She found the number for the Federation and dialled. ‘It’s Keri Metcalfe,’ she said when the phone was answered. ‘I was hoping to have a brief word with Simon Nicholl, is that possible?’
‘Hold for one moment, please.’
Keri’s hand tightened on the phone, her brain spinning.
The voice that came on was distracted, the implication in the tone as clear as if he’d said it aloud, I’m a terribly busy man, why are you disturbing me. ‘Keri, hi, what can I do for you?’
It was tempting to hang up, pretend she’d been cut off, but then she’d have to ring back and explain. Better to come up with something, no matter how banal. ‘So sorry to bother you, Simon. Roy mentioned that he heard from one of our suppliers about a conference the Federation was holding and we’ve heard nothing about it, so…’
‘A conference? No, sounds like someone’s got the wrong end of the stick there.’
Keri wanted to apologise and ring off, but Simon liked nothing better than a captive audience. Suddenly, he didn’t sound in a hurry. ‘We had considered holding a conference on the new technological advances that we’ve seen in the last year.’
It was a hobby horse of his, Keri raised her eyes to the ceiling and listened, adding a yes or no when appropriate as he droned on. ‘Fascinating.’
‘What?’
Shit, obviously not the correct word. ‘Your knowledge on the subject, I meant.’ She cringed and hoped he’d swallow the line, relieved when his ego allowed him to accept the compliment. Despite what Nathan had said, Simon obviously wasn’t aware she couldn’t stand him. She must be a better actor than she’d thought.
Keri rested her forehead in her hand as he continued his monologue.
‘I’ll send you an email when we’ve made a decision on dates etc,’ he said finally.
Dates? Had she missed something?
‘I think it behoves us all to keep up with technological advances so I’m sure it will be well attended.’
‘Oh, I have no doubt,’ Keri replied, realising what he was talking about, and pledging to be busy when said conference was announced. ‘We’ll look forward to hearing from you.’
She put the phone down and sat back. A time-consuming, boring way to prove a point but she’d done it. Wherever Nathan was, he wasn’t with Simon Nicholl.
16
Keri checked the time and swore softly. She had a meeting with one of their surveyors in five minutes. Chris Dolan was a good employee when he wasn’t complaining about something or other. Worse, he insisted on bringing every gripe to either her or Nathan.
‘He simply likes letting off steam,’ she’d said when Nathan had complained. ‘I’d prefer him coming to us, than moaning to customers or suppliers.’
Keri considered herself to be a good employer, and if that meant taking on the role of counsellor at times, so be it. But she could have done without it that day.
On the dot of eleven, Chris arrived carrying a takeaway tray of two coffees. He put one on the desk in front of her, tossed the tray in the bin and sat on the chair opposite with the air of a man settling in for the long haul.
The coffee was finished and the minute hand had swept around the clock one and a half times before the rather pinched expression on his face softened. ‘Thanks for listening, Keri. I feel much better about it all now.’
Weary from listening to him, and from propping up his incredibly fragile ego, she pushed the corners of her mouth up into a smile she hoped didn’t look as false as it felt. ‘That’s what I’m here for.’
The morning was gone. Sorry she hadn’t cancelled a lunchtime meeting with one of their suppliers, she got to her feet. It was almost one, she’d make it with minutes to spare.
She looked over to Nathan’s office as she crossed to the reception desk. He’d not yet returned from wherever he’d gone. ‘I’ll be back in an hour or so,’ she told Roy. She waved to the empty office. ‘I thought Nate would be back by now, he hasn’t rung, has he?’
Roy looked up from his computer screen. ‘No, I didn’t know he had a meeting this morning. It’s not in the diary.’
‘Oh, it was a last-minute thing. He hoped to be back late morning but you know the way these meetings can go.’ She looked back to her own office. ‘I’d hoped to get through some of those emails but…’ She shrugged. ‘I’ll try to get away early.’
