NICK

Friday, 13 April 2018 Three Weeks Earlier

AT WORK THE NEXT DAY NICK CAN BARELY CONCENTRATE. Between phone calls and meetings, he searches online, looking for information on Izzy, typing in Isabel Wells drowning 2000 and finding himself down a rabbit hole, reading articles with a greed and masochism that shock him.

Is Taisie justified in saying he owes her? More than she thinks. He could have ignored Izzy’s furious outburst and stayed with her. It’s the biggest regret of his life that he didn’t. Maybe he should give Taisie the money to get rid of her. It’s worth some thought, but he doubts it would stop there. He has to try again.

His mobile rings and he glances at the display. He doesn’t recognize the number. The voice on the other end is unfamiliar and over-friendly.

‘It’s Alex. Alex Wells.’

‘Alex,’ Nick says, pushing himself away from his desk and standing up. After being confronted by Taisie last night, he’s not as surprised as he might have been. ‘How are you?’

What else do you say after almost eighteen years? He hasn’t seen Alex since Izzy’s funeral. He must be, what, twenty-nine now. If this is a coincidence, it’s a massive one. Maybe Taisie phoned her brother. Maybe they are both in on it. Alex had been firmly under her thumb as a child.

‘I found you through LinkedIn.’

‘Oh. OK.’

He waits for more, wandering over to the window and looking down into the narrow street where two office workers are smoking, their smoke reaching the windows above them before finally dissipating.

‘Is it a bad time?’ Alex says.

‘No. No, I’m just surprised to hear from you. What’re you up to nowadays?’

‘Nothing very exciting. I played it safe and got a law degree. No, the reason I’m calling … This is going to sound a bit random, but I’ve been thinking about that summer a lot recently.’ His voice thrums with embarrassment. ‘To tell you the truth, I’ve had some difficulties and I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist. This is about Izzy.’

Nick’s voice is icy. ‘I thought it might be. I suppose you’ve been talking to Taisie.’

‘No.’ Alex sounds genuinely baffled. ‘I haven’t seen her in years.’

‘You want me to believe that it’s a coincidence that you’ve got in touch the day after she did?’

‘Did she? Wow. No, sorry, Nick. I had no idea. I hope she calls me. Did she give you a number?’

‘No.’ Nick sighs. ‘All right. What do you want?’

‘To talk about my little sister. You two were like partners in crime that summer. Great big Nick and shrimpy little Izzy. She idolized you, you know. Followed you around like a puppy.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ he says.

‘The thing is, Nick, I think, if you want to move on, it’s important to face up to your own mistakes.’

‘I’ll bear it in mind.’ He frowns and taps his pen on the side of his desk. He has no idea what Alex is getting at and is not sure he wants to know. ‘Are you calling everyone?’ he asks, thinking of Rory and the Moody twins. All the adults. Since half of them weren’t speaking to each other, it wouldn’t be an easy task.

‘Pretty much, but I particularly wanted to speak to you, because I reckon you might have said something to Izzy. Maybe rejected her?’

‘Rejected her? What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Oh come on, Nick. She was besotted with you. Think about it.’

‘Well, I …’

‘I’m to blame too. I played Taisie’s game. We bullied you. You wouldn’t have had to rely on Izzy for company otherwise. My psychiatrist suggested that I apologize. So, here it is. I am sincerely sorry. I was too young to realize how much damage we were doing.’

Nick doesn’t want to talk about this. It was humiliating enough at the time. ‘Apology accepted,’ he says, in a bid to close the conversation. ‘I appreciate it.’

But Alex isn’t listening; he has to have his moment. ‘All this time, I’ve blamed Taisie, but I now realize that I need to take responsibility. I should have stood up to her.’

‘Is that it?’

‘Yeah. Well, not quite. I just wanted to say that your dad was not entirely to blame for his restaurant going under.’

Nick flinches. For Christ’s sake. ‘I don’t want to be rude, Alex, but would you mind if we don’t rehash all this? I’ve moved on. Nobody cares any more.’

