Charlie by Lesley Pearse

that he used to be a club owner in Soho?’
    Charlie’s eyebrows shot up into two inverted ‘V’ shapes.
    ‘So you didn’t know either! Oh dear!’ Wyatt grimaced. ‘I was shocked myself. In all the ten years I have known him as a friend and a client, he never even gave me a hint about it. I imagined he’d been in the importing business all his life.’
    ‘What’s wrong with owning a night-club?’ Charlie was instantly on the defensive.
    Wyatt looked even more uncomfortable. ‘Well, discovering something like that, Charlie, is a bit like finding a locked box. If we could find the key to open it, we might find something inside which would help us to understand why those men hurt your mother.’
    ‘Can’t Mum help?’
    Wyatt sighed deeply. ‘I have tried to talk to her, but I didn’t make any headway. She’s so very angry. Of course that’s understandable under the circumstances, she’s in pain, her husband has disappeared, and her future looks grim to her.’ He paused and frowned. ‘She claims she knew nothing about his business, she even denied all knowledge of any clubs. I can’t tell if she’s speaking the truth or whether she’s trying to shield Jin.’
    ‘But why, and from what?’ Charlie asked. Her stomach was churning, she could feel a cold sweat trickling down the back of her neck.
    Wyatt shrugged. ‘That could be what’s in the locked box! Maybe she only suspects something and someone, and she’s playing for time hoping Jin will get back to sort it out. But the most worrying thread in all this is money.’
    Charlie was confused and frightened now. ‘Money?’
    ‘Yes, Charlie, money, or rather the lack of it. Now, forgive me if you don’t understand all this, stop me if you want something explained more fully.
    ’Last year your father borrowed a great deal of money against this house. It was free and clear before that as he’d bought it with cash. He said he needed capital to expand his business and I handled the legal side of it for him. The mortgage company checked his accounts and as they were entirely satisfied with his credit-worthiness he received the money he needed in the early part of this year.
    ‘When someone disappears, Charlie, one of the first things to be checked is a bank account, to see when and where it was last used. It was while doing that that the police discovered he had drawn out sixty thousand pounds in cash, plus everything from a savings account, and indeed almost emptying his current account, some months ago. He arranged it through a bank in central London.’
    ‘Well, that’s no one’s business but his,’ Charlie said indignantly. ‘It’s his money after all.’
    ‘Of course it is,’ Mr Wyatt said quickly. ‘But in the light of his disappearance, and added to other things the police have found, it is rather suspicious.’
    ‘What other things?’ She didn’t like the way this ‘chat’ was going at all.
    ‘Well, they’ve found several unpaid bills, and it seems Jin is seriously behind with the mortgage payments on the house too. In fact the only thing we can find which has been paid was his life insurance, that was by standing order at the bank.’
    Charlie gulped. She didn’t fully understand what a mortgage meant, but she had the gist of what Mr Wyatt was getting at. Her dad had robbed Peter to pay Paul, but he’d overlooked the bills back home.
    ‘What happens if someone doesn’t pay their mortgage?’ she asked, her voice trembling.
    Wyatt sighed. ‘Well, the very worst thing that can happen is that the mortgage company repossesses the house. That means they take it back. Of course, if Jin gets back in time and pays the arrears, everything will be fine.’
    At this point they were interrupted by the police calling to him from the middle floor. Wyatt went up to speak to them. Charlie crept out to listen, but apart from hearing them mention some papers they were taking with them, the rest of their conversation was too muffled to follow.