Chapter 34

I wanted to help Derek. He'd done so much and had been given so little credit. It still made me feel uncomfortable that he'd been in bed with Ann, but he loved her, and he still loved her. However I'm no fool. He was not exactly the most competent person in the world!

So I enlisted the help of Geoff and Jenny, and I called in one of our most promising accounting secretaries, Lucy Ruskin, who had good accounting qualifications. She was thirty-five and divorced. She didn't have any children, so was always willing to put in a little extra time. She was a good-looking woman, not astoundingly pretty but not plain either. She was slim with auburn hair that she always had cut in a bob.

We argued round the matter for a long time. They couldn't believe that Derek could be innocent and thought I was being foolish, but I stubbornly wanted to help him and eventually they accepted it. I equally did not want to pour good money after bad, so we isolated his strengths and his weaknesses. It was Geoff who came up with a solution.

"Draw up a partnership agreement. He won't need a full time salesperson for appointments, nor a full time accountant. He's shown he can do the actual jobs so with our support he's safe enough."

Geoff looked round. "How would you feel about helping him with timing jobs, taking orders, Jenny? And you Lucy, could you keep tabs on his credits and debits – tax etc? Part time you understand. Allan, you can keep him company overall, interviews etc."

"Seems a good plan," I said. "If you two would help. Extra pay commensurate. Only a few hours a week."

"OK with me," said Jenny.

"And me," said Lucy.

"Can we stand the outlay?" I asked Geoff.

"No problem," he said. "He'll have to pay it back, sort of dividend I reckon. How's that?"

"Get David in to sort the legal side," I replied.

"What about getting Derek to sort the physical alterations to the new building?" I asked. "Get him on track again. He gets time to sort himself out and we get the job done in house."

Geoff agreed and that concluded the meeting.

A brief consultation with David revealed that a decent agreement could be drawn up and I phoned Derek and told him roughly what we proposed. He fell over himself to agree and was so grateful I felt embarrassed.

That evening I went to the house. It was a weekday, so homework meant no playtime with Dad for the lads, though Greta stayed and chatted for a few minutes before going out to meet her friends.

We sat down in the living room and this time I sat on the sofa, rather than in 'my' chair. Ann smiled and came to sit by me. We half faced each other and relaxed.

"I went to see Derek today," I said and sat back.

"Pardon?" she said. "Did I hear you aright?"

"You did. You remember I told you about Stephanie having the passwords to Derek's accounts? Well, I suddenly saw the significance of something else about Stephanie," and I told her about what Stephanie had said.

"So, if you put everything together, Stephanie is definitely in the frame."

"But I still can't get over how killing you hurts Derek," she said.

Once again she was trying to be fair.

"I don't think you met her did you?" I said. She shook her head.

"Well, there's something of the manic about her. She's cold. She's cold and brittle, bleak. Almost psychopathic. Full of hatred. She firmly believes you were the woman who committed adultery with her man. So she kills me, which destroys you. Then she fits Derek up for the crime. I think she's a dangerous vengeful woman."

"But," she said. I loved this woman and her thirst for truth. How could I ever have doubted her honesty?

"But," she said, "killing you might put Derek in the picture but only if anyone knew who you were. Why kill you and make you unrecognisable? Then there are the photo's of you and Felicia, that's her name isn't it? No one could have foreseen that you'd meet a cousin! It doesn't fit."

"The money definitely came from Derek's accounts, so as far as I can see, it's him or her. And listen to this from me Ann, you are right. Derek is not the guilty one."

"So you went to see him. Why?"

"Two things. One, to tell him what I'd found out. He caught on very quickly, and it seemed to me he could see Stephanie doing what I think she did. I wanted to tell him I didn't think there was any chance of him being found guilty. Put his mind at rest.

"You should have seen the change in him: a big smile and he sat up."

"And the second thing?" she asked, smiling happily at me. She was such a good listener.

"To offer him some help in getting out of his financial troubles," I said.

