Майкл Ридпат - The Marketmaker

Kerton stood up. He strode across to the large window overlooking the garden in the middle of the square. Kate and I watched him. We could see the tension in his back and shoulders.

He turned round, and ran his hands through his hair. ‘I can’t call the whole deal off. Bloomfield Weiss are giving me their offer tomorrow. But, if you like, I’ll put off responding until Monday.’

‘Wednesday.’

Kerton glanced at me in irritation. ‘All right, Wednesday. But next Wednesday morning I will accept Bloomfield Weiss’s offer, provided it’s a reasonable one. And I hope you will have found Isabel by then.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. Kate smiled at him. She was right, he wasn’t all bad. ‘Can you give us your number here? In case we need to contact you.’

Kerton went over to the table by the phone, scribbled a number on a piece of paper and gave it to me.

‘Oh, one other thing,’ I said. Kerton frowned. It was clear he wanted to get rid of me. ‘Can I use your phone?’

The frown deepened.

I checked my watch. One o’clock, or nine o’clock in the evening in Brazil. ‘I need to let Isabel’s father know so that he can tell the kidnappers there’s been a delay.’

Kerton shrugged and nodded.

I moved over to the phone, and dialled Luís’s number. I got through first time, and Luís picked up the phone straight away.

‘ Alô .’

‘Luís, it’s Nick. I’ve spoken to Lord Kerton, chairman of Dekker Ward. He says he will delay accepting Bloomfield Weiss’s offer until next Wednesday.’

‘Thank God,’ he said, with relief. And then the worry returned. ‘What do we do then?’

‘I said we’d find Isabel.’

‘And how do we do that, Nick?’

Kerton was watching me. ‘Let’s think about that tomorrow, shall we? But call me after the kidnappers have been in contact.’

‘I will.’

I put the phone down.

‘You don’t have a clue where she is, do you?’ said Kerton.

I smiled and shrugged.

For the first time, he smiled back. ‘Well, good luck.’

Kate drove us straight back to Bodenham. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think he would have gone along with it.’

‘But he did.’

‘Right.’

‘So what are you going to do now?’

‘Wait for Luís to call back. Go to bed. Sleep. Then think.’

It was after two by the time we arrived home. Jamie was still up waiting for us. The television was on, and a whisky glass and tumbler were by his chair.

He stood up, agitated. ‘What’s going on?’

‘We needed to see Lord Kerton about something.’

‘What? See him about what?’

I shrugged.

‘Look, he’s the chairman of my employer. You can’t just go and “see him about something” without telling me what it is, Kate!’

Kate stood in anguish in the middle of the sitting-room floor. She glanced at me. I nodded. I couldn’t expect her to hide it from Jamie any more.

She walked over to the sofa, and flopped into it. Jamie sat down again next to his whisky glass. I remained standing.

‘We were asking Andrew Kerton to delay selling Dekker Ward to Bloomfield Weiss until next Wednesday,’ she said, in a quiet voice.

‘Sell to Bloomfield Weiss! What are you on about? Bloomfield Weiss aren’t about to buy Dekker.’

Kate nodded. ‘Yes, they are. They’ve been in secret negotiations with Andrew for the last couple of weeks.’

‘God.’ Jamie slumped back into his chair. ‘And what have you two got to do with it?’

I swallowed. ‘It was my idea,’ I said.

‘Your idea?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘Ricardo deserved it.’

Jamie still looked shocked. ‘I can’t believe you did this!’ He looked at Kate. ‘And you knew all about it?’

‘I only found out a couple of days ago.’

‘And you didn’t tell me?’

Kate avoided Jamie’s eyes.

‘This is incredible! How can you do this to me, both of you?’ As the shock wore off, the anger grew.

‘Look, Jamie,’ I said, in as reasonable a tone of voice as I could muster, ‘Dekker are in big trouble. They might well go bust. If Bloomfield Weiss take them over, you’ll keep your job.’

‘That’s not the point!’ Jamie stood up and began pacing up and down the room. ‘We’re a team! And, like it or not, Nick, we’re Ricardo’s team. You would be breaking us up.’

Now I got angry. ‘You’re sounding just like Ricardo! He’s not some victim of the financial establishment, and neither are you. He’s a very wealthy man, who’s made money from screwing all those around him. Including me!’

Jamie glared at me. I glared back. I tried to control myself. ‘Isabel has been kidnapped by someone who wants Dekker to remain independent. That someone has threatened that if Dekker is taken over, she will die. Now don’t tell me Ricardo isn’t behind that somehow or other!’

Jamie was silent, thinking through what I had just said. In the end, he spoke. ‘Nick. I know we’ve been friends, but I can’t have you in my house while you’re plotting with Bloomfield Weiss against Ricardo.’

‘Jamie!’ Kate protested.

‘I’m sorry, Kate, but you shouldn’t have helped him.’

‘I was only trying to stop that poor girl from being killed!’

Jamie ignored Kate, and turned to me. ‘I want you to leave,’ he said.

‘He can’t. He hasn’t got anywhere to go!’ Kate cried.

‘Well, I want you out next week, and the less I see of you in the meantime the better.’ With that he left the room, and I could hear his heavy step clumping up the stairs.

Kate looked at me wide-eyed. She bit her lip. ‘Nick, I’m sorry.’

‘No, I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘Go up to him. It’s important you go with him.’

She nodded and followed him up the stairs.

I sat alone in the dimly lit room. I fetched another glass, and poured myself some of Jamie’s whisky.

I should have anticipated Jamie’s reaction. He was a loyal Dekker man. I had always put this loyalty down to greed, or at least ambition — the ambition to make a fortune, which was almost the same thing. But it was more than that. Jamie was one of Ricardo’s people. He was what I would have become if I had stayed there. Ricardo looked after his people well, and expected total loyalty. In Jamie’s case he’d got it.

Jamie had always liked to follow the doctrine of whatever institution he was in. At seventeen, he had become the embodiment of the public-school virtues, and was rewarded by becoming head-boy. At Oxford, he had led a successful university career in social and sporting terms, if not quite academically. At Gurney Kroheim, he had been able to don the mantle of the stuffy merchant banker whenever it was required by his colleagues or his customers. And now at Dekker he was keen to follow Ricardo’s rules and do well by them. So far he seemed to be succeeding.

But Jamie was my friend, dammit! How could Ricardo take away my friend from me? Surely our loyalty to each other stretched back further, ran deeper?

In which case, why had I gone behind Jamie’s back to sell Dekker to Bloomfield Weiss? I was beginning to regret that. Now it looked as if that decision was going to lose me my best friend. And, barring a miracle, it might lose Isabel her life too.

But I had genuinely believed that Jamie would be just as well off if Bloomfield Weiss did take over Dekker.

And what about Kate? I shouldn’t have dragged her into this. She and I were good friends, and I could feel her losing her respect for Jamie. The last thing I wanted to do was pull her away from him. But, unless I was careful, that’s what would happen.

Of course, I still had the hardest problem of all waiting for me. How to find and release Isabel.