East of the City (39 page)

At first I didn’t see them, but then both names leapt out at me, Lucky Lip and Jeremiah.

‘Here,’ Doug said, bringing the lad in.

Collecting myself, I listened as Tubs asked the lad a few questions. He wouldn’t have been more than seventeen, and it was obvious that helping lug furniture was the sum total of his connection with Pike. I kept glancing back at the dog photos. The lad just about drew us a map of where at the track he’d helped Pike unload the stuff. Doug must have put the fear of God into him earlier. When we had what we needed, I told the lad, Thanks, and he shot out the door like a hare.

Doug said to me, ‘Take that with you,’ pointing to the painting I’d propped against the feed bin. ‘That’s the last of it, yeah?’

‘I think so.’

Swearing under his breath, he went and pulled another lot of leashes and collars off the pegs, then laid them out ready to clean. You could see something was playing on his mind. I picked up the painting to go, and he said, ‘Listen, there’s no need for the cops to know Pike was here, is there?’

His licence. That’s what was still eating him. ‘I can’t vouch for Pike,’ I told him, ‘but Tubs and me won’t say anything.’

Doug looked relieved. It seemed like this might be a good time for a bit of give and take, so pointing to the photos of Lucky Lip and Jeremiah, I said their names. Doug didn’t seem troubled.

He cocked his head. ‘You wanna see ’em?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘They any good?’

‘Hardly lift a leg, either one of ’em.’ He touched the photo of Lucky Lip. ‘This came in at five-to-one.’ Then Jeremiah. ‘This one too. Same weekend. Buggers haven’t done a bloody thing since.’

Five-to-one. But the bets in Dad’s ledger were both at even money, so Sebastian had been very keen to get his money on.

‘Were they tested?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, becoming wary. ‘They came back clean. And before you ask, no, I didn’t have a penny on either one.’

We seemed to have reached the end of the line. Then Tubs spoke.

‘Doug, you weren’t on holiday just before they ran that weekend?' I got it a second or two before Doug; I don’t know which of us was more surprised. Doug’s mouth dropped open. Tubs said, ‘You didn’t happen to leave someone your keys?’

Turning his head, Doug went straight into the next room. He pulled an old calendar off the wall and came back, flipping back through the months. He checked the date on the winning photos then ran his finger over the calendar. His finger stopped. He looked up.

‘Ireland,’ he said quietly. ‘I went to look at some pups.’

‘And Pike kept an eye on the kennels for you?’ Tubs asked.

Doug nodded, his face going grey. He looked at me like he’d seen a ghost. He turned the calendar around for me to see. He had his finger on something there, and I looked down.

On the Saturday, in red ink, he’d scribbled in:
Bob Collier, 10 a.m.

I raised my eyes. ‘What’s that?’

‘An appoinunent.' Doug’s brow furrowed as he remembered. ‘Your old man came out for a word.’

‘About Jeremiah?’ I said.

Doug nodded, still staring at the calendar. Ten o’clock in the morning of Jeremiah’s race. By then it was obvious to all three of us what had happened, but there was no getting round it, I had to ask.

‘What did you tell him, Doug?’

Doug looked up slowly, turning from me to Tubs, and then back. ‘I told him it couldn’t lift a leg.’ Doug wasn’t a crook, and he wasn’t in with Sebastian and Pike, and right now he was absolutely gutted by what he’d accidentally done. ‘I swear to God, Ian,’ he said. ‘I honestly thought that dog couldn’t run.

A
s we drove I felt my gut churning. The two bets that had sent my old man under, they weren’t even on the level, he’d been completely stitched up. When I got my hands on Pike, I’d know for sure. That seemed really important suddenly, to know exactly how it had happened. Since Tubs had given me Dad’s bag and the medal and ledger, since he’d told me Dad had probably done himself in, my view of things had changed. Jesus, the old man’s reckless punt against Jeremiah wasn’t as reckless as I’d thought.

'That last bet in your old man’s ledger,’ Tubs said suddenly. He kept both hands on the steering wheel, arms straight, his belly almost touching the seat between his legs.

‘Yeah?’

‘What was it again, four hundred quid at three hundred to one?’

‘So?’

‘Just thinkin’.’ He went quiet for a bit, then he said, ‘Four hundred, at three hundred to one, that’s a hundred and twenty-grand payout.'

‘You’ve lost me.’

