Believing the Lie - Elizabeth George [92]
Manette said, “Tim attacked me. No, no, I didn’t get hurt. I’m sore but that’s not the point. He must be dealt with— the whole bloody situation must be dealt with— and since Kaveh’s not going to be staying on that farm forever, it’s in everyone’s best interests to deal with it now before the farm is sold. Once Kaveh has to move house, what happens to the children? Are they going with him? And where? This can’t go on. They can’t keep being uprooted.”
“He left it to me,” Kaveh said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Manette swung back to him. “What?”
“The farm, Manette. Ian left it to me.”
“To you? Why?”
Kaveh said with a dignity Manette had to admire, “Because he loved me. Because we were partners and that’s what partners usually do: make arrangements to take care of each other in the event of death.”
Silence ensued. Into it, the sound of jackdaws burst into the air. From somewhere the smell of burning leaves came at them in a rush as if there were flames nearby, which there were not.
“Men usually take care of their children as well,” Manette said. “That farm should be Tim’s, not yours. It should be Gracie’s. It should be theirs to sell, to provide for their future.”
Kaveh looked away. He worked his jaw as if this would allow him to master an emotion. “I think you’ll find there was an insurance policy for that.”
“How convenient. Whose idea was all this: the farm left to you and insurance for them? How much insurance, by the way? And exactly who does the money go to? Because if it goes to Niamh in trust for the children— ”
“Manette,” her father cut in. “That’s not on just now.” And to Kaveh, “Will you be keeping the farm or selling it, Kaveh?”
“Keeping it. As for Tim and Gracie, they’re welcome to stay with me till Niamh’s ready to have them back. And if she’s never ready, Ian would have wanted— ”
“No, no, no!” Manette didn’t particularly care to hear the rest. The point was that the children belonged with family, and Kaveh— partner to Ian or not— was not family. She said hotly, “Dad, you must… Ian can’t have wanted… Does Niamh know all this?”
“What part?” Kaveh asked. “And do you think she actually cares one way or the other?”
“Does she know you’ve inherited? And when did Ian do this?”
Kaveh hesitated, as if evaluating the potential responses that he could make. Manette had to say his name twice to get him to respond at all. “I don’t know,” he told her.
A look passed between Bernard and Tommy Lynley. Manette saw this and knew that they were thinking what she herself was thinking. Kaveh was lying about something. The only question was which of her enquiries he was answering with “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what, exactly?” she asked him.
“I don’t know a thing about Niamh, one way or the other. She has the insurance money, and there’s quite a pile. Ian meant it to help her care for Tim and Gracie, of course, but that’s because he believed that if anything happened to him, Niamh would come to her senses about them.”
“Well, she hasn’t. And it’s not looking likely she’s going to.”
“If they must, then, they’ll stay with me. They’re established at the farm, and they’re happy enough.”
Ludicrous thought, that Tim Cresswell was happy. He hadn’t been happy in ages. Manette said, “And what exactly is supposed to happen when you meet someone new in a month or two, Kaveh? When you move him to the farm and take up life with him? What then? What are the children supposed to do? What are they supposed to think?”
“Manette,” Bernard murmured cautiously.
Kaveh had gone quite pale with her words, but he said nothing, although his jaw worked furiously and at his side, his right hand clenched into a fist.
Manette said, “Niamh will fight you in court for that farm. She’ll contest the will. For the children.”
“Manette, enough,” her father said on a sigh. “There’s been plenty of grief to go round and everyone needs to recover, yourself included.”
“Why are you playing the peacemaker in this?” Manette demanded of her father. “He’s nothing to us,” she said