"Oh, Allan! You haven't changed at all. You were always helping people out. You used to say 'No point in having money if you don't use it.' So generous," and she hugged me. It felt very nice. I said so, so she did it again.

So we talked about what Geoff and I had planned, and she liked it, saying that Derek was very good at his job, but needed the office work taking care of. She also said he needed to lose some of his chauvinism and I promised to alert the two girls to that need and we both laughed. Ann thought he was in for a rough time.

Then it became silent and serious for a bit.

"So where are we?" she asked, anxious all of a sudden.

"I've still got a lot of issues," I said, "but not with you. You were right, they are inside me, and perhaps as you said I need some psychiatric help. I've been busy re-establishing my life and my memories, trying to track down who did this to me. I need to work out where these rages of mine come from since they're triggered by quite trivial things said or done.

"That said, I know now that I love you and I'm conscious of wanting to aim towards coming back to you. You said we are still married in reality but obviously I can't feel that. I feel that I want to move towards marriage with you but I need to work through my mental baggage that seems to be surfacing now the physical side of my recovery has got as far as it's going to go. So..." and I lapsed into silence.

"Allan, you've no idea how much what you've just said means to me. I'll wait as long as it takes. You are sure now that Derek is in the past for me, no matter what, aren't you? That I'm all yours now and for the future?"

I nodded. "Yes. I can't believe how I could ever have mistrusted you, but there are still emotional reactions to your life with him, that he was your lover and you were his. I have to get over those as well. But yes, I trust you to be faithful to me as I will be to you. I've said it before–"

"You're faithful to your women," she said laughing. Then the laughter stopped and she was serious. "I have to get over you having two lovers as well, you know."

It had never entered my head that she would feel the same reactions; that she would have imagined the intimacies I shared with them as excluding her and leaving her lonely and bereft, once she knew who I was and what had happened to me.

It was sobering. Once again I had been too wrapped up in my own feelings to consider things from her point of view, but this opened me up a little more to her side of the fence.

I felt it getting too much for me.

"I'd better go," I said. "I didn't sleep too well last night and I'm bushed."

I made the rounds of the children and left, but not before another smouldering kiss from Ann, which I returned with affection, and some arousal. It felt very good.

I really felt we were on our way.

It began as an ordinary Tuesday.

We all get up day after day and expect the day to be like the others; that by the end of it we will be safely tucked up in the beds we are now leaving. Except that once in a lifetime, an ordinary day is different. By the end of it life is totally different. In one way or another sometimes we come face to face with death.

David brought the agreement, and Derek came in and we examined it and signed it. Derek met Jenny, whom he remembered from the dinner dance, and he met Lucy. She left with him to go over his books and his computer, saying it was time he learned about passwords. I warned Lucy not to do his housework!

Geoff and I looked at each other and I hoped he was thinking as I was, that this would work, and not that we'd done something incredibly stupid.

I had diverted so much time to Derek and Ann that I needed to catch up with what Jenny had done in my absence and it took all day.

It was late afternoon when my own phone rang. It was Greta and she was very agitated.

"Dad," she babbled, "a woman came and told Mum Uncle Peter was in hospital, not too serious, an accident, and could she go with them to collect his car from their place and take it home for him. He went to hospital by ambulance."

"So?" I said.

"But she said she was from Uncle Peter's office but I've been working there and I know everyone. I don't know her or the man in her car, and Uncle Peter isn't in Manchester today, he's in Birmingham."

Suddenly a ripple of fear shot through me.

"Greta," I asked urgently, "their car, what was it like?"

"Blue BMW Registration IZ 02 QZD."

I knew who the woman was, I had seen the car before, at Stephanie's. A little extra would help be sure.

"What did she look like?"

"About your age, Dad, tall and thin, like a model. Lots of make-up. She had really big hands, Dad."

And mum didn't know her?"

"No."

"Did they see you, know you were there?"

"No."

"Did you get a chance to tell Mum?"

"No she'd only just got in and I was in my room. I don't think she knew I was home. I ran downstairs but she'd gone with them."

"OK chicken," I said, "Look after the lads. I'll be with you later on."

