Soliman, Wendy - The Name of the Game (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (31 page)

Only then did Ashley realize that what she knew about Eve would distress Sophie. She’d indicated that she didn’t much care for Matt’s wife, but still, her first thought would be for her grandchildren, much as Matt’s had been for the boys, too. Did she have the right to tell Sophie? Probably not. She’d do what Matt did with Nate the previous night and tell it all, leaving out any reference to Eve, and see where it led.

“Well yes, I’ll tell you when I get there. But there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Then I won’t worry.” Ashley could hear the smile in her voice and admired the older woman’s ability to remain calm when she knew so much was at stake. “I’ll put the kettle on.”

As soon as Ashley stepped out of her car, she was enveloped in a hug by Matt’s mother.

“It’s lovely to see you, my dear.” Sophie frowned. “But you look a little frazzled, if you don’t mind my saying so. Have you had a bad time of it?” she asked sympathetically.

“Yes and no.”

Sophie laughed. “That doesn’t tell me much.”

“Sorry, but I—”

“Come on through to the conservatory. We’ll have coffee and you can tell me all about it.”

“That sounds good.”

Once they were settled, Ashley repeated the story Matt had given Nate, almost word for word. Sophie didn’t once interrupt. She appeared surprised, but didn’t get upset or overreact.

“I’m glad it wasn’t Charlie,” she said. “I tried to convince Matt that it couldn’t have been, but there’s so much animosity between them that he wouldn’t listen.”

“Well, they seem to be reconciled now.”

“That’s good. They were like brothers when they were younger. Always up to mischief.”

“Yes, Matt said the same thing.”

“Perhaps I’ll see more of Charlie, now that they’ve cleared the air.” Sophie smiled at the prospect. “He’s like another son to me.”

“So I gather.”

“But Philip Roker.” Sophie shook her head. “I find it hard to believe.”

“So does Matt.” Ashley stirred her coffee, wondering why Matt’s family was so keen to defend a man whom she’d distrusted almost from the first. “What made him do it, do you think?”

“What’s Matt’s opinion?”

“He says he doesn’t know.” Ashley shrugged. “I thought he might harbour resentment at the way Matt came back to take over the company after Roker had run it alongside your husband for so long. It would be a natural enough reaction. I believe Roker had expectations about taking over.”

“Nothing was ever said.”

Ashley thought she sounded evasive. “No, that’s what Matt told me, and he said Roker was quite happy to go his own way.”

Sophie looked at Ashley for a long time without speaking. Ashley sensed that she knew a lot more than she was saying and was trying to decide whether or not to confide in her.

“It would be better to tell me,” Ashley said quietly. “I won’t repeat anything you say to Matt, unless you want me to.”

“Yes, it would probably be best if I did.” Sophie offered her a kindly smile. “Secrets have a way of turning sour if they’re kept for too long.” She paused to pour them both more coffee, sighing wearily. For the first time since meeting her, Ashley thought she looked her age. “Philip Roker and my husband got along well. So, too, did Philip and I. He’s only twelve years younger than me, but I still looked upon him as a surrogate son, I suppose.” She flashed a brief, humourless smile. “I have a natural tendency to nurture.”

“But he mistook your interest?” Ashley had a horrible feeling she knew where this was going.

“Yes, my husband’s death was quite unexpected, you see. I had no time to prepare, if one can ever be prepared for such a thing, and I rather fell apart for a while. Oh, he’d had that initial stroke, but he’d made a good recovery, and we were led to believe that he had a lot of years left to him.”

“Matt was running the company by then?”

“Yes, but Philip really did seem to be fine about that. Or at least he said he was,” she added, so quietly that Ashley barely heard her. “Matt wanted him to stay on, for them to run the company together, but Philip had an opportunity to move to Stevenson’s and decided to take it.”

“But he still kept in close touch with you all.”

“Oh yes, he was quite part of the family.”

“That’s what Matt told me.”

“When David died, he was a tower of strength. He shouldered a lot of my burden and helped me through the grieving process. Matt was busy with the business and dealing with his own feelings toward his father, not to mention a young family.”

“So you and Roker were thrown together.”

Sophie nodded. “He kept calling, long after I’d started to recover, and I didn’t think twice about it.” She paused. “Until he proposed.”

Ashley almost dropped her cup. She’d suspected an affair, which made her think poorly of Sophie—until she remembered that she was hardly in a position to sit in judgement.

“He proposed!”

“Yes, and didn’t take it well when I turned him down.” Sophie stared out at the garden, without appearing to appreciate its beauty. Ashley doubted if she was even seeing it. “He said he thought I knew how he felt about me, and was convinced I returned his feelings. He says that’s why he left Interactive. His feelings got too strong for him to hide them, and he didn’t think it was right, not when David was still alive.”

“Well,” Ashley said crisply. “I expect he got that right.”

“He said that if I didn’t marry him, he’d never marry anyone else.” She expelled a long breath. “He certainly kept his word about that.”

