Quintin Jardine - Alarm Call

It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it. I caved in at once and told her Mark’s story, from start to finish. When I’d finished, she looked out of the window, down on the mountains of the Lake District, their craggy peaks standing tall on the cloudless day. ‘So it really was all an act,’ she murmured.

‘Looks like it, only I don’t imagine that Tom was in the script. Otherwise, he played the part to perfection. I wish I’d gone to the University of Minnesota if it prepares you that well for a stage career.’

‘What happens next?’

‘I’m going to find him. I promised you I’d get your kid back.’

She took my arm and leaned against me. ‘Oz, love, I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done already. I can’t interfere with your life any more.’

‘You try and stop me. I care about you, Prim; this guy’s worked you over in the worst possible way. He thinks he’s laughing, but he doesn’t know the tears that are on the way. He’s going to have to answer to me.’

‘But how will you trace him?’

‘He’s left a trail. I’ll start with his mother.’

‘How are you going to find the time?’

I grinned at her. ‘Circumstances make it easy. I’ve agreed to do Everett Davis’s movie in Las Vegas. I’ve got eight days before I have to be there, maybe more if I can negotiate the shooting schedule with the director.’

‘Oz, are you sure?’

‘Certain.’

‘In that case I’m coming with you.’

I wasn’t so sure I liked the sound of that. ‘Hey, wait a minute! I’m a big boy, I don’t need minding.’

‘I’m not thinking about that. I want to be there when you find Tom. You’re a stranger; if you turn up out of the blue and confront his daddy, the poor wee thing will be scared out of his wits. Plus, on your own, what could you do? Paul could probably have you arrested for attempted kidnap. But if I’m there …’

She had a point. ‘Okay,’ I conceded, ‘but only if Susie’s happy with the idea. Otherwise I’ll go armed with Harvey’s interim interdict and present it to the local district attorney.’

‘And by the time he does anything, Paul will have moved on.’

‘Let’s talk to Susie. Once you explain why you need to go, she probably won’t object.’

For once, Prim looked doubtful. ‘I’m not as sure as you,’ she said. ‘In her shoes, I don’t know if I’d be generous enough to let you go off alone to the US with your ex.’

‘Yes, but you’re not in her shoes, so you don’t know about her generosity. Whether or not she trusts you isn’t relevant. The question is whether or not she trusts me.’

‘Exactly.’

In spite of myself, I smiled at her. ‘The past is just that, Prim. As you said, I’m a different guy now.’

She let it drop.

Glasgow was well in sight when a thought that had been festering all afternoon popped out of the back of my brain. ‘You know what’s been puzzling me?’ I said. ‘Since Wallinger’s stolen every penny of yours that he could get his hands on, why the hell did he leave you with the diamonds?’

‘Pure luck,’ she replied. ‘The insurance company advised me to change the combination of the safe at least once a month, as an added security precaution. I did it the day before Paul left, and I never told him the number. Not that I needed to; there was nothing of his in there anyway.’

I called Susie from the airport, to let her know that we were wheels down and that we’d be home in half an hour. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘In plenty of time for dinner. Oh, by the way, Greg rang to say that the birth certificate’s arrived, and Ricky Ross called too. He said that DI McLaren would be here at nine thirty tomorrow morning.’

‘Fine; anything else?’

‘Yes, you cunning bastard, Roscoe called.’ I was glad that I could hear a laugh in her voice. ‘He told me to tell you that the deal with Everett is done on the basis of no fee but five points of the gross. You’d decided to do it all along, hadn’t you?’

‘I owe Daze, Susie.’

‘I know that, and I think you’ve done the right thing. Roscoe says that you’re booked into the Bellagio from next weekend, into a two-bedroom suite so that the kids, Ethel and I can come with you. That’s a lovely thought, but I really did mean it. It’s too hot there at this time of year. On top of that, I might have some Gantry Group business to take care of in the next couple of weeks. The flotation date’s getting closer and Phil Culshaw wants me to go to London with him to make some presentations that our PR company’s setting up for us. It’s all for the good of the share price, darling.’

‘Even so, you might change your mind when you hear what I’ve got to ask you.’

She didn’t, though. When I explained to her where we were in the search for Tom, and where we had to go next, she agreed with me one hundred per cent.

When Prim suggested that she hire a detective instead, she almost went ballistic. ‘You what?’ she exclaimed. ‘You think we’d let you go to a place you’ve never been, with some bloody gumshoe you don’t know from Adam, to find a man who’s not exactly going to welcome you with open arms? No chance in hell. Oz is going with you, and that’s that. I’ll have Audrey book your flights first thing in the morning.’

There was one thing that Prim hadn’t done the day before and that was to call her sister and tell her the whole story. I made her fill that gap after dinner, leaving her to do it on her own. She was sombre when she came back into the sitting room, where Susie and I were watching the US Open on television.

‘Did Dawn give you a hard time?’

She shook her head. ‘Far from it; she couldn’t have been better. I spoke to Miles too. He was great. He said that any help I needed, to let him know, and that if he wasn’t in Australia he’d be on the case himself. When I told him that you were, he was happy.’

When the phone rang a couple of minutes later, I knew who it would be. I picked the hands-free unit from its cradle and was walking out of the room as I pressed the receive button. ‘I just spoke to Primavera,’ said Miles. The fact that he was using her Sunday name was a sure sign that however ‘great’ he had sounded, she wasn’t his favourite person right then.

‘I know.’

‘Do you know what you’re doing, getting involved in this?’

‘I don’t see any other option, nor does Susie. Anyway, if I hadn’t cut her off, she wouldn’t have been drifting around like a lost soul.’

‘She’d have worked out a game plan, don’t worry.’

‘Do you remember this guy, Wallinger?’

‘Should I?’

‘Ah, Prim didn’t tell you his professional name: Paul Patrick Walls.’

‘Walls? Walls? Hey, wait a minute, he’s a bit player, isn’t he? And didn’t I use him once?’

‘Not much, from the story I heard. You cut all his best scenes out of Kidnapped to make way for Dawn.’

Miles fell silent for a few seconds. . an unusual condition for him. ‘Are you trying to tell me that when this guy ripped off Prim he was actually getting even with me?’

‘At this stage of the game, pal, I haven’t a fucking clue what I’m trying to tell you. But when I have my hands around the bastard’s throat, that’ll be one of the questions I ask him.’

‘If the answer’s “yes”, then tell him that if mistakes are on a scale from one to ten, that one’s a Bo Derek.’

‘I’ll tell him many things, once he’s handed over Prim’s kid and her money.’

I wished him a good morning in Sydney, and went back to the golf.

Detective Inspector Ian McLaren arrived spot on time next morning, just five minutes after Greg McPhillips called to say that Harvey had found a sheriff to hear his application for a child-protection interdict at midday, and that there was no way it wouldn’t be granted.