‘Owen and Sephy, I think you’ve forgotten where you are and that you both have an audience,’ he said silkily.
A moment, then Sephy looked around the room. Her eyes alighted on me and narrowed. I guess I still wasn’t her favourite person.
‘Dan, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’ve outstayed my welcome. I’ll be leaving now.’ Sephy headed over to one of the cream leather sofas to retrieve her handbag.
‘Persephone, please stay.’
Three words from Dan. Three seemingly innocuous words, but they froze Sephy in her tracks. She turned to look at Dan like they were the only two in the room. What was going on between them? A person with half an eye could spot Sephy’s loathing for Dan, and yet here she was in his apartment, and all he had to do was ask her to stay and it looked like she was actually going to do it. What hold did he have over her?
‘Owen, I believe the lady might be more inclined to stay if you were to apologize,’ said Dan.
‘Apologize? Are you s-serious?’ Owen spluttered.
Dan turned to look at him. ‘Apologize. Now.’
Owen’s eyes narrowed. He turned to Sephy and said, ‘I apologize if my words offended you.’
‘If?’ said Sephy with scorn.
Dan favoured Owen with a hard stare.
After a petulant huff, Owen said reluctantly, ‘I apologize for offending you.’
‘See! We’re friends again.’ Dan was all smiles now, as fake as a wooden credit card.
Owen and Sephy continued to scowl at each other, before Owen finally sat back down at the piano and started playing a jazz classic. And, to my surprise, he was good. I guess even lowlifes like Owen Dowd needed a hobby. Sephy continued to glare at him. There was something going on here, some subtext that eluded me. It was unexpected enough that Sephy should be at one of Dan’s dinner parties, but that both she and Owen Dowd were here?
What was Dan up to?
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ announced George, Dan’s butler. ‘Dinner is served.’
He made a sweeping gesture towards the dining room, indicating that we should all take a seat. The first things I saw when I walked into the dining room were place name cards on the table. Godsake! Who had Dan stuck me next to? As long as it wasn’t Bella. I really wasn’t in the mood for ex-lover drama this evening. I moved round the table, trying to find my place. On one of the place cards was written the word Eva in cursive script. That had to be the elderly Nought woman who’d been with Patrix at the bar. Was this the famous Eva at long last? It had to be. I was finally going to meet her properly. I continued round the table, checking the cards. So Jarvis was going to join us for dinner, was he? Was Dan expecting ructions? He’d arranged the seating so that Jarvis was literally his right-hand man.
At last I found my place card.
My heart dropped, then sank even lower. So much for that then.
I’d been placed at one end of the table, directly opposite Dan, but I had Bella to my right and Owen Dowd to my left. And Bella was already throwing serious shade my way.
Godsake!
Something was very wrong with this set-up. Unease wrapped round me like an ill-fitting polyester suit. Dan was playing a very dangerous game, a game where only he knew the rules, but, if he wasn’t careful, someone could end up getting hurt.
Or worse.
NOW
* * *
sixty-two. Callie
* * *
My blood had turned to ice water in my veins. I couldn’t believe it. There had to be some kind of mistake. ‘My mum was there? At Dan’s house?’
‘That’s what I said.’
The look Tobey was giving me held a blatant challenge that I chose to ignore. He was dressed in a dark blue suit and a light blue shirt with no tie. His dark brown hair fell almost down to his collar. Most Noughts in politics kept their hair short, but everything about Tobey proclaimed his difference from the norm and he revelled in it. From the moment he walked into my office, I felt like I was standing on shifting sand. His appearance, his voice, everything about Tobey made me strangely self-aware. And, from the moment he sat down, he kept giving me knowing looks, like he knew exactly what effect he was having on me. But now it was his words that had my full attention. I regarded Tobey, not even bothering to try and disguise the frown clouding my face. ‘What the hell was Mum doing in Dan Jeavons’ apartment?’
Tobey shrugged. ‘You’d need to ask her that, not me. You wanted me to recount what happened on the night Dan died. That’s what I’m doing.’
Tobey, Jon and I were seated in my office, and every other sentence Tobey uttered just emphasized how little I knew about him now. To defend him, I needed all the facts, but Tobey was hitting me with some I could never have anticipated.
‘How does Mum even know someone like Dan Jeavons?’
‘I refer you to my previous answer,’ said Tobey wryly.
‘Was Mum present when the body was found?’ I asked.
‘Your mum left during dessert. Dan’s body was found after coffee and liqueurs,’ he said. ‘As far as I know, the police eliminated her from their enquiries. I wasn’t so fortunate.’
Detective Chief Inspector Dabo was in charge of the Dan Jeavons murder investigation and I knew him well. DCI Dabo hadn’t said one word about my mum being involved and her name hadn’t been mentioned in any of the crime reports I’d read. I didn’t like hearing about it from Tobey. I should’ve been forewarned.
Mum had been at Dan’s apartment?
I was still trying to wrap my head round that one. Was that the dinner party she’d been talking about? The one she really didn’t want to attend? It had to be. Jon tapped my arm and showed me his tablet. He’d drawn out a sketch based on Tobey’s account of the evening Dan was murdered. I nodded in Tobey’s direction. He’d need to confirm the seating arrangements, not me. Jon scrolled down to show Tobey his sketch, but none of the accompanying notes above it.
‘Is this an accurate representation of where everyone was sitting?’ he asked.
Tobey reached out for the tablet. Jon pulled back slightly, making it clear that he could look, but touching was not an option. With a quirk of his eyebrow, Tobey turned his full attention to the sketch.
‘Yes, that’s accurate – as far as I remember,’ Tobey confirmed.
I took another look at Jon’s diagram. ‘So my mum was sitting between Patrix and Owen Dowd, who she’d had an argument with earlier that same evening? Whose idea was that?’
Tobey shrugged. ‘Dan and his games.’
My frown deepened. Just what did Dan think he was playing at? Had he deliberately set out to make his guests feel as uncomfortable as possible, or just my mum?
‘Why was Patrix Ellerman there? How does he know Dan?’ I asked.
Tobey rolled his eyes. ‘Jesus, Callie, how would I know? You seem to be more interested in the motivations of every other guest present that night rather than in my own situation. I’ve been in office less than a week. It’s only thanks to the super-injunction you took out that the press isn’t crawling all over this. Can you imagine the fallout if my arrest is made public? I want you to make this disappear. I didn’t do it. Prove it so I can get back to my job, where I can do some good. The country needs me. I’m the only one who can unite it after the fiasco that was the last government.’