Unveiling Lies (Eastcove Lies Book 2) Page 6

  ‘Suzanna!’ Arabella’s voice axe chopped through the hardwood door. ‘Are you ever emerging from that pit of a bed of yours? Your father and I are popping into the town for a spot of light lunch, would you care to join us? We’ve barely seen you in the last twenty-four hours.’

  ‘No, thanks.’

  ‘But you could drive us into town.’

  ‘It’ll only take you thirty minutes to walk it. You were saying how you want to keep fit even if you can’t afford the gym fees.’

  ‘In all of this snow?’ her mother wailed. ‘My boots will be ruined!’

  ‘You can use my wellingtons,’ Suzy offered generously. ‘They’re in the porch cupboard.’

  ‘Did you hear that, Richard?’ Suzy heard her mother ask her father. ‘I’ve never worn wellingtons in my life and, at fifty-six, I’m not about to start now!’

  ‘You may as well,’ returned her father’s voice. ‘I can’t afford to buy you a new pair of winter boots this year.’

  ‘Trust you to invest all of our savings in some stupid business. What was it again?’ Arabella asked, their voices moving away from the other side of Suzy’s door.

  ‘Never mind now,’ Richard replied. ‘I’ve enough money to treat us to a meal at the drop-in centre.’

  Suzy smiled despite herself, imagining the look of sheer panic upon her mother’s perfectly made-up face. She powered up her laptop and loaded the memory stick. Simon had arranged the stick’s contents as neatly as he’d kept his home. There was a folder marked “Beach Scenes” which held Simon’s amateur yet artistic shots of the local beaches, another labelled “Suzanna” which was self-explanatory yet Suzy painstakingly studied each photograph of the pair of them, looking for clues about Simon’s unhappiness in his life with her, within that folder was another, dully called “Recipes From TV”. Suzy clicked on it and discovered within in it lay a final folder entitled “Adelaida Marovia”.

  ‘So you did like the ladies then, Simon!’ Suzy chuckled, clicking the folder open.

  Confusion furrowed her brow. This was the folder containing the cemetery photographs but who was Adelaida Marovia? Suzy clicked through the pictures in turn. After the last photograph was a written document which Suzy curiously opened. Carrying the laptop to her bed, she tucked her feet up to read the lengthy text in comfort. The title at the top of the page read “My research so far”. Suzy’s eyes skimmed over the first paragraph which was completely in Russian and therefore, indecipherable to her.

  The second, however was not and Suzy read it carefully.

  “23rd May 2012 - I have been reading about Adelaida Marovia of Koravkovia and believe she is my great grandmother. My mother never spoke of her family and I always assumed it was due to a long-standing family feud.

  “Adelaida Marovia fled her home, arriving in England in nineteen-ten amid fears for her life. Marovia brought with her only two prized possessions: her baby son, who later died aged eighteen months from a severe chest infection, and a precious ring given to her by her husband Igor Viktor Marov. She entered the country under the false surname Petrova.”

  Suzy’s thoughts turned instantly to the Vydrina Diamond ring she had held in her hands but was now hidden in the dead Gerard’s secret safe. Surely the Russian connection couldn’t be pure coincidence?

  “Adelaida’s husband, Igor, eventually joined her in the UK four years later, also under an assumed male version of his wife’s false surname, Petrov. Adelaida went on to give birth to a further child in nineteen-twenty-two, Yulia Petrova who they raised in England.

  “Adelaida and her husband never returned to their home in Koravkovia. Yulia married a British man with the surname of Oswald and they had one daughter born in nineteen-fifty-five, Tatyana Kyzenia Oswald - shortened into English as Tanya Oswald. This,” Simon had continued writing, “was my mother’s maiden name.”

  Suzy, already well aware of Simon’s mother’s name, having known her for as long as she had known Simon, struggled to absorb all of the information. Simon’s great grandmother came from Koravkovia? She stretched onto her belly and carried on reading.

  “My mother spent some time travelling after university before returning to the UK but she kept this hidden from her mother, my grandmother Yulia, who I never had the opportunity to meet.”

