Death's Cold Hand, J.E. Mayhew [book club recommendations .txt] 📗

to be no more promising, with the pointless protest and still no prospect of finding Terry White.

The knock on the door took Blake by surprise. It was late and he wasn’t expecting anyone. There was something about the knock itself, too. It was tentative and cautious. Charlie’s ears pricked up but instead of barking, he wagged his tail. Serafina gave a sleepy meow and curled up again.

Picking up a poker from beside the hearth, Blake edged into the hall. He could see a figure silhouetted against the frosted glass. “Who’s there?”

“Just open the door, Will, it’s cold out here,” Laura said from the other side of the door.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Will said, as he pulled the door open.

“Nice to see you too,” she replied, sweeping past him into the hall. “Where’s Serafina? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. How do you know about…?”

“Hello, Charlie boy!” Laura said, squatting down and scratching the little dog behind his ear as he tried to leap all over her. “How are you? Has he been looking after you?” She stood up, cradling Charlie in her arms as she did. “One of my clients mentioned a ruckus at the emergency vets involving a big Persian cat. It didn’t take a huge leap of the imagination?”

“You came to see the cat?” Blake said, unable to disguise the hurt in his voice. “Does Quinlan know you’re here?”

“He does but he’s not my keeper, Will and he’s learning not to be jealous.”

“I can’t believe the change in you, Laura…”

“You preferred me terrified? Was it better when I was running scared, frightened of my own shadow?”

“No, of course not, but I thought you had some kind of moral compass…”

“Me? Tell me Will, what would you have said if I’d turned up on your doorstep? Would you have welcomed me with open arms?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You’d have ignored the fact that I’d been involved in stealing money and was living off the proceeds?”

“Well, no,” Blake said, crestfallen. “I thought you’d face up to that. Do your time and then…”

“Then come back to you penitent and chastened, right? I thought so. Hopefully, that answers your question about why I went back to my own people. You want a humbled, rescued version of me, Will. Can you imagine how I’d be received by your colleagues? This is Laura, she was a criminal once but now she’s seen the error of her ways. I’d never have fitted into your world or at least, I would but it would have been as a dirty little secret, kept at home and never talked about. Would you want to live like that?”

“But you changed my life. You saved me. Not the other way round,” Blake said. He threw his hands up. “Anyway. You’ve made your choice and I’ve no right to try and stop you. I’m guessing you didn’t come here to start a row. Serafina’s in the living room in her basket.”

She carried Charlie through and settled him down alongside the cat. “I knew these two would get on. I bet Serafina soon got him in line.” She stroked the cat and Serafina’s purring grew louder.

“I gave her some sedative, so she’s a bit soppy at the moment.”

Laura looked up at him. “Looks like she’s been up to some of her old tricks again. You spending enough time with her?”

“Ian Youde comes in to walk Charlie and they all keep each other company. I’m working, Laura. On this murder in Port Sunlight, actually,” Blake said, sitting in his armchair. “While I’ve got you, mind telling me what your involvement with Pro-Vets is?”

Laura gave Blake a mischievous smile. “Purely professional. A lot of their clients benefit from having pets and they have the same training needs as other pet owners. I was also doing some work around sourcing some therapy dogs for them…”

“Taking a hefty wage, by the sounds of it,” Blake said.

Laura’s cheeks coloured. “I value my services and I’m trying to build an actual business, Will, rather than a part time hobby job. So, yes, I charge a fee.”

“Some would call it disproportionate…”

“I’m worth it. There isn’t a penny of that money that can’t be accounted for, Will.”

“Which is more than can be said for some of the payments and transactions that have gone through Pro-Vets accounts, I believe.”

Laura looked down at Serafina. “I imagine all those companies will be vanishing as we speak if they haven’t already disappeared. Whoever was laundering their ill-gotten gains through Pro-Vets will have taken fright, I imagine, what with all the bad publicity it’s been getting. I wouldn’t waste your time chasing ghosts, Will. I’d look much closer to home.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies, as they say but someone had their fingers in the till.”

“Quentin Ufford?”

Laura nodded. “And a friend, I suspect.”

“Is that why you came here really? Did you want to send me off on a wild goose chase and distract the investigation away from Quinlan’s dirty money flowing through the charity?”

Laura sighed and gave Will a sad smile. “No, Will. I came to see Serafina. And I told you, I’m doing things on my terms, looking after number one.”

“What are you…?”

“Just listen. We can be friends but I realise now that we could never be anything more. I’m giving you this information as a friend. Don’t waste your time and resources trying to link Pro-Vets and Kyle Quinlan; you’ll fail. I just came to tell you about Ufford.”

“We got that information already, thanks.”

“Then you’ll know that, whoever his accomplice is has transferred a whole load of cash from Ufford’s account into their own and they’re about to disappear.”

“You aren’t playing some kind of stupid, dangerous game with Quinlan are you, Laura? Because…”

“I’m not playing anything or anyone, Will. I can look after myself. What you need to do is forget Kyle for now and forget me. Catch whoever is about to do a flit with a huge chunk of Pro-Vets money.”

*****

The back room of the Seraph was