Theres nothing to sneer at in doing any honest job, I said.
It didnt exactly turn out to be an honest job, though, did it? And I assume he didnt keep his word about stopping the fraud, either. You were very credulous to think he would.
I wanted to believe him. In the last couple of years when Mum was so ill, he was really good to me, letting me work as and when I could, then offering me a permanent job on the afternoon shift after she died. It wasnt like I was qualified for anything else.
As Mum fell further and further into the grip of aggressive multiple sclerosis Id missed a lot of school and though Id started a graphic design degree course, Id had to drop out of it after only a year. Of course, I didnt begrudge a moment of the time I spent with Mum, but after shed gone I was left with no money, qualifications or even a home, since the specially adapted council bungalow was urgently needed for someone else.
So Id gratefully accepted Harrys offer and found a tiny but cheap flat over the garage attached to Jeremys house, which was how wed met.
At first he hadnt been that keen on Pyewacket, my cat, but after a while he became very keen on me, so they learned to tolerate each other just as I learned to accept Jeremys long-standing close friendship with Kate and her husband, Luke, who not only seemed joined at the hip, but all taught at the same huge, sprawling comprehensive school. Well, I say friendship, but it was more a trio of two adorers and Kate, who they think is wonderful, though I have no idea why
When did you realise he hadnt stopped the fraud? asked Kate, jerking me out of my reverie.
Only recently. Hed made sure Id seen him carrying crates of what looked like the real thing into the storeroom, but one day when I was in a smart wine merchants shop with Jeremy they had a bottle of it and it looked nothing at all like the ones Id been packing. Last night I told Harry I knew.
I shivered slightly because Id seen a side to jovial, easy-going Harry that I hadnt even suspected existed.
He threatened me and said if I went to the police hed tell them it had all been my idea and since I was the one who worked the extra shifts packing the special orders, I was implicated anyway.
It certainly wouldnt look good, Kate agreed helpfully.
But its his company and Im just a warehouse packer, doing a bit of overtime. I told him they wouldnt believe him but he said they would when he explained that wed been having an affair and Id reported the fraud out of spite because hed ended it.
Gosh, its like some low-life soap series! But it serves you right for not having gone to the police as soon as you found out, she said righteously. Thats what I would have done.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I said. In the end I told him I wouldnt shop him, but gave him a months notice and said I wasnt doing any more overtime. He said he didnt care, so long as I kept my mouth shut.
Which you havent, because youve told me, she pointed out.
Only because I was so upset that I was desperate to talk it through with someone and, if you remember, you promised to keep what I was going to say secret.
I hadnt realised it would be something criminal, though, she objected.
But you will keep it secret, wont you? I asked.
I suppose so, but more because it would hurt Jeremy immensely if all this came out, Kate agreed. I know you havent told him anything, or hed have confided in me and Luke.
That was true, and it was what had stopped me confiding in Jeremy in the first place, but now I suddenly seemed to have blabbed it out to Kate, cutting out the middleman.
Now youll have to find another job, she said.
Well maybe not. I know Jeremy doesnt think my artwork is anything other than a hobby, but Ive been regularly selling designs to greetings card companies, and now Ive got my first one-woman exhibition in Liverpool I really think I might be able to earn a living out of it.
In fact, Id have left Champers&Chocs long before, had it not been for Jeremys insistence that I not only continue to pay rent on the flat, which I mostly used to store my things and as a studio, but also my share of the expensive meals out that he, Kate and Luke enjoyed so much.
But you know what Jeremys like he thinks I should pay an equal share of everything, even though hes earning a lot more than I am.
Well, teachers arent that well paid, you know, Kate said defensively.
They get a lot more than my minimum wages, thats for sure, I said. And more holidays plus the three of you are always going off abroad on school trips.
Being responsible for a coach full of adolescents is not exactly a fun holiday, she said, tossing her smooth blond hair back in a Miss Piggy kind of way. She often streaked her hair with a bright pink when she was out of school, but I cant say it really did anything for her.
