The Judas Trap Read online

  His words were less easy to interpret. So you came, Diane! What did it mean? What did he mean? Had he sent for his wife? Had he contacted Diane and asked to see her? Asked her to come down here, in fact?

  Sara’s heart pounded unevenly. Her immediate impulse to deny the identity he had placed upon her was silenced by a feeling of intrusion, an invasion into this man’s privacy that she had had no right to make. It was not herself who should be standing here, but Diane, and to deny the truth of that statement was to tear aside Adam Tregower’s self-respect. How could she tell him that Diane had sent her here? How could she admit to being an unwilling tool in some game Diane was playing, for as the minutes passed she became more and more convinced that the other girl had known her husband was waiting at the house.

  Yet, equally, how could she not deny it? This man had been married to Diane for five years. He must know her face, the sound of her voice. But Adam Tregower was blind now, a victim of his own despair, and it was seven years since they had lived together…

  ‘Diane…’

  The man spoke again, and Sara stared helplessly in his direction. She had to speak, she had to answer him. Dear God, what did Diane expect of her?

  ‘Adam?’ she breathed tentatively, and she heard his sigh of relief. ‘I—how are you?’

  ‘How do I look?’

  Evidently her husky tones were unidentifiable, and a trembling breath escaped her. What ought she to do? Denounce herself here and now, or tread deeper into this mire of deception? Adam Tregower had suffered so much. Could she honestly prevent him from suffering more? Why had he sent for Diane? Why did he want to speak to her? And why hadn’t Diane told her?

  Anger gripped her. Diane had known her husband was here: she was convinced of that now. So many small things were falling into place, not least the obvious one of Diane’s suggestion that she should spend a couple of weeks at the house, a house she had taken care never to describe, so that Sara had expected something entirely different. Diane had known Adam was here, had known he was expecting his wife—and had sent her in her place, knowing that in her own grief, her sympathies would respond to this man’s helplessness.

  ‘You—you look well,’ she got out now, although she could hardly tell his colouring in this half light. ‘Adam, I—’

  ‘It was good of you to come.’ His words interrupted any explanation she might have hoped to make, and there was a curiously ironic note to his voice. ‘I wondered if you would. You lead such a—busy life. So different from my own.’

  Sara’s mouth was dry. Outside, she saw with alarm, the clouds were gathering once more, and even as her eyes darted to the blind she had drawn, a few drops of rain spattered the window. All of a sudden the precariousness of her position seemed untenable, and she took an involuntary step backward.

  ‘Please.’ As if aware of her panic, Adam Tregower stepped forward, moving surely across the hall towards her. ‘Won’t you come into the library? We can have a drink together before dinner, and it’s easier to talk in less formal circumstances.’

  ‘Oh, but…’ Sara cast another longing look towards the windows. She couldn’t stay here, she thought wildly, but how could she get away without proving that Diane had made a fool of him yet again? Maybe he did not expect her to stay. Surely he knew Diane would never agree to remain at the house, alone with him. Perhaps his invitation was for dinner only, a chance for them to talk together about—about—what? Old times? Hardly. Her work? Hardly that either. A divorce? She breathed more freely. Yes, perhaps that was it. Adam wanted a divorce. He might have found someone else, someone he wanted to marry. A Portuguese girl maybe. A biddable Portuguese dona da casa, with no desire to do anything but care for her husband and bring up his children.

  ‘Diane.’

  He was closer now, and in the shaft of light issuing through the unguarded window she saw his eyes, shadowed behind the tinted lenses of his glasses. Deeply set eyes they were, beneath heavy lids, strangely piercing eyes that while she knew could not see her, seemed to penetrate her guilty façade His face, too, was deeply tanned, evidence of the warmer climes he had been inhabiting, and his throat rising from the opened neck-line of a dark blue shirt was strong and corded with muscle. There was a disc suspended from a gold chain about his throat, one of those coins that could be used as a means of identity, and he wore two rings, a plain gold signet ring, and a flat copper amulet. Although he resembled the pictures she had seen of Adam Tregower, in the flesh he seemed so much more disturbing somehow, and she began to understand why Diane had been so eager to become his wife. She wondered at the ambition which had driven the other girl to leave him, for while Lance Wilmer was a handsome man, he had never possessed this man’s purely sexual attraction.

