The Dead Lie Down (Adam Lennox Thrillers: Book One) (34 page)

He smiled.

"What's funny?" she demanded.

"Brighton beach," he replied.

Her frown gave way to comprehension and stepping up to him she reached down into
the water and removed his shorts.

"Dipping is always best done skinny," she declared.

She pulled him to her as their lips met.

Briefly when they came up for air she said emphatically, "and this is no
mistake".

They only just managed to climb out onto the bank before control went out the
window.

They dried off lying out on the grass in the hot sunshine.

"I was convinced that you didn't like me," insisted Adam, "You always stayed at
a distance, never made any attempt to become friends."

Bel turned to look at him. "You are a blind fool Adam Lennox. I fell for you the
first time we were introduced but you were head over heels in love with Fran, and
I backed off to protect myself from being hurt. I thought you disliked me for
competing for Fran's attention."

"Pratt," announced Adam.

"Pillock," agreed Bel.

There was a brief pause, which threatened to allow them to doze off.

She poked him. "Adam?"

"What?"

"Did you deliberately not warn Anna about the railings?"

"I don't know. I don't think I'll ever know," he replied sleepily and they both
dozed off.

The sun was going down when they woke up and Bel sat up in deliberate
fashion.

"Adam, I have a confession to make," she declared.

"I don't understand, confess to what," yawned Adam.

"I know all about you and Fran."

That made him sit up, and she continued as if in a hurry to unburden herself
with confession.

"I know you and Fran were not actually married. I know why Fran got the job at
Bartletts in the first place. I know everything.." She hesitated in order to
watch his face. ".. because I was Fran's Desk Officer at NATO Military
Intelligence."

"Oh," said Adam, and everything fell into place.

"I know that Fran was a field agent investigating the arms smuggling when she
recruited you, and that the two of you were set up as a couple to go
undercover."

She took a long breath to recover.

Adam gazed at the sky and focussed on nothing. There was a long moment's
silence. "I loved her you know."

"I know."

"It wasn't her fault, it wasn't part of the plan, it just happened."

He turned to Bel. "What you probably don't know is that she reciprocated. We did
actually get married, but we didn't let anyone know because it would have blown
everything."

"Adam?"

"Yes?"

"You need to move on."

"Isn't this where we came in?" asked Adam.

"Sort of." She continued in matter-of-fact tone. "I am moving on. I'm going back
to commercial flying. I've been mulling it over and I've been offered a job with
a taxi firm flying businessmen into Europe."

There was a short pause before Adam replied without looking at her. "The flat is
very handy for London City Airport."

She squinted against the sun and smiled. "Shit. I hadn't thought of that. It is,
isn't it?"

On the way back to the house Adam stopped and looked out over the rolling
fields, over the trees turning golden in the dying light. He thought about the
future and what had passed, about responsibility and justice. Eventually he took
out his phone and dialled from memory. A voice answered but Adam cut it off.
"You know who this is. I have the package. I'm going to use it." He hung up, and
put away the phone.

They walked slowly in a comfortable silence, slowly back across the fields,
taking their time as if the minutes were especially valuable. The dying sunshine
brought an orange glow to the sky, the fields and the trees. They stopped and
looked out across the lake at the house standing imposingly over its
surroundings.

"It is beautiful you know," insisted Bel.

Adam sighed heavily. "Anyone for Scrabble?"

Epilogue

To some it might seem sacrilegious to answer a mobile phone in a graveyard but
Adam did it anyway.

"What can't wait, Gerry?"

Gerry's voice was animated, as it was when he'd had a significant win. "It's
just been on the news. I thought you'd want to know."

Adam sighed. "Know what, Gerry?"

"Dermot O'Rourke's car was found burnt out in a quiet lane in the New Forest
this morning. There's reports of a body being found, but there are also rumours
that he's flown the country, some scandal or other."

Adam looked out across the gravestones, the neatly tended grass verges, the
occasional vase of fresh or wilting flowers and lifted his eyes briefly to the
horizon. "Thanks for letting me know, Gerry," he replied and hung up.
Responsibility and justice, where does it all end?

He turned to the gravestone next to him. The simple design bearing the
inscription 'FRAN LENNOX, BELOVED WIFE OF ADAM, 'IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE THIS
WAY' '.

"I finished what you started, like I said I would." Then his voice took on a
tone of mild admonishment. "You could have told me about Bel you know. It could
have made things so much easier."

He took the flowers he had been holding, and put them into a vase by the
headstone.

"But then you didn't expect it to turn out like it did, so I let you off. I'll
take care of her, like you asked me to." He paused and raised an eyebrow, a
sudden thought occurring to him. "Did you ask her to look after me? I wouldn't
put it passed you."

He stood and put his hands in his pockets before he continued in the slow pace
of relaxed conversation with an old friend.

"I don't suppose you recognised the driver did you? Or maybe you did. You know
it had nothing to do with anything important, don't you? You were just in the
wrong place at the wrong time. She's gone now, the victim of her own
destruction."

He bent to arrange the flowers in the vase before standing up.

"It's all over now. Gone. Time to move on. For all of us."

He turned, the warm sun in his face, and strolled slowly back along the tidy
borders and neat paths to the cemetery gates, where Bel was waiting.

--The
End--