Youd be better off training for a proper career, she added, but Ill be at the exhibition, rooting for you, anyway. Luke cant come; hes off on a training course that day and wont be back till too late.
Thank you, I said, surprised, because when Id initially invited them, shed said they couldnt make it. My friend Emma doesnt think she can come either, so I could do with some support. I do hope its a success and then just after that Ill have worked out my notice at Champers&Chocs and it wont be my fault if Harry gets found out.
Turning a blind eye doesnt exactly qualify you for sainthood, you know, she said. Still, I suppose you cant do anything else now. Have you told Jeremy youve handed in your notice?
No, I thought Id wait until after the Papercuts and Beyond exhibition, because if I sell lots of pictures, hell be able to see that I could make a living from it.
The owners of the small gallery had been really enthusiastic about my pictures, which had been like a light at the end of a dark tunnel after Harrys threats to implicate me. Id been carrying a heavy burden for months, but soon I would be free and earning my living by doing work I loved
Come on, said Kate, putting down her teacup decisively. Lets go and find you something to wear for this exhibition. You cant go through life dressed in black jeans and tops.
I dont see why not, I said mutinously, following her out, but I did end up buying a jazzy silk tunic at her insistence, even if I did intend wearing it with narrow black trousers and flat pumps rather than the leggings and high heels she considered appropriate.
Chapter 2: Picture This
Randal
You know, these are really good, I said, examining the nearest pictures on the wall of the small gallery. The artists taken traditional papercutting and collage techniques to a whole new level.
Ill take your word for it all this arty stuff isnt my cup of tea or why Im here, Charlie Clancy replied absently, scrolling through his phone to find a photograph of the woman whose work was being exhibited and whom he hoped to meet that evening. I just need to get Tabitha Coombs to believe Im interested in including Champers&Chocs in an article on successful local internet businesses, and Ill be in there.
Ill take your word for it all this arty stuff isnt my cup of tea or why Im here, Charlie Clancy replied absently, scrolling through his phone to find a photograph of the woman whose work was being exhibited and whom he hoped to meet that evening. I just need to get Tabitha Coombs to believe Im interested in including Champers&Chocs in an article on successful local internet businesses, and Ill be in there.
But you might learn something useful, because her work is very revealing when you look beyond the flowery paper lace borders, I suggested. The subjects can be quite dark see this one? I pointed to the nearest. At first glance, its a park scene by a duck pond, with people sitting on the bench, but if you look closer, theyre clearly homeless and one is drinking from a bottle.
Never mind the artwork, Charlie said impatiently. His mischievous expression under his mop of dark curls was exactly the same one hed worn when we were schoolboys and he was plotting some prank that would get us into deep trouble. Nowadays, as an investigator and presenter for the long-running TV programme Dodgy Dealings, it was other people he dropped into the soup. We were in a similar line of business, though generally it was the big holiday com-panies shortcomings I exposed.
Theres Tabitha Coombs over by the archway through to the other room, the tallish one who looks like Cher on a bad day, he added.
At a guess, the woman was somewhere in her mid-thirties, her waist-length cocoa-brown hair worn loose, with a fringe that framed her face and touched straight, black brows. She had high cheekbones, a narrow, aquiline nose, pale complexion and a generous mouth.
Shes quite striking, in a slightly witchy kind of way, I said.
I was certain that the gallery was too crowded and noisy for her to have heard me, but something made her glance our way at that moment, her gaze direct from eyes of a surprisingly light, almost lilac, grey.
Her friend Kate, my informant, is the cute blonde with pink streaks in her hair, standing next to her.
Hardly a friend, now shes blabbed to you? I suggested.
Tabitha Coombs thinks she is, thats why she confided in her. But Kate says she and her husband were friends with Tabithas fiancé, Jeremy, for years before they got engaged and though they didnt much like her they just had to put up with her.
Generous of them, I commented drily.
She said Tabitha was probably cheating on her fiancé with the owner of Champers&Chocs, as well as being involved in the scam, so maybe shes got some kind of axe to grind. But I dont really care whats driving her, so long as shes willing to introduce us. Then the rest is up to me.
