Jail Bird (11 page)

Lily got a shock when she dived into The Fort’s indoor pool that afternoon and the water hit her like an ice pick straight between the eyes.
Freezing!
Whose bright idea had it been to turn the pool heating off? Did Oli like swimming in cold water?

Lily didn’t. She remembered very well that
Leo
hadn’t, either. He had always kept the indoor house pool at subtropical temperatures, with steam rising off the surface. Leo had loved the heat, the sun, the warmth. Hated the outdoor pool, even though that was heated too. Not hot enough. Too fucking
cold.

Shivering, Lily briskly swam a length. She was wearing a borrowed one-piece swimsuit – navy blue, very boring and a couple of sizes too big for her – that she’d found in the changing cubicle at the far end of the pool. They’d always kept a small selection of swimwear in there for visiting guests attending Leo’s famous parties…Jesus, the parties they’d had in this house, way back when. Dancing and drinking and diving into the pool in full evening gear, big shoulder
pads on all the women’s dresses, mullet hairstyles, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet blaring out of the sound system, the laughs they’d had – all those bad boys doing their dodgy deals and discussing their moody goods; all the sparkling, glammed-up girls…

And of course thinking about the laughs made Lily think about the tears, too. And how empty those days had really been – oh, filled up with shopping and manicures and spa breaks, but still empty at the core. Empty and unhappy.

She pushed those thoughts away, because thoughts of losing Leo had prompted other thoughts, thoughts of Alice Blunt sitting there in a chair day in day out, speechless, dead-eyed. And then, those unearthly screams. Shuddering, she swam another brisk length: what the hell, it was cold, but it was a pool,
her
pool, and the sheer luxury of it almost overwhelmed her. She’d had nothing like this, nothing nice, nothing worth a monkey’s fuck really, for twelve long years. She had a lot of catching up to do. In terms of living. And in terms of making peace with her daughters. And she knew that that would only be truly possible if she could find out who had really killed Leo.

Not Alice Blunt, surely. Alice had looked so frail, and that frailty had seemed bone-deep, not merely a result of illness, depression, whatever the hell it was fashionable to call it these days. Lily hoped the relatives would take the opportunity of phoning her, talking to her.

She wanted to know more about Alice. Even though it still – stupidly, she did realize that – stung a bit, to think of Leo shagging half the female population. Not only Alice, but also Adrienne. Not only
them
, but a woman called Reba Stuart. Jack had phoned again and said they were going to pay this ‘Reba’ a visit, was that what she wanted?

‘Only I know you were upset after seeing Alice,’ he said. ‘You sure you want to go on with this? You can bail out any time, you know. You don’t have anything to prove.’

‘Except my innocence,’ Lily replied stonily, going on the defensive because he was right, seeing Alice
had
upset her, and she hated that he had taken note of it. ‘And who the fuck are you, my father?’

‘Hey, I’m just saying…’

‘
Don’t
just say. I’m paying you, okay? I don’t need a nursemaid, I just need you to do your job, all right?’

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then Jack said: ‘All right. Fine,’ and hung up.

She’d hurt his feelings. She knew it, and regretted it. She was getting to like Jack, and to depend on him. But liking and dependency were weaknesses she could not afford. She had to keep strong.

In actual fact, she would rather have had her arse rubbed with a
brick
than pay a visit to another of Leo’s tarts. But she had to do it; there was no way around it. So yes, she was going to meet Reba Stuart tonight. What a treat.

So cold in here.

She swam another length, then another, and warmed up just a little but not enough. She was going to tweak that heat up later on, make it nice and toasty-warm for tomorrow’s swim. To hell with being stone-cold.

She was making for the steps at one end of the pool, ready to get out, get a hot drink down her, when she saw that Si was standing there, silent, patient, and waiting for her.

A fizzing thrill of panic rippled all the way from Lily’s head to her toes. It settled in her chest, clutching at her heart.

Fuck it, where did he come from?

Instantly she thought of her rucksack, stowed away for now in the changing cubicle with a hundred thousand pounds tucked inside. Safe. A damned sight safer than
she
was right now. Si the spider had emerged and she was a tiny fly. Damn it, she should have pushed forward to get the locks changed the minute after they’d gone yesterday, but Oli had been upset, doubtful – and she hadn’t wanted to push her too fast.

Now, she could see that her error was going to cost her dear.

Si was there, watching her, smiling, his usual dark bespoke suit covering his bulk. In his hand he was holding the long pole with the net on it, used by the pool man to fish debris from the surface of the outdoor pool, when leaves and insects got blown in.

Lily kicked hard for the side but he moved and was there, waiting for her. Si gave a little smile. Then he put the net end of the pole against her breastbone and pushed her back into the cold water.

‘No,’ he said, ‘just stay there.’

