Lost Voyage Read online

  Marvik noted the acidity in his voice.

  ‘And if I had she’d only have demanded to know why I wasn’t at work. I didn’t want a scene.’ He spoke wearily, as though there had been many scenes over the years. Marvik was getting the impression that the mother and son relationship was as strained as the one he’d witnessed that morning between mother and daughter-in-law. He wondered if Karen was the cause of the disharmony or had it always been that way?

  ‘I thought that perhaps she’d caught him doing something foolish or illegal and was scolding him for it.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was about to drive away when she marched to her car and drove off very fast. She wouldn’t have registered I was there even if I’d been parked opposite her or close by.’

  ‘And Yardly? What did he do?’

  ‘He headed towards the Belle Tout Lighthouse.’

  In the direction of Eastbourne. ‘Did you see his expression?’

  ‘He looked quite calm. He didn’t seem upset or angry.’

  ‘Did he show your mother anything? A map, mobile phone?’

  ‘No. He was carrying a rucksack but I didn’t see him take anything out of it or put anything inside it.’ Landguard ran a hand through his lank, light-brown hair, and then, flicking his eyes to Marvik, quickly put his hand back on the table.

  ‘Did anyone follow him on to the Downs?’

  ‘Not that I remember. No, I don’t think so. I wasn’t really looking. I pushed it out of my mind and went for my walk.’

  Marvik asked him to describe Yardly.

  ‘Slim, short, light auburn hair.’

  ‘What was he wearing?’

  ‘Jeans and a navy-blue zip-up waterproof jacket.’

  ‘So how did you know this man was Gavin Yardly?’

  Landguard again swallowed hard. ‘I walked for two hours.’ He paused and took a breath. The wind was ripping through the marina and Marvik could hear the rain hitting the deck. He could see that Landguard was steeling himself to relay what had happened. It had disturbed him deeply enough to lead him to search Bradshaw’s boat.

  ‘I thought about going home as though I’d just come in from work. Karen wouldn’t be there. She was fetching Charlie from Mum’s after her meeting. Then I decided to fetch Charlie myself, go home and put him to bed so that Karen and I could discuss things.’

  Marvik didn’t need to ask what things.

  ‘I parked on the driveway and was about to use my key to the front door when I saw the side gate was open, so I walked to the back of the house. There’s a utility room that leads into the kitchen and the door was unlocked, so I went in and then I froze. Mum was on the phone. She was shouting and swearing. It was so totally out of character. My mother never has to shout to get what she wants.’ The bitter tone was back in his voice. He blinked rapidly as though disturbed by the memory. ‘She was talking to Bradshaw.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ Marvik sharply asked.

  ‘Because she said the name Ian.’

  ‘It could have been someone else called Ian.’

  ‘It wasn’t. She was talking about my father’s ship, the Mary Jo, and Ian Bradshaw worked for Helmsley Marine who owned it.’

  Had he, indeed! This was getting even more interesting. Another connection. ‘When?’ Marvik asked, keenly interested.

  ‘When the Mary Jo was lost at sea, in 2003.’

  ‘What was his job?’

  ‘I don’t know, something to do with contracts and accounts, I think. It was him my mother was speaking to on the phone because I checked her call log when she left the room to fetch Charlie. It was Ian Bradshaw’s mobile phone number.’

  And Landguard would know that because he’d found it on his wife’s mobile. ‘And she mentioned Gavin Yardly?’

  Landguard nodded. ‘I heard her say, “Where the hell have you been, Ian, I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours”. Then she shouted, “I’ll tell you what’s wrong. Gavin fucking Yardly, that’s what”.’ Landguard winced at the memory. Marvik knew it was because he was seeing a completely different side to his mother, one he’d never witnessed before. It had shocked him. ‘She said that Yardly had called her on her mobile. She asked if Bradshaw had given the number to him. He must have said he hadn’t because she asked how the hell he’d got it. She said that Yardly had asked her to meet him at the Birling Gap because he had something to tell her about the Mary Jo. She said, “He knows what happened. For Christ’s sake, how can he?”’

