‘I know. So was I when I met your mum.’
He sat forward. ‘Are you seriously telling me you emotionally blackmailed me into spending the whole summer working seventy hours a week, all because you thought it might help to get me and Didi back together?’
‘Well that was the plan. Didn’t bloody work, though, did it?’
‘She’s about to get married.’
‘You could have persuaded her to change her mind.’
‘It’s too late.’
‘Never too late.’ Red’s breathing was becoming more laboured.
‘Just because you want something to happen doesn’t mean it’s going to,’ said Shay. ‘Maybe if she hadn’t met Aaron first, things might have been different. But she did, and I’m not going to try and break them up, because that’d be a shitty thing to do. And it’s not my decision to make either. Didi’s the one who chooses whether or not she gets married.’
‘You and your morals. I don’t know where you get them from.’ Red summoned a brief smile. ‘Anyway, I’m sorry I ruined everything for the two of you.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Shay reminded him. ‘You didn’t break in and empty the safe.’
‘Ah, but I’d done enough other stuff to make people assume I had. If I’d had a proper job, led a decent life, Didi’s parents would never have thought it was me in the first place.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Time to change the subject. ‘Can I ask you something?’
His father chuckled and coughed. ‘Before I die, you mean?’
‘It would help if you’re still around to give me an answer.’ Both their glasses were empty; Shay reached for the bottle and refilled them.
‘Go on then, fire away.’
‘Did anything ever happen between you and Maura Laing?’
Red raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’
‘I always wondered if it did.’
‘Well, nothing happened.’
‘Really?’
‘No need to sound so surprised.’
‘I thought you were going to say yes. After all, you had more than your share of adventures.’
‘I did.’ Red nodded, shifting his legs into a more comfortable position. ‘But not with Maura.’
‘OK.’
‘Guess why not?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘She wanted to. Well, we both did. But I said no. Because I didn’t want to risk doing anything that might make the situation awkward for you and Didi.’
Shay looked at him, silhouetted in the dim lamplight. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Completely. It’s one of the few honourable things I’ve done in my life.’
‘Dad.’ Touched, Shay said, ‘I can’t believe you did that. I’m impressed.’
‘So you should be. Waste of time, though, wasn’t it? You two broke up anyway.’
Which meant this had happened – or rather not happened – prior to the burglary. Casting his mind back to the days after it had taken place, Shay recalled the oddness of Maura’s reaction to it, her discomfort and awkwardness, the distinct feeling he’d had that she was hiding something, or at least knew more than she was letting on.
Oh well, if you couldn’t ask a tricky question mere days or weeks before your father died, when could you ask it? He said slowly, ‘Do you think Maura was involved in the robbery in some way? I mean, I’m not saying she did it. But had she been persuaded for one reason or another to give someone the keys?’
Did that sound crazy? Maybe, but it had lurked in the back of his mind for years.
‘Shay, she wasn’t involved. I can one hundred per cent guarantee it. Maura had no idea who was behind the robbery, and that’s the truth.’
Right. Shay exhaled. That had come as even more of a relief than he’d expected. It felt like a weight slipping from his shoulders. ‘OK. That’s good.’
‘I know who did do it.’ Red tilted his head. ‘Want me to tell you?’
‘Was it anyone . . . significant?’
‘No one from your family. Or Didi’s.’
Shay considered this. ‘No need for me to know, then.’ Sometimes it was easier not to.
‘If you’re ever curious, ask Maura. I told her when she came to see me the other week.’ Red yawned; his eyelids were starting to close now. The tumbler of Drambuie was tilting in his hand. Removing it before it spilled over the bed, Shay said quietly, ‘No one can say you haven’t lived an interesting life.’
The corners of his father’s mouth lifted. ‘It’s been good. And now it’s your turn to carry on.’
‘I’ll try to stay out of prison, if that’s OK.’
‘You do that.’ Red’s eyes flickered open and he rested his hand on top of Shay’s. ‘Did I ever tell you I love you?’
‘Several hundred times.’ It was Shay’s turn to smile. ‘I love you too, Dad.’
‘Be happy,’ Red murmured.
Shay swallowed hard. ‘I will.’
A woman in an emerald-green coat was waiting outside Hillcrest, lurking beneath a navy golfing umbrella, when Shay arrived back from the funeral home a fortnight later. Red had left strict instructions that he wanted to be buried wearing a black suit, white shirt and crimson tie, because that was what he’d worn on his wedding day.
Having delivered the clothes, Shay had been half tempted to stop off at the pub for lunch on the way home. Seeing as it was raining hard and his visitor was looking pretty sodden, it was just as well he hadn’t. He pulled onto the driveway and climbed out of the car.
‘At last,’ Maura Laing exclaimed. ‘I’ve been standing here for ages.’
He unlocked the front door and led the way inside. Once she’d peeled off her sodden coat, Maura threw her arms around him. ‘Darling, I’m so sorry about your father. He was one of a kind.’
‘He was,’ Shay agreed. ‘Thank you.’ Maura had always been the sort of person who called everyone darling, but it still felt weird coming from someone who’d once sacked you.
‘As soon as Didi told me he’d gone, I knew I had to fly over for the funeral.’
‘That’s good of you.’
‘Such a lovely man.’ She hesitated. ‘The thing is, the other thing is, there’s something I need your help with.’
Here it came. ‘In what way?’
‘Red left something here for me and I need it. Kind of . . . today.’
Shay nodded; Red’s actual words to him had been: ‘If Maura turns up asking for something, let her have it.’
Whatever it might be.
‘You’ll have to tell me where it is,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and get it for you.’
She turned and gestured through the window. ‘It’s out there.’
The rain was now hammering down harder than ever. He frowned. ‘I’m going to need more of a clue than that.’
‘It’s in the garden. In the ground,’ Maura elaborated. ‘Under the mulberry tree.’
What the hell?
‘And you really want it now?’
‘Yes please.’