  Suzy, her neck aching, realised her face was only a few inches from the screen and changed position, lifting the laptop onto her lap, and leant back against the headboard.

  “There was a ring which seemed to have been passed down from mother to daughter and, I suspect, ended up with my mother but when pressed she seems to know nothing of its existence.”

  Suzy frowned, so the ring Simon had wrapped as her Christmas gift, the Vydrina Diamond, was a different ring entirely? Suzy returned to reading, the next entry being dated 15th June 2012.

  “My mother has fallen off her horse. I’m not sure how this happened as she’s normally such an excellent rider. I checked her tack and there doesn’t seem to be anything amiss. She has been airlifted to a private hospital in Scotland and is at present on life-support. My father is with her. I will follow tomorrow.

  “16th June 2012 - My mother did not make it, the fall had caused extreme head trauma and the doctor assured my father the kindest thing to do was to switch off the life-support machine due to no brain activity.”

  Suzy wiped tears, which had fallen unnoticed, from her cheeks. Yikes, no wonder Stephen kept Tanya’s ashes on prominent display.

  “30th November 2012 - My father is like a sinking stone, still so consumed with grief at the loss of his much-loved wife. I fear I cannot press him for information so I hired a private detective who has finally directed me to a cemetery in Golston and a particular crypt bearing the family name of Marov. He visited the cemetery himself and managed to take some photographs but was unable to access the crypt. It would appear my grandmother, Yulia, was buried there under the original family surname.

  “6th December 2012 - Yulia’s crypt: After much subterfuge, Nathaniel and I managed to gain access to it!”

  Suzy’s heart experienced a stab at the mention of her fiancé’s lover.

  “Nathaniel, being bolder than I, was the first to peer into the sarcophagus and spy the box beside my grandmother’s bones. It was there we found what we believe to be the lost Vydrina Diamond.”

  Suzy let out a low whistle, the Vydrina Diamond was a family heirloom too, it must be.

  “I think my mother, through fear, hid the diamond with her mother’s body and told no-one of her real heritage. What I am yet to uncover is how the Vydrina Diamond came into my mother’s possession as it is most definitely not the ring Adelaida brought to England with her from Koravkovia.

  “This begs the other question - where is Adelaida Marovia’s original ring and what did it look like?”

  Suzy laid the laptop to one side and made her way down to the kitchen for a glass of water. Why had Simon wrapped the Vydrina Diamond as a Christmas present for her? Why not secure it in a safety-deposit box? Suzy’s spine tingled. What if Simon knew someone was coming for the Vydrina Diamond and had been attempting to hide it? What if that someone now thought Suzy had the ring? It must be the same someone who murdered Gerard and his family, and then turned on Nathaniel, and of course, the same someone who began their murderous spree with the stabbing of Simon. Suzy gulped, she too had seen the Vydrina Diamond - did that mean she would lose her eyes?

  Nervously, Suzy raced around her tiny house ensuring every window and door was securely locked. Setting the alarm as she would for night time, she hurried back up to her laptop.

  “12th December 2012 - I grow increasingly concerned at having the Vydrina Diamond in my possession and wish I could sell the wretched thing to make a new life for myself but I can’t. My mother hid it for a reason and I need to know why. Apart from its obvious monetary value, I don’t understand the need for secrecy. Why didn’t she simply sell it?

  “Nathaniel returned to my grandmother, Yulia’s, crypt and uncovered
another hidden box containing handwritten notes from my mother - faded through age - and one name keeps cropping up; Rodion Ioselovich. Who is this Ioselovich character? How does my mother know him and is he the one my mother hid the diamond from?”

  Suzy scrolled to the bottom of the document to find no further entries, it would appear that if Simon had uncovered the identity of Rodion Ioselovich and established what the original ring from Koravkovia looked like, he had died before recording it.

  Suzy stretched back, the laptop screen shining tauntingly bright, and vowed to find out for herself who this Ioselovich character was, and how the hell to locate the whereabouts of Gerard’s secret safe.

  Three-hundred and twenty-five million pounds was a ridiculous sum of money to give up on.