Stay here and I’ll bloody well freeze
, thought Lily, feeling a deep shiver course through her body, clamping her teeth together to stop them chattering with the cold and the sudden fear.

‘I’m not very happy with you, Lily King,’ he said as Lily moved back into the centre of the pool.

‘Oh? Really?’ Lily forced out. She was trying to clamp down on her rising panic, keep calm, keep thinking. But it was hard. She made for the steps again, but
again
he moved, blocking her path out of the freezing water, pushing her firmly back with the pole.

‘Yeah, really. It’s not on, girl. Really it ain’t. You doing Leo. Turning up at the wedding and ruining Saz’s day. Pushing
back in here, messing with Oli’s head. Showing Maeve up like that. Not on.’

Lily swam over to the other side of the pool. He was there.

Now she was really starting to panic. She found it hard to catch her breath, it was so cold in here. Doggedly she swam another length, trying to keep her body temperature up with exertion, and when she got to the far end, he was there, too. She couldn’t get out. He was going to keep her in here until she drowned.

‘I didn’t do Leo,’ said Lily, and now her teeth really were chattering.

‘Yeah you did,’ said Si calmly.

‘No, I didn’t. Someone else did it.’

‘Did they fuck.
You
did it.’

Lily made for the steps again – and this time Si came ankle-deep in the water with the pole, and
this
time he meant business. The end of the pole connected with her neck and she was abruptly submerged, forced under as he bore down on it.

The world was suddenly bubbling and blue-green and she was choking, swallowing mouthfuls of chlorine-laden water. Lily kicked back, away from him, and came up spluttering and gasping in the centre of the pool, her eyes stinging, her throat burning, shivers wracking her body.

Now Si had moved and was reaching towards her with the pole again; it struck her arm, not violently, but hard enough to knock her off balance. She realized that he was doing his best not to mark her; he wanted to make this look like accidental drowning. She fell sideways and was again under the water. She came back up, coughing, blinking, seeing him standing there watching her with that smug, triumphant half-smile on his face.

Bastard.

‘What’s going on?’ asked an anxious female voice.

Lily’s head whipped round. So did Si’s.

Oh thank Christ. It was Oli. She was walking towards Si, looking at Lily in the pool, looking at the pole in his hand. Her eyes were questioning, worried.

‘Oh, Lily was in a bit of difficulty,’ said Si smoothly. ‘Just helping her get to the side. Ain’t that right, Lil?’ And he turned and smiled at Lily with hatred in his eyes.

‘Sure,’ she said, cold through to the bone now, and frightened too, scared
shitless
in fact.

Now he held the pole out to her.

Lily ignored it. She swam to the steps and hurried up them. She snatched up a towel from one of the loungers and wrapped it round herself quickly. Then she turned and looked at Si, and at Oli standing there uncertainly, frowning. Oli knew something had happened here. She
knew
, even if her face clearly said that she didn’t want to believe the truth of it.

Lily could almost hear Oli thinking:
Jesus, was he trying to push her under with that thing?
She thought that Oli knew the answer to that, in her gut. And if Oli hadn’t shown up, he’d have done the job and the verdict would have been accidental drowning.

‘People shouldn’t swim on their own,’ Si was saying to both of them, and now he looked genial, completely convincing. ‘It’s not safe.’

You can say that again
, thought Lily.

She looked at Oli, still standing there with that frown on her face, and wondered what she thought of her kind Uncle Si
now.

‘Blonde joke,’ said Lily as she walked along the shops up West with a reluctant Oli in tow the following day. ‘What do you call a fly buzzing inside a dumb blonde’s head?’

Oli looked at her, perplexed. Then she sighed. ‘Okay, what?’

‘A space invader.’

Oli almost cracked a smile. Almost. She’d been subdued ever since she’d come across Lily and Si in the swimming pool room yesterday. Lily had a feeling there were about a thousand questions queuing up in Oli’s brain, all waiting to be asked.

She looked at her youngest daughter, thinking again how gorgeous she was, and how young, how vulnerable. Her heart twisted with pity for all that Oli had suffered, but she was going to make damned sure someone paid – in blood – for that.

Lily had suggested this shopping trip. What they called a bonding session, and where better to ‘bond’, she’d said to Oli earlier, than in ‘Bond’ Street?

‘Shopping’s so inane,’ said Oli. ‘And very un-PC, think of the credit crunch.’

Fuck
the credit crunch. Lily had been reading the papers, she knew all about the banks crashing and shares plummeting through the floor. But she’d been undergoing her very own personal credit crunch for the past twelve years; she had come out of nick dressed in shit order, jeans and t-shirt and a sodding hoodie and trainers, and she had always been a dressed-up sort of woman, her style had always been classic and classy. Well, now she was going to restart her life. Reclaim her style. And she was starting
today.

