"Good," he said with a smile.
"I wouldn't be able to do this without you, Derry," she said.
She was grateful that he hadn't asked her what she was going to do, but then Derry was a practical businessman. He knew he'd find out just as soon as he got to his suite. "Why don't you make Muttie and Lizzie some sandwiches?" Cathy said as she let the twins off in her old home in St Jarlath's Crescent. Til leave them some pavlova as well. Apparently Dee is on a diet and won't allow it to stay in her house overnight, in case she eats it."
"Did you ever hate Muttie and his wife Lizzie?" Maud asked Cathy in her normal conversational tone.
"No, Maud, never. Did you?"
"Of course not."
"Then why do you ask?"
"Something Derry said. He said he hated his father."
"He said that?" Cathy "was shocked.
"Not exactly, but nearly. He has cousins here, but he's not going to look them up," Simon confirmed.
"They're called Kennedy and they're house painters here in Dublin," Maud said, proud to have got the information.
I know them," Cathy said. "They work with Tom's father."
"Will we have a surprise party and bring them all together?" Maud suggested.
"No, Maud. I know I'm a dull stick, but believe me, that's not a good idea," said Cathy, who decided she must ring Dee and tell her at once. Ella and Derry made a pot of tea from the little tray in the room. "First I'll call my parents, ask them if they're sure they don't want to take the money and run." She made the call swiftly.
They wouldn't be happy to be paid off in this way, they told her.
Yes, of course, if there was compensation, if insider trading could be proved, then they'd be happy to have a share, but not this way.
"We liked Derry King," her mother ended.
"And he you, Mother."
She sat very still for a long time after that.
Derry sat equally calm, sipping his tea.
"Right," she said eventually.
"Tell me what you're going to do."
"I'm going to call his wife. Ask her what she intends to do. Does she want to have a life in Ireland again, does she own that place in Play a de los Angeles? It's the only one that's not owned absolutely by Don. Maybe he wanted that as a home for her and the children. Maybe he left her a note, too." She was very calm.
"And then?" Derry King said.
"And then, depending on what she says, I will most probably call the Fraud Squad here and ask them to come to the hotel lobby and collect the laptop."
"And what might she say that would change your mind?"
"If she says she will have nowhere to live and she can't bear the shame, I'll ask you to help me erase the stuff about her home."
"Very generous of you."
I owe him that."
"You owe him nothing. We've been through this."
"Then you'll remember I want to behave perfectly."
"He's dead, Ella. He doesn't know how well and perfectly you'll be behaving."
"Please, Derry, help me."
"How?"
"Sit beside me while I make the call."
"You've thought it all out then?"
"Yesterday, all day. I made a tour of the past, pulled it all together. This is what I want to do." "Right, I'll sit beside you," he said. The phone only rang six times, but it seemed like ages. A man answered.
"Can I speak to Mrs. Margery Brady, please?" Ella felt her voice faltering. Derry squeezed her for solidarity.
There was a pause. "Who?" the man asked.
"Mrs. Brady. Margery."
"Where did you get this number?"
Ts this 23 Playa de los Angeles?"
"Yes, but . .. this is not a number that anyone has
The voice sounded familiar. Terribly familiar.
"Don?" Ella gasped.
"Angel? Ella, is that you? Angel?"
She couldn't find the breath to say a word.
Derry had an arm around her shoulders and was offering her a sip of water. She pushed the water away but held his hand very tight"
"Don, is that really you? You're not dead?"
"Where are you, Angel?" His voice was insistent, very anxious.
"You told me you were going to die, kill yourself," she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
I was going to, but in the end ... No good at finishing anything, me." He gave a hollow little laugh. The laugh he gave when things were very serious.
I thought you were dead, Don. Dead, you know, at the bottom of the sea. I wept over you everywhere, that you would never see this lovely autumn with the leaves changing, with the sun coming through the trees. I even wept for your sons, that they wouldn't know you .. . and you never died ... you never died at all."
"But that's good, Angel Ella, isn't it? We'll be together once I sort out this mess."
"You never loved me, Don."
"Of course I did ... do."
"What had you intended to do, Don?"
"Wait until I could get the laptop so that we could sort it all out. Get our life together."
She was silent.
Derry squeezed her hand harder. She had been holding the receiver so that he could hear what was being said.
"Ella. Ella Angel, are you there?"
"You never loved me at all. Was it just sex? Was it because I was young? What was it?"
"We'll meet. Bring me the laptop. I'll tell you everything then."
"I can't do that, Don."
"Why not?" He sounded weak.
"Because I gave it to the Fraud Squad."
"And the money for your parents? I can prove you took that."
"No, I gave that back too."
"I don't believe you."
"Why not?"
"There would have been someone on to me by now."
"There will be, Don, there will."
"When did you give it to them?"
"An hour ago," she said, and hung up the phone.
Chapter Fifteen.
It all took much less time than they thought. The detectives came to the hotel. Two quiet, unassuming looking men, one a tall, dark man she had met before when she had lied about the computer.
"So it turned up eventually?" he said, looking at her.
It did," she said simply.
"And you are .. .?" he asked Derry.
Derry handed him a business card. "Derry King, friend and business partner of Ms Brady."
"And this is . . .?"
"A ticket and key for a safe deposit box. Don Richardson claims he left bank drafts or certified cheques there for me."
"And you haven't opened it?"
"No."
"If they were for you ...?"
"He defrauded my father of money. They were a sort of apology, or that's what I thought."
"All the more reason to take them, then . .." The detective never finished a sentence, just left it hanging there and someone finished it for him.
This time it was Derry. "Ms Brady and her parents, being very moral people, decided they couldn't just take money like that and say nothing. They are returning it to you."
"Quite so. Very admirable."
"And the password to the computer is Playa de los Angeles, like the city Los Angeles."
"Ah, you just guessed this . . .?"
"Not exactly
"So Mr. Richardson told you .. .?"
"Not exactly that either. He told me ages back that it was "Angel" and when I tried it recently it wasn't, so I tried words a bit like that and it opened."
"Well done, Ms Brady."
"But that's not the main thing..." she said, her words tumbling out.
"It's not?"
"No, the main thing is he's not dead. He's alive. I spoke to him this evening. He never killed himself at all."
She looked from one face to the other to see the shock register. But to her surprise there was nothing at all.
"We never really thought he was dead," said the detective. "Didn't fit the pattern. Made no sense for him to kill himself."
"I thought he was dead and I used to know him very well indeed," Ella said.