Deborah Crombie - Where Memories Lie

The curtains were drawn round her mum's bed. Gemma took a breath, then parted them and slipped quietly into the chair by the bedside. Her mum was sleeping, just as the nurse had said, and her breathing was easy and regular.

Relief flooded through Gemma and she closed her eyes against the sudden welling of tears.

Her dad had meant to hurt her. He had always been sharp with her, and critical, and she had assumed it was because she was the eldest and he expected more. But this-she hadn't seen this. When had her father's feelings towards her changed into something more than impatience?

Sensing a change in her mum's breathing, she looked up and found her mum awake and watching her.

"I'm so sorry, Mummy," she whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"I'm just glad to see you, love." Vi lifted a hand towards Gemma's wet cheek, but the IV line hampered her and she let it fall back to the bed. "You've not been crying, have you?"

"No, I-" Gemma wiped the back of her hand across her cheeks and blurted out, "Mum, why does Dad hate me?"

"Hate you? Don't be silly, love," Vi said, with a hint of her usual briskness. But even that seemed to tire her, and she sank back into her pillows, adding more quietly, "Of course your dad doesn't hate you. Whatever gave you that idea?" She searched Gemma's face and sighed. "Don't pay him any mind. He's worried, and he's taking it out on you."

"But why me? I always wanted him to be proud of me." She thought of Hugh Kincaid, Duncan's father, and of how surprised she had been when he'd treated her immediately with liking and respect.

"Oh, your dad is proud of you, in his way. But he's more frightened by you."

Gemma frowned, not understanding. "Frightened? Why?"

"Because…" Vi seemed to search for words. "Because he sees you, and what you've accomplished, as making a mockery of who he is and what he's done with his life."

"But I haven't-Cyn always stands up to him, and he doesn't-"

"But your sister has stayed safely in her pigeonhole," said Vi. "She's no threat to him."

Gemma sat back, trying to get her mind round a different view of the man who had always seemed to her so certain of himself that he measured everyone else's aspirations by his own.

"But what can I do?" she asked, bewildered.

"Nothing, lovey." Vi sighed. "Nothing but go on being yourself. But you might try"-her mother smiled-"as hard as it is, you might try being a bit more patient with him."

"Doesn't look too flash to me," said Cullen, looking at Giles Oliver's building with a grimace of distaste.

"I wouldn't be too sure," Kincaid replied. His curiosity roused by what Khan had told them, he was eager for another look at the inside of Oliver's flat.

They had struggled to park in Fulham, as they had in Wands-worth, and had at last settled for a spot in the Waitrose car park near Fulham Broadway, walking the few streets to the flat. Kincaid thought Cullen looked hot and irritable, just the thing for a good interview. And likely to be more irritable yet, he thought as they opened the building door and the smell of nicely warmed cat urine met them like a noxious cloud.

"What the-" Cullen gulped. "No wonder there's no security. No burglar worth his salt would come in here."

"That's not why Oliver doesn't need security," Kincaid said as they mounted the stairs, and he managed not to jump when the first bark shook the walls of the top landing.

Cullen, however, stopped dead in his tracks, and Kincaid grinned. "He's harmless, really. You'll be best friends before you know it."

Looking not the least bit reassured, Cullen stepped behind him. The dog's barks rose in pitch as Kincaid rapped on the door. "Giles, it's Duncan Kincaid."

After a moment there came the same sound of scuffling and swearing he and Gemma had heard before, and Giles Oliver opened the door. He'd managed to get the mastiff into a sitting position behind him, but on seeing Kincaid the dog charged forward, tail wagging like a metronome gone berserk.

Kincaid gave Cullen points for having held his ground. "Hullo, Mo," he said as the dog sniffed him thoroughly and drooled on his trouser leg. "We'd like a word, Giles."

"Again?" Giles Oliver sounded aggrieved. He'd changed from work clothes into jeans and a T-shirt that revealed the bulge of his belly and did nothing to improve his appearance. "I don't know what else I can tell you, and I was busy-"

"What happened to all your concern about Kristin?" Kincaid said, moving the dog forward so that Cullen could get in the door. The flat was hot, even with the windows open, and Oliver's limp hair was plastered to his forehead. "I thought you wanted to help."

"I didn't mean-Of course, I want to help. I was just-" A tub of ice cream sat on the coffee table, and having thoroughly examined Kincaid and a rigid Cullen, the dog wandered over and plunged his nose in. "Mo, damn it." Oliver grabbed the dog by his collar and dragged him off.

"I expect you can scrape off the top layer," Kincaid said sympathetically. "No harm done. But I'd get it back in the freezer if I were you."

Oliver gave him a dirty look but retrieved the tub and took it into the kitchen, sliding it lidless into the small freezer. The tub had left a wet ring on the polished wood finish of the table.

Kincaid took a seat, uninvited, and Mo came to him and laid his massive head across his lap, this time leaving a trail of slobbery ice cream. A trip to the dry cleaners was definitely in the offing.

Cullen had stayed by the door, looking like he might bolt any second. Oliver came back into the sitting room, wiping his hands on his jeans. Scratching the dog behind his ears, Kincaid smiled at him. "Now that we're off to a good start, Giles, why don't you tell us about the phantom bidding?"

Oliver's eyes widened and he swayed, as if he couldn't quite manage his body without the dog as a prop. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he managed to croak.

"Oh, yes, you do," Kincaid said. "That's where you make an agreement with the auctioneer to invent bids before a sale starts. It keeps the bids going up, creates a bit of excitement, and both the seller and the house make more money. The only person who loses out is the buyer, but then they should know what they're getting into, shouldn't they?"

"I don't know what-"

"I imagine it works particularly well when you're handling a phone line, as those bidders on the floor have no way of knowing whether the phone-in bid is genuine. Clever, isn't it? And not even illegal," Kincaid added cheerfully.

Oliver had flushed an unbecoming red that made his spots stand out. "If Khan told you that, it's a lie. He'd say anything to make me look bad."

"What if Khan didn't tell us that? Is it still a lie? And why should Khan have some sort of personal vendetta against you, Giles? Have you been spreading rumors about him?"

"I-You're deliberately trying to confuse me. And I don't see what any of this has to do with Kristin." He shot a distracted glance at Cullen, who had relaxed enough to come all the way into the room and was examining Oliver's audio equipment with interest.

"Well," Kincaid said, stroking the top of the dog's head. Mo groaned and rested more of his weight against Kincaid's knee. "It's not just about Kristin anymore," Kincaid continued, ignoring the damp patch spreading towards his crotch. "The man who gave Kristin the Goldshtein brooch to sell was killed last night. Did she tell you his name? A sort of quid pro quo for your bragging to her about your profits on your bidding scheme? And if she told you about him, maybe it occurred to you that she might have told him about you ."

"You are totally fucking mad." Giles Oliver licked his lips as if they had suddenly gone dry.

Kincaid knew he was spinning it, but if it was getting Oliver rattled he wasn't going to stop. "Or maybe you thought she'd told Harry Pevensey that you were harassing her, spying on her, and that put you square in the frame for her murder-"