Alternative outcome
Page 36
As if reading my mind, Ashley said, “Dave Matthews reckons you should be a diplomat or a high-level negotiator of some kind.”
She’d come on another visit to London a few weeks ago, and I’d organised the promised dinner with Dave, who was clearly captivated by her.
“How so?”
“Well, he knows all about the way you dealt with that man in Essex. He seems to have picked up a bit about other stuff you’ve been involved with, too. He says you could talk the birds out of the trees.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I only tell it as I hear it.”
“Pity I couldn’t talk my way into a book contract, then.”
“Maybe you weren’t completely committed to it. Maybe it’s not your destiny.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“You may not have much time for novel writing. Bob Latimer reckons you’ll be an exec at his company before you know it.”
“What? I hardly think so.”
“He didn’t tell me that himself. I just overheard him chatting to Brian in the office one day. They like your interpersonal skills.” She turned to me with an ironic grin. “Personally I can’t say I’ve seen much evidence of them.”
“Huh!” Taking a permanent job with a logistics company definitely wasn’t part of my plan, but I couldn’t help feeling flattered. Eventually I might have some choices to make.
We smiled amiably at each other. We’d agreed that I would get my own place here for the time being, rather than move straight in with her. That would have meant making too many life changes too quickly for both of us. She’d also pointed out that her tiny flat was barely big enough for one person, let alone two. Having spent several nights in it, I was more than ready to concur. But our thinking was to look for somewhere together over the next few months.
I asked how her parents were doing.
“Dad’s all right. He’s a great one for the quiet life. If it were up to him, he’d just let everything go back to normal.”
“But your mum won’t let him?”
“He spelled it out himself when we were up in Sheffield. She can be unforgiving. She thinks that if he hadn’t gone chasing up there that morning, I would never have found out about Desmond Markham, and nothing would have changed. As usual she blames him.”
“But nothing does need to change. You’ve come to terms with the situation yourself. Why can’t she just accept that?”
She shook her head. “She’s a proud woman, my mum. She’ll get used to all this in the end, but it’s going to take time.”
I wondered where this left me. Mary Renwick still seemed resentful about my relationship with Ashley. On the two occasions when we’d met in recent weeks she’d barely spoken to me. I said, “Will that include me, do you think?”
Ashley looked pensively at me. “She knows that you instigated the search to find the Markhams. In her book, that means you take a share of the blame.”
“Huh.”
“All I can say is, if she’s going to make me choose between her and you, it’s a no-brainer. She needs to grow up and see that for herself.”
“I should be flattered.”
“I’ll keep on working at her.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment, then I said cautiously, “You probably blame me yourself in a corner of your mind. If I hadn’t gone looking for Trina, none of it would have happened.”
She gave me a reproving look. “Mr Stanhope, that’s not worthy of you. Do you think I’d be sitting here now if that’s what I thought?”
“I suppose not.”
“No supposing about it.” She took a sip of beer. “Apart from anything else, you’ve given me a new half-sister. How good is that?”
“I’m glad you like her.”
“I think she’s great. We’re going to get on well.”
“She thought you were a brat.”
She laughed. “I think we’ve got past that.”
Since Sheffield, Ashley had become Trina’s first point of contact instead of me. She’d made a brief visit to Chesterfield on her own, wanting to meet her real father again while she still had the chance. Then shortly afterwards we’d driven up there together for his funeral. She and Trina now seemed to be in regular touch.
Ashley said, “Guess what? She’s coming down here for a few days in the new year, with her partner Martin.”
“Your mum will love that.”
She shrugged. “That’s up to her. They’re staying over in St Ives, so she doesn’t have to see them if she doesn’t want to. Patrick wants to meet Trina, so that will be nice.” She chuckled. “She keeps telling me I must call her Tina and not Trina.”
I looked reflectively at her. “Isn’t it strange? I fancied her, and then years later I fancied you, and it turns out that you’re sisters. I still can’t get my head round that.”
She gave me a scolding look. “But you don’t fancy her now. We’re agreed on that, are we?”
I grinned at her. “Definitively.”
