A Chance Encounter by Rae Shaw (e manga reader TXT) 📗

Mark shut his eyes and put the half-eaten sandwich down on the table. Later, they lay on separate beds, the adjoining door wide open. Eventually exhaustion defeated Julianna, and she slept fitfully, troubled by dreams of the man with the ponytail – was he Freddie? Sadly, she doubted it; ponytail man was too young and from what Jackson had told her, the Deliverer kept a distance from his operations. It meant he was still in control and would be angrier than ever.

  29

Julianna

SATURDAY MORNING

Ellen remained in a state of shock throughout the flight to London. The stupor of fatigue kept her in a docile and convenient state for the journey home, and Julianna had a chance to evaluate Mark's sister. Petite, slender build, a hint of olive skin and walnut hair that bobbed around her neck as she moved. If there was a similarity to Mark it wasn't the tone of her skin or the colour of her eyes but the fullness of her lips and height of her cheekbones. A beautiful child in the body of an adult. Why wonder Zustaller coveted her.

As the grey dawn light seeped through the windows of the chopper, Ellen broke her self-imposed silence and started to ask questions. Awkward ones.

‘I know it seems rude to ask now, but who are you?’

Julianna had been expecting that particular one for some hours and it was a measure of Ellen's trauma that it had taken so long to ask.

Stick to facts. ‘Julianna Baptiste. I work for the same company as Mark. I’m one of Mr Haynes’s investigators. This is a company helicopter.’ She shot a glance at Mark, encouraging him to participate. He coughed nervously and looked away.

‘Mr Haynes.’ Ellen's eyebrows lowered into a thick line that met above the bridge of her nose. She fingered the leather upholstery. ‘Why would he send a helicopter for me?’

‘He’s been very generous,’ Mark said.

‘What do you think happened to Freddie?’ The helicopter pitched forward and Ellen grabbed her seat. ‘Would they have got him, too?’

Julianna cringed a fraction. How to tell Ellen that she had nearly been sold into slavery by a man she thought was her friend?

Mark answered. ‘He isn't who you think he is. You've been misled. How did you meet him?’

Ellen explained, taking them back three years to when she was seventeen and filled with rage and loneliness. She painted a story that began so innocently that only now, as she described how she thought he was a counsellor, a priest, a friend, did she begin to realise her naivety. Tears streamed down her face and Mark handed her a tissue.

‘Don't say anything, not if it hurts this bad,’ he said. ‘All I need to know is at what point did he know about Dad?’

‘Early on.’ She sniffed and blew her nose.

Julianna inhaled deeply. For years, unwittingly, Ellen had fed Zustaller information about Bill's appeal. Of course Zustaller was happy for Bill to be locked up for murdering his cousin. He probably could have arranged for Bill to have an unpleasant accident, too. But, he hadn't. Perhaps Zustaller didn't want to reveal the extent of his criminal network by ordering a hit inside a prison. However, if Bill had been released, the story might have been different. So why had Bill maintained his innocence? Why risk leaving the relative security of a prison when the outside could be equally, if not more dangerous? Retribution had played out differently: abducting Ellen was Mark's punishment, not Bill's. Although Bill was hardly blameless, nothing untoward had happened until Mark instigated Haydock’s downfall in Manchester. Jackson had predicted Mark would be held accountable, and once Zustaller knew his name, the Deliverer tailored his revenge perfectly.

‘Ellen.’ Julianna leaned toward the snivelling girl. ‘You've heard of Haydocks?’

Ellen nodded.

‘You told Freddie Mark worked for Haydocks. When?’

Her long eyelashes blinked as she concentrated on recalling what must be a complicated history of messaging between her and Freddie. ‘After the wedding, when Mark went to that charity thing. I got drunk. I nearly slept with this man and Freddie was pleased I hadn't... Oh, shit.’ Her head lolled forward into her palms and the tears returned.

Julianna's thin veneer of professional detachment splintered, and she wrapped her arm around Ellen’s hunched shoulders. Neither woman said anything. It wasn't necessary. Mark stared into Julianna's eyes and he mouthed a thank you. Julianna thought his gratitude misplaced. He seemed unable to offer his sister any emotional support. Jackson was right – the girl needed a different mentor.

For the next two hours, Ellen remained uncommunicative, almost unreachable, swept away by the trauma of the last twenty-four hours and also, Julianna believed, a degree of shame at her gullibility. Like many young adults, Ellen probably considered herself worldly and invincible. Julianna had been just as naive at a similar age, falling for Alex's debonair charm.

The helicopter landed and they cleared the arrival procedures – the trappings of somebody else's wealth helped considerably. Julianna and Mark kept Ellen between them, supporting her as she swayed. Her dull eyes barely focused on anything. A car was waiting for them. Inside wasn’t Chris, but Gary Maybank, his deputy and a reliable ex-copper whom Julianna respected.

The journey from the airport to Fasleigh House unfolded in parallel to Ellen’s emergence from her state of shock.

‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘Fasleigh House, Jackson Haynes’s home,’ Julianna said from the front passenger seat.

‘Why there? I mean I would like to thank him of course.’ Ellen peered out of the window.

‘He’s going to take care of you now, Ellen,’ Mark said.

‘Why him? Can't I stay at yours? What about Nicky. Oh, God, Nicky! I have to ring—’

‘I've done it,’ Julianna said. She had texted Nicky in Dublin. ‘He's so relieved you're okay. He'll come and see you here, he promises.’

‘You