'Do I take it you're leaving?' Lacey asked, nodding towards the box of personal belongings the other woman had set on the desk, and Kate sighed impatiently.

'That's right,' she said, bending over the box again, determined not to discuss the terms of her employment with Lacey. 'If you'd like to tell me what you want? As you can see, I am rather busy right now.'

'I gather Alex has fired you?'

'Not exactly.' But Kate could feel the hot colour entering her cheeks at Lacey's sardonic words.

'But you are leaving,' Lacey pointed out. 'Are you saying that it's your decision? I find it hard to believe after what he told me last night.'

Kate lifted her head. She knew Lacey wanted her to ask what Alex had said about her, but she wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing she cared. 'Does it matter?' she asked instead, knowing it was a cop-out. 'Is that why you came, Mrs Sheridan? To make sure I left the premises?'

Lacey shook her head and straightened away from the door. 'No,' she said smoothly. 'I just wanted to give you a warning. If you care anything for Alex, you'll take my advice and stay out of his life.'

Kate did look at her now. 'Are you threatening me, Mrs Sheridan?' Her heart was thumping and there was a sense of unreality about this whole scene. For heaven's sake, Lacey Sheridan had to be nearer fifty than forty. Was she implying she had some emotional influence in Alex's life?

'No. Just warning you,' responded Lacey carelessly. 'Alex and I go back a long way, and I've no intention of allowing some trashy little secretary to come between us now. What I'm saying, Mrs Hughes, is that Alex and I are lovers.' She was so close to Kate now that Kate could smell the other woman's heavy perfume mingling with the heat of her body. 'I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea.'

To Kate's relief, Joanne chose that moment to come bursting into the office. 'Hey, Mum!' she was exclaiming, her excitement evident in her voice. 'You'll never guess what Billy said-'

She broke off in some confusion when she saw her mother wasn't alone, and Lacey turned towards her with an irritated expression. 'Didn't anybody ever teach you to knock on doors before opening them?' she snapped.

Joanne seemed hesitant for a moment, but then she looked at her mother and saw Kate's strained face. She immediately adopted her most insolent att.i.tude, and, placing her hands on her hips, she responded, 'No, they didn't. And this is Mr Kellerman's office, not yours. You've got no right to tell me what to do.'

It was almost lunchtime before Kate got to her office. Susie had already left to meet her current boyfriend, and Kate sank gratefully into the chair behind her desk. What a day! she thought. What a nightmare! The only bright spot was Joanne's rout of Lacey Sheridan.

Not that Kate hadn't reproved her daughter for it. But it had been so nice to have someone taking her side for a change. After the things Alex had said, the scathing way he had dismissed their relationship, she had felt raw and used, and hearing that woman, that flashy woman, telling her that she and Alex were lovers had been the final straw.

And she had had the nerve to call Kate a 'trashy secretary'. As if she looked as if she'd ever done an honest day's work in her life! Even the clothes she'd worn had been more suitable for a woman half her age. She was a sad and jealous woman and Kate was secretly glad that Joanne had p.r.i.c.ked her bubble of conceit.

What had hurt most, though, was hearing Lacey declare that she and Alex had a relationship. It meant that what he'd scornfully described as 'good s.e.x' had not been said in the heat of the moment. He'd meant every word.

Of course, Lacey had taken umbrage at Joanne's words, and walked out threatening to tell Alex what had been going on, but that could hardly matter in the circ.u.mstances. Kate wondered if she'd threatened Alicia Sawyer too, it might explain why the other woman had left Jamaica Hill so precipitately. Left without leaving a forwarding address.

And then there'd been that interview with Detective Inspector Rivers. She hadn't liked the man, or his questions, though she supposed he was just doing his job. Not that she could help him with his investigations. She could only reiterate what she'd told Alex himself. She'd been doing a job-and not very successfully. She hoped the inspector hadn't suspected she'd let her personal feelings get in the way of objectivity where Alicia's disappearance was concerned.

Alicia...

Kate sniffed. She wished she'd never heard of Alicia. If she hadn't, she'd never have met Alex Kellerman or got involved in his personal affairs. She found no comfort in the old saying that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

She frowned and, unlocking the drawer at the side of the desk, she drew out the folder that contained all the details of the case. Her notes were there, along with the accounts she'd kept of her interviews with Billy Roach and Mrs Muir, and the snapshot Henry Sawyer had given her of his wife.

