Deadly Business by Quintin Jardine Read Free Book Online Page A

stash away a copy and try to use it in the future, or should you even stick your head above the parapet, I can still make the complaint and Alex will still have that recording. That would be if you were lucky. The alternative would be that I would send Conrad Kent after you, with a free hand to do whatever he deems necessary. That’s where your thinking was flawed, Duncan. You should have realised that when you threaten my wellbeing, you threaten my son. If anybody does that, there are no limits to what I would do to protect him. You got that much right about Phyllis, and me.’
    We were out of there in fifteen minutes, and he was out of town within an hour, taking with him a laptop with a completely blank hard disk.

Three

    ‘Duncan?’ I repeated. ‘What makes you think she’s gone anywhere with Duncan? She doesn’t see him any more, Jonathan.’
    ‘He went away on business, Mummy said. But I think he’s come back.’
    ‘What makes you think that, son?’
    ‘I saw him in Monaco, before Mummy went away; one day Conrad was driving Janet and me back from school and I saw him sitting in Casino Square. Janet didn’t see him, though, and I haven’t said anything to Conrad. She’d be upset if he came back.’
    ‘Are you sure it was him? When you’re travelling in a car and you only get a glimpse of somebody, it’s easy to make a mistake.’
    His mouth set in a hard line. ‘It was him,’ he muttered. ‘Why don’t you believe me, Auntie Primavera?’ There were tears in his eyes.
    I ruffled his hair, and took his hand. ‘I do believe you, wee man,’ I said, gently. ‘If you’re certain, that’s good enough for me. Was he with anyone?’
    ‘No, but there had been somebody else at his table, because there were two glasses on it.’
    ‘Maybe they were both his?’
    ‘No. One was a beer and the other was a long pink drink, with straws and things in it. And there was a bag on the table, a lady’s bag not a man’s bag, and it was red, like one that Mummy’s got. And when we got home, she wasn’t there, and she’d said she would be. Auntie Primavera, I don’t like Duncan. He’s not a nice man. When Mummy and Conrad aren’t there he’s rude to us, and shouty. And he hit Tom once.’
    ‘He did what!’ I exclaimed. If I’d known that when he was in Alex’s custody …
    ‘When?’
    ‘One day last summer when Tom was with us. He and Janet were playing scrabble, in Catalan … Tom was teaching her … and Duncan told Janet to get him a beer. He didn’t say please or anything; he’d had lots of beers before that. Tom said that he was nearer the fridge so couldn’t he get his own, and Duncan pulled him to his feet, and said that just for that he could get it. And he swore, he used that rude word that Conrad got angry at me for using. Tom said no and Duncan hit him, on the side of the head, quite hard.’
    ‘Did anybody see this?’ I murmured.
    ‘Only Janet and me. Janet shouted at Duncan, but he told her to shut up or she’d get the same.’
    ‘Didn’t either of you tell your mother, or Conrad?’ I asked him.
    ‘No, because Tom said we shouldn’t.’
    ‘He did?’
Poor kid
, I thought,
he must have felt shamed
. He’d never been hit in his life before. Oh, what I would do to Duncan Culshaw if our paths ever crossed again.
    ‘Yes, because …’ He looked up at me and a small precious smile lit up his face. ‘After he’d hit him, Duncan asked Tom if he’d get him his beer now. Tom said, “No chance,” and Duncan tried to hit him again, but Tom made him miss and kicked him in the stomach.’
    ‘In the stomach,’ I repeated.
    Jonathan pointed to his groin. ‘Yes, there; he kicked him like Jean Claude van Damme does. Duncan fell down, making funny noises. It was a long time before he could get up again. I was scared. I thought that when he got up he would really hurt Tom. I was going to go for Conrad, but Tom wouldn’t let me. He said he had used wing chun, and his teacher had told him