Cold Revenge (Willis/Carter #6)(58)

‘Exactly, and she does well in it, plus she also marries into it; there begins the first of Cathy’s marriages. She married a local timeshare magnate who died in a boating accident two years later, knocks himself out on the boom, falls overboard, nobody sees. Cathy inherits some but most of it goes to his kids. Meanwhile Cathy remarries a wealthy American who has clubs all over the world and six months after Stephen is released from prison, he also dies – this time in a car accident. His car plummets off the road in Monaco, Cathy is thrown clear.’

‘She’s an acrobatic little devil, isn’t she?’

‘For the next ten years the couple are building businesses together and during that time Stephen has three marriages. One wife died and he’s had two divorces. The divorces haven’t always cost him, he was paid off a couple of times by wealthy partners. He’s currently married to a Swiss heiress but things are not rosy. He was accused of assault by her a couple of years ago, but she dropped the charges. They have two children and he has four from the other marriages.’

‘Their lives and their work have been in tandem by the look of it. Makes you wonder why she needs him? She manages well without him,’ said Carter, waving to order the bill. ‘Or maybe it’s more than business?’

‘DC Blackman wants a meet later,’ said Willis. ‘She has information for us. Shall I suggest a pub?’

‘Yes, and tell Maxwell to join us. We need to see him off duty. He’s far too straight.’

Back in the car Carter took the opportunity to talk about Tucker.

‘Tucker is staying around, by the way,’ he said as he prepared to drive away.

‘Where?’

‘At mine for a few days but he’s thinking of getting a place here.’

‘Really? He never said.’

‘Yes, his mate has a solid three months’ work on some sets up here and Tucker will help him. I’m sad about you two, sorry to hear it’s not going to work out.’

Willis looked at him and realised, for the first time, that was what it was about. Tucker had come up to say goodbye, the look of disappointment she had tried to avoid the night she’d seen him wasn’t there, he hadn’t even wanted to stay the night. She had a pang of sadness. Their slow and unexciting relationship had kept her from having to look elsewhere. She had thought it was enough for him too.

‘Tucker said you’re just not interested, which is fair enough. He seems fine about it. He’ll bounce back, he’s had to do it before when his partner Sally died. I never thought he’d ever get over it but he’s had a few hopefuls since then. You were one of them, but really, I think I pushed you into it.’

Willis didn’t answer. She was going through their conversations at the restaurant. She’d rushed away. She hadn’t really asked him anything about his life. She’d told him about cases and they’d talked about people they both knew.

‘He’s got his eyes on someone else apparently and I told him you’d be fine about it.’

‘About what?’

‘Him dating Zoe Blackman?’

She looked across to see if he was joking, but he had the expression she knew very well. It said, you shouldn’t have messed him about, people won’t hang around trying to scale your walls for ever.

Maxwell met them at the pub.

There was music coming from somewhere deep inside the pub. Blackman was checking her phone in the entrance as they got there.

‘G and T for me, please,’ said Blackman, in answer to Carter’s question.

‘Coke, thanks,’ said Willis.

Carter went to get the drinks with Maxwell whilst Zoe Blackman and Willis found a table.

‘How’s it going, Zoe?’ Willis asked, as she took off her jacket. She avoided eye contact, still unsure of how she felt about Tucker and Blackman.

‘Great, what do you think of Chris?’ asked Blackman. ‘What do you know about his personal life, Eb?’

‘Absolutely nothing, but don’t worry, Carter will have wheedled all the personal information out of him you’ll ever need by the time they get back with the drinks. He’s relentless.’

‘I would have thought he was your type, Eb?’

‘No, too slight for me. I make a rule, never go out with someone who weighs less than me.’

‘He doesn’t weigh less than you, for God’s sake! He has great pecs under his shirt. He definitely works out.’

‘You’ve been out on a couple of dates with Tucker, I hear?’

‘How did you know?’

‘Carter told me, I told you he always gets to the personal stuff.’

‘Yeah, well, I thought it was worth a shot. You know he’s moving up here?’

‘Supposedly.’

‘I think it’s already happened. He’s been up here a couple of weeks staying with different people. I met him at the pub one night when he came with Dan.’ She glanced across at Carter who was coming back with the drinks.

‘I see.’

‘I thought you wouldn’t mind, Eb? You never talk about being in a relationship. When I’ve asked you about it, you always say he’s nothing to you.’

Willis was a little taken aback. ‘I’d never say he was nothing.’

‘Well, you know what I mean. Look, you say the word and I won’t see him again, but so far it seems to be good for both of us. It’s just fun. I’m trying not to spend my whole life working and washing kids’ clothes. I like having a man in my life who isn’t a copper, I’d like to avoid dating another one of those, or another “God” from the gym who has to do everything in front of a mirror.’