Veronica kept her waiting for about five minutes and then swept around the floor introducing her to people. The majority exchanged a few words, but she thought that was probably due more to Veronica’s presence than any interest in her.
‘This floor is the gardening and home magazines.’ They were now back at the lift and Veronica pressed the button for level nine.
‘You mean like Amazing Homes?’
Veronica nodded. ‘You probably won’t have anything to do with any of the other magazines. I talk to them occasionally about a feature we’re running that could have a knock-on interest for them, but it’s rare. Computers and technology stuff is on seven and we’re on eight.’
‘And level nine?’
‘That’s the newspaper. I work with one or two of the journalists from The Day. Mostly those on the entertainment side, they’ll give me a heads-up if there’s a scandal brewing or anything we can use in Icon.’
There weren’t many people around on level nine, although there were lots of messy desks and empty cups. The atmosphere felt different and the few staff present barely spoke to them. Anita, a young woman in her late twenties, smiled and told Lexie to come back and see her if she had time before leaving. At least there was one friendly person.
They took the stairs down to eight and went to Veronica’s office. She pulled some papers off a shelf and handed them to Lexie.
‘Here are some contacts you can use to do the telephone interviews for our first feature on women in business.’
Veronica had plenty of contacts in the entertainment and fashion industry, but Lexie had some she could approach in other industries. Better to have a larger pool of thoughts and comments.
‘I’ve got a meeting now and then a couple of interviews,’ announced Veronica. ‘I probably won’t be back in the office.’
Great! It wasn’t that Lexie was against a trip to London but fitting it in during school hours took some planning, and she’d expected more of the visit, especially considering Veronica had initiated it. A list of contacts was hardly enough reason to drag her up to London. Veronica could have emailed it. The only positive was that she’d met some people at Webber Media. They might come in useful at some point.
Lexie found her way back to Anita’s desk.
‘How are things with Veronica?’
From Anita’s tone, Lexie guessed that she didn’t think much of Veronica, but she didn’t know the people here and preferred to keep her own judgement.
She returned Anita’s grin. ‘I’m sure you can guess.’
‘Do you fancy getting something to eat?’ Anita glanced at her watch. ‘We should go now, before the place over the road gets too crowded.’
A good idea, then at least she’d be able to leave London without going back to the office.
They walked across the road to the café Anita suggested, and once they’d both chosen their salads they found an empty table near the back.
‘I was so glad when Veronica said she’d found an assistant.’ Anita must have seen the confused look on Lexie’s face and laughed. ‘I’m a researcher. I work mostly on the journos stuff, which is why I’m not on the magazine floor.’
‘I thought journalists did most of their own research.’
Anita wrinkled her nose. ‘Depends. Some of them won’t let you near anything they’re working on and others get me to do most of it and take all the credit. The rest are somewhere in between.’
‘Does it annoy you? Doing the work and someone else taking the glory.’
‘Not really. I mean occasionally I feel a bit upset, but ultimately I enjoy what I do and I get paid for it.’ She shrugged. ‘I tell myself to get over it when I do get annoyed. By the way, have no doubts about Veronica; she won’t give you any credit.’
‘I guessed that, but this is a change of direction for me and I think it will be interesting.’
‘I wish you all the best with Veronica. She can be a total bitch and very demanding. If you hadn’t come along, I might have been lumbered with her stuff. I was concerned I’d end up working full-time on the magazine stuff. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I enjoy the newspaper research.’
‘Now it makes sense why you’re pleased to see me.’
‘If you need any help with research just give me a call. I’ll be happy to help if it means you stick around.’
‘Thanks. I’ve made a start already and not had too many problems, but you never know when something might crop up. As long as you’re sure. I don’t want to be a nuisance.’
‘I can help out with some research tips and tricks, and some not so well-known sources. We also use an agency to do some of the research, especially in tracking down people who don’t want to talk to us. For some things, it may just be pointing you in the direction you need to look, but if that doesn’t work you can let me know and I’ll be happy to help.’
‘That’s great. I am looking forward to getting stuck into this, but I was wondering if I’d bitten off a bit much.’ The women in business wasn’t proving difficult, but she hadn’t found out anything about Miriam, and was no further forward with Patrick and Caroline and any possible connection to Peter Webber, other than Webber Media.
‘Did you know Caroline Mills?’ Lexie asked the question cautiously.
Anita glanced up. ‘Caroline from Amazing Homes? No, not really. Did you know her?’
Not at all, but now she was aware Anita didn’t know her Lexie could stretch the truth. ‘I didn’t know her well, but it was a shock when I found out she’d been killed in that dreadful accident.’
‘We were all stunned. Things are hectic on the paper, so we don’t really mix much. The magazine people know each other better, but it was still awful.’
‘And the driver worked for the paper, didn’t he.’
‘Patrick,’ Anita shook her head. ‘That was just terrible. We couldn’t believe it. What are the chances of something like that happening? He’d been away on a story. Patrick never spent much time in the office. I don’t know what type of contract he had with the paper, but he worked more like a freelancer, although most of his stuff was for The Day.’
