Chapter 87 #2
That was true, of course; it had been his grandad’s stories that first sparked Charlie’s interest in boats. But …
‘He was in a bad storm once,’ Charlie went on. ‘Two of the passengers died. He said it put him off boats for a long time.’
Her dad had been born and brought up in Newton Ferrers.
Tug said, ‘Holly, what’s your dad’s name?’
‘Steven,’ she replied.
‘The boy who stole the dingy,’ Tara said. ‘He told us it was his at first, but he didn’t really know how to manage it. Is he your dad, Holly?’
Quick let a satisfied smile creep over his face.
‘Steve, whose criminal offence made the whole doomed enterprise possible, has been seriously ill with a degenerative disease for nearly three years. Physically he’s in a bad way but his mind’s as sharp as ever.
I’ve spent a bit of time with him recently.
I’d been looking forward to telling him his only child was dead. ’
Holly felt sick. He couldn’t touch her father, so he’d targeted her instead.
Robin said, ‘You put Holly and her child at risk because of something her father did? That’s messed up.’
‘No.’ Again Quick’s voice cracked with the effort of shouting. ‘Walking away at Plymouth, pretending nothing had happened, that a pregnant girl counted for nothing. That was messed up.’
‘So, the tokens were all about getting us onto a boat again,’ Robin said. ‘You never had any intention of giving us any money. We were supposed to die last night.’
‘Impossible,’ Sabri said. ‘He’s been planning this for months. Years even. God knows how long it took him to find us all. Last night’s storm couldn’t have been predicted more than a few days ahead.’
‘The storm was a bonus,’ Tug said. ‘But Gemini was definitely meant to sink last night. Even I couldn’t have kept it afloat for ever. If we hadn’t seen that cargo ship we’d all have been at the bottom of the Atlantic by nightfall.’
‘The storm was the opposite of a bonus,’ Quick grumbled. ‘Conditions last night made it a lot harder for Lauren to pick Thomas and me up. I was in the water for a long time.’
‘You really did mean to kill us all?’ Holly asked.
‘The same terrifying, agonising death that Shelley and my baby died,’ Quick replied. ‘There would have been some justice in that, don’t you think?’
Robin shook his head, as though the sight of Quick disgusted him.
‘Well, bad luck,’ he said. ‘We didn’t die.
So, what’s Plan B? Is Thomas unlocking the gun cupboard?
That housekeeper of yours making tea laced with arsenic?
Because a lot of people know we set off for St Helen’s yesterday.
Unless that harbour master and his mate are in on it too, they know we arrived in one piece.
So, if seven rotting corpses are fished out of the sea in the next few days, your two friends here will have a lot to answer for. Even if you get away with it.’
‘That’s true,’ Quick admitted. ‘And Thomas really wasn’t happy about last night. I had to pay him a lot of money to go along with it. I doubt he’d be up for round two. No, looks like I’ll have to rely on the tokens to finish the job off.’
‘Making us all millionaires is going to punish us?’ Robin said. ‘Mate, I think you need to—’
‘Think about it, Robin,’ Quick snapped. ‘Have you known a moment’s peace since your token arrived?’
He let the question hang.
Holly saw the same thought process going through the minds of the others.
She’d known confusion, anxiety. At the same time, though, the token had represented a wild dream threatening to become real.
A future of security, when she could focus only on her career and Charlie.
No more sex with flabby accountants from Wigan; Chris and his threats taken care of.
The token had been a way out. And the others?
Cheryl, facing disinheritance and homelessness; Robin losing his business; Sabri, her life a constant financial struggle; Tara threatened with losing her beloved home; Tug without a job or any sort of security. The tokens had given them hope.
Peace, though? That was a different matter. Once the news broke, once their identities had become public knowledge, the hounding had begun.
‘I know what it’s like to get a sudden influx of money you know you don’t deserve,’ Quick said.
His lottery win. Quick’s fortune had stemmed from a lottery win in his early twenties.