  ‘Were those her exact words?’ Marvik sharply interjected.

  ‘Yes. It puzzled me. No one knows what happened to that boat, only what’s in the marine accident investigation report. She said that if Bradshaw didn’t “sort it” they would “both be in the shit”. She said she’d meet Bradshaw on his boat that night in an hour’s time.’

  ‘This was the Friday before last?’ Marvik asked just to check because Landguard had already told him this.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And she asked Bradshaw for the security code to get into the marina?’

  ‘Yes. She wrote it on the pad in the kitchen.’

  ‘And you jotted it down. Why? Did you think of going to the boat to demand what it was all about?’

  Landguard flushed. ‘It crossed my mind but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get Charlie home and get there in time.’

  Yeah, and Marvik thought Landguard wanted the security code in case he wanted to catch his wife on board Bradshaw’s boat at some stage. But hearing his mother agree to meet Bradshaw meant that his wife wouldn’t be with him – not unless he ditched her first.

  ‘My mother was about to come off the phone so I hurried outside and let myself in the front, calling out as I did. She met me in the hall. I told her I’d decided to leave work early and collect Charlie – he was upstairs asleep. I said I needed a drink of water. While she went to fetch him I went into the kitchen. Her phone was lying on the work surface. That’s when I checked the number she’d called, wrote the marina security code number down and stuffed the paper into my pocket.’

  It explained how Landguard had entered the marina pontoons but not how he’d got inside Bradshaw’s boat. Marvik asked him.

  ‘It was open.’

  Marvik eyed him disbelievingly. He certainly hadn’t left it unlocked and he didn’t think the police would have done.

  ‘I didn’t expect it to be,’ Landguard hastily added. ‘I thought I could force the lock but when I climbed on board and tried the door to the cabin it just opened.’

  So who had been on board after him and Helen? Had Bradshaw’s killer searched it in case he’d left some incriminating evidence there? But Marvik, not the killer, had the boat keys, unless the killer had a duplicate set, given to him by Bradshaw. Perhaps the plan had been to kill Bradshaw on his boat, only the killer hadn’t expected him to follow Helen back to her flat.

  ‘And you found what?’ asked Marvik.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘What did you expect to find?’

  Landguard again ran his hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know. Something. Anything that might tell me what’s happening.’

  Marvik left a short pause. ‘Did you ask your mother about Gavin Yardly?’

  He looked aghast at the suggestion. ‘Of course not. She’d have been furious that I’d eavesdropped.’

  ‘But it concerned your father.’

  His mouth tightened. ‘We don’t talk about him or what happened.’

  ‘Why not?’

  His eye contact dropped. He muttered, ‘She said it was too painful for her.’

  And what about you? thought Marvik, studying Landguard, seeing the hurt in his eyes. Had his mother not considered it to be extremely painful for her son?

  Landguard added in a slightly apologetic manner, ‘She said we couldn’t change what had happened so there was little point in discussing it and dragging it up all the time. It was the past and it doesn’t pay to look back. You have to move on.’

&n
bsp; His words struck a chord with Marvik. It was what he had told himself after his parents’ deaths. He had blotted out his emotional feelings by mental and physical exertion, pushing himself to the limits so that he could obliterate the past, except the past was finally catching up with him through Sarah Redburn’s death and that notebook. But, even now, he recognized that he was still pushing it away, waiting for the next incident, the next attempt on his life, the one thing that would force him to confront the past. For Meryl Landguard, that had been Gavin Yardly, and Yardly, along with Bradshaw, had been killed because of it. Was Meryl Landguard in danger? Possibly. Or was she their killer?

  He said, ‘Have you ever thought there was something suspicious concerning the loss of the Mary Jo?’

  ‘No.’

  But Marvik could see that was a lie.

