She nodded.
“I know, Hawksley,” Her eyes smiled into his.
“The trouble is, I care about you, too. Which means we’re in a bit of a fix. You want to save me and I want to save the Poacher, and the two would seem to be mutually exclusive.”
She started to ease her hands from under his.
“So one of us must win this argument, and it’s going to be me because this has nothing to do with abstract justice and everything to do with my peace of mind. I shall feel much happier with Stewart Hayes behind bars.” She shook her head as his hands moved to smother hers again.
“I won’t be responsible for you losing your restaurant, Hal. You’ve gone through hell for it, and you can’t give it up now.”
But Hal was no Rupert to be browbeaten or cajoled into doing what Roz wanted.
“No,” he said again.
“We’re not playing intellectual games here. What Hayes said was real.
And he’s not threatening to kill you, Roz. He’s threatening to maim you.” He lifted one hand to her face.
“Men like him don’t kill because they don’t need to. They cripple or they disfigure, because a live, broken victim is a more potent encouragement to others than a dead one.”
“But if he’s convicted-‘ she began.
“You’re being naive again,” he cut in gently, smoothing the hair from her face.
“Even if he is convicted, which I doubt ex-Army, first offence, hearsay evidence, Crew denying everything he won’t go to jail for any length of time. The worst that will happen will be twelve months for conspiracy to defraud, of which he’ll serve six. More likely he will be given a suspended sentence. It wasn’t Stewart who broke into the Poacher with a baseball bat, remember, it was his brother, and you will have to stand up in court and say that.” His eyes were insistent.
“I’m a realist, Roz. We’ll go for Crew and raise enough doubts to get the Health charges lifted. After that’ he shrugged “I’ll gamble that Hayes can be trusted to leave the Poacher alone.”
She was silent for a moment or two.
“Would you act differently if you’d never met me and I wasn’t involved?
And don’t lie to me, Hal, please.”
He nodded.
“Yes,” he admitted.
“I would act differently. But you are involved, so the question doesn’t arise.”
“OK.” She relaxed her hands under his and smiled.
“Thank you. I feel much happier now.”
“You agree.” Relieved, he lessened his pressure slightly and she seized the opportunity to snatch the Tampax box out of his grasp.
“No,” she said,”I don’t.” She opened the box, removed some truncated cardboard tubes and upended it to disgorge a miniature voice-activated dictaphone.
“With luck’ she turned to Geon Wyatt ‘this will have enough on it to convict Hayes. It was at full volume, sitting on his desk, so it should have caught him’ She rewound the tape for a second or two and then pressed ‘play’. Hal’s voice was muffled by distance:’… another way of saying we must keep our mouths shut about your involvement with the Poacher?”
Hayes’s, clear as a bell. Of course. Because next time, the fire won’t be confined to the chip pan, and you 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.”
Roz switched it off and pushed it across the table towards Wyatt. ‘win it do any good?”
“If there’s more like that, it will certainly help with Hal’s prosecution, as long as you’re prepared to give evidence to support it.”
“I am.”
He cast a glance at his friend, saw the tension on the other’s face and turned back to Roz.
“But Hal’s right in everything he’s said, assuming I’ve understood the gist correctly. We are talking abstract justice here.” He picked up the dictaphone.
“At the end of the day whatever sentence this man gets if he still wants to revenge himself on you, he will. And there’s nothing the police will be able to do to protect you. So? Are you sure you want me to take this?”
“I’m sure.”
Wyatt looked at Hal again and gave a helpless shrug.
“Sorry, old man. I did my best, but it looks like you’ve caught a tigress this time.”
Hal gave his baritone chuckle.
“Don’t say it, Geon, because I already know.”
But Wyatt said it anyway.
