably, but I wouldn’t mind knowing. Do you reckon it was in the millions?’
‘I’d have thought so.’
‘But he’s not exactly living the high life now, is he?’
‘I’d say he’s comfortable enough. I mean, not everyone can afford a house like that, and maybe the bulk of what’s left is squirrelled away for James and the grandkids.
Anyway, he’s given us a fascinating insight into Lottie’s character which, interestingly, paints her in no more flattering a light than she painted him.
Although he wasn’t quite as spiteful in his descriptions as she was. ’
‘Do you believe what he told us?’
‘I’m sure he wouldn’t have outed himself as a bigamist if it weren’t true.’
Nodding agreement, Connor said, ‘I’m not sure we need to make a big deal of that. In fact, I think we should try to edit around it the best we can. It doesn’t serve the series and would only diminish him in his grandchildren’s eyes. That’s not what we’re about.’
‘Exactly what I was thinking.’
‘I can’t help wondering,’ he continued after a moment, ‘if Mia ever discovered the role Lottie played in the marriage. That it was actually a sham.’
As she considered it Cristy’s frown deepened. ‘Are you sensing a theme here?’ she said. ‘Lottie buys her sister a husband, then a child … Apparently to get some freedom for herself, and yet she never seems to have left.’
‘Something for Corny when we go over there?’ he suggested.
Remembering that she hadn’t had a chance to tell him about Mia’s turn last night she filled him in and took out her phone. ‘I promised to call Sadie when we left Edwin’s. Keep your fingers crossed that Corny hasn’t decided to stay on with Mia.’
‘I’m really sorry,’ Sadie groaned when Cristy asked. ‘She’s kind of planted herself, so I’m not sure coming now is going to be the best use of your time.’
Biting down on her frustration, and disappointment, Cristy said, ‘So how is Mia?’
‘She’s up and about, ticking us off for making a fuss over nothing.
“I’m not ready to join Lottie yet,” she keeps saying, “so don’t even think it.
” Fortunately, she seems to have forgotten about banning me from Lottie’s rooms because it’s where I am now and she sent Corny in with some tea ten minutes ago.
In case you’re wondering, I haven’t come across anything else of interest today.
Was Edwin Prosser able to shed any light on the letter I sent you? ’
‘He was. We’ll put the details in an email when we get back, but as we suspected he doesn’t know anything about Janina and Lukas.’
Sounding fed up, Sadie said, ‘No surprise there, I guess. Did he tell you anything interesting at all?’
‘A few things, but most significantly, he confirmed that the scene in the hall at the Exmoor house happened more or less as Lottie described it. So, at least some of her writings are based in reality. It remains to be seen whether anything else is.’
‘Well, it’s much harder for photographs to lie, and today I’ve set myself the happy task of ploughing through boxes and boxes of them that predate the digital age.
Most seem to be of people I have no way of identifying – a lot of children in refugee camps, or makeshift schools and in clothes that have clearly come from donations.
There are various dignitaries in all sorts of uniforms and traditional dress …
Plenty of cocktail parties in glorious sunsets, swimming off yachts, flying about in small planes …
Lottie definitely didn’t slum it while she was out there doing her good deeds. ’
‘Have you come across anyone who might have been significant in some way?’
‘Not really, but I’m not very far in yet. Are you thinking about someone she might have been romantically involved with?’
‘Amongst other things. Do you actually know of anyone she was involved with in that sense?’
‘She never talked about anyone specifically, but I don’t have a problem believing she had an active sex life when she travelled. She never brought anyone home for us to meet though.’
‘What about Mia? Did she have any relationships after Edwin?’
‘Not that I know of. It was like neither of them ever wanted to expose me to men, so Lottie played away, so to speak, and Mia, well, she didn’t play at all.’
Speaking up, Connor said, ‘Didn’t they have a lot of friends on the island? People they socialized with?’
‘Yes, quite a lot, actually, but no significant others, so to speak. Or, if there were, they were both very discreet. Am I allowed to ask now if anyone’s been in touch since Tuesday’s drop claiming to know Janina or Lukas?’
‘It’s still only Thursday,’ Cristy reminded her gently, ‘and listeners are contacting us all the time. Obviously, if anything comes up that we think is worth pursuing we’ll let you know right away.’
‘OK, thanks. And sorry again about the Corny thing.’
