by June Gadsby
“We can either talk here or go up to my flat…” she looked at him, gauged his response, then quickly added, which also doubles as my office.”
He looked about him and just at that moment one of the child-minders came in and flopped into an easy chair with a weary groan.
“Let’s go to your office, shall we?”
“Yes – um – right – okay!”
Sally led the way through the back, passing through the garden section where children were playing on swings, climbing on frames and feeding a small collection of domestic and non-domestic animals. The atmosphere was one of sheer delight and one that Sally never tired of being a part of.
“They all seem to be having a great time,” Mr. Calder said, pausing to watch the various activities. “This was all your idea Miss…er…Rose?”
She nodded, smiling off into the busy distance where a group of older children were learning how to plant their own garden. “Yes. These are some of the many things I wished I’d done as a child and never got the opportunity.”
“You must love children.”
“You could say that,” Sally glanced up at him with a sly, sideways glance and was surprised to find his dark eyes regarding her closely. “On the other hand, it could be that I’m just living my missing childhood through them.”
“Do they come back? I mean, do you have regular kids that you have the chance to get to know well?”
“Most of them, yes. That’s been the big surprise to all of us. One or two slip through the net and are never seen again, but I’d say most of them come back when they can.”
“I’m impressed.”
“This way, Mr. Calder,” she indicated a staircase that led up to her flat above the shop. Then, she started worrying about the state of the place. She couldn’t remember how she had left it. She wasn’t normally untidy, but from time to time things got out of hand. It was always during those times she had unexpected visitors.
She opened the door and tentatively looked around, feeling his eyes following after hers, aware that his big frame seemed to fill the tiny, cramped apartment that had once been used as a warehouse.
“Cosy!” he said.
“Small!” she countered and gave him a wry grin with a shrug of her shoulders, then noticed that he was staring at her rather hard. “What’s wrong?”
He gave a small shake of his head and again there was that devastatingly attractive smile that should have belonged to Hollywood rather than Harrogate.
“Nothing at all,” he told her after a rather audible sigh. “I was just thinking what a pity it was to have you hidden beneath that clown disguise.”
She made a pretence of tidying the place up, plumping up cushions, shifting shiftable bits, avoiding his penetrating gaze because she could feel a rosy glow creeping up her cheeks.
“It’s just temporary,” she told him. “Until Rob is well enough to get back into harness. Now, he really is good as a clown. You should see the way he can do cartwheels. And he’s funny. Much funnier than me.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He was picking up photographs and inspecting them. Sally as a child with her aunt. Sally on holiday with a friend. Sally in a group of Art College graduates. Sally with Bella. “You looked kind of cute when your ears started flashing.” She started to laugh with him at that, but then he went on. “No boyfriend, Miss Rose?”
She swallowed hard and shook her head. “No boyfriend, Mr. Calder – and the name’s Sally – to everybody. I don’t like formality or standing on ceremony.”
“That’s fine. As you know, I’m Gavin. Now, Sally, can we get down to business?”
He sat down in one of her deep, cushioned armchairs. It swallowed him up and he looked all legs until he adjusted his position. When she sat down opposite, she made sure she didn’t get too comfortable so as to retain a more business-like posture.
“I’m curious to know what you’re here about, Gavin,” she said, fixing him with a stare above her tented fingers. “After all, you have been watching me rather closely for some days now and I must say that I found it particularly disconcerting.”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that, but bravo! You, at least, picked me out of the crowd. I don’t think your colleague did. He was the one I started watching two weeks ago.”
“Rob? Why would you want to watch him? He’s a good clown, an excellent singer and dancer, but otherwise pretty harmless.”
“And careless?”
“Careless?”
“Yes. He did fall off his bike and sprain his ankle, did he not?”
Sally chuckled at that. “Well, if you’ve been watching him all the time you say you have, you must know about his accident, since it happened in the park.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. I saw no accident. Each afternoon, he did his little act in the park, then, as you did today, he led the children and their parents to The Rose Carousel. All except last Saturday, when he left with a friend and drove in the opposite direction.”
Sally thought about that, then remembered that there had been a singular lack of the usual numbers drifting into the shop that day. And Rob had phoned to say he’d had the accident with the bike and wouldn’t be in for a few days. He even apologised for not coming back to the shop to tell her, but his foot was painful and since a friend was passing at the time, he took the opportunity of getting a lift home.
“It sounds plausible,” Gavin Calder nodded, then studied his hands before looking up at her. “But I didn’t see him fall from his bike. However, there was a bigger crowd than usual that day and I may have been distracted. How long have you known this – Rob?”
“Rob Barlow,” Sally didn’t know why, but she was feeling a little prickly under her skin. “I’ve known him since we were in college together – going on for ten years. He was always more interested in theatre, so he dropped out half way through the first term. But we always kept in touch.”
“On a personal level?”
“If you’re suggesting a relationship, forget it. Rob’s gay and always has been. We’re friends, that’s all. Everybody likes him, even when he whites out.”
“Whites out?”
“He – um – has a problem with drugs from time to time. Not the hard stuff, but he has a low tolerance – drugs, alcohol. His life hasn’t been easy, so we tend to nurse him through the bad times when he gets depressed.”
