GET SHERLOCK OFF THE CASE. OR WE WILL.
'They're getting worried,' said Joe, feeling both flattered and disturbed.
'So am I,' said Zak. 'What do they mean, or we will?'
'Maybe they're going to make me a better offer,' he said. Then, seeing that she didn't think it a joking matter, he went on, 'It's OK, really. They're just huffing and puffing. What are they going to do?'
But in his mind he heard the bang as his electric kettle threw him across the room and he smelled gas.
'What are you going to do, Joe?' she asked, regarding him with a trust which like the message was both flattering and disturbing.
I'll talk to Hardiman, check if there's been anyone hanging round. I'll need to show him the note, that OK?'
'Yeah, sure. He's got a right to know,' she said.
Because you're seriously thinking about throwing the race? wondered Joe.
He said, 'See you later,' and headed along the maze of corridors till he came to the director's office. The door was ajar. He knocked, an ill-tempered voice called, 'What?' and he went in to find Hardiman glowering at him from behind a mound of paperwork.
'Oh, it's you. If this is just social, I'm up to my armpits ...'
'It's professional,' said Joe.
'Whose profession? Mine or yours?'
'Both. Something you ought to see. Zak found it in her locker. Which was locked.'
He handed over the note, adding, 'There's been others.'
'Following up the phone call, you mean? This why she hired you? She should have told me.'
'Perhaps. I'm telling you now. Anybody seen hanging around looking suspicious recently?'
'Joe, you've seen what this place is like. Full of workmen. Plus there's the Spartans who've been training here nights. Could be one of them's pissed off at Zak's success. Some people hate it when someone else makes the grade that they missed out on. That's what it sounds like to me, good old-fashioned spite.'
Was the man's determination to play this business down suspicious? wondered Joe. Time to press hard and see if anything gave.
'Well, I take it a bit more serious than that, Jim. There's been other things.'
'Such as?' said Hardiman sceptic ally
'Can't say,' said Joe.
'What? Oh, not that client confidence crap again. Listen, Joe, word of advice. If you really think you've stumbled across something criminal, then wouldn't it be in everyone's interest including yours to bring in the professionals?'
A lesser man might have resented the implications of both stumbled and the professionals.
Joe said mildly, 'Zak is adamant. No cops.'
Hardiman said, 'Perhaps it's time you reminded her, she may be big enough to run her own life now, but if I get convinced anything's likely to happen that could have repercussions for the Plezz, then I won't ask anyone's permission to bring in the fuzz.'
His face set hard with determination and his nose seemed to swell, reminding Joe uncomfortably of the teenage Hooter's capacity to inspire terror by his mere presence.
'I'd prefer if you did the reminding,' he said.
Hardiman relaxed and laughed.
'Still the same old Joe. Weaving and ducking at the first sign of trouble. No need for me to warn you about looking after your own interests. Now if you don't mind, I got work to do.'
He turned dismissively to his piles of correspondence.
Joe walked away pondering these things.
What he wanted to concentrate his mind on was an in-depth PI analysis of Hardiman's suspect rating, but all he could think of was his same old Joe crack. What the shoot did he expect a fourteen-year-old kid, small for his age, to do when set upon by the school heavy? Run? He wouldn't have got five yards. Fight? He wouldn't have lasted five seconds. So he'd offered the soft answer and if it hadn't always turned away wrath, it had at least sometimes transmuted a kick in the goo lies into a cuff round the ear.
But cuffs and kicks were no longer on the options menu, at least not publicly, and on the whole he preferred Hardiman's mistaken belief that the old school relationship still survived to the hearty pretence that they'd once been great mates.
As for the man's suspect rating, could be all that stuff about a spiteful Spartan was a version of his own feelings trotted out to throw Joe off the scent. Which would make his threat to call in the cops a bluff. Or a double bluff ?
It was all very confusing to a guy who had to make up his own answers to The Times crossword puzzle then invent clues to fit them. Perhaps he ought to listen to Hardiman's advice and start thinking about his own interests. These people were threatening him. Get Sherlock off the case. Or we will. No, more than threatening, trying to kill him! Except, of course, that the threat had come after the attempts, which even a crossword-challenged PI knew was not the usual order of things.
