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СКАЧАТЬ is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. We publish books. On paper, between covers. We may use computers to facilitate their publication but that is as far as I am prepared to go. We will not publish literature or anything else on little round pieces of plastic.' She thumped the table and then looked quite surprised with herself. 'I am sorry, Katherine.'

      Kit smiled. 'I gather your main concern is that your husband might be using the Orlando House name for his own purposes?' Kit said.

      Celia held her hands out, palms up as if she was weighing something. 'Yes and no. As you gather I don't approve of this CD thing, whether he's using OHP as a front or not. More to the point, however, I don't believe that that is what he is up to. Neither does Douglas. Because he can't trace the money, it is his concern that this the so-called venture may be something OHP would quite simply not want to be involved in. I wish to discover what it is before Geoffrey can retreat or cover his tracks.' Celia left the hint of dirty dealings hanging in the air while she poked a strawberry into her mouth.

      'Why doesn't Douglas just ask him straight out? He could threaten to reveal the big secret to you and then your husband would have to tell him.' Kit was starting to think this whole case was a little strange. Why was everybody else being so careful and secretive when it was Geoffrey's apparent skulduggery that was clearly the issue?

      'My major concern is the integrity of Orlando House. If Geoffrey is involved in something legal then I will have less of a problem with it, obviously. It will just be something that has to be dealt with. If, as Douglas suspects however, it is something questionable or even illegal, then that is another matter altogether.'

      Kit wondered if Celia had any love for the man she obviously had so little respect for. 'You don't think he's up to anything illegal, do you?' she asked.

      'I believe my husband's sideline is a floozy,' Celia answered matter-of-factly, taking a sip of coffee and looking seriously at Kit. 'What do you think?'

      Damn, was what Kit thought. All this for a floozy? She'd had the rising hope as Celia was talking that this was going to be a straightforward daylight job of chasing a money trail and investigating any suspicious business ventures or acquaintances that the untrustworthy Mr R. might be involved with. But, though it had taken her a while to get around to it, Mrs Robinson was indeed hiring Kit to hang around in darkened doorways with telescopes and dark glasses. The interesting stuff was obviously being left in the capable hands of the loyal Douglas Scott.

      'I don't know Mrs Robinson. Celia,' Kit amended. 'Is there anything else that leads you to believe your husband has a...is having an affair?'

      'I know my husband, Katherine. The amount of money involved doesn't seem, to me at least, to be enough for any kind of business venture - legal or otherwise. So what would that suggest to you?'

      'Debts? Is he a gambler?'

      'Only with my goodwill - as far as I know. Geoffrey married me for money Katherine. He had enough before, now he has more than enough.'

      'Is it enough to him though?' Kit asked.

      'Good question,' she gave a short laugh. 'Yes, perhaps it is a truth that a man in possession of a fortune must be in want of - more.'

      Kit smiled as Celia seemed so delighted with her little twist of classic Jane Austen. Downing the rest of her coffee Celia reached for the pot. 'He already has a wife. I suspect he also has a mistress and that is not acceptable.'

      'I don't imagine it is,' Kit said, holding her own cup out to the offered pot.

      'Don't get me wrong Katherine. I don't actually care if he's being unfaithful,' she said, emphasising the 'un'. 'What I don't want to have to bother with, at any time, is a scandal. Or blackmail. I know how sordid these things can get. Men just can't seem to help themselves when it comes to sex, can they?' she asked, looking expectantly at Kit, who nodded - as expected.

      'Maybe that is exactly what is happening,' Kit suggested. 'He may already be paying off a blackmailer.'

      'Well the sooner we find out the better then,' Celia stated.

      'There's no chance he is trying to take over OHP?' Kit asked. She realised this was a bit far-fetched but suddenly remembered that while doing her limited reading into Celia and OHP she'd come across an article about the clever take-over of Milson-Carter in Sydney. That company, publishers of coffee-table books for the armchair traveller and a range of home decorating magazines, had been literally taken apart and put back together by two very minor shareholders. While there had been speculation that the acquisition of shares had been achieved by coercion rather than free enterprise, nothing was ever proved. Rumours had been rife about some pretty weird skeletons in the closets of the Milson and Carter families but their minders had closed the wrought iron gates firmly in the face of the press to keep the old money in and the scandal-mongers out. Maybe that was what Celia feared. An unfaithful husband and a conniving mistress could do a great deal of damage if they set their minds to it.

      'No my dear, I seriously doubt it,' Celia was saying. 'There is no way as far as Orlando House is concerned that my husband can get more than what he has.'

      'What about the other shareholders? Could he buy them out? I was thinking of the Milson-Carter thing in Sydney,' Kit suggested hesitantly.

      Celia laughed. 'My husband, though co-director, is only a junior partner. Granted so were the upstarts at Milson, but that company had a hundred or so shareholders. I am the majority shareholder of Orlando House and I do not expect that to change. I own seventy per cent, the remaining thirty is split equally between only three other people: Geoffrey, my daughter Elizabeth, and our publisher Miles Denning.

      'So it is an unlikely scenario. I trust Miles implicitly, and hold him in the highest regard. And my daughter, well, Elizabeth is not much interested in the business at the moment. She has been living in England on and off for the last five years. She's trying to find herself, or something, away from the family influence or as she calls it 'interference'. She's been gone six months this time.'

      'If she's not interested in the business...' Kit said vaguely. She regretted the implication immediately. Celia, on the other hand, didn't seem to find it inappropriate.

      'Elizabeth would not sell her shares any more than I would, Katherine. They are her father's legacy and that means a lot to her. She may be stubborn, selfish and wayward but she would not abandon Orlando House and would certainly give nothing to Geoffrey. She does not approve of her step-father.'

      Kit thought that 'abandon' was a pretty strange word to use. It appeared Celia Robinson didn't have much luck with those close to her. She wondered what Carl Orlando had been like. Kit started to apologise for her lack of tact but Celia interrupted with a wave of her hand.

      'I have deliberated long on all of this. The questions you have raised give me confidence in your ability to deal with this matter efficiently and intelligently. That is all I ask. If my husband is having an affair I wish to be able to deal with him efficiently and intelligently. I shall probably want to kill him, though castration would be more fitting, but I will no doubt just manage to muzzle him for a while. If he's not having an affair then the answers to our questions lie elsewhere. One step at a time though. We begin with what I think is the most obvious.'

      Celia pulled herself up from the chair and motioned to Kit to follow her. She stopped by a set of shelves, inset into the low wall that bordered one edge of the patio near the door, and rummaged amongst the large collection of shoes that filled all the available space. Slipping a pair of high-heels onto her tiny bare feet, she then opened the door and ushered Kit into the cool dark hallway. They made СКАЧАТЬ