  ‘Come…’

  He was holding out a hand towards her now, and avoiding it she had no choice but to cross the hall towards the library door. There was a moment’s pause before he followed her, and then she heard his footsteps right behind her.

  The library was large, by anybody’s standards, but age and neglect had added an air of dampness and decay. Nevertheless, a fire was smouldering comfortingly in the grate, and the smell of Havana tobacco went a long way to disguising its less pleasurable aspects. Shelves of books lined two long walls and half the third, where drawn blinds indicated a shaded window. The fourth was taken up by the huge fireplace, and a pair of darkwood cabinets, in which resided a collection of chess pieces, from jade and ivory, to ebony and alabaster. There was a desk, on which a tray of drinks rested, and as well as the leather chair that faced it there was a pair of worn green velvet armchairs that fronted one another across the hearth.

  Hovering in the centre of the room, Sara heard Adam close the door behind him, and presently he passed her to indicate the chairs beside the fire.

  ‘Won’t you sit down?’ he suggested, and with a sureness born of long practice, his hand sought the tray of drinks upon the desk.

  Sara sat, partly because her legs felt a little unsure, and partly because it put more distance between them. It was all very well, posing as Caesar’s wife, but she did not know what he might expect of her, what indeed he might do to induce her to stay.

  The temptation to confess her identity rose within her again only to be squashed as she watched him fumbling with the bottles. Evidently their shape and size identified them to him, and presently he turned and said: ‘What can I offer you? Whisky, gin? Or your usual?’ His lips twisted suddenly, the first sign of bitterness? ‘Or perhaps it’s not your usual any more.’

  Sara hesitated. Diane’s usual drink these days was bitter lemon, with an occasional dash of vermouth, when calories permitted.

  ‘My—usual, I think,’ she conceded doubtfully, and swallowed rather convulsively when he presented her with a tall glass that looked as if it contained Coke, and smelled strongly of rum. She guessed Bacardi had been added, and when she tasted it her suspicions were justified.

  ‘Ah…’ Adam had poured himself a measure of whisky, holding the neck of the bottle against the rim of the glass, listening to the sound it made and measuring its contents accordingly. ‘It’s been a long time, Diane.’

  Sara nodded, realised he couldn’t see her, and said: ‘Yes,’ in a low tone.

  ‘I must say you’re less—aggressive than I would have expected,’ he continued, surprisingly, supporting himself against the lip of the desk. ‘I guessed you’d come—but not without protest.’

  Sara took a sip of her drink to give herself courage. So it was confirmed. Adam had sent for Diane. But why? Had he told her?

  ‘Do you think the place has changed much?’ he was asking now, and as this was safer ground she felt able to answer him.

  ‘I think—there’s dampness,’ she ventured. ‘I expect, because the house has stood empty for so long…’

  ‘So long,’ he agreed, his mouth drawing down at the corners. ‘Too long. What do you think, Diane?’

  She didn’t understand what he was getting at. Why had he asked Diane
to come down here? What possible motive could he have? He must know she was a working actress—he had intimated as much in the hall. And yet he thought he had persuaded her to come down here…

  Sara pressed her lips together and stared anxiously up at those hooded eyes, dark behind their concealing lenses. What thoughts were going through his mind? What manner of man was he to imagine he could summon back a wife who had left him without scruple seven years before? If, sick and blinded, after the accident when it was suspected he had tried to kill himself, he had been unable to sustain Diane’s sympathy, why should he suppose she might come back now?

  It was all getting rather deep and disturbing, and with the sky darkening outside, Sara was feeling a distinct sense of unease. It wasn’t just that she was here under false pretences. If she had been Diane herself, she felt sure she would have experienced the same kind of feeling, a sense of enclosure, of being trapped, of being imprisoned with this man in the darkness he had occupied for the past seven years…

  ‘Another drink?’ he suggested, but looking down at the almost untouched glass in her hands Sara demurred.