‘And you’ve only had a couple of weeks of it,’ he continued. ‘Trust me when I say it’ll get worse. You’ll lose all your friends. Some will know from the outset they can’t deal with the envy, so they’ll take themselves away. The rest you’ll dump when guilt over the sudden inequity gets to you.’
Well, that was true. Coffie had changed the moment he’d found out about the token.
‘I wouldn’t put money on your marriage lasting the next few months,’ Quick said to Sabri.
‘You’ll find someone else, of course, because there’s always clever gold-diggers out there, but it won’t last because the kids will hate their new stepdad and you’ll never be sure he wasn’t just interested in your money. ’
Across the room, Sabri’s face had tightened. ‘Your kids will go bad,’ Quick went on. ‘Nothing ruins kids like money, trust me on that.’
‘Good kids will deal with it,’ Holly argued, because she couldn’t bear to see the look of dismay on Sabri’s face. ‘No money in the world will corrupt Charlie.’
‘No, it won’t,’ Charlie agreed. ‘But can I still have an Axopar?’
Quick gave a nasty smile. ‘Half the world will be holding out a begging bowl, from your own families to perfect strangers looking for hand-outs and loans. The other half will be suing you for some imagined slight. I’ve had thirty years of it.
I just wish I could have done this earlier, given you more of the hell I’ve had to deal with. ’
‘OK, I’m done,’ Holly announced. ‘Guys, we don’t need to listen to any more of this shit. Let’s find a phone and call the police.’
No one moved; it was as though Quick had hypnotised them.
‘Come on,’ she urged. ‘There’s only three of them. And Charlie can take down this idiot. I’ll get that cow of a housekeeper and I’m sure Tug and Robin can deal with Thomas.’
‘Be careful, Holly,’ Quick said, quietly.
No, she’d had enough. Quick was a delusional, dying man and his wealth didn’t make him invincible. If anything, it proved how meaningless it was, because all the money in the world wasn’t going to save him. She set off for the door, holding out a hand for Charlie.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time and money learning everything I can about the six of you,’ Quick called after her. ‘I’d say you have more to lose than anyone.’
Something tight gripped hold of Holly. She said, ‘The only thing I care about is my son, and I’ll rip your throat out before I let you come anywhere near him again.’
‘I won’t have to. I’ll just let the world know about your extra-curricular activities.’
Silence.
‘What’s he talking about, Holly?’ Tug asked.
‘Junior barristers, particularly those juggling family commitments, are notoriously short of money,’ Quick said.
‘I was puzzled to learn how Holly manages to live in a nice house, run a decent car, have her son’s name down for a fancy private secondary school, and pay for carers coming into her parents’ home three times a day.
She has outgoings that far exceed her income.
So, how do you imagine she meets the deficit? ’
‘I don’t imagine it’s any of our business,’ Tara said.
‘Maybe not, but it’s a delicious piece of gossip all the same. Holly is a high-class escort. Also known as a whore. You can find her photographs on a site called Cornish Courtesans. Her face is obscured, and she calls herself Tamara, but it’s definitely her.’
Holly felt the world around her slipping away. It had happened then. Somehow, she’d always known it would.
‘The parents at Charlie’s school are going to love it, Holly.
As will the school itself, because you haven’t exactly made yourself popular with the staff there.
’ Quick forced a smile onto his face. ‘The bullying is going to be intense, I’m afraid, Charlie, when all your school friends find out that your mum has sex with men for money.
So, you will lose your son, Holly. His father will apply for custody.
He’ll win and Charlie will be glad of it, because he won’t want anything more to do with you. Ever.’
Well, at least I don’t have to worry about being blackmailed anymore, Holly thought, as Charlie pulled away from her. At least, when the worst happens, you can stop dreading it. She watched her son move closer to Quick, pulling something from his jacket pocket.
‘You’re a cunt,’ he told Quick, a second before he dropped something – the token, how the hell had he found that?
– at the man’s feet. ‘We don’t want your money.
You can keep it.’ Turning on his heels, he took a step towards Holly, before looking back over his shoulder.
