Page 5 of The Boathouse by the Loch (The Scottish Highlands #4)

Jake’s mouth curled up in a smile. He hadn’t been smiling, though, when he’d realised that after he’d left the Ross Corporation, William had told Aubrey to babysit him, follow him around, check he was okay.

After his initial annoyance, he’d reasoned that it was understandable.

Jake was now working in a tough inner-city school, biking to work through not overly salubrious areas of London.

William was worried for him, for his safety.

After what had happened to Eleanor, he didn’t want to lose Jake too.

Jake suddenly had a thought. What if Faye knew about Aubrey’s activities?

After all, she had spent some time talking to Marcus in his house, and then Aubrey had arrived.

If she’d found out that Aubrey had been following Jake around, she would know that he might have been following him when he was looking after Natty, taking her to the park, to his house.

She didn’t know who this guy was. He was harmless – on paper.

Just a sweet old guy who had known Jake since he was a child, and who Jake was very, very fond of.

But Faye didn’t know him from Adam, and he could just imagine she would not take kindly at all to the discovery.

Jake didn’t want to think about that. The fact was that if Aubrey had been following him around, he hadn’t followed him to Scotland.

It was the one place that Aubrey refused to return to.

And now Jake knew why. Ralph Delaney, or Aubrey Jones as he was now known, had fallen out with his father, Angus Delaney, many, many years earlier, and never returned to claim his inheritance – the mansion, Cedar Grove.

‘His real name is Ralph Delaney.’

‘Oh, okay. Have you asked him?’

‘Who?’

‘Aubrey – about his nephew? He might know where Martha’s son is. ’

That had occurred to Jake. When he’d visited Martha, who had Alzheimer’s and only had rare lucid moments, he’d thought that Aubrey must know about her son – where he was, where Jake could find him. But of course, he’d thought, things were never that simple.

Jake sighed. ‘I’m afraid it might be a little bit more complicated than that. You see, Martha never married Ralph’s father. I think she gave him up as a baby.’

‘Ah, so you’re saying Aubrey might never have known about him.’

‘That is a possibility.’

‘Well, the only way to find out is to ask him.’

Jake nodded. That was true. But it was sensitive. It wasn’t something he wanted to broach over the phone. He’d have to meet up with Aubrey in person to raise that sort of delicate subject. What if he’d never known he had a nephew?

‘I could ask Marcus to speak to Aubrey,’ suggested Faye.

‘No. Don’t do that. I’d rather talk to him myself when I return to London.’

‘Can you do anything for Martha about finding her son in the meantime, while you’re in Scotland?’

Jake thought about that. ‘I can return to visit her.’ He was hoping he might catch her during one of her more lucid moments, and with luck she might be able to tell him more about her son and her brother.

‘I’m sure she’d like to see you again. I imagine having visitors is very important at that age, stuck in a care home.’

Jake chose not to go into detail regarding the fact that although it was a care home, she had an apartment all to herself, decorated as though it was still the home she’d grown up in. Somebody had had the idea to turn part of the house into expensive apartments for those that could afford them.

Jake agreed with Faye’s sentiments, although he doubted that Martha would remember his visits. But he did have another idea.

Jake winced in anticipation of the backlash. ‘Actually, Faye, I need a favour.’

‘Which is?’ Faye said slowly.

‘I have a photograph, presumably of her son, Ralph. I could do with finding out if it can be dated. Really, any information about the photo would be helpful.’ Jake had an idea that Martha’s son was in his thirties, but even so, he was hoping Faye’s father could take a look.

Perhaps he could shed some light on Martha’s son.

Although he was retired from the police force, Jake imagined he still had friends in the police who might do him a favour.

The problem was that Faye was estranged from her father, Patrick.

Jake sat there, holding his breath, wondering what Faye would say to his request. She hadn’t spoken to Patrick in a long time and refused to let him see her daughter.

It all stemmed from the fact that Patrick and Faye had fallen out over her break-up with Yousaf, whom Patrick had got on very well with, apparently.

Furthermore, he’d thought Faye was overreacting, and didn’t believe Yousaf would have attempted to take Natty.

‘Jake. I know you made a promise to Martha. But you need to get some rest and relaxation too – that’s what you’re supposed to be doing on holiday.’

