“Three, and in many ways this is the most attractive, I can wish an unfortunate accident on the pair of you, thereby killing two birds with one stone.” He flicked a glance at Roz.
“Your death, Miss Leigh, would put Olive and this book you’re writing, temporarily at least, on a back burner, and yours, Hawksley, would ensure the Poacher coming on the market. A neat solution, don’t you think?”
“Very neat,” agreed Hal.
“But you’re not going to do that either. There’s still the child in Australia, after all.”
Hayes gave a faint laugh. An echo of his father.
“So what are you going to do?”
“Give you what you came for.”
Hal frowned.
“Which is?”
“Proof that you were framed.” He pulled open a drawer in his desk and removed a transparent polythene folder. Holding it by its top corners he shook the contents a page of headed notepaper, showing creases where it had once been crumpled on to his desk. The printed address was a house in one of the more expensive parts of Southampton and written across the page in Crew’s handwriting were a series of short notes: Re: Poacher Cost s Pre-culture bad meat, rat excrement etc 1,000 Key b/door + guaranteed exit France 1,000 Advance for set-up 5,000 If E H prosecution successful 5,000 Poacher foreclosure 80,000?
SUB-TOTAL 92,000
Site offer 750,000
Less Poacher 92,000
Less 1 Wenceslas St .60,000
Less Newby’s 73,000
TOTAL 525,000
“It’s genuine,” said Hayes, seeing Hal’s scepticism.
“Crew’s home address, Crew’s handwriting’ he tapped the side of the note with his ruler ‘and his fingerprints. It’s enough to get you off the hook but whether it’s enough to convict Crew I don’t know. That’s your problem, not mine.”
“Where did you get it?”
But Hayes merely smiled and shook his head.
“I’m an exsoldier. I like fall-back positions. Let’s just say it came into my possession and, realising its importance, I passed it on to you.
Hal wondered if Crew knew the sort of man he had hired.
Had this been intended for later blackmail?
“I don’t get it,” he said frankly.
“Crew is bound to implicate you. So will I. So will Miss Leigh. One way or another you and your brother will get done. Why make it easy for us?”
Hayes didn’t answer directly.
“I’m cutting my losses, Hawksley, and giving you your restaurant back.
Be grateful.”
“Like hell, I’ll be grateful,” said Hal angrily. His eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Who’s behind this foreclosure racket?
You or Crew?”
“There’s no racket. Foreclosures are a fact of life at the moment,” said the other.
“Anyone with a little capital can acquire property cheaply. Mr. Crew was part of a small perfectly legal syndicate. Unfortunately, he used money that didn’t belong to him.”
“So you run the syndicate?”
Hayes didn’t answer.
“No racket, my arse,” said Hal explosively.
“The Poacher was never going to come on the market yet you still bought up the properties on either side.”
Hayes flexed the ruler again.
“You’d have sold eventually.
Restaurants are appallingly vulnerable.” He gave a slight smile.
“Consider what would have happened if Crew had kept his nerve and sat it out till after your prosecution.” His eyes hardened.
“Consider what would have happened if my brother had told me about the approach Crew made to him. You and I would never have had this conversation for the simple reason that you would not have known who to have it with.”
The flesh crept on Hal’s neck.
