Kick Back by Val McDermid Read Free Book Online Page A

plots they’re marking out are different altogether from the plots we’ve been sold. So she goes over to them and gets into conversation. You know Chris, she’s not like me. I’d have been out there gripping them by the throat demanding to know what the hell they thought they were up to.” Alexis paused for breath, but not long enough for me to respond.
    â€œBut not Chris. She lets them tell her all about the land and how they’re marking out the plots for the people who have bought them. Half a dozen have been bought by a local small builder, the rest by individuals, they tell her. Well, Chris is more than a little bewildered, on account of what they are telling her is completely at odds with the situation as we know it. So she tells them who she is and what she’s doing there and asks them if they’ve got any proof of what they’re saying, which of course they don’t have, but they tell her the name of the solicitor who’s acting for the purchasers.”
    This time, I managed to get in, “I’m with you so far,” before the tide of Alexis’s narrative swept back in. Richard was looking at me very curiously. He’s not accustomed to hearing me take such a minor role in a telephone conversation.
    â€œSo Chris drives down to this solicitor’s in Ramsbottom. She manages to convince their conveyancing partner that this is urgent, so he gives her five minutes. When she explains the situation, he says the land was sold by a builder and that the sales were all completed two days ago.” Alexis stopped short, as if what she’d said should make everything clear.
    â€œI’m sorry, Alexis, I suspect I’m being really stupid here, but what exactly do you mean?”
    â€œI mean the land’s already been sold!” she howled. “We handed over five grand for a piece of land that had already been sold. I just don’t understand how it could have happened! And I don’t even know where to start trying to find out.” The anguish in her voice was heartbreaking. I knew how much she and Chris wanted this
project to work, for all sorts of reasons. Now, it looked as if the money they’d saved to get their feet on the first rung of the ladder had been thrown away.
    â€œOK, OK, I’ll look into it,” I soothed. “But I’m going to need some more info from you. What was the name of the solicitor in Ramsbottom that Chris saw?”
    â€œJust a minute, I’ll pass you over to Chris. She’s got all the details. Thanks, Kate. I knew I could count on you.”
    There was a brief pause, then a very subdued Chris came on the line. Her voice sounded like she’d been crying. “Kate? Oh God, I can’t believe this is happening to us. I just don’t understand it, any of it.” Then she proceeded to repeat everything Alexis had already told me.
    I listened patiently, then said, “What was the name of the solicitor’s you went to see in Ramsbottom?”
    â€œChapman and Gardner. I spoke to the conveyancing partner, Tim Pascoe. I asked him the name of the person who had sold the land, but he wouldn’t tell me. So I said, was it T. R. Harris, and he gave me one of those lawyer’s looks and said he couldn’t comment, only he said it in that kind of way that means yes, you’re right.”
    I looked at the names I’d scribbled on my pad. “So who exactly is T. R. Harris?”
    â€œT. R. Harris is the builder who was supposedly selling the land to us.” There was a note of exasperation in her voice, which I couldn’t help feeling was a bit unfair. After all, I’m not a fully paid up member of the Psychic Society.
    â€œAnd your solicitor is?”
    â€œMartin Cheetham.” She rattled off the address and phone number.
    â€œHe your usual solicitor?” I asked.
    â€œNo. He specializes in conveyancing. One of the hacks on the Chronicle was interviewing him