by Alice Castle
Beth gazed at it in dread. It looked a bit like Lieutenant Uhura’s fearsome bank of instruments in the original (and best, in her opinion) Star Trek. But she supposed if Nina could work it, then so could she, and she tried valiantly to keep concentrating on the many protocols necessary to transfer calls, put people on hold, and take messages. In the end, she decided, as long as she wasn’t getting calls from the Klingon high command, she’d probably be ok. And the bonus was that she didn’t have to wear skin-tight Lycra and a wig while she was doing it.
‘Let’s have a bit of a practice run. I’ll be a client, you be me,’ said Nina, getting out her brick phone and dialling the number by heart. The phone on the desk promptly rang and Beth jumped a mile. ‘Hope you’re not going to do that every time, love, or this job will be taking years off you,’ Nina quipped.
Beth smiled weakly, leant forward, studied the array of buttons and pressed one because it was flashing wildly.
‘No, handset first, then you press… oh, I’m not going to tell you,’ said Nina.
After the first five calls, Beth had it down to a reasonably fine art, and was even attempting some of Nina’s sassy style. ‘Potter and Co, how may I direct your call?’ she lilted, as though she were sitting at the hub of a multinational, not just a tinpot office in downtown Herne Hill.
Then the phone warbled again, and Nina turned to her, both palms upwards, and the Nokia brick lying unused on the counter. It was a real live phone call! Immediately, Beth panicked, and nearly pressed the off switch.
‘Nina? Neeens? That’s not you! Here, she’s never been sacked and not told me, has she?’ came a woman’s insistent voice in her ear, shrill with worry.
‘No, no, madam, she’s right here,’ said Beth, and passed over the handset with relief.
Nina listened for a few moments. ‘Nah, Mum, it’s all good, just showing a temp how everything works,’ she winked hugely at Beth. ‘Between you and me, I’m not sure she’s cut out for it,’ she added, giving Beth a playful shove that nearly pushed her off her swivel chair.
Just at that moment, there was a jingle from the door and a tall, slender woman walked in. Her silvery hair and floaty clothes seemed to betoken an other-worldliness, but the look in her eye was far from ethereal as she took in the scene. Ben and Wilf were sprawled in the seating area, shoes and socks lying discarded across the tasteful beige carpet. Nina was still on the phone, now trying to wind up her call quickly, and Beth, blushing like a guilty schoolgirl, was sitting in the hot seat, surrounded by stationery and a few folders from the desk drawers.
‘Nina? Are you having some sort of party? And is Paul in?’
The woman made to bypass Beth and Nina at reception, but Nina, who’d hung up, spoke rapidly.
‘Paul’s had to pop out, but he said he’d be back later. Anything I can do for you, Letty?’
Beth knew Letty Potter from the playground, and just about every café in Dulwich, where she was always seated at Belinda MacKenzie’s right hand. But somehow, without Belinda, she seemed a stronger presence. Or maybe that was just because she was in a filthy mood. The anger beaming out from her pale blue eyes was at odds with her dryad looks, the hair straight out of a Norse fairytale, and the wafty ice blue dress, a floating panel of which was now snagged on one of the complicated levers on Beth’s chair. Beth stooped to try and disentangle it, but Letty leaned forward with an angry exhalation of breath and yanked it free with both hands. Beth could see an ugly grease stain on the fine silky material. She averted her gaze quickly.
‘And what on earth are you doing here, Beth?’ said Letty sharply.
Surprised, Beth was silent for a beat. She’d had no idea that the woman even knew her name. Letty had always blanked her whenever they chanced to meet in the street, at the shops, the park – everywhere, really. If she was with Belinda, there’d be the merest trace of a glacial smile, as Belinda did always say hello to Beth. But if Letty was on her own, she’d sweep past without acknowledging Beth’s existence. They’d had children at the same school for, what, four years now? Letty’s son, Jacob, was in Year 6, with Belinda’s Billy and, of course, with Ben. But that was no guarantee of friendliness – none at all.
