Page 79 of The Price of Love
Thunder rumbled. The humidity made my head ache and I rested my forehead against the cool wall of the hallway, slumping against it with my eyes closed. I stayed like this for a few minutes. I felt flat and dopey with the combination of muggy air and the logistics for tomorrow, so the quiet was welcome. Outside I heard the birds stop thrashing about in the hedge, an unnatural peace descending as everything hurried for shelter from the oncoming storm.
Thunder rolled again and I straightened away from the wall. As I turned to go through the kitchen to the back door, I heard a rattle behind me and swivelled in time to see an envelope flutter to the floor, landing with a tiny pfff alongside the mat and sliding a few inches on the wood boards.
I recognised the envelope without needing to pick it up. Another of those anonymous letters, probably still saying ‘you can’t have everything you want’, although in a sudden rush of creativity the unknown sender had managed ‘I feel sorry for you’ (very big of them) and a couple of ‘I hope you learn your lesson’. Not exactly Shakespearian, but disturbing nonetheless.
This one, flopping to the floor like a dying goldfish, as my head pounded and the thunder bundled about, was the last straw. Angry, slightly scared and incredibly frustrated, I swept to the door and flung it open, leaping outside and intercepting the sender just before the garden gate.
‘Ow! You’re hurting me.’
‘Serves you right, Nadine. What the hell are you playing at?’
Sulkily Nadine rubbed her arm where I’d grabbed hold of her. ‘I’m not.’
Sorry, do I sound unsurprised? I’d kind of, sort of,almostfigured it out when I’d seen her desk, an imagination-free zone filled with cutesy toys and knick-knacks, all hailing fromthe fuchsia end of the spectrum. Who else would write such curiously childish notes? And then, as though my disbelieving stare finally shook something loose in her head, she burst out, ‘He’s lying to you, hedoesn’tlove you and he’s notreallygoing to marry you and he only went out with you so that you’d give him money. He lovesmeand we’re going to have a baby and get married and—’
‘Well,duh, dear.’
Nadine stopped, mid-tirade. ‘What? Youknew?’ Her legs seemed to give way and her weight slumped against me. ‘But if you knew, then why are you going away with him this weekend?’ Her head began shaking from side to side. ‘He won’t sleep with you, you know. He’s told me about you trying to seduce him, wearing stupid underwear and prancing about half-naked to try and turn him on, but he won’t do it because he lovesme.’
I rolled my eyes and waited.
‘And as soon as he’s taken you for every penny, we’re going to go to Canada and get married and have our baby and he’s going to buy a design company so that I can work with him and he’ll do the designs and I’ll be his model and . . .’
NowIwas the one shaking my head. ‘Nadine. Listen to me. Luke Fry is a liar and a fraud. I know you won’t believe me because you love him, but come with me and I’ll introduce you to someone who can prove it. If wecan’tconvince you, then I promise I’ll forget all about the letters and you can go back to him and start your new life in Canada, okay?’
‘You’re hurting me again.’
‘It’s not far.’
Dragging Nadine, who moaned and protested all the way, I headed for Cal’s flat. When we arrived, I dumped her on his sofa and asked him to show her all the evidence we’d acquired against Luke Fry, and whilst I told her the story of how he’d used her, Cal dropped printed sheets in her lap. Everythingwe’d taken off his computer, all the letters he’d written to her, the emails, the files he’d held on me and the other women, the archived internet chats, everything.
At first Nadine wouldn’t even look at the papers. She kept looking from me to Cal as though hoping that this was just a simple abduction. It was when I began to describe how Luke had pretended to buy the flat, and how we’d had sex there, that she flinched.
‘He told you that he refused to sleep with me, didn’t he? That I begged, but he managed to keep me at bay with promises? And you were scared that he might give in, that maybe this weekend would be the one? Nadine, this weekend, after I’d given him the money, of course, he was going to skip out on both of us.’
‘No. We’re going to Canada!’ It was the first real reaction she’d shown.
‘Look.’ I showed her the conversation with Argento in Bristol. ‘Here. Where he says he’ll be coming to the South West on “business”. That’s next week. What’s the betting that this “phone call” he’s talking about making to her was where he set up a meeting? He’s going to meet her, Nadine — next week — with a quarter of a million pounds of my money in his pocket. He’ll make quite an impression as a successful personal trainer with that much ready cash to flash.’
‘I . . . don’t . . .’ Protectively Nadine clutched at her bump. Then with a small sigh she fainted and slid to the floor in a strangely serene tangle of limbs.
Cal looked at me. ‘What do we do?’
‘Leave her there for now. She’ll be all right. But wehaveto get her on our side, Cal. If she goes to Luke and tells him that I know all about him, he’ll drop from the radar so fast that even your boys won’t be able to track him.’
‘And we’re certain that she’s not part of it? That he reallyisn’tgoing to whisk her off to Canada for a good old colonial lifestyle in the Rockies?’
‘What doyouthink? He’s gone through any money Nadine had, and you’ve seen what he said to this Argento woman. Did that sound like a man who was planning to emigrate any time soon?’
‘She’s pregnant.’
‘Yep, poor and pregnant. He’s a wanker. Old news.’
‘I just meant, he issucha bastard. What a thing to do, get her pregnantknowinghe’s going to run out on her.’
I flashed him a quick smile. ‘Can I leave her with you for a bit? I’ve got to go and make some phone calls about tomorrow, and she might take the story better from you than me. She thinks I’ve got an axe to grind.’
‘I’ll do my best. But what if shewon’tco-operate?’