“But you still saw him?”

“Oh yes. He continued to call as though nothing had happened.”

“Staring at you through those soulless eyes,” Ashley surmised, shuddering.

“I didn’t know how to put him off without offending him more than I already had. I’d obviously led him on, without realizing it. So, in the end, if he called, instead of feeding him, I pretended to be going out. Eventually he got the message.”

“And started plotting his revenge, I expect.”

“Well, if he did, he’s waited a long time to exact it.”

“Yes, but as an outsider with no emotions invested, it seems to me that he has a long memory and the patience of Job.” Ashley paused, tapping her fingers on the arm of her chair as she thought it through. “It would explain why he’s doing this to Matt. He probably felt that if you’d accepted him, he would be the head of Interactive because he knew Matt didn’t really want the job. He would gladly have given it up in favour of your new husband. Interactive is a sounder business proposition than Stevenson’s, and he probably feels that he came off second best. Again.”

“So he blames me for that as well.”

“Not necessarily, Sophie.” Ashley moved across and covered the older lady’s hand with her own. “He made assumptions he had no right to make. He read something into your maternal interest in him that simply wasn’t there. It’s not your fault.”

“Then why do I feel so responsible.”

“Perhaps because you are.”

They both whipped their heads round, startled by the intrusion. They’d been so deep in conversation that they hadn’t heard anyone else arrive.

Ashley gasped, suspecting that her face was as white as Sophie’s, when she saw Philip Roker standing in the doorway, pointing a gun directly at her head.

Chapter Nineteen

“Philip.” Sophie recovered with commendable speed, addressing Roker in the no-nonsense tone one usually reserved for children. “What the devil are you doing, coming in here and waving a water pistol around? Have you lost your mind?”

Ashley doubted whether it was a water pistol. For the first time since she’d known him, Roker’s eyes didn’t appear dead. Instead, they expressed a combination of animation, resentment, and steely determination.

“You just couldn’t keep your nose out of things, could you, little miss perfect?” Roker said to Ashley, ignoring Sophie altogether. “Everything was going according to plan, then…sit down!” he shouted at Sophie when she attempted to stand up.

Sophie tutted and resumed her seat, still looking deathly pale. She folded her hands in her lap and levelled a death glare at Roker.

“What are you talking about?” Ashley asked, determined not to be cowed just because he happened to have a gun pointing at her.

“What are you talking about,” he mimicked. “Like you don’t know.”

“It’s over,” Ashley said. “You lost.”

“Perhaps.”

“How did you know where I was?” Ashley asked. “I assume it’s me you came to see, but I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here.”

“It might surprise you to learn that the whole world doesn’t revolve around you, Ms. Wilde,” he said sarcastically.

“I didn’t imagine you’d come to see Sophie, armed with a gun.”

“I came to say good-bye to Sophie. Your being here is just an added bonus. Saves me a trip to Reigate.”

“What do you want to see me about?”

His laughter was almost manic, sending a chill down her spine. “You should have kept your nose out, carried on screwing Matt to keep him distracted, and then everything would have gone to plan.”

“Except for Interactive’s directors, whom you tried to deceive.” Ashley glowered at him, her anger giving her courage as she faced down an unhinged man wielding a gun. “Not to mention the relatives of those policyholders whose cases you tampered with.”

“They’d have been paid eventually.”

“Don’t you think they’ve had enough to deal with, getting over the loss of their loved ones, without fighting insurance companies for what’s rightfully theirs?”

“Shit happens. I should know.” Roker shrugged. “Besides, in two of the cases their loved ones, as you call them, hadn’t been near their relatives until it came to pay out time.”

“Even so, you had no right to put them through that.”

“How did you do it, Philip?” Sophie asked. “And why?”

“How?” Roker quirked a brow. “I should have thought that Miss Marple here would have filled you in on all the details by now. Isn’t that why she came to see you? Probably couldn’t wait to tell you how evil Matt’s wife is.”

“Eve?” Sophie’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her hairline. “What on earth has this got to do with her?”

Roker’s gaze switched between the two women, a knowing smile playing about his thin lips. “Ah,” he said. “I see you haven’t heard it all yet.”

“Then why don’t you sit down, put that silly gun aside because we both know you’re not going to use it, and tell me?”

Roker remained standing, the gun still trained at Ashley’s head, held rock steady in his right hand. “Your saintly son, who can do no wrong in your eyes, is a lousy husband and has brought this all on himself.”

“If you mean he has a relationship with Ashley, then you’re not telling me something I didn’t already know,” Sophie said calmly.

“And yet he has a wife and two, no, make that three, children?” He grimaced. “You disappoint me, Sophie. I thought you had higher standards.”

“I’m not going to discuss my son’s marital difficulties with you.”

“You seem to forget that I’m the one with the gun. I guess that puts me in charge, for once, and we’ll talk about whatever I damned well say we will.”