by Philip Cox
She thought for a moment, and then said, ‘So we did.’ Then laughed softly and rested her head on his shoulders. He put his arm round her. He was about to lean round and kiss her but decided against it.
‘Couldn’t sleep again?’ he asked.
‘No. I’d been awake for about an hour. I’m so tired, but couldn’t get back to sleep.’
‘A lot on your mind?’
‘Yeah,’ she said, sitting up as Tom retrieved his arm. ‘Tom, when I got called into Fleming’s office and I saw that white haired guy, I was really scared. And that look on his face when I was in the lift...’
‘I know. I think I got that same look when we bumped into each other in that Gents. It was if he - I don’t know - was so pissed off that I came out when I did and he was rumbled.’
‘Rumbled?’
‘Well, if we assume he was following us, he must have needed a leak himself, otherwise why follow me in there? He could have waited outside.’
‘I’m glad he didn’t.’
‘Quite. But once we’d met, there was no way he could have carried on following us.’
‘I keep thinking - what if he had got into the lift after all. There was nobody else in there, and he could have...’
She started to cry. Tom put his arm back round her and pulled her closer. ‘It’s all right. You’re safe now. You’re safe here. It’s okay,’ he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
She turned and looked up at him through her tears. She sat up slightly and her lips brushed gently against his. She tasted as good as she smelt. With his free hand, he stroked her cheek and then her chin. After a moment, however, he pulled away.
‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ he said, sitting back onto the sofa.
Amy sat back too, sniffed and wiped her eyes. ‘No, you’re right,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’
‘Stop apologizing. Let’s go back to bed. Back to sleep.’
Amy swallowed and nodded, wiping her eyes again.
‘Come on then,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her back into the bedroom. ‘At least we’ll respect each other in the morning.’
They climbed into bed and settled back down. Tom lay there for a moment, and then realised the kitchen light was still on. He couldn’t be bothered to turn the light off. He turned on his side and into a foetal position. From her breathing pattern, he could tell Amy was still awake, but decided it was best to lie there in silence. Very nearly, he thought, but it didn’t seem right at that time. He didn’t want to screw things up.
*****
When Tom woke again, it was daylight, and there was plenty of traffic outside. The clock radio said 9:48.
‘Jesus,’ Tom exclaimed, shooting out of bed.
Amy had been fast asleep: Tom’s sudden movement woke her up. She stirred, raised herself so she was leaning on one elbow, and rubbed her eyes. ‘What time is it?’ she asked, sleepily.
‘Nearly ten,’ said Tom, indicating over to the clock.
‘That late?’ she said. ‘We must have been tired. I haven’t slept in like this for ages.’
‘Me neither,’ Tom replied. ‘But neither of us is going into work today, so there’s no rush to get up.’
‘No, there isn’t,’ she said, lying back down again.
‘I’ll get in the shower first,’ he said. ‘Then I’ll fix some breakfast while you get up.’
They were eating breakfast at ten thirty. Amy took another mouthful of toast. ‘Did you hear anything from Lisa’s sister?’
‘I hadn’t when I went to bed,’ he said through a mouthful of toast, as he stood up and walked into the living room. Picked up the phone and walked back into the kitchen, checking the screen.
‘No, nothing from her,’ he said, sitting down again. ‘Unusual for Jane. I seem to recall she was pretty good at returning calls. Let’s try again.’
He redialled. Again, it went to voicemail.
‘Hi, Jane,’ he said. ‘Me again. Not sure if you picked up the message I left last night. Just wondering if I could pop round and take a look through Lisa’s stuff. Just after one thing. And if you do still have the key to her place, could I borrow that as well? Explain why and all that when we speak. So give us a call back when you can. Cheers.’
‘Well,’ he said, putting the phone down, ‘we’ll just have to wait for her to come back to me. Again.’
‘Is she likely to say no?’
‘I can’t think of any reason why she should. She wasn’t happy about the verdict and the idea that Lisa committed suicide.’
He paused and swallowed.
‘You okay?’ Amy asked, putting her hand on his wrist.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ he said, sniffing.
