Bloodline

‘Well?’ said Emily eagerly after we’d ordered. ‘Who’s the blackmailer?’

‘A journalist called Toby Woodley.’

She seemed disappointed. ‘And who is he?’

‘Who was he, you mean. He was murdered in the car park at Kempton Park racecourse last Wednesday evening. And I was there when he died.’

Emily’s interest was suddenly reawakened. ‘Did you kill him?’

‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘But whoever did may have been a victim of his blackmail.’

‘See,’ she said. ‘I told you it was just like those mysteries on the television.’

‘There’s a problem, though,’ I said. ‘Toby Woodley was killed on Wednesday evening and Harry’s blackmail note didn’t arrive until Saturday. Harry thought it was sent first class, which means that in all likelihood it was posted on Friday, or on Thursday at the earliest.’

‘So,’ said Emily, leaning forward, ‘who posted it if this Woodley fellow was already dead?’

‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘And I think the same person may have inserted the extra zero at the end of the amount. It seems to me that the notes had already been printed and the extra zero was added as an afterthought. It was the same on the one shown to me by Austin Reynolds.’

‘But how do you know it was Toby Woodley who sent the first ones?’

This might be awkward, I thought.

‘Well,’ I said, ‘you know the man we parked next to?’

‘The one whose wife you’ve been sleeping with?’

‘Yes, that one.’ It was definitely awkward. ‘His wife told me.’

‘When?’ she squealed.

‘This afternoon. I called her when you were up in the box with Harry.’

‘My God! You are a sneaky bastard,’ Emily said with a laugh. She leaned back in her chair. ‘I should drive home right now and leave you here.’

‘I told you it was over between us.’ I was trying to sound honourable and trustworthy. Even though I’d only met Emily forty-eight hours ago, I suddenly realized that I absolutely didn’t want to lose her.

‘Anyway, what did she say?’

‘She told me that she’d received a blackmail note demanding two hundred pounds to keep quiet about the affair. A note just like the others.’

‘But how did she know who it was from?’

I thought back to my conversation with Sarah. ‘She was told to leave used twenty-pound notes in a brown envelope under her car in the car park at Newbury races, as the others had been. But, instead of the money, she only put strips of torn-up newspaper in the brown envelope, and then she hid and watched to see who collected it. It was this man Toby Woodley.’

‘What did he do when she didn’t pay?’ Emily asked.

‘I think he was going to write about us in his newspaper. He said something last week about being good to me. It seems his editor wouldn’t let a story run because of Clare having just died. I now think the story must have been about me and Sarah Stacey. I think he then told her husband about us to get back at her for not paying.’

‘Nice chap,’ Emily said. ‘No wonder someone murdered him.’

A waitress arrived with our starters.

‘Do you fancy some wine?’ I asked.

‘Of course I do,’ Emily said, ‘but, as you so prudently pointed out, I’m driving.’

‘We could always leave the car and get a taxi.’

‘And then how would I get to work in the morning?’

‘Where is work?’ I asked.

‘Cambridge. I work in the university engineering department as a research assistant.’

It was now my turn to say ‘Wow!’

‘I’m currently helping with a research project into developing needle-less injections. It’s really interesting.’

‘So are you an engineer?’ I asked.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m more of a medic. But I’m not a doctor. I only did a biomedical degree.’

It sounded pretty good to me.

‘So I need my car in the morning to get to work.’

I suppose I would need a car too. I would have to sort that out, along with lots of other things. Thankfully, I had the day off.

‘And I need to go home tonight,’ Emily said. ‘I haven’t got my things for the morning.’

‘Do you need to collect your white coat?’ I asked flippantly.

She smiled and shook her head. ‘No. But I do need my university pass, and I can hardly go into the lab dressed like this, so I’m going home tonight to Royston.’

I wondered if I was being given the brush-off. I rather hoped not.

‘You can come with me if you like,’ she said, ‘but I’m definitely sleeping in my own bed, with or without you.’

‘With,’ I said. ‘But I have to go back to Clare’s cottage first to collect my stuff.’

Emily smiled broadly. ‘That’s fine, then. We’ll make a detour.’

We ate our starters with just fizzy water as the accompaniment.

‘So, tell me,’ Emily said. ‘Who’s the second blackmailer, the one who posted the note to Harry after this Woodley fellow was killed?’

‘I wish I knew. But whoever he is, he’s rather more greedy. Toby Woodley never asked anyone for very much, that’s why most of them paid him.’

‘And do you think he asked all sorts of people for two hundred pounds?’