Faith - Lesley Pearse [126]
‘I don’t know,’ Laura said. ‘The last time I saw him he was driving through Morningside, but that was over three years ago. It panicked me a bit, I got the idea he could be keeping tabs on me. I asked around about him and I was told he owned a pub somewhere around the Grassmarket. But as I say, that was three years ago, he might not be there now.’
Stuart had said nothing during her interchange with David, but suddenly he leaned towards Laura across the table. ‘You’d better tell us about you and him.’
Laura licked her lips nervously. ‘Must I?’
Stuart nodded. ‘We can’t investigate him without knowing what went on between you.’
‘There isn’t time before the bell goes, and anyway –’ She stopped, reluctant to admit that she was too ashamed to talk about it to them.
‘Could you write it down?’ David asked, perhaps understanding her reluctance. ‘You probably need time on your own to get it all straight anyway.’
Laura shot him a grateful glance. ‘Yes, that might be better,’ she said. ‘I blanked out so much of the past when Barney was killed.’
Stuart had a distant look in his eyes. She wondered whether that was because he was thinking back to the events in the Caledonian Hotel.
But she decided she was wrong when he suddenly suggested David should book into Belle’s guest house for a couple of nights. ‘I think you could gain her confidence, get her to talk about Charles and have a snoop round.’
‘Will I be safe with her?’ David grinned. ‘You said she was something of a maneater!’
‘Belle!’ Laura exclaimed. ‘Of course she isn’t!’ Stuart chuckled. ‘Sometimes those closest to people can’t see them clearly,’ he said. ‘But you’ll be all right, David, just bang on about Julia and the kids, that should put her off.’
David told Laura that his wife and children were flying up to Scotland for a holiday in Oban in a fortnight’s time when school broke up for the summer, but until then he was at Stuart’s disposal.
‘I’ve rented a flat,’ Stuart said. ‘That’s near the Grassmarket too, so we might run into Fielding.’
‘We’ve got a lot of ground to cover to find something to base your appeal on, Laura,’ David said quickly, glancing at Stuart as if afraid he was about to take the law into his own hands. ‘But I’m hopeful. Just from what I know already it seems clear to me that the police didn’t investigate very thoroughly, and your solicitor didn’t build up much of a defence.’
Stuart took out a card and pen and wrote down his address for her. ‘Write to me here about Casino Man,’ he said. ‘We are going to try and get permission for another visit in two weeks’ time. It shouldn’t be a problem, they make special arrangements for people who have to come a long way to get here. In the meantime keep your chin up, I’ll ring Meggie tonight and tell her I’ve seen you. Is there any message that you’d like me to pass on?’
‘Just that I think about her and Ivy all the time,’ she said. ‘And that her letter made me very happy.’
After Stuart and David had left, Laura went back to her block. She smiled as some of the other women made saucy remarks about her two male visitors, but she didn’t stop to talk to anyone.
Back in her cell, she lay down on the bed. She knew she must trawl through the years between Stuart leaving and Barney’s death, but she was reluctant to for she knew how painful it was going to be.
She had never had much time for people who used the excuse ‘I had no choice’ for doing something they knew to be wrong. In her experience there was always an alternative; it was just that mostly the honourable, honest or legal route was harder or less lucrative.
That was exactly how it was for her, and the only excuse she could offer up for that first step on a road she knew to be the wrong one was that she already felt so bad about herself, it didn’t seem to matter.
Everything came crashing down around her after Stuart left. She was devastated, unable to believe that through her own stupidity she’d lost the man she loved. Barney kept crying for him and asking when he was coming home, and every day she felt as if she was sinking further