Special Relationship

by Fox, Alessandra

  She booked the last room available – due to a cancellation - at The Red Lion Hotel which overlooked the beach and then paid for the train tickets which she would collect at the station. Travel light, she thought, as she put jeans, T-shirts and underwear into a holdall. Anything else she could buy when she arrived.

  At Liverpool Street she bought two magazines and a newspaper in the hope they might keep her mind off of Nick Hensen for the three-hour journey. She bought a pack of sandwiches and replacement earphones for the ones she had forgotten to pack before boarding the 12.14 train.

  In Mayfair Nick wanted to know the “news on Tavis”, barely giving Katherine the time to hang up on her phone call.

  “His flight lands tomorrow morning at ten. He'll be here by one,” she said, looking at him and sensing somehow his mood had changed for the first time since the events at The Savoy. She wondered whether he'd seen Alex and became even more apprehensive about what he might say the next day.

  At the end of the pier, the Pavilion Theatre, a hauntingly beautiful Victorian structure, was promoting their summer show, “a mixture of all that's best in seaside entertainment, comedy, dance and magic.” Alex decided to get a ticket for the next day, not for the entertainment but just to see inside the building.

  She then wandered the small lanes of the town, spending the last hour before the shops closed buying makeup and toiletries. She felt greatly unburdened after explaining her past to Nick. That evening she sat in her hotel room with a bottle of red wine to finish The Magus.

  The book ended with the quote from a Latin poem, “Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet”. She looked up the meaning on the internet.

  “Let those love now who've never loved; let those who've loved, love yet again.”

  She lay over and spent the hours before sleep thinking of the past, but also, for the first time in a long time, the future.

  In the morning her first thought was to reach for her phone before she remembered she had purposefully left it at her flat. She felt at the same time both protected and vulnerable without it.

  Nick dressed casually for his meeting with Tavis and Katherine. He had run through so many scenarios that he was confident in what he was going to say. He didn't need to dress like the founder and head of a big financial company, especially for two people he still liked a lot. He was though more jittery about the meeting than he expected, just in case he had got anything wrong.

  Katherine looked nervous too. She came into his office after he had arrived and briefed him on the day's schedule. “A couple of conference calls this morning and, if you want to do it, a Radio 4 interview – recorded – for a financial spot on the Today programme tomorrow about the EU crisis. I said I'd get back to them?”

  “Yeah, I'll do it,” he said. “Thanks.”

  She waited for him to give a clue about the meeting but none came and she left the office, looking in vain at her phone to see if there had been any guidance from Tavis. She checked her watch and decided that it couldn't start or end soon enough.

  Tavis arrived on time, appearing ebullient after his trip to Scotland – Hibernian had won 2-0. “Is he in?” he asked her as she reached for the printer to pull out some notes she had written about the post-Savoy meeting.

  “Yes, just let me get this and we'll go in.”

  “Are you OK?”

  “I'm fine, Tavis...well maybe a bit concerned about what this might be about. It's just that he seems different...you don't know anything, do you?”

  “Different in what sort of way?”

  “I can't explain it. After The Savoy he looked as down as anything. Since yesterday he looks more...I don't know...resolved?”

  “Well, that's probably because he has likely decided to formally end Alex Anderson's contract and draw a line under everything. Anyway, there is only one way to find out.”

  They entered the office together and, as they sat opposite him, he neither smiled nor looked up to acknowledge them. When he finally did he was blunt. “OK, all I want to know is which one of you sent the texts to Alex Anderson.”

  Tavis and Katherine looked at each other. “What bloody texts are you talking about?” she asked.

  “Texts, of a similar nature to the one you received in New York.”

  “Nick, I barely have a clue what you are talking about. Why would I send malicious texts to Alex Anderson and, if it were me, why would I get a text myself?”

  There was no way of responding diplomatically and without seeming arrogant. “Well, maybe the text to you was just to disguise what you were doing and maybe you wanted more from what happened in New York? Taking Alex Anderson out of the picture would have helped in that regard.”

  “You are fucking mad,” she said angrily. “I've been nothing but a loyal PA to you and I do my job really well. New York should never have happened but, after what you just said, I'm actually really, really glad nothing more came of it.”

  He tried to calm her but she continued bitterly. “Perhaps if you were as concerned for the well being of your closest employee rather than behaving like an infatuated schoolboy, towards some woman you barely know and one who hired a private detective to have you followed, you would be able to think more logically.”

  “And you Tavis?” Nick prompted.

  “And my motive, to try to end your blossoming relationship with Miss Anderson, would have been what?” he asked calmly.

  “I don't know, maybe you thought you were protecting me or perhaps you were trying to seek the attention of a woman nearly half your age by alienating her to me?”

  “Nick, if I wasn't happily married and thought I had a slim chance with Miss Anderson, I might have thought of that plan. You and me have worked together for a very long time, I helped you on the foundation of the company and on many big projects since. But your personal relationships – even if they are as disastrous as the one with Olivia – are down to you. I just help with the clean-up.”

