Kyle sat up, looking down at her. “I think you should go for it. If people don’t get why you were shut that day, they suck.”
The voice of reason. “Yeah, they do mate.” She blew out a breath. “You always make me feel better when we talk, Kyle. It’ll be okay, you’ll see. We’ll get passed it.”
“I know. What time is Nona coming home? I’m getting kinda hungry.”
“You could ask me for something you know, or better still, make something yourself.” She batted him on the arm and rolled off the bed. “Let me see if they’ve messaged yet. They said they would when they were closer to home.” Lena walked out of the bedroom happier than when she’d walked in. A problem shared and all that, she thought.
Her handbag hung on the back of a kitchen chair and she delved her hand into it for her phone. When she looked at the screen, she cursed. It was still on silent and she’d missed a call and had two messages. She pinned in her code and pressed the voice message button.
“Lena, you silly bitch.”
* * *
“What an idiot. He must have been drinking to do something so damned stupid.” Ben glanced at Adam and pursed his lips. “Don’t suppose I can convince you to take another case on can I?”
“Let me hear it again and I’ll consider it.”
Ben pushed the recorder and placed it on his desk in front of Adam.
“Lena, you silly bitch. So you thought you could pull a fast one on me and get away with it.” Cole roared with laughter. “Oh, my dear. Bad move. You were told what you could take but I knew you wouldn’t leave that stupid jar behind.” His voice took on a whiney tone. “Cause your precious boy helped pick the mushrooms, ooh how cool was that.”
The tone changed again to one of condescending bitterness. “So I hear my payback plan worked. You got shut down from the health inspector for serving your customers deadly mushrooms. You know,” he paused and Adam could hear the tap of fingers on a stainless steel counter, “I could have been nasty and put more caps in there but I figured it would be enough to make people sick. I’m not really a murderer, Lena. I could be tempted though, given the right provocation. Keep your stupid café shut and you’ll be safe. For now.”
The clink of ice on the side of a glass filled the moment of silence. “One more thing, I’m not sorry about your cousin either. Idiot got what he deserved. Should have kept his mouth shut in the first place.”
“What do you think?” Ben eased back in his chair and Adam felt for him. He was still sore and finding it hard to get around.
One more nail in his coffin. “Mind if I make a call?”
“Go for it. Mind if I listen?”
“That was the general idea.” Adam took his phone from his pocket and punched in a number. While he waited he looked around the room. “Hi, Jeremy. I have something that might interest you. Remember that restaurant you were watching? Yes, that one where Sally/Lee-ling is hanging out. I have a confession from the owner on tape you might want to use. Idiot called Lena and told her about putting poisonous mushrooms in a jar he knew she would take from the restaurant. Put three people in hospital and he mentions Simon as well.” All we need as far as I’m concerned.
Adam listened and nodded his head. “Sure, I’ll have Ben email it to you now and then I’m going to press charges against him for damages. I’ll leave the attempted murder to you.” He glanced up at Ben and grinned. “Thought you’d like it, Jeremy. Anything on the other matter?”
He stood and stretched as he listened. “Brilliant. That’s great news.” He fist pumped the air. “Keep me informed then and I’ll give Ben the good news.” At last, things were looking up.
Adam hung up the phone. “You got most of that. He wants a copy of the transcript right now. The other matter is being dealt with as we speak. He’ll have his boys pick up Cole as soon as he can get this new information in front of the judge to add his name to the list. Not that he thinks it will be a problem because of the money Cole used to buy the restaurant and where it came from. What he did to Lena is the icing on the cake.” If you can see it that way.
“Thank goodness for that. It’s been killing her, Adam. I don’t mind telling you that rocked my girl more than I thought anything would. Bad enough my accident stuffing up her review. That’s probably fixable however, poisoning someone, that usually leaves a bitter taste in the community. No pun intended either.”
“I have an idea about that too. I think it’s time I made some phone calls of my own, called in some favors. I happen to know quite a few people with influence around Sydney.” And I don’t mind calling in favors either.
“Does that mean you’re talking to your father now?”
“Yes and no. I don’t like what he did. I do understand it more now I’ve learnt what Jeremy was dealing with. He was right in a way. I doubt I would have been able to deal with it all back then but still, it’s going to take a bit more time to heal things between us so we can have the relationship I would’ve liked.”
“Fair enough. If he ever comes this way, I’d like to meet him. He has quite a reputation in the business circle, despite how you like his business ethics. Sometimes we have to do what we think is best, Adam, not what makes us look
