Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
‘Goodnight,’ he said breathlessly, and vanished.
I stood there for a while, trying to calm my nerves, wondering what was happening to me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I USED a private detective to find out all about Bentley Cunningham, the man whose wife had lost the diamond bracelet.
‘He’s like a bit of theatre scenery,’ the detective told me after he’d rooted around a bit. ‘Looks good from the front but it’s all one-dimensional, there’s nothing behind. A breath of the wrong financial wind could blow him flat. He inherited his company from his father and he’s let most of it slip through his fingers. His wife has no idea. She still thinks he’s a big success, so he has to keep up the pretence. That bracelet was a way of fooling her, but he had to take out an expensive loan to buy it. And it wasn’t insured, so they got very upset when they thought it had gone for good.’
His company made machine tools and was situated near the Thames. As soon as I approached it I could see the signs that said he needed a friendly investor badly.
When I introduced myself I was glad to see he knew my name. That would make it a lot easier.
What wasn’t easy was actually doing what I intended. It had been simple to plan it inside my head, but this was reality, where I had to get it right first time, and I was nervous.
That’s right. Bully Jack was going to do a bit of manipulating, and he was nervous because it mattered more than anything had mattered in his life.
I’d spent sleepless nights thinking of my darling going back to jail. In the early hours I’d made idiotic plans. I would take her and Grandad and we would vanish, spending the rest of our lives on a barge, cruising the waterways. They would look for us in vain.
Anything was better than seeing her suffer for even a few minutes, let alone a few months.
Approaching Cunningham meant violating every principle I had. But I was discovering what principles were really for. They were for ditching when you found out what mattered most to you. Della mattered more than anything or anyone, and to hell with principles.
So, for the first time ever, I indulged in the kind of behaviour for which Bully Jack was already famous.
Not that there was any bullying needed. Poor Cunningham was a decent little man who was out of his depth. When he heard my proposal he thought Christmas had come. I ended up poorer, he ended up richer and beaming with relief. And Della ended up safe.
As soon as I was out of there I called Wendell.
‘I want you to handle this investment as well as looking after Della,’ I said. ‘Then you can see that they’re properly co-ordinated.’
He agreed to call Cunningham at once, then the police.
As I returned to the flat I pictured Della’s face when she heard the news, but it was strangely difficult. Her relief was easy to imagine. It was the bit afterwards that caused me trouble. How would she be? Awkward? Embarrassed? Even a little hostile? I could imagine anything these days. I didn’t really know who she was.
It made no difference. Whoever she turned out to be, she’d got under my skin and into my heart, and she was there for life. But I didn’t know what she felt about anything, especially me. She’d been very quick to assure me that she had no ‘illusions’ about our love reviving. But was that her way of putting me at ease? Or of saying it was really over? I was about to find out.
I entered the apartment full of anticipation and trepidation in equal measure, but it was an anticlimax. Only Grandad was there.
‘What have you been up to?’ he asked as soon as he saw my face. I was still partly in a state of shock.
‘Bribery and corruption,’ I said slowly.
‘Good for you,’ he said at once. ‘Any use?’
‘Oh, yes. The charges are going to be dropped.’
He gave a yelp of glee and began to dance around like a little kid, carolling tunelessly.
‘Where is she?’ I asked.
‘Doing a bit of shopping. But she only just went, so she might be a couple of hours.’
The thought of waiting there for two hours suddenly made my stomach churn. I needed to be doing something as the most important moment of my life drew near.
‘I have to go,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back later. Bye, Nick.’
‘What did you call me?’
‘Er-Grandad. See ya!’
I went to my office, to be met by the news that Grace was waiting for me.
I found her sitting in a chair by the window. I saw her before she saw me, and caught a look of misery on her face that she normally hid. As soon as she glanced up the old look was back. It was armoured and guarded for war, but I wasn’t fooled now. I was remembering what Della had told me about her.
‘I came because it seems the only way to see you,’ she said curtly. ‘You’re never home and you’re always busy.’
‘I’m not too busy for you,’ I said, sitting beside her. ‘I’m glad you’re here, because I’ve got a lot to tell you.’
‘I can imagine. I heard about your party for your low-life friends. I’m not surprised I was excluded from that. All you think about now is how to make life easy for your little crook.’
‘She’s not a crook. The charges have been dropped.’
‘I suppose you did that?’
‘Yes, I did it.’
‘May I ask how?’
‘They were dropped because she’s innocent. She always was.’
She didn’t answer and I took her hands. ‘Gracie, come on-’
She tried to snatch her hands away. ‘Don’t call me Gracie.’
I kept hold. ‘I’ll call you Gracie if I want to. It’s what I used to call you, remember? When I was a boy?’
‘That was a long time ago.’
‘Not that long. You called me Jacko and I called you Gracie. We were happy then.’
I could see that the memory had softened her a little, but she wasn’t going to give in too easily.
‘We’re not those people any more.’
‘Yes, we are,’ I insisted. ‘That was our past. Ours. Yours and mine. And nobody else can ever share it or know about it.’
She looked at me.
‘Not even Della?’
‘Not even Della,’ I said, knowing I had to conceal how much Della had contributed to this moment. ‘You were a second mother to me, and nobody else knows what that means. I miss it, Gracie. I miss how close we were. Don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she whispered, holding onto my hands now. ‘But you grew up and went away.’
‘You used to say I’d never grow up, and you were right. I’m still Jacko inside, and I always will be. Only to you, of course. I wouldn’t let anyone else call me that.’
She smiled hesitantly. ‘Jacko,’ she said.
I drew her to her feet.
‘Come on, I’m taking you to lunch. Things are happening, and I want you to be the first to know about them.’
I told my secretary to hold all calls, and we went out to the Ritz. It was a long lunch, and a happy one. It was years since we had felt so close. I told her all about my future plans, and although I could see she was shocked she didn’t make an issue of it. Near the end of lunch I slipped out to call Harry Oxton.
