“Eh…yes…we’re concerned about why she’s marrying him,” Arthur said, picking up the thread of the story. “She doesn’t seem to love him, or even like him very much, so we’re worried something dodgy is going on. Like maybe he’s blackmailing her to marry him…or something.”
Graham was tapping away on his keyboard. “What makes you think it’s blackmail?”
“Well, it just doesn’t make sense why she’d go ahead with this marriage. They barely know each other. And we think she might actually be in love with someone else, which is what makes her engagement to Haselby all the stranger.”
Pierce looked up from his computer. “Is this Mr. Haselby very rich?”
Arthur gulped. Had Pierce read the Bridgerton books and recognized the story, and now he was toying with Arthur before he hurt him?
“Erm, yes,” Arthur said, carefully.
Pierce nodded. “I thought as much. Do you think it’s possible that your daughter is marrying him for his money? I see it all the time, women settling for men far below them just because the guy offers financial security. Maybe it’s nothing more sinister than that?”
“I don’t think it’s that. My daughter isn’t short of money, you see; she’s very wealthy.” Arthur saw the PI take in his frayed jumper and ancient trousers and added, “She’s done well for herself in business, she’s one of those entrepreneurs.”
“And I assume you’ve tried asking her if there’s anything untoward going on?”
“We have but she won’t tell us what’s wrong. She just keeps saying she knows what she’s doing, but we can tell something’s up.”
“I see. And how would you like me to help?”
“We were wondering if you could do some digging and find out more about Ricky,” Ash said. “And also, maybe find out if there’s anything in my mum’s life that she might be being blackmailed about.”
“I can certainly try,” Graham said. “I’d suggest that with a case such as this, you’d want to start with some surveillance work of the two of them, both physical and digital. Depending on how that goes, we can then consider other approaches. Is there a date for the planned wedding?”
“Eh yes, next February,” Arthur said.
“Okay, so that only gives us a couple of months,” Graham said, typing another note.
Arthur glanced over at Ash and caught the boy’s eye. This was going well so far; the PI didn’t seem to be suspicious. But now was the trickier part.
“If you did manage to find evidence that Ricky has been blackmailing my Lucy, what would be the next steps?” Arthur hoped this question sounded more innocent than it felt.
“Well, I suppose I’d suggest you confront your daughter with the evidence and see how she reacts,” the PI said. “If that still doesn’t make her change her mind about the wedding then you’d have two choices: either take the evidence to the police, assuming it was enough to get him prosecuted, or let the wedding go ahead.”
“We don’t want the wedding going ahead,” Arthur said. “That man is a scumbag, and I know he’ll make Lucy unhappy. Are there any other ways we could stop it happening?”
Arthur didn’t dare look at the PI as he asked this. Phyllis had been adamant about this line of questioning; once they’d got Pierce to believe their story, they had to try and get him to open up about his other services, those he didn’t advertise on his website. The sameservices he might have offered Cynthia Watkins to deal with Eve and Michael.
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean, Mr. Benedick,” Graham said.
Arthur clenched his hands together in his lap to stop them shaking. This was his big moment; if he got this next bit wrong then Pierce might realize they were here under false pretenses, tie them up and interrogate them until they confessed the truth. And Esi always joked that someone only had to tickle Arthur and he’d give up his life secrets.
“Well, say we didn’t have enough evidence to go to the police, but we knew Ricky’s been blackmailing Lucy,” he said carefully. “Are there any other ways we could stop the wedding happening? Any ways we could make Ricky…go away?”
Graham didn’t answer and Arthur felt the question hang in the air. He glanced at Ash and could see the boy’s face was pale. The seconds ticked by, and Arthur waited for the moment Graham pulled out a gun and pointed it straight at Arthur’s head. Or worse, at Ash’s. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
A loud noise shattered the silence and Arthur leaped in his chair. He opened his eyes, terrified of what he was about to see.
“Is that…‘Blaze of Glory’ by Jon Bon Jovi?” Ash asked, as music blasted out from somewhere on the desk.
“I’m sorry, it’s my phone’s ringtone,” Graham said, rummaging around to try and locate it. “I thought it was on silent.”
The music continued to blare out.
“I think it might be here,” Ash said, and he pushed aside some paper and produced a buzzing mobile, handing it to Graham.
“Thanks, let me just turn that o—”
