The Monte Carlo Proposal

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jack’s Story

AT SOME point over the black months that followed I allowed myself to remember the thing I’d been shutting out.

‘Darling…I can’t wait to see you again.’

I’d been in denial about the words I’d overheard, even though she’d vanished a few hours later. Now I had to face it.

She’d left me for someone else. She’d deceived me.

I didn’t believe that.

‘Darling…I can’t wait to see you again.’

Then I went into denial again. Whatever the truth, I couldn’t bear to believe her anything but honest.

It would have been easy to put an enquiry agent on her tail, but that was the one thing I couldn’t do. She’d implored me not to, and if I went storming after her all she would see was that I disregarded her feelings when it suited me.

She had said that if I found her it would break her heart. So I had nothing left but to obey her wishes without the solace of her presence.

I know my staff thought I was unusually tetchy. It wasn’t like me, but I couldn’t help it these days.

Do I have to say that I made money hand over fist? I couldn’t breathe without making money. It was depressing.

Raymond Keller became head of Consolidated and, contrary to Grace’s dire predictions, immediately made a deal with Bullen Inc, just as if I hadn’t thumped him. I’d have liked to refuse, but it would have damaged too many people, so I set Stuart to do the negotiations.

Stuart is my right-hand man, and far more like ‘Bully Jack’ than I am. He was rather shocked that I’d taken time off for that cruise. He thought having fun was a waste of time. Only business mattered.

Having left him to do the deal, I then arranged to be away for the celebrations. Stuart represented me at those too-and did it very well, considering how festivities bored him.

The year moved on, the weather grew colder, and sometimes it was hard to remember that I’d ever cruised the Mediterranean in the sun.

Selina announced her engagement to Derek Lamming.

Grace said it was all my fault.

They married in December. I sent them an indecently generous wedding gift, which made Jenny giggle and say, ‘There’s no need to make your relief quite so obvious.’

Jenny always had a gift for hitting the nail on the head.

She looked at me anxiously. ‘Are you all right, Jack?’

‘Of course. Why?’

‘You look older. You’re not really all right, are you?’

I shrugged. I wasn’t so good with the words these days.

‘How’s my future godson?’ I asked, to change the subject.

She patted her stomach happily.

‘Getting ready to make a grand debut. It was the yacht, you know. Those three days Charles and I vanished.’

Soon after that I slipped away. It was a subject I couldn’t bear to talk about.

Over Christmas I invented a pile of work that had to be done, and managed to persuade Grace to spend the festive season with Harry.

Winter became spring, and I told myself that I ought to be well over Della by now. But I wasn’t, and I began to be afraid that it would never end.

Grace lost patience with me and, being Grace, showed it in a way that felt like being kicked in the head.

I spent less time in our house now, but I was still there some days. One evening, as we sat over dinner, she leaned over and set something down before me.

It was Charlie.

‘That is the brooch you bought her, isn’t it?’ she said in a smug tone.

I’d have liked to deny it, but there was the slight bend in the pin where I’d trodden on it. There was no doubt that this was the brooch I’d bought Della.

‘I found it in a pawnshop,’ Grace said triumphantly. ‘She’s sold it outright.’

I turned it over and over in my fingers, keeping my face stony so that Grace shouldn’t see how much this hurt.

‘Now will you see sense?’ she asked. ‘You had a lucky escape.’

I tried to keep my temper. It was harder these days.

‘That’s your view, Grace, but mine is different. I don’t know why she did this, but I wish she’d come to me.’

‘A cheap little floozie-’

She stopped because I met her eyes quickly. I recalled Charles telling me that I’d become scary these days. I’d dismissed it, but now the way Grace fell silent made me wonder.

‘It’s natural that you should be sentimental about her,’ she said at last, a little more carefully. ‘But she was very damaging to you.’

‘You don’t know that,’ I growled.

‘As a matter of fact, I do. I’ve found out who she is and, more important, what she is.’

‘Are you going to tell me that you know where-?’ I demanded in disbelief.

‘Oh, yes, I know her whereabouts. That was the easy part.’

‘And you didn’t tell me?’

‘Would you have thanked me for telling you that she’s in prison?’

For a moment I was winded. Then I recovered and snapped, ‘Nonsense.’

‘It isn’t nonsense. Pearl told me. She was visiting someone there and saw her.’

