The Elephant Girl(87)

The robin refrained from commenting, obviously, and Helen concentrated on the books Lee had brought. Five in all, one a fact-finder guide on dogs and a Dorling Kindersley book entitled the RSPCA Complete Dog Care Manual, which she put aside.

It wasn’t as if she was planning on buying a dog.

She reached for the fact-finder guide and went straight to the index page. Lee had mentioned an Airedale Terrier, so she checked that out first. The dog had a wiry, crinkly-looking coat, brown with black markings like a saddle, triangular ears flopped forward, a short upright tail, a square beard.

She found herself back at that early morning on the common, and the feeling that something was going to happen. She’d wanted to cry – or maybe the crying came later. Everything, then and now, was so jumbled up, but she held on to the thought she knew belonged in the past.

She’d been so bored, and then out of nowhere a dog had appeared, bouncing around in the autumn leaves, playful and cheeky. Oh, how she had longed to play, to kick around in the leaves with that dog. Her innocence and childish delight over the dog’s antics couldn’t weather what happened later, when that child was crushed with her mother.

‘Well, I found you,’ she whispered. ‘I finally found you.’

She’d need more than that if she was going to convince Wilcox, though.

As Trevor had suggested, Jason sought out Lucy.

He found her at her place of work. His aunt ran a small firm of accountants on the high street near their home, with direct access from the pavement to an open-plan front office. Three members of staff were on the phone, and the low hum from their muted conversations was a stark contrast to the noise on the street.

Lucy’s receptionist, Alex, a pretty Chinese woman, smiled when she saw him and knocked on the glass separating his aunt’s office from the others.

Also on the phone, Lucy waved to him through the glass.

‘What’ve you been up to?’ he asked Alex. He sat down on the edge of her desk while he waited for Lucy to finish her phone call, and started playing with her pens.

She smacked his hand away. ‘Oh, the usual. Working, clubbing, hanging out with me mates. And you?’

‘The usual. Doing my house up, hanging out with criminals. Nothing much.’

Alex laughed and snatched a pen from his hand. ‘Stop fiddling with my pens.’

Just then Lucy stuck her head out of her door, interrupting their banter. ‘Stop harassing my staff and get in here.’

He jumped down from the desk. ‘Duty calls.’

‘What can I do for you?’ asked Lucy as she closed the door. His aunt wore her usual gold jewellery and an olive-green dress with a square neckline and had piled her hair high in a tidy bouffant. She looked both business-like and stunning, and he could see why Trevor had fallen for her.

Normally Lucy would cross-examine him about his love life, what he was doing, if he was eating properly, in a way which was both endearing and depressing because he’d often wished his own mother would show the same interest. She’d never spoken to him like this before, and she must have guessed this wasn’t a social visit. A new respect for her grew. In some ways she was very like his father, just nicer.

He decided to come straight to the point. ‘Trevor says you may have some information about a public limited company called Ransome & Daughters.’

‘Might do.’ Lucy arched her eyebrows, warning him to tread carefully. ‘What’s it to you? More to the point, what’s it to Trevor?’

‘He’s just trying to help me out with something, that’s all.’ He’d hate to be the cause of ructions between his aunt and uncle, but this was important.

‘Does this by any chance have something to do with Derek?’

In response to his nod, she sighed and turned to a filing cabinet behind her desk.

‘Okay,’ she said when she returned to her desk, ‘I have the information you’re asking about, but before I share it with you, I need to know what you want it for. I know you and Derek don’t always see eye to eye, and I can understand why because he’s a bloody pain in the arse half the time, but he’s my brother. Don’t expect me to be party to anything that’ll harm him, or his business. Are we clear on that?’

‘I’m not going to harm him or the business. Why would I do that?’

Lucy raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

A flicker of anger stirred in him. ‘If you’re referring to that episode with Cathy, I was over that a long time ago.’

‘Yeah, right,’ she said, but not unkindly. She hesitated for a moment then pushed a ring binder across the desk. ‘This is Derek’s investment portfolio. As you can see, he likes to play it safe. It’s mostly fixed interest products, government bonds, although he does occasionally trade in options or invest in derivatives and hedge funds. The trick to reduce risks is diversification, spreading your investments across a range of products, but I expect you know that.’