Quintin Jardine - Alarm Call

I waited, until finally she said, very quietly, ‘Yes, you silly bugger, of course I do.’

‘Then I want to ask you to do something for both of us. When you open your e-mail you’ll find another message from Wallinger. I want you to delete it, unread; all of it. You’ll also find one from me; it’s an audio file. I want you to play it. Will you do that, love, please?’ I was aware that I sounded desperate, but I didn’t care.

‘If you say so, of course I will.’ I heard a great sigh explode out of me; no doubt she heard it too. ‘Just tell me what’s up.’

‘I’m the new Loch Lomondside village idiot,’ I replied, ‘and we’re being blackmailed.’

‘Who’s blackmailing us?’

‘Primavera, and her partner in crime.’

‘You mean all that was a lie?’

‘Yup, designed to sucker me in and knock me down. She took me, every step of the way.’

‘Then move over, idiot, because I bought it too. Have you caught them?’

‘One down, one to go: I still have to find the guy, though, and I’m not sure how to go about it.’

‘Don’t let her go, Oz,’ Susie warned me. ‘I want to see that cow again.’

‘Then get over here. I know you don’t like to, but leave the kids with Ethel and come out here.’

‘Bet on it,’ she said. ‘I’m on my way.’

I was grinning when I rejoined Liam and Everett, but by that time nothing was going to surprise them. ‘I need a doctor up here,’ I announced. ‘I want blood and urine samples taken before all of that drug leaves my system.’

The giant nodded. ‘Sound idea. I’ll make that happen.’

‘Then I want the rest of the contents of that bottle analysed, and fingerprints taken from it, and the two glasses; their contents should be tested as well. I want to prove that her in there handled it as well as me and, if possible, I want to prove that she added the dope after she’d poured her own.’

‘Sounds to me that you want the cops,’ Liam suggested.

‘That’s the last thing any of us want, until it’s absolutely necessary. But I need to be ready if it comes to that. I need sworn affidavits taken from us all. If this does blow up on me and those photographs hit the press, I want to be able to fight back as hard as I can. Maybe it won’t get that far. Prim doesn’t scare easily, but if she sees herself winding up in jail, that might make her back off.’

‘Oz, you’re not going to throw her in the slammer.’

‘Liam, my son, for five million quid. .’

He grinned. ‘Okay, I take your point.’

Everett picked up the nearest phone and started giving orders. Within half an hour, the house physician had taken samples of my blood and piss. Half an hour after that detectives acting for the GWA’s lawyers had taken formal statements from the three of us, and had taken a computer disk with Prim’s confession on it.

‘Hey,’ said Liam, just as they left. ‘Shouldn’t the doc have taken a sample from her as well?’

‘He’d have got it all over his shoes if he’d tried. Anyway, she’s been tied up in that wardrobe for so long she’s probably given one by now.’

I was on my way to release her when the phone rang. It was Susie: she’d listened to the audio file, and she was firing off fifty rounds a second. ‘She drugged you! The bitch drugged you! Get the police, Oz.’

‘We don’t need the limelight, if it can be avoided.’

‘How much do they want?’

I told her.

‘Five mi. .’ She gasped. ‘Five fucking million! Get the police, Oz, no arguments!’

‘I will, if I have to. But, Susie, you’re forgetting something. There’s a kid involved.’

‘Come on, she invented the kid.’

‘No, Tom exists.’

‘What makes you so certain?’

‘Because he was on that plane to Minneapolis; we checked, remember. I’ve had Mark re-interview the private investigator she said she hired, and verify the passenger list.’

‘Maybe he was someone else’s: the man she’s working with, he could have a child.’

‘Susie, Prim’s had a child.’

‘How do you know for sure?’

I told her as discreetly as I could: ‘The same way I can look at you and know you have.’ She understood.

‘If you’re not going to call the police, how will you handle it?’

‘I’ve got two days to find the guy and get those images off him. Either I scare Prim enough to call him and tell him to quit, or I have to locate him.’

‘Shouldn’t we pay them, to be on the safe side?’

‘No chance in hell. She thinks she knows me so well; maybe she does, up to a point, but she’s wrong about that.’

‘To protect the kids, then?’

‘From what? Janet’s not four yet and Jonathan’s a baby. Ultimately it’s their fortune I’d be giving her. She can dream on.’

‘But how will you find the man, if she doesn’t help you?’

‘There’s one lead I can follow, one link I might be able to run down. Let me get on with it; it’s getting late here.’

‘And early here. Go on, then. Love you; see you soon.’

I hung up, went to Prim’s room and released her. She swore at me, then headed straight for the bathroom. When she returned, I took her through to the living area, where the guys were still waiting.

‘Hello again,’ said Everett, ponderously. She glared at him as if he was a five foot bellboy, rather than a seven foot plus ebony giant.

‘Here’s the deal,’ I began, as she sat. ‘Tell me who and where he is, and we’ll all be nice to you.’

‘Five million,’ she retorted.

‘Not a chance.’

‘Fuck off, then.’

‘Do you know how long you could get in this state for feeding me that drug? Everett’s lawyer says thirty years to life.’

‘You’re not going to do that.’

‘It’ll cause me pain, but I’ll get over it.’

‘You’re bluffing.’

‘Try me.’

‘I will.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘You want me to play it the hard way, fair enough, but how about a wee clue?’

She looked at me scornfully. ‘You certainly don’t have one right now.’

‘Help me, then. What’s the link between you and Paul Wallinger? Not your pal, the real one.’

‘Why should there have been a link? He was just a name we picked.’

‘No, he wasn’t. You knew who he was and you knew where he was. You told me so yourself, remember. You said that when you found out I was going to Santa Fe, you decided that you had to make your move right now. Know what I think?’

‘Tell me.’

‘I think your buddy needed to adopt an identity, because I know his real one. You chose Wallinger’s because you knew that he wasn’t suddenly going to appear on the scene, other than as an extra in a zombie movie. So, you know what I’m going to do?’

‘Thrill me.’

‘I’m going to speak to his agent, the guy who put him in the Albuquerque gig.’

‘He didn’t have one by then,’ she shot back, then tried to choke off her words, as if she could.

‘Thanks. So you are beginning to co-operate. That might get you a couple of years less, if your attorney plays his cards right.’

‘Attorney, is it? You’re turning into a Californian, Oz.’

‘I may buy a house there; my accountant says I should.’

‘You won’t be able to afford to, minus your five million.’

‘Actually, honey, you’re wrong, but that’s academic, because you’re not having it.’

‘If you fancy the consequences, so be it. I’m out of here.’ She rose from the couch, but Everett reached out a huge paw and shoved her back down.

‘News for you, honey,’ he boomed. ‘You’re not just messing with him, you’re tangling with me.’

‘You can’t keep me here.’