THE FLAPPER'S FAN

Chapter 14 - It Has to do with Grace

I locked the office after Nick didn't return by five o'clock. I returned to the house and had eaten and was in the parlour reading when he returned. Mrs Brewer had left his meal warming in the oven and I joined him in the kitchen with a cup of tea while he ate.

"So, what did the American have to say?" I asked. The chance he had heard anything was unlikely, but the fact Nick had been gone for a while was encouraging. He swallowed the last mouthful of his meal and leaned back in his chair.

"He had heard something useful, in fact. He said he knows a chap who knows a chap, you know how it goes, who worked for Belladonna. It was widely known that Belladonna's wife, which would be Grace, was getting a bit too chummy with her bodyguard. He couldn't remember the fellow's name, but his description matches that of the man Joe saw Grace meeting with."

"Do you think this man is Sarah's father?"

He shrugged. "It's possible. Perhaps Belladonna's men are here for him, rather than Grace? Any chance you could get any more information out of her?"

I looked at him pensively. "I'll try. What about John Murray? Do you think you could find anything else from him?"

Nick clenched his jaw so tightly I could see the muscles visibly tense. What on earth had happened between he and Murray?

"Tell me," I encouraged. "What do you have against Murray."

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"It has to do with Grace."

He told me that he, John and Grace's father, George Howard, had served together in the army. They had survived many engagements that their comrades had not and had managed to stay together. During that time they had often spoken about their families. Neither John nor Nick had wives or sweethearts at home, but George, who was older, was married with a little girl, Grace, who was the apple of his eye. He would share the stories and photographs of her from his wife's letters until John and Nick were just as protective of her as her father. When it came to the day when Nick received the injury that eventually sent him home and into Military Intelligence, all three of them were sure they wouldn't survive and so they made a pact. For Nick and John, whoever survived would go to visit their parents and let them know that he had died with honour. But George had asked more than that, he had asked them to look after his wife and more particularly young Grace, and make sure they wanted for nothing, but not to let them know it, as his wife was too proud to take handouts. George took a bullet to the head that night, Nick was injured and John was left in the fight on his own.

After the war, they had fulfilled their promise to George. Alice, his wife, was under the impression George had arranged for their house to be paid for, and was impressed when Grace was given a scholarship for a good girl's school, but it had all been Nick and John. Meanwhile John had become involved in the movie business and had become quite successful. Nick on the other hand had stayed in the service, travelling the world on behalf of his country, in the aftermath of the war. When he had finally returned to London, John had given him a job running security. Financially, Nick was comfortable with the property and money he had inherited from his father, but he was accustomed to being useful and he missed the camaraderie of the service and his mates like John.

"One day I went into the studio and there was Grace, straight out of boarding school, fresh faced and innocent, make up and hair done - she was almost unrecognisable. John tried to tell me it was what George would have wanted, for him to give the girl a chance at a career, independence, success and wealth. When we went out to see her, she ran up to him and gave him a hug. Turns out he'd been visiting her and her mother since the war ended, against George's express wishes. I was furious, but he made a good case, although I was still not happy. About the same time, SIS contacted me. They wanted to send me on a mission. I was in between assignments at the studio, so I took it, six months in Paris. When I returned, John assigned me to Grace. I didn't recognise her, she looked older and more sophisticated, she had made a couple of successful movies. I don't think George would have approved, Eddie. He wanted more for her."

"She's a great girl, Nick, I'm sure he would be proud." I said, patting his hand. He looked at me with a sceptical expression.

"I took the position as her security so I could keep an eye on her. I made sure the bad elements were kept away, she never even knew they were there. Then one night I walked in on her and John."

"What?" I was shocked, as he must have been. "I can't believe she'd be interested in him!"

"She wasn't, he was trying to convince her otherwise however, and he was bigger, stronger, and had a few whiskies in him. Before I could barge in there, she grabbed a wine bottle and whalloped him over the head with it. Now that was a moment I was proud of her."

"That sounds like Grace," I said with approval.

"I didn't let her know I had seen it, she had handled it herself and I didn't want to embarrass her."

"But you spoke to John?"

He gave a short laugh. "Spoke? The next day, I went to visit him, he was sporting a huge lump from the bottle and was hungover to boot. He looked a sorry sight, but I didn't care, I punched him hard in the nose, broke it I think. I yelled a little, threatened him with worse if he tried it again with Grace. He said he loved her, wanted to marry her. " Nick shook his head, and I could see his hands were shaking with remembered anger.

"He said that it would have made George happy, that he was fulfilling George's last request to look after Grace. I remember I had him around the throat, and the look on his face. I made him promise to send her to the States to make a picture, and in that time he needed to sort himself out."

I thought back to the conversation in the restaurant.

"I don't think he's given up," I said. "But I think you're underestimating Grace, she is not at all interested. It would explain her walking out on him at dinner the other night, he's still pressing. I wonder if he knows about Sarah?"

Nick shook his head to indicate he didn't know.

"I did learn more about her marriage to Tony Belladonna today," I offered. "I made those telephone calls you asked me to."

"And?"

"It ties in with what the American said, but I can tell you that as far as anyone is concerned, Belladonna has moved on. He has a new girlfriend, another actress, and he won't even allow Grace's name to be mentioned. Nobody believes he would send a man over here to kill her or even her lover, if he even knows who it is."

"So lets lay it out, shall we? We have Grace here, with the baby, and she won't say who the father is, but she says she's in danger."

"It's not Belladonna."

"So it could be his man, her bodyguard."

"The dark haired man?"

"Joe can't find any sign of him, he's laying low whoever he is. So someone is after both he and Grace?"

"So it could be Belladonna? Maybe his indifference is a cover?"

"Maybe."

He looked at me intently. "You're going to have to find out who the father is, and why she's scared."

"I know."