‘The last time you met Alf Steadman, you didn’t return till past four!’
‘Well, that won’t be happening today. I have too much to do. I know what Alf wants anyway, it’s what he always wants, a more favourable contract.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘As usual, he’ll want too much, I’ll offer him a lot less, he’ll bridle, say he’ll settle for a little less than he demanded, I’ll offer him slightly more than I offered and finally, probably over the second bottle of wine, most of which he’ll have drunk, he’ll extend his big calloused hand and demand we shake on it.’
‘Every year, it’s the same. I bet you won’t get away from him before four.’
‘If I were a betting woman, I’d put a fiver on that.’ She turned with a smile for Tracy who was standing beside the printer holding a packet of A4 paper. ‘How’re you doing? Sorry I haven’t had a chance to chat to you, it’s been one of those days.’
‘That’s okay. Roy’s been great.’
‘Good, good.’ Keri tried to avoid looking at Roy who was standing behind Tracy staring at the ceiling. ‘Okay.’ She checked her watch. ‘I’d better run, you can ring me if anything urgent crops up.’
The meeting went exactly as Keri had predicted. It also, unfortunately, went as late as Roy had bet. Normally, she wouldn’t have minded. Alf was one of the nicer people she had to deal with. Happily married for almost thirty years to his childhood sweetheart, he had two children of a similar age to Keri’s and much of their conversation that wasn’t about supplies centred on them.
She was back in the office shortly after four. Roy looked up when she entered but the quick quip or funny remark she expected didn’t come. He was looking unusually serious. Whatever it was, Keri didn’t want to hear. She’d had enough for one day and not even the sight of Nathan back in his office lessened the tension that had returned as soon as she’d left Alf’s genial company. All she wanted to do now was to get the more pressing of the emails out of the way and head home.
She said ‘hello’ to Roy and kept walking, but she wasn’t going to escape that easily.
‘Have you a minute to discuss something?’
‘Oh, not now, Roy. Please,’ she pleaded. ‘First thing in the morning, I promise I’ll be all yours. I have to get some of those emails answered today.’ She could tell by the downturned mouth that he wasn’t happy. More guilt to add to her swiftly growing collection. ‘Tomorrow, I promise, okay?’ She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Roy wasn’t a man to hold a grudge. ‘Tomorrow. Right.’
Relieved, Keri went into her office and sat behind her desk. Some of the emails waiting for her attention needed to be sorted that day. She switched on her computer and dived in, keeping her head down and fingers flying across the keyboard. A rap on the door dragged her attention from the screen. ‘Come in,’ she called out when she saw Roy hovering outside.
‘It’s five. You nearly done?’
‘Almost.’ She stretched her arms over her head. ‘Another couple to go.’ She gave him a weary smile. ‘It’s been one of those days, but I’m sorry I didn’t have time to talk earlier.’
‘That’s okay. Tomorrow will do fine.’ He pointed to her laptop. ‘Don’t be too late, you’ll be exhausted.’ And with that final advice, he gave a wave and left.
She was vaguely aware of other staff leaving, shadowy figures in the periphery of her vision as they passed through reception. Finally, she had done as much as she was going to that day. A message from Abbie and Daniel to say they wouldn’t be home yet again that night made her half annoyed, half relieved. She didn’t know why they simply didn’t move out completely for all t
he time they spent at home.
Through the glass, she could see Nathan still at his desk. It was unusual for them both to need to stay so late, and she wondered what he was doing. Memories of weeks when they left much later than this brought a smile that quickly faded. Those were different times, filled with determination to succeed, hope for their future. They’d shared a desk, elbows bumping, frequent smiles, barks of laughter from him, chuckles from her. It had been a struggle and often they’d despaired. But she never thought of the past without a smile that held a hint of regret for the people they were then.
Was that why she’d agreed to allow Tracy to do work experience? Because the enthusiastic young woman in her M&S suit and cheap shoes reminded Keri of her younger self? She stood abruptly. Looking at the past through tinted glass was rarely a good idea.