“Has he ever been depressed enough to be admitted to a clinic?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
Gavin raised his head and thrust his square chin to the ceiling at a point just above her. Sally had to restrain herself from looking there also in case there was a stain or a cobweb that she had missed.
“How far would you trust him?” The question was addressed to the ceiling.
Sally fixed her eyes on his throat and the suspicion of black body hair that was trying to escape above his shirt collar. He had the neck and the shoulders of a man who worked out regularly, without being over-developed. She found herself wondering what he would look like without that suit, without the expensive shirt. Topless, running along a beach with the sea lapping at his ankles, long legs bare in shorts.
“What?”
He returned his gaze to her. “Do you trust him, Sally?”
“Yes, of course I trust Rob!” She was beginning to get rattled by this whole meeting. “Look, I’m sorry, but I’m rather busy, I’m tired and feeling just a little tetchy. Would you please come to the point and tell me why you’re here?”
He eased himself further up in his chair and looked as if he would like to change seats, but there wasn’t another one available. “Yes, of course.” He studied his fingers again. “For the past few years I’ve been employed as a security chief for the owner of a firm called New Galaxy Computers. My boss is American – as I am – but has been living in England for some time now. He’s looking to expand his business, so he’s looking at various companies with potential to do well in the States. Companies with imagin
ation. Like The Rose Carousel. This is a unique enterprise, Sally. You must be proud of it.”
“Yes, I am.” Sally was flattered. At the same time she felt wary. “But what does all this mean in terms of business. I assume your boss is proposing some sort of business deal?”
Gavin shrugged. “That depends. For the moment, he’s looking into it on a personal level. You see, Sally, you were discovered by my – by my boss’s daughter. She’s five years old and she’s your most ardent fan.”
“Then I’m doubly flattered. What’s her name?”
Gavin delved into his inside jacket pocket and drew out a photograph – a head and shoulders shot of a pretty little girl smiling into the camera showing some missing teeth. “Her name is Anna. This was taken a few weeks ago after she had been riding on your carousel.”
Sally took the photograph and stared at it for some seconds, then handed it back. “Yes, I remember her. Delightful child, but she never spoke a word all the time she was here. For a while, we thought she was lost, but the young woman with her had just slipped out on an errand.”
Gavin’s face clouded. “The nanny, yes. Stupid girl. She wasn’t supposed to let Anna out of her sight.”
“Does Anna have a problem?”
“She’s the child of a wealthy businessman. She was kidnapped a couple of years ago and hasn’t spoken since. Her father paid highly to get her back. He would do anything to make her happy – to hear her speak again.”
Was that a slight emotional crack she heard in Gavin Calder’s voice, Sally wondered? As if he realised he was displaying too many private feelings, he cleared his throat noisily.
“I’m sorry,” Sally said, “but I’m not sure I follow all this. Just exactly what has it to do with The Rose Carousel?”
Gavin drew in a long breath, held it, then let it out slowly. He rubbed a hand across his face and she thought he looked wearier than she felt. “Miss Rose – Sally – I have to tell you something in strict confidence, because lives may depend on it.”
Lives! Sally shot up straight in her chair and her eyes narrowed. “Go on,” she told him softly.
“There’s been another kidnap threat. Unless I can find somewhere to hide Anna, at least on a temporary basis, her life may be in danger. Her sanity certainly is.”
“What has this to do with me, Gavin? I run a toy shop. Granted, it’s a bit special as toy shops go, but…”
“I want you to look after Anna until this filthy business is sorted out.”
“But…” Sally’s eyes swept her small flat wildly, not sure that what she was hearing was real. “What about her mother? What’s she doing in all this?”
“Her mother deserted her long ago. She could, of course, be at the bottom of it all. We don’t know as yet. For the moment, we’re keeping things quiet. No police. It would be too risky to involve them.”
“But you want to involve me – my shop – my staff!” This was beginning to sound like fantasy land, the stuff that American movies were made of. This was Harrogate, for goodness sake!
“I’ve been checking out the security. The only member of staff I had any doubts about was Jojo the clown – especially when he suddenly disappeared and then reappeared some inches shorter and not so talented.”
“You don’t have to be so honest, Gavin,” Sally said grittily, “But I do know exactly where my talents lie. As far away from a three-ring circus as I can get. However, needs must when the Devil drives.”
“My sentiments exactly,” he said and his mouth tilted into a lop-side smile. “Will you help us, Sally?”
Sally shook her head and chewed on her lip. This morning she was Sally Rose, owner of the best toy shop in Harrogate. This afternoon she made a fool of herself by acting the clown in public. This evening she was involved in a case of threatened kidnapping.
They said things often happened in threes. If she left out the fact of who she was this morning, which was not unusual, and replaced it with sitting opposite the most attractive yet most scary man she had ever met, that would surely give the most bizarre hat-trick of events in any one day.
But why did she find him so scary? What he had just told her was frightening enough in itself, but it was something more than that. Something that he – his presence – did to her innermost being. Like an invisible blow to her solar plexus that knocked the wind right out of her sails. No other man had produced quite the same effect.
