Dangerous Encounters

Chapter 20 The eve of the raid

From the taxi I phoned Liz. "Liz, are you alone?" 

"Rosemary's with me." 

"Scuttle. We need the mobile phone numbers of everyone at the house." 

"Will do. Anything else?" 

"No. See you." 

The man was cleaning his car again as I paid off the taxi at the lock up. 

"What, no furniture moving?" he asked. 

"Bloody van broke down." 

"Never rains but it pours. Sorry mate." 

Back in the office, Betty said, "Are you sleeping rough somewhere? Your suits seem to be getting rumpled." 

"Doing lots of travelling." 

"One urgent item. Ellen's finished the Doncaster quotation. She said you need a letter to go with it explaining the price. She's written a draft, but she's had to rush off. Something about child minders and washing machines. It didn't make much sense to me, but Ellen wasn't for explaining." 

I sighed, "OK. I'll do that and put it in the post. I'll get Liz to sign the estimate tonight. Anything else?" 

"No, I shall love you and leave you." 

I buckled down to refining Ellen's draft. 

The office quietened, and then I heard Liz's determined pace approaching, with Rosemary's lighter step. 

We sat around my desk. 

Liz said "We have enough data for Rosemary to start modelling, but we're still no nearer to finding out what the loose sum is from Foot's people. I want to take Rosemary into our confidence, but not without you." 

"OK by me. Rosemary will respect any confidence you give her." 

Liz said, "To cut a long story short, Rosemary, that cost you've identified is the cost of running a sophisticated entertainment centre serving clients and directors. We will close it down soon. We should then be able to save other costs. There's no point in starting the modelling until the matter is resolved. I didn't want you wasting your great talent and time on bum information. I have too much respect your skills." 

Rosemary smiled triumphantly, "Railton House, Evelyn Tarrant, Maggie Stenson, Steven Rampling and Ellen Potts part time, and Phillipe Lancombe. But those costs are accounted, what's all the rest? Slush fund and undeclared consumables?" 

"Probably," I said, "I must admit when you flushed the figure out I was appalled." 

"Well thanks for telling me, and not wasting my time. So you're going to close it?" 

"Yes, but you're not to tell anyone about this. Only Graham and his - um - team, Sir William Ogilvy at Waterloo House and me know about that intention." 

"OK. Can I go now, or do you need a lift?" asked Rosemary. 

"No, Graham will do the taxi run." 

"Thanks Liz, it's been an interesting week." 

Rosemary closed the door.

"You look slightly scruffy, Graham," Liz said, with a smile. 

"It's this changing in the lock up. I really need a coat stand. I'll dress properly for dinner." 

"Telephone numbers. They were in Foot's directory. We cross checked in the accounts office, they're used to Rosemary and me poking about, and found one more. That was Eve's. She is ex-directory. Why do you need them?"