Inhuman Remains by Quintin Jardine Read Free Book Online Page B

not Miss.
    Frank acted as if he was a little disappointed, but he said he understood. A couple of days later, I came into work and the managing director asked me if I knew where he was. His office was cleared, his chalet was cleared, the keys of his company car were lying on his desk, and he was nowhere to be found.’
    ‘He did a moonlight?’
    ‘That’s a good way of putting it.’
    ‘Why, for God’s sake?’
    ‘That’s what I asked him, when he contacted me a couple of weeks later, in an email, using a hotmail address I’d never seen before. His answer was that if he’d told the boss where he was going he’d have been released without notice. There was more to it than that, though. As well as being head receptionist, I’m Cinq Pistes IT manager. Frank had a PC, as all the management-level staff do, but he also has a personal laptop. When I looked at his computer, I found that all his files, all the information he had gathered while working for the company, had been cleaned out. This is a very prestigious resort, Mrs Blackstone. You would not believe some of the clients who have passed through it. Pop stars, presidents, prime ministers, plutocrats, we’ve had them all; the rich, the famous and the infamous. Frank took all their contact details with him when he left. He transferred them to his lap-top.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘Because when I asked him in my reply to his email, he admitted it. We also have a central terminal where everything is backed up. The copies had been deleted also. When I challenged him about that he owned up to that also; he told me that the data would be useful to him in his new venture. I asked him what that was, and he told me: a huge new complex called Hotel Casino d’Amuseo, just outside Seville, with a satellite ski lodge in the Sierra Nevada. That’s why he cleaned out those files, he said: rather that than leave them with a company that was now the opposition.’
    I was thinking as she was speaking. ‘He actually said that it was his venture?’
    ‘Yes. I asked him about that, and he said that he’d have “significant equity”. Those were the words he used. When I asked him if the Lithuanian was involved, he said he couldn’t name his associates in an insecure message, but I’m sure he is.’
    ‘Did he ever mention the name Lidia Bromberg?’
    ‘Mmm? No, not that I can recall. But then again, he probably wouldn’t. I’m not sure Frank ever gave up on the idea that I might leave Hector and join him.’
    ‘But my aunt said you thought he might be seeing someone else.’
    ‘I said I assumed he was. I’d be surprised if he isn’t; I don’t see him staying celibate for too long. He’s a horny guy.’
    ‘Have you seen him since he left Davos?’ I asked.
    ‘Once,’ Susannah admitted. ‘Last September. I had to go to Paris, on a computer course. I told Frank about it and he met me there.’
    ‘Did he say much about his project?’
    ‘It wasn’t at the top of our agenda, Mrs Blackstone. He mentioned it, though. He said that everything was going well and the civic authorities were eating out of their hands.’ She hesitated. ‘You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?’
    ‘His mother is,’ I confessed. ‘I’m worried for her. I don’t know my cousin very well, but I do know that he has an eye for trouble.’

Seven
    I left all my contact details with Susannah . . . after she’d checked her records for the spelling of ‘Macela’. She promised to get in touch with me the moment she heard from Frank . . . or of him, for that matter . . . just as I promised I would keep her informed.
    I turned back to my computer. The Hotel Casino d’Amuseo website was still on screen: apart from the description of the project, its menu was short and sweet. There were only four items, the normal ‘About Us’, ‘Our People’ and ‘Contact Us’, plus another ‘Investment Opportunities’. I hit the first, and waited as the page loaded.
    The Hotel Casino