She reached out and stroked my forearm. ‘You may find that Jean and Sergeant Payne start filling that table quite soon. He seems… smitten; an old-fashioned word but it works, and she seems suited.’
‘Yeah, he’s a good guy. I like him. I hope they do settle down. They make a nice couple and Jean’ll be a good mother.’ I winked at her. ‘You do realise they’re probably saying much the same about us right now,’ I added.
‘As long as they don’t build their hopes up. They want family, we want careers, and I’m about as broody as a stone.’
‘But are you happy?’ I asked.
‘With my life? Yes, I told you so. It’s exactly as I’d like it. Two weeks ago I thought you’d lost interest in me, and I wasn’t too chuffed about that. You’ve shown me I was wrong, and I’m happy about that. I’m looking forward to spending time with you and Alex, but I want to keep her at a certain distance so she doesn’t ever start to think of me as a mother figure.’
‘And me? What do you want from me?’
She frowned. ‘Of you I ask one thing alone. When you are lonely in the dark of night, and when I stop being the one you call first, don’t call me at all. Give that promise to me, and I will give the same to you.’
I reached across, took her hand, and squeezed it. ‘You’ve got it.’
Eden Higgins and his son Rory were on board and waiting for us when we arrived at Inverkip Marina. The boat was impressive. It was called Palacio de Ginebra, a name that amused me, looked to be about forty feet long and had a couple of masts, with booms and other stuff, like lots of rope that was going to need pulling, and sails rolled up and ready for unfurling, or whatever it was you did with them.
The furniture tycoon looked as if he spent more time at sea than he did in his showrooms. He was lean and weather-beaten and the muscle on his arms was well defined. His hair was frizzy, dark streaked with grey. He wore faded jeans and a T-shirt that proclaimed his love of New York.
‘Good to meet you, Bob, and you, Alex.’ His greeting was relaxed, and it spoke volumes. I wasn’t the first male crew member that his sister had brought along for the voyage, although probably the first one with a teenage daughter in tow.
There was a table on what Alison told me was the afterdeck, with a jug of Sangria, a large bottle of Coca- Cola and four glasses. ‘The Coke was intended for the kids,’ he said as he started to pour, ‘but looking at Alex, she might prefer the other.’
‘That would depend on what’s in it, Eden.’ Sangria comes in many forms, some of them highly alcoholic, and we were on a boat called the Gin Palace.
‘It’s safe, I promise,’ he replied. ‘Red wine only and that’s pretty diluted.’
‘In that case, it’ll be Alex’s choice. But can we change first?’
‘Of course. Alison will show you where you’re bunked.’
I’d been expecting something akin to a railway sleeping compartment, but I had underestimated Eden’s taste and his wealth. The vessel was beautifully fitted out below decks, with a dayroom, a galley, and three cabins. The largest of those was ours and I didn’t need to be told that, normally, it was the captain’s.
We went casual, and rejoined our host. Alex opted for Sangria. It didn’t surprise me since I’d been allowing her that occasional taste since the previous summer. I let her get on with it, even though the base was red, since it was well watered. Rory was a nice kid, he looked a little bit like his aunt, but with some features that owed nothing to the Higgins side of the family. It was evident from the start that he was in awe of my daughter.
When the jug was empty, Alison announced that she was going below to cook, and told the cabin boy that he would be helping. Alex would have stayed with us, but I tipped her a very discreet wink; she read the message and followed.
The evening was calm and warm. I’d checked the weekend weather forecast and, to my relief, it had promised fair. Once we were alone, Eden pulled a couple of beers from a small built-in fridge, popped the tops and handed one to me. Suddenly I realised how Lowell Payne must have felt at the funeral.
‘Cut to the chase, Eden,’ I said.
His dark eyebrows rose and he smiled. ‘Whatever do you mean, sir?’
‘You know well enough. Let’s skip the opening pleasantries and get straight to what you’re bound to ask me sooner or later.’
He had a booming laugh. ‘You didn’t major in subtlety at Glasgow, did you, Bob?’
‘I can do it when I have to, but I prefer the cards dealt face up. It makes the game a whole lot easier.’
‘True. I wish there were people like you in business. That’s my environment, you see, you keep your hand well hidden. Okay, to it; can I expect to be calling you brother one day?’
‘No,’ I replied, looking him in the eye. ‘Now that we’ve sized each other up for a while, Alison and I are in the early stages of what’s looking like being a very comfortable relationship, one that suits us both. We have a shared outlook on life, we have shared ambitions, and we are very fond of each other. But you should know your sister well enough to realise that if she’s offered a choice between marriage and a chief constable’s silver braid, then you may phone the tailor and commission the uniform. I’m the same.’
‘You’re a man, though,’ he countered, ‘in a masculine world. You don’t have to make that choice. I’ll bet there isn’t one chief in Scotland who’s a single man.’
‘You’d lose. Two of them are divorced, due largely to the pressures that the job placed on their marriages while they were on the way up, as I am now, as Alison is now. There would be twice the stress if we were man and wife, or even a full-time couple. There is a level of commitment between us, my daughter is happy with the way things are, and that’s enough for all of us.’ I looked away for a second, then caught his gaze again. ‘And there’s this. I’ve lowered one wife into her grave already, I relive it every day, and I have a great resistance to ever repeating the experience for real.’
‘Of course.’
‘Have you had this conversation with Alison?’ I asked.
‘Are you kidding?’ he replied. ‘Am I carrying my balls in a brown paper bag? But you understand, don’t you, why I feel that I have to clear the air with you?’
‘Sure, and I don’t have a problem with it. She’s your sister, for a start, and you care about her. On top of that you’re a very wealthy man, and you need to be sure that she’s not attracting pot-hunters. For the record, I’m nowhere near your level, but I’m not poor.’ I paused. ‘But what the hell am I talking about?’ I laughed. ‘You know all that, for you’ve had me checked out. I knew that as soon as you told me what university I went to, for I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned it to Alison, only that I’m a graduate. You probably know how much I inherited from my father, and where it’s invested. You probably know the value of various insurance policies and death-in- employment benefits that were paid out when Myra was killed. You might even know how much I have in my bank accounts. Am I right?’
He flinched, and I saw him flush beneath the tan.
‘Eden,’ I told him, ‘it’s all right. I don’t mind. I’ve just done much the same thing with my sister-in-law’s new boyfriend, and I have access to resources that you don’t. But… I need to know this.. . did your people find out anything else about me, and my family background?’
He nodded. ‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘They discovered that you have a brother named Michael, who lives in a charitable institution not that far from here, supported by a small trust fund administered on his behalf by a firm of solicitors in Glasgow.’
‘Then your investigators have been too good for their own good. Alison knows nothing of Michael’s existence. Even my daughter isn’t aware that she has an uncle. We might have been born to the same parents, but that man has been dead to me for the last twenty years, as he was to them. Until right now, I had no clear idea of where he was, and I still don’t want you to tell me his exact location. I hate him, more than it’s safe for me to hate another human being.’
‘Christ, Bob,’ he muttered, ‘I had no idea.’
‘Why should you? But now that you do, I need you to promise me two things, that you’ll shred every copy of the report your people gave you, and that you’ll make sure they do the same. While you’re at it, tell them from me that they should forget they ever heard of Michael, for if anyone else ever mentions him to me in the future, my first thought is going to be that it came from them. It’ll take me about two minutes to find out who they are, and not much longer for me to put them out of business.’
‘Consider all that done,’ Eden promised. ‘By the way, the report was for my eyes only; it’s in my private safe
