I think back to the accident that is never far from my mind, although calling it an accident doesn’t seem right now. ‘I’m sure Martha tried to push Hannah out of the way. If it hadn’t been for her, I can’t bear to think what might have happened.’ I feel my leg begin to shake at the thought.
Tom rests his hand on my thigh to quell the trembling. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you but I’m just thinking he’s tying up loose ends. Martha could have already got rid of Alice for him.’
‘She’s not a bag of rubbish,’ I snap, uncomfortable with the way Tom talks about Alice, as if her fate is a foregone conclusion. One that I’m not prepared to fully consider just yet.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.’
‘It’s okay. Forget it.’ I try to sound gracious. ‘We need to speak to Martha again. She’s the one who holds the key to everything. She can tell us exactly what happened.’
‘I don’t think you‘ll be very welcome there. Leave it with me and I’ll speak to her.’
‘Okay, thanks.’ I take a sip of the wine, which warms and ever so slightly burns my empty stomach. I think about Tom’s theory and Leonard being involved. It’s hard to accept, but my rational thought process won’t let me rule it out. Head over heart wins every time. Despite this, there’s something nagging me at the back of my mind, something I can’t quite reach and I don’t know what it is.
‘You know Leonard’s always had an evil streak in him,’ says Tom. ‘He’s threatened me in the past. Don’t look so surprised.’
‘I just feel we’re talking about two different people. I know he can be harsh at times but I’d never have said evil.’
‘It’s different for you, he’s a family friend and all that, but there’s a side to him you haven’t seen. Why do you think he’s been divorced three times?’ Tom leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. ‘I’ve seen him in action when we went out drinking once. It wasn’t long after I’d split up with Isabella and we went to that private members’ club.’
‘Vanilla Paradise?’
‘Yeah, you know it?’
‘It’s the one McMillan owns and sacked that lad from, who is now claiming unfair dismissal.’
‘That makes sense. Well, Leonard was a complete bastard to the staff there and got really out of hand with one of the girls who performed a private dance for him. We had to pay off the girl to stop her calling the police. I’ll spare you the details, but Leonard was a complete pig.’
Somehow I feel I should be surprised or shocked, maybe both, but after the events of the past few weeks, nothing shocks me now. ‘If he has had something to do with Alice’s death, he needs stopping. We can’t let him get away with all this. Show me the files before I drink too much wine and can’t make head nor tail of it all.’
We go into the second bedroom, which is no more than a box room. I’m not even sure you’d be able to fit a single bed in it. There’s just enough room for a desk and a filing cabinet. Tom switches on the laptop and takes a box from the drawer, which contains several memory sticks.
‘I don’t keep anything important on the hard drive itself. Too easily corrupted,’ he explains. Within a few minutes he has logged in and is calling up the files. There are several folders within folders and Tom finally gets to the one he’s after.
‘Right, here we go. Here’s a list of the transactions, the dates, description and amount and over here is a list of where I’ve tracked the payments to. They criss-cross numerous accounts and are disguised within other transactions, but if you follow this flow chart I made, you can see that ultimately the payment ends up in an off-shore account, which is then linked to Leonard. Have a look.’
I follow the flow chart and look through the various documents Tom has copied into the files as supporting evidence. It’s like a spider’s web of transactions and, to be honest, company law is not my area of speciality and after a while I lose track and have to take Tom’s flow chart as gospel.
‘Okay, I’m no expert on this type of law but, if you’ve got all the evidence to back this up, then what are we waiting for?’
‘I’ve only just put all the pieces of the jigsaw together. I’ve still got to get some sort of proof that the funds end up back with Leonard. Once I’ve got that and spoken to Martha, then there’s nothing to stop us.’
‘Do you think Martha will be able to implicate Leonard? Thinking about it, she did try to warn me someone else was involved. She phoned me when I got back into the UK and I had some threatening text messages. They must have been from Leonard. Do you think you’ll be able to persuade Martha to give evidence against Leonard?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose it depends how deeply she’s involved.’
‘Martha is the weak link. If we can get to her, then we’ve got a case.’ I sit back in the chair and let out a sigh. ‘At least then Mum and Luke will be able to see I wasn’t imagining things where Martha was concerned.’ I look at Tom. He isn’t smiling. In fact, he has an almost sorrowful look on his face. ‘What is it?’
‘Nothing.’
‘There’s something you’re not telling me. I know that look. What are you holding back?’