‘Your judgement? Yeah, of course.’
‘You consider me to be of sound mind and all that. You know, not known for rash decisions or jumping to conclusions?’
‘Reliable. Dependable. Yep.’
‘Thanks for not saying “boring”.’
He gives a wry smile. ‘I don’t think we have to worry about boring. Now, do you want to tell me what’s going on?’
I pause while I choose my words. ‘You know when someone commits identity theft, they find out the other person’s bank details, home address and all that sort of thing?
‘Yeah and usually fleece them for every penny.’
‘Kind of. But what about identity theft being taken to the extreme? Where it goes further than just remotely taking on someone’s financial identity. Where they actually pretend they are that person, in real life, to other people. They go about calling themselves by that assumed name, they take on their history, they even kid themselves that they are that person.’
‘As you say, extreme.’
‘But possible.’
‘Yeah, I suppose it is. That’s, of course, if the identity thief didn’t come across anyone who knew the victim.’
‘No, they’d have to be meeting people for the first time. People who didn’t know the victim beforehand.’
Tom drums his fingers on the table and purses his lips. ‘What are you trying to say?’
‘That’s not Alice in there. It’s her friend, Martha Munroe. Tom shifts his weight in his seat. His eyes dart around the coffee shop. Anywhere but meeting my gaze. He doesn’t believe me and, once again, I’ve made myself look a fool. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Ignore me.’
‘No, wait,’ He looks serious and this time he doesn’t avoid eye contact. ‘I’m glad you did. You see, Alice told me something and I’ve been in a dilemma ever since about whether to say anything or not.’
‘What did she say? Tell me, Tom. You know that’s not Alice, don’t you?’
‘She came to my house the other night. I know she’s not Alice.’
‘And you didn’t tell me?’ I’m indignant that he kept this information to himself.
‘She made me promise. She was frightened. She didn’t know what to do. Said she’d got herself involved in something that had spiralled out of control and was way out of her depth.’
‘Involved in what, exactly?’
‘I don’t know how to say this.’
‘Just say it. Whatever it is, say it.’ I brace myself. I’m sure he’s going to tell me that Luke knows as well and that she and Luke have been having an affair, that Luke isn’t really going to bring the girls back. ‘Tell me!’
‘A while ago, at work, I was doing an audit on some of the accounts. Routine stuff that we all do from time to time. In fact, I can tell you exactly when it was – it was just before Leonard went to America for that business meeting.’
‘The meeting that never amounted to anything,’ I say, thinking back.
‘Yeah. Well, I don’t know what he was doing over there, but I’m pretty sure there was no legitimate business meeting. I think he went to America for another reason.’
‘To meet her – Martha?’
‘It’s possible. And it would make sense.’
‘I’m not following you.’
‘Right, just hear me out. The other week I was doing a mini audit on the internal accounts and your trust fund was one of them. It was just randomly selected and I had a look at it. I saw some irregularities. Things that didn’t add up. I couldn’t reconcile them with the file notes Leonard had made either.’
‘What sort of irregularities?’
‘Money unaccounted for.’
‘But he’s supposed to be overseeing all that for Mum.’ If Tom had told me this yesterday, I would have laughed him out of the room, but after finding out how Leonard has deceived me so easily about Patrick Kennedy and being my father all these years, I actually find it very easy to believe he has been up to no good with the money.
‘The business hasn’t been doing great. You remember when we became partners we both had to put in quite a large sum of money?’
‘I know, but that’s normal, isn’t it?’
‘Leonard has been hiding the true figures from us. Honestly, Clare, there’s so much we didn’t know. I have all the details at home.’