‘You must have been upset by it all,’ she said.
‘Upset? Yes, I was. Still am, I guess. Not burst into tears upset, although there was a bit of that. Just - just angry I guess at what happened to her. Whatever did happen, somebody caused it, and there’s no way they’re going to get away with it.’
His voice started to tremble as he finished the sentence. Amy squeezed his wrist. ‘Sorry I brought it up,’ she said. ‘Insensitive of me.’
‘It’s okay. Don’t mind me. Now: to change the subject - more toast?’
‘No more for me, thanks. It’ll soon be lunchtime anyway.’
‘Lunch?’ Tom grinned. ‘Coffee break first.’
‘What are you going to do about work?’ Tom asked, as he cleared away the breakfast things.
‘Shit!’ Amy exclaimed suddenly.
‘What’s up?’
‘I meant to call in sick,’ she said, reaching for her bag and fishing out her phone. ‘I probably won’t ever go back, but just in case...’
She dialled and waited. It was over a minute before somebody answered.
‘Oh, Theresa,’ she said, looking up at Tom. ‘It’s Amy. I should have phoned in earlier, but I’ve been up all night. Can you tell Gerald I won’t be in today? Some sort of stomach bug. Sickness and diarrhoea. Will be a couple of days at least.’
‘..........’
‘All right, thanks. See you soon.’
Amy hung up and put the phone away again.
‘Well?’ asked Tom.
‘Theresa’s one of the other girls there. She’ll tell Gerald. Thank God it wasn’t him who answered.’
‘Hmm,’ agreed Tom. ‘Well, at least you’ve got yourself a little breathing space. Both of us have. Couple of days now, then it’s the weekend. Hopefully, that should -’
He was interrupted by the sound of his phone.
‘It’s Jane,’ he said, picking up and answering. ‘Hi, Jane,’ he said. ‘Thanks for getting back to me.’
‘..........’
‘I’m just looking into something concerning Lisa, and I wondered if there was anything in her personal effects concerning her work.’
‘..........’
‘It could be anything. Won’t know until I see it.’
‘..........’
‘Well, that’s why if you’ve still got the key to her place, I’d like to look over it. There might be something there.’
‘..........’
‘Jane, you don’t believe that Lisa jumped. We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it.’
‘..........’
‘We? Oh, I’m with someone Lisa worked with. She agrees with me that it was no accident.’
‘..........’
‘But that’s all the more reason -’
‘..........’
‘But Jane, listen. Jane?’
Tom stood staring at the phone, then slowly ended the call and sat down.
‘I can’t believe it,’ he said slowly.
‘Can’t believe what? What did she say?’
‘She said no.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sebastian Fleming was in a bad mood. Not that he was ever in a particularly good mood; but today was even worse. He made his journey into work without saying a word to John. He slammed the BMW door shut
and stormed into the building. When he got to the floor where the CitiMarket offices were, he walked briskly to his office. Carol looked up from her desk as he marched past.
‘Good morning, Mr Fleming,’ she said, beginning to stand up. Ignoring her, he went into his office and slammed the door shut. Carol raised her eyebrows and carried on with what she was going.
Inside his office, Fleming took off his overcoat and threw it over the coat stand. Paced up and down a few times, then left the office and down the corridor where the main office was situated. He stood at the end of the corridor and gazed over the desks. One desk in particular was empty. His glance caught Gerald sitting in the conference room to the side of the office area. Gerald was on a landline phone. Fleming strode over to the conference room. There were a dozen or so staff working at the time; as Fleming made his way across the office, they all stopped work and watched. Gerald looked up from his call and saw Fleming coming over.
‘I’ll have to call you back. Sorry,’ he said, and hung up. ‘Good morning, Mr Fleming.’
Fleming did not respond. He merely pushed the conference room door shut behind him. ‘Where’s that Spicer girl?’ he snapped at Gerald.
Gerald was taken aback.
‘Amy? She - she must be late today. She’s not arrived yet. Hasn’t called in sick or anything.’
