Now, I got some kind of reaction, even if it was only that he sat straight in his chair. ‘And when is he going to do all this for me?’
‘I don’t know. Soon. That’s why I had to come.’
Esther suddenly threw open the door. ‘I told you never to trust Blythe.’ She’d been listening to my every word. ‘Have you been talking to Blythe?’
Magnus Pierce’s voice was icy. ‘I told you. He wouldn’t talk to me. Wasn’t interested in any of my offers.’
‘And if you haven’t been talking to him, who has?’
I was baffled. Magnus Pierce hadn’t been talking to my dad? So who were all the phone calls coming from? Who had he been meeting?
Magnus Pierce gave me the answer. ‘Who else?’ he said. ‘The police, of course. They’ve been after him since he came out of jail. Trying to get him to tell what he knows. And he knows plenty.’
They were talking as if I wasn’t there.
‘Now it seems he’s ready to share what he knows with them,’ Esther almost yelled. ‘You’ve got to do something to stop this, Magnus.’
I was trying to take all this in. Dad hadn’t been planning to go back to work for Magnus Pierce after all. He’d been planning to do what I’d always wanted him to. Tell the police everything he knew. Mum wouldn’t want him to do that. She’d know how dangerous it would be. No wonder she’d been crying. It all fell into place. The furtive phone calls weren’t from Magnus Pierce at all. They were from the police. They would protect him, they had said; but then, who could protect him against the likes of Magnus Pierce? I began to breathe faster when I realised I had just ruined everything. I had walked into the spider’s web and told him all he needed to know. If I’d done nothing, things would have been all right. How could I have been so stupid?
I stood up. ‘Maybe I’ll just go,’ I said hopefully.
Esther pressed her hand firmly on my shoulder and pushed me back into my seat. ‘I don’t think so.’
Magnus Pierce smiled and lifted the phone. ‘Send a car for Jonathan Blythe. Bring him here. And don’t take no for an answer. Tell him his daughter Lissa has just paid me a visit.’ He turned his chilling gaze on me. ‘And I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to her.’
Chapter Seventeen
I’d done the wrong thing again. I thought I was saving Dad from Magnus Pierce’s clutches and all I’d done was pull him into more trouble.
As we sat silently waiting for him to arrive I tried to plan my escape.
I could scream, but who would hear me? These offices were far from the main road, surrounded by building sites. I could make a run for it. Somehow I didn’t think I’d get very far. Esther was leaning against the door, barring my way.
The best form of defence is attack. Could I throw myself at Magnus Pierce, take him by surprise? Another stupid idea. I could just picture that giant of a man holding me at arm’s length, or lifting me by the collar while she stood watching in amusement.
This close, I saw how big and powerful and scary Magnus Pierce really was.
What had made me think I could appeal to his better nature? This man didn’t have any better nature. And now, Dad was caught like a rat in a trap, because of my stupidity.
Magnus Pierce swung himself round in his swivel chair to face me. ‘Won’t be long now, princess.’
‘I’m not your princess,’ I snapped at him.
He smiled broadly. ‘Spirit,’ he said to Esther. ‘That’s what this one’s got.’
She wasn’t impressed by my spirit. She scowled at me. ‘I told you we should have dealt with Jonathan Blythe a long time ago.’
‘He went to prison because of you!’ I shouted at both of them. ‘He never told on anyone. So why can’t you just let him be!’
Magnus Pierce shook his head. ‘Ah, your father has always been hampered by a conscience, Lissa. Bad thing to have in our business. Sooner or later, he would have passed on his information.’ He held up his hands. ‘Now, we can’t allow that.’
‘Don’t bother explaining anything to her. She’s only a child.’
And the way Esther was looking at me I didn’t think she intended for me to get any older.
The clock on the wall ticked the seconds away with the beating of my heart.
What were they planning to do to us? When Dad came would they just let us go? Somehow I didn’t think so.
Were we going to ‘disappear’? I’d heard of people doing that. Without a trace, never heard of again.
And if we did, Murdo’s life would be ruined forever because I’d never get the chance to tell the truth. Tell them that Diane’s story was all a lie. That Murdo was the best teacher in the world.