She took her jacket from the coat stand and pulled it on. Nathan hadn’t moved. Was he so totally engrossed in whatever he was doing, or was it all for show?
They were the last two left in the building and her heels clicked loudly on the tiled floor as she crossed to his office. He didn’t look up as she opened the door. ‘You coming home?’
It seemed to take an inordinate amount of effort for him to take his eyes from the computer screen and look at her. She wondered again if there was another woman. It would explain his odd behaviour. In the same way as he couldn’t lie in business, he’d never be able to hide the lie of an affair. He wasn’t like her.
She crossed the office to his side and rested a hand on his shoulder. ‘You look tired. Let’s go home.’
His fingers were on the keyboard but as she’d half-expected, the screen was blank. He hadn’t even had the sense to turn the damn thing on.
The journey home seemed to take longer than usual. Nathan barely said a word as they walked to the station and sat silently looking at the floor as the train chugged towards Highbury and Islington. There, they agreed they were too tired to walk and they joined the thankfully short queue for a taxi. When they were sitting in the back of one, minutes later, Keri reached for his hand, half-afraid he would pull away.
Instead, he gripped hers painfully and kept hold of it for the remainder of the journey.
17
Keri wasn’t a woman to sit back and wait for things to happen or for problems to magically sort themselves out, but that evening as they sat over the takeaway meal she’d ordered, intuition kept her quiet. Whatever was worrying Nathan, maybe he needed to work through it himself.
It was a small consolation that worrying over him was putting Barry Morgan from her mind.
Her comfort was short-lived because a horrifying thought hit her. Perhaps it wasn’t that Nathan was having an affair, but that he had found out about hers.
Was that why he had difficulty meeting her eyes?
Had that been Barry’s next step? The wreath, the rat, then ratting?
She looked at Nathan’s preoccupied face and wanted to ask him if he knew she’d been having an affair. Cheating on him. Spending hours wrapped in someone else’s arms in what she could now admit was a seedy backstreet hotel with black nylon sheets she’d convinced herself were silk.
Nausea brought her to her feet and had her rush from the room. She barely made it to the downstairs cloakroom in time, heaving the little she had eaten into the toilet.
‘Are you okay?’ Nathan asked when she returned.
‘Something didn’t agree with me.’ She picked up her plate and scraped the rest of the food into the bin.
He pushed the remainder of his meal away. ‘I thought it tasted a bit odd myself.’
‘Will I make something else?’ She opened the fridge. ‘There’s some pâté, I could make some toast.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve had enough. I’ll have a beer though.’
Keri took a bottle out and opened it. She slid it across the counter to him and took away his plate, unsurprised to see he’d barely touched it.
Nor was she surprised when he took his beer and made a feeble excuse about having to send an email to someone, a name she didn’t recognise, one she guessed he’d made up on the spur of the moment.
Secrets and lies, they were in more trouble than they’d ever been in all their years together.
It was late before Nathan came to bed. Keri stayed curled on her side, pretending to be asleep, afraid to speak in case the wrong words came out, words she could never take back, words that might destroy them if her actions hadn’t already done that.
She lay awake for a long time, feeling the bed shudder as Nathan tossed and turned before finally falling asleep. Only then did she drift off, waking a while later to reach for him suddenly desperate for reassurance, only to find the bed empty, her hand sliding across the cold sheet where his warm body should be lying.
Regret brought bitter tears. To have risked so much for so little. How stupid she’d been.
There was no possibility of sleep until she found Nathan. Downstairs, she followed the murmur of the TV to the lounge they rarely used. She opened the door quietly and saw him, stretched out on the sofa, his eyes shut, the TV tuned to a music station.
It was impossible to tell if he was asleep or pretending to be. She retreated upstairs, took a duvet from the spare room, and went back with it bundled in her arms to drape it over him.