‘Yet,’ muttered Fleming, more to himself than to Gerald.
‘Yet?’ asked Gerald. He was getting confused.
‘I want you to tell me immediately she arrives, or calls in. Do you understand?’
‘Yes sir, I will,’ said Gerald, getting flustered.
Fleming turned and left the room. He turned round in the doorway. ‘Immediately,’ he repeated.
‘Yes, Mr Fleming, I will,’ Gerald said, but Fleming was already striding across the office and back to his own room. Frowning, Gerald got up and walked out to a young man working on a keyboard. The young man looked up.
‘You haven’t heard anything from Amy Spicer, have you?’ Gerald asked.
The young man shook his head. ‘No, I haven’t. She’s not shown up yet. Maybe there’s been a problem on the tube.’
‘Maybe,’ said Gerald, absent-mindedly. ‘Let me know as soon as you hear anything about her. Anything. Mr Fleming wants to know.’
‘Right you are, Gerald,’ said the young man, returning to his keyboard.
‘Okay,’ said Gerald. ‘We’ll start the team meeting in five minutes.’
He wandered back to the conference room, staring over at Amy’s empty desk and over to the corridor leading to Fleming’s office.
Fleming returned to his room, closing the door, behind him. He paced over to his desk. Sat down and pressed a button on his desk intercom.
‘Yes Mr Fleming, sir,’ came Carol’s voice.
‘Get hold of Ashley Merchant,’ Fleming said. ‘Tell her I want to see her now.’
‘Yes sir,’ Carol replied.
A couple of minutes later, the intercom buzzed again.
‘Yes?’ snapped Fleming.
‘I’ve got hold of Ms Merchant,’ said Carol. ‘She’s on her way up.’
‘All right. Send her in as soon as she arrives.’
‘Yes sir. By the way, Mr Fleming, I’ve put the files for the Munro account on your desk. You were asking for it last night.’
Fleming looked down at the desk, and an A4 sized blue folder. ‘Right, thank you. Don’t forget: send her in as soon as she gets here.’
‘Yes, Mr Fleming.’
Fleming released the intercom switch and sat back in his chair. He turned to the blue folder and opened it. Better get on with the day job.
A couple of minutes later, the door opened and Ashley Merchant strode in. Fleming looked up at her. ‘You could always try knocking,’ he said. ‘This is my office after all.’
Merchant paused for a second, regained her control and said, ‘Carol said you wanted to see me. She said it was urgent,’ she added, sitting down.
‘Be with you in a second,’ Fleming said, finishing the page he was reading.
Don’t try any of that power game crap with me, thought Merchant, then said, ‘I’ve just spoken with Gerald. He says that the Spicer girl hasn’t shown up this morning.’
Irritated, Fleming closed the file and gave Merchant his attention. ‘Does that surprise you?’ he asked.
‘Not really. We won’t see the little bitch here anymore.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve got Vine and Carter on it.’
‘And what are they going to do? They’ve hardly distinguished themselves, have they?’
‘We hadn’t anticipated a third party being involved.’
‘This man they spoke of. Who is he? A boyfriend?’
‘Possibly. We don’t know.’
Fleming sighed impatiently. ‘How many times have they been seen together?’ he asked.
Merchant frowned. ‘Just a couple of times, I think. In Hyde Park over the weekend, and yesterday outside her flat,’ she replied. ‘Why?’
‘How tactile were they?’
‘Tactile?’
‘Were they holding hands?’ Fleming asked, as if he was talking to a child.
‘I’ve no idea. Vine didn’t say,’ Merchant snapped back. ‘Is that relevant?’
‘Well, if they were holding hands, or having some physical contact, then he probably is a boyfriend. Which means he’s likely to be around most of the time.’
‘All our information is to the effect that she’s single. No boyfriend.’
‘Girlfriend?’ asked Fleming.
Merchant knew why he was asking that. ‘No girlfriend,’ she replied slowly, glaring at him. ‘In any case,’ she continued, attempting to regain the initiative, ‘his status doesn’t matter. Having another person around just complicates what happens next. The last ones were single and straightforward.’