  While Nick appeared to be thinking, Tavis reaffirmed his previous advice: “What you should do, Nick, is to end the contract, and get back to running the company. If someone I was with had me followed by a private detective then she'd be out of my life in a shot.”

  Nick tapped his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He might have got things badly wrong but he continued to play the bluff.

  “This is the way I see it,” he started, before pausing to collect his thoughts. “It is impossible that anyone could know about Katherine and me in New York unless Katherine had told someone, because I know I didn't tell anyone. That, or the apartment was wired, or we missed a dubious character hiding in the wardrobe, a theory that can be easily dismissed.

  “So, Katherine, did you tell anyone?”

  “No I didn't, she affirmed, trying to sound calm, but then burst into what seemed a genuine rage. “I've had enough of this. You go and fuck Alex Anderson. And screw me - in both senses of the word - and your company.”

  She got up and stormed out, slamming the door so loudly that even the traders took their eyes off their screens to see what was going on. Some of them, using friends' accounts, took the opportunity to sell short some Hensen stock.

  “I'll go and get her,” Tavis said.

  “Before you do that, we need to talk.”

  Half an hour later, Tavis went out to track down Katherine and found her gulping down a large gin and tonic in the The Dorchester Bar. She often drank there after work but that was always late in the evening, not early afternoon.

  When he did finally persuade her to return to the office, Tavis thought she seemed indifferent to what the conclusion to the meeting might be. "Best to get it sorted now," he 'd told her.

  “If we can continue," Nick said after they had resumed the same seats. " Tavis, you are absolutely sure that the apartment wasn't wired?”

  “The company that did the sweep found nothing.”

  “So the options are that Katherine sent the message to herself as a red herring to cover herself if I were
to find out about the texts sent to Alex. Or that the apartment was wired and that, you Tavis, covered up the subsequent sweep for reasons of your own, which would be either protecting the company, or...no... let's not go there.”

  He got up and looked out of the window, rubbing his forehead. He didn't look round.

  “Tavis did you wire the apartment?”

  “Of course I didn't,” he replied calmly.

  “Did you organise the wiring of the apartment?”

  He was silent and Nick looked round at him before repeating the question. There was still no answer. “You realise that it would be very unfair on Katherine if you continue to deny anything you did?”

  Tavis looked uncomfortable. He looked away and said nothing for a time. Finally, he opened up. “Nick, you were playing with the company's future with your dick. It's my job to protect you and the company.”

  “And you thought you'd protect me and the company by sending Alex threatening texts?”

  Katherine looked at Tavis incredulously. What was he saying, she wondered.

  “They weren't threatening, they were just trying to warn her off you. The contract was a piddly amount of money for us and I didn't care if it continued, I just didn't want a person who is clearly not who she claims to be, asserting herself over my friend and the company, of which I own a considerable stake.”

  “And you sent a text to Katherine for why?”

  “That was my red herring. It wasn't Katherine's.”

  “And why did you arrange for the New York apartment to be bugged when Alex wasn't even there?”

  “You said you wanted to take her on the trip.”

  “I did ask her but she wouldn't go to New York.”

  “I already had the bug installed when you told me she wasn't going.”

  Katherine couldn't believe what she was hearing.

  Nick remained calm. Tavis had helped him set up the business in the first place and without him the original finance would never have been raised. He also recalled the times he had got both him and the company off the hook through troubled periods.

  “Tavis, I am going to tell you one thing and I want you to remember it whatever our relationship in the future, Alex Anderson is a very good and beautiful person. If you ever cause her distress in the future we will never work together or even speak again.”

  Unusually for him, Tavis looked humbled. “Would you please tell me why I was wrong? I don't get it, Alex Anderson from New York simply doesn't exist.”

  “Yes, she very much does exist, Tavis. And as much as I'd like to tell you I can't. That'll be her decision alone. I think we can say, 'meeting over'?”

  Tavis and Katherine left the office, the PA still astonished at what she had heard. “I'll call you later,” Tavis whispered to her as she followed him to the lift. What was his game, she wondered.

  Chapter twenty-eight: If life wasn't so complicated everyone would do it

  Nick had errands to do. He needed to call Alex's office to find out where she was and he had to meet Katherine to settle issues between them. He decided to leave Alex's office until later as he doubted anyone would be in, with it still not nine and Sky News reporting on a tube drivers' strike.

  He breathed deeply and called Katherine's mobile. He half expected her not to answer but after a few tones, she picked up. “Hi Nick,” she said calmly and without emotion.

  “Katherine, are you in today – there's something I need to tell you and maybe we have some things that need to be settled?” She couldn't see him tighten his face as he spoke the words.

  “Sure, I told you there was nothing going on this morning, but some American stuff from six onwards, and I was looking to be in about lunchtime, she said.”

