The phone on the bedside table rings and I pick it up as naturally as possible.
‘Hello? Oh, it’s for you, Luke!’ I muster tones of surprise. ‘It’s Gary!’
‘Hi Gary.’ Luke takes the receiver. ‘Sorry, my BlackBerry’s bust—’ He breaks off and gapes at the phone. ‘What?’ he exclaims at last. ‘But Gary …’
I sip my coffee demurely, watching Luke and trying not to smile. At last Luke puts down the phone, looking shaken.
‘Bloody hell.’ He sinks down on the bed. ‘That was Gary. I think he’s having a nervous breakdown.’
‘No way!’ I exclaim theatrically.
Good old Gary. I knew he wouldn’t let me down.
‘He said he needs to see me urgently, talk about the company, talk about his life, get away from the pressure. He sounded absolutely on the edge. Gary, of all people!’ Luke looks staggered. ‘I mean, he’s the last person I would expect to crack up. He’s always been so steady. He said he can’t face London, he wants to meet me at some remote place in the New Forest, for fuck’s sake.’
It’s a holiday lodge Gary goes to with his family. It’s got no phone signal, no internet and no TV. Gary and I had a little chat early this morning. He said he reckons he can keep up his nervous-breakdown act for the morning, and meanwhile we’ll come up with more plans.
‘You must make Gary a priority,’ I say seriously. ‘After all, he’s your right-hand man. I think you should go to wherever he says and hear him out. He might do something stupid otherwise,’ I quickly add as Luke seems to hesitate. ‘You don’t want to risk that, do you? Call Bonnie and see if she can rearrange your appointments.’
Automatically Luke claps his hand to his pocket for his BlackBerry – then remembers.
‘Oh, this is a bloody joke.’ Cursing under his breath, he reaches for the landline phone. ‘I don’t even know her direct line.’
‘It’s—’ I bite my lip just in time. Shit. I’m getting careless. ‘It’s probably more sensible to go via the switchboard,’ I hastily cover. ‘Look!’ I proffer an old Brandon Communications notepad, and laboriously Luke taps in the number, a deep scowl on his face.
I have to bite my lip hard so I don’t smile. He’s so ratty.
‘Hi, Maureen. It’s Luke. Can you put me through to Bonnie?’ He takes a slug of coffee. ‘Bonnie. Thank God. You will not believe the fiasco this end. I haven’t got my BlackBerry or my laptop, I’ve just had a crazy call from Gary, I have no idea what I’m doing—’ He breaks off, and I can see the ripples gradually calm on his face.
‘Well, thanks, Bonnie,’ he says at last. ‘That would be great. Talk to you soon. Have you got this number? OK. And … thanks.’ He puts the phone down and looks at me. ‘Bonnie’s going to bike another laptop over here while I’m seeing Gary. If you take delivery, I can pick it up on my way back to the office.’
‘What a good idea!’ I exclaim, as though this is news to me and I haven’t already exchanged about fifty emails on the subject. ‘Good thing Bonnie’s so efficient, isn’t it?’ I can’t resist adding.
Bonnie’s sending over a specially modified laptop which will be unable to access the internet due to a ‘server flaw’. The tech department have also disabled Luke’s email account and set up a dummy one. Bonnie’s going to fill it with enough emails to keep him busy and unsuspicious – but nothing else. Basically, we’re cutting him off from virtual civilization.
‘And she’s sorting out a car to take me to wherever the hell Gary is. It should be here in about twenty minutes.’ Luke looks around the room yet again, his brow furrowing. ‘I’m sure I brought my laptop back last night. I’m sure I did.’
‘Don’t worry about your laptop,’ I say soothingly, as though he’s a psychotic patient. ‘Tell you what, why don’t you get Minnie dressed?’
My BlackBerry has been vibrating with incoming calls, and as soon as Luke’s out of earshot, I grab it and answer without even checking the screen.
‘Hi, Bonnie?’
‘No, it’s Davina.’
I’m so focused on this morning’s events, it takes me a nanosecond to realize who it is.
‘Davina?’ I can’t hide my surprise. ‘Hi! How are you?’
‘Becky! You poor thing! This is terrible!’ For one mad moment I think she means about the party nearly coming out. Then I realize what she’s talking about.
‘Oh, that.’ I wince. ‘Yes, I know.’
‘What happened?’
I really could do without going over the whole thing again. I’d kind of managed to forget about it for now.
‘Well, my boss found out about the Shop in Private service.’ I keep my voice low. ‘And he didn’t like it. So I’m suspended and they’re going to do an investigation.’ To be honest, I’ve been so frantic over the last few days I’ve barely given the investigation a thought.
‘But you saved our lives!’ Davina sounds impassioned. ‘We’re all agreed, we’re not standing for it. We had a meeting yesterday, a few of your regular clients. Jasmine was the one who spread the word, then we all got on a group email …’
‘Jasmine?’ I’m quite taken aback at the idea of Jasmine rallying the troops.
‘We’re not letting this go. We’re going to take action. And that boss of yours will wish he never messed with you.’