Chapter 45
NOW
Late August
Friday
‘I wasn’t sure you’d show up,’ I said as David Harcourt walked towards us.
‘You didn’t really give me a choice,’ David said ruefully.
‘You don’t seem surprised to hear from me.’
‘I’m not,’ he admitted. ‘When I heard you and Ryan were back together, I knew it was just a matter of time before you were back at Blackwater and figured things out. How much do you know?’
Ben glanced at me and then back at David. ‘You’re not even going to try and convince us there’s nothing to know?’
David lifted his hands, his palms open. ‘We’re here, aren’t we?’ He looked around at the ruins surrounding us. ‘Corfe Castle.’ He sniffed. ‘How did you find out this is where we used to meet?’
‘I followed Charlotte.’
‘Ah.’ David nodded. ‘I’m surprised it’s you contacting me then and not…’
‘The police,’ I finished for him.
‘Yeah,’ he said with a grimace. ‘So how did you figure it out?’
‘I saw Charlotte meet you here. She handed you an envelope. You told her to be careful.’ I held his gaze. ‘Then I found my name on the sales agreements.’
‘That was Charlotte,’ he said quickly. ‘I told her not to, but—’ he shrugged ‘—she didn’t like to be told “no”.’
‘You have to tell the police,’ I told him firmly.
He shook his head.
Ben stepped forward. ‘Charlotte didn’t accept being told “no”, and neither do we.’
‘I’m not going to just hand myself in to the police to get you off the hook,’ he said, nodding towards me. ‘I’ve got a family to think about.’
‘You belong on that hook, not Kirsty. You were part of this, she never was. You and Charlotte framed an innocent woman.’
‘I never framed her,’ David insisted. ‘I told you, that was Charlotte. She forged the signatures.’
‘And opened a bank account in my name?’ I demanded.
David shifted, but said nothing.
I felt Ben tense beside me, as he clenched his fist by his side.
I put my hand on his arm and stepped in between the two men.
‘You owe me the truth,’ I said, my voice firm as I glared at him.
David ran his hand across the back of his neck. ‘Look, I’m not going to talk to the police, but I’ll talk to you.’
I nodded. It was a start.
‘Charlotte came to me a couple of years ago. Ryan was away. The stables were struggling; Martin had made some bad decisions. And then Atlas started having issues.’ He shook his head. ‘Everything was unravelling for them. But Charlotte had a plan to save the stables.’
‘Fraud? That was her plan?’
David paced back and forth in front of us.
‘The Blackwaters have been good to me. I wanted to help them. It was supposed to be just one foal. One lie. She wanted me to help her falsify the records to make it look like it was Atlas’s bloodline.
It was worth far more that way. She was selling it to her father.
It felt like some family vendetta.’ He shrugged.
‘A way to get back at her dad, while helping Martin.’
Ben nodded. ‘That makes sense. It was no secret that he was more like a father to her than her own dad.’
‘I guess somehow that made it seem like it wasn’t such a big deal,’ David said weakly. ‘She was just screwing her own dad over. No one else was getting hurt.’
‘But it didn’t stop with one horse,’ I pointed out.
‘No, she said it hadn’t been enough. We needed to do more.’
I snorted. ‘And you just went along with it?’
‘What choice did I have? I refused at first, but she threatened to expose the first sale.’
‘And risk implicating herself?’ I stared at him dubiously. Charlotte wasn’t that stupid.
David shook his head. ‘That’s just it, she’d already forged your signature to frame you. There was no risk to her. Even if her dad figured out her involvement, it’s not as though he would actually let her go down for it. But you and I…’ He fell silent.
The magnitude of his confession washed over me. Charlotte had been smart, there was no question about that. Other than David’s claims, there was no proof she’d ever been involved in any of it.
‘What about the bank account?’ I reminded him again.
He shook his head. ‘Telling you about Charlotte is one thing. She’s dead. But pointing fingers elsewhere is a different matter.’
‘Elsewhere?’ I frowned. That meant Charlotte hadn’t opened the bank account.
‘If the police start asking questions, I’m going to need all the friends I have,’ David continued.
‘Not good enough,’ Ben said, stepping past me. This time I didn’t attempt to hold him back.
‘Charlotte wasn’t the only one who knew what was going on with the foals,’ David said reluctantly. ‘And she wasn’t the only one with a grudge against you.’
My stomach lurched.
‘What are you saying?’
‘If you want to figure out who set up that bank account, you need to look closer to home.’
He sucked in a deep breath.
‘Look at the Blackwaters.’