The Guilty Couple(38)

‘My brother isn’t the only one who’s been keeping things from you, Liv. Your ex-husband is too.’





Chapter 26


DANI


Dani pulls her coat tighter around her as she approaches the Hart and Hound pub, about half a mile from Sonia Law’s house. It’s after nine o’clock at night and there’s a cold chill in the air. When she arrived at the house, twenty minutes earlier, she was greeted by a teenaged girl, sixteen or seventeen years old with waist-length brown hair and freckles across the bridge of her nose. The girl only opened the door far enough to peer out at Dani through the gap between the door and frame. Her wary expression was replaced by shock when Dani flashed her badge and told her who she was. They had a brief exchange during which Dani discovered the girl’s name – Elsie – and that her mum was at the pub.

‘You’re not going to arrest her, are you?’ the girl asked, a note of panic in her voice.

Dani reassured her that she wasn’t, that she had a couple of questions to ask her mum about her brother Jack Law.

‘He hasn’t killed anyone, has he?’ Elsie asked.

Dani frowned. ‘Why would you think that?’

The girl stepped from foot to foot, her grip on the door tightening. ‘I dunno.’ She shrugged. ‘Mum said ages ago that Uncle Jack was wanted for trying to kill someone. Has he? Killed someone?’

Dani shook her head. ‘Not as far as I know.’

Ever since that conversation ended she’s been picking over the bones of what Elsie said, wondering where it fits with Olivia’s visit to Sonia Law earlier that day. It’s no surprise that Olivia would want to meet up with her lover after five years inside. Was she arranging a meeting via Sonia? It would have to be covert, given the fact there’s still an arrest warrant out in Jack’s name. Maybe Jack was in the house, and he’s still there. It would explain why Elsie only opened the door a crack.

Dani blows on her hands then shoves them deep into her pockets. There’s something about Jack Law being back on the scene that makes her nervous. What she’s read about him suggests he’s wily, manipulative and cunning (although not clever enough not to get caught) and she doesn’t believe for one second that he’s popped back up to be reunited with his lover. There has to be more to it than that.

She approaches a group of smokers, two men and one woman, shivering and sucking on cigarettes to the left of the pub’s heavy oak front door.

‘Do any of you know Sonia Law?’

Both men immediately stare at the woman and, from the look of surprise on her face, Dani’s pretty sure she’s just struck gold.

‘Sonia?’ she asks.

‘Yes.’ The woman looks Dani up and down, just like her daughter did twenty minutes ago. ‘Why?’

‘Could I have a quick chat?’ Dani inclines her head away from the pub. ‘In private?’

One of Sonia’s companions, a tall bearded man with ruddy cheeks, casts an appraising eye over her. ‘Are you police? You’ve got that look.’

‘What look is that?’ Dani asks, but she doesn’t wait for a reply. Instead, she shows Sonia her badge. ‘DS Danielle Anderson, Met Police. It’s nothing to worry about. Just an informal chat.’ She tilts her head to the left again. ‘Shall we?’

She hears the men whisper furtively as she leads Sonia into the near empty car park next to the pub. What just happened will be all around Audley End by the morning.

‘This won’t take long,’ she says as Sonia drops her cigarette butt into the gravel and grinds it out under the heel of one of her brown leather boots. ‘I’m aware that—’

‘I haven’t done anything wrong,’ Sonia interrupts. ‘I know Jack’s been in prison but that doesn’t mean I’m a criminal too.’

‘I know, and I’m not accusing you of anything.’ From the hard set of Sonia’s face Dani knows to tread gently. ‘I just want to know if you have any idea where Jack might be.’

The other woman’s lips tighten into a hard line. ‘No. No idea. I didn’t know when I was asked five years ago and I don’t know now.’

‘He didn’t arrange to meet Olivia in your house, earlier today?’

‘What?’ The shock and incredulity in her voice is matched by her expression. Either she’s a brilliant actress or she’s telling the truth. ‘No. Olivia came to see me because Jack’s been emailing her and—’ She swears under her breath and runs a hand over her hair. ‘I probably shouldn’t have said that but it’s out now.’ She sighs heavily.

‘Did she tell you what was in the emails?’

‘Just that he was in hiding and it was too dangerous to tell her where. That’s why she came to see me, to find out if I knew where. And I don’t.’ She gives Dani a defiant look. ‘I’m glad he’s alive, and I’m glad he’s not in prison. I’ve worried about him, not hearing from him for so long.’

‘How long since you last heard from him?’

‘Since the, um …’ Sonia digs around in her pockets and lights another cigarette. ‘It was before all that stuff about trying to have Matt killed.’

Dani frowns. ‘You’ve lost me there. Who’s Matt?’