The Company by Sally Spencer

Author:Sally Spencer [Sally Spencer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

I called Marie several times on the train journey down to Oxford, twice in the taxi from the railway station to my flat, and once before (and once after) the pre-cooked meal which I heated up in the oven, and then left largely uneaten. Each time, I got a recorded message telling me to speak after the beep.

It was the same story the following morning – I rang from my office, and a voice with a gentle Irish lilt to it said, ‘I’m not available at the moment, but if you’ll leave your number, I’ll call you back.’

Except that she hadn’t!

It seemed an eternity since the crash in that Welsh country lane, and I hadn’t spoken to her once.

There was a pile of work on my desk. I promised myself I’d make a considerable dent in my correspondence before I rang Marie again, but even as I was making the promise, I half-knew I’d never keep it, and after fifteen minutes, I abandoned the pretence.

I stepped into the outer office. Janet gave me a quizzical look.

‘I’m going out,’ I told her. ‘I don’t know when I’ll be back, but it probably won’t be at least until late afternoon.’

She glanced down at her diary. ‘Do you have an outside appointment I don’t know about?’ she asked, with a hint of stern disapproval in her voice.

I shook my head. ‘I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on work this morning. I thought a breath of fresh air might do me good.’

I put my hand in my pocket and felt my fingers brush against my mobile phone. If I took it with me, Janet would be ringing me with an enquiry from a book chain (or from the printers or from one of my authors) before I even reached the end of the street. On the other hand, if I didn’t take it with me, and Marie called …

Marie wasn’t going to call!

I placed the phone on Janet’s desk.

‘Look after this for me,’ I said.

‘And if anyone wants to reach you …?’

‘They’ll just have to wait until I’m reachable, won’t they?’ I said, more harshly than I’d intended.

Janet looked concerned. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.

No, I wanted to say, I’m not all right. My brother and father are dead. I’m in danger of losing my sanity – again. And there’s a strong chance that a homicidal maniac is stalking me. All of which I could probably handle if the only woman I really cared about would show just a little concern for me.

But I was still enough of Edward Conroy’s son – and John Conroy’s brother – not to tell her any of that, and instead, I said, ‘I’m fine. It’s just that I’m finding it a little difficult to settle into work again so soon after the crash.’

My secretary’s eyes moistened. ‘I’m so sorry, Rob,’ she said. ‘You must be going through hell.’

I’d asked her many times to call me by my first name, but she never had, and the fact that she’d finally chosen to at that moment, both touched and terrified me.

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