‘And everyone at school hates me already. It won’t make any difference. ’
He stopped inches from his mother and looked up into her face. ‘I’m not going to live with Dad,’ he said. ‘Belinda smells of Haribos.’
‘That’s OK,’ Holly said. ‘You don’t have to live with Dad.’ She would die before she let anyone take her son away. ‘How come you have the token?’
‘I found it in that bag at the back of your wardrobe. I thought it needed to be somewhere safer and no one would think I’d have it. There’s some weird stuff in there, Mum.’
Tug was walking towards Quick. He paused as he reached Holly and Charlie. ‘Use that word again, son, and I’ll tan your backside,’ he said. ‘Otherwise, you’re spot on.’
Tug too had his token with him. He dropped it at Quick’s feet. ‘I’ll manage, thanks,’ he said. ‘Sufficient to the day and all that.’
Tara was smiling as she joined Tug and another token hit the polished floor.
There was something strangely cheering in the pinging sound they made as they landed.
Over on the sofa, Sabri’s hand was inside her sweater, for all the world as though she was trying to take off her bra.
Then she and Cheryl exchanged a look and they both stood.
A second later, two more tokens joined the growing pile by Quick’s chair.
‘My family don’t need money,’ Sabri said. ‘We have each other.’
‘My mum’s not that bad,’ Cheryl said. ‘I just need to stand up to her a bit more. And you should probably give my token a good wash.’
All eyes turned to Robin, who held up both hands in mock despair. ‘Guys, I was telling the truth. It’s in my living room. In a DVD case. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.’ He winked at Quick. ‘I’ll FedEx it.’
Quick took his time. He pushed himself upright and turned his back on them, walking to the nearest of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond them, the steel-blue ocean stretched as far as Holly could see. Lowering clouds suggested another storm was heading in.
Charlie, meanwhile, unable to bear mess of any kind, gathered up the five tokens and put them on the closest table. Then he brushed his hands down his jeans, as though to wipe off something contaminating.
‘Well, that’s a very noble gesture, guys.’ Quick’s voice came from the window. He turned back to face them, becoming a silhouette in the frame.
‘Tell me something,’ he said to Sabri. ‘How will Jason cope with learning he’s not going to buy a Tesla after all?
Or a new house? Or resign from that job he hates?
That his reckless spending the last couple of weeks has done nothing more than throw his family into even more debt?
He has debts you don’t know about, by the way.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t lose your house before the year’s out.
And those kids? It’ll take them a long time to get over the disappointment, won’t it?
Maddy just coming up to her GCSEs. I doubt she’ll do even as well as she was predicted to. ’
Sabri looked on the verge of spitting at Quick.
‘I expect that biker friend of yours will lose interest when she learns you’re not going to be rich.
’ Robin was next in the firing line. ‘And when your business goes bankrupt, as it will in the next few months, she’ll go back to her surgeon boyfriend.
And you, Trevor, how long before you lose your home and become just another piss-soaked ex-serviceman on the street corner? ’
Holly watched Tug clench his fists. Do it, she thought. Break the bastard’s jaw.
‘Speaking of homeless, do you think your mother’s ever going to forgive you for what you’ve done the last couple of weeks, Cheryl?
Hiding the token from her, pretending it was lost, sneaking out to meet your new friends?
She knows you intended keeping all the money for yourself, so she’ll make damn sure you don’t get a penny of hers.
The best you can do now is get yourself a minimum-wage job and start saving. ’
He came slowly back to his chair but didn’t attempt to sit.
‘And don’t think for a moment, guys, that the hassle will go away.
No one will believe you’ve given the tokens back.
Especially when I refuse to confirm it. So, the harassment and the threats and the kidnap worries will all go on.
And only you’ll know for certain that there’s nothing on the horizon to make it worthwhile. ’
He started to walk across the room towards the door.
‘I’ll be leaving shortly,’ he told them. ‘Trevor, the key to the RIB is by the side entrance. I imagine you’ll be able to get them back to St Mary’s.’
He turned at the door. ‘I’d hoped for more,’ he said. ‘But at least I can spend my last weeks knowing I’ve ruined your lives too.’