Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Amy Bojang and Leonie Swann

Author:Amy Bojang and Leonie Swann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison & Busby Limited
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

LEGLESS

‘It’s clear as mud,’ Winston muttered.

Nobody could really argue with that. Marshall’s bed looked like a wasteland. There were lists, rotas and statements lying around all over the place, higgledy-piggledy, printed in sadistically small print and on special environmentally friendly recycled paper, which at any rate, wasn’t especially easy to read.

Everything had actually started quite promisingly. As soon as Agnes had turned up with the folders, Winston had started placing the papers onto the bed, piece by piece, peering through his reading glasses every now and then, saying ‘aha’ and ‘oho.’

But now he seemed to have run out of steam. He was sitting there exhausted, while Marshall glumly surveyed his bed, messed up beyond recognition.

Charlie was still sulking in the corner because she wasn’t allowed to go to the bar, Bernadette was in cloud cuckoo land or wherever else it is that people who are in love are wont to mentally retreat to, and Agnes had misplaced her reading glasses. Surprisingly, the only one really making herself useful was Edwina. Every time one of the many papers slid off the bed, she diligently picked it up.

Agnes was a little disappointed. She had expected some kind of breakthrough, or at least inspiration – but far from it. Even if she never would have admitted it, all that data was making her feel tired. If Helen could see her team of experienced investigators working at that very moment, exhausted and intimidated by a pile of paper, she definitely would have needed a couple of tissues again.

But luckily it was only them.

Agnes spotted her reading glasses on the sofa and went to rescue them before someone could sit on them. Bernadette, for example, was a real master in the art of plonking-yourself-down-on-glasses, and Edwina had a few optical aids on her conscience too.

She got the glasses and plonked them on her nose. There, maybe that would make things a bit clearer! She stepped decisively towards the bed and pulled out a random piece of paper. It was a list of employees currently deployed at the Eden – a surprisingly short list. Here was the thing, most of the hotel employees didn’t live on-site, they travelled to work from the nearest village. And for that, the coast road was needed.

So, for the moment, the hotel had to make do with the people who were already present on the morning the coast road threw itself into the sea like a lemming.

That was Helen – the manager, a chef, two sous chefs, five waiters, four cleaners, three bartenders, one of which was Max, a yoga teacher, a massage therapist – Lilac, two fitness instructors – Jenny and Pablo, and Frank the gardener.

Agnes frowned. In the absence of a butler, the gardener would obviously have been a classic candidate. He could have cut the phone line with some secateurs, and then …

At that point, her imagination failed her. She had seen the gardener in action yesterday through one of the panoramic windows, his long hair wildly flailing.

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