  Landguard quickly went on: ‘When my mother was on the phone to Bradshaw I heard her say, “You know him?” meaning Gavin Yardly after she’d told him that Yardly had confronted her. I don’t know what Bradshaw answered but my mother swore again and said something about Yardly living and working right under Bradshaw’s nose. She asked if Yardly had said anything to Bradshaw about the Mary Jo. I don’t know what his answer was. I thought that if he was living under Bradshaw’s nose then he must be renting one of his flats. I couldn’t ask Karen because she’d want to know why I was interested. The next day I called Medlowes. I didn’t think anyone would recognize my voice because I don’t phone Karen on the office line, only on her mobile, and then not very often. Danny answered. I pretended to be a friend of Gavin Yardly’s and asked for his address. I said I’d mislaid it. He gave it to me.’ Marvik could see where this was leading.

  ‘You went to visit him?’

  ‘Yes. But not until last Thursday. I’ve been, er, busy.’

  Or ruminating over what to do and whether to follow it up, thought Marvik.

  ‘I took the afternoon off work and waited outside the house in Harold Road. But he didn’t show up.’

  ‘What time was this?’

  ‘I reached there at about four and stayed until eight. I usually get home between seven thirty and eight so I had to leave because Karen would have been suspicious if I’d got home too late. And I couldn’t take any more time off work so I couldn’t return on Friday. Karen was off over the weekend, which meant I didn’t get the chance to get back there and we had an urgent project to complete on Monday and Tuesday. We worked well into Monday night and I stayed in London at a colleague’s flat.’

  That ruled him out of killing Bradshaw, if his alibi was genuine, but Marvik had already discounted Landguard as a killer.

  Landguard was saying, ‘I didn’t know about Bradshaw being found dead until I was on my way home on the train yesterday and I was scrolling through the news and social media websites. Then Karen told me the police had been to the office and they’d been asking about Gavin Yardly. He was missing and I thought he might have got the better of Bradshaw in a fight or a struggle or something. I wondered if Gavin Yardly was related to one of the crew who had gone down with the ship. Maybe he’d discovered something that he thought put the blame on Ian Bradshaw for the loss at sea. Bradshaw could have been in charge of safety and he skimped on it and told my mother, only she forgot to tell my father or didn’t think it was important. When I searched the Internet this morning at lunchtime I read that Gavin Yardly’s body had been found at the bottom of the cliff close to where my mother had met him.’

  ‘And not far from where she lives.’

  He nodded miserably. Could Stephen Landguard really believe his mother capable of murder? Possibly. But it was also possible that he believed Bradshaw had ‘sorted’ Yardly by killing him. He wouldn’t know the exact times of their deaths. He could be thinking that Yardly had died first at Bradshaw’s hand or his mother’s, or they’d both colluded in it, and then Meryl had killed Bradshaw because he threatened to blackmail her. And where did he think his wife fitted into all this? He was clearly tormented. Marvik could see he hadn’t been sleeping properly and probably not eating either. He’d suspected his wife’s affair for some time, and when he’d finally decided to face her about it he’d witnessed the exchange between his mother and Yardly, followed by her uncharacteristic conversation with the man his wife was sleeping with and the connection to his father’s death. He was mentally exhausted, and in his highly-charged emotional state anything, no matter how irrational, seemed possible.

  ‘How did your mother seem to you after Bradshaw’s death?’

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen or spoken to her.’

  Marvik was getting the impression that Landguard had rarely talked to his mother about anything other than routine and essential matters. But then he had hardly been in his own parents’ confidence and he’d never had the opportunity to confide in them, not after he’d been sent away to school. In Landguard’s case, clearly mother and son were not close. But he had once been close to his parents during the days spent on Vasa, their boat. Why had that changed so dramatically and suddenly? He pushed his personal thoughts and feelings aside.

