Peter Corris: The Reward

Thats very interesting, Ms Beckett, Penny said. But you havent answered the question.

Im not interested in revenge or a pound of flesh, Ramona said. My husband, the father of the child I lost, was killed as well. He was rich and now Im rich, too.

Good for you, Penny said. That makes three rich people in this room and three poor ones. The poor ones want an answer to the question.

Ramona, Mrs Beckett said. Your father died believing that you had been abducted and murdered. Until today I believed it too.

Good, Gabriella. Thats good.

Penny shifted impatiently in her wheelchair and opened her mouth to speak.

I interrupted. Whats the answer, Claudia?

She smiled at me. Its a nice name, isnt it? The answer is that I have to know who it was who hated me that much so that I can forgive that person. So that I can tell him or her that its over. All finished, forgiven and forgotten. Thats all. And Ill be doing it for utterly selfish reasonsfor me, not for him or her.

Cavendish gave a derisive snort. I dont believe you.

I think I do, I said. Sean suppressed the note. With Cavendishs help he paid off the police. I suspect that Cavendish has been blackmailing him ever since.

Thank you, Cliff, Ramona Beckett said.

Cavendish, Bryce and Lane sent me a cheque that more than covered all my expenses in the Ramona Beckett matter. A note from Mrs Horsfield said that the firm was acting under instruction from some corporation Id never heard of. I banked the cheque and rang Wallace Cavendish. He told me that Ramona had left the country two days after our meeting. He was no longer acting for Mrs Beckett. His last service for her had been to draw up a will in which certain charities nominated by her daughter were beneficiaries. Ramona had threatened her mother that, if she attempted to name her in the will, she would publish every last detail about the familys misfortunes.

Cavendish was still acting for Sean Beckett who, he told me, had had a long meeting with his half-sister. Ramona had made absolutely no demands on him other than to make him promise not to divulge anything about her to anyone.

Max chafed at being unable to close out the Beckett case but he saw that there was no way to do it. Neither Mrs Beckett nor Sean Beckett nor Cavendish would offer support to any report he might prepare. Me, either. He had his consolationhe and Penny were married about a month after the business finished. Colin Sligo was dead by then. Bob Lowenstein reported to me that Satisfaction was still going strong under the able management of Peggy Hawkins.

I checked out a loose end in the person of Leo Grogan to see if he had any whiff of what might have really been behind his meetings with the mystery woman and Barry White. He couldnt have cared less. Hed got some kind of a compensation payment for his accident and was steadily drinking it and his life away.

Sometimes I see a dark woman in black leather in the street and I catch my breath. Or I glimpse a woman with a mane of white hair and the same thing happens. Ive even been known to follow them for a block or two, but they never turn out to be Ramona Beckett or Claudia Vardon. I never saw either of them again.