The Iceman. Jeff Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ after her.’

      ‘I know, but it’s so very unfair. Matty never hurt anyone. She doesn’t deserve this.’

      That was exactly what I had been thinking. ‘I have something for you,’ I said. ‘Something to show my appreciation for all your help over the years.’ I took an envelope from my pocket. ‘I bought it for Matty. It was supposed to be a surprise for when her plaster came off.’

      Roma looked inside the envelope and found a pair of return tickets to New York. ‘I can’t accept this!’

      ‘Of course you can. You’ve earned it. Matty and I will be able to go when she’s better. Now I’ve got to go to her. She needs me.’

      Chapter 4

      Matty Sutton

      I

      lay in the hospital bed with my plastered leg stretched out before me and the sentence of death hanging over my head. The grim reality of my present position hung over me like a thick, black fog.

      Despite the assurances of the doctors that they would do all within their power to rid me of the cancer, I knew my days were numbered. I grimly accepted my fate and prayed that I had sufficient time left to do what I needed to do.

      It wasn’t as though I felt sick. Except for the discomfort of the itchy skin beneath the cast I felt no different than I had a week ago when I had been busily smashing a tennis ball around the court at the country club.

      But now I knew. Deep within me, I knew.

      In an effort to allay these unsettling thoughts I threw my mind back to more pleasant times and to the day that Jim and I had met.

      In applying for a job as a personal assistant to the head of a building company I had expected to arrive at an office tower of carpeted, air-conditioned luxury, not the muddy yard of utter mayhem that constituted the construction company Jim had started several years before.

      The ‘administration’ section consisted of a demountable office thrust up against one wall of the yard and completely surrounded by piles of building materials that seemed to have been dropped off the back of the delivery truck and were destined to lay where they landed until someone found a practical use for them.

      I tiptoed my way through the chaos while trying desperately not to ruin the brand new dress I had bought for the occasion, or step in one of the many puddles in my new shoes. A series of wolf whistles and catcalls followed me from the gate to the door of the office and I was still not sure whether I should go through with the interview or run and hope to find more suitable employment elsewhere.

      Before I could change my mind the door to the demountable was flung open and a voice roared out, ‘Get back to work, you lazy fucking bastards!’ The voice’s owner towered over me from the demountable’s top step and his face suddenly reddened when he saw me. ‘Sorry, Miss,’ he apologised.

      He looked utterly devastated that he had been caught swearing in front of a woman and I was touched that he even cared. I shrugged. ‘I’ve heard worse before and I suppose I’ll hear worse in the future.’

      ‘Jim Sutton,’ he stammered by way of introduction while taking my hand in a vice-like grip and shaking it till I thought it would come off.

      Inside the grimy demountable office I saw that it was in no less a state of confusion than the yard outside. Invoices were scattered over a filthy desk while an architect’s table in the corner was covered in large sheets of paper. More plans were rolled up and stored wherever a spot could be found. A phone rang, but I couldn’t see where it was and Jim Sutton chose to ignore it completely.

      ‘Aren’t you going to answer that?’ I asked.

      ‘They’ll ring back if it’s important,’ he replied in an offhanded manner.

      I was staggered by his reply and knew straight away that I wanted this job. Here was a company crying out for the guiding hand of a person who abhorred chaos and I was determined to be that person.

      He quickly glanced through my references and nodded. ‘The job’s yours if you want it. Can you start right away?’

      ‘Don’t you want to interview anyone else?’

      ‘No other applicant has dared to soil her shoes by crossing the yard. All the rest have turned tail at the gate and run for their lives.’

      ‘I’ll take the job if you agree to clean up the yard so I won’t ruin my shoes.’ I grinned.

      ‘You can start right now and I’ll think about the yard.’

      ‘Where’s my desk?’

      He pointed to the pile of invoices. ‘Under there.’

      Unfortunately, I had failed to reckon on the idiosyncrasies of the male of the species.

      Despite the clutter, Jim knew exactly where everything was and he could find whatever he needed at a moment’s notice. It might have been covered in dust from lack of use, but he knew exactly where it lurked. The same went for the muddy yard outside.

      However, I soon found out that he was missing out on important contracts because of his easygoing attitude, and I was determined to show him that the business needed to be over-hauled.

      I was only able to break through his steely resolve after many arguments and I was only able to get that far due to one important fact that I learned early on. ‘Big Jim’ as he was known to his men, was besotted with me. No matter how hard he fought me on an issue, I could look him in the eye and if I smiled gently I could ensure total surrender on his part. The man who ruled his workers with an iron fist was putty in my hands, and I loved it.

      I soon had the office looking spic and span with everything carefully stored away.

      Jim couldn’t find anything now and was constantly swearing when a plan or invoice couldn’t be located, but I persisted and as soon as my filing system became clear to him the bad language subsided; however, my plans to reorganise the muddy devastation outside met with stubborn opposition, not only from Jim but from the rest of his workers as well.

      Try as I might I could not convince them that a mere woman would know how to make their working lives easier.

      My breakthrough in winning the confidence of the men came in a rather unexpected manner.

      Their lunch room was located in yet another crusty demountable and was not a place to welcome the presence of a female, unless of course you counted the many oversized and under-dressed female bodies that adorned the lunch room’s walls.

      I chose not to invade their territory and ate my meals at the desk where I could continue to answer the phone at the same time, but having run out of tea one day I was given no option other than to enter the men’s domain. Fruity language and raucous laughter was silenced instantly as I stepped across the threshold. Every head turned in my direction as I made my way to the kitchen sink and made myself a mug of steaming tea. I attempted to place the men at their ease by making small talk with those who I had come to know and I was gratified when hushed conversations were restarted.

      As I sipped at my mug I noticed a pair of the older men in a far corner of the room. They were hunkered down over СКАЧАТЬ