Beth had never taken it amiss, particularly. Yes, it wasn’t pleasant, but it was possible that, from Letty’s lofty position – she must be at least five foot ten or eleven – she couldn’t even see the likes of Beth, so close to the ground. And, crucially, their children had never been pally. For many women, this was the factor that made all the difference, and in her heart of hearts Beth knew she was as bad as anyone about this. There were quite a few people that she didn’t bother to chat with, as Ben simply didn’t like their offspring. She’d never fail to smile; she wasn’t a horrible person. But if there was no rapport between the kids, it made an effort at friendliness seem a little misguided, unless there were other factors at play.
She and Nina, for instance, had really hit it off, despite the fact that their children were years apart. But the circumstances were unusual: Beth had been shorn of her everyday friends, thanks to death and Michael; and besides, Nina had dangled a promising mystery in front of her nose. But, exceptions aside, there was only so much time for everyone to scurry through the basics of life, and being overly chummy with all and sundry was probably as alien to Beth as it clearly was to Letty.
‘Well…’ Beth started, not really sure at all how her sentence was going to pan out. Thank goodness, Nina interrupted her before she got too far.
‘I asked Beth to come in. Well, I begged her. I’ve got to take a couple of days off and wanted Beth to cover for me. She’s brilliant at this stuff. I was just showing her the popes.’
‘What are you on about, Nina?’ Letty’s tone was withering, as she looked down her nose at both women. ‘And don’t we usually get temps for this sort of thing? I fail to see why—’
‘Erm, yeah, usually, but Beth asked me if she could help out. I didn’t have the heart to say no…’ said Nina, to Beth’s consternation.
Feeling her jaw start to sag open, and also realising Letty’s cold eyes were upon her, Beth struggled to think of something convincing. ‘Ah, yes…’ she started haltingly, but Nina was off again. At first, Beth was relieved to have the baton wrested from her grasp, but as Nina’s story unfolded, she wished she’d staggered on.
‘It’s the bills, you see, really mount up, don’t they? Basically, she needs the money, she’d never say so herself,’ said Nina, giving Beth’s hand a pat and continuing briskly on while Beth made a strangulated sound and went puce in the background. ‘We need a couple of days’ cover, so, as she’s qualified, years of experience, I’m doing everyone a favour, really,’ Nina added smugly.
‘And this is all agreed with Paul?’ said Letty in surprise.
‘Oh yes,’ said Nina. ‘I gave him the memo ages ago. Whether he read it, or remembers it, is another thing. You know what his memory’s like,’ she laughed.
Letty’s lips moved in the merest suggestion of a wintry smile. She gave Beth a sharp glance and said grudgingly, ‘Well, if it’s agreed… we can’t have these kids around, though,’ she said, looking at Ben and Wilf as though they were pond life.
‘’Course not. They’ll be looked after, don’t you worry.’
‘And not on the premises?’ Letty, unlike Paul, did not seem the type to let the finer details evade her. ‘I don’t want any clients, er, discouraged…’
‘Absolutely not,’ said Nina equally firmly.
‘Well, I suppose that’s in order, then. Sorry to hear that things are so… difficult, Beth,’ said Letty, with a gleam in her eye.
Beth, scarlet now, tried to avoid looking at Letty, but couldn’t entirely escape that speculative glance. Then, with a smooth turn that was almost a pirouette, Letty moved to face the boys again, didn’t quite shudder, then wafted out of the door, which closed behind her with a haunting ding.
‘What did you say that for?’ Beth exploded.
The boys looked up briefly from th
eir games, then their heads bobbed down again like birds pecking up seed.
Nina smiled, unrepentant. ‘Well, she’s not going to check up on that story, is she? It makes sense, too. Who in their right minds doesn’t want a bit of extra cash before Christmas, anyway? Don’t tell me it won’t come in handy. I’ve actually done you a massive favour. Before, you were going to get diddly-squat. Now you’re being paid, and you’ve got a bona fido reason for hanging about. Stroke of genius, I call it.’
Beth sighed deeply and rubbed her hands over her face. Her cheeks were still flaming, with mortification and, she had to admit, with anger. ‘You don’t understand, Nina. Letty’s going to tell Belinda that I’m broke. Belinda will tell everyone, everyone in Dulwich. Everybody will know and they’ll all be discussing it.’