‘OK. Sorry. I just thought you should know; it was Angus Moody who persuaded your dad’s investor to pull out. I mean, I kind of wish he had persuaded my dad as well.’ He laughs nervously. ‘But that’s another thing altogether. I’ve forgiven Tim for that, even if Dad and Mum haven’t. It was Pansy who told me. She feels bad about it. She said she’d like to see you.’ Alex’s speech fizzles out, as he becomes aware that Nick is no longer responding. ‘Well,’ he says awkwardly. ‘I’m sure you’re very busy. I’ll let you get on. Perhaps we could meet for a coffee some time.’

Nick holds the phone away from him. He taps the disconnect icon and places it screen-down on his desk. Angus’s office is three doors down from his. In between them is Phillipa Travers, the gatekeeper. He buzzes her and asks if Angus is free, and on being told that he is, puts his jacket back on.

Angus Moody. This is a man Nick looks up to, a man he thinks of as a mentor, someone who once saw a desperate and miserable sixteen-year-old boy and helped him without embarrassing him, who held out a hand of friendship without implying that he thought Nick needed a friend.

In return, not only has Nick worked hard, but he’s lied for him about those non-existent insurance contracts. He did it because Angus meant something to him, and he couldn’t stand by and see him fall. And for what? The friendship means nothing. Angus Moody is just another entitled, arrogant arse. If he has no integrity, then what is the point? He feels anger building in his veins, throbbing at his temples, and knows that he should wait until he’s calmed down. But he can’t. He has Anna Foreman on his shoulders, and the stress of that, the threat she’s holding over him, means that his mind isn’t doing its habitual Connect-4 kind of rationalization. The discs are all over the place.

Angus half stands, his expression welcoming. Nick closes the door behind him. His face feels tight, his hands twitch.

‘Everything all right?’ Angus says, gazing at Nick through his bifocals.

Nick doesn’t say anything. He stares at his CEO.

‘Trouble?’ Angus prompts.

‘You could say that. I’ve just had an interesting conversation with Alex Wells.’

‘Alex? I haven’t heard from him in ages. How is he?’

‘Never mind how he is. He told me something.’

Angus raises his eyebrows. ‘It’s obviously serious. Perhaps you’d better tell me what it’s about.’

‘He said that you persuaded my father’s investor to pull out of Ritchie’s.’

There’s a short silence, then Angus shrugs. ‘I was doing a friend a favour, that place was never going to succeed.’

‘How the fuck did you know whether it was going to succeed or not?’ Nick explodes. ‘You pulled the plug on it. My dad threw his heart and soul into that place.’

The door opens and Phillipa comes in, looks from one to the other, apologizes for interrupting and backs out. There’s a long silence before Angus speaks.

‘Your father never threw his heart and soul into anything. He’s lazy and he’s a bad bet.’

‘Maybe he is, but what the fuck’s that got to do with you? Why did you interfere?’

‘Because Peter Mayhew is a friend of mine, and I didn’t want to see him lose money. I tried to persuade Sean out of it as well, but he wouldn’t listen. More fool him.’

Nick bristles. He leans against the desk, his hands fisted. ‘It was none of your damn business. It wasn’t your money. You’ve got a lot to answer for.’

‘I’m a businessman and I can smell potential failure a mile off. I could smell it on your father. I’ve done you a lot of favours—’

‘You can stuff your favours.’

Angus’s benign expression hardens. ‘Keep your voice down. Listen to me, Nick. You’ve worked hard and you’re a real asset to this firm, but that doesn’t give you leave to throw your weight around. Don’t make it personal.’

‘It is personal. Dad made a hash of it, but to go behind his back, to go behind my back … But I might have known.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘I covered for you. I shredded papers and deleted files. I thought you had put things right, but now I can see I was mistaken. You’re ruthless.’

‘Let’s not get into that,’ Angus says.