  “There's a tube strike in case you haven't heard, but there are a couple of cars available, so just give one of them a call, and, let's say, my office at one?”

  “OK, see you then.”

  That was surprisingly easy, he thought, before calling the office to check with his trading team on the overnight markets. “We're still buying the Nikkei and it's moving our way. Could turn out to be a very good shout that you made, Nick.”

  Suddenly the Gods seemed to have switched to his side but, not to press his run of luck, he decided to leave the call to Alex's office until after he'd showered and dressed. When he did call, Kerry answered and was friendly, and apparently as helpful as she could be, but she couldn't shed any light on her friend's whereabouts.

  “She hadn't even made up her mind where to go when I last spoke to her and she said she wasn't taking her mobile. I think, you know, after everything, she just needed some time and space.”

  “And she didn't say when she was coming back?”

  “She said, like, a few days. Shall I get her to call you as soon as I hear from her?”

  “No, I'd prefer not Kerry. When she gets back I'd like to call her...to have a talk, which, as you probably know, is much needed.”

  “I understand, Nick. I'll leave it to you.”

  She couldn't detect anything in his tone to suggest what he was thinking and in that respect was glad that Alex was not contactable as she would have been unable to offer any guidance.

  The rest of the morning he spent catching up with long-neglected market reports and reading prospectuses from start-up companies eager for finance.

  She came into his office only ten minutes late. He told himself that he was as certain as possible that it was either her or Tavis, and he had been proven right.

  And considering what Alex had gone through he decided his actions could be justified. Whether Katherine would think the same, especially after their intimacy and without knowing Alex's past, he would soon find out.

  She looked at him with a half smile as she came in.

  "Did you get a car?"

  "No the trains were running pretty much as usual," she replied. You wouldn't have known there was a strike."

  "Have you spoken to Tavis?" he asked Katherine as she sat in the same chair as the day before.

  "Yes he called last night to say sorry for not owning up earlier.

  “He seemed quite embarrassed particularly as he probably heard a recording of us having sex. Mind you, I guess we are the ones who should be more embarrassed by that. At least he says the recording has been wiped."

  “Is the door locked?” he asked.

  Katherine was surprised by the question but got up to press the button on the door's electronic keypad.

  Pouring some Laphroaig, he knew he couldn't let her incriminate herself any more. She would hate him anyway for what he was about to tell her. “Do you want a drink?” he asked.

  “No, I'm fine,” surprised that he was on his favourite Scotch that he usually reserved only for the late nights.

  “Katherine, I have something to say, and please don't interrupt or shout at me, because it's important for both of us.

  She looked startled, almost frightened, as she waited for him to gather his thoughts.

  He looked at her and then at his drink. “I never thought it was Tavis who was sending the texts because he'd have too much to lose by putting a wire in the New York apartment. It wouldn't look good if the regulators ever suspected him of insider trading. And, besides, I never even told him that Alex would be there, or even was likely to be there because I never asked her to go.”

  She looked horrified and he could spot her eyes reddening.

  “As horrible and disgusting as it seems, for reasons I'll explain in a minute, I hate myself for telling you that yesterday's meeting was a sham.”

  “A sham?”

  “It was a sham Katherine, a set up. I deceived you the way Alex deceived me by having me followed. But I have forgiven her and I hope you will forgive me once you know the reasons.”

  She put her hand up to rub her forehead, hiding her face, an act that told him that she knew what he was about to say.

  “When Tavis told you he'd taken the rap for you in his call last night he was actually at my place.
I heard everything he said and I heard everything you said. How he liked you, thought you were an asset to the company, and how he made up the rather ridiculous tapping story to take responsibility for the texts to Alex. And, err, I heard you tell him about your feelings for me, your worries about Alex and why you did what you did.

  “Tavis and I decided after you stormed out that he would make a false confession. And then make that call....”

  He could sense her extreme discomfort and wanted to make his words as painless to her as possible. But she spoke next, looking broken like he'd never seen her before: “So fucking clever,” she conceded. “I'll resign.”

  “Katherine you are far and away the best PA I've ever had and I want to work it so that you stay with us – that's if you want to – but I now know that you sent the texts to Alex and that you sent a similar text to yourself.”

  As she bowed even lower, covering her eyes, he walked round the desk, knelt down beside her and took her hand. Despite her initial reluctance he held it tight. “We made a mistake in New York, but we can sort things out. And I feel dreadful for setting you up – and so does Tavis – but the reason for that is clear – we need to sort everything.

  “Without the meeting yesterday nothing would have been resolved and neither of us would be able to move on. I feel so, so sorry for being so devious, but I haven't got long to work everything out. And I needed to know for sure.

  “And do you know, what Alex did with the detective and what you did with the texts and what I did at the meeting yesterday - all, I hope, could be understood if not justified by a right-thinking person.”

  She looked up at him. “So you and Alex are now...”

  “No, she's away at present but I do want to be with her. If I had any doubts that I loved her they disappeared when I heard about her past the other night."