‘So what?’ said Nina. ‘It’s true, in’t it? Well, you may not be exactly broke, but I bet you’re not rolling in it either. Why wouldn’t you want to get a bit of extra dosh in while you can’t go to your other job? That must only pay peanuts, over at Wyatt’s. I mean, you’re hardly ever there.’
This stung. And was rather worrying. The job at Wyatt’s, which she did love, was certainly supposed to be full-ish time, allowing for school drop-offs, pick-ups, and the holidays and so on. ‘I… I work from home a lot!’ said Beth defensively.
Nina smiled. ‘Yeah, right. Like I was the other day. But you’ll have plenty to keep you busy here, with all the ferreting around you’ll be doing.’
Beth had been wondering if she should make a start on Paul’s office, as he wasn’t there at the moment. But she was so riven with a toxic combination of anger and guilt that she knew she wouldn’t be able to read a word of any of the files, even if they said Paul Potter is guilty of fraud in huge letters.
She hardly recognised her own voice as she said, ‘Right, well, we’d better be off,’ and started collecting her own bits and bobs with jerky hands, averting her flushed face.
‘Look, wait a minute, missus,’ said Nina. ‘Don’t go off in a massive huff. I’m sorry if I said the wrong thing. It was spur of the moment – Letty really put us on the spot there. I just wanted to tell her something she’d understand, that covered both our arses. I didn’t realise I’d be leaving yours out to dry. Is it such a big deal? Will the whole of the village really be talking about it?’
Beth stilled her hands and took a breath. ‘That’s ok, Nina. The trouble is that people really do talk around here, and I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me, for us,’ she said, looking significantly over at Ben. ‘What if he gets teased or something?’ she whispered.
‘Seriously? You think anyone would do that?’
Beth shook her head. ‘You don’t know Belinda MacKenzie. Letty was loving it, but Belinda will be shouting it from the rooftops. I bet I’ll have my mother on the phone this evening, worrying if my house is going to be repossessed.’
Beth knew she was exaggerating. Even if she did fail to make her mortgage payments, her mother would be one of the last people to interfere. That’s not to say she’d want her only grandson out on the streets of Dulwich. Just that any gossip that didn’t pertain first and foremost to bridge was of minimal interest.
But there’d be plenty of other people who’d be agog at the news that Beth was struggling. And, perhaps more importantly, the thought cut right into Beth’s own fragile self esteem. She’d worked so long and so hard to keep their chins above the water. She really didn’t want people pitying them, especially now when they were finally doing a little better.
‘I’m sorry, hon, I really am,’ said Nina, her cherubic features crumpling and her eyes becoming suspiciously shiny.
Oh Lord, thought Beth. That was all she needed, having to comfort someone else while she was hurting so much herself. But she hadn’t reckoned with Nina’s doughty side.
‘Look at me, snivelling, when it’s you that needs the hug. Here,’ she said, enfolding Beth in surprisingly consoling arms. Before she knew it, the boys had rushed over.
‘Love sandwich,’ called out Wilf. Beth looked at Nina.
‘That’s what we call a hug,’ she shrugged.
Beth loved it, and finally started to feel a little more like herself. The trouble with having had to protect herself and her precious boy for so long was that she had built up a carapace that even a hermit crab would have been proud of. She needed to relax. So everyone in Dulwich would think she was a pauper. Well, as Nina had pointed out, a few days in Potter’s office, being paid, would actually sort that one out. And maybe she’d be able to afford the latest bit of ludicrous plastic that Ben had his covetous eye upon. It was, as her new friend had said, win-win, particularly as she’d soon be solving a mystery as well.
Beth disengaged herself gently, and realised she’d learnt a lot today. She was now au fait with the switchboard, with office procedures, with Letty’s surprisingly well-developed mean streak, and with her own innermost fears. Not a bad day’s work, in fact. She pulled on her coat, chivvied Ben back into his shoes and socks and was helping Nina tidy the office until it looked as though they’d never been there, when she heard her phone beep and pulled it out to take a look. A big smile spread across her face.