She scowled at the smudgy picture, then, reaching into the drawer again, she pulled out her eye-gla.s.s. She thought its magnifying lens might give her a clearer image of the missing woman, and when she turned on the lamp over the desk Alicia's face came slowly into focus.

But the photograph was still blurry, giving more of an impression of her appearance than anything else. Her face was there, a very attractive face as she'd recognised originally, her cloud of blonde hair serving to soften her rather sharp features.

They were almost hostile features, thought Kate, wondering why she suddenly felt that that was important. She had the strangest feeling that she'd seen that face before. Well, she had. She grimaced impatiently. In the beginning, she'd studied it to distraction. Her mind was simply creating a memory of that.

Or was it?

She chewed on her lower lip. She was sure she'd seen that face, and recently. But where? And in what connection? It didn't make sense. She tried to think. Apart from the supermarket and the snack bar, when she'd been with Alex and his daughter, she'd hardly got a social life.

She blew out a breath. It was so frustrating. Not as frustrating as Alex's dealings with his in-laws, perhaps, but close.

His in-laws!

Kate's breath caught somewhere in her throat and she strove for air. G.o.d Almighty, she breathed, when she'd recovered, that was where she'd seen Alicia. It hadn't been Mrs Wyatt she'd glimpsed peering through the window at Wyvern Hall. As crazy as it seemed she was almost sure it had been her!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

'THERE'Sa lady to see you, Kate.' Susie stood blocking the doorway to her employer's office, glancing somewhat doubtfully over her shoulder. 'She says it's urgent,' she added. And then, in a stage whisper, 'She says her name's Mrs Muir.'

Mrs Muir!

Kate got abruptly to her feet. 'Um-show her in, Susie,' she said, ignoring the younger woman's efforts to mime her disapproval. 'Go on. She won't bite.'

Susie pulled a resigned face and turned back into the office behind her.' Mrs Hughes will see you now,' she said, her offhand tone reminiscent of Joanne's. 'Go straight in.'

'Thank you.'

Mrs Muir's gentle brogue was unmistakable, and Kate found herself growing tense despite her confident words to Susie. She couldn't imagine what Alex's housekeeper could want with her.

Mrs Muir came into the office looking almost as nervous as Kate. 'Good morning, Mrs Hughes,'

she said, holding out her hand for Kate to shake, just as if she were an ordinary client. 'It's sonice to see you again.'

'Is it?' Kate couldn't help the query, but happily Mrs Muir didn't seem to think it required an answer. Susie was still hovering, so Kate asked her if she'd bring them a tray of tea. 'I'm afraid the coffee is fairly unpalatable,' she added to her visitor as she sat down again.

Mrs Muir had already subsided into the chair opposite, and now she took the time to set her handbag on the floor beside her chair. 'It's achilly day,' she said. 'Did you have a good Christmas? I expect your daughter enjoyed the celebrations.'

Kate took a deep breath. 'I'm sure you didn't come here to talk about Joanne, Mrs Muir,' she said politely. 'I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what you want.' She rustled the papers on her desk, which were actually bills, but her visitor wasn't to know that. 'I am rather busy...'

'Of course, of course.' Mrs Muir nodded her grey head understandingly. 'I'm sure your success in finding Mrs Sawyer must have brought you a lot of extra business. And I don't want to hold you up. Not at all. But I really felt I had to come and see you and tell you how much I appreciate what you've done for Mr Kellerman.'

Kate expelled the breath she'd hardly been aware she was holding, and then looked up with some relief when Susie came bustling in with the tray. 'I couldn't find any biscuits, Mrs Hughes, so I popped next door and bought a couple of doughnuts.' She pulled a face at Kate's expression. 'I know they're fattening, but you could do with putting on some weight.'

'Yes, you do appear to have lost a little weight, Mrs Hughes.' Mrs Muir took up Susie's comment after the girl had left the room.

'I've-not been feeling very hungry,' said Kate shortly, not wanting to get into personal matters.

'And there was no need for you to come and see me, Mrs Muir. Mr Kellerman's solicitor wrote me a very nice letter of acknowledgement when the police charged Conrad Wyatt with bribery, and conspiracy, and goodness knows what else.'

In fact, as far as Kate was concerned, finding Alicia Sawyer had been something of an anticlimax in the end. The police-especially Inspector Rivers-mightn't have wanted to believe her when she went to them with her suspicions, but Henry Sawyer had proved pathetically eager to cooperate when confronted by the law. It turned out he had worked for Conrad Wyatt years ago and had been dismissed for stealing. It had been a simple matter for Wyatt to remind him of that previous misdemeanour, and threaten him with legal proceedings if Sawyer refused to co-operate with him.

