'Larry!' Nadine was startled, her hazel eyes widening and darkening in shock. 'Hello. Good heavens. How are you? It's ages since I saw you.'
'I've got to talk to you, Nadine,' he said huskily. He was in charge of accounts in the film company; Sean had always said Larry was a genius with an account ledger. A big man physically, broad- shouldered, tall, Larry was a little clumsy. He lacked co-ordination, was always dropping things or knocking them over. He wasn't a good-looking man, or even a striking one: his hair was brown, his eyes were brown, his skin was freckled; he had a big grin and an appealing personality, like a shaggy dog who wanted to be friends with everyone it met but kept falling over them. Nadine had always been fond of him, but since he was Sean's oldest friend she had not set eyes on Larry since she and Sean parted.
'Well, come in,' she said, wondering what he had to talk to her about. 'I'm afraid I'm being collected in about half an hour; I'm off to
the West Indies on holiday. But come in... can I get you a drink? Coffee or tea?' She played the polite hostess, and smiled, but her mind worked overtime on what he was doing here like this, out of the blue. Something to do with Sean, obviously. Had he sent Larry to see her? Her heart turned over.
Larry followed her into the flat. 'I don't want anything to drink, thanks. I won't keep you long, Nadine.' He looked down at her from his six-foot- four height, his face pale and drawn. She had never seen Larry look so sombre, and her heart missed a beat.
'What's wrong, Larry?' she asked huskily, and his brown eyes searched her face, their expression pleading.
'Nadine, do you know where he is? I must know, Nadine—I'm really worried about him. It isn't like Sean to disappear without a word.'
CHAPTER TWO
'SEAN ?' Nadine repeated, wondering what on earth made him think he would find Sean with her.
'Yes, Sean,' Larry said impatiently. 'Have you seen him? Did he come here?'
She shook her head, blankly, and Larry gave a groan.
'Oh, God, why is he such a fool? I thought even he could see... well, if he isn't with you, where is he? He wouldn't do anything crazy, would he?'
'What are you talking about? What is all this?' Nadine burst out, and Larry looked at her helplessly, his big hands hanging clenched at his sides, as dumb as an ox.
She took him by the arms and shook him, her slight strength making almost no impression on that solid bulk. 'What is it? Tell me, Larry, damn you! What's going on?'
His brown eyes suddenly held hostility, shocking her even more because she had never seen such a look in Larry's cheerful, friendly face before.
'It's all your fault!' he threw at her in a choked voice. 'You and that damned divorce settlement! You ruined him!'
Nadine froze. 'That isn't fair!' she stammered. She had been taken aback by the size of the settlement, it was true, but her lawyers had insisted that it was only fair taking into account Sean's enormous assets. They had seen balance sheets drawn up by Larry which showed the company to be worth in the region of a hundred million pounds, and had excitedly told her that they were sure they could get her a very large settlement.
Nadine had wearily told them not to bother, she didn't need the money, and, anyway, in the first year of her marriage she had invested in the film company a considerable part of the very large income she made from modelling. At the time Sean had been desperately looking for capital, and she had just signed up with a cosmetics firm to front a big media campaign. It had seemed providential to them both.
She had lent him most of her huge advance from the cosmetics firm without hesitating, and Sean had made over to her some shares in the company, although she had forgotten all about that until they split up.
Even during the divorce proceedings, in spite of the bitter wasteland which lay between her and Sean, she hadn't wanted his money; but her lawyers had taken a very different view.
They had worn her down with arguments, their faces incredulous at her folly. 'You helped him set the company up! You're entitled to a share in it now, even if your marriage is over!' they had insisted, and Nadine had been too miserable to go on arguing; she had let them go ahead with the claim they'd wanted to make against Sean. They had won. Sean hadn't really even contested it, she remem- bered; indeed, he had agreed that she had been a great help to him during the early years of his company, and the divorce court had ordered him to make over to her another block of shares, or the equivalent sum in money.
'He had to buy your shares back, remember?' Larry muttered, glowering at her. 'And he borrowed from the bank to do it and has had to pay a horrific amount of interest ever since.'
'I didn't ask him to buy the shares!' she protested, flushing angrily. 'He insisted!'
'What choice did he have? You might have sold them without telling him, and he couldn't risk having some outsider buy ten per cent of the shareholding. He could have found himself being forced out of control.'
'I wouldn't have done that!'
'He couldn't be certain you wouldn't, and while they were in your hands they were a permanent threat; he had to get them back, and it was borrowing that money that started all his troubles. While he owed the bank a million he couldn't persuade them to lend him any money when he ran into difficulties over the mini-series. He had to borrow elsewhere, at a much higher interest, and money started bleeding out of us. If the series had been a success we could have weathered the problem, recouped our money from sales. But...' Larry broke off, groaning. 'I shouldn't be talking about all this; Sean would kill me if he knew.'
Nadine was sure he was right about that. If Sean was in financial difficulty he wouldn't want anyone knowing about it. But something else was on her mind, and she had to know the answer to a question burning in her brain.
'Why did you think he might be here?' Why should Larry think Sean would come to her when he was in trouble? Her heart beat thick and fast and she was breathless as she watched Larry's frowning face and waited for him to answer.
'I told him to come,' Larry muttered reluctantly, and her hazel eyes opened wide in bewilderment.
'But... why...?'