Page 21 of He's the One

“Yes.”

“Then ask one of the stonemasons where he’s gone.”

“I don’t want them to think he’s in trouble…”

“Just ask, Theo!”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Night.”

“Night.”

He turned off the alarm to the private quarters, and headed for the kitchen. Sarah wouldn’t mind him helping himself to something from the fridge. Sometimes he suspected she left things for him.

Theo made himself a cheese sandwich and sat at the large oak table to eat it. He missed the cook’s meals, but his mother had made it plain that if Theo wanted to live outside the house, then he made his own arrangements as far as food and laundry were concerned. To be fair, it had been his grandmother who’d said all that to his mother in front of Theo. His mother had agreed with her. Theo would rather eat beans on toast every day than suffer her and his mother’s company for longer than he had to.

It was highly likely his parents hadn’t expected him to stay for long in the rundown accommodation across the courtyard. If Theo didn’t get the bathroom fixed, they’d be proved right. Maybe he ought to have a shower while he was in the main house. The idea of luxuriating in a deep bath appealed. He could sleep here too, just for the night. He had a set of keys to all the locked rooms, including Dastardly’s office, though no one knew that. After Piers disappeared, Theo found his brother’s keys in the secret place that Piers had shown him, a hidden corridor running between their bedrooms. He’d wondered if Piers had put them there before he disappeared, knowing Theo would find them.

Theo had every right to go into the office. He had a fucking desk in there, but Dastardly had made it quite clear that it washisoffice and Theo was only there at his invitation. The less time he spent with the guy, the better, but it grated. Dastardly was completely courteous when they were in front of Theo’s father and always addressed Theo by his title, though he never did that if they were alone. Theo didn’t want to be called Lord Theo at all, especially by someone who was only doing it to be annoying. But he hadn’t spoken out when he should have done. He chewed his lip. Why was he always blaming himself for everything?

Even so, when Theo found himself standing outside the office door, he hesitated. This would be stepping over a line.

Oh, fuck it.He stepped over it.

Once inside, he locked the door. He’d spent hours in here with Dickhead Dastardly explaining all sorts of things about how to run the house, the grounds and the land. He was never patient when Theo said he was going too quickly. All that comment earned him was a heavy sigh. Sometimes, Theo thought Dastardly was making the spreadsheets unnecessarily complicated as if he thought Theo would give up trying to get it. He’d heard the bastard telling his mother that he struggled to understand the simplest concept. Not true. Theo wasn’t stupid, but he liked to take his time to make sure he understood what he was being told.

The filing cabinet wasn’t locked and he took out each of the dividers in turn and went through them. Most things were done on the computer, but his father still liked paper copies to be kept. Theo found the accident book and checked to see if the stone incident had been reported, but it hadn’t. Maybe because no one had been injured. His scratch had already healed.

When he found a folder headedWinter Ball,Theo bristled. It held all the information he’d gathered and a quote from a catering companyPicture Perfect. That was quick. Why hadn’t Dastardly talked to him about it? Well, he knew why. Guess who wanted to take the credit?

Theo also took out a folder about the restoration work on the East Wing. In it were quotes from three companies. His father had chosen the cheapest. What a surprise. There was also a written request dated two months ago from Frank Nyman for extra funds due to some unforeseen issue with the roof, explained in a swathe of architect-speak that Theo couldn’t follow, along with a need for more masons. The amount of money requested made the firm slightly more expensive than the highest quote. His father had signed off on the request. Ninety thousand pounds was a lot of money.

It made him think about Dastardly taking the envelope from Nyman. Why would Nyman be giving anything to him? A bribe? Had they connived to cheat his father?Am I trying to see something that isn’t there?

The bottom drawer of the desk was locked and the computer sat there, mocking him. He had no idea of Dastardly’s password, but in any case, opening files might show someone had been using it. Hedidknow the combination for the safe. Theo noted the position of the dials, then tried to open it. When the safe remained locked, he moved the dials back to their original positions. He understood the need to keep the safe secure, but shouldn’t he have been told the new combination? What if something happened to Dastardly? Like an escaped tiger eating him?I can only dream.

