Agatha Christie couldn’t have set up a more atmospheric meeting point, Caroline reflected a week later as she checked over the glasses in the makeshift bar area in the main barn on the Carter’s Cider site. The murder mystery evening tomorrow would be the crowning achievement of The Cider Kitchen’s year, provided tonight went to plan. Gino and Emma had really outdone themselves with a gorgeous celebration menu of trout tartare, slow braised pork in cider and a selection of glorious desserts including a foraged blackberry fool (Gino had made sure he froze baskets and baskets of the fruit back in September when they’d been in full, opulent glory down the Strawberry Line) and a wide selection of local cheeses. The two chefs had gone from strength to strength, and Caroline really hoped that, with Paul Stone dealt with, she could count on their long term support in the restaurant. And if she got this evening right, he would be out of her life forever. She hoped that Matthew would be as sanguine about the situation as Jonathan had been optimistic that it would work. It was her word against Stone’s after all, and if things went south, he could get very nasty indeed. She needed to make sure he never came back after tonight.
Jonathan had managed to convince Matthew not to pursue the investigation into The Cider Kitchen’s accounts for the time being. She had no idea what had been said, but she knew she was living on borrowed time if she didn’t get rid of Stone once and for all. Because tomorrow night’s event had been planned for two months, she’d thrown herself back into the restaurant, and the preparations for the murder mystery evening were almost complete. And as the final part of the puzzle, Stone had agreed almost too easily to meet her. He was either desperate for money or wanted to lull her into a false sense of security.
Caroline glanced at the makeshift bar area, which tomorrow night would be filled with bottles and bottles of the farm’s cider, sparkling wine and calvados. The stage was set for a truly momentous occasion, Anna having written a masterful retelling of the tale of the body in the vat, but the dangers she was facing tonight were far more immediate than a one hundred year old murder mystery; Paul Stone was dangerous, and she had to get him away from this place before someone got hurt.
The main meal was going to be served in The Cider Kitchen after the night’s drama had taken place, and Caroline had checked and double checked the details, ensuring that it would all run smoothly. Now, waiting for Stone in the darkness of the barn where she had insisted this meeting took place, she shivered in the November air. ‘Come on,’ she muttered as she pulled her jacket closer round herself. She wasn’t good in the cold at the best of times, and it felt as though he was deliberately keeping her waiting. She could sense his amusement at her request that they met here; on Jonathan and Matthew’s territory; at the heart of their empire. It appealed to his sense of humour, she supposed, to try to humiliate her here.
‘Good evening, Caroline.’ Caroline jumped as the voice whispered indecently in her ear from behind her, his breath hot on her neck. ‘So good of you to meet me here.’
Caroline stepped forward, repulsed by the contact. ‘Take the money and go,’ she said. ‘I’m out of here after tomorrow. Carter’s have sacked me. So you can stay away, too.’
Stone laughed. ‘Can’t stand the heat of your own kitchen? That’s a good one.’
‘I’m warning you, Paul,’ Caroline sounded braver than she felt. ‘When I’ve gone, you’d better not come back to Little Somerby again. I’ve given you what you wanted, so you can stay away from these people. They know I’ve been stealing from them. I’ve lost everything.’
‘What a terrible shame,’ Stone said, his voice suggesting exactly the opposite. ‘Although it is a shame our arrangement couldn’t have lasted longer. I reckon there could have been a lot of potential in keeping you at that place for as long as possible.’ Starting at the sound of the barn door opening behind him, he turned. An expression of irritation crossed his features. ‘I thought I told you to come by yourself.’
‘I’m sure you did, mate, but I’m looking for Caroline, not you.’ Jonathan opened the barn door and stepped inside.
‘What are you doing here?’ Caroline snapped, exactly on cue. Stone needed to think that Jonathan was there was just by chance, although she was deeply uncertain that he’d actually buy into that.
Feigning innocence, Jonathan smiled briefly at Caroline. ‘I just wanted to check over a few last minute details for tomorrow night. And when you weren’t at the restaurant, I figured you’d be over here checking the bar supplies.’ He glanced at Stone. ‘I suppose you’re the debt collector, are you? Certainly explains a few anomalies in the restaurant’s books lately.’
Caroline felt the breath being knocked out of her as Stone grabbed her and pulled her back towards him. ‘Don’t do anything stupid. I’m here to collect what she owes me. Leave us to it.’
‘I can’t do that.’ Jonathan’s voice was bleak. ‘The Cider Kitchen is Carter’s property you see, so if you’re taking from Caroline, you’re taking from me, too.’