‘Hm, lover-boy, is it?’ said Nina much too loudly, though Ben, wrestling with the straps on his trainers that she’d told him in the shop were way too complicated, seemed oblivious.
‘Might be,’ said Beth with a grudging smile, which concealed the fact that her stomach was already aflutter. The heart emojis at the end of Harry’s message looked promising. Very promising indeed.
‘So, tomorrow then? You’ll bring Ben over in the morning, and we’ll compare notes when you pick him up?’
‘All right then,’ said Beth decisively. It looked like the investigation was on track.
Chapter Eight
The morning seemed to have lasted a thousand years already. Beth was trying to resist the lure of the paperbacks, but it was hard. Paul Potter had been in, an hour before, and had smirked at Beth in a way that told her that Letty had not spared one detail of Nina’s explanation for her presence. She’d be lying if she didn’t admit she found her position humiliating. Letty was all too ubiquitous in Dulwich and now Beth had been pushed into the position of being her ‘employee’. And at one remove, too, which somehow made it worse.
Mind you, they hadn’t exactly had a golden friendship before, so really it was going to make no difference, Beth decided. Anyway, no good thinking about all that. It just got her hot under the collar. Her only hope was that the three-day-wonder of her apparent grinding poverty would have blown over by the time everyone had to reconvene in the playground at the start of the spring term.
Potter had said he’d be away for the rest of the morning, but Beth had been giving him a bit of time to forget something and rush back for it, something she was known to do herself. Then the phone had gone a few times. Each peal had caused her a minor heart attack, not just because the ring tone was so strident, but also because she was so worried about pressing the wrong thing and losing the caller in the ether. Now she was twiddling her thumbs, just gearing up for her first attempt to prise the secrets out of Potter’s inner sanctum.
The back office was separated from Beth’s work area, sheltering under the main reception counter, by only a couple of metres. That included a tiny toilet cubicle, so miniscule it must be contravening some sort of health regulations, and on the other side a sink, kettle, and two cupboards – one above, one below, for all the teabags, mugs, and cleaning equipment.
Beth slipped off her swivel chair, took an entirely fruitless glance at the frosted windows in front of her, through which she could see nothing, and slipped past the kettle and loo. She gently turned the handle to Potter’s office. It was locked.
What an anti-climax. For a second, Beth was stymied. There was no point at all in her being here if she couldn’t look through Potter’s papers.
But wait a minute. Nina must have known that Potter had the habit of locking his office door
– unless he’d only done it because there was a newbie around. That was a bit unlikely, surely? So, there must be a way of getting in there. She had a brainwave.
Her own desk in Wyatt’s archive institute had the usual catch-all gubbins drawer on the top left-hand side, but also had a spindly little plastic tray that slipped out, which contained all the really small bits of office crap that would be lost in the depths of a bigger space. Maybe Nina’s was the same? She slid open the drawer, not really daring to hope, but there it was. The shallow tray, almost, that you had to fish out separately. And in it, amongst the used but un-franked stamps, the bent paperclips, and the business cards handed over with high hopes but destined never to be looked at again, was a small collection of keys. Two of them, joined together on a tiny silver circlet, were the tiny ones that opened cash boxes – and she hadn’t seen one of those around, she reflected – but one was a normal, office door-type key. Eureka! She grabbed it and made for Potter’s office again.
But it didn’t fit. It was like one of those dream sequences where nothing works properly. It looked like the right sort of key, the keyhole seemed right, too, but they stubbornly refused to mate. She sighed, reached for her phone, and dialled quickly.
‘Hi Nina, Ben ok?’ she said automatically, nodding to herself in the empty office as Nina gave her a full rundown of all the tremendous educational activities she’d been offering Ben and Wilf this morning. It would have been more convincing if Beth hadn’t been able to hear the all-too-familiar theme tune of PlayStation’s FIFA 18 in the background. ‘Anyway, I rang to ask you about the key to Potter’s office,’ Beth broke in, lowering her voice to a whisper and looking around her in the empty office.
‘What? You mean he’s only gone and locked it?’
‘Yes. Doesn’t he usually?’
‘Nah. Never. You must be giving off a well suspicious vibe.’