  ‘I—I shall have to be going soon,’ she murmured, and sensed rather than saw his stiffening features. ‘I—can’t stay here.’

  ‘Why not?’ His voice was harsh. ‘There are plenty of rooms; plenty, as you know only too well.’

  Sara set down her glass on the hearth, welcoming the fire’s warmth against her chilled fingers. ‘I—I don’t think you understand’—she was beginning, deciding this had gone far enough, when once again he interrupted her.

  ‘It’s you who don’t understand, Diane!’ he declared coldly. ‘I didn’t bring you here for a friendly chat, as you’re aware. Nor do I intend that you should leave again, the minute you decide I’m no real threat to that comfortable life you’ve made for yourself!’ He tossed back the remainder of the whisky in his glass with a careless gesture. Then he faced her across the width of the faded patterned carpet, and if she had not known better she would have sworn he could see her there, sitting nervously on the edge of her chair. ‘You came because my letter frightened you, because you didn’t really believe it, but you couldn’t be absolutely certain. Since your arrival you’ve been watching me, studying my reactions, trying to decide whether I meant what I said, and if I did, what I could do about it.’

  Sara got to her feet jerkily. ‘You don’t understand, Mr Tregower,’ she said then, fear combining with a natural nervousness to bring a tremor to her voice. ‘I—I am not—not your wife, not Diane Tregower. My—my name is—is Sara Fortune, and—and I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  There was silence for several pregnant minutes, minutes when she could see he was grappling with what she had just said, digesting it, dissecting it, testing it for flaws, and finding it wanting. Then a bitter smile twisted his lips and a short harsh laugh broke from them.

  ‘Oh, bravo, Diane, bravo!’ he complimented her mockingly. ‘Yes. Yes, indeed, that was worthy of the actress you undoubtedly are. To deny your own identity—how clever, and how apt! How could a blind man be sure you are who you say you are, particularly a blind man who has not seen you for so many years? The voice, the body, even the make-up of the face could have changed in that time. And he would have no way of knowing, no way of really being sure…’

  Sara gasped. ‘It’s true. I’m not lying. I really am who I say I am.’

  ‘Then why did you not say so before?’

  ‘Why, I—because I—’

  ‘Because you didn’t think of it!’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Oh, come on…’ There was nothing to pity about him now. Standing squarely between her and the door, he epitomised the dominant male, hard and masculine, and totally without sympathy. ‘I know you, Diane. I know everything about you. I’ve listened, until I’m sick to my teeth, to stories about your charm, your looks, your likes, your dislikes, your absorption with self, self, self…’

  ‘No!’

  ‘I’ve watched a man disintegrate before my eyes, lose all his confidence, his self-respect, even his will to live, while he spoke of your needs, your demands, your success. Your selfishness, more like, your flawed image, your destructive self-indulgence that must be satisfied, whatever the cost!’

  Sara didn’t understand all of this. ‘You—you watched a man…’ she whispered unsteadily, and with a savage oath he tore off the glasses which had concealed his eyes, revealing them to be a brilliant shade of amber, burning now with the hard light of malevolence.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, as she stood there staring uneasily at him, realising weakly that he could see. And why not? This was not Adam Tregower—she realised that now. The resemblance was there, the features followed a similar pattern and given the half light she could be forgiven for mistaking his identity. But this man’s face was harder, stronger—younger. A relative, no doubt, but not Diane’s husband.

  ‘You—you’re not—’ she stammered, wondering why the knowledge gave her no relief, and he nodded.

  ‘No, I’m not,’ he agreed harshly. ‘I’m Michael Tregower. Adam is—was—my brother!’

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘YOU LOOK SHOCKED!’ he declared a few moments later, as Sara continued to stare disbelievingly at him. ‘Didn’t you know Adam had a brother? Perhaps not. It doesn’t surprise me. I was always considered the skeleton in the Tregower family cupboard.’

