Faith - Lesley Pearse [229]
‘Why should I be, Robbie? You are part of a past I’d rather forget.’
Only the previous evening Laura had told her sisters that she felt her recovery was mainly due to there being no reminders of her past here. Now Robbie turning up was like opening the old wound. Suddenly she was anxious and tense again, just the way she had been for much of the time when she was working for him.
He looked so old and seedy, like a stereotype of a dirty old man. He might never have been exactly handsome, but he’d had a fine physique and the kind of bearing that got him noticed. His hair was a dirty grey now and very thin, and he had a large and wobbly stomach. The trench coat he was wearing and the dark suit beneath it might be good quality, but the cheapness of his soul showed on his lined and sunken face. It made her squirm to think of all those afternoons she’d spent with him in hotel rooms.
‘I think I deserve a little gratitude for stifling some of that past for you,’ he said, fixing her with his dark eyes.
‘With the amount of mud that was slung at me, a little more wouldn’t have made any difference.’ She shrugged.
‘Oh, I think it would have,’ he said. ‘And now more than ever! How would you start out again if everyone knows what you were?’
Her stomach churned as she realized his sole purpose in coming here was to blackmail her.
‘It won’t work, Robbie,’ she said firmly. ‘For one thing, I’ve got no money, and for another, everyone whose opinion counts with me already knows the whole truth.’
He grinned wolfishly. ‘But a few well-chosen photographs landing on the desk of a tabloid editor’s desk on the day of your appeal would kind of hinder your future,’ he said. ‘And you’ve got money coming to you.’
‘Piss off, Robbie,’ she said angrily. ‘Clear off now or I’ll call the police.’
‘And tell them what?’ he said scornfully. ‘That an old lover has turned up? That happens a lot in your life, doesn’t it? Where is golden boy now? Still nursing his wounds from sticking his nose in other people’s business?’
‘I think the police would be very pleased to be called to eject you from this house,’ she said tartly. ‘And I think they’d be keen to question you about your relationship with Mr Calder.’
‘One of your biggest problems was that you always thought you were smarter than you really were,’ he said scornfully. ‘It seems you still have that problem. I can click my fingers and Stuart Macgregor will be dead. So don’t mess with me, hen. Or you’ll regret it.’
A cold shudder ran down her spine. Katy had claimed that Robbie had killed people who got in his way. Laura had always laughed at that, sure Robbie had spread the story to keep people in fear of him. But perhaps it wasn’t just a myth.
‘Whatever proposition you’ve got in mind, you’d better put it to me and then go,’ she said.
‘I want ten thousand pounds,’ he said.
Laura gave a humourless laugh. ‘You are joking of course?’
‘I never joke about money and you’re bright enough to know I’m more than capable of sending photographs of you to every newspaper in the country.’
‘I’ve seen some of ’em, and they’d shake yer mum and the rest of yer family,’ Andy piped up.
Laura gave him a withering glance. He sounded like he looked, a thug with no more than two brain cells. But his accent was a London one, and she had a feeling Robbie had picked him up here, not brought him down from Scotland.
‘I suppose you cooked up some deal with Charles and Belle?’ It was a stab in the dark as she knew there was no proof Robbie had ever met the Howells. ‘I bet you were savage when they were arrested before you could make them pay up.’
He just stared at her, the fact that he made no comment suggesting she was right.
‘How did you find out Belle killed Jackie?’ she went on. ‘Did Charles shoot his mouth off?’
Something flittered across his face, perhaps recognition that he’d underestimated her intelligence.
Laura sensed she was getting very close to the truth. ‘He always was a loud-mouthed prat! But how lucky for you that you had Calder in your pocket. So what was the