Before Kate had contacted him, Charlie had already had a tip-off from a disgruntled Champers&Chocs customer about cheap fizzy wine being sold for vintage champagne, so she had given him an easy way into his investigation.
Never look a gift-snitch in the mouth, I said.
The two women parted company and Kate slowly drifted across in our direction in a casual sort of way, talking to one or two people en route.
When she reached us, Charlie introduced us.
This is my friend Randal Hesketh his family home is nearby, so I invited him along just for the ride. Randal, this is Kate.
Pleased to meet you, Kate said, all flirty smiles and big, pale blue eyes with fluttering eyelashes. I supposed she was pretty enough, but since she wasnt in the least my type her flirting didnt have any effect on me. This seemed to disconcert her.
Are you ready to introduce us to your friend? Charlie asked.
She made a moue that looked so cutesy shed probably practised it in the mirror a million times. As Ive already said, shes not a friend, it was just that Luke and I had to tolerate her after she and Jeremy got engaged. But I always felt there was something wrong about her and my instincts are usually right.
Then lets get on and find out the truth, he said. Do you remember your story, about how we got talking and you found out I was a journalist for Lively Lancashire magazine, though Id walked into the gallery by chance?
Kate nodded. So I told you a bit about the artist and her day job as a packer in a warehouse, and then offered to introduce you. Got it, she said.
She gave me another of those flirty glances. Are you coming, too, Randal?
No, Ill stay here; its none of my business, I said, feeling a distaste for the whole Judas situation. I may be in a similar line of work, going undercover to get film footage for the independent TV programme I work for, Hellish Holidays, but its more impersonal.
See you later, I added to Charlie.
I took a glass of water from a passing tray, since fizz wasnt my thing, whatever it was labelled as, and surveyed the gallery. It was still crowded and buzzing, so the exhibition seemed to be a success. I noticed red Sold stickers had been affixed to several picture frames too and, on impulse, bought one myself that had taken my fancy as we entered. It was of a helmeted woman in a chariot-like wheelchair, entombed in a Sleeping Beauty tangle of flowering briars. A figure was hacking his way in, but he looked more like the Grim Reaper than a handsome prince.
Id just paid and arranged to have it delivered to my family home in the nearby hamlet of Godsend after the exhibition had ended, when Charlie came back looking pleased with himself.
Got what you wanted?
He nodded. Shes agreed to ask her boss if I can have a tour of Champers&Chocs and do a short interview, so I can include it in an article on local entrepreneurs. He wont be able to resist the publicity, but I could see she wasnt keen on the idea. Then the fiancé that bloke shes talking to now showed up and monopolised the conversation, so I left it at that. Bit of a know-it-all tosser, Id say, too fond of his own voice.
The man was thin and not much taller than Tabitha, with an arty lock of marmalade-coloured hair falling over his eyes in a very doomed-poet kind of way. He seemed to be lecturing her about something.
If thats the fiancé, then your Kate was all over him like treacle when he arrived a few minutes ago, I said. I assumed he was her husband. So, maybe hes the axe shes grinding?
Charlie grinned. You could be right. She told me her husband couldnt make it tonight, but that didnt stop her flirting with you earlier, too, I noticed.
Do you think shes telling the truth about Tabithas involvement?
No idea. The scams certainly going on, because weve had champagne samples analysed, but Ive taken what she said with a pinch of salt, he said. Innocent until proven guilty. Tabby everyone calls her that, apparently was certainly uneasy as soon as Champers&Chocs was mentioned and suspiciously unenthusiastic about the company being featured in a magazine.
Thats all right: its not going to be, I said drily. Though of course she may be even less keen on it appearing all over a TV programme exposing whats been going on.
I looked over my shoulder at Tabitha Coombs as we left. The crowd had begun to thin a little and she was staring after Charlie with those startlingly light grey eyes under brows drawn together into a formidable Frida Kahlo frown. Then the fiancé said something and put a proprietorial arm around her and she looked up at him with such a loving smile that her face was quite transformed.