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, “In that case, I can tell you that she really likes you.” An unaccustomed blush passed across her face. “She thinks I’ve made a good choice.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
* * *
A voice behind us said, “Hello Ash, Mike. How are you doing?”
It was Jack Forbes, who must have been seated at one of the tables round the corner. A slim girl with short-cropped blond hair and a gold nose stud was hovering at his side. “This is Paula.”
He and Ashley chatted briefly. He said his shop was closed for the day. “It’s an electrical fault. The bean counters at head office are having a fit, losing all this Christmas trade, but we’re not complaining.”
The two of them went on their way, and Ashley turned to me with a grin of complicity. “She’s a girl from his shop. She’s really nice. Looks as if their electrical fault has brought them together.”
The afternoon wore on. Christmas shoppers wandered in for their quick one on the way home, mostly carrying bulging shopping bags. The place started to fill up.
Ashley turned to me with a smile. “My place or yours?”
“Yours is nearer, and mine’s a mess.”
“Done deal.”
We stepped out into the street. The daylight was fading, and lights in shops and on the street gave the scene a festive air. Shoppers bustled past. I said, “I think I like Truro.”
“That’s what I want to hear.”
We headed off, and she took my hand as we merged into the crowd.
end
* * * * *
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Follow Mike Stanhope in Deficit of Diligence
In this second Mike Stanhope novel, Mike finds himself caught in a spiral of corporate chicanery, threats and kidnapping, even the likelihood of a murder charge. Mike’s job is hanging by a thread, and his hard-won relationship with his girlfriend is on the line.
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Other books by Peter Rowlands
Deficit of Diligence MIKE STANHOPE BOOK 2
Mike Stanhope is out of his depth. It seemed such a simple assignment: “Go north, keep an eye on the company we’ve acquired, report back.” A chance, perhaps, to flex his untried executive muscle – or some free time to chase down a mysterious bequest.
Instead, Mike finds himself caught in a spiral of corporate chican
ery, threats and kidnapping, even the possibility of a murder charge. His job is soon hanging by a thread, and his hard-won relationship with his girlfriend is on the line. His familiar points of reference are disintegrating one by one.
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Escape Sequence
A stand-alone mystery novel
Who is he? He can’t remember. All he knows is that he’s driving north, perhaps fleeing something. He starts to piece his past together, yet feels like an observer in his own life. Struggling to take control of his complex relationships and responsibilities, he fends off increasingly aggressive threats as he tries to find out what happened to him.
In preparation
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Acknowledgements
In some respects (but only some), Alternative Outcome echoes my own experience of attempting to find a traditional publisher, and then embracing the wild west of e-publishing. Whether I’ll fare any better than my leading character will be decided by people such as you.
E-publishing has brought fantastic new opportunities for writers like me, but it has also created competition on an unprecedented scale. In some ways it’s probably just as hard now for novelists to find a readership as it ever was in the past. But at least there’s nothing to stop anyone with a story to tell from getting a foot on the bottom rung.
I hasten to add that I have not met or encountered any traditional or online publishers or agents like those in this book. They are entirely my own invention; I created them somewhat with tongue in cheek to illustrate the long hard road that still confronts any would-be writer who is trying to find a voice.
If I had an editor to thank, this is where I’d be doing it, but we self-publishers tend to edit our own work, and simply hope we will apply as much rigour to it as people who have been paid to do the job.
However, there are a number of people to whom I’m greatly indebted for encouraging me to press on with writing this book, and for making comments and suggestions along the way, as well as picking up inconsistencies and mistakes.
In particular, my thanks go to Clive, Jonathan, Ros, Stewart and Sue for their enthusiasm for the project and their invaluable feedback. Special thanks go to Christine for her helpful thoughts on character and motivation, and to Mel for taking the book (and me) seriously. And of course above all my thanks go to Helen for her unswerving support and encouragement, for her patience in reading and re-reading the many draft versions, and for indulging me with our endless conversations about it.
About the author
Peter Rowlands was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, but has lived almost all his adult life in London. Like the leading character in Alternative Outcome, he edited and contributed to transport and logistics magazines for many years. “But I’m not nearly as resourceful as Mike Stanhope, or as good with people.” Chronologically, this is his second novel, but it is the first to be published.