  Marvik wondered what Meryl Landguard had done when she’d heard the news of Bradshaw’s death. How had she felt? Appalled? Upset? Not if she had killed him. When Marvik had first met her she’d been hostile and stunned by his mention of Gavin Yardly, but not fearful. From what he was learning about her from her son’s description, Meryl Landguard was tough, resilient and resourceful, but Yardly’s confrontation with her had rattled her enough to prompt her into rage and blasphemy which, according to Stephen, was uncharacteristic of his mother, but how did he know that? Perhaps that was the other side of Meryl Landguard which she’d kept well hidden from her son and his wife. He sensed that Landguard had more to tell but for now Marvik didn’t press him. Instead, he asked if he had discussed any of this with his wife. Predictably, Landguard said he hadn’t.

  ‘But you have talked about Ian Bradshaw’s death?’

  Landguard flushed and looked away. That was a no, then. ‘Did you tell Karen you were coming here?’

  ‘No! We haven’t spoken since this morning when I left for work.’

  So Karen Landguard wouldn’t have made any mention of seeing Marvik at her mother-in-law’s house or the fact he’d visited her office.

  ‘How did you get here?’

  ‘My car’s in the marina car park.’

  ‘Give me your keys.’

  Landguard reached into his pocket and handed them over.

  ‘Get up.’

  Landguard scrambled out of the seat.

  ‘You want to know what was going on with Mary Jo and so do I, so let’s go and ask your mother.’

  NINE

  Marvik turned into the driveway. The house was in darkness but the car headlights picked out the front door, which was open. There was no sign of the Audi. It could be in the garage and Meryl Landguard could also be inside it, retrieving or checking up on something, but would she leave the front door open and the house in darkness? It seemed unlikely.

  He glanced at the dashboard clock even though he knew the time. It was almost nine thirty. An unusual time to be poking about in the garage, or wandering around in the garden in the dark in this heavy rain and wind, unless she was trying to hide something that could expose whatever it was she and Bradshaw had been up to in 2003 which involved the Mary Jo. But she’d had well over a decade to do that. Perhaps she had forgotten to close the front door, or the wind had blown it open and she’d retired to bed. Perhaps Meryl Landguard had gone to visit friends and had left the door open by mistake. Again, unlikely. Or perhaps she’d been abducted and her kidnapper had left the door open behind him in a hurry, taking her car.

  He stilled the engine and listened. Only the drumming of the rain on the car roof greeted him. He steeled himself for the fact that she could be dead inside the house, killed by the same person who had slit Bradshaw’s throat and dumped Gavin Yardly’s body on the beach.

  Stephen Landguard voiced Marvik’s quest
ion. ‘Why is the door open?’ he asked, bewildered.

  ‘Do you have a key to the garage?’

  ‘No, it’s in the kitchen on a hook in the cupboard.’

  ‘We’ll try the doors first.’ Marvik climbed out, leaving Landguard to follow. They were locked. Marvik peered through the side window. There was no car inside. Landguard was looking understandably mystified and worried. Marvik quickly scoured the outside of the house. If Meryl Landguard had been abducted, forced into her car and driven off there was the chance that someone was watching to see who showed up, although a better alternative was that they had placed a surveillance device. But if this killer had been in league with Meryl and Bradshaw over the loss of the Mary Jo and was the only one left who knew the truth of what had happened on that last voyage, he probably saw no need to mount any surveillance. He’d believe he was safe. Unless, said the small voice in the back of Marvik’s mind, he’d seen him and Helen at her flat and was the person who had tipped off the police. He might be curious about him but he had no reason to suspect he knew anything about what happened to that vessel, not unless Meryl had gone blabbing to him after he’d shown up here twice today. And that meant the killer would know he’d been asking about Gavin Yardly and the Mary Jo. He’d come after him. That didn’t worry Marvik. It was part of the deal but he needed to be alone. He didn’t want to have to protect Stephen Landguard and neither did he wish to put him in danger.

  His thoughts had taken him to the front of the house. He gestured at Landguard to keep quiet and stepped inside, into the darkness. Again, he stood absolutely still and listened. Only Stephen Landguard’s laboured breathing greeted him. Marvik could tell there was no one here dead, which was a relief, but it was short-lived because Meryl’s body could be in the garden, although he thought it more likely she’d be found slumped over the steering wheel of her car in a remote spot and her death made to look like suicide.