Pearl is Grace’s maid and had seen Della on the boat. This story began to have a horrible likelihood about it, but I still said mechanically, ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘Oh, I have no patience with you! Then believe this. After Pearl told me what she’d seen I hired a private enquiry agent.’

‘I expressly forbade you to do that,’ I said furiously. ‘I told you she wouldn’t like it.’

‘Yes, and now we know why. You’d never have seen through her if I hadn’t done something. I’ve found out things about your precious Della that explain exactly why she kept so quiet.’

She stopped there, waiting. In truth I was in agony, but hell would freeze over before I was going to ask her.

At last she repeated, ‘Oh, yes, there are things she didn’t want you to know, and I’m not surprised.’

‘That was her choice,’ I said curtly. ‘When I see her, perhaps she’ll choose to tell me.’

‘She won’t have much choice in prison, will she?’

My control broke.

‘What the blazes is she doing there?’

‘She’s a crook.’

‘Don’t say that,’ I told her angrily.

‘Della Martin is on remand on a charge of stealing an extremely valuable diamond bracelet. She was caught red-handed. Apparently she comes from a notorious family of crooks. There’s a whole gang of them-conmen, sneak thieves, pilferers. She was brought up dishonest. It’s the only way she knows how to live. When I think that you invited her onto that boat to live with us- Anything might have happened.’

‘I’ll tell you what did happen,’ I said furiously. ‘I gave her a fortune in jewellery and she left it behind. No thief would do that.’

That took her aback for a moment, but then she shrugged her shoulders.

‘Very clever. Of course you’d have sent the police after her if she’d taken everything.’

‘No, it was hers to take,’ I said coldly. ‘And she knew it.’

I got up and prepared to go.

‘I was only thinking of your best interests,’ Grace protested.

‘You have no idea what my best interests are,’ I said, trying not to show just how angry I was. ‘Grace, I don’t want to quarrel with you. You’re still my sister, and I love you, although right now I don’t like you very much. I think it’s best that I move out of here completely. Just tell me the name of the prison she’s in.’

Grace pursed her lips.

‘Wouldn’t it be better if-?’

‘Tell me.’

‘Are you out of your mind?’ she cried. ‘Do you want people to know you associate with a jailbird? What will that do for your reputation?’

‘Don’t force me to ask Pearl,’ I said quietly.

She told me. She was very pale.

I promised myself I’d make it up and be nice to her later, but just now I couldn’t bear the sight of her. Her pleasure in Della’s misfortune revolted me.

Grace had one parting shot as I left the room.

‘Just think about the share price,’ she wailed.

There was only one answer to that, and I made it. ‘To hell with the share price.’

It was a great exit line, and I’d like to say that I lived up to it. But I didn’t. Not entirely.

I did the right things. I read the enquiry agent’s report closely and noted the name of her lawyer. My phone call to him was a depressing experience.

‘She’s only my client because I was the lawyer on duty when she was arrested,’ he told me feebly. ‘In fact I can hardly be said to be representing her at all since she refuses to co-operate. She told the police her name and nothing else. That’s all she told me, too. When we went before the magistrates she wouldn’t talk to them-not even to say not guilty-’

‘But she can’t have stolen anything,’ I interrupted him.

‘Since she won’t speak, I have no way of knowing,’ he replied grimly.

He’d washed his hands of her and was merely going through the motions. I hated him. I told him to fix me a visit with her at the prison. He hummed and hah-ed. I talked money. He said to consider it done.

In the end I was told I could go the next day, and a permit arrived by messenger.

It was in the name of Smith. I’d arranged that in case she refused to see me.

That was when everything went pear-shaped.

I sat staring at that permit, wondering if I really meant to go. It was nothing to do with Grace’s worries about my reputation. To hell with that! If people didn’t trust me by now they could do the other thing.

No, it was something else.

I’d have treated her like a queen and she’d thrown it all back in my face, without even a proper goodbye.

And for what? To go back to a way of life where she couldn’t even cope? So now she needed my help and I was supposed to come running. She could think again.

Dignity.

A man has his pride.

No, something else.

Sheer childish resentment?

That was it.

I had a heavy meeting next day, and no certainty of how long it would run. It was a big deal-good for me, good for the other side, on the right terms. Jimmy Haflin was a tough negotiator, but I knew I could get the better of him, eventually.