‘A hundred and twenty grand.’ He looked over. ‘That’s how much Sebastian took Bob for on those two dogs, and then some.’ When I didn’t say anything Tubs seemed annoyed. He faced the front again. ‘If your old man’d won that bet, he’d be all square with Ward. Maybe up a bit.’

‘Get real, Tubs. Three hundred to one? On the dogs?’

‘Who said it was on the dogs?' I was about to ask him exactly what he meant, when he pointed up ahead and said, ‘Is this us?’

He took the turn to the City airport, and my thoughts slipped into a different groove. Lee Chan was going home. I had the LCO papers in a plastic bag beside me. This wasn’t a detour I could avoid, even if I’d wanted to; Lee really needed those papers back.
Uberrima Fides
, the Lloyd’s trading standard, there were still plenty of people there who took it seriously. I was in such strife already that the theft of some old documentation couldn’t have done me much more harm. But with Lee it was different. If they missed the documents, the LCO people would be brain-dead not to realize I was behind it, and loads of them knew the history between Lee and me. And once they made that connection, Lee would be out on her ear.

Besides, this was it, the last chance I had to say what I wanted to say to her about us. And deep down, I guess I knew that that was the real reason she’d told me to get the papers back to her. She wanted to give me that chance.

When we pulled up in the dropping-off bay, Tubs offered to take the papers in. ‘No-one’s lookin’ for me,’ he said.

‘No-one, including Lee,' I said. I told him to wait, or, if he got moved on, to circle round.

Inside, the terminal was full of suits. Businessmen on their way to meetings, coming back from meetings, or typing into their laptops, preparing for meetings to come. I bought an FT from the kiosk and stuck it under my arm, like camouflage. I couldn’t help being nervous, but I didn’t really believe there was that much chance of me being spotted. Fielding might have circulated a description of me, or even a photo, but the only faces the cops or Customs people would be watching were those checking in. I stood well back from that area and ran an eye over the suits. Every now and again there was a splash of colour, a woman, and my gaze zeroed in. Two minutes of this, and there was still no sign of Lee Chan.

‘You’re under arrest.’

I flinched. Then I turned. ‘Not funny,’ I said.

‘Oh, lighten up.’ Lee smiled, but I could see it didn’t come easy. There was an awkward silence as we carefully avoided looking one another directly in the eye. Finally I held out the bag.

‘I brought the LCO papers.'

She took the bag, and slipped her arm through mine and led me back to her luggage.

Glancing left and right, I said, ‘Is there somewhere private?’

We got to her luggage, she let go my arm. She crouched down and packed the papers into a padded envelope she’d already addressed. She said she’d have it couriered back to the LCO once she’d checked in. ‘And don’t ask me why,’ she said, standing, ‘but I thought you probably had a right to see these too.’

She handed me a few photocopies, about ten pages.

‘Facultative treaties,' she said. Facultative treaties are reinsurance policies on individual items rather than across a whole portfolio of risks. I was still none the wiser. ‘Check out the names,' she told me.

Then a security guard went by, I muttered something about dealing with it later. I started folding the photocopies, ready to slip them in my pocket.

‘Your funeral,’ she said. She picked up her hand luggage then grabbed the handle of her case. The case was on wheels, it glided along behind her as she made for the check-in.

Now I flicked quickly through the photocopies. I checked out the names. The first three were Nestrel, Connolly and Blythe, and Astra Freight, and after that I stopped looking. I strode after Lee Chan and caught up with her just as she was joining the check-in queue. This time I slipped my arm through hers, she didn’t seem surprised. I guided her on past the check-in.

‘Where’d you get this?’

She smiled up at me. ‘Can we sit down now?’

I veered right to a row of plastic chairs. Nestrel, Connolly and Blythe, and Astra Freight were all pieces of business Angela had signed because Sebastian had asked her to. At least that’s what I’d thought. But then, according to these photocopies, nearly the entire sum of each risk had been reinsured around the market. It was like accepting a bet then laying-off to cover yourself. The dodgy claims these clients had made had hardly cost the Mortlake Group a penny.

Lee sat down. I dropped into the chair beside her. Just along from us, a suit glanced up from his
FT
listening to a flight announcement. It wasn’t for him, so he went back to his paper.

With an effort I kept my voice low. ‘What goes on here, Lee? All those deals were covered?’

‘Apparently.’

I shuffled through the photocopies, not really seeing much. I couldn’t understand why Angela hadn’t told me the full story of what she’d done.