  It could mean buying her parents a brand new house and regaining her own space.

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  Suzy scribbled a note for her parents, telling them she was heading to the nearby shopping centre to buy a new mobile phone. Not having one since the mugging made her feel somehow disembodied. Her mother’s mobile had been offered up but it was ancient and Suzy doubted whether it could even handle a simple text message.

  She stamped her feet to warm them as she scraped an avalanche of snow from her car. Her nose was running and she decided she hated snow, it was fine for watching from a window while drinking a mug of hot chocolate and being toasty warmed beside a roaring fire but for driving in, no.

  The road outside had been cleared, no doubt by the residents committee as the road was not adopted. After negotiating her snow filled driveway, Suzy manoeuvred the small, red car onto the road. Turning left, she glanced back at her house and stamped on the brake, strangling herself with her seatbelt in her haste.

  What was that on the front door?

  Flinging open the car door, she jumped out of the vehicle, promptly skidded on an icy patch and landed on her bottom. Inelegantly, she grappled with the open car door until finding her feet. The pavement was slippery from having been walked over many times, compressing the snow. Suzy tentatively picked her way across it and gratefully stepped onto the untouched white covered grass in her front garden where it was far easier to maintain a firm footing. She did not know why she had not seen the thing hanging from the front doorknob when she had been scraping the car. She had left the house by the back door which was closer to where she parked but had that thing been there then?

  A thought chilled her, or had someone put it there while she was busy with the car?

  The single stone step under the front door had footprints in the snow, Suzy’s parents had left a few hours ago and no fresh snow had fallen so that alone was not a surprise, but within the hollows of the footprints pooled a red liquid. With shaky hands, Suzy reached for the plastic bag suspended from the brass doorknob. She glimpsed the top of a bloodied scalp before an unearthly wail filled her ears. Blackness enveloped her and she passed out, crashing to the ground. The bag slipped from her grasp and the contents rocked towards Suzy until, making contact with the crook of her arm, the severed head came to rest.

  * * *

  ‘She’s coming to.’ A paramedic gestured to Detective Julian Sanders.

  Suzy groaned, propping up on one elbow. ‘What’s going on?’

  Julian dipped his dark-haired head and eased his tall frame into the back of the ambulance, perching opposite Suzy who was on a stretcher. ‘You hit your head when you fainted. Luckily for you, you fell back like a domino and your head landed on the snowy grass. It could have been far worse.’

  ‘I feel like I’ve been hit with a sledge hammer.’ Suzy slowly eased into a sitting position.

  ‘Minus the caved in skull,’ Julian joked.

  Suzy shuddered. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Forensics have the head.’

  Suzy briefly closed her eyes but even then the image was scorched into the back of her eyelids. ‘Whose head is it?’

  ‘We don’t know at this stage.’

  ‘Do you think it’s linked to Simon’s murder?’

  ‘We’re not sure. Why, do you?’ Julian’s dark eyes burned with intense interest.

  Suzy took a deep breath. If the head was a warning to her, it meant the killer was closing in but what she couldn’t work out was why, unlike the other victims, she had been allowed to live. ‘I do. Have you heard of the Vydrina Diamond?’

  Julian shook his head.

  ‘So,’ Julian said, when Suzy had finished explaining about the diamond. ‘You have no idea where the Vydrina Diamond ring is now?’

  Suzy shook her head. ‘Nope.’

  ‘And you’re sure you’ve told me everything?’

  ‘Yes.’ Apart from the details about Adelaida’s missing original ring from Koravkovia, she added silently, but as she didn’t even know what it looked like, or its value, it was hardly worth mentioning.

  Julian joined Suzy on the stretcher. ‘You’re looking decidedly pale. Have you eaten today?’

  Suzy shook her head, her stomach growling noisily at the thought of food. She had not written a single food review since a few days before her ill-fated non-wedding.

  ‘I’ll take you for an early dinner,’ Julian said. ‘After the paramedic has given you the all clear, and if you want to.’