It was good-humoured, but it went slowly, and as the minutes ticked by I knew I couldn’t make that visit. Given just a little more time I’d nail Jimmy down to everything I wanted, and that had to be my priority.

If I wasn’t out of there by one-thirty I could forget it. And Jimmy dragged things out, almost as if he knew.

‘I’m hungry,’ he said at last. ‘Why don’t we finish this off over a decent meal?’

That would work in my favour. Jimmy was never at his best after the second glass. It was all going my way.

One-thirty.

‘Sorry, Jimmy, no can do. I have to be out of here.’

‘What? But we haven’t settled anything.’

‘Yes, we have. Five per cent is OK by me. We’ll agree on that.’

‘But you said five per cent was robbery.’

‘So I’ve had a rethink. I can see you’re not going to budge, so I give in. You sure are some tough negotiator.’

I think I was babbling by that time. Certainly my secretary was giving me a very strange look.

‘Mary,’ I said, rising and packing papers away, ‘please call the garage and tell them to have my car ready to go in two minutes.’

After that I got out fast, leaving her to deal with Jimmy’s bewilderment and her own. If I hurried I could just make it in time.

The prison was in one of the most bleak and depressing parts of town, and I began to realise that it had been a mistake to bring the Rolls. I was attracting too much of the wrong sort of attention.

Then I forgot it. I was going to see Della again, and I was nervous.

I got more nervous when I went in. I’d never been inside a prison before, apart from a few unfortunate misunderstandings in my younger days, when I’d enjoyed myself a little too much. But that had been a few hours in a police cell. This was real. Worst of all, it was real for her.

When a severely uniformed warder said, ‘This way, Mr Smith,’ I was certain that she knew Smith wasn’t my real name. Maybe everyone knew. Half the visitors to this place probably used that name, and they saw through all of us.

I’d had nightmare visions of talking through a glass screen, maybe even having to use a phone, like they do in films. But Della was on remand, and it was a relief to find a room with small tables and nothing between us.

I watched the door and saw when she entered. The shock was enough to make me rise out of my seat and start towards her in instinctive protest. How could they have done this to my Della?

She was in an old sweater and jeans, her hair cut even shorter than I remembered. Where once she’d looked gamine now she merely looked despairing. Her face, which had always been pale, now seemed bleached, and the black smudges of her eyes showed how long she had been without proper sleep.

I wanted to howl. Instead I forced a smile onto my face and took a step towards her.

The result was electrifying. She stopped dead and her face went, if possible, even whiter then before. Then she threw up her hands, as if warding off a monster.

It was the one thing I hadn’t thought of. I’d guessed she might refuse to see me if she knew in advance, but I hadn’t thought of her backing off when I was actually there.

‘Della-’ I said.

‘No-no-I’m sorry, I can’t. Go away, please.’

She turned and ran out. A warder went after her, and another warder stood in front of me when I tried to follow.

‘I’m sorry, you can’t go through that door,’ she said.

‘But I’ve got to see her. Bring her back here.’

‘We can’t force her to see you.’

‘But she’s got to,’ I said, trying to sound firm.

‘No, she hasn’t got to,’ the warder said, also sounding firm, and doing it a lot more successfully.

‘I won’t leave without talking to her. You might tell her that.’

‘I’ll try, but she has the right to refuse.’

She spoke gently, like a mother to a rather stupid child. She looked about eighteen, and wasn’t very large, but she was authority here. Suddenly I felt helpless and afraid-both feelings that I hated.

From the corridor outside I could hear desperate weeping. It tore me apart, and suddenly I didn’t care about who gave the orders so long as I could get to see Della and make things right for her.

‘Please,’ I begged. ‘Ask her to come back. Tell her I love her.’

She smiled. ‘I’ll tell her that.’

I recovered a little. ‘And while you’re at it tell her I won’t leave without seeing her.’

I returned to the table and sat facing the door, my eyes fixed on it. It seemed like an eternity before she appeared, looking at me warily as she approached and sat down.

‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she said.

I tried to make a joke of it. ‘That’s a fine thing to say after the trouble I took to- Della!’

I think my voice shook, and I must have sounded like a total wimp, so I pulled myself together.

‘Never mind that,’ I said briskly.

‘But I do mind it. This was what I was trying to avoid-trouble for you. Oh, why couldn’t you have left it there? I didn’t want you to know all this.’