Jake wondered if she was avoiding the subject of contacting Patrick on his behalf. Or perhaps she didn’t realise that was what he was asking of her.

She fell silent for a moment before exclaiming, ‘Hold on. Are you asking me to contact …’ she trailed off .

Jake hesitated and took a deep breath before he spoke. Now he expected Faye would just hang up on him once she realised who he was going to ask her to contact. ‘Your father.’

‘You remember I’m barely on speaking terms with him?’

Now she was whispering down the phone, and Jake could just about hear her over the din of the staffroom. It was late afternoon, and she’d be there for some time yet, catching up on paperwork while Natty was in an after-school club.

‘Yes, of course I remember.’

‘I’ll ask one of his friends who still works in the police to see if he can help.’

‘Really? I didn’t know you kept in touch with your father’s friends.’

‘Of course I do. Just because I’ve fallen out with my dad, it doesn’t mean I’m not on speaking terms with some of his friends from work. They’ve known me my whole life.’

Jake grinned. ‘Great, thank you.’

‘The guy I know has been in the force for years. He is our police liaison officer for the area – and comes into the school on a regular basis to talk to the kids about drugs and gangs. I suppose he could look into it as a missing person’s case. I’m not sure. I presume he’d have to ask his boss.’

Jake hesitated. He hadn’t expected Faye to say yes.

Now he was having doubts as to whether he should be involving the police.

He fell silent, debating what to do. Martha’s son, the boy in the photo, was called Ralph, clearly named after his uncle, but Aubrey was using a false name – had done for years.

Jake could only speculate as to his reasons.

Perhaps it was simply the case that he’d fallen out with his father and, having chosen to disappear, he’d had to change his name so the executors of his father’s will could not track him down.

Perhaps he just wanted a fresh start and to leave his past behind.

The problem was that Jake didn’t know what he’d done with the intervening years between leaving the boarding school and hooking up with William and the Ross Corporation.

Although Jake was curious himself, did he really want to arouse the curiosity of the police? Who knew what they might find if they started digging around into Martha’s past, and by extension, her brother’s? He didn’t want them to do that; just to see if they could find the whereabouts of her son.

Faye said, ‘Obviously he might not be able to help if it’s not really a missing person case. You did say you think her son was adopted as a baby. Wouldn’t that be social services, or some adoption register that would hold those details?’

Jake hadn’t thought of that.

‘You said you had a photo. If you text me the photo I will ask him when I see him next, see what he says.’

On the one hand, Jake thought that for the sake of the company, for the sake of William and Marcus, he couldn’t afford whatever dodgy past Aubrey might be concealing to come out now, just when things might finally be getting back to some semblance of normality.

But what if this boy, Ralph, was a missing person, and was in some police database?

However unlikely that was, it was still worth a try.

Jake had enough on his plate, both with trying to find out what had really happened when they had been skiing the previous Christmas, and with the promise he’d made to Marcus to return to the Ross Corporation while he checked into rehab.

He could have done without having Martha’s wish to find her son on his plate too.

Jake made up his mind. ‘I’ll text you the photo.’ She said, ‘I can’t make any promises— ’

‘It’s fine, Faye. I appreciate it’s the end of term, and you’ve got a million things to get done before the summer holidays …’

‘I’ll find the time to give him a call. I’ll let you know what, if anything, he can do.’

‘Thank you, Faye.’ He didn’t really anticipate that Martha’s son would show up on a police database.

He just hoped Martha’s brother didn’t show up on a police database instead.

Jake frowned, wishing Martha’s son and brother didn’t have the same name.

He didn’t want to think about that. Faye was probably right.

By the sound of things, it was more likely Martha’s son had been registered with an adoption agency, and it had involved the family courts.

Jake wasn’t family. He wouldn’t have access to what he imagined were closed adoption records.

So far, Faye’s contact was the only official channel he had access to, and he reasoned that it might be a shot in the dark, but it was worth a try.

‘I just hope this doesn’t get back to my dad,’ Jake heard her mumble.

Jake acted like he hadn’t heard that comment. He imagined she would not want her father thinking that because she’d been in contact with one of his old friends, that opened the door to resuming their relationship. He hoped she didn’t change her mind about the favour.