And, of course, he hadn't. Kate didn't know all the details, but somehow Wyatt had convinced both Sawyer and his estranged wife that it would be in their interests to a.s.sist him in his plans. She guessed a considerable amount of money must have changed hands. Remembering the two sums Henry Sawyer had given her, she doubted Wyatt would have quibbled over their fee. He'd obviously intended the rumours to spread about Alicia's disappearance just as they had when Pamela had died. Whether he'd ever intended to produce Alicia again was anyone's guess. Kate thought it more likely that when the job was done, and Alex was discredited-yet again-both Alicia and her husband would have been given pa.s.sports to a more luxurious life overseas.

Kate found the fact that Henry Sawyer had once worked for the Wyatts particularly galling. It had never occurred to her to investigate him, or to connect Alicia's disappearance with Alex's in-laws until she'd examined the photograph again. She was sure an experienced investigator would have seen the connection immediately, particularly after Alex had expressed his suspicions about his father-in-law.

In the event, Conrad's arrest and subsequent charges had proved a nine-day wonder. The local papers had made a big thing of his attempted efforts to destroy his son-in-law's character, but the national papers had barely taken it up. An earthquake in South America and sabre-rattling in the Middle East had driven the story into virtual insignificance, and Kate had thought how unfair it was that n.o.body had bothered to point out that it had been Conrad Wyatt's allegations at the time of his daughter's death that had caused Alex so much grief.

'His solicitor!' Mrs Muir sounded dismayed now. 'Mr Kellerman had Julian Morris write to you on his behalf?'

'That's right.' Kate sighed and poured the tea. 'But don't look like that. It's not important.'

Well, not to him, obviously. 'I wasn't working for Mr Kellerman, after all.'

'All the same...' Mrs Muir was clearly upset by this disclosure. 'I honestly thought he'd been to see you himself.'

'No.' Kate pushed a cup of tea towards Mrs Muir and gestured towards the doughnuts, which were oozing jam all over the plate. 'Please, help yourself.'

Mrs Muir shook her head. 'The tea is fine,' she said, and Kate agreed with her. The sight of the sticky buns was making her feel sick. But then, most things made her feel sick at the moment, and she hoped when the nausea pa.s.sed she'd feel more optimistic about the future.

Mrs Muir took a sip of her tea and then replaced the cup on its saucer. Then she bent and lifted her bag into her lap and took a clean white tissue out of a plastic case. She used the tissue to blow her nose before tucking it back into the bag.

The whole operation took several minutes, and Kate had the feeling that it was deliberate. She wondered if Mrs Muir had some other reason for coming here, other than to offer her appreciation of what she'd supposedly done for Alex. Did the housekeeper have a problem?

Should she explain that after breaching Henry Sawyer's confidence-however justified it might have been-she intended closing the agency next week?

Mrs Muir took another sip of her tea, and Kate could feel her nerves tightening. It wasn't that she didn't like the little woman, but she wasn't in the mood for social chit-chat today. She was glad that the housekeeper apparently bore her no ill will for deceiving Alex into employing her, but she doubted she was ever likely to see her again.

'Um-' she began, hoping to prompt some kind of action, and Mrs Muir straightened in her seat and pressed her hands together in her lap.

'You'll be wondering what more I could possibly have to say,' she said, as if she could read Kate's mind. 'Well, I thought it was time I told-someone-the truth.'

'The truth?' Kate stared at her, her mind buzzing with half-formed ideas she didn't want to face.

'About Mrs Kellerman's death,' said Mrs Muir. 'It-wasn't an accident. Well, it was,' she hastened on confusingly, 'but that horse was deliberately put into the wrong stall.'

Kate felt the bile rise in the back of her throat. 'You mean, Alex-'

'Alex didn't do it.' Mrs Muir was vehement. 'It was my husband that did it, Mrs Hughes. My Jim.' She groped for the tissue again, and pressed it to her nose in obvious anguish. 'He wanted to hurt Pamela, you see, but he never expected she'd be killed.'

Kate was staggered. 'You mean, all this time-'

'Mr Kellerman wouldn't let Jim take the blame and maybe be arrested. He was ill, you see-Jim, I mean-he'd had a serious heart condition for years. Then when Philip-he was our son-when he committed suicide I think Jim went a little out of his mind.'

Kate hesitated. 'I believe your son was infatuated with Mrs Kellerman,' she ventured, and Mrs Muir didn't seem surprised to hear that she knew that, too.

