Майкл Ридпат - The Marketmaker

‘Oh, yes?’

‘Yes. He gave us a little speech. He told us why you’d left. He said that he didn’t mind people disagreeing with the Dekker ethos, and that he had given you a chance to resign, which you hadn’t taken. He wouldn’t tolerate any member of the team betraying the rest of us. He said you’d never work again, not in the City, nor in a university.’

‘Jamie! Didn’t you say anything?’ Kate protested.

Jamie shrugged.

‘He couldn’t,’ I said. ‘Ricardo isn’t that sort of person.’ Then I asked Jamie, ‘What do the others think?’

Jamie sighed. ‘It’s impossible to tell. Everyone’s a bit down after Isabel. And this Mexican deal is becoming a real problem. They know I’m a good friend of yours, so they wouldn’t talk to me about it anyway. But I suspect they’ll keep quiet. The message from Ricardo is clear. Stick with me and I’ll look after you. Leave and you’re in trouble.’

Kate looked at Jamie with concern. Jamie avoided her glance, and studied the debris of cheese and crumbs on his plate.

‘I thought it was a bit extreme sponsoring the School of Russian Studies just to keep me out of a job,’ I said.

‘It was. And that’s why it was effective. It’s a warning to the rest of us of how far Ricardo will go to punish people whom he thinks have betrayed him. But also it’s a good idea. We’ll need information and contacts to get into Russia. Your old place can provide us with useful introductions.’

‘And beating me up? Wrecking my flat? Did Ricardo tell everyone about that too?’

‘I doubt he even knows. That has all the marks of Eduardo.’

‘Jamie, you’ve got to get out of there!’ said Kate. ‘Especially after what they did to Nick. You should leave before it’s too late.’

Jamie sighed. ‘It is too late. Especially now. Ricardo will be watching me for signs of disloyalty.’

‘Screw him!’ said Kate. ‘Just leave.’

‘It’s not that easy,’ said Jamie. ‘This house needs to be paid for. I’ll need two years’ good bonuses to make a dent in the mortgage. And if I leave, what will I do then? Ricardo isn’t a good man to have as an enemy. The Latin American market is small: everyone knows everyone else.’

‘You could work for Bloomfield Weiss,’ said Kate. ‘They’d have you like a shot.’

‘Yeah, and if they lose their war with Dekker, which it looks like they will, they won’t need me any more and I’ll be out on the street.’

‘Oh, Jamie!’ growled Kate in frustration. She threw down her napkin and left the table.

The two of us sat in awkward silence. Finally Jamie broke it. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m free to screw up my own career. There’s no need for you to screw yours up in solidarity. You’ve got Kate to look after, and Oliver.’ And your ambition, I thought. That was the real problem, and both Jamie and I knew it. He was doing well at Dekker, and if he kept his head down he could be making millions in a few years’ time. That was something he desperately wanted to do.

But he was an old friend of mine. I didn’t want him to give up his ambitions on my account.

I helped Jamie wash up, and went to bed. I didn’t see any more of Kate that evening.

I spoke to her the next day. Jamie had gone to work, and she had taken Oliver to school. The weather was glorious, sunny with a gentle breeze. We sat in the back garden drinking mugs of coffee.

‘Did you know your godson has a girlfriend?’ Kate said.

‘Really? He’s a bit young, isn’t he?’

‘I think they’re quite keen on the opposite sex at this age, and then they go off them when they get older.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Jessica.’

‘Is she pretty?’

‘You’ll have to ask Oliver. She looks a bit dumpy to me. But she plays rockets with him, so I don’t think he minds. He asked me if she could come round to play. He was terribly shy about it. It was quite sweet.’

‘Well, I look forward to a formal introduction.’

We lapsed into silence, sipping our coffee. Something disturbed the rooks in a nearby copse, and they rose in a complaining black swirl, before eventually settling down again.

‘Do you think they’ll find her?’ Kate asked.

‘Isabel?’

‘Yes.’

I thought for a moment. ‘Yes, I do. I have to believe that they will.’

‘She seemed very nice.’

‘She is.’

‘But I hate women with figures like that. They look good in anything.’

I smiled. I remembered how she looked, how she felt, her scent, her voice. She had to be alive. She just had to be.

Kate reached across and squeezed my hand.

‘I’m sorry about last night,’ she said. ‘It’s just that Jamie drives me mad. His life seems to have been taken over by Dekker. I sometimes feel like he’s sold his soul to Ricardo.’

‘I know what you mean. Ricardo likes to control the people who work for him. He lets them go about things their own way, but he makes sure their interests are tied up completely with his. But I can understand Jamie’s point of view. He needs to pay for all this.’

‘No, he doesn’t!’ said Kate with surprising forcefulness. ‘We don’t actually need all this. Of course it’s very nice, but we could quite happily live in a small flat in Chiswick. And that stuff about providing for me is crap, too. I had a perfectly good job in a City law firm. I could earn a decent salary again. Of course I want to spend the time with Oliver while he’s young, but I don’t have to.’

I was quiet. I didn’t want to get involved in an argument between Kate and Jamie. Especially when I thought one of them was right and the other wrong.

‘Do you know, he was angry with me for letting you stay here?’ she said.

I shook my head.

‘He said it would look bad at the office. I told him not to be so absurd.’

‘I don’t want to stay if—’

‘You stay,’ said Kate firmly, her eyes blazing. I was surprised. Kate was normally calm, unflappable. I had never seen her so worked up as in the last twelve hours.

The shock must have shown in my face. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said, with a slight smile. ‘Jamie wants you here too. I think he realized he was being stupid.’

She took a sip of her coffee, and stared out towards the hill behind the garden. ‘He’s changing, you know.’

I didn’t answer at first. I didn’t want to talk too deeply about Jamie with Kate. But, then, she clearly needed to talk to someone about him. So I stepped delicately into the minefield.

‘Is he?’

Kate shot me a glance. She sensed my reluctance to talk, but went on regardless. ‘You remember him at university. He never took anything too seriously. He was always fun, he was always kind, he was always, well, affectionate. And afterwards, too. He was great when my father died.’

I remembered when Kate’s father had been killed in a car crash. She had been devastated. Jamie had done all that could be expected of a husband, and done it very well. He seemed to know exactly when to cheer her up, and when to let her be alone.

‘He’s always been a good friend to me,’ I said. ‘He got me the job at Dekker, didn’t he? I know that didn’t work out too well, but he stuck his neck out for me.’

‘Yes, he did.’ Kate smiled briefly, but she still wore a frown. ‘But what about Oliver? When he was born, Jamie was wonderful. And now he hardly ever sees him.’

‘He doesn’t have any choice, Kate. I’ve been inside Dekker. You have to work hard, ridiculously hard. Jamie spends no more time there than anyone else. In fact he probably spends less.’

‘But why does he have to work there in the first place? After all it’s done to you. After all it’s doing to him.’