Behind Dead Eyes (DC Ian Bradshaw #2) - Howard Linskey Page 0,74

If she divorced you, she still would have ended up with some of your fortune, particularly if you couldn’t prove adultery.’

‘Why would she need to leave me to get my money? I gave her everything she could ever want. She had her own credit cards and a separate bank account with an allowance. I never questioned anything she bought. She lived very well.’

‘But she was in love with Richard Bell.’

‘She was screwing Richard Bell, there’s a difference. I don’t think for one moment either of them would have left the marital home. I was supporting her and from what I heard his wife was carrying him. The two of them wouldn’t have been much cop on their own, would they? He was a bit bloody useless, by all accounts.’ It was clear he took some satisfaction from Richard Bell’s lack of success outside of the bedroom. ‘Just a pretty boy really, though I hear he’s not quite so pretty anymore.’

‘You heard about his slashed face?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Holt, ‘and no, I didn’t pay anyone to do that to him, though I can’t say I was devastated when I read about it. I thought it was a form of justice, since looks are all he’s got. Look, maybe I did leave myself open but we all have our weak spots, Mr Carney. I loved Rebecca. Why can nobody else see that? They all think it was just about the sex or having the best-looking bird on your arm when you walk into a restaurant but it wasn’t. I genuinely loved the girl. The lawyers,’ he continued, ‘they all wanted me to get her to sign one of those … what-are-they-called … pre-nuptial agreements like they have in America but I mean …’ he shook his head ‘… you can’t ask your wife to sign something before you marry her in case it doesn’t work out. If you do that you’re bloody doomed from the start.’

‘I still can’t see a man like you losing half his fortune and a good chunk of his business empire to a young wife who’s been with him for a relatively short time.’

‘Look, Rebecca didn’t know how much I was worth. She didn’t even ask me, not the whole time we were together. She knew I was well off and it ran to millions but even fancy divorce lawyers would struggle to put a value on me.

‘I suppose at the back of my mind I knew she wouldn’t have been with me if it wasn’t for the money. She liked to be looked after, but I thought we had an understanding that included her not screwing another man when my back was turned. I thought she was different – but she was rotten, just like everybody else.’

Until that point Freddie Holt had been kind about his late wife, so the sudden departure from the script was quite shocking. ‘You think everyone is rotten?’

‘To the core, bonny lad.’

‘That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?’

Holt shook his head calmly. ‘Not at all. It’s self-preservation. Think about it. Everybody is out for themselves in the long run.’

‘What about people who do genuinely good things – selfless stuff that benefits other people but not them?’

He shook his head. ‘They do it so they can feel good about themselves,’ he affirmed. ‘They like people saying how nice they are so it’s just another form of self-interest.’

‘That’s a pretty fucked-up world view.’

‘It’s realistic pessimism,’ Holt reasoned.

Tom knew it was none of his business but for some reason he was curious. ‘What about relationships, do you bother with any of that now?’

‘I’m through with all of that nonsense. I haven’t got the time or the inclination.’ Then he qualified his statement, as if he didn’t want Tom to get the wrong idea. ‘Everything is still in working order and if I want a woman I have one but there’s nothing to it. I don’t even take them out anymore.’

‘You must know some obliging women.’

‘Escort girls.’ He said it shamelessly, as if daring Tom to look shocked. ‘They know what you want and there’s no pretence, you pay them, it’s a business deal, the good ones even pretend you’re something special for an hour or so, then you leave and you don’t take any of their baggage with you. I’m a businessman and I respect the honesty of that transaction. You might be judging me right now but you haven’t lived as long as me.’

‘I’m not judging you,’ Tom told him. ‘I read an article on