Craig Russell - Dead men and broken hearts

‘Forget it.’ I waved a dismissive hand. ‘I understand. You don’t need to explain. Let’s just forget about it.’

‘But your card…’ he was almost pleading. ‘It says you’re an Inquiry Agent. Is that like a private detective? Do you handle marriage cases?’

‘It is and I do,’ I said. ‘But before you ask, I can’t get involved. I’ve met your wife in another context and that rules me out of handling a divorce case involving her.’ I didn’t mention that the real reason I couldn’t get involved was because she had invited me to test out their marital bedsprings. Which could make things complicated.

‘I don’t want a divorce. I just want to find out who she’s messing about with. Will you take the case? I can pay…’ He was raising his voice in desperation, attracting more glances, including from the waitress who’d clearly gone to the same charm school as Mussolini.

‘I can’t, Mr Dewar.’ I sighed. ‘Listen, give yourself a few days to calm down, then call me.’ I handed him a business card. ‘You best put the other card back in your wife’s purse, just in case she looks for it. I asked her to get in touch if Frank Lang comes back home.’

We sat over our coffees for a while and I asked him what he knew about his missing neighbour.

‘Not a lot,’ he said. ‘Frank keeps himself to himself. Always friendly though.’

‘But?’ I said, reading something in his expression.

‘Nothing really. Just he seems a bit of a misfit. Not odd, exactly, but he’s… I don’t know… just a bit different.’

‘In what way different?’

‘Just not your typical union man, I suppose.’ There was frustration in Dewar’s shrug: we were not talking about what he wanted to talk about, all he wanted to talk about. His wife’s suspected infidelity was filling his mental universe.

‘I guess he’s never left a key with you, in case he was away like he is now?’

‘No. Like I said, he keeps his business to himself.’

‘I may have to ask you and your wife more questions,’ I said. ‘But, under the circumstances, it would probably be best if I did that when you were both at home.’

He nodded. ‘You will think about what I asked you? About maybe just keeping an eye on Sylvia to see what she’s playing at?’

‘I will,’ I said. ‘But at the moment it’s a definite no-can-do. Even without the complication of your wife knowing who I am, I’ve already got two cases running at the moment.’

After a while, we ran out of things to say and we left the cafe. As he took his leave of me, Dewar apologized again for trying to jump me in the alley.

‘We all make mistakes,’ I said. ‘God knows, I’ve made more than my share.’

‘You don’t know what it’s like,’ he said, the too-large eyes cast down. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to think you have something special, something good, with a woman, only to find out it’s all a sham.’

‘Don’t I?’ I asked. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that… ’

Fiona didn’t come up to my room that Thursday afternoon as we had arranged and when I knocked on her door there was no answer; no sounds from inside her flat. As I stood at her door, I became aware of the emptiness of the house. Its quiet. I could hear the traffic on Great Western Road, the playground sounds of children streets away, the shuddering clang of a mechanical digger against tarmac somewhere less distant, but these were all the wall- and window-muffled sounds from a remote universe. The house around me was still and empty, and there was something about that stillness that gave me a bad feeling that I couldn’t explain.

I didn’t wait. Somehow I knew she would not be back that afternoon. Instead I went back out to the car and headed back into the city centre.

Archie was out and the office was locked up, but I found Pamela Ellis waiting for me. Eagerly. It was an adverb I would never have attached to her, but it seemed to fit with her itchy impatience when we caught sight of each other as I climbed the stairs to my office.

‘Ah, Mr Lennox,’ she smiled. Eagerly. ‘I hoped I would catch you. I thought you maybe wouldn’t be back and I was about to leave you a note.’

‘Normally I wouldn’t be back on a Thursday afternoon, Mrs Ellis, you’re lucky you caught me. My appointment was… cancelled.’ It was one way of putting it, I suppose. ‘Please…’ I unlocked the office door and held it open for her.

She sat down in front of my desk while I hung up my coat. Her handbag sat flat on her lap, her gloved fingers interlaced on top of it. The shoulders beneath the raincoat were tense, the stare straight ahead; no relaxation in her pose. She had the demeanour of someone prepared to carry out a rehearsed task or deliver a prepared speech.

She delivered her speech.

‘This is all very awkward and more than a little embarrassing for me, Mr Lennox, but I’m here to tell you that I won’t be requiring your services from today. Everything has been sorted out. It was all a huge misunderstanding, just like you said it could be. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.’

‘No need to apologize, Mrs Ellis. My time is your money, I’m afraid, so that’s what has been wasted. I’m just happy that everything seems to have been resolved amicably.’

‘Thank you Mr Lennox. I really appreciate everything you’ve done. I wonder if I could settle my account with you?’

‘Sure, I’ll send you a bill.’

‘If you don’t mind — I mean if it isn’t putting you out — I’d rather settle up now. Could you make up your account now and I’ll pay you right away.’

I shrugged. ‘Suits me, Mrs Ellis.’

Now, when anybody was in a hurry to settle a bill and get me out of their lives, it tended to make me a little suspicious. But when it was a Scot forcing cash on me, it was enough to make me outright paranoid.

‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ I said as I took my blue invoice book from the desk and slipped carbon paper between the sheets, ‘what was the big mystery? Why was Mr Ellis going out in the evenings at such short notice?’

‘Oh… It was all totally innocent. I feel such a fool, really…’ She pulled on a fake smile. ‘It really was all connected to the business. He was called to these meetings at very short notice because the client he is dealing with is a developer who has an unusual schedule and Andrew had to meet with him at all hours. What I didn’t know was that most of these meetings took place during normal office hours and these other ones were… well, they were just when things came up that needed to be discussed urgently.’

‘I see.’ I tore the invoice sheet from the book and handed it to her. I had itemized my and Archie’s time and, under sundries, added the replacement engine cables.

‘Oh, yes. I quite understand that you have to charge for the damage to your car; after all it happened when you were working for me.’ She nodded gravely. ‘But you should know that that vandalism didn’t have anything to do with Andrew.’

‘You asked him about it?’

‘Oh, gracious no. He doesn’t know anything about me hiring you… it’s just that I confronted him with all of my stupid suspicions and he explained everything. I’ve even met his customer. Everything is perfectly above board.’

‘And what was Tanglewood? Did your husband explain that?’ I asked.

‘Oh, that…’ She was too slow in clearing the frown. ‘Oh, yes… Tanglewood is the name of the project that Andrew’s client is building. That’s all.’

‘And the girl?’

‘You were absolutely right.’ Pamela Ellis nodded approvingly. ‘I have to say you really know your job, Mr Lennox — you could see that there was nothing going on between them. The young lady in question works for Andrew’s client.’