The Fund. Jeff Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ a reverse park outside Bree’s block of flats Justine eventually gave up the effort and abandoned the car, leaving it at a sharp angle to the gutter and extremely close to the car in front.

      Making their way upstairs, they knocked several times at Bree’s door without success. A kindly old lady in the flat next door told her that Bree had not been home for several days. She thought her young neighbour was on one of her usual overseas jaunts.

      ‘We know that’s not right because I saw her this morning,’ Eliza said to Justine as they made their way back to the car.

      ‘Well, it looks as though Sam is getting lucky. Let’s try his place.’

      Justine managed to make her way back into the traffic without removing the rear bumper of the car in front and Eliza almost relaxed until Justine tried to take a short cut under a semitrailer.

      If it were any more possible Eliza’s face was even whiter than normal when they eventually parked up the street from Sam’s building.

      ‘What now?’ asked Eliza. ‘We could just walk in and talk to Sam if he was on his own, but that won’t be possible if both of them are present.’

      ‘We’ll have to wait and see. Perhaps Bree’ll go home tonight. Do we know which one of those is Sam’s?’ Justine said as she pointed to Sam’s building.

      ‘I know the flat number but not where it’s located in the building. I’ll go in and see if I can find out,’ offered Eliza who wanted any excuse to escape Justine’s car.

      It took her only minutes to find that it was located on the second floor at the front of the building and Eliza was about to return when she heard voices inside.

      Checking to make sure there was no one watching, Eliza placed her ear to the door. Unfortunately, she was unable to make out more than a few words. I don’t know how they do it in the movies, she thought. However, one thing was clear and that was that there weren’t just two voices inside. At least two distinctly male and one female voice were coming from Sam’s flat. So there had to be Bree, Sam and at least one other person. She was sure it wasn’t a radio or TV announcer as the voice fitted neatly into the spaces of the conversation between the two agents.

      Making her way back to the car, she let Justine know what she had found out. They could now pick out Sam’s flat from the street below and were occasionally able to see the shadow of the occupants moving around whenever they came close to the window.

      ‘I think we should wait a while,’ said Eliza. ‘We need to know who the third person is, although I think I can guess.’

      ‘Well, give them an hour. I don’t fancy being out here all night.’

      The girls were getting stiff and sore from sitting in the one place for so long when Sam emerged from his front door accompanied by Bree and a third person who Eliza immediately identified as Mick Sloane, the reporter. The trio made their way across the road and entered a café.

      Eliza made her way past the large picture window and peered in before returning to the car. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.

      ‘Where to?’ asked Justine.

      ‘Upstairs. They’re at a table with menus in their hands. They’ll be gone for ages.’

      Eliza walked off and Justine locked the car up before following as fast as she could. She caught up to Eliza at the door to Sam’s flat where Eliza’s skills had already half opened Sam’s lock. In less than thirty seconds they were standing inside.

      The kitchen portion of the open plan living area drew their attention as well as the coffee table in the sitting room. Both spaces were covered in files.

      Eliza and Justine spread them out, examining as many files as they could in the short time available.

      ‘I wish they had a photocopier here,’ said Justine.

      Justine shook her head as she went over the information in the files. ‘We’ll have to come back. There’s just too much here.’

      ‘At least we’ve got the gist of the whole thing. We’ll be able to let the others know. Come on. Let’s get out of here.’

      ‘I’d love to take some of these files with us.’

      ‘Next time, Eliza. Let’s go!’

      She reluctantly replaced the file and made sure they hadn’t left any trace of their presence before relocking the door on their way out.

      Justine put the car into gear and screeched it into the road without indicating. ‘I’ll get you home and we’ll call a meeting of the board for the first thing in the morning.’

      Eliza hung on and prayed that she would stay alive long enough to make that meeting.

      Chapter 8

      The following day Eliza and Justine reported their findings to the board.

      ‘I say we go back and photograph all their files,’

      said Eliza. ‘We need to know exactly how much information they’ve accumulated.’

      ‘From what little we did see, they’ve dug into Mrs Green’s past.

      Right back to when she was a child,’ added Justine.

      ‘Why would they need to do that?’ asked Nori.

      ‘It seems to have worked,’ said Brian. ‘They’ve become very thorough, and in doing so they’ve been able to open up new lines of inquiry. How else would they have picked up on the missing Rolls Royce? I’d have sworn that the car had ceased to be a problem, especially after no one mentioned it for a few months. Now it’s back on our list of things that we need to be careful about.’

      ‘What will we do?’ asked Nori.

      ‘Absolutely nothing! Outside of this room we do not discuss it and we certainly go nowhere near it,’ warned Brian. ‘It’ll be safe enough where it is if we simply forget it exists.’

      ‘That still leaves our friends at Inland Security and their new sidekick,’ said Toby.

      ‘They will remain a problem until something positive is done about them,’ said Justine.

      Lana was uncomfortable with Justine’s tone of voice. ‘That sounds far too ominous. I hope you’re not considering anything radical.’

      However, Brian was nodding in agreement. ‘We will have to do something. Eliza, I think we’ll need to get your father and his friends to keep an eye on them for the short-term at least. Then, when the moment is right, we’ll make our move.’

      ‘What about the information they’re uncovering?’ asked Nori.

      ‘I think we should let them keep going,’ said Eliza. ‘That way, when we do make our move, we’ll have a good idea what sort of information is out there and how much harm it could do to us. When we know that, we can take steps to remove the most damaging parts.’

      ‘Will Mrs Green’s history hurt us that much?’ asked Suzie. СКАЧАТЬ