“The hygiene scam was going to happen anyway?”
The ruler, bent beyond endurance, snapped abruptly. Hayes smiled.
“Restaurants are appallingly vulnerable,” he said again.
“I repeat. Be grateful. If you are, the Poacher will flourish.”
“Which is another way of saying we must keep our mouths shut about your involvement.”
“Of course.” He looked almost surprised, as if the question went without asking.
“Because next time, the fire won’t be confined to a chip pan, and you’ his pale eyes rested on Roz - ‘and your lady friend won’t be so lucky.
My brother’s pride was hurt. He’s itching to have another go at the pair of you.” He pointed to the piece of notepaper.
“You can do what you like with Crew. I don’t admire men without principle. He’s a lawyer.
He had a duty to a dead man’s estate and he abused it.”
Hal, rather shaken, picked up the page by its corner and tucked it into Roz’s handbag.
“You’re no better, Hayes. You abused Crew’s confidence when you told your father about Amber’s child. But for that we’d never have put Crew in the frame.” He waited while Roz stood up and walked to the door.
“And I’ll make damn sure he knows that when the police arrest him.”
Hayes was amused.
“Crew won’t talk.”
“What’s to stop him?”
He drew the broken ruler across his throat.
“The same thing that will stop you, Hawksley. Fear.” The pale eyes raked Roz from head to toe.
“But in Crew’s case, it’s his grandchildren he loves.”
Geon followed them out on to the pavement.
“OK,” he ordered, ‘give. What the hell’s going on here?”
Hal looked at Roz’s pale face.
“We need a drink.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” said Geon aggressively.
“I’ve paid my dues, Hal, now you pay yours.”
Hal gripped him fiercely above the elbow, digging his fingers into the soft flesh.
“Keep your voice down, you cretin,” he muttered.
“There’s a man in there who would take out your liver, eat it in front of you, and then start on your kidneys. And he’d smile while he was doing it. Where’s the nearest pub?”
Not until they were settled in a tight corner of the saloon, with empty tables all around them, was Hal prepared to speak.
He delivered the story in clipped, staccato sentences, emphasising Crew’s role but referring to the intruders at the Poacher only as hired thugs. He finished by removing the note from Roz’s handbag and laying it carefully on the table between them.
“I want this bastard screwed, Geon. Don’t even think about letting him worm his way out of it.”
Wyatt was sceptical.
“It’s not much, is it?”
“It’ll do.”
Wyatt slipped the page into his notebook and tucked it into his jacket pocket.
“So where does STC Security fit in?”
“It doesn’t. Hayes got hold of that note for me. That’s the extent of his firm’s involvement.”
“Ten minutes ago he was going to eat my liver.”
“I was thirsty.”
Wyatt shrugged.
“You’re giving me precious little to work with. I can’t even guarantee you’ll win the Environmental Health prosecution. Crew’s bound to deny having anything to do with it.”
There was a silence.
“He’s right,” said Roz abruptly, removing a packet of Tampax from her bag.
Hal grasped the hand holding the box and pressed it firmly to the table.
“No, Roz,” he said softly.
“Believe it or not, I care more about you than I do about the Poacher or about abstract justice.”
