Vivien Armstrong - The Honey Trap

Back in the hotel, he showered and changed and tried to ring Frederick again. At first the engaged signal was heartening—at least the old boy was safely back in residence—but the continued blocking of the line was very strange. With mounting anxiety Simon called the boatyard office and recognized the nasal growl of the dreadful Wayne.

‘I am a little concerned about the gentleman who stayed on board last night, Wayne. My uncle, Mr Flowers, you remember? Is the car back yet?’

‘The Volvo’s ’ere, in full view, Si. I got the keys from ’im just after me dinner.’

Simon glanced at the time. ‘You mean early this afternoon?’

‘’Sright. He came back driving your motor and ’opped off with that plump new bird of yours what stayed last night,’ he said, the innuendo strongly underlined.

Simon frowned. ‘You say Mr Flowers drove the car himself?’

Wayne sniggered. ‘Parked it an’ all. Not so much as a scratch. I give it the once over jest in case. Thought he didn’t drive?’

‘Not for years.’ Simon’s confusion grew. ‘Then the girl didn’t drive him home, after all?’

‘’e went off with ‘er all right. She had this van, see, and he ’opped off with her like I said, right as ninepence. Can’t say where they went, though.’

‘I’ve tried telephoning his house but the line’s engaged. I expect he’s there all right but I told the girl to drive him home. At least,’ he added, ‘the Volvo’s back. Wayne, don’t give the keys to her if she comes back for the car. I’ll be home myself in a few days.’

After he had put the phone down, Wayne fingered his jottings of the van’s particulars on the grubby page of the log-book. He hadn’t shared this morsel yet, maybe he would follow it up himself. Or find a buyer … Wayne Denny, aged twenty-two, greasy collar-length hair and sallow complexion, was old for his years. Being taken into care on his eighth birthday had made an indelible impression, and streetwise intelligence—honed by two short custodial sentences for petty theft—had completed his education, preparing him for a variety of jobs and a lifetime of living on his wits.

He liked this present lark looking after the houseboats. It left him free to poke about, gave him a degree of power over the naïve—by his standards—tenants. It also placed him at the trendy end of Kings Road. Wayne had many contacts and no friends, his innate cunning armour in the war of survival. He missed Sharon since she disappeared up west with Fletcher but there were plenty more fat chicks scratching round this back yard. That one on Si’s boat, for instance.

Wayne wiped his nose on the ragged cuff of a nasty maroon jumper and tore out the sheet of the log-book where he had scribbled the address of the girl’s van.

The Orange Bar at Simon’s hotel was already filling with businessmen and tourists relaxing after a footslogging day on the Dutch cobblestones. Simon caught sight of Erskine already seated at a corner table, his back to the wall. Simon guessed this to be a precaution acquired since the Pantin days. Erskine made a languid signal indicating the bottle already ordered. They shook hands, as continental as true Europeans, chameleons under the skin.

‘OK with you?’ Erskine poured a glass of wine for Simon and they settled back, covering a polite hurdle of general commentary regarding their flight out, their familiarity with downtown Amsterdam, their assessment of the local restaurants. To the casual onlooker, two attractive Englishmen, thirty-something, already confidently on the way up.

‘About this little problem of yours,’ Erskine prompted, his mind shuffling the possibilities, not altogether approving of the more fanciful hairstyling Simon now affected.

After a moment’s silence, Simon plunged into his version of Rowan’s rescue. Erskine, visibly startled, butted in.

‘You mean to say you leapt off your boat, swam out and brought this crazy woman back on board?’

Simon nodded.

‘You’re bloody mad!’ Erskine raised his glass and sardonically added, ‘Congratulations. The Press will be pounding on your door any minute now. Sir Galahad is not dead! I can see the headlines.’

Simon looked uncomfortable but pressed on with the strange story.

‘I sincerely hope not. That’s the funny thing, Larry. I didn’t report it, it was all so confusing last night, I was only too relieved she wasn’t dead, not to mention myself,’ he said with a grin. ‘I am pretty sure Frederick let it go at that and this mysterious female insists we misinterpreted the whole incident and that she actually jumped overboard.’

‘Suicide?’

‘Not at all. If you met this great Juno you would realize she’s the very last person to take her own life. Irrepressible,’ he said with feeling. ‘No, the weird thing is, both Frederick and I are convinced she was shoved overboard deliberately by these two men. You remember my uncle from the old days, don’t you? The jolly old cove who used to come to Oxford and treat us to the odd case of wine at Christmas. He’s not as clear-headed as he was but we are both absolutely sure of what we saw, and even if we were wrong surely the police are looking for a missing person who disappeared from a disco boat in the course of a party?’

‘Can you say exactly when this incident took place?’

Simon winced, recognizing the stiffened phrases of an official request.

‘Oh, heavens, let’s think … I know! It must have been almost exactly eight-fifteen. I had switched on the radio to hear a concert and it had just started as Frederick was watching the boat through my binoculars.’

‘Do you want me to make a report?’

‘Christ, no!’ Simon leaned across the table, lowering his voice. ‘Look here, Larry, I know this puts you in a difficult position but as an old friend,’ he appealed, ‘could you just pass on the word informally that this girl’s safe? They’ll be sending down divers next, presumably, if they’ve already started searching.’

‘Her name and address?’ Erskine’s attention wandered, his interest in Simon’s story waning, more important problems on his mind.

‘Rowan something or other. Frederick may know it, I’ll give you his number. She was supposed to drive him back to Mayerton, to his cottage near Oxford, but that’s another peculiar thing. She didn’t take my car. Frederick parked it and left the keys at the boat company’s office with a boy called Wayne Denny and I’m told the old boy went off in this girl’s scruffy van. Why should he do that? She said nothing about preferring to drive her own vehicle and Frederick’s telephone has been engaged all afternoon so I can’t check up to see what’s happening.’

Erskine’s attention wavered like a man with an appointment elsewhere but he politely closed his notebook on the fragmentary facts Simon had been able to supply and promised to have a word with the river police and leave a message at hotel reception next day.

Simon ordered another round and said, ‘Frederick’s retired now. Nice old buffer but a real pushover when it comes to a pretty face. He took up painting in his old age and this girl’s just the sort to bowl him over. I wouldn’t like to think she’s taking advantage of the old boy.’

‘Having the time of his life, no doubt.’ Erskine rose, his drink untouched. ‘You’ll have to excuse me, Simon. Duty calls.’

They formally shook hands again and parted with assurances on both sides that they would not lose touch.

Simon sat alone after Erskine had left, finishing his wine, mulling over the perplexing permutations of the whereabouts of the missing girl, not to mention his uncle. Did she jump or was she pushed? The old chestnut struck a sour note. Had she charmed Frederick into some new escapade? Where were they?