Belle was doing her best to get in the party mood, if only to please her parents, but the truth was she had been deeply troubled since the whole Clacton thing and her visit to Nige. She’d walked into something strange, that much was certain. Maybe she’d find out the locations of the Stone manufacturing sites and start checking those out too. Then she looked at her much-loved dad. He couldn’t know about this – could he?

Then they all paused. Overhead, they could hear the clatter of a helicopter. A big one, twin-engined. Only one person in this area had a bird as distinctive as that.

‘Christ, here we go,’ said Jill with a sigh. ‘Charlie’s arriving. Making the big entrance, as usual.’

Terry went out into the hall and presently they heard the noise of him pissing loudly in the cloakroom. He never, ever shut the cloakroom door. It drove Mum mad. Jill rolled her eyes at Belle and almost smiled. Men! It was a brief moment of female solidarity, and Belle decided now was her moment.

‘Mum? I went into one of the offices in Clacton,’ she said quickly.

The half-smile vanished. ‘What the hell for?’

‘I thought maybe I could do something there. You know? A job?’

‘What the fuck . . .’ Jill looked outraged.

‘And the people there – I know you don’t approve, and maybe I shouldn’t have bothered, but listen. This might be serious, really bad. I think . . . I think they were making drugs.’

In the cloakroom, Terry was pulling the chain.

‘What the hell were you thinking of, going there?’ hissed Jill, grabbing Belle’s arm. ‘You are never to go there again, do you understand me?’

Terry was running water in the basin, and whistling.

‘But Dad has to be told. And Charlie. If they knew what was happening right there in their own place of business, then—’

‘Shut up!’ said Jill urgently. ‘Listen. You don’t mention this, you never say a word about this, not to anyone, you got me?’

Terry was coming back along the hall. Belle stared into her mother’s frantic eyes and suddenly it all clicked into place. Jill knew. Dad and Charlie were in on this. They knew all about it. And so did Mum.

‘OK folks, let’s hit the road,’ said Terry, coming back into the kitchen.

‘I’ll see you up there,’ said Belle. Suddenly she had to get away, she had to think. With shaking hands she took her car keys from her bag. ‘Going for a drive.’

‘Make sure you’re not late at the house!’ shouted Jill after her departing daughter.

But Belle was already gone.

89

Nipper met up with Milly in a quiet lane not far from Charlie’s mansion. She drove up and parked behind Nipper’s Mercedes. Nipper got out of the car, stubbing out his cigarette beneath his heel.