‘Really?’
‘Absolutely. She’s very special.’
‘You’re really lucky to have them all.’
He doesn’t turn to look at me. ‘I know.’
There’s silence for a few seconds, then he says, ‘You never talk about your family.’
‘I didn’t think you’d be interested.’
His head swings around. ‘Tell me about them.’
‘Well, we’re four: my parents, my brother and me. My parents live in London. My father took early retirement because he’s plagued by all kinds of diseases, and my mother’s his full-time caregiver. My brother’s just graduated from uni and is now traveling around Asia with his girlfriend.’
He nods. ‘Are you a close family?’
‘I’m close to my parents, but my brother and I don’t get on.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t like the way he treats Mum and Dad. They have so little, and he’s constantly asking them for money.’
‘Do they survive on their pension alone?’
‘Not really. I help them with bits and pieces, groceries and stuff.’
His eyes swivel around. ‘On your salary?’
I shrug. ‘I manage.’
And again he looks at me as if he’s seeing me for the first time.
FOURTEEN
I have exactly three opportunities to trip up Nigel Broadstreet. Not because he sucks at his job—at full flow he is brilliant in a totally slippery way—but because of the things I have seen and heard while I’ve been with Dom.
However, I don’t take them.
I just sit back and let Rob get more and more frustrated and lose more and more ground while Nigel puts forth more and more ‘evidence’ to support his claim that it was all an honest clerical mistake. No matter what Rob says or does, Nigel is impossible to faze. He is as cool as someone on a deckchair on the Titanic the day before the disaster, who had a helicopter ride off the ship that evening. Smooth. Confident. Secure. Unshakeable.
Watching Nigel in action isn’t like watching a cheetah kill. There’s no dazzling speed, claws, teeth, clouds of disturbed dust, or flying fur. It’s more like watching a python wrapped around a goat. Every time the goat exhales, the python squeezes tighter until the last breath is gone. At which point the python, at its own leisure, swallows the goat whole.
As we leave the restaurant I pretend to be disappointed with the outcome even though I’m actually feeling very satisfied. It is rare that someone gets the better of Rob, and he’s such a jumped-up, pompous ass that the pathetic side of me quite secretly enjoys seeing him brought down a peg.
In the car he fumes impotently. ‘I hate these oily bastards. I’d love to investigate his accountancy firm. I’m sure there are more than a few skeletons rattling in there.’
Wisely, I say nothing.
As soon as I’m out of Rob’s sight, I text Dom.
You might want to give your accountant a huge bonus this Christmas. X
I chat for a bit with the receptionist. She tells me her dog swallowed her ring so she has to dig through its poo with a stick. I make the appropriate noises of sympathy mixed with revulsion. When I leave her I take the lift upstairs and go straight to my desk.
I sit down and pull up the Integrated Compliance Environment (ICE) desktop interface. I bring up the original search request I made for Lady Marmalade. Scanning through the form, I notice that, under ‘Reason for Request and Any Additional Information’, I’ve input all his brothers as additional associated persons that I wanted researched. Even BJ’s name is there.
Leaning back, I gaze at the entry.