George Barnabas - 04 - Fourth Attempt by Claire Rayner Read Free Book Online Page A

was fanatical about this car. And now look at it. A write-off, isn’t it?’ George shook her head as she turned and stared at the now fast collapsing heap of foam. ‘It’s dreadful.’
    ‘I can understand why you’re upset —’ he began and she felt her face redden.
    ‘You think I’m going over the top, don’t you? But I’m not. She’s a member of my staff and I feel bad about her.’
    ‘Is she a favourite member of staff?’ he said shrewdly. ‘Or the opposite?’
    She went even pinker. ‘That,’ she said, ‘is beside the point. She’s a member of my team and I care about all of them.’
    ‘I’m sure you do.’ She had a suspicion he was a little amused now and felt an even higher tide of embarrassment. He was right, of course. She wouldn’t feel nearly as bad over this if she hadn’t been so annoyed with Sheila before it happened. The doctor part of her mind told her that her technician was probably fine. She’d have a bit of hoarseness and breathing trouble for a few hours perhaps, but she’d escaped a much worse set of injuries. George had no need to be so uptight about her. But she was.
    Could this be a fourth incident that would get Old East’s gossips going even more? she found herself thinking, and then was irritated. That was the sort of conjecture that Sheila herself would make and use as the basis for a great edifice of talk and surmise projected as almost fact. George was damned if she was going to allow herself down that path, andshe tightened her jaw. ‘Well, anyway, I’m going to go and see her,’ she said firmly. ‘Thanks for the invitation but —’
    ‘Oh, I’ll come with you.’ He linked an arm in hers. ‘It’s a pleasure to know someone who cares so much about the people she works with. Too many of them here are so stiff about the upper lip they don’t open their mouths for fear their lips’ll break off. They don’t know what it means to be emotionally involved with anyone but their dogs. Come on. We’ll see how she is.’
    He made a determined move back towards the courtyard and George had to fall in step beside him. She was beginning to feel better. Sheila was, after all, likely to be perfectly all right, as Zack had said. She had been overreacting somewhat, and couldn’t deny it. Now she deliberately relaxed her shoulders, took a hard deep breath and then coughed. The smell was awful, acrid and ugly in her mouth.
    ‘It is nasty, isn’t it?’ He was sympathetic. ‘It happened to me once. I had this old Morgan, lovely car, wood frame, the lot. I was fixing it, back in the days when I wasn’t as experienced as I might have been, and the wiring went, just like that. I managed to stop the fire starting, fortunately, but it was a close-run thing. Wait till we get into the middle of the courtyard and then try a good splutter. It’ll help.’
    She obeyed, standing still and coughing hard and feeling the mucus collect in her throat. After a while she nodded at him gratefully and began to walk again. But this time she kept far enough away from him to stop his holding her elbow. Enough was enough.
    And no matter what he said, she decided, she wouldn’t go for a drink tonight. After she’d seen Sheila and reassured herself that all was basically well, she’d bid him goodnight, pick up the Citroën from that wretched car park and go home. And tomorrow, first thing, she’d send a very strong memo to Matthew Herne about the car parking arrangements, pointing out the danger. She felt better at the thought. She’d enjoy doing that.

4
              
    It was just as well that the path. lab was busy the following morning for, inevitably, when everyone first arrived they stood around in groups talking about Sheila Keen’s mishap in slightly hushed tones. Even Jerry managed not to make too many jokes about it, apart from the obvious one about always knowing Sheila was hot stuff but this was ridiculous. However, they soon scattered to their work-benches when George