It was Stephanie. What did she want with Ann? I 'ran' to Geoff's office.

"Geoff, Ann's been abducted, come on, we've got to get after her."

He started and then immediately sprang to his feet and we went to his car.

"I'll drive," he said, "How d'you know where she'll be?"

"Derek's Ex., she's taken her, I bet they'll go to her house. They'll con her into going inside then keep her there. God knows what they plan to do."

Our works wasn't far from the motorway that also led past the Fanshaw house, but Stephanie would have to go through suburban roads in the rush hour from our house to the same place. We had a chance of getting there before they did. I gave Geoff the address and we were off.

I phoned Colin on his mobile.

"Colin," I said quickly, "Stephanie Fanshaw has abducted Ann. Blue BMW," and gave the registration, "going to her house I reckon," and gave the address.

"You sure, Allan?" he asked.

"Absolutely," I replied, "The only thing I'm not sure about is that they'll go to her house. I just think they'll never think of anyone connecting them to her disappearance."

"Hang on," he said, and there was silence for a long minute.

"OK," he said, "The call is out for the BMW to all areas incase they go elsewhere, and I'm on my way to the house with help. How d'you know what happened?"

"Greta was in the house. She heard. She knew the message they gave Ann was false and phoned me."

"Got a sighting on CCTV. They're going in the direction of her house."

"No sirens Colin."

"I know. We have done this sort of thing before, you know."

"When I get there I'm going in. Geoff is with me, he'll back me up."

"Allan don't–"

I hung up.

When we got to the house the car was already there. I fished out Geoff's gizmo and its remote microphone, giving him the recorder and fixing the mike behind the lapel of my jacket.

"Geoff, when I'm inside get to the front door. If you hear me say 'Geoffrey', hammer on the door if it's shut. I'll try to leave it open in which case come running."

"OK."

"Tell Colin, when he arrives, and let him and the others listen in."

"You going to be alright?"

"I don't care. It's Ann that matters."

"Be careful."

I gave him a look and walked to the house. I didn't know what I was going to say, but there was no time to work anything out.

When I got there the front door was not properly shut – they had clearly only just arrived; the car was warm, so I rang the bell and walked in, pushing the door to behind me, careful not to shut it properly.

Stephanie came rushing down the stairs, and looked startled to see me.

"Mr Jonsson!" she said breathlessly. "What are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"I was passing; door was open, and I thought you might like to know some of the things I've found out about my family problems."

"Well, I'm rather pushed at the moment."

There was a noise from upstairs. I looked up.

"My cousin's come to stay, so–"

"I think you ought to hear what I have to say. In fact I don't think I can go until I've shared it with you."

She shrugged unwillingly and led me into the living room. The noises continued from upstairs.

"He's getting his stuff unpacked," she offered. Then, "So what have you found out?"

"First and foremost, Derek is not the person who organised my 'death'."

"Rubbish," she spluttered. "Who else could it be? The money to pay your killers came out of his accounts."

"That's very a interesting statement! I'll come back to it. Second, Derek did not commit adultery with my ex wife until after my disappearance. Your PI was wrong."

"This is ridiculous, you've seen the photo's. Anyway he confessed."

"Yes, he was being unfaithful, but not with Ann. With someone else, whom I've talked to and she's admitted it. Your problem was that you accused him without naming Ann, you just said you had photographic evidence. He wanted to protect his married lover so he caved in. But it was not Ann."

"It was Ann as well, then."

"You really want it to be Ann, don't you? Otherwise having me almost killed would be a dreadful error."

"What d'you mean? Are you seriously accusing me of–"

"Yes I am, and I have evidence.

"You've said two things that prove it. The first niggled at me for days, and I couldn't place it. You talked about the photo's the PI in York took. You couldn't have known about them: you haven't spoken to Derek since the divorce, and secondly, just now you mentioned the money coming out of his accounts. No one but Derek's defence and the police know that."

"This is preposterous!" she snarled. "How could I pay anyone out of Derek's accounts?"