  Sara licked her dry lips. ‘Adam—Adam did not have a brother,’ she declared, faintly but succinctly. ‘I know. Di—Diane told me.’

  ‘Really.’ Plainly he did not believe the latter half of her statement. ‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but he did. A half-brother, at least. His—our—father was not averse to sowing a few wild oats of his own.’

  ‘You mean—you mean—’

  ‘I’m a bastard? Yes, that’s right. Bastard by name, and bastard by nature, wouldn’t you agree?’

  ‘Look…’ Sara sought desperately for words to explain all this, ‘I don’t care who you are or why you’re here. I don’t even care what you think of Diane or—or the way she behaved towards your brother. What I must repeat is that—that I am not her. My—my name is Sara Fortune, as I’ve told you—’

  ‘Oh, spare me the dramatics, will you?’ Michael Tregower reached into his pocket and drew out a case of narrow cigars, placing one between his teeth while he sought for his lighter. ‘We both know who you are and why you’re here—’

  ‘No. No, you don’t—’

  ‘I beg to differ.’

  ‘Mr Tregower! Please! Listen to me!’ Sara took an involuntary step forward, and as she did so his hand came out and caught her wrist, his thumb pressing cruelly against the veins on the inner side of her arm.

  ‘No,’ he denied. ‘You listen to me. Adam is dead, didn’t you understand what I said earlier?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes.’ Michael thrust his dark face closer to hers, the odour of whisky on his breath invading her nostrils. ‘Dead, do you understand? By his own hand. And there was nothing I, or any of us, could do about it.’

  ‘No!’

  Sara moved her head futilely from side to side, her long pale hair contrasting with the darkness of her jacket, as the blood draining out of her hand had a curiously numbing effect. Staring into Michael Tregower’s vengeful features she had the uncanny notion that he intended to kill her, too. That that was why he had sent for Diane, why he had threatened her in some way that forced her hand, and brought her down here. Only she hadn’t come. She had sent Sara instead, hoping perhaps that the blind husband she had not seen for seven years would be unable to distinguish between them. And it might have worked, bearing in mind Sara’s own instinctive compassion for the man she had thought to be Diane’s husband. Whatever reason he had had for sending for his wife, she had banked on her counter-action to thwart it, though what excuse she could give Sara the girl had yet to wonder.

  ‘I tell you, I’m not Diane Tregower!’ she cried, fear forcing the note of pa
nic into her voice. ‘You’ve made a terrible mistake!’

  ‘No, Diane. You made the mistake in coming here,’ he declared, a mocking smile curling his lips. ‘Really, Diane, I expected better of you. Were you really disturbed by my little note? So disturbed that you made a special journey down here—alone?’

  ‘You—you sent for Diane?’ Sara choked, trying impotently to free herself, but he was merciless.

  ‘Of course,’ he replied. ‘Haven’t I just told you? Adam’s dead. He died three weeks ago. Three weeks in which I’ve thought of little else but the pleasure of getting my hands around your selfish little neck!’

  Sara’s breathing had quickened alarmingly, and she could hear her heart thundering in her ears. Her blood pressure must be sky-high, she thought, though her own health had never meant less to her. Even so, a slightly hazy feeling was invading the corners of her eyes, and although she struggled to fight the wave of faintness that was overtaking her, the encompassing blackness engulfed her like a welcoming shroud.

  She came round to find herself lying on a dust-sheeted sofa in a room she had not seen before. She guessed it had been a sitting room or a drawing room, and judging by the shapes beneath their ghostly covers, there were other sofas and armchairs, and was that a grand piano in the window embrasure?

  The dizziness had subsided, and she was edging up on to one elbow when Michael Tregower came into the room carrying a glass of what looked like water. His face was paler, too, than she remembered it, but his eyes were just as hard when they alighted on her. He came to stand over her as she flopped back weakly against the cushions, and her heart began its familiar tattoo at the flintlike coldness of his expression.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he demanded, but it was more of an accusation than an enquiry.

  ‘What—what happened?’ she asked, playing for time, and grim lines bracketed his mouth.