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