‘Jonathan, get out of here before he hurts you,’ Caroline said. She froze as the sharp point of a steel blade nudged the small of her back. Stone pulled her closer and her terror of the man took on a whole new dimension. Suddenly, the cute little plan she and Jonathan had worked out seemed ridiculously trite and silly.
‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Jonathan stood his ground. ‘He’s going to let go of you, walk away, and get out of our lives.’
‘Really?’ Stone drawled. Up close, Caroline could see his eyes glittering, and she knew immediately he’d had a line or two of cocaine before coming to meet her. That made her even more afraid.
‘Jonathan, please,’ she said, her voice rising a notch. ‘I’ve changed my mind. You need to go. I can handle him.’ She winced as the blade of the knife pressed more deeply into her back. ‘I’ve got what he wants. Just get out of here.’
‘Forgive the language, darling, but you’ve got to be fucking joking. There’s no way I’m leaving you here with this maniac.’ Jonathan advanced towards Caroline and Stone, but a shriek from Caroline as Stone jabbed the point of the knife into her made him stop again.
‘The money’s in my handbag at the top of the gantry, Paul,’ Caroline said quickly. ‘Take it and go.’
Stone paused, looked down at Caroline and gave a menacing smile. ‘You’d better not be winding me up.’
‘I’m not. I swear.’
‘Make yourself useful, pretty boy,’ Stone jerked his head towards top of the steel steps where Caroline’s bag lay. ‘Go and get her bag.’
Jonathan stared evenly at the man. ‘Put her down and get it yourself.’
Caroline flinched as the knife point bit into her flesh. ‘He’s got a knife at my back, Jonathan. Please, do as he says.’
Jonathan’s face registered first fear, and then anger that Caroline, feisty, flighty, difficult Caroline, the woman he loved, was standing terrified with a knife at her back.
‘OK, OK,’ he said softly. ‘Just don’t do anything rash. I’m going to get it now.’
‘I get the money, you get the girl. Some might say that’s quite poetic,’ Stone said, voice laden with irony. ‘For what she’s worth. Personally, I think I’m getting the better deal.’
Something inside Jonathan ignited. ‘I’m warning you,’ he said softly. ‘You’ve done enough. You need to leave.’ He walked up the steps to retrieve Caroline’s bag.
‘Come on,’ snarled Stone, tightening his grip on Caroline. ‘Be a good boy.’
‘Let Caroline go.’ Jonathan’s voice echoed off the enormous black cider vats. He started walking back down the steps. ‘I’m not moving until you let her go.’
Stone pushed Caroline in front of him onto the first step of the gantry and, with the hand that wasn’t behind her back, he reached for the bag, but Jonathan, quick as a flash, threw it back up to the top of the gantry. ‘Go and get it.’
‘Or what?’ Stone said, not breaking his stride towards him, dragging Caroline along with him. ‘Don’t you think you’ve had enough time to play her heroic saviour?’ He advanced further up the steps to the gantry, never moving his gaze from Jonathan’s. Sure-footed despite the cocaine, eyes glittering with menace, to Caroline he’d never looked more threatening. ‘She’s going to get me what I came for,’ Stone continued ‘or I’ll take it out of her hide.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Jonathan stepped towards Stone, and, heedless of the knife, pushed in front of Caroline with his own body. In that instant there was a flash of steel in the orange light of the barn and Stone’s arm thrashed wildly. Jonathan, caught off guard, was jolted out of the way but as he moved, Stone’s blade sliced across his forearm, cutting his shirt and the skin beneath. Jonathan jerked back, momentarily unbalanced.
Stone surged forward, slashing wildly at Jonathan. His eyes narrowed dangerously in the half light, suggesting his aggression was not just the result of seeing his quarry so close. ‘I meant what I said,’ he hissed, encroaching further. ‘She’s got to pay up, one way or the other.’
‘Get out of here, Caroline,’ Jonathan said, pushing her away now that he’d got between her and Stone. ‘Get out of here and call the police.’
‘She’s going nowhere,’ Stone was almost on top of Jonathan now, but even with the knife, the cocaine was making him reckless. He surged forward again.
Swiftly, Jonathan stepped further back up the gantry, pushed him with one hand, and tried to grab the knife with the other. Blood dripped down his wrist and splashed onto Stone’s jacket as Stone wrenched his hand away. Pushing harder, Jonathan got a grip on Stone once more, putting his weight behind him and propelling him towards the gantry rail. Stone, still buoyed up by the drugs, pushed back.
‘Caroline, get out of here!’ Jonathan repeated, seeing that she was still on the gantry. ‘Phone the police.’