Theo stood by the desk and looked around the room.Am I missing something?Muttley’s desk had no drawers so there was nothing to find there. He was about to leave the room when he spotted the pen on Dastardly’s desk. For a moment, he thought it was Piers’ Montblanc, but it wasn’t. Dastardly was well paid, but well paid enough to have a Montblanc special edition fountain pen and leave it lying around? But then what did Theo know? Maybe it had been a gift. Theo chewed the inside of his cheek. His grandmother had bought Piers his Montblanc, but refused to buy one for Theo because she said Theo would lose it.

From the office, Theo went up to his brother’s bedroom. It hadn’t changed much in twenty years, let alone the ten that Piers had been missing. Model aeroplanes still hung from the ceiling, the bookshelves were full and there were clothes in the wardrobe, though the bed was stripped. Theo lay down and looked up at the planes. A Spitfire, Hurricane and a Lancaster bomber. He remembered Piers making them from kits, how Theo had squeezed the tube of glue too hard and it had gone everywhere. He’d ended up with a piece of the plane stuck to his fingers. A lump formed in his throat. Piers had been cross but he’d still let him paint part of the Spitfire’s wing and Theo’s hand had shaken because he didn’t want to let his brother down.

His parents never talked about Piers anymore. Maybe it hurt too much. Theo hoped he was living happily in deepest, darkest Peru.Oh yeah. That’s Paddington Bear.He gave a sad chuckle. He wished he knew why his brother had disappeared but had long since accepted he probably never would. The likelihood was that Piers was dead, either killed for his possessions or he’d got lost and died in the rainforest or drowned in the Amazon. At least he’d had the adventure he’d talked about to Theo.

If Theo wanted an adventure of his own, he needed to pluck up his courage and do something about it.

Col hadn’t had a call to tell him that Dominic had been transferred to Marsden high security psychiatric hospital so he set off for Oakhurst prison. He dreaded the journey because it gave him time to think, and that wasn’t a good thing. Every time he went to see Dominic, no matter how hard he tried to keep his mind occupied with something else, he found himself rerunning the events of fifteen years ago. Col had been ten and his brother fifteen. July the fourteenth. Col’s birthday. The day Dominic had killed their parents.

Not just killed. Tortured. Not just tortured. Mutilated.

Col still found it hard to accept how blind he’d been to what had been going on in the house. Yes, he was a child but he should have known. Well, he’dknown something was wrong, but nothowwrong. He and his brother had been mistreated, abused both emotionally and physically, but Dominic had borne the worst of it.

They’d shared a bedroom until Col was seven. He’d wanted to keep sharing but his parents had moved him to the room in the attic. He’d thought Dominic would take his side, but his brother said he wanted his room to himself. That didn’t stop Col sneaking down to sleep in the same room as his brother, and Dominic hadn’t minded. Except after his parents found him there, Col had been dragged back upstairs.

The next day, a lock had been put on the outside of Col’s door and that was that. Sometimes he’d heard Dominic crying in the night, and Col thought it was because he’d been hit. Dominic never told him the truth.

Then on Col’s tenth birthday, he’d come home from school to find his mum and dad in the kitchen, a cake on the table. Not home baked, bought from Tesco, but even so. Though it was a football cake and Col hated football. Neither he nor Dominic ever got birthday cakes so Col was suspicious. There’d been something in the way his dad had looked at him and spoken to him that made him anxious. Too kind, too smiley, and then Col had felt his father touch his backside and Col had shoved him away.

His dad had laughed. Col remembered that. His mum had made some comment about Col not knowing how to hug and that she’d teach him or maybe his dad would. Col shuddered at the memory, how they’d thought it was funny. Both of them were sick, twisted, evil people. His mum had pulled him onto her lap and he’d yanked free of her hold, run out of the door and gone to Dominic’s school to wait for his brother.

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