Pauline Rowson - In for the Kill

Crowder didn’t seem to mind. I promised I would make myself available later that morning, and watched them drive away.

Scarlett’s car was in the lay-by opposite her houseboat and I could see a light in her window.

My heart ached at the thought of her alone with her grief. I wanted to go to her, but how could I after what I had done?

I poured myself a stiff drink and took it to the patio doors. I pressed my forehead against the cold glass and urged myself to think. Crowder had said that Rowde had confessed that Miles Wolverton had paid him to say he had kidnapped Vanessa and the boys, but Gus had flown them here, and they were living in Gus’s house. Gus had kidnapped them to make sure that Vanessa stayed afraid of me, and for the money he thought I had. Rowde was lying or was he?

I spun round. What a bloody fool I’d been. Why hadn’t I seen it before? I could hardly believe it.

Miles and Gus had been working together. Miles wasn’t Andover. It was Gus and Crowder knew it. That was why he had asked me the question outright. It was why he had brought me back here. To wait for Andover to show up.

I tossed back the whisky, not tasting it, slammed the glass down on the table and paced the floor, my mind whirring trying to fit the pieces of the jigsaw together. I felt the breath being sucked from me as each piece slotted into place. As the incredible truth finally dawned on me, instead of the fury that I had felt confronting Miles, I was amazed to find myself quite calm. But it was a dangerous calm, full of hatred. At last I had come to the end of my journey. Or, rather I was near the end. There was one more confrontation to come. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he came here. I snatched a glance at my watch and with immaculate timing my door was thrust open.

Gus was standing on the threshold.

CHAPTER 20

At the sight of him the calmness inside me hardened with a resolve to see this man suffer, as I had suffered. I had already decided which way to play this. Physical violence wouldn’t work. I’d learnt that much in Guernsey.

No, with Gus I had to play to his superiority and his intellect.

‘You look dreadful,’ Gus said stepping inside and closing the door behind him.

‘I’ll live, which is more than you’ll do when Rowde finds out you conned him.’

I could see him weighing things up. I needed Gus to think that Rowde was still free rather than in police custody.

‘It’s over, Gus. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally got to the truth. Miles wasn’t Andover. It was you.’

For a moment I thought he was going to deny it. Then vanity got the better of him. Hatred was in my soul for this man, but I also wanted justice and to see justice done. I was counting on the fact that Crowder hadn’t yet removed his listening devices from the houseboat.

I said, ‘Was it just Vanessa that you wanted from me, or did you also want the three million from your victims?’

‘You tell me, Alex. You seem to have all the answers.’

‘You set up the fake charity, you hacked into my computer and you sent those e-mails from my computer. Miles gave you your victims though: Couldner, Westnam and Brookes, three men with a secret that they were desperate to keep hidden. I suppose the idea for all of this came to you after you discovered that Miles was Hugo’s grandson and that my mother and Percy Trentham had falsely betrayed Hugo. You went to Miles and told him and between you, you hatched up the plan to destroy my reputation and my marriage.’

I was amazed that I could keep my voice so even. It was as though I was discussing a business plan and not the ruination of my life, not to mention the destruction of my mother’s life and now poor Ruby’s. Oh, Miles had killed both women, but it was this man who had goaded him into doing it. To me he was the more evil of the two. I hated his smugness, his cleverness, his superiority. I could see even now, as I confronted him, he was arrogant enough to believe he could get away with it. I knew he wouldn’t. What I had in mind for Gus Newberry wasn’t a quick death like Miles’s.

I went on. ‘That story Miles told me about the elderly man recognising him in court was bullshit, wasn’t it?’

Gus couldn’t resist it, as I knew he wouldn’t be able to. ‘I admire you, Alex. I didn’t think you’d get there, and if you did I felt sure you’d blame Miles.’

‘Oh, I did until I discovered you had a house in Seagrove Bay and flew Vanessa and the boys here. I also know that Miles is hopeless with computers. He doesn’t even have one on his office desk. The hi tech bit was beyond him. You bribed Rowde with a share of the three million pounds you and Miles extorted from Couldner, Westnam and Brookes.’

‘You’ve got it all worked out.’ Gus said evenly.

‘Congratulations.’

I almost yielded then to the temptation of striking him. I willed myself to stay in control. I envisaged him slopping out and cleaning urinals.

It helped. My fists stayed unclenched, but my body was stretched so taut that I knew it might snap at any moment.

‘Why did you do it, Gus? Don’t you think you owe me some kind of explanation,’ I added when he hesitated.

‘I suppose I do.’ He couldn’t resist the chance to show off. He continued, ‘When I saw Vanessa quite by chance here on the Island I knew that I was still in love with her, but she told me she was happily married and could never leave you.

After that I made it my business to find out everything I could about you. You valued honesty; you were creative and enterprising.

You’d built up a successful business. Vanessa was loyal to you, a dedicated wife and mother. She hated hypocrisy and deceit. She had rejected me once; I wasn’t about to lose her for the second time. I knew that the only way to get her to love and marry me was if I disgraced you. I had to show her you were a sham.’

‘And that’s when you decided you had to ruin me and that Vanessa would need a big strong shoulder to cry on.’ Even if I had tried I wouldn’t have been able to keep the bitterness from my voice. I could see in an instance that Gus liked that. It gave him back an element of dominance.

OK, so let him think that.

‘Family history is a hobby of mine,’ he said. ‘I started to delve into yours. Everyone has skeletons in their cupboard and I surmised that your family would be no exception.’

I recalled seeing the framed picture of Gus’s genealogy on the wall in his breakfast room. The same room that my sons had sat in and done their homework. For a moment I thought fury might invade my calm and erupt into physical violence.

I willed myself to be still. It wasn’t time yet.

‘What I did find out was quite remarkable,’ Gus said. ‘Your grandfather had drowned in August 1940, not long after the attack on the Ventnor radar station.’

I didn’t correct him, but let him continue.

‘That was my starting point. I found Percy who, as you know, always liked to talk about the war.

Soon I had the story of the three young men, Hugo, Max and Edward. Percy wouldn’t say what happened to the others. I could see he was uncomfortable about something so I made my own enquiries and learnt that Hugo had been arrested for treason, after being turned in by two teenagers. He had died in prison before he could be hanged. I tracked down his wife, Amelia, who had a daughter and a grandson: Miles Wolverton.

I didn’t approach him, not then. Later on I located Maximilian Weber. He was a professor at Frankfurt University. I was surprised you’d not followed it up before.’

‘What did Max tell you?’ I snapped.

‘Everything. He had no choice. I threatened to expose him. I told him I was from the British Government. He was old and he was ill. It didn’t take much and perhaps he wanted it off his conscience anyway. He told me about the money they had taken from the Jews in payment for helping them to escape Germany, and that Hugo had been a spy. I knew he was lying. After all why Hugo when Max was German. After that it was easy. I went to Miles and told him that your mother had betrayed his grandfather. She had helped to destroy Hugo’s reputation. I said that Hugo had suffered terribly in prison and the authorities had hushed up his death. Miles couldn’t get a pardon without raking up the past but he could get even with you. I told him about my idea of the fictitious charity and that we could make some money from it. I needed three wealthy businessmen to cough up. Miles could supply that easily. The connection with my firm was a coincidence and I hadn’t realised it until you crashed in on me in Guernsey. Miles really enjoyed watching you suffer the humiliations of the trial and imprisonment. He saw it as justice.’