47 LOUISE
Irina (Hamish’s Mum)
The doorbell rang.
I glanced at the old-fashioned clock on the sideboard beside my desk – 9:30. Irina had made good time picking up Hamish. Klaus flew down the ramp from the sofa and raced to the door, barking happily.
‘Come in, the door’s open,’ I called.
The sound of nails on hardwood floors was slower than the frantic patter that Hamish usually made, desperate as he always was to come in to play with Klaus. I peered into the hallway, but instead of Irina’s topknot and Hamish’s black fur, the new canine arrival was honey coloured and pretty, the human taller and red-haired. Fiona unclipped Nala and allowed her to enter first. ‘I snuck in behind a couple of your neighbours,’ she said.
Tyrion and Luther came to investigate.
‘Didn’t know you were running a doggy day care business. Do you have room for one more?’ This morning Fiona wore no make-up, and her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, a very different look from the day before. She slid her sunglasses onto the top of her head and put a bag of pastries on the table, giving the graveyard of empty Prosecco bottles on the side a dim look. ‘I see you cater to the needs of their humans as well.’
‘Tsarina was over last night,’ Meg said from the sofa.
Fi looked back at the empties. ‘Yeah, I saw your text. Hamish at the emergency vet… Jeez. What’d he eat this time?’ She reached over the bottles and grabbed a mug from the cupboard. ‘I’d have thought Irina’d have drunk more.’
‘She was worried about Hamish,’ I told her. ‘The vet thinks it was poison.’
‘Oh hell.’ She paused with the cafetière hovering above the mug. ‘Is he going to be okay?’
‘I think so. She went to pick him up about an hour ago.’
Fi uttered another curse and watched Luther and Nala circle each other, sniffing. Nala cocked her head to the side and rolled onto her back. ‘Nala, you tart.’ Fi shook her head. ‘Who’s the other dog?’
‘My neighbour’s. Luther’s staying with me for a bit. Sit down and tell me about last night. I really wanted to be there with you…’
‘No, Lou,’ she said, sinking onto the sofa beside Tyrion. ‘Trust me, you wouldn’t have enjoyed it. What a pompous bore. So, Hamish?’
‘I don’t know much more than that. They took blood and all sorts of other samples for tests. Irina might have got the results while she was there. You’ll have to ask her. Tell me about your evening with Jim Clark. He seriously had no idea the investors were going to replace him?’
‘No. If anything, he thought Phil and the Angels were going to replace Tabby, not him. Because he goes for drinks with the team, he thinks he’s one of them, and pretty much invulnerable. When Claire asked him what would happen if he left, he laughed and said the entire tech team – the backbone of the company – would walk with him.’
‘That wasn’t the impression I got,’ Meg said. ‘I have a… sort of a friend who works there.’
Fi laughed. ‘Of course it isn’t true, it’s all in his head. And maybe his mother’s. She called while we were having drinks. He answered it ‘Hello, Mummy’. I mean, seriously? A man in his fifties?’
‘Did he have any idea who might have had a problem with Phil?’
‘They were having financial issues. Good sales books but growing pains. Problem with those sort of growing pains, though, is that you need more money to pay for more kit, more developers. If you don’t have the dosh, you need to find someone who does. And the problem with that is that the investors get a bigger chunk of the company shares.’
Luther padded up to her and sniffed her hand. ‘Don’t worry, gorgeous, I smell of Nala,’ she said, sniffed her hand too. ‘And a bagel with smoked salmon. Which I’m not sharing.’ She mitigated that with a scratch behind Luther’s ears. Her pretty cocker spaniel was right behind him, pawing for attention.
‘Nala was sulking earlier because I took her away from Paul’s doggy rave last night, but I think she might forgive me.’ Fi looked at me from under long lashes. ‘I guess she’s not the only one who’s sweet on the new additions to the neighbourhood.’
I ignored her and pulled a pastry from the bag. ‘So, who gains from Phil’s death, then? Tabby doesn’t. Jim doesn’t. An investor? Was he blocking them from investing more?’
‘Jim didn’t think so. I mean, he wasn’t happy about his shares being watered down, but understood that with more investment they could hire more people and grow his kingdom. I mean, grow the company.’
Meg joined me at the counter, lured by the bag of Nest pastries. ‘That would have made the company more lucrative and his shares worth more, even if he had fewer of them.’
‘Huh,’ I said.
‘Huh,’ Fi echoed.
‘What was all that about Ella?’ Meg asked, her mouth full. ‘All those texts last night?’
Fi flicked a hand. ‘Just winding Paul up. Meggie, you have cinnamon bun crumbs on your chin.’
Meg wiped them off. ‘I still don’t see who wins here. Either from Phil’s death, or from poisoning the dogs.’
Something Irina had said yesterday fluttered at the edge of my mind. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though. Just then my phone rang; it wasn’t the caller I’d expected, but the conversation, however brief, was intriguing.