The Stranger, Mark Ayre [microsoft ebook reader .TXT] 📗

“I think Abbie’s made some fair points,” she said. “I think we should invite her in and make her a drink. Talk to her.”

Eddie didn’t respond. His head did turn for the first time away from Abbie towards his wife. He allowed her to edge him backwards, out of the way, allowing Jess to step forward.

“What would you like?” she asked Abbie. “Let me guess; anything but hot chocolate?”

Fourteen

Jess was in the same seat in which Eddie and Abbie had found her in the early hours of that morning. Eddie sat at her side. The couple held hands. Jess had her free palm flat on her belly, feeling the kicks of the baby that would soon enter the world.

Abbie had taken the armchair and had twisted her legs to face the couple. In her hands, she held a steaming cup of black coffee. Instant. A little too weak for her liking but a damn sight better than the hot chocolate Jess had served the previous evening.

Jess was of a mind to give Abbie a chance but was nowhere near the levels of trust they had reached before going to bed in the early hours. Abbie knew she had to tread carefully. Especially seeing as she had no good reason to be hanging around, trying to help this grieving brother and his wife. She decided to tackle that, again, head-on.

"I know you don't know why I'm here. You suspect I was involved in Danny's murder, and I've already laid out the reasons why that could not have been me. You're still far from sure, but that's okay. Even if you were sure I had nothing to do with Danny's murder, you might question why I've stuck around. More, why I've claimed I want to help you."

"That's exactly what I'm wondering," said Jess.

"And that's unfortunate," said Abbie. "I don't have what you would consider to be a good reason. All I have is my intuition. In the almost 16 hours I've been in town, I've now run into two sets of people with two seemingly separate problems, both of which revolve around the same man. As I mentioned, the other issue involves a group of teenagers. Funnily enough, they also have something Francis wants, and for which he is happy to hurt them. But I don't think it's the same thing. I believe in responsibility. I believe that now I know you're in danger, I have to help. I cannot walk away. As I said, I've dealt with people like Francis before."

"In what capacity?" asked Jess.

"Private. Always private. But I know how Francis operates. I can help, but first, I need to know his history with Danny. Without that, I'm blind. I can't do anything, and I might as well walk away. Maybe that's what you want. I hope you'll give me the chance to prove how valuable I can be if you let me stick around.

Abbie stopped. Jess looked at her husband. It seemed he wasn't listening. He was staring at Abbie, but it didn't look as though anything was going in. Abbie suspected he had missed nothing and thought Jess believed the same. She squeezed her husband's hand.

"I think she's right, Ed," said Jess. "If she wanted to kill Danny, there were ways she could do that without anyone seeing her. If she wanted to find the money, this wouldn't be the right way to go about it."

Money. There it was. Abbie noted the mention but said nothing. Jess was waiting on her husband.

"Maybe they've sent her to win our trust," said Eddie. "They might think we're hiding the money, and if she gets closer to us, we'll tell her where it is."

This was a ridiculous notion for a couple of reasons. Abbie could have explained. Given Eddie's current mistrust and disdain for her, she was lucky Jess had also noted the failure in his argument and was willing to point it out.

"If they were going to send someone to win our trust, why would they send the same person who gave Danny the room in which he was killed? They'd know we'd be suspicious."

"Maybe it's a double bluff."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous."

The previous evening, Jess had been plenty sharp with her husband. This was the most cutting her tongue had been since Abbie had arrived today. Given the way her cheeks flushed red, Abbie guessed this was the sharpest Jess had been with Eddie since Danny's death.

"I'm sorry," she said, now rubbing her belly rather than merely resting her hand there, as though to remind her husband she was pregnant and therefore should be forgiven the outburst. "But you have to see that can't be right? Why risk a double bluff? There had to be another way to bring someone into our lives if they wanted to get us to reveal where the money was by subterfuge. Besides, why would they do that? Having seen what happened to Danny, if we knew where the money was, we would give it them immediately. They know we don't know where it is."

These were the exact points Abbie would have made. Eddie was more likely to listen to Jess than to Abbie, but even with the arguments coming from his wife, he looked unconvinced. Abbie understood. Eddie was furious at Francis for what had happened to Danny, but Francis was untouchable. Abbie was here. He wanted someone to hate, and if Abbie was guilty, that someone had delivered themselves to him, ready for punishment.

Worried the conversation might become mired in Eddie's grief, Abbie turned to Jess and tried to move things along.

"Am I to deduce that Danny had stolen money from Francis?"

Jess glanced at Eddie, then back to Abbie. She nodded. “Hundred grand. Lord knows how. From what we can gather, he got into Francis' house and stole it from his private safe."

Lord knows how. A valid exclamation. Danny was a chancer, not a safecracker. To steal the money, he would need to either stumble upon an open safe—an extraordinary stroke of luck given