A Question of Guilt(68)

At the door to Dad’s room I paused, peeping in through the small window. Dad looked much as he had last night, immobile, his head swathed in bandages; Mum was in the chair beside him. Her chin was resting on her chest and she looked as if she might be asleep. When I opened the door softly, though, she jerked upright.

‘Sally! Jeremy!’

‘Hi, Mum.’ I nodded in Dad’s direction. ‘How is he?’

‘Resting. But oh, Sally . . .’

Dad’s eyes flickered.

‘Sal . . .’ It was just a whisper, but it was music to my ears.

I leaned over the bed and took his hand in mine.

‘Oh Dad.’ And then: ‘You old rascal, fancy frightening us like that!’

We stayed with Dad for about an hour. Anything more would have been too much for him, and in any case Mum was anxious for me to get back and see to things at home. She’d taken the news of the burglary well though.

‘It’s only possessions, Sally. They’re not important. It’s a good thing you managed to transfer all your notes on to your new laptop, though, or you’d have lost all your hard work.’

‘Oh, shucks to that . . .’

‘Exactly,’ Mum said. ‘Your dad is getting through this, and that’s the only thing that matters.’

When we left the hospital and I switched my mobile on again it showed two messages waiting. The first, to my delight, was Josh, enquiring how things were and asking me to give him a call when I was able.

The second . . . I didn’t know who the second one was. There was nothing but a moment of silence before it cut out. I went cold, remembering the silent calls of a few days ago. But this time there was no breathing to be heard, and it was only a few seconds before the phone went down at the other end and the line went dead. A wrong number, perhaps? Someone who realized they’d made a mistake in dialling and hung up immediately?

Jeremy glanced at me. ‘Something wrong?’

‘No . . . it’s nothing.’ I didn’t want to go into all that now. ‘I must ring Josh though.’

‘Josh?’

‘My . . .’ I hesitated. How to describe Josh? Boyfriend? That sounded stupidly juvenile. Lover? Hardly – not yet, anyway. ‘A friend,’ I said. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

‘No, go ahead.’ But he did look a bit put out, I thought, but I rang Josh anyway.

He answered more or less straightaway and I filled him in on the situation and told him about the burglary.

‘You’re on your way home now?’ he said. ‘Look, I’ll try to pop in between jobs. It sounds to me as if you could do with some moral support.’

‘That would be great,’ I said. ‘Hope to see you later, then.’

I’d scarcely disconnected when my phone rang again. I answered it, and was completely taken by surprise when the voice at the other end said: ‘Is that Sally Proctor? This is Alice Benson.’

‘Alice – hello!’ My astonishment was echoed in my voice. ‘What . . .?’

‘Look, I can’t talk now,’ Alice said softly and rather hurriedly. ‘But there’s something I should tell you. Could we meet sometime?’

I was staggered. I’d scarcely given a thought to my investigation since Dad’s awful accident. Now, suddenly, here it was, rearing up to bite me.

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ I said. ‘When . . .?’

Voices in the background.

‘I’ll ring you again.’ Same soft whisper. And then, louder: ‘Yes, that’s right. Next Tuesday at the warehouse. The auction begins at eight sharp, but there’s viewing from ten until twelve and again from four p.m. Thank you for your enquiry.’

The line went dead.

‘Well!’ I said. I was puzzled now, as well as startled. Had Alice been saying she’d see me at the auction house, or was that just a way of covering up the fact that she’d been caught on the telephone?

Jeremy cast me an enquiring glance.

‘That is very odd,’ I said. ‘The girl at Compton Properties – Alice, the one who knew Dawn – wants to talk to me. She wouldn’t say a word before. And she sounds scared now.’

Jeremy laughed.

‘Lewis Crighton runs that office with a rod of iron, from what I’ve heard.’

‘Maybe. But it’s more than that . . .’ A little twist of excitement shivered in the pit of my stomach. ‘I’m on to something, I’m sure of it. And everything seems to be pointing to Lewis Crighton as being behind whatever it is.’

‘Wishful thinking, Sally,’ Jeremy said lightly. ‘Ever the news hound, eh?’

‘Well, yes,’ I admitted. ‘But I knew Alice was hiding something. And so is Lisa Curry, though I’ve as much chance of getting anything out of her as I have of walking on the moon. Well, I’ll just have to wait and see if Alice phones me again – she said she would. Otherwise I’ll go to the auction on Tuesday and hope to see her there.’