After assuring her it wasn’t a problem, Cristy rang off and waited until Connor had parked the car in front of the office before saying, ‘I keep coming back to the same thing with Lottie … She clearly had some sort of agenda going when she paid Edwin to “marry” Mia, and when she “found Sadie” … So why, when they took Sadie to Guernsey and Mia had a child to care for, didn’t she leave? ’
‘Because she became attached to Sadie too?’ Connor ventured, without much conviction.
Certain it wasn’t that, Cristy got out of the car saying, ‘We need to find George Symmonds-Browne. I’m sure he’s key to it all.’
‘And wouldn’t it be great if someone in that high-pedigree, inbred family of his answered emails,’ Connor stated, leading the way inside. ‘Even Iz’s contacts don’t seem to be breaking down those hallowed doors.’
Cristy was right behind and almost collided with him as he came to a sudden stop.
Stepping around him to see what was wrong she cried, ‘What the hell?’
‘We found it like this when we got back from lunch,’ Clover declared from the floor, where it appeared the entire contents of Lottie’s boxes had been upended and unceremoniously dumped.
‘We’re trying to sort through it now and put it all back.
The trouble is, we haven’t got a clue if anything’s missing, or which box any of it came from. ’
‘Did anyone in the building see someone coming in or out?’ Connor asked, as he and Cristy trod carefully over the strewn contents to their desks.
‘Not that we know of,’ Jacks replied, ‘although there are a couple of dirty great footprints on some of the paperwork … We’ve put them to one side in case we need to show the police.
Not that they’ll be interested in helping us.
With the doors always being open, we can’t even claim it was a break-in. ’
Looking at Connor, Cristy said, ‘Who the hell would do this? And what were they looking for?’
‘Have any of the computers been touched?’ he asked, checking his screen.
‘Cristy’s was unplugged,’ Jacks replied, ‘as if someone was about to make off with it, but I’m guessing they were interrupted, or changed their mind, because it’s still there.
And up and running. I’ve checked the latest activity and it’s all ours, so no interference, or copying, or bugs as far as I can tell, but I’ll definitely give it another going over. ’
Cristy turned to the whiteboard to see if a message had been left there, but it was exactly as they’d left it earlier. ‘This is bizarre,’ she said, dropping into her chair. ‘Who even knew the boxes were here apart from us and Sadie?’
‘Gita and Robert Brinkley?’ Clover reminded her.
Cristy almost laughed. ‘Well it obviously wasn’t Gita in her wheelchair, and Robert’s currently in Geneva so I think we can safely rule them out.’
‘In my opinion,’ Jacks said, ‘this with the boxes, is the kind of vandalism morons go in for, for fun, or to let you know they’ve come calling. A kind of intimidation tactic.’
Frowning, Cristy cast her mind back over their most recent podcast. ‘We haven’t mentioned anything yet about Matis Albescu or Eastern European gangs,’ she said, ‘but we did ask George Symmonds-Browne to be in touch.’
‘And this is how he does it?’ Clove cried incredulously.
‘If it was him,’ Connor put in.
‘Do you have any other suggestions?’ Cristy asked.
No one did.
‘OK, let’s work this back,’ Connor said, settling into it. ‘The last known sighting of Symmonds-Browne seems to have been in France circa 2016. Sure he could be anywhere by now, even in clink, but everyone knows that the Riviera is run by mobs, so it could be he was there …’
‘I’ll get onto a journalist contact of mine on the Nice-Matin,’ Cristy said. ‘She might be able to give us something with Vence being in her neck of the woods.’
‘We should also try Interpol,’ Connor suggested, ‘to find out what they might have on him, presuming they’re prepared to share it.’
Cristy grimaced. ‘The only person I know who has a good contact there is Matthew. Unless one of you can suggest someone?’ She looked at them all hopefully, and sank. ‘No, I thought not, but if you do think of someone please let me know before I get myself indebted to him.’
*
‘Hi, Mum, are you OK?’ Hayley cried over WhatsApp video. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Making chicken soup with dumplings for Aiden, if he shows up,’ Cristy replied, propping her phone against the toaster and reaching for her wine.
She still had a mountain of research to get through for the series, but rather than stay at the office she’d decided to do it at home given that Aiden was supposed to be staying with her tonight.
‘He’s got a new girlfriend,’ Hayley said. ‘Did he tell you about her?’
‘No. Anyone we know?’
‘Her name’s Pearl and she’s cool. That’s all he’s told me. Unless it’s changed since Tuesday, you know what he’s like. Anyway, I wanted to check you’re OK since the last time we spoke.’