The Deal by Tony Drury

Author:Tony Drury
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: City Fiction
Published: 2015-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

Delivery

Chapter Seven

Charles was amazed by the reception he received as he walked into the offices of Harriman Agnew Capital on the Monday morning following Tabitha’s return. Several of his colleagues applauded and two of the girls had tears in their eyes.

He spoke a few words of gratitude before shutting himself away in a meeting room with Andrew, who immediately asked about his family.

“Thanks for all your support,” Charles started by saying. “Please thank everybody. Tabitha is fine. The hospital cleared her on Saturday morning. There was nothing physical to concern us and she’d been well fed. As far as we can tell there’s no mental damage. They didn’t do anything intentionally to upset her.”

“Is she talking about it?” Andrew asked.

“Mostly to Scarlett. She’s simply overjoyed to have her back.”

“What about Lucy?”

“She’s exhausted. She spent the whole of Saturday with the three children. Scarlett understood everything and wouldn’t let Tabitha out of her sight. Lily was Lily, just letting the world go by. The police came on both Saturday and Sunday – and, of course, we had several local newspapers wanting interviews.” Charles drank some more coffee and then put the cup down.

“It’s Lucy I’m more worried about, to be honest,” he said. “She was horribly affected by the Madeleine McCann headline. In fact, the national papers hardly used it and within twenty-four hours we were history. The fault lay with the nursery school in allowing Tabitha to wander out of the gates. The teachers are blaming each other. The local reporter simply decided he had a scoop.”

Andrew remained silent and watched as Charles seemed to wrestle with his thoughts.

“Andrew, I need a favour,” he said at last.

“Just ask, Charles.”

“I’m taking us all away for two weeks. I’ve hired a boat in the Sporades. We’re going to sail the Greek waters. We fly out of Heathrow tomorrow.”

“Good idea. Take as long as you wish.”

“What about here? Shall we have a management meeting?”

“We had that at seven o’clock this morning. Just go.”

Charles looked relieved and turned to leave the office. As he did so the door opened and Sara walked in.

“Oh, excuse me. I have this room booked,” she said.

“Sara. You met Charles when you brought in your research report. It was Charles and I who agreed that you should join us.”

Sara looked at the chairman.

“How is Tabitha?” she asked

“That’s kind of you to ask, Sara. She’s recovering well.”

“You shouldn’t have left her alone.”

Charles looked at Sara. His forehead was creased with anxiety.

“Don’t you think we don’t know that, Sara? We have Tabitha back. At night I lie in bed thinking the unthinkable.”

“I’ll come back, Andrew,” said Sara, before leaving the room.

A few minutes later, Charles left the office and walked slowly to Monument tube station, where he caught the District Line train to Ealing Broadway. He didn’t feel particularly well. He wanted a drink.

Sara returned to the office ten minutes later. She’d taken to the daily work in the new business department of Harriman Agnew Capital with an impressive energy and commitment, and was slowly becoming quite popular.

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