'He was,' she said bitterly, 'but she was only playing with him. Even when she was expecting his child, she told him to get out of her life.'

Kate breathed deeply. 'And Alex-I mean, Mr Kellerman-told you not to say anything?'

'That's right. Jim confessed what he'd done to Mr Kellerman. Jim and I have worked here all our lives, and we've known Alex since he was a little boy. He and Philip used to play together when they were children. They were such good friends. I think that's why Pamela-Mrs Kellerman-tried to split them up.

'Anyway, as I say, Jim was sick, and we all knew he'd never survive being charged with such a serious offence. That was when Mr Kellerman said that we should say nothing. There was no proof that anyone had done it deliberately and I'm afraid we let Mr Kellerman take the blame.'

'Oh, Mrs Muir!'

'I know.' The housekeeper looked pale and defeated. 'And you're the first person, other than Mr Kellerman, that I've told the story to. At least Jim had several more months of comparative freedom. Though I don't think he ever forgave himself for the abuse Mr Kellerman had to suffer because of what he'd done.'

Or the anguish, thought Kate, with feeling. Alex had lost his wife and had been in danger of losing his livelihood too. Had he thought of Rachel, when he'd made that quixotic decision to shoulder the burden? Had he realised that Conrad Wyatt would use the situation to his own selfish ends?

She thought not. Which probably explained why he'd taken it so badly when the truth hit him.

She thought in his position she might have felt like hitting the bottle, too. There'd been no turning back, even though Jim Muir had died only months after the accident. Kate sighed. Poor Alex. No wonder he'd become so bitter. He'd lost his wife and his child for a crime he didn't commit.

Kate shrugged her shoulders now. 'I don't know what to say.'

'Don't say anything.' Mrs Muir put her tissue away again and picked up her bag. 'I just didn't want you to go on believing that Mr Kellerman had killed his wife.'

'I never believed that.' As Kate said the words she realised she meant them.

'You didn't?' Mrs Muir looked confused. 'But I understood you'd told Mrs Sheridan that that was why you took the job.'

'No.' Kate was horrified. Lacey Sheridan had found a way to get her revenge, after all. 'I told Alex Alicia was missing and I agreed to try and find her. I had no preconceptions about how Pamela had died before I came to Jamaica Hill. And-and once I'd met Mr Kellerman I knew instinctively that he'd had nothing to do with his wife's death.'

'Do you mean that?' There were tears shining in Mrs Muir's eyes now, and Kate nodded.

'Of course I mean it. And-and I hope you'll tell Alex what I said. I-I know he and Lacey are very close, and he's more likely to believe her than me, but I'd like to feel that he won't think too badly of me when I'm gone.'

'When you're gone?'

Mrs Muir looked puzzled now, and Kate wished she hadn't spoken so impulsively. 'Yes,' she said at last. 'I'm giving up the agency and moving to London in a few weeks. I'm hoping to get a chance to work as a solicitor. I have a law degree, but I've never been able to find a firm in King's Montford willing to take me on.'

'And-and will your daughter be going with you?'

'Of course.' Kate forced a smile. 'And my mother, too. She's not very keen at the moment, but it will be good for Joanne to have a fresh start at a new school. She's been having some problems at Lady Montford so I don't think she'll mind.'

'You do know Rachel's living at Jamaica Hill again,' ventured the housekeeper suddenly, and Kate felt a glow of warmth at the thought that she had played a small part in her return.

'No, I didn't,' she said. 'But I'm happy for-for both of them. I suppose Alex feels he's getting his life back together again.'

'Well, yes.' Mrs Muir looked down at her hands gripping her bag. 'People have been so sympathetic. I think some of them have been having second thoughts since Conrad Wyatt was arrested, and the stables have never been busier. Of course, there's still to be a hearing about Rachel's future, but the authorities seem to think that it's just a formality. She belongs with her father. And Jamaica Hill needs a family again.'

And it's going to get one, thought Kate, somewhat jealously. Though she doubted Lacey was the kind of woman to appreciate having a four-year-old stepchild thrust upon her. As for Rachel herself-well, Kate supposed she always had Mrs Muir to turn to. The old housekeeper would always be there for her, even when her father went away.

Mrs Muir got to her feet. 'I suppose I'd better be going.'

'Yes.' Kate rose, too. 'But thank you for coming, and trusting me with the truth. I'm honoured that you felt you could tell me the whole story. I hope you'll all be very happy in the future.'

Susie came back into Kate's office after showing Mrs Muir out, her eyes wide and curious.