‘No, let’s get into it. You acted illegally. You put this entire company and its employees’ jobs in jeopardy. I got my hands dirty for you, and you did that to my father. Well, I’m not going to put up with it any more.’

‘For God’s sake, shut up. Phillipa will hear you.’ Angus picks up a pen, twiddles it, then puts it down and moves it so that it lies parallel to his keyboard. Nick recognizes the signs of anxiety. Angus tries to hide it, but his eyes give him away; they looked startled.

‘I didn’t delete everything,’ Nick says.

Angus goes preternaturally still, and Nick asks himself if he’s gone too far.

‘Now why would that be?’

‘To be honest,’ Nick responds, ‘I have no idea. A sense of self-preservation, I suppose. At any rate, since you’re not the man I thought you were, since you’ve turned out to be a devious bastard, I see no reason why I should be mixed up in this any more.’

Angus shoves his chair back, stands up and walks right up to him. He prods him in the chest. ‘You’d better be extremely careful. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.’

Nick moves Angus’s hand away. ‘I think I do.’

‘What I did, didn’t hurt anyone.’

‘When you facilitate a crime, someone always suffers.’

‘What are we talking about here, Nick? Are you asking for a pay-off?’

Nick grimaces. ‘I’ve only just found out what you did to my father, I haven’t had time to process it. But I think I need to do the right thing. You do too.’

There’s a flash of genuine fear in Angus’s eyes, but it’s gone so quickly that Nick wonders if he imagined it.

‘You’d shaft me because I prevented a friend from losing money? You would give up everything you have here, out of spite? You need to think about this. There are implications. I don’t want to scare you, but I’m not the only one involved, and the others aren’t as nice as me.’

‘You’re not scaring me.’

‘No? Come on, Nick.’ His demeanour changes, he clamps his hand on to Nick’s shoulder. ‘Let’s not argue. When you’ve slept on it you’ll appreciate that I behaved perfectly reasonably. You would have done the same in my shoes.’

Nick glances pointedly at Angus’s hand. ‘You’ve got until Monday to put it right, or I’m going to the Serious Fraud Office.’

Angus frowns and says curtly, ‘I thought better of you. Go home, Nick. Take the rest of the day off. We’ll talk next week when you’ve had a chance to calm down.’

To his relief the house is empty when he gets back. Even though it’s only three o’clock he grabs a beer from the fridge and pops the lid. The hour it’s taken to get home has given him time to cool off. What has he done? Maybe he shouldn’t have lost his temper. He knows Angus well enough to understand his behaviour. He knows his father well enough as well. Wouldn’t he have done the same in Angus’s shoes? He reaches for his phone, finds Angus’s number, then puts it down. Not yet. He’s not grovelling. Monday will be soon enough. He hears the girls come in and wanders into the hall to meet them. Grace raises her eyebrows.

‘This is a surprise! What are you doing home so early?’

‘I missed you,’ he says.

‘Yeah, right.’

‘Have you been fired?’ Lottie asks.

‘No. Just fancied an early one.’

‘Well, it’s lovely for us,’ Grace says, looking puzzled.

Later that evening, he pokes his head round Lottie’s door to say goodnight. She’s awake and holds out her arms to him. He sits down on the edge of her bed, leans over and kisses her cheek.

‘Sleep well, Shrimpy.’

‘Shrimpy?’ She wrinkles her nose. ‘I’m not Shrimpy.’

In the darkness he flushes. ‘Damn, I’ll have to make up a new name for you,’ he says, adjusting quickly. ‘What about Octopus?’

‘No.’

‘Heffalump?’

Lottie giggles and thumps him.

‘Go to sleep, then. You can tell me who you are in the morning. Love you.’

He should tell Grace what’s happened, but he can’t. It’s too soon and he’s too wound up, and anyway, it might all be straightened out by Monday with no one any the wiser. He knows how much she worries, understands that her upbringing has made her unduly anxious about money and stability. He has to know the answers to the questions she’s going to ask, before she asks them.