‘I rang Katy,’ Lee said. ‘She mentioned the police had been round. And I heard what happened at the Room.’

‘So you know I'm public enemy number one,’ I muttered.

‘You’ll get through it, Ian.’ Lee reached over and squeezed my wrist. ‘I know you will.’

I almost made some smartarse remark, but when I saw in her eyes how serious she was, I bit my tongue.

‘Did you see Angela?' she asked me.

I told her I had. Then I swore her to secrecy — some misplaced sense of chivalry — and gave her the rest of it, about Sebastian and Angela’s affair. It was probably my imagination, but the suit with the
FT
seemed to prick up his ears.

Lee became thoughtful. She said, ‘Did you believe her?’

‘Are you kidding? Lee, she told me she was having an affair with Sebastian, and signing up business when he asked her to. That’s not good stuff. If it wasn’t true, why would she tell me it was?’ There was more evidence too, like how Angela had reacted when I dropped that photo of Justine on her, and the look in Angela’s eyes when she talked about Sebastian.

Lee nodded to herself. ‘Did you notice who placed the reinsurance for Connolly and Blythe?’

I hadn’t, I’d assumed it was Angela who did all of them. But now Lee drew my attention to the signature at the bottom right of the second photocopy. I stared at the scratches. Angela’s signature was there, but for some reason Allen’s was too.

‘She reinsured the first, he at least knew about the second,’ Lee said, flipping on. ‘From then on, it was just Angela again.’

‘What does that mean?’

Lee gazed at the papers. She said she’d been rather hoping I might know.

I got up, walked along the row of chairs, then back. Allen knew about the reinsurance of the Connolly and Blythe risk. Did that mean he knew about Angela and Sebastian? But Lee was way ahead of me.

She said, ‘If someone was sleeping with your wife, and you knew, I guess you’d be pretty mad.’

Stopping, I looked down at her. She tapped the photocopies into a neat pile on the seat.

‘Lee, that Connolly and Blythe stuff went through over ten years ago.’

She said something in Chinese. I asked for the translation.

‘Roughly? Revenge is a dish best served cold.’

‘I don’t buy it.’

‘Just an idea,’ she said.

But the idea was just too whacky, I shook my head.

‘It wasn’t only his wife,’ Lee reminded me. ‘It was his daughter too.’

‘Allen didn’t know about Justine and Sebastian.'

‘Are you sure?’

Clasping my hands behind my head, I took a long look at the ceiling. Justine was the apple of Allen’s eye. It was just like Katy and Dad. And if Allen already knew about Sebastian and Angela, and then suddenly he found out Justine was at it too? But where the hell did Nigel Chambers’ cock-and-bull story fit into that?

‘Ian, are you okay?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘sure,' but I wasn’t, not inside. There was a call over the PA, announcing the flight to Dublin. Lee looked across to the check-in desk. It felt like part of me was dying.

‘That’s me,’ she said, getting up. Her face was set like she’d made up her mind not to cry.

'Lee-'

‘Please don’t say you’ll write, Ian.’

‘I was going to ask if you’re sure you’re doing the right thing.'

She squinted at me.

‘This guy you're going to see,’ I said, 'Won Ton—’

‘Wing Tan.’

‘You really think he’s the guy? I mean, you’ve only met him once. What happens if you get married and you don’t get on? What happens then?’

‘I don’t know, Ian.’

'Then don’t do it.’

She reached over and touched a finger to my lips. When she let her finger drop, we looked at one another.

‘Lee, you don’t even know this guy.'

‘I know that he’s willing to take a chance.’ Lee went up on tip-toe and kissed my cheek and everything I’d meant to say got choked in my throat. Before I knew it, she was walking to the check-in, towing her luggage.

I took a step after her and called out, ‘Lee!’

She stopped and turned. And that’s when I saw Mehmet. He was further along the line of check-in desks, he must have recognized me just moments before I saw him. He lifted his arm and pointed straight at me, then he spun around shouting for Security.

I didn’t wait to see what happened next. I vaulted over the chairs and ran.

As I shot through the doors I heard Mehmet shouting behind me, but I didn’t look back. I hit the dropping-off bay at a run. There was no sign of Tubs. I swung left and bolted down the tarmac. When I glanced back over my shoulder, a couple of security men with walkie-talkies came spilling out the doors, Mehmet at their heels.