It was all she could do.
She returned to bed, tossed and turned for another hour before drifting into a sleep where her sins chased her relentlessly.
18
The following morning breakfast was consumed in an awkward silence only broken by the tinkle of spoon against china as they pretended to be eating cereal. Once again, most of it ended in the bin.
Unable to face the walk to the station, Keri phoned for an Uber.
Nathan looked at her with concern when she told him. ‘You feeling okay? You’re not still sick from that takeaway, are you?’
She rested a hand on his arm, ridiculously grateful for the worry in his voice. ‘No, I’m fine, a little bit tired, maybe. I had a restless night.’ She didn’t mention his sleeping on the sofa.
‘Yes, me too. Must have been that dodgy food.’ He made no comment on the duvet she’d draped over him.
There was little conversation in the taxi or on the train to Walthamstow Central where Keri glared at their photograph on the billboard. There were still weeks before it and the poster on the bus shelter would be taken down and replaced by something unremarkable. Until then, every time she saw it she was reminded of how much she’d almost lost.
A little after nine, they reached their office building. It was Roy who opened every morning. His day didn’t officially begin till eight forty-five, but any time Keri had needed to go in early he was there standing behind his desk. Solid as the building’s foundation.
‘I like to get ahead of the day,’ he commented with a wink when asked why he arrived so early.
The other employees – the accountancy team, surveyors, IT, and marketing gurus – all wandered in from nine thirty. Sometimes, Keri wondered if she and Nathan were too lax, but when she’d broached the subject with him, he’d laughed and told her to lighten up.
‘We have good staff. More importantly, reliable ones who stay. You can’t put a price on that.’
Keri had a fair idea that they could indeed put a price on the hours that were wasted, but she let it drop and thanked their lucky stars they had the super-reliable Roy.
That morning, as usual, he was behind his desk, his eyes focused on the computer in front of him. Unusually, he didn’t look up from the screen to give the big welcoming smile he reserved especially for Keri.
He didn’t stir as she and Nathan crossed the reception to his desk.
He didn’t look up when Keri screamed.
Nor when Nathan, eyes wide with shock, staggered back to collide with the designer chairs and trendy coffee table that designated the waiting area. The table collapsed under his weight and he crashed to the floor, arms and legs akimbo sending the chairs flying.
Keri only screamed once but the sound echoed around the airy reception and bounced off the glass walls. She was conscious of the noise behind, aware that Nathan had fallen but she couldn’t move. Finally, silence floated over the macabre scene.
It was impossible to move or look away from the ghoulish, ghastly vision of Roy, their godsend. There was nothing godlike about the man now. He was sitting on his favourite chair, his hands resting on the desk in front of him, his chin resting on his blood-soaked chest.
So much blood.
Keri was panting – she stopped when the metallic smell hit her and clamped her lips shut against the noxious, levelling, classless smell of death. Because there was no doubt in her mind. Roy was dead. Nobody could survive such catastrophic blood loss.
Her mobile was in her jacket pocket. She pulled it out with a damp shaking hand, flipped open the cover and stared at it. What was her PIN number? It was seconds before she remembered she didn’t need it in this situation.
‘Emergency, which service do you require?’
There was no need for an ambulance. Roy was dead. Dead. She hadn’t realised she’d said the last word aloud until she heard the voice asking her who was dead.
‘Roy. Our receptionist. He was dead when we… my husband and I… arrived.’ She swallowed and answered the questions she was asked as best as she could, the calmness of the voice on the other end helping her to respond.
‘The police are on their way,’ the operator said. ‘You sure you’re both safe?’
‘I think so.’ Keri looked around reception. There was nowhere for anyone to hide. Nor was there anywhere to conceal a person in either her or Nathan’s office. The short corridor that lay between the two was empty and the back-office doors were kept locked after hours. ‘There doesn’t appear to be anyone here.’
The Couple in the Photograph Page 6