With shaking hands I turned the photograph over. There was nothing written on the reverse, but that didn’t matter because I knew who I was staring at. It was Hugo and Amelia Wildern. And I also knew, without any doubt, who Hugo’s grandson was: Miles Wolverton.
CHAPTER 16
I stuffed the photograph in my pocket, grabbed my bag and caught the ten o’clock car ferry back to Fishbourne. The scope of Miles’s betrayal was breathtaking. As I sat on the ferry recalling the last few years of my life I found his duplicity hard to comprehend. He had seemed so genuine.
He had defended me with such vigour. He had always been there for me, telephoned me and visited me in prison. It had all been an act. How he must have gloated and silently crowed at my downfall. He had robbed me of everything. The bastard!
Now I had confessed to him that I had found Westnam’s body and he knew about Deeta; yet more ammunition to humiliate me further. I wasn’t going to call and alert him. I wanted to have this out with him face to face. But I’d bide my time. First I needed to know if he had a house on the Island, which must be where he was keeping Vanessa and the boys. It made sense.
Now all I had to do was find it.
There was one person who might know: the cleaning lady Miles had engaged to clean my houseboat, Angela. I tried Scarlett’s number several times. Her mobile was switched off. I guessed she was still at the hospital. Just after I disembarked I tried her again. This time she answered. I let out a sigh of relief.
‘I’ve just left Steven alone with Percy for a while and stepped outside,’ she said.
I was surprised that I had room to feel a stab of sorrow in my rapidly hardening heart.
‘Scarlett, this is important. The lady who cleaned my houseboat for me, before I came out of prison, do you know her?’
‘Angela? Yes, I work with her at the hotel. Why?’
‘I’ll explain when I see you. Do you know where she lives?’
‘What is this, Alex?’
‘Just tell me, Scarlett,’ I said urgently.
‘Victoria Lane, Nettlestone. Number twenty-four –’
I cut her off. As I drove through the wet night I considered the facts again. If my family were on the Island and Rowde had brought them here, then he was in league with Miles. Rowde had known about the three million pounds when we had been in prison together, but how had he known where to find Westnam? And where to find me? Miles had obviously told him. Gus’s words came back to me. ‘He knows every move you make almost before you make it.’ Of course he did. I told him.
Miles knew when I was being released. Miles knew scumbags like Rowde. Miles knew I had been going to see Joe on the morning he was killed. And I guessed that Miles had asked Joe to give him the reports on my investigation and had then extracted certain pieces of information from them before passing them on to me when I was in prison. Miles had got the press cuttings for me, and had the opportunity to remove those he didn’t want me to see. What an idiot I had been not to see it before.
I located the small terraced house and was relieved to find a light still on. Angela eyed me warily and kept me standing on the doorstep.
Behind her was a burly man with a full beard, glowering at me, her husband I guessed, who was ready to defend his wife, or call the police, if I threatened trouble.
I hastily apologised for the lateness of my visit and said, ‘I need to know why Mr Wolverton asked you to clean for me. It’s urgent and I can’t really explain now? How do you know him? Has he got a house here on the Island?’
She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and suspicion. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t cleaned for him before.’
Damn. I was wrong. I couldn’t be. ‘So why did he ask you?’ I repeated as patiently as I could.
‘I was recommended.’
‘By whom?’
‘Scarlett.’
‘Scarlett!’ I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice. How did she know Miles? She couldn’t be part of this surely?
Angela said, ‘Scarlett told me that Mr Wolverton was looking for someone to clean your houseboat before you – came home.’
‘Why didn’t she do it herself?’
Angela shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Didn’t want to, I suppose.’ She was closing the door on me as she spoke and I let her.
Why hadn’t Scarlett told me that she’d recommended Angela when I’d telephoned her earlier? Was she hiding something? Was she involved in this? My stomach churned at the thought. I had trusted to her. I liked her; no, it was more than that.
I drove to the hospital, where I found her sitting in a small waiting room with Ruby.
‘Percy died a few minutes ago,’ she said. Her eyes were red where she had been crying. Surely she couldn’t have deceived me! She couldn’t be in league with Miles. I remembered her dishevelled appearance when she’d answered the door to me once, when Ruby had been at the day centre and I’d just returned from hospital. I had thought she was with a man then. Could it have been Miles? I felt sick at the thought.
She said, ‘Steven’s still with him. I shall drive him home when he’s ready to go. Your lawyer friend wasn’t much good. He couldn’t get away quick enough.’
‘Has he got a house on the Island?’
She stared at me in surprise. ‘How the hell should I know?’
Was she telling me the truth? Perhaps he was keeping them on his boat. Was it moored up at Bembridge or Cowes? Christ, I was clutching at straws! Miles might not have anything to do with their kidnap. But Miles was Hugo’s grandson, which meant he had to be Andover.
It was clear by Scarlett’s expression that she didn’t much like Miles. Was it an act or genuine?
I didn’t know who I could trust anymore.
‘Why did you recommend Angela to clean my houseboat,’ I asked as calmly as I could whilst my mind was racing and my heart pounding fit to burst.
Scarlett looked exasperated. ‘What is all this about Angela?’
‘Did you know Miles before I came out of prison.’ I watched her closely for a reaction.
‘Didn’t you hear me say Percy’s just died. Is that all you can think about, who cleaned your sodding houseboat?’
‘Scarlett, my family are being held hostage. Just tell me the bloody truth, how deep are you in all this?’
‘All what?’ she blazed, her face flushing. ‘You think I could hurt your family? You think I’m a crook like my dad was? Bugger off, Alex.’ She turned away from me. I grabbed her arm.
‘Gladly, but not until you tell me truth.’
‘Truth! What is the goddamn truth? That my mother’s dying before my eyes, my father in-law’s just died of a heart attack brought on because of the truth of what happened nearly seventy years ago, and my ex-husband’s been arrested for murder because he told the truth about following Deeta. The truth is that I’m scrimping and slaving away in a menial job to make enough money to keep myself and my mother alive.’ Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘The truth is that life stinks and so do you.’
‘Scarlett, I’m desperate –’
‘And what do you think I am?’ Suddenly though her sorrow overcame her anger. Her body slumped. In a flat voice she said, ‘I saw your lawyer friend at the airfield one morning. I’d gone to talk to Steven about something. Steven introduced me –
‘Steven knows Miles!’ Now I was surprised.
‘Yes. He regularly flies into Bembridge. I didn’t know that of course. Steven’s only just told me.
He didn’t realise it would be Miles who would turn up to represent him. Your lawyer friend asked me if I knew any cleaners. He told me you were coming out of prison and your houseboat needed cleaning.’