“With the Aprilia?” Sam said, nodding. “Oh yeah.”
“And Gleet?”
Sam looked surprised. “No,” he said slowly. “In fact, I would have said Gleet was dead against ‘em. He was Slick’s mate, of course, but until tonight I’ve never seen him have anything to do with the rest of them. Funny, that.”
“Well it would seem they’ve buried the hatchet,” Sean said with a glance at me, “if what you’ve told me about tonight is anything to go by. Maybe they’ve relented about letting Tess go with them.”
“Mm,” I said. “What about Jamie? That bike of his is only a four hundred. Would they let him join?”
“Who? Oh, the kid at the wake?” Sam asked. He frowned and tugged at his lower lip. “I don’t think I’ve seen him before, but he did say Slick had given him a chance to prove himself, didn’t he? Maybe that’s what he meant.”
“Jamie’s from Ireland,” I murmured. “I wonder if that has anything to do with it.”
“Might do,” Sean considered. “Why are they going over there, anyway? What can they do there that they can’t do here?”
“Drink better Guinness?” I suggested.
“Only in the south,” he said with a smile. “The Guinness in Dublin is the best you’ll get anywhere.” He glanced at Sam. “Do you know where they’re going?”
Sam shook his head. “Search me. Why are you so interested?” he said, smiling a little weakly. “Not thinking of joining ‘em are you, Charlie?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
He nearly choked on the last of his drink. “Hell fire!” he yelped when he could speak again. “Have you lost your mind? Why the hell would you want to do something as stupid as that?”
It wasn’t Sam’s outburst that worried me. It was the fact that Sean had gone very quiet and very still. I risked a quick glance in his direction but his face was a veneer of polite indifference. A muscle jumped, just once, at the side of his jaw, the only outward sign of tension. Ah well, I’d deal with that later.
I turned back to Sam. He took in my measured stare and coloured up, dropping his gaze. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s OK Sam, I know it looks crazy but I made a promise,” I said gently, talking as much to Sean as to him, thinking of Clare’s desperation that I should protect Jacob’s son. “I’m doing this for Clare and Jacob, and . . . what?”
Sam’s flinch had been unmistakable. “For Jacob?” he repeated.
“Yes,” I said. “After all—”
“What else is there, Sam?” Sean cut in, his voice soft but dangerous. “What have you been leaving out?”
Sam shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He opened his mouth to protest that Sean must be mistaken, but then he took one look at the other man’s sudden alertness and clearly changed his mind.
“It was just something Tess said – after you’d left the first time,” he muttered, strangely reluctant to maintain eye contact with either of us. “Look, Charlie, they’d turned the music up by this time and I couldn’t get that close and I might not have—”
“Just spit it out,” Sean said quietly.
“All right, all right,” Sam said, miserable. “Someone asked why didn’t they just postpone this Irish trip. You know, leave it a bit, what with Slick . . . well, y’know. But Tess said they had to go. She was really insistent about it. She said it was too late to back out now, that the stuff was waiting for them.”
“‘Stuff’?” I queried sharply. “What stuff?”
Sean laughed without amusement. “From Ireland?” he said. “It could be anything. Quite apart from any terrorist connotations, there’s been a hell of a lot of counterfeit currency being filtered into the UK from over there in the last few years. Or drugs.” He glanced at Sam and his eyes narrowed. “But that’s not all, is it?”
Sam was looking thoroughly wretched. “She also said—” he hesitated again, “—she said they’d got Jacob on board.”
“Jacob?” I repeated blankly. “Are you sure?”
Sam squirmed again. “I’m sorry, Charlie, but she definitely mentioned him. By name.”
“Jacob’s in Ireland now,” I said, almost to myself. Possibly with ten grand in cash on him. For what?
“But he’s on his way home,” Sean said grimly and, as if he’d heard my unvoiced question, he added, “So you can ask him yourself.”
I straightened. “You’ve heard from him,” I said, unable to suppress an accusing note. “When?”
“He called while you were out. I was going to tell you as soon as you got back but we were, ah, distracted.”
I hoped the lights weren’t up high enough for Sam to spot the way my colour rose but I wouldn’t have liked to bet on it.
“What did he say?” I rushed on. “Did you tell him anything about the accident? What—”
“Whoa.” Sean held up his hands. “I told him no more than he needed to know, Charlie,” he said. “Jacob’s down in County Cork. He was going to head straight up to Dublin and pick up the first available ferry service to Holyhead. He’ll be home sometime tomorrow.” He drained his coffee cup and regarded me with that unnerving calm of his. “There’ll be plenty of time to talk to him about what both he and Clare might – or might not – have been up to with Slick when he gets back.”
***
Sam left soon after that, slinking out like a dinner party guest who suddenly finds his hosts having a domestic over the soufflé. Not that Sean and I got to blows over the fact he hadn’t told me about Jacob’s call. I was just upset by the way he ducked out of answering any questions about it.
It wasn’t until we were alone that I found out the reason he was being so evasive.
“Your friend Jacob is not exactly squeaky clean when it comes to the law,” he said, folding his arms and leaning his shoulder against the kitchen doorway. “Did you know he’s got form for handling stolen goods?”
I was feeding the dogs and froze right in the middle of putting their bowls down onto the flagged floor. It was as much at the emphasis on your friend as on anything else.
“No,” I admitted. I straightened and stuffed my hands in my pockets, feeling my chin come up almost of its own accord. “How did you find that one out?”
He shrugged. “Madeleine,” was all he said.
“Sometimes,” I muttered, “that girl doesn’t know when to stop digging.”
“Better to know what we’re dealing with,” he said, his tone cool now. “You told me yourself you don’t think Clare’s being entirely truthful with you. Maybe that’s why.”
“Ah,” I said, aware of a sickly taste in my mouth, “I heard something tonight that puts a bit of a different spin on things. According to Tess, Jamie told her the reason Slick was giving Clare a lift up to Devil’s Bridge on Sunday was to meet him. She reckoned Clare and Jamie were . . . involved.”
“Ah,” Sean said, unconsciously echoing me. “That does alter things somewhat, doesn’t it? And you believe her?”