Free The Ties That Bind by Erin Kelly Page B

word lovers , with its connotations of longing and skin and tangled sheets, hardly seemed the right word for two people so far past their sexual peak. Sweethearts? Companions?
    The old man broke into his thoughts. ‘And you say you’re not family?’ Luke nodded his head then shook it and his visitor reverted to his original menace. ‘What are you then, a squatter? Would you jump in her grave as quick?’
    ‘Do you want to me throw him out, sir?’ asked the chauffeur.
    ‘What? No! Look, I’ve got a key . . .’ said Luke, drawing from his pocket the gold fob. ‘I got it from the estate age . . .’ his voice faltered as he realised who his visitor must be, and he had the horrible feeling that he had just signed Charlene’s P45. Luke now felt the cold black ink of guilt seep into his blood. He did not trust himself to speak in case he further incriminated Charlene.
    Joss Grand’s light wheeze turned into desperate sucking inhalation and the impassive driver was finally animated by anxiety.
    ‘Right, sir, into the car.’ The old man allowed himself to be led by the elbow back to the Bentley. ‘You know you mustn’t get yourself het up. We’ll get to the bottom of this.’ The chauffeur turned over his shoulder and gave Luke the evil eye, as though he suspected him of killing Kathleen Duffy just to get his hands on this luxurious piece of real estate. The gleaming door was opened to reveal the rich garnet leather bench of the back seat. ‘You’ll be hearing from us,’ was his parting shot to Luke.
    Why ? he thought. He watched them for a few seconds, then tried to close the door. Something was in his way. The dropped posy had been crushed between the door and the jamb and Luke bent to retrieve it. The car’s back window was down and he caught the tail end of the old man’s sentence.
    ‘She was the only one who knew,’ he gasped. ‘The only one who knew and now she’s gone. Take me home, Vaughan. No, fuck it, take me back to the office.’
    The Bentley pulled away, quiet and smooth as any of its modern counterparts. Luke stood on the pavement outside the house and watched them go, the broken bouquet still in his hand.
    He called Charlene at the office and was told she was out at a viewing. Not knowing whether to feel sick or relieved, he called her mobile, trying to sound breezy as he left a message for her to call him back. He burned with the useless energy of someone who finds himself in a predicament of his own making but utterly out of his control.
    Curiosity about Joss Grand pulsed behind his concern for Charlene. While he waited for her to get back to him, it wouldn’t hurt to look up his visitor, would it? He told himself that he might even stumble across something that would help.
    He flipped open his laptop and entered Jocelyn Grand Brighton into Google and then, just before clicking ‘search’, added the nickname Joss . He bypassed the official agency website. Wikipedia didn’t have anything. But three images flashed up on screen. The first was the low-res monochrome of the police mugshot. It was the face he had just been talking to, this time under a slick wedge of black hair, the glasses sitting below full straight eyebrows and the face on the verge of a snarl. The menace Luke had detected the remains of had been alive and kicking when this picture was taken in 1957.
    He clicked through to the site, an obscure little encyclopaedia of crime. It was crudely designed, black type on a royal blue background that made it hard to read. Luke’s blood heated by a degree as he bent close to the screen and got to know his new landlord.

Chapter 12
www.crimewhoswho.co.uk
     
NAME: Jocelyn (Joss) Howard Grand
BORN: 22 July 1932
DIED:—
CONVICTIONS: 1957: Torture, conspiracy to torture, demanding money with force.
Served in Parkhurst, Isle of Wight and then Lewes, Sussex.
KNOWN ASSOCIATES: Jacky Nye, Dave Rosslyn.
TRIVIA: Confessed under arrest to being the inventor of the restraint/torture method known