Abigail: Chapter 38
I didn’t know what to say. As certain as I was that Abigail would move heaven and earth to get her husband home, I didn’t know where she was going to find the money. Her father had made it clear that he’d cover my fee so I’d been working on the premise that there might be something he could do but without speaking to him, I couldn’t give any assurances to the grieving mother sat in front of me. There was also the none too small matter of Abigail not knowing I’d visited her in-laws. I’d asked her about them twice now and both times she’d either changed the subject or shut down. I’d have to tell her I’d met them but I was hoping to save that memorable day for much later in the year, right after a month of Sundays. I looked first at Carol then Saul. They were both watching me, waiting for an answer that would tell them if they had any hope of ever seeing their son again.
“She wants to. There’s no question about that,” I said.
“But?” Saul was glaring at me.
“No but. She wants to pay. It’s just a question of when. And how.” I crossed my fingers and hoped they’d understand what I meant. Fifty grand was a huge sum of money.
Saul turned his attention to his wife. “Carol, I need to speak to you in private.”
She nodded. “Excuse us, we’ll be right back,” she said to me.
I watched as they walked out into the hallway and started talking in hushed tones. I could see Carol’s shadow nodding and gesturing. If it hadn’t been under such intense circumstances it would have been funny. After just a minute or so they both walked back into the room and sat down. It was left to Carol to deliver the verdict.
“We said we’d help in any way we could and we meant it.”
“That’s great.” I said. “What did you have in mind?”
Carol looked at Saul and he nodded his encouragement. “We have some savings put away. We want her to have it. We’ll remortgage this place for the rest. It’s only bricks. Family’s more important. And we’d like to go and see Abigail, to offer to help. But we were wondering if you’d come with us?”
“Me?” I stared at her, mouth gaping open. If I turned up at Abigail’s house with Toby’s parents I didn’t like to think about the consequences. She’d signed a contract so she couldn’t sack me but she could make life incredibly difficult. In the best interests of the case I was keen to stay as far away as possible from that little reunion. “Why do you need me?”
Carol smiled. “If it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t have known about any of this. It’s only right you should be there to get what you deserve.”
That was exactly what I was afraid of! “The thing is Carol, Abigail doesn’t exactly know I’m here.”
“Oh?”
“Rob, the man who came with me last week? He did some research for me, found your address.”
“Abigail didn’t send you?” She sounded devastated.
I shook my head.
“I thought that maybe she’d had a change of heart. It’s been such a long time.” She appeared to think about it a moment but then, mind made up, she turned back to me. “No matter, we’ll help anyway. He’s our son. Isn’t that right Saul?”
Saul nodded and I felt my heart land in my stomach. If I wasn’t very careful my whole case was in danger of bursting into a ball of flames right in front of my eyes.
Having promised that I’d arrange a time for them to visit, Saul pressed a piece of paper into my hand as he shook it. When I looked I saw he’d written their telephone number on a scrap of paper.
“Ring any time,” he said. “We’d like a little outing in the car. Sooner the better.”
With nothing left to say I made my excuses and headed back along the motorway towards home. I decided I needed cheering up so I stopped on route to visit my new friend Jack in the service station. He smiled when he looked up and saw me walking towards him.
“Charlie Diamond! Well fancy seeing you here. How are you my lovely?”
“Not too bad Jack. How about yourself? Been busy?”
“You know how it is, I try. Not seen that chap of yours though.”
I sighed. “Nope, he seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. I guess it was a long shot.”
“Don’t lose heart, there’s still time.”
The noise of building work behind us caught my attention. “Is your little service station getting a facelift?” I asked.
Jack smiled. “Sure is. Wish they’d hurry up with it though. It’s been months now. Every day the same old racket. Took them long enough to agree the contract, you’d think they’d want to get the job done.”
I looked out the window and saw the van belonging to one of the contractors. I turned back to Jack. “You’re not going to believe this Jack …”
“What?”
“You remember the older man I told you about?”
Jack nodded.
“That’s his firm doing the work here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Dead sure. Winklemans. Can’t be too many of them around Bridgend.” I thought for a moment. “But you’ve not seen him here? The second guy on my phone?”
“Would have rung you if I had.”
“I know. Sorry, just checking.”
“Is it important?”
That was a question with no easy answer. I thought Bill had told me they did residential construction but that didn’t mean they couldn’t take on other projects. Something was setting off my internal alarm but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I turned my attention back to Jack.
“You mentioned the contract for the work here was a bit of a mess or something?”
“Damn straight. It was all set to start, late last year I think it was, but the original contract fell through.”
“And that’s when Winklemans took over?”
“I suppose so. Sorry Charlie, I’m probably not the best person to ask about that sort of thing. I just hear whispers, you know?”
I did know and it was the whispers that I was particularly interested in. “Do you think you could find out what the whispers are saying about Winklemans? I’d be ever so grateful.”
“Of course. Give me a couple of days. I’ll ring you.” He patted his pocket where I assumed he had my card safely stored.
“Perfect! Thanks Jack.”
With his well wishes ringing in my ears I carried on towards home. All I had to do now was convince Abigail that I wasn’t a treacherous rogue for speaking to Toby’s parents and my day would be complete. She’d see past any misdemeanour on my part if it meant bringing her husband home, wouldn’t she?