Fire in the Blood

Furiously Larry broke out, 'I said he was a fool not to ask you to hand that money back. On paper he may be worth a hundred million, but that's all it is—numbers on paper. He couldn't raise a hundred million, or a fraction of that, even if he sold the whole damn company! But he paid you in real money. Cash. It was a stupid gesture, and he's paying for it. So I told him to ask you to let him have it back, even if it was only as a loan until he could get out of this!'

'Oh,' Nadine said. 'Oh, I see. Well, he didn't— come here. Ask me.' The words came out dis- jointedly, her mouth stiff and cold.

She might have known. Had she really been stupid enough to hope that Sean might come to her when he was in trouble, that he might need her? Had she forgotten that Sean Carmichael didn't need anybody, never admitted a weakness, never apologised, never forgave?

Larry shot her an eager look. 'Would you? If he asked?'

Nadine coldly said, 'If he did, I'd discuss it with him,' and Larry, snubbed, flushed and gave her an even more hostile look.

'I see. Maybe Sean was right not to come. I couldn't believe you'd be that vindictive, but Sean has always been smarter at reading people than I am.'

Nadine stiffened at the insult, hardly believed Larry had said such a thing, it was so out of character.

Red-faced, he turned on his heel, almost knocking her over, and she followed him to the front door, biting her lip.

She was angry with him for talking to her like that, but her curiosity was stronger than her anger.

'What did you mean, you were afraid he might do something crazy?' she asked as Larry opened the door.

He stopped, turned, staring at her with an angry frown as if trying to decide whether or not to answer, but at last he did, hurling the words at her as if he wished they were rocks and could hurt her.

'Sean has to pay a very large sum to the bank before the end of the month. If he doesn't, we're in real trouble; the company may fold. Sean's so worried, I'm afraid he may...' He broke off, sighing heavily. 'Oh, I don't know, don't take any notice of me, I don't know what I'm saying any more.'

Nadine looked at him fixedly and was sure he did know. Larry wasn't the type to talk wildly; if he did so now it was because he had some serious cause for worry. From what he said, Sean must be desperate, and her chest constricted at the thought of Sean in that state of mind.

Larry bleakly said, 'He could have paid the bank this month, but only if he didn't pay the salaries, so he paid the staff and it may be their last pay- packet, which some of them probably guess. Another of Sean's typically quixotic gestures. Sometimes I could hit him. If he would only think with his head, not his heart, we'd be much better off!'

'But you wouldn't like him so much!' Nadine said drily, and Larry gave a rough bark of laughter.

'No. Probably not.'

She thought soberly, frowning. 'What about the mini-series? That's finished; can't you raise money with it?'

Larry grimaced. 'Greg Erroll has pulled out of the deal we had set up with him. He had an option to take the mini-series but all this bad publicity about it has made him change his mind. So we won't be getting the fresh injection of money Sean thought we'd be getting from him, and that's what he was relying on to pay the bank.'

Nadine drew a shaken breath. So she had been right! Greg had intended to buy the series. But he had pulled out, presumably after hearing what Juno Harper had to say. That woman! Nadine thought bleakly.

Larry said flatly, 'We've both been everywhere we can think of, trying to find the money we need, but all we got were polite smiles. The word's out that the series is a mess and Sean's in trouble, and all the hyenas are out for his blood.'

'It's that serious?' she whispered, horrified.

Larry nodded grimly. 'Sean built that company up from nothing, and now some scavenger, some vulture, will come along and snatch it away from him, and all because of a couple of women! You and Fenella Nash! I could kill both of you! She started the landslide by talking to the Press and bad- mouthing the mini-series, and Sean has never been the same since you left, anyway.'

Her heart seemed to stop. He might just be talking wildly, but Larry had known Sean even longer than she had. She wanted to ask him what he meant, what made him think Sean had never been the same, but she couldn't. When he calmed down later Larry was going to regret half the things he had said to her today. It indicated how worried he was that he had been so indiscreet. Larry was a loyal, devoted friend: he kept saying that it was Sean who had built the company up but she knew that Larry had had a great deal to do with it too. It had been his financial expertise which had helped Sean get the company off the ground. In the beginning, when they were running Carmichael Films on a shoe-string, while Nadine was putting her modelling salary into the company to keep it afloat, and Sean was paying himself in peanuts, Larry had taken a tiny salary too, just enough to pay his rent and keep him fed.

By the time he'd married the company was doing better, but even so his wife, Virginia, who was an accountant too, with a financial in

stitution in the City of London, had earned far more than Larry did, at first.

Just after Sean and Nadine split up, Virginia had stopped work to have her first baby, which was a little girl whom she had called Nadia. She had asked Nadine to be the baby's godmother, but although Nadine had wanted to accept she hadn't wanted to keep Sean away from the baby's christening party, and wasn't ready to face him again yet, so she had reluctantly backed out. Sean had been godfather, and no doubt he had been delighted to be asked. Sean loved children. He had badly wanted some of his own.

'And now he's disappeared,' Larry muttered then, and Nadine looked sharply at him, her skin icy cold.

'Disappeared?'

Larry nodded, his face tense. 'I haven't seen him for two days. I can't find him, and I've looked everywhere, believe me. It isn't like Sean to go off suddenly without leaving word where he was going. You know that. But that's what he's done. He just walked out of the office on Wednesday at lunchtime, and nobody has seen him since.'

Her lips white, Nadine said, 'He could have gone to the States, to see Fenella.'