One Single Thing by Tina Clough

Author:Tina Clough [Clough, Tina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter sixteen

That evening Tama calls.

‘Hang on,’ I say. ‘I’ll put the phone on speaker, so Dao can hear you.’

‘Don’t bother, I’ll come and see you,’ he says. ‘I’d rather tell you in person. But I’m concerned about Hope’s brother.’

He noticed how volatile Noah was the first time he came and how I had to keep him under control. What Tama is going to tell us must be something he suspects could trigger an explosion from Noah.

‘He’s very stressed,’ I say, trying to keep it casual. ‘His reactions are a bit over the top sometimes. I take it you’re going to tell us things that will upset him?’

‘Yes.’

That crisp ‘yes’ makes up my mind. No way is Noah going to be allowed to create a scene or start issuing threats if Tama is prepared to share vital information.

‘OK, we’ll leave him out of it. Come straight from work if you like – have dinner with us.’

No point mentioning that we have decided to operate in parallel to Noah without his direct involvement. Depending on what Tama tells us, we’ll share the information with him and Willow – or not.

Tama arrives at half-past six. We make small talk while we set the table and by seven we sit down to smoked salmon pasta bake from the deli and wine for Tama and me.

‘Right, let’s talk while we eat. Why don’t you tell us what you found?’

He pushes his pasta around, eyes on his plate; when he looks up I can tell he is really troubled about this.

‘It’s going to either burn my career and land me in jail – or make me famous. Or infamous.’ His smile is half-hearted; he knows he is facing personal disaster.

Dao is staring at him. ‘Do you know who he is, the man who abducted her?’

‘He’s my boss, Stuart.’ He looks as if he has surprised himself by saying it out loud.

‘He’s your boss?’ I can hardly believe I heard him right. ‘Do you have proof?’

‘Yes, of a kind. Shall I tell you how it developed, so you get the context? It’s a story of many parts.’

He takes a sip of his wine and clears his throat. He is an unusual guy; sometimes he sounds like someone much older, perhaps a grandfather. ‘It started when Rob at work told me that Stuart looks at the videos from Hope’s flat – repeatedly. Rob and I both have administrator status on the system. We’re IT and tech people. I checked the VMS on the server and what I found made me really worried. Stuart, my boss, goes back to some of those videos just about every day. He probably doesn’t know that the system records which files he has accessed and when.’

Dao jumps up. ‘Let’s record this too if you don’t mind, Tama. If it’s complicated, we’ll want to go back and listen to it again – get it all exactly right.’

She puts her phone in the centre of the table. For a girl who spent more than ten years removed from IT and electronic advances, she has come to grips with things at amazing speed.

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