‘Khan was married, wasn‘t he?’
‘Yes, but he was on his own at the time. Driving up north. And Lisa Kennedy was single and living alone -’
‘But Lisa Kennedy was a different case, wasn’t she?’
‘Yes. I suppose so. Anyhow, as I said, Vine and Carter are on the Spicer girl’s case.’
Just as Fleming opened his mouth to reply, there was a knock on the door and Gerald entered the office.
‘Sorry to disturb, Mr Fleming, but Amy Spicer has just called in sick. You said you wanted to know personally.’
‘What did she say was wrong?’ asked Merchant.
‘Theresa Danson took the call,’ Gerald replied. ‘Amy said she had sickness and diarrhoea. Will be off for a few days.’
‘I bet she will,’ Merchant muttered, causing Gerald to glance at her.
‘All right, Gerald,’ said Merchant. ‘Thanks.’
Fleming waited until Gerald had shut the door then said, ‘I told you. She won’t be back here.’
‘Not voluntarily, no.’
‘So, by being on it, what are Vine and Carter doing?’
‘All they can do at the moment,’ Merchant said, ‘is for one of them to stay where she lives.’
‘And hope she goes back? Alone?’
‘Partly, yes. But I’ve told them to knock on her neighbours’ doors. Pretend to be a relative or something. Say they’re looking for her and do the neighbours know where she’s gone.’
‘Better get Carter to do that. If Vine knocks on someone’s door -’
‘I did tell Carter, yes.’
Fleming opened the blue folder again. ‘Well, let me know if anything happens,’ he said, not looking at Merchant. He heard her stand up and walk to the door. ‘Tell them not to screw up again,’ he said, still pretending to read the file contents. ‘For their sake. And yours.’
Merchant stood in the doorway and turned to face him. ‘For all our sakes, Sebastian. Including yours.’
Fleming looked up sharply as Merchant closed the door behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
‘She said no?’ asked Amy. ‘
What reason did she give?’
Tom stared down at the phone. ‘She just said she wanted to let Lisa rest in peace. She didn’t want anybody raking over her sister’s stuff.’
‘But I thought you said that she agreed with you about the way Lisa died. Didn’t she want to get to the bottom of things?’
‘I thought so, yes.’
‘So we can’t get to look at Lisa’s stuff; what do we do now?’
Tom sat back in the kitchen chair and stared into space. He shook his head slowly. ‘I’ve absolutely no idea,’ he said. ‘No idea.’
*****
Sully Beecham looked up from his laptop. He was due to visit one of his team that afternoon to deliver a performance review, so was spending part of the morning at home preparing for the review. He was not expecting Jane to be at home as well, so had set the laptop and paperwork out on their dining table.
‘You not going in today, babe?’ he asked Jane as she pottered about in the kitchen.
‘Going in later,’ she said. ‘Some time owing I had for when I did some extra hours. Will be out of your hair soon.’
‘Fine,’ Sully said, returning to his screen. He could hear Jane in the kitchen, taking some washing out of the washing machine and putting it in the tumble dryer. Her mobile started ringing. He carried on working, expecting her to answer, but she carried on in the kitchen. Perhaps she couldn’t hear over the noise of the dryer.
He saved the file he was working on, sighed, and picked up her phone from the coffee table. He saw from the screen that it was Tom calling. He took the still ringing phone out into the kitchen and handed it to her.
‘Here,’ he said. ‘Your ex-brother-in-law.’
She gave him a strange look and took the phone, which by now had stopped ringing. She put the phone down on the kitchen table.
‘Aren’t you going to call him back?’ Sully asked. ‘It was him who called last night, wasn’t it?’
‘Yeah, I will call him back. When I get round to it.’
Sully shrugged and went back to the dining table. ‘Why don’t you call him back now?’ he suggested. ‘Before you go to work. Obviously he wants something.’
Jane huffed and snatched the phone off the table. ‘I’ll call him from in here,’ she said as she walked to their bedroom. ‘So as not to disturb you.’