'I suppose so. I always forget how big he's getting.' She squeezed my arm as we lay on the couch, nursing a couple of glasses of Gran Sangre de Toro… one of the best sleeping potions we know. 'Sorry I was grumpy when you came in. It's been a trying week.'
'I know it has, love. Did you go for your check-up, by the way?' She nodded. 'All okay?' She nodded again, but avoided my eye. 'Susie?' I demanded.
'It's nothing. My blood pressure was a bit raised, that's all. Only a wee bit, honest.'
I put down my glass and turned her to face me. 'What did your consultant say?' I asked her, a little urgently I guessed, for she twisted in my grasp.
'Och, Oz, it's all right, really. She said she'd keep an eye on it, but it was only a couple of points up.'
'Well it's getting no higher. That's it; now that Culshaw's agreed to deputise for you, you're off on maternity leave as of now.'
'I knew you'd say that. I'm all right, really, and so's the baby.'
I made her look at me again. 'Susie, my love, I usually think four or five times before trying to lay down the law to you, but not this time.
You are out of there.'
She must have been tired, for she gave up the fight. 'Okay,' she conceded. 'It'll take me a few days next week to hand over to Phil, but once that's done, I'll stay at home.'
'You mean that?'
'I mean it; cross my heart.' She settled down beside me again on the couch. 'Now, how was the rest of your day?' she asked. 'Anything interesting happen?' She giggled. 'Apart from making a movie, that is.'
'As a matter of fact…' I told her about my encounter on the Glasgow plane with Mr. W H Smith of Kendall McGuire.
'There's a coincidence,' she murmured. 'I wonder how he managed that?'
'What?'
'To get sat next to you.'
'Aw come on, that was pure chance. You can't just go to the check-in and ask to sit next to someone.'
'Maybe he saw you check in, then went up and asked for the same row.'
'No way.'
'Oh no? Were all the window seats taken?'
I thought back to the flight. The plane had been less than half full.
'No, but not everyone likes one. Anyway, the guy was sweating like a horse when he got on board, as if he'd had to run for it.'
'That means nothing. You know how hot that departure lounge can get.'
That was true enough, I conceded; it had been like a furnace at lunchtime. Then I stopped myself. She was as paranoid as I was.
'Maybe so, but I still don't think the guy was a plant.'
'Maybe he just saw you and took a chance.'
'Forget it. He didn't strike me as that smart.'
'What did you talk about?' Susie asked.
'Football at first, then business. Actually, when I think of it, I began the business chat. I clocked him as a lawyer; it was only after that that he told me who he was with. We got talking and I asked him who they represented; the interesting thing was that he denied any knowledge of a Torrent link.'
'That was a lie for a start, if he's a partner like he said.'
'I don't think so. I'm an actor, remember; I should know when someone's hamming it up. Has it occurred to you that Duncan Kendall might have been representing someone else at Natalie's Atrium lunch?'
'It might have, if Ricky hadn't told me that she's been to his office half a dozen times over the last week or so. No, love, that confirms what we already knew; the bitch is at it. They're playing it really close to their chest, especially if Kendall's keeping secrets from his partners. Did you talk to the guy all the way up to Glasgow?'
'No, he told me that he'd met Nat Morgan socially, I gave him my opinion of her, and that more or less terminated our discussion.'
Susie grinned. 'I should imagine it would have. Now, are you going to ask about my day?'
'Yes. Consider yourself asked.'
She pinched her nose. 'Four highlights, really. First, your son has been kicking hell out of me all day.'
'Good for wee Mac. Now you know what sleeping with you's like just now.'
She gave me a mock frown. 'Second,' she said, heavily, 'about three tons of crated up playground equipment arrived this afternoon. So you and Mr. Yuille can spend this weekend drawing up a plan of how it's going to look, and deciding where you want to put it.'
'We more or less know already. We just need to size the stuff up.'
'Fine, you do that. Oh yes, and your sister phoned, wanting to know, and I quote, 'what the bloody hell' she's supposed to do with her delivery… I told her to get a local builder to set it all up for her and Uncle Oz would pay. Highlight three, we've been invited to a posh Scottish Enterprise Dinner on the Saturday after next, in the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews. I've said we'll go, provided I'm not in labour. I've turned down the accommodation they offered, though. It was just a double en suite, so I'd rather stay with Mac and Mary.'
'Me too. And fourth?'
'Mrs. Perry's lawyer called Greg. He said that he thought our offer was an insult, but that he'd consult his client and see how insulted she felt.'
'Did Greg get the impression she'd find ten grand less insulting?'
'He didn't know. All he said was that we'd have an answer by Monday or Tuesday.'
'Let's hope it's the right one.'
'Fuck 'em if it isn't. I'm past caring. Last and finally, but this isn't a highlight. Fisher's investigation has ended, like the dampest of squibs. He's cost us a good agent and a couple of foremen who've gone as well as Aidan, but he hasn't got near finding our mole.'
'If there ever was one,'I muttered.
'What do you mean by that?'
'I don't know,' I confessed. 'But it's been a week. You'd have thought he'd have popped up for air by now.'
'Are you saying that this might not have been information leaked, but something set up from the outside all along?'
I shook my head, trying to clear it as much as anything else. 'To be truthful, my darling, it's been a long, hard week. I don't have a fucking clue what I'm saying.'
Twenty-Nine.
We didn't have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to find out the reaction of the Three Bears' wives to the compensation offer. That fine organ, the Sunday Herald, told us twenty-four hours later.
It had been a quiet Saturday; Jay and I had obeyed orders and completed our detailed planning of Janet and wee Mac's playground. It was going to look pretty good, I reckoned, and I had no safety worries with the equipment. It was all first class and solidly put together…
Clyde-built as they used to say, when that meant something.
We had done more than that, actually. I had helped him fit a new double gate to the back entrance to the estate, making sure that the lock worked and that the bolts held it secure. It's not that it's used much, indeed hardly ever, but there's some pretty dangerous boggy ground near Loch Lomond, and the track which leads from the gate down to the road runs through some of the worst of it. It's said to be virtually bottomless; when they were building the new golf course, they lost an earth mover… and almost the course architect himself.
So, you see, the entrance had to be secure not to prevent people from getting into the estate, but to prevent small people, like my reckless nephew Colin, Janet, and her wee brother eventually, from getting out.
With that job done, Jay and I hit a few golf balls, then I headed back to the house to take Janet for a swim.
