Blind Spot by Terence Bailey

Author:Terence Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Accent Press
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Sara’s Monday evening had been full of edgy self-recrimination, mixed with trepidation about what Vos would do next. She sensed he was as unsettled by their confrontation as she had been, but could get no firm impression of his intentions. It was early on Tuesday morning when she received a call at work, from Vos’s partner, Nicole. Nicole wanted to know whether Sara would be free for lunch.

It seemed typical somehow that Vos would send his partner to try to make things better.

Sara had suggested a popular delicatessen built into a railway arch, which was near her clinic and just up the street from the London Fields Overground station. The café itself was a cramped box of fashionable tiling and exposed pipework, but it also offered tables on the pavement outside. The street they faced was as quiet as anywhere below a railway line could be. When she arrived, she found Nicole already sitting at one of the metal tables, with two menus in front of her.

‘Where do you park around here?’ Nicole said as Sara sat down. ‘Every space seems to be permits-only.’

‘It’s not easy,’ Sara said. ‘I should have warned you – sorry. There is a small car park up on Amhurst Road.’

‘I missed that one,’ Nicole said. ‘I ended up at the Tesco car park – I hope they don’t tow me.’

Sara shrugged. ‘Buy some milk when you get back.’

A waiter arrived and took their orders. Once he had retreated into the deli, the two women shifted in their seats and smiled awkwardly at each other.

‘So –’ Sara began.

Nicole cut her off. ‘Mostly, I’m here to apologise,’ she said. ‘I know you met Gerrit yesterday, and he annoyed you.’

Sara parted her lips but wasn’t sure how to respond. Both of those things were true … but was Nicole really naïve enough to think annoyance had been the problem?

‘It’s a funny thing about Gerrit,’ Nicole went on. ‘He’s a smart man, and he has a really subtle mind. And yet, when he talks to people about important things, he can sound stupidly blunt.’ She raised a finger. ‘I’ll tell you what it is – it’s shyness. I know he seems confident, but really, he’s socially awkward.’

Sara blinked, then gazed absently at the modern, blonde-bricked houses across the street. ‘So you’re not apologising for his attempt to bribe me,’ she said quietly, ‘just that he did it awkwardly.’

Nicole frowned sadly. ‘Sara,’ she said, ‘Gerrit wasn’t trying to bribe you. This is exactly the point I’m trying to make – sometimes, he expresses things clumsily. Gerrit was trying to tell you how highly he thinks of Jamie, and how much Thorndike Aerospace could do for Jamie’s career.’

Nicole snapped her fingers, as though she had just remembered something. ‘I want to give you this,’ she said, but the rest of her words were muffled by a passing train overhead. She raised her hands in comic exasperation and waited for it to pass. As it did, Sara glanced back at her appraisingly.

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