‘Did you ever do any research for him?’
‘No, Patrick was one of those who kept to himself. He never asked anyone to do any research. We worked for the same paper, but I barely knew him.’
That was a pity. Another dead end.
‘I only found out about Caroline a few weeks after the accident, so I didn’t get to attend the funeral.’ Good job her nose wasn’t growing. She’d told more lies in this conversation that she had in months.
‘It was a very small affair. Caroline didn’t have any family and I think Peter stepped in and paid for the service and cremation.’
That confirmed Patrick’s belief that Caroline hadn’t mentioned Alec. ‘No boyfriend or anything? We kind of lost touch a while ago, so I didn’t really know what was going on in Caroline’s life.’
‘None that we knew of. It was so sad. There wasn’t really anyone at the cremation other than work people and one or two friends.’
That confirmed Patrick’s assertion that they’d kept their relationship quiet, except that Veronica had found out about it. Who else might have known?
‘And of course, there was this big cloud over everything as Patrick had disappeared,’ said Anita. ‘A couple of people who knew him better said they couldn’t believe he’d do something like that, just disappear and not own up to it. Like I said, I hardly knew him. But then he killed himself, so I suppose he couldn’t live with what he’d done.’
The same story that everyone appeared to believe. ‘There wasn’t much about Patrick and the hit and run in The Day?’
‘First of all people couldn’t believe it, you know, someone witnessing the accident and identifying him from his media pictures. Then when Patrick didn’t come forward to explain or refute it, Peter told us to report the bare minimum.’
As Anita hadn’t known Patrick or Caroline very well, there didn’t seem to be
anything more she could ask.
‘He was furious,’ said Anita.
‘Who?’
‘Peter. Apparently Patrick had been working on some big story, but he didn’t leave anything that could be followed up by someone else. Peter talked to the other journos, and to Michael, he’s a photographer who worked with Patrick, but no one knew any details.’ Anita glanced at her watch. ‘I’d better get back.’
‘Thanks for all your help.’
‘Just give me a call if you have any problems, or email me the details and I’ll look into it for you. In the meantime, I’ll send you those links and the details of the agency I mentioned. Just tell them you’re working for Veronica and they’ll charge it to the account. Make sure you can always place it back to a work project. Veronica might be a bitchy diva, but she didn’t get where she is by being stupid. She always checks the accounts.’
After saying goodbye and making sure she had Anita’s direct dial number, Lexie hurried back to the car. It would be touch-and-go as to whether she’d be in time to pick up the girls. She rang Nathan to check he was still able to leave work early and pick them up.
‘I hadn’t forgotten. I’ll be there.’ He paused. ‘I had a call earlier.’
‘What about?’
There was another pause before he spoke. ‘Oh, nothing. It’s not important. See you later.’ He ended the call before Lexie could ask anything else.
He didn’t sound worried in the way he had when talking about finding the old man in the woods. He sounded guilty. She texted Helen to let her know Nathan was picking up the children and then flicked through her music to find something upbeat and energetic.
It was just as well Nathan left work early, as there were several delays due to construction work. Lexie sang along with Jesse J and then Kelly Clarkson, enjoying the pleasure of being out in the car on her own and not having to worry about being late.
As she opened the front door at home, she heard shrieks and laughter coming from the back garden. She wandered into the kitchen to watch the girls playing with Nathan. He was such a big kid himself. The garden looked lovely despite the fact she did next to nothing with it. Nathan was laughing at the girls who were at the far end of the garden playing with…
‘What is that?’
The girls were making so much noise they didn’t notice her until she spoke.
‘A dog,’ said Tilly, in her “isn’t it obvious voice”.
‘What’s it doing here?’
‘It’s not an it, Max is a boy dog.’ Tilly stood with one arm protectively over Max’s back.
‘I don’t care what gender it is. What’s it doing here?’
‘There’s a bit of a story to it. Come and sit down.’ Nathan took her hand and tugged her over to the bench seat near the roses.
‘You can’t sweet talk me, nor you,’ she said as the girls trailed over, putting on their best pleading looks.
‘Max is the old guy’s dog, you know the one who—’
‘Yes, I know who you’re talking about.’ Lexie was anxious not to talk about the old man in front of the children. ‘I still don’t get the connection.’
‘The police took him to the dog pound. I had a call from them this morning. Max escaped. They looked all around the kennels and buildings but couldn’t find him. Then someone wondered if he’d gone back to the woods. To where, well you know.’
Lexie nodded. ‘And?’
‘They didn’t know where that was, so I met them at the road and took them to where the old guy had been. Max was sat at the exact spot, just as I’d seen him that night. The pound people couldn’t get him to move, he whined and wouldn’t even look at the treats they had. I went over and patted him, talked to him for a bit and when I walked away he gave a bark and followed me.’
Max sat next to her and rested his head on her knee, his brown eyes soulful.
‘Pleeeease Mummy. Pleeeease can we keep Max. He’s sooo good. And we’ll be specially good for you if we can keep him.’
‘We’ve never had a dog before.’
