‘Actually, that’s not how it will work at all,’ said Albert loudly enough to get April’s attention. A shuffling noise made him glance to his right where he spotted members of staff listening in from around the corner. ‘If Kate Harris is convicted, it will be in a criminal court. Criminal courts are not interested in property or business ownership. A civil case would have to be raised to prove Kate obtained ownership of this café by unfair means. That is a lengthy and longwinded process and then who would the ownership pass to?’
April rolled her eyes. ‘The manager of the business. Isn’t it obvious?’
Victor’s jaw fell open. ‘So that’s it! You don’t just want to run this place. You think you can steal it out from under everyone!’
Albert delivered the line he’d been holding in reserve. It was a bomb, and now felt like the moment to drop it. ‘Is that why you made an anonymous call to the police, April? It was you who told them Kate Harris killed Joel Clement.’
The room – the whole café – fell silent.
Where There’s Smoke …
Albert let the dust from his accusation settle for a few seconds, waiting for April to draw a breath as she readied her response. He expected a denial, but he didn’t give her the chance. The moment she looked like she might speak, he rolled right over the top of her. ‘I checked,’ he lied. ‘The call didn’t come with a name, but the dispatcher logged it and described the person’s voice. Did you know that when you make a 999 call, they are recorded?’ he took out his phone. ‘Would you like to hear the call you made?’
April’s face was like thunder. It was a dangerous game to play, but he’d been confident that the police must have gone after Kate when someone told them to. Randall had confirmed that, but Albert didn’t have a description of the voice and certainly didn’t have a recording of the call on his phone. He’d bluffed her, but he did so because her eyes betrayed her fear when he levelled the accusation at her.
Snatching up her handbag, April threw some items into it. ‘You shall be hearing from my lawyer!’ Albert didn’t give her threat much credence. ‘Kate Harris is guilty of murder and she is guilty of stealing from this business.’ April had looked like she was about to storm from the room, but Albert’s accusation had drawn the staff around the corner to come to the office door. With an audience, April chose to reveal what she knew. ‘Here!’ she railed. ‘Look at the accounts! Your beloved Kate has been pilfering from the till for months and doing her best to cover it up. Once a criminal, always a criminal.’ She stepped away from the screen, hooking her left arm through the loops of her handbag as she stormed for the office door. ‘This place will fall apart without me to run it. Let’s see how long you can manage without me! You’ll be begging me to come back!’ her voice echoed through the building. ‘Begging!’ her final shout was followed by the sound of a door slamming and the café was quiet again.
No one said anything for a few seconds.
Rex had been listening to the humans shouting at each other but hadn’t found it interesting. He couldn’t keep up with what was being said and they hadn’t mentioned food, walkies, or ball at any point, so he’d stopped bothering to listen. There was a rubbish bin in the corner behind the desk that had an apple core in it and a wrapper from a packet of chocolate digestives. There was some chocolate still inside the wrapper unless his nose was wrong – which it never was. However, he doubted it was worth the effort to retrieve.
Hans wandered through to find where all the humans had got to. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked Rex, foregoing his obligatory need to lead with an insult.
Rex sniffed the air. ‘Nothing interesting. Something is burning though.’ From a sitting position he jumped to his feet and barked. The sudden noise made everyone jump but before anyone had a chance to ask why the dog was barking, the smoke alarm burst into life.
Victor swore and he wasn’t the only one. April and the dodgy accounting were swiftly forgotten as the staff ran back to the kitchen which, by the time Albert got there, was filling with smoke. No one needed to take charge, not right away at least, the fire alarm and all the shouting before it had scared away all the customers. Anyone coming through the café front door now would swiftly turn around.
Albert coughed as acrid smoke caught in his throat and that was enough to convince him it was time to leave. A tray of clangers had been left to burn, that was the source of the smoke, the cause nothing more than curiosity as whoever should have been tending to them, drifted away to listen to April and Victor. It would be easily dealt with, but the café would be shut for the rest of the day, Albert felt certain of that.
Holding his breath until he got to the door, Albert’s pulse was beginning to hammer when he sucked in a lungful of cool, moist air. He was jostled in the doorway and hadn’t thought anyone was following him. Trying to get out of the way, he heard Victor’s voice and turned toward it, getting rewarded with a lump pressed into his arms.
‘Can you look after Hans while I deal with this?’ The lump in his arms was the dachshund, who looked bewildered and was coughing. Victor shouted, ‘Thanks,’ as he ran back through the café to the kitchen. He hadn’t waited for an answer.
Albert
