Staying Power by Judith Cutler Read Free Book Online

him?’
    â€˜Hardly at all. I just sat next to him on the plane last Sunday afternoon. He was full of advice about my cold. We were going to do dinner sometime.’
    â€˜Eligible bachelor, then?’
    â€˜A bit older than me. Not much. Quite presentable. In business. He’d been doing a few deals in Florence.’
    â€˜Oh, ho! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Is this a Mafia job?’
    Kate stared.
    â€˜Come on, Kate. The Italian connection! And didn’t they string that guy up under Tower Bridge or London Bridge or whatever?’
    â€˜Alan Grafton wasn’t an international banker and, nicely-proportioned as that little bridge is, it’s scarcely your famous tourist site. I don’t know, Colin. But I’d certainly like to find out.’ It took longer than she’d liked to shower and dry her hair, but Colin wouldn’t budge till she’d had a second breakfast. By the time they set out again, he’d even phoned the lads on the scene to stop her car being either clamped or towed away.
    Harvey was waiting for them as they reached the office, and gestured Kate straight to his room. He pointed to the comfortable chair. ‘Sorry to have to spring this on you, Kate. But – when they went through his pockets they found your business card.’
    If she got her mind in gear, perhaps she could keep her stomach under control. ‘We swapped them. We got talking on the plane – well, he did most of the talking – and … He was a decent enough guy.’
    â€˜Attractive? Did you – like – him?’
    She leant on the word slightly. ‘
Fancy
him, you mean? He was just a pleasant companion for a couple of hours. As I say, he did most of the talking, but I missed a lot of what he said because the changes in atmospheric pressure made me deaf. I’ll write down everything I can remember – I’ve just gone through it with Colin, which helped me to remember odd snippets.’
    He nodded.
    â€˜Here’s his card, by the way.’ She passed it over, pathetically small in a polythene bag. ‘I wonder if he ran his business from home – look, the home telephone number and fax numbers are the same.’
    â€˜How involved d’you want to be?’ he asked abruptly.
    â€˜He wans’t anything more than a casual acquaintance.’
    â€˜Odd he should have your card on him and nothing else.’
    â€˜And
nothing else
?’
    â€˜Nothing else. That makes life a bit more interesting, doesn’t it?’
    She welcomed the ironic glimmer in his smile.
    â€˜Very much more interesting, I’d say. Graham—’ she checked the door was still shut – ‘you remember a couple of months ago there were a few problems out there.’ Her head jerked in the direction of the office. ‘Messages going adrift, that sort of thing.’
    â€˜It hasn’t bloody well started again, has it?’ Graham was on his feet, thunderous.
    â€˜Might have done. Too early to tell. All I know is that Fatima was going spare trying to find a message she’d taken for me. And never found it. We put a note on the white-board asking people to check if they’d picked it up by mistake.’
    â€˜Why are you telling me now? Not that you’re wrong to. I’m just interested in the context.’
    â€˜This sounds crazy. It’s just I’ve got this awful pit-of-the-stomach feeling it could have been Alan Grafton trying to phone me. No evidence at all. Just—’ she shrugged.
    â€˜We could check back through the in-coming calls. I suppose you never thought of that earlier?’
    What was the matter with the man?
    â€˜I believe Fatima did,’ she said, cool to match his coldness. ‘Call box.’
    â€˜Predictable, I suppose. OK.’ He appeared to close the conversation. Then he seemed to think better of it – he opened his mouth – before changing his mind yet again.
    Kate