Where to begin?

She was like a kid all of a sudden, staring at the sweeties in the shop window, and–oh thank you, Leo, thank you–now she could buy the entire fucking sweetshop, if she chose. They passed by De Beers and Cartier, Lily lingering and admiring, Oli silent and trudging along at her heels. It was busy; there were crowds of people, tourists, shoppers milling everywhere, black cabs honking up and down the street, traffic moving at a snail’s pace. It was great. Lily looked around her and soaked it all up, the smells of coffee and bread baking, the exhaust fumes, everything–she felt newborn. And the people–black, Asian, pale-skinned English, all going about their lives, all
free.
Unaware of what a luxury that freedom was. There was an Oriental man moving ahead of them, crossing the street, talking on a mobile phone, his blue-black hair pulled back tight into a ponytail. She loved it all.

They went into Chanel, Miu Miu and DKNY Jeans, then took a leisurely hike through Armani–oh, Lily
loved
Armani, but Christ her hair was a dreadful mess, she could see it in all the mirrors: chopped about, flattened, pale blonde flecked
through with–oh fuck–the odd wiry grey hair. The sheer beauty of the clothes and accessories she was trying out showed up her own deficiencies. Bad hair, tick. Bad
nails,
oh yes indeed. Hard, calloused feet, too.

Then they were into Savile Row for a dive into Abercrombie and Fitch. Starting to feel a bit footsore, they went on to Conduit Street for a trip into Rigby & Peller to be properly measured and fitted for new underwear. Oli did cheer up a little in there, admiring a purple basque, fingering pale pink chiffon thongs and luscious pin-tucked and ribboned bras. They lurched outside, festooned with bags, did a quick recce in Moschino, and then gave it up, both worn out. They stopped for coffee and cake.

‘I want to talk to you,’ said Oli when they had been seated in a booth and had ordered. ‘Seriously’

‘Seriously? What about?’

Oli stared at her mother. ‘Well, about all this bloody
money
you’ve got for a start.’

‘Ah. That.’

‘And come on. Be honest now. Please.’ Oli looked down at the table, started shredding a napkin. ‘He was trying to hurt you, wasn’t he? Uncle Si?’

Lily blew out her cheeks, not sure how to answer.

Oli sat back. ‘You still do that. I
remember
that.’ She mimicked what Lily had done. ‘You always did that…when you were trying not to answer a question. Like, oh,’ and now Oli was smiling a little, ‘like, Mummy, where do babies come from?’

‘Yeah, do you know the answer to that one yet?’ Lily quipped. She was touched that Oli remembered her little foibles. She remembered Oli’s, too–they were forever branded on her brain. Like the strawberry birthmark on Oli’s upper
right arm, and the vertical frown-lines between Oli’s dark brows, very much in evidence now, signalling her determination to get an answer on this subject.

‘Answer the frigging question, Mum. This is all fun, and it feels really strange but sort of nice doing this with you, just girly things like shopping and stuff–and you haven’t explained yet about the cash, and don’t think I’ve forgotten that–but it’s just a smokescreen, ain’t that the truth? So come on. Tell me. Was he…?’

Their waiter was back with two Americanos and cupcakes.

‘What is that all about?’ wondered Lily aloud. ‘A thousand types of coffee, when all a person wants is strong and black…’

‘Mum.’

Lily looked at her. ‘Okay. Yeah. Si believes I did it. And he thinks twelve years of my life ain’t enough to pay for the loss of your father. Straight enough for you?’

Oli stared at her. ‘I’ll speak to him,’ she said.

‘No,’ said Lily.

‘Yeah,
I will. And I’ll say that if anything happens to you, I’ll know it wasn’t an accident and…I’ll go to the police.’

Lily sipped her coffee, troubled. She didn’t want Oli going head to head with Si and that nutter Freddy. And no daughter of hers was going to turn into a grass if she had anything to do with it.

‘Look, Oli—’

‘No you look. I lost Dad. And now…now I’ve just got you back. I can’t lose you too.’

Suddenly Oli’s eyes were full of tears.

‘Hey,’ said Lily, reaching out, patting Oli’s hand. ‘Hey, it’s all right. Nothing’s going to happen to me.’

‘No?’ Oli swiped angrily at her eyes. ‘Fuck me, Mum, how
can you say that? You’ve been banged up in prison for twelve years and you tell me it was all for nothing. That the person who killed Daddy is still out here, still walking the streets, free as a bird. Maybe I’m stupid to believe what you say, but I do. I don’t think you killed him, and if that’s so, then Uncle Si has no right, no right at
all,
to start threatening you.’

Lily was silent. She picked at her cupcake. Then she said: ‘Do you think we should get the security codes and the locks and everything changed at The Fort?’