Scrambling away down the steps, Caroline tripped and ended up sprawled on the hard steel of the stairs. Dazed, she picked herself up, just in time to see Stone taking another swipe at Jonathan with the knife.
‘Paul, no!’ she screamed as the stars cleared from her vision. ‘Leave him alone. I’ll give you what you want, and more, if you stop this.’
Stone shook his head. ‘Too late for that.’
The momentary shift of attention from Jonathan to Caroline cost him. Jonathan grabbed him, propelling him towards the cider vat at the end of the gantry. Jonathan hadn’t grown up on a cider farm and not picked up a thing or two about how the technology worked. Quick as a flash he pulled open the large hatch in the top of the vat. Stone’s legs buckled as his centre of gravity shifted, and he fell backwards, head and torso submerging into the liquid in the huge oak cask. As the rest of his body swiftly followed, Jonathan grabbed hold of the oak hatch, preparing to slam it shut.
‘No, don’t!’ Caroline bounded back up the steps and grabbed Jonathan’s arm. ‘He’ll drown.’
Jonathan turned back to her, eyes twinkling despite the exertions of the past minutes. ‘What, you think I should let him out?’
Stone resurfaced but struggled to get a handhold on the side of the vat, his eyes streaming from the strength of the alcohol in the cider.
Jonathan held the hatch open, but then lowered it slightly. ‘Are you quite sure you want me to let this bastard out?’
Rummaging in her pocket, Caroline finally located her phone. ‘Let the police deal with him.’ She punched in the emergency number.
Stone kept coughing and spluttering. ‘Let me out of here, you fucker.’
‘Now, now,’ Jonathan said. ‘That’s no way to speak to someone who’s holding your life in their hands.’ He bent down so that his face was closer to Stone’s. ‘It would be so easy to shut this lid and leave you in here to marinate after everything you’ve done. Blackmail’s a pretty serious crime, you know. Not to mention a fair bit of stalking.’
‘You don’t have the balls,’ Stone said, treading water in the thirty foot deep vat.
‘Try me,’ Jonathan said, and flipped the hatch shut.
‘Jonathan, no!’ Caroline shouted. ‘For God’s sake, you can’t just leave him in there.’
‘Relax,’ Jonathan replied as he headed down the gantry towards Caroline, who’d finished the call to the police. ‘There’s a ladder on the inside of the vat. Let’s hope he finds it.’
Caroline shook her head. ‘You’re such an idiot.’ She glanced down at his wrist, which was now drenched in blood from the cut Stone had inflicted on Jonathan’s forearm. ‘You need to get that seen to.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Jonathan replied. ‘I’ll bind it up when we get home.’
‘We?’ Caroline took a step back.
‘Yes. We. You’re coming back to the cottage with me. Understood?’ Jonathan’s eyes glinted in the orange light of the barn, and although his lips were smiling, Caroline could see the resolve, the hardness, that hadn’t been there six months ago. Every single word of protest died on her lips as Jonathan captured her mouth in a kiss that drove all thoughts of fleeing from her mind. It was only when the dull banging from inside the cider vat suddenly stopped that they broke apart.
‘I suppose I’d better open the hatch on that bastard,’ Jonathan said grudgingly. ‘I don’t really want to be up on a murder charge.’ Jogging up the steps, he pulled open the rectangular door again and grabbed Stone by the scruff of his sodden leather jacket.
‘The police are on their way,’ he said as he hauled the soaking wet drug dealer out of the vat. ‘I suggest you come quietly, or I’ll put you back in again.’ Dragging him down the steps, as he reached the bottom, the door to the barn crashed open and two police officers were silhouetted in the light from outside. In less than a second, their torch beams lit up the three figures. Jonathan handed Stone over to them and quickly explained the situation, carefully editing out any references to Caroline’s less than savoury past.
‘I see.’ The elder officer spoke briefly into his radio, listened carefully and got the confirmation he needed. ‘We’ll take it from here.’
‘Don’t let him out of your sight,’ Jonathan said. ‘He’s a slippery bugger.’
Glancing at Stone, who was dripping wet and shivering beside him, the younger officer gave a brief smile. ‘I can see that, sir.’ Nodding to Jonathan and Caroline, ‘We’ll be in touch.’
Exhaling a breath, she didn’t know she was holding, Caroline smiled. ‘Now we can go home.’
‘So, you’re coming back to the cottage, then?’ Jonathan asked.
‘For tonight,’ Caroline said cautiously. ‘And we’ll think about the rest afterwards.’