‘But we’ve got lots of room in this garden.’ Tilly spread her arms wide in dramatic fashion. ‘And we’ll love you forever.’
‘I hope you’ll love me forever because I’m your mum.’
‘But having Max would help.’
Lexie put her hand out and stroked his warm fur. He wagged his tail and cocked his head to one side as if to say, ‘I’ll be good.’
‘I guess at his age he’s house-trained.’ Her voice trailed away. ‘But if he barks too much or goes to the toilet in the house, he’s out of here.’
The three girls cheered so loudly, even Lexie jumped. They ran around the garden shrieking. Max gave her hand a quick lick and ran to play with them.
‘It’ll be good for the girls to have Max around,’ said Nathan. ‘They love him already. And like you say, he’s bound to be house-trained at his age.’
‘Which is?’
‘Goodness knows. When they first saw him, they wanted to call him Sparkle.’
Lexie laughed at the look on Nathan’s face. ‘I can just imagine you in the park yelling “Sparkle”. I take it Max wasn’t keen on the idea.’
‘No. He was smart enough not to move until they called his proper name.’
‘How did they know his name at the pound?’
‘Someone there knew one of the old guy’s neighbours.’
The three girls and Max ran around the lawn, Max’s tail wagging all the time.
‘We had a dog when I was a kid,’ said Lexie. ‘I wheedled and pleaded and promised to look after him, but Mum and Dad ended up doing it all.’
‘At least he’s well past the puppy stage.’
‘And golden retrievers are supposed to be good family dogs, aren’t they?’ She watched Tilly and the twins with Max for a few minutes. ‘I think Max is better behaved than the girls.’
Lexie and Nathan attended two funeral services the following week. The first was a tiny affair at the crematorium for Max’s owner. Even knowing his name, Lexie still thought of him that way. She had never met the old man, but Nathan felt he should attend the service so Lexie went with him. She was glad she did as there were just a handful of neighbours at the service, and no one appeared to know him well.
In contrast, more people attended Evelyn’s service. Lexie held Nathan’s hand as Evelyn’s friends talked about her positive nature and boundless energy until the cancer took hold. The service was for both Evelyn and Patrick, but the tributes were mostly for Evelyn. The celebrant talked briefly of Patrick’s writing and his crusades to help those who were victims of corrupt regimes. To Lexie it seemed as if most people were trying to ignore the second casket, as if he was only allowed to be there because of their affection for Evelyn, and in the knowledge that whatever he had done, Evelyn loved her son.
16
Lexie sat at her laptop, clicking the ballpoint pen on and off. It was a noise that would irritate her if someone else were doing it. She couldn’t decide how to celebrate Nathan’s birthday, which was only a week away. They tried to do something special to celebrate their birthdays, and Lexie always put a lot of thought and energy into planning a surprise for Nathan. This year was awkward. She hadn’t actually earned any money for a while, so whatever present she bought would be purchased with Nathan’s money. It had never occurred to her when they both worked. She had always just thought of it as their money, but now it felt different.
When they lived in London, they sometimes splurged on a short trip — a weekend in Paris or some other European city. Astrid had always looked after the children, but now going away took on a whole other level of difficulty. Max shifted in his sleep, and the movement reminded her it wasn’t just the children she had to consider. He lay sprawled out on her feet. When she checked under the table, he opened one eye and his tail beat a rhythm on the wood floor. He followed her around the house like a shadow during the day. Life had changed a lot for Max.
She moved her attention back to the website
open in front of her and read through the blurb once again, still clicking the pen. She really must stop that, she was beginning to annoy herself.
Lexie stared out of the window. This wasn’t a good idea. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone. The cottage for rent looked lovely, and she and Nathan would have a great weekend. This year his birthday fell on a bank holiday weekend, so they’d get an extra day. However, he was sure to see through the excuse straight away. He knew her too well and was bound to think it wasn’t a good idea. He could well be right, and she had said she wouldn’t do any more digging around. Thinking about finding Patrick made her shiver, but since then she’d been stupid enough to copy files from Peter’s laptop, not that it had done her any good. How could photos of paintings be suspicious?
She gave a big sigh and picked up the phone. Perhaps not Scotland. First she needed to check if they could even get the weekend on their own.
‘Hi, Mum, it’s just me.’
After talking for a few minutes, she brought up the reason for her call. ‘Would you mind looking after the girls for the weekend of Nathan’s birthday so we can go away?
‘We’d love to. That’s not a problem. It will be good for you and Nathan to get away. You’ve had some big changes and Nathan has probably been working hard.’
‘You sure Dad won’t mind?’
Her mother laughed. ‘He’s a big softie with them.’
‘Actually, Mum, there is another thing. You don’t have to say yes to this.’ Lexie explained about Max and the circumstances around his arrival. ‘We can find a kennel that will take him for the weekend.’
‘You certainly won’t. Poor thing, after all he’s been through. He’ll feel like he’s back in the dog pound. We had a dog when you were little, so it’s not like we’ve never looked after one before.’
Still Death (A Lexie Wyatt murder mystery Book 1) Page 15