Lily could see that Oli was thinking again about the scene she had interrupted by the swimming pool. Lily there, shivering in the freezing-cold pool, and Si with the pole, keeping her in there.

‘Yeah,’ she said finally. ‘I think we should.’

‘What about Saz? What will she make of it?’

‘Saz ain’t here,’ said Oli, tilting her chin up. Saz was her big sis, the boss of their little tribe–Lily knew it would take guts for Oli to stand against her.

‘Well, okay. We’ll get that organized, yeah?’

‘Yeah. Okay. Sunstyle Securities come and test it and maintain it. I’ll phone them, they’ll do it.’

‘Good.’

‘And now the money,’ said Oli, and that frown-line was still there as she reached for a lavender-iced cupcake and removed a sugared violet from its centre. ‘How can you have all this money?’

‘Ah yeah…about that.’ And Lily told her about Leo’s emergency stash behind the wall in the master suite, and that she had…well, accessed it.

‘Accessed it how?’

‘With a pickaxe. So we’re going to need a builder as well as the security guys.’

‘You did that when you were supposed to be ill with a migraine,’ said Oli accusingly.

‘I lied about the migraine. Sorry, Oli. But I didn’t know how far I could trust you. I just had to get into the house and get that money, and then I could start to rebuild my life, start to find…’

‘Find what?’ Oli was diving into the cupcake but now she stopped and stared at her mother’s face.

‘Find some peace of mind,’ finished Lily, when she had almost blurted:
Find out who murdered Leo.
She didn’t want Oli getting involved in this crusade of hers. She wanted Oli safe, and once they started down this road she knew damned well that safety could no longer be guaranteed.

Oli was staring at her. Lily had the uncomfortable feeling that she was not quite believing what her mother was telling her any more.

‘You know what?’ said Oli. ‘You’re devious.’

‘Oli…’ She was going to say, no, no Oli, I’m not, please believe me, baby, but sometimes life throws shit at you and you need to duck and dive to miss it.

‘Yeah, you are.’ Oli was sitting back, nodding thoughtfully, staring at her mother. ‘You’ve changed. You were never devious
before.
You were just…you were just my sweet quiet mum, until they took you away. I asked for you, you know.’

‘Oli–oh sweetheart.’ Lily felt as though her heart was breaking into a thousand tiny pieces when she looked at Oli’s lovely face and saw the pain there.

‘Yeah, I did. I asked to see you. I didn’t understand, but they told me you’d done a bad thing, a terrible thing to Dad and we’d lost him, and now you had to pay for it. I didn’t understand. How would a six-year-old kid understand all
that shit? And I couldn’t remember…it was just awful, I couldn’t remember what happened when Dad died. I
still
can’t. But I cried for you night after night, Mum. Every night, I cried. And for him too, for Dad. But neither of you ever came back.’

She was quiet a moment, looking down at her half-eaten cupcake. Lily said nothing. There was bugger-all she could say: all the damage had already been done and all she could hope for now was that she’d be allowed to make up for the crap Oli had been forced to endure in the past.

Oli’s eyes flicked up and she stared at Lily. ‘Uncle Si and Aunt Maeve told me and Saz that you didn’t want to see us.’

Bastards,
thought Lily, the news cutting her like a knife, even though it failed to surprise her.

She thought of those impassioned phone calls she had made on the girls’ birthdays, at Easter, at Christmas; always hopeful, always trying, but hope dying by slow degrees as the barriers sprang up, as Si said again and again:
No Lily, you can’t speak to them, why would they want to talk to the bitch who’d done their father? Fuck off and die, why don’t you?
Si could have got the house number changed, but he hadn’t. Lily guessed that he enjoyed turning her down, making her suffer. Change the number and he’d have to find other ways to get his jollies.

Lily found she had to clear her throat and blink hard before she asked the next question.

‘Did…did Saz ask for me too?’

Oli slumped forward, pushing the remains of the cupcake and the cooling coffee aside. She leaned on her elbows, pushed her hands deep into her wild curling mop of dark hair, and looked at her mother.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Saz never asked.’

‘Oh.’ That hurt a lot.

‘It changed her,’ said Oli sadly. ‘It changed her, big-time.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Just…oh, she’s a bit wild sometimes. A bit out of it.’ Oli gave Lily a wan half-smile. ‘I think she’s scared herself a couple of times and that’s why she’s married Richard. He’s so straight, so flipping
boring
really, but a really nice man. He’s a sort of anchor for her.’

Lily straightened, perturbed by what Oli was telling her, but knowing she had to put it to one side. She tried not to think about Saz’s anguish, or Oli’s, not now. It wouldn’t help. She had to keep strong, keep focused. She picked up her coffee cup and drained it. ‘You know what I need?’ she said.

Oli shook her head.

‘A bloody good hairdresser,’ said Lily. ‘And another coffee.’