‘Why not? Why couldn’t you trust me?’

She gave a wan smile that tore my heart. I’d never seen anyone look so ill.

‘Haven’t you heard?’ she asked. ‘I’m a thief.’

‘Don’t talk damned nonsense!’ I said violently.

‘They caught me red-handed.’

‘Oh, yes! With a diamond bracelet worth about a tenth of what you threw back at me. Frankly, my dear, as a jewel thief you have a lot to learn.’

I couldn’t bear it. I tried to remind myself of the bad things about her-but I couldn’t think of any. I just wanted to take her in my arms and promise to make everything all right.

‘I meant it when I said you shouldn’t have come,’ she said tiredly. ‘Why do you think I vanished? Because I knew I’d only damage you. You can’t afford to be seen in a place like this. For pity’s sake, go away.’

‘Cut that!’ I told her firmly. ‘I want the truth and I’m not going until I get it.’

She looked surprised. I’d never spoken to her like that before. But by now I was desperate. She’d teased and tormented me long enough.

‘Della, I know some of it, but I want you to tell me the rest.’

‘What do you know?’

‘About your family. Grace-’

She stopped me with a little gasp of laughter.

‘Oh, well, say no more. I expect she did a thorough job. Detective agency?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ I admitted reluctantly. ‘But what did you expect when she found you’d pawned Charlie?’

She couldn’t look at me then. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘I didn’t want to do it, but I needed the money.’

‘Then why the devil didn’t you take the rest of the jewellery?’ I snapped. ‘You could have sold that and made some real money.’

‘I couldn’t take it,’ she snapped back. ‘It was-too much. I kept Charlie because-well, I told you why.’

‘Sentimental reasons,’ I said, speaking with heavy irony, because it was easier to cope that way. ‘Until the day you sold it.’

‘I had to sell it.’

‘If you needed help why didn’t you come to me?’

‘Because I’d rather die.’

‘Thanks,’ I snarled. ‘I’m not sure what I did to deserve that, but it tells me where I stand.’

‘If it makes you go away it’ll do its job very nicely.’

‘But it won’t make me go away, so get used to that.’

She glared at me, but didn’t reply.

‘Let’s start again,’ I said at last. ‘Tell me about your family.’

‘I don’t suppose there’s much you don’t know after reading that report. We’re a load of crooks.’

‘All of you?’

She shrugged and made a face. ‘It’s what I grew up with. It wasn’t called dishonesty, it was called “making the best of your opportunities”. Stealing from the rich didn’t count: they had plenty to spare.’

‘And that’s what your parents taught you?’

‘I didn’t know my parents. I told you they both died when I was two. Grandad raised me. He wasn’t quite the same as the others. He was dodgy but he tried not to be, especially for my sake. He said he couldn’t afford to go to jail because of having to look after me. He’s a wonderful man and I love him to bits. Remember you told me about your Grandpa Nick, and I said my Grandad was the same? He really meant it about going straight for my sake. He didn’t always stick to it, but he tried.’

‘Last year he had a sort of “final fling” and ended up in prison. I was determined not to let that happen again, so while he was away I worked hard to earn as much money as possible and save it, so that when he came out we’d have enough.’

‘You mean you’d have enough to support him?’

‘And why not?’ she flashed. ‘He supported me all those years.’

‘Was that what you were doing when we met?’

‘Yes. He was due out very soon. The day before I left you I called home and found him there. He’d been released early so I had to get back.’

‘I heard you. Do you mean that he was “darling”?’

‘Yes.’

‘I wish you’d told me what was happening.’

‘You were the very last person I wanted to know. Have you any idea what it does to me to see you here, know what you’re thinking?’

‘You can’t begin to imagine what I’m thinking,’ I said harshly. ‘Tell me what happened when you got home.’

‘We were fine for a while, but then the money ran out. I sold my new clothes, and we lived well on them for a while. The trouble was that I couldn’t get a job. I couldn’t leave him alone at home because he got depressed, and then-’ She gave a tired shrug.

‘I thought he’d get better, but he didn’t, and the money got lower. That’s when I pawned Charlie. I thought I’d be able to redeem him, but things got worse so I had to sell him outright.’ She looked away from me. ‘I hated doing that.’

I think I hit rock-bottom at that moment. I’d known this woman feisty, unafraid, cheeking everyone-especially me. Now she couldn’t look me in the eye, and that hurt like hell.

