Vittore and Fabio turned away as the hearse left, their two heavies following close at their heels.
‘Thank God for that,’ said Ruby with a shiver as the wind buffeted them. She was amazed Kit hadn’t lost it and challenged them, but she was very glad he’d managed not to.
‘Reg driving you two home?’ asked Rob, his eyes avoiding Daisy’s.
‘Yes,’ said Ruby.
Kit nodded, satisfied, and set off for his own car with Rob in tow. Ruby saw the hurt on Daisy’s face but said nothing. She knew how Daisy felt about Rob, but if he didn’t want that involvement, what could you do?
At that moment Vanessa emerged from the church, looking frail and very alone, and Daisy turned to Ruby.
‘Would you mind…?’ she asked, indicating Vanessa.
‘Of course not. Why would I? Go and have a word with her,’ said Ruby. ‘I’ll wait in the car.’
The crowds of mourners were thinning out. Ruby went through the lychgate deep in thought. She felt sorry for Vanessa, who had raised Daisy and then lost her when she, Ruby, had come back into her daughter’s life. If Daisy wanted to spend time with Vanessa, that was fine by her.
‘Ruby?’
‘Oh!’ Startled from thought, she clutched a hand to her chest.
Thomas Knox was leaning against the old stone wall that surrounded the churchyard. When he saw her coming, he straightened up and approached her. Ruby looked anxiously ahead. Reg was waiting by the car, watching her, making sure she was safe. That reassured her. She never felt safe around Thomas Knox.
She hadn’t thought she’d be seeing him again anytime soon after their meeting at the Savoy. But here he was. And he still disturbed her, with his expensive suits and his bold blue eyes. He really was very attractive, startlingly attractive, and just thinking that, just feeling it, made her uncomfortable, as if she was betraying Michael.
‘Sorry, did I make you jump?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’
He looked around at the departing mourners. ‘Sad day, yeah? Your daughter’s ex, I believe?’
‘Yes. That’s right.’ He seemed to know every detail of her life. She hated that.
I’ve been watching you for a long, long time…
‘I’m sorry to hear it,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’
Silence fell.
Ruby shifted anxiously. ‘Um, was there something you wanted…?’
He gazed into her eyes. Gave that tiny suggestion of a smile.
‘I think we both know there’s something I want, Ruby. But first things first. I’ve got you an address for Gabe Ward.’
‘What?’ Ruby was gobsmacked. Rob and Kit had been trying to locate Michael’s son for days, with no success, yet Thomas Knox had managed it overnight.
‘Yeah, here you go.’ He slipped a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. Ruby took it.
‘Now we need to talk about gratitude,’ he said. ‘Like you said we would, after I’d come up with that address.’
She hadn’t expected him to find it. She hadn’t anticipated this scenario at all. And now she was feeling panicky. ‘Of course I’m grateful you’ve found it.’
‘Remember the deal, Ruby. You and me. That was the deal.’ She fumbled her bag open, put the paper inside, looking anywhere but at his face.
‘I know,’ she said.
‘But… what? You didn’t think I’d find the address, right? And if I did, you thought I’d be all gentlemanly about it, just let it go.’
That was exactly what she’d thought, or hoped, anyway. She ought to have known better. She was swimming among predators here, and she was just part of the food chain, about to be snapped up, swallowed whole.
‘I never let go on a deal,’ he said when she was silent. ‘So – dinner tonight, I think. Don’t you? My place. Then we’ll discuss how grateful you are.’
‘I don’t…’
‘I’ll collect you at seven thirty.’
‘Have you found my address too?’ she asked, heart thumping. The flowers and the letters had gone to the store, not to her home.
‘I’ve known your address for years.’ And there it was again. That clear message: I’ve been watching you for a long, long time.
Had he been watching her, when she was with Michael, when she and Michael were lovers?
Yes. Of course he had.
‘You’re a very scary man, Mr Knox,’ she said.
Again, that brief hint of a smile. ‘As I said – I don’t bite.’
I bet you do, she thought as he turned and walked away.
‘Who’s that?’ asked Daisy, coming up to her mother. ‘That man you were talking to?’
‘Thomas Knox,’ said Ruby, still feeling as if her heart was going to seize up. Her hands were trembling. She would hand Gabe Ward’s address to Kit, tell him Knox had found it for her, and that he had the man’s support too. She had achieved a lot.
But…
‘He’s rather gorgeous,’ said Daisy consideringly, gazing after him. ‘In a heavy sort of way. Don’t you think?’
Ruby didn’t comment. She thought Daisy had summed it up very well. ‘Let’s go home,’ she said, and took Daisy’s arm and steered her to the car, and the safety of Reg.
62
It happened the following morning, and Gabe knew he would never forget it as long as he lived. It was a sunny day, breezy and bright. All wrong for what happened, Gabe always thought afterwards. The couple set out walking, wearing suitable clothes, with a pushchair in which sat the little girl in her pink jacket and white-frilled skirt. They chattered to her constantly, the strong young man and his pretty wife.
They walked, enjoying the morning sunshine, and Tito and Gabe followed quite a distance behind them.
‘I don’t understand this,’ complained Gabe.
Tito was starting to frighten him. He couldn’t figure out where this was going, but his guts were churning and he’d slept badly, scrunched up in the back of the Jeep alongside Tito. Tito slept deeply, snoring like a hog, and Gabe had spent long hours awake, staring into the blackness of the country night, wondering what would happen next. Dreading it, really. He wanted to run home, to get out of this situation any way he could.
‘You’ll grab the woman and the girl,’ said Tito as they walked. ‘I’ll see to him.’
‘Tito…’ Gabe panted. He couldn’t catch his breath. Suddenly, he was terrified. He wanted to shout out to the couple walking ahead, tell them to run. But he couldn’t. He was paralysed with fear.
The road was very quiet, there was no noise, nothing except the wind whispering through the long grass on the verges. A hawk soared overhead, calling its weird desolate cry, and Gabe thought how terrifying that sound must be to the small, hunted creatures it stalked. There was no traffic. There was nothing. And now they were drawing closer to the couple and the child in the pushchair. Tito broke into a run, swinging some small thing out of his coat pocket. Gasping, his heart pounding crazily, Gabe followed.
63
After the funeral Kit and Rob went to the office behind Sheila’s restaurant. Kit sat down behind the desk, the same desk where Michael had sat, opening the post and doling out work for the boys with Rob standing patiently at his side. Business as usual.
‘Fats, you get over to Chiswick, chase up that dickhead Robbo, it’s getting close to two thousand with the interest, I want that paid, OK? Either it’s cash now or you take it out of his cheating arse,’ said Kit.