Steady on, Sally! He’s not the type to go out on a casual date. At least not with a perfectly ordinary Yorkshire lass. He’s top-model material. Nothing less would warm up the blood in those hard, masculine veins of his.
“So, Gavin,” she said a little huskily. “Where do we go from here?”
Chapter Three
“So?” Bella was waiting, asking a hundred and one questions with one raised eyebrow.
“So what?” Sally shrugged, her mind working hard, trying to figure out what to say to her cousin without actually lying.
“So what happened? What did he want?”
“Oh – um – nothing very much, really…”
Bella was bursting at the seams with curiosity. “Sally Rose, you’ve just spent an hour closeted with an excruciatingly gorgeous man whose voice could melt brass and you tell me that nothing happened!”
“Well it didn’t. He was just checking out security. It’s his job.” Sally smiled. “He is rather gorgeous, isn’t he…if you like that sort of thing.”
“And what exactly did Mister All-American Hunk want?”
Sally ran a hand through her mop of fair, flyaway hair and sighed. “Come on Bella. Let’s lock up and go and have a drink.”
Bella shook her head as she grabbed her coat and headed for the door behind the last departing clients of the week. “He must have spun you some incredible story to get you this rattled. Are you all right, love? You look kind of flushed.”
Flushed on the outside, pale on the inside, Sally thought as she turned on the alarm system, lowered the shutters and carefully locked the door behind them.
“I’m fine. Just a bit tired. It’s been quite a week. Did Rob phone?”
“No, but like you suggested if we didn’t hear from him, I phoned him. He said his foot was worse than he thought and he was going to have it X-rayed.”
“So, he won’t be back Monday.” Sally shivered and pulled her jacket closer around her. The sun had disappeared and there was an autumn chill in the air. “We’d better get onto the theatrical agency as soon as possible. I can’t handle this clown business as well as everything else. Besides, I’m no good at it.”
“I’ve already spoken with them.”
“And?”
“No joy. But I did tell Rob the problem and he said his brother’s in town and wouldn’t mind standing in for him for a while.”
“His brother!” Sally frowned. “I never knew he had a brother.”
“Well, apparently he has and he’ll do the job for us. It’ll be better than doing without. You know how well it works, bringing in the customers. The kids in the park expect it now. You can’t disappoint them.”
“Why not? I’ve been disappointing them all this week. A clown who doesn’t dance and tumble and do crazy things is no fun.”
Bella patted her shoulder and shoved her gently through the door of the Edwardian pub where they usually unwound over a drink.
“You did the best you could,” Bella said, elbowing her way up to the bar, exchanging jolly riposte with some of the other locals as she squeezed her bulk between them. “Same as usual, Meg. One large G and T and one dry white wine for my slim friend here.”
They took their drinks to a window table and Sally tried not to look too worried. She had never been able to hide anything from Bella. Come to think of it, she had never wanted to hide anything from her. It wasn’t fair of Gavin Calder to ask her not to tell anyone what was happening. If he wanted to keep it secret, he shouldn’t have involved her.
“Bella, I…” Bella looked at her expectantly and she lowere
d her eyes and took another sip of wine. “Look, I know I can trust you, Bella. There isn’t anyone else I trust more.”
“But? Come on, Sal! What can you possibly have discussed with Mr. Calder that’s so high-powered and secret? He is a stranger, after all.”
Sally nodded. She almost gave way to the temptation to tell her cousin everything, but at the last moment she held back.
“I’m not sure what I’m getting into, Bella,” she said slowly and almost in a whisper so that the other customers in the bar couldn’t hear. “The thing is, I’ve agreed to help him – heaven knows why, I must be all kinds of fool, but.. Anyway, if I tell you it could get you into trouble too – if things go wrong.”
“I don’t like the sound of this, Sal.” Bella knocked back her double gin and tonic and waved to Meg to serve her another and another wine for Sally.
“You’ll just have to trust me.”
“I trust you all right!” There was a sharp note of censure in Bella’s voice. “I trust you to land yourself into a heap of trouble, that’s what I trust you with. It’s happened twice already. And this big American bloke looks like he’ll give you a pretty long run for your money, whether you’re careful or not.”
“I have every intention of being careful, Bella, but it’s not anything like you’re imagining. I mean, it’s nothing on a personal level and I’ve seen his credentials and they look pretty genuine.”
“Showed you a Mickey Mouse badge did he. Oh, Sal! Why do you have to be so naïve where good-looking men are concerned? Why don’t you find yourself a nice, ordinary local boy? Lord knows, there are plenty of them about who would jump at the chance of holding your hand in the back row of the Odeon.”
Sally smiled at that. “There has to be more than willingness on the part of the boy to make him attractive to me,” she said and patted Bella’s chubby hand as she got up to go. “I’m whacked. See you on Monday.”
It was cold and starting to rain, but she walked slowly back to the flat, enjoying a few minutes of solitude to get her thoughts in order. She really did seem to be getting herself involved in a very sticky situation here. Why she had agreed she didn’t know.