  Suzy’s eyes flitted across the detective’s chiselled features, his dark eyebrows were a little too thick but his long eyelashes were to die for. She thought of Simon and his cool, blond-haired beauty. Julian was the right side of different and although all she wanted to do was eat, she could not repress faint flutters of attraction.

  Julian’s roomy, black car was a luxurious leap up from her own tiny vehicle and Suzy settled comfortably into the passenger seat. The paramedic had given her some pain relief with instruction to purchase strong headache tablets and she was already beginning to feel a whole lot better.

  Julian was a confident driver and the journey to the seafront took only a matter of minutes. Luck was on their side as there were an array of vacant parking spaces directly outside a new Italian restaurant overlooking Eastcove harbour.

  ‘I’m not dressed for this!’ Suzy protested, gesturing at her chunky cable-knit sweater and skinny jeans.

  Julian held out a hand. ‘You look fabulous. Now take my hand so you don’t slip. We don’t want you hitting your head again, do we?’

  As his warm hand captured hers, Suzy wondered whether the action was entirely appropriate considering his involvement in the case of Simon’s murder. Carefully she began to ease her fingers free but Julian caught her hand back up again and smiled encouragingly.

  ‘No-one’s watching us,’ he said with a wink. ‘Not that I would care if they were.’

  The restaurant was surprisingly full despite the lack of cars outside and Suzy was pleasantly pleased to note most people had opted for sensible, warm clothing rather than glamourous outfits. Heat blasted from a roaring coal fire opposite the bar.

  Julian removed his overcoat and hooked it over his arm while meandering through a break in the crowd surrounding the bar. He offered an empty stall to Suzy.

  ‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked.

  ‘I’d love a glass of wine but I think I should stick to orange juice else I’ll be floating out of my seat!’

  Julian laughed and placed their orders with the bartender.

  ‘It’s nice in here,’ Suzy observed. ‘I’ve not been here before—oh, bloody hell what’s he doing here?’

  ‘Who?’ Julian followed Suzy’s line of sight. ‘Who is he?’

  Suzy pulled her hair over her face, peeking out from underneath it, maybe he wouldn’t notice her. ‘He rescued my handbag for me the other day when I was mugged.’

  Julian gently lifted Suzy’s hair up and peered down at her. ‘You were mugged?’ His dark eyes glowed with concern.

  Suzy nodded. ‘On the seafront, it was after I’d visited the jeweller’s about the ring.’

  ‘You should have called me immediately.’

&
nbsp; ‘I reported it to the station but only my mobile phone was taken.’

  ‘I can track your phone if you give me the number.’

  Suzy became acutely aware of someone standing in close proximity to her on the opposite side and she didn’t need to turn to see who; her nostrils recognised the heaviness of Sevastian’s aftershave. Suzy shook her head, why had she remembered that? Underneath the cosy fuzz of her jumper her skin prickled, hypersensitive to the body-heat radiating from Sevastian. He was silent, staring straight ahead as if he had not even seen her.

  ‘Shall we find a table?’ Julian gathered up their glasses and his overcoat.

  Suzy hopped off the stool, deliberating ignoring Sevastian yet she knew his head had turned for she could feel the burn of his gaze as she followed Julian to a table by the window.

  * * *

  Alyona tied the belt of her fox-fur coat snugly around her waist and lifted the hood over her head. The grand house was in darkness, Stephen having retired to his suite mid-afternoon. He had declined Alyona’s offer of food and she had stayed behind after the other staff members had left in the event he would needed anything. Stephen Prendergast wasn’t the worst employer in the world but Alyona was only working there for one reason and after almost six months in his employ she was no nearer to finding what she had been searching for.

  The walk through the dense snow to the little cottage at the edge of the estate, which came as part of her employment package as assistant housekeeper, took Alyona twice as long as usual as she’d forgotten her torch. A light glowed from the kitchen window of the cottage, illuminating a warm reflection onto the snow and Alyona happily hurried inside.

  A sweater clad man smiled when she swept into the room, cold swirling around her. Alyona shut the door, flipping the latch behind her, and greeted the man with an effusive kiss.

  ‘Maxim! How lovely to see you in this country. Does your presence mean you know where it is?’ Her pale eyes shone.