wants to contest her father’s will.”
Hal glanced about the well-appointed office.
“Expensive,” he said.
“You and your brother are doing well.” He fastened speculative eyes on Hayes.
“Your father thinks you’re on the bread line Hayes gave a slight frown but didn’t say anything.
“So how much does Crew pay for the baseball-bat treatment?
It’s risky so it won’t come cheap.”
The pale eyes showed faint amusement.
“You’ve lost me, I’m afraid.”
“Your brother was very easy to identify, Hayes. Photographs of him litter your father’s sideboard. But then Crew obviously never warned you about the loose cannon on board. Or perhaps you should have warned him. Does he know your father lived next door to Olive Martin?” He saw the other’s incomprehension and nodded to Roz.
“This lady is writing a book about her. Crew was Olive’s solicitor, I was her arresting officer, and your father was her neighbour. Miss Leigh has visited us all and she recognised your brother from his snapshot.
It is a much smaller world than you ever imagined.”
There was a tiny shift in the pale eyes, a flicker of annoyance.
“Mistaken identity. You’ll never prove anything. It’s your word against his and he was in Sheffield all last week.”
Hal shrugged well-feigned indifference.
“The window is closing. I came with a genuine offer.” He placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward aggressively.
“I think it runs something like this. Crew has been using Robert Martin’s money to buy up bankrupt businesses cheap while he waits for the market to recover, but time’s running out on him. Amber’s child is not as dead and buried as he thought, and Olive is about to become a cause when Miss Leigh proves her innocent. Either she or her nephew, whoever gets in first, will demand a reckoning of Robert Martin’s executor, namely Crew. But the recession has dragged on rather longer than he thought it would and he’s in danger of being caught with his hands in the till. He needs to shift some property to make up the shortfall in his books.” He raised an eyebrow.
“What plans are there for the corner of Wenceslas Street, I wonder? A supermarket? Flats? Offices? He needs the Poacher to clinch the deal. I’m offering it to him.
Today.”
Hayes wasn’t so easily intimidated.
“The way I hear it, Hawksley, your restaurant is about to close anyway.
When it does, it will become a liability to you. At which point it will not be you who dictates terms, but whoever is willing to take it off your hands.”
Hal grinned and backed off.
“I’d say that rather depends on who goes down the chute first. Crew faces total extinction if his misappropriation of the Martin money comes to light before my bank decides to foreclose on the Poacher.
Crew’s taking a hell of a risk if he’s backing me to lose.” He nodded to the telephone.
“He can save himself by clinching a deal on the Poacher today.
Talk to him.”
Hayes pondered for a moment, then transferred his gaze to Roz.
“I presume you have a tape-recorder in your handbag, Miss Leigh. Would you oblige me by letting me have a look?”
Roz glanced up at Hal, and he nodded. She placed the bag with a bad grace on the desk in front of her.
“Thank you,” said Hayes politely. He opened it and removed the tape-recorder, making a cursory examination of the remaining contents of the handbag before snapping the recorder open and removing the cassette. He pulled the tape from between the rollers and cut it into pieces with a pair of scissors, then he stood up.
“You first, Hawksley. Let’s just make sure there are no other little surprises.” He ran expert hands over Hal, then did the same with Roz.
“Good.” He gestured towards the door.
“Tell your minder to move his chair back to Reception and wait there.”
He resumed his seat and waited while Hal relayed the message. After three minutes he used the telephone to establish that Wyatt was out of earshot.
“Now,” he said thoughtfully, ‘there seem to be various courses open to me. One is to take you up on your offer.” He picked up a ruler and flexed it between his hands.
“I’m not inclined to do that. You could have put the Poacher on the market at any time in the last six weeks but you didn’t, and this sudden urge of yours to sell makes me nervous.” He paused for a moment.
“Two, I can leave things to follow their natural course. The law is a joke and a slow joke at that, and there’s only a fifty-fifty chance that Peter Crew’s manipulations of Robert Martin’s estate will surface before you sink.” He bent the ruler as far as it would go without breaking, then released it abruptly.
“I’m not inclined to do that either. Fifty-fifty is too close to call.” The pale eyes hardened.
