Gripped with anxiety, Daisy gave up on the phone. Instead she tore down the stairs, ran out and got into her Mini, and drove like a bat out of hell.
She had made this journey a hundred thousand times, or so it felt. The whole route was so familiar to her that the car almost drove itself. Before long she was crossing over the bridge above the cress beds and turning into the driveway, barrelling the Mini full-pelt up the drive among the dripping rhododendrons until she reached the fountain of Neptune in front of the house.
Her fears escalated to fever pitch when she saw that Rob’s car was there, on the drive.
‘Oh no…’ she gasped as she slammed on the hand-brake and turned off the engine.
She almost fell out of the car, and ran up the steps to Brayfield’s front door and bashed her fist upon it. Nobody answered. Swearing, limp with fear, she hared off around the building to the back, heading for the French doors that led into Vanessa’s blue-and-gold drawing room. They were standing open and she could hear raised voices coming from inside.
‘I have not the faintest idea what you are talking about,’ came Vanessa’s voice, high with strain.
Daisy all but fell through the doors.
‘Daisy!’ Vanessa said in astonishment.
Rob was standing over Vanessa. And there was the cardboard envelope. It was on a low table, and the prints were spread out on top of it. They were grainy, clearly taken with a long lens, but the content was unmistakable.
One showed Ivan and Vanessa, his hand on her shoulder in the garden; they were laughing together. Another showed them up against a tree, kissing. And another – most damning – showed Ivan, full-frontal naked, drawing back the curtains in what was clearly Vanessa’s bedroom.
Jesus, it’s like something out of a D.H. Lawrence novel, thought Daisy. It’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
The shock of seeing the prints again was just as strong as it had been last night when Rob first discovered them. Daisy had lived with Vanessa for years, she knew how highly strung she was, always generating her own anxieties – mostly about the state of her position in society. Respectability was everything to Vanessa. If these prints should ever be revealed – if it should ever come to light that Lady Bray was having an affair with her gardener – then it would be truly disastrous for her. Her social circle would shun her, and she couldn’t bear that.
And that’s precisely why Ivan was tearing up Michael’s flat and the office to find them, thought Daisy.
Now she could see what had been happening here. Michael had been blackmailing Vanessa with these prints, threatening to show them to the press. And she thought she knew why. For all that Vanessa and Cornelius Bray had put Ruby through, tearing her children away from her, tormenting her, Michael had decided that they should pay. Well, Cornelius was out of it; but there was still Vanessa.
As a motive for murder, getting rid of a blackmailer held a lot of weight.
Vanessa looked mortified. It was bad enough, this stranger turning up here again, after she’d thought they’d got rid of him and that ghastly thug Kit Miller. But now she saw Daisy looking at the prints, and drawing her own conclusions.
‘It’s not how it looks…’ she said desperately.
‘It looks like you’re knocking off the gardener,’ said Rob.
‘Daisy, you have to believe-’ said Vanessa.
‘Believe what? That these photos aren’t genuine? I can see they are.’
Vanessa’s eyes dropped to her lap. ‘This is very embarrassing,’ she said.
‘Michael was blackmailing you, wasn’t he?’ asked Daisy.
‘That vile man!’ burst out Vanessa. ‘He came here and said that if I didn’t pay up he’d show them to the press. So I agreed. I paid him. And then he said he was going to show them anyway, and-’
‘And then what?’ Rob demanded. ‘Ivan killed him, right?’
Vanessa’s milky blue eyes opened wide. ‘No! How you can say that?’
‘It’s what I’d do, in his place,’ said Rob. ‘Remove the threat. Nice and clean. Always supposing Michael hadn’t lodged a set of the prints elsewhere with instructions to open and publish if anything should happen to him.’
‘Ivan was in the army, wasn’t he? He knows all about guns,’ said Daisy.
There was movement at the French windows and a male voice spoke.
‘That may be true. But if I’d wanted to kill that bastard, I’d have done it with my own bare hands.’
Daisy and Rob turned as one, and saw that wiry, bearded Ivan had just stepped into the drawing room holding a twelve-bore shotgun.
99
‘Oh God,’ said Vanessa, putting a hand to her mouth. She surged to her feet, making entreating motions to Ivan. ‘No, you mustn’t…’
Rob pushed Daisy behind him and stared down the barrel of the gun. Ivan was much smaller than Rob, slight and sinewy, but he had eyes like a tiger and they glared with purpose.
‘Get hold of the prints,’ Ivan ordered Vanessa.
With trembling fingers, Vanessa did as she was told.
‘That’s no good,’ said Daisy, having to swallow hard to get the words out. ‘We have copies. Several copies,’ she lied.
‘What about the negatives?’ asked Ivan.
‘We don’t have those. We can’t find them.’
‘But you found these.’
‘Yeah, you missed them when you searched the office and the flat,’ said Rob. ‘But the negatives? No. Couldn’t find them.’
‘It was worth a try,’ shrugged Ivan.
‘Yeah, I’ll give you that,’ said Rob. ‘Like offing Michael was worth a try too, I guess. End of blackmailer – end of blackmail.’
Ivan’s lips twisted in a sneer. ‘What, you think that was me? Sonny, if I’d truly intended to see the man gone, I’d have done it quietly, not with a gun.’
Daisy was staring at Ivan. She grabbed Rob’s arm. ‘Ivan was in the army,’ she said.
‘Special Air Services,’ said Ivan.
‘They’re taught silent killing.’
‘They’re also taught guns,’ said Rob. ‘Dum-dum bullets. That says military to me.’
‘I wouldn’t have needed a gun to put that bastard’s lights out,’ said Ivan.
‘But you’re waving a gun around now,’ said Rob.
‘We’re not interested in these prints,’ Daisy said. ‘I know Michael didn’t need your money, he was just winding you up. Paying you back for what you put Ruby through. The only thing we’re interested in is who killed him. That’s all we want to know.’
‘Ivan didn’t do it,’ snapped Vanessa. ‘Of course he didn’t. But I tell you – when that man died the way he did, we were just so pleased. So relieved the nightmare was over. Ivan decided he’d try to find the negatives, and any prints. Put the whole horrible incident safely away. But he couldn’t find them.’
Daisy could feel herself shaking as she stared at Ivan holding the gun, pointing it straight at Rob’s middle.
‘Please put the gun down,’ said Vanessa, her teeth chattering with fear as she glanced at Daisy’s ashen face. ‘There’s really no need for that.’
Ivan stayed motionless for a moment. Then, slowly, he lowered the shotgun. He looked straight at Rob. ‘I didn’t kill Michael Ward,’ he said, disgust obvious in his tone. ‘But I wish I had. He deserved it.’
Daisy saw a muscle twitch in Rob’s jaw. She knew he had idolized Michael.
Rob turned away from Ivan and looked at Vanessa.
‘Keep the prints,’ he said, and moved towards the French windows followed by Daisy, both of them passing close by Ivan.
‘What about the other copies?’ snapped Ivan.