‘Anyway, Grandad tried to do his bit. He got a job as a waiter in a hotel. He started on lunches, and did so well that they promoted him to evenings. That was the trouble.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘It’s in the evenings that people wear diamonds. There was this woman in a diamond bracelet, and the clasp must have come undone. Anyway, Grandad says he found it on the floor when they were clearing up later, and just couldn’t resist. As soon as he told me I knew I had to return it-fast. So that’s what I did, but it all went wrong.’

‘You don’t mean you took it back yourself?’ I demanded, aghast. ‘Just walked in there and-?’

‘Yes,’ she said, looking at me truculently.

‘But that’s not the way,’ I said. ‘You should have sent it by mail.’

‘Suppose it hadn’t got there?’

‘You send it Special Delivery and you protect yourself from discovery by going to a post office where you aren’t known and giving a false address.’

I stopped because she was staring at me.

‘What is it?’

‘You sound like one of my family. They know all the tricks too. My Uncle Alec would have said the same.’

‘It’s a pity you didn’t consult him, then.’

‘I did. And he told me not to worry, that he’d return it for me. As though I was born yesterday! I said he wasn’t getting his thieving paws on it, and we had a row and I stormed out.

I groaned. ‘Your family are a big help, aren’t they?’

‘You leave my family alone,’ she flashed. ‘They are what they are. It’s nothing to do with you.’

‘I won’t even try to answer that. Just tell me what happened next. You tried to return the bracelet, right?’

‘Yes, only I had to be clever and waltz in there when the place was crawling with police. And-how’s this for luck?-one of the policemen knew the family and recognised me. So then he makes me turn out my pockets, and there’s the bracelet.’

‘Why didn’t you just say all this?’ I demanded, nearly tearing my hair.

‘Because I can’t split on Grandad.’

‘Great. You’re loyal to him, but where’s his loyalty to you? Why doesn’t he come forward with the truth?’

‘Because I’ve told him not to. Don’t you see? It wouldn’t help. They caught me with the stuff on me. If he confesses it wouldn’t help me. They’d just have both of us. And he can’t go back to prison. He’d die.’

‘But it’s all right for you to get locked up, is it?’

‘No, but I can’t help it,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing to be done. Why don’t you just go?’

‘Perhaps I should,’ I snapped back. ‘At least while you’re here I know where you are and what you’re up to.’

‘Fine! Then we’re both happy.’

‘Don’t talk nonsense. From now on you’ve got to be sensible.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘Meaning that you do it my way. Give me your home address-I mean, please.’

‘You’re not to make trouble for Grandad.’

‘I’m trying to save him as well as you. He needs you on the outside, looking after him. Otherwise he’ll do something else stupid.’

She nodded wretchedly and I realised that this thought had tormented her. She was trapped, unable to defend herself properly for fear of hurting the old man she loved, but knowing that whatever she did would probably be bad for him. And I hadn’t been there to help her. The thought made me feel savage.

‘Write your address there,’ I said, pushing paper and pen towards her. ‘And when I send a lawyer here don’t refuse to see him.’

‘I already have a lawyer.’

‘You haven’t. I just fired him.’

‘Oh, really? Bully Jack is showing his teeth now, is he?’

‘You’d better believe it. From now on Bully Jack is going to bully to some purpose. Starting with getting you out on bail.’

‘I don’t want bail.’

‘You’ll do as you’re damned well told.’

That made her stare. She wrote the address down and pushed the paper towards me.

‘The lawyer will call soon,’ I said, pocketing it. ‘Do everything he tells you, and sign a paper authorising him to tell me anything I want to know.’

‘He’ll tell you anyway.’

‘True, but let’s keep things legal.’

I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

‘You had to put it like that, didn’t you?’ Della asked bitterly. ‘Keep things legal. You simply had to say it.’

‘It was a slip.’ I backtracked hastily. ‘Just a meaningless phrase.’

‘It was you stomping all over me with your size nines, Bully Jack.’

‘Oh, great! And that was something you had to say, wasn’t it? OK, you’ve had your revenge. I’m going. I’ll be in touch.’

Why did I bother? Why did I take such trouble for a sulky, ungrateful, sharp-tongued female? Asking these questions of myself, I stormed out of the prison and around the corner.

And there was my Rolls, with all the tyres removed.