Jessie Keane - Lawless

As Daisy said the words, Ruby thought of Thomas saying that Michael had been unfaithful to her. Unfaithful with who, though? He’d said he had no more information; it had just been word on the street. So was it even true? Or was Thomas, in his Machiavellian way, trying to destabilize her loyal attachment to Michael’s memory, to have her transfer the whole of her affection to him?

‘I can do that on my own, Daise,’ said Rob.

‘I can help,’ said Daisy.

Rob made no attempt to conceal his amusement at this.

Daisy stood up, giving Rob a look of blazing contempt. ‘I’m going to the loo,’ she said, and swept past him.

‘Don’t treat her like a joke,’ said Ruby.

‘I’m not, I-’

‘Shut your gob for a second and listen, will you? Let me tell you something you don’t know about Daisy. You’ll have heard all about her upbringing: the private girls’ schools and so on. Oh, she had a fantastic education – if all you want in life is to make cakes and arrange flowers and play the grande dame at charitable functions. But she was never encouraged to achieve anything, and she left school with no exams behind her, and a typical upper-crust life mapped out in front of her: marriage to a wealthy man, two perfect children…’

‘Well, she got the wealthy man,’ said Rob, thinking of Simon, the twat. Dead now, poor bastard, and you had to show respect, but the fact was he’d been a bumptious little arsehole and nothing could alter that. ‘And the two kids.’

‘Don’t be fooled, Rob. Daisy catches on fast, and she’s a real force to be reckoned with.’ Ruby hesitated. She thought of her daughter, who had – shockingly – shown she had a violent side, banging those two bullies’ heads together. Maybe she had more in common with her twin brother than she wanted to think. ‘She’s going crazy with nothing to do except worry over Kit and being separated from the twins. So…’

There was an awkward silence.

‘Ruby,’ said Rob at last.

‘Hm?’

‘I’m sorry, but there’s something you should know. Someone tried to get in here. Ashok thinks it was one of Vittore’s lot.’

Ruby’s eyes widened. ‘Oh God.’

Rob’s gaze shifted to Kit’s still, unresponsive face. ‘He’s got to come out of it soon.’

‘I hope,’ said Ruby.

‘The sooner we can get him moved to someplace more secure, the better.’

They fell silent as Daisy returned, tetchily yanking her cardigan back onto her shoulder. She took up her position by Kit’s bed.

Rob watched her. It was hard to believe that the voluptuous and oh-so-posh Daisy, whose clothes always seemed to be about to fall off her, who was always tripping over something like to break her bloody neck, could actually be clever. Mind you, she was Kit’s twin; and sometimes when he looked in her eyes it was as if he saw Kit staring right back at him, and that was fucking spooky. He wasn’t sure about this, especially when there was still this weird frisson of attraction between them. Daisy could prove a nuisance, an encumbrance. And there was a danger she might get far too close for comfort.

‘Daise?’ he said.

‘Hm?’ Daisy wouldn’t look him in the eye, still hurt because he’d laughed off her offer of help.

Finally she glanced at him. Big China-blue eyes, kissable mouth, corn-gold hair tumbling in disarray like she’d just fallen out of bed, and oh God, all right, he really wanted her in bed, he had to admit that. He was going to have to be very careful here.

‘Daise – here’s what’ll happen,’ said Rob. ‘You can help…’

‘Great!’

‘… but what I say goes, OK? You keep your mouth shut – or some fucker’s going to eat you whole and spit out the bits. So I do the talking, right?’

Daisy nodded. ‘Right,’ she said.

‘Long as that’s understood…’

‘Oh, it is. Absolutely.’

Before they left the hospital Rob made sure that Fats was in place and aware of what had happened on Ashok’s watch.

‘Nobody gets in to see him unless it’s Ruby, me or Daise, got that?’

Ruby was still in there with Kit; she never seemed to leave his side.

From the hospital, Daisy and Rob went straight to Kit’s house. Rob had a spare key, he let them in. Daisy pulled off her cardigan and dumped it on the leather couch, then said: ‘So, how was Kit getting on with this? How far had he got?’

‘Not far,’ he said. He looked over at the side table, where Michael’s little collection of belongings were still spread out, just as Kit had left them. ‘We know Michael was due to go over to see Ruby’s brother Joe on the night he was killed, but he never showed up. Joe wanted to tell Michael about Gabe having been released from Wandsworth a week before. Gabe was pissed off that Michael had left the whole of his fortune to Kit, not him.’

‘That does seem hard,’ said Daisy, walking over to the side table.

‘Michael and his boy fell out when Gabe was a teenager. God knows what he got up to, but it can’t have been good. Michael was tolerant, up to a point. Push him beyond that? The shutters would come down, and you were out.’

‘So these are the bits and pieces Michael was carrying with him at the time of his death?’ asked Daisy, leaning over to peer at the little pile.

‘Yep.’

‘What’s this ring? This Krugerrand?’ Daisy picked it up, turned it over, looked at the inside. ‘It’s hallmarked. And there’s an inscription: I’m Still in Love with You. Tiny script. Was he actually wearing the ring?’

‘What difference does that make?’

‘All the difference in the world.’

‘I never saw him wear the thing when he was alive, that’s for sure. Or any other ring, not even a wedding ring.’

‘What else have we got?’

‘Not much.’ Rob joined her at the side table and stared at Michael’s belongings. Not much to show, for a life. ‘Michael spoke to Vanessa Bray on the phone the day he died.’

Daisy turned to Rob in surprise. ‘Really? About what?’

‘Kit and me went down to Brayfield to see her, ask her about it. She said that it had been a courtesy call, that Michael had been asking how she was, after losing your dad, Cornelius.’

Daisy was frowning. ‘Why would Michael do that? He barely knew her. And I had the distinct impression he didn’t like her very much.’

‘Me too. It didn’t ring true. I didn’t like her much, either.’

‘Vanessa’s OK,’ said Daisy.

‘You would say that. You grew up there with her, didn’t you? Down in upper-crust towers.’

Daisy’s gaze turned icy. ‘Vanessa’s OK,’ she repeated slowly. Then she chewed her lip. ‘That Gabe… when he came to the store to find me, it gave me the creeps.’

‘He likes tackling women.’

‘Have you spoken to him? You and Kit?’

‘We have.’ Rob didn’t elaborate on the precise nature of Kit’s conversation with Gabe.

‘Nothing?’

‘Nothing at all.’

‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Go on,’ said Rob.

‘You dropped Kit off on Saturday, when he got shot. He was going to have dinner at Gino’s. Do you know who he was meeting?’

‘Not for sure, no.’

Daisy’s eyes were resting on Rob’s face. ‘Do you have a suspicion?’

Rob heaved a sigh. ‘Truth? Yeah, I do.’

‘Who?’

‘Bianca Danieri.’

‘Were they…?’

‘They were.’

‘But… you’re kidding.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘No… Would she…? He must have been out of his mind!’

Rob went and sat down on the couch. He leaned his head back, and addressed his next remarks to the ceiling. ‘Kit told me he met her when he was down on the coast. He didn’t have a clue who she was – and how would she know him? I don’t think she’d ever set eyes on him up until that point. So there was Kit, keeping it light, or trying to, but it sounds like he fell pretty hard. Between you and me, I reckon Kit’s a pushover where women are concerned. Easy meat. Because he never had his mother around when he was growing up, and he craved that: a woman to care for him. Also, he’d given Bianca a false name.’