Valve repairs were necessary, incurring possible delays. Nairn couldn’t countenance that because his orders always arrived on time. Much worse, though, was the potential for disaster if final checks hadn’t been effective. If the faults hadn’t been detected, holidaymakers using faulty gear could have experienced dire consequences: injury, or even death. Horrendous thoughts.
The lethal element had reared its ugly head again. Till now he’d conducted internal enquiries, but that couldn’t continue – the authorities had to be alerted.
Belatedly he realized Aela was waiting for an answer to her reasonable request. She had to go. He couldn’t risk her being exposed to any harm. Taking as deep a breath as his lungs would allow, he thought of how to do it, since he’d no grounds to fire her. She’d done nothing to breach the contracts they’d signed the day before, her efficiency unquestionable.
“Sit here!” He tried to moderate his tone but knew he’d failed when her eyebrows flinched and her concerned expression faltered, replaced by a steely glint of resistance. After another gasp he tried again. “Please.”
Aela’s slide into the opposite seat was reluctant, her mouth a discontented line. What the heck had he been thinking the day before when he’d drawn her into this mire of mishaps? But he had. Engaging full eye contact with her he made sure there would be no misconception.
“You sure you want to work for me?”
He noticed no hesitation at all. “I’m sure.”
“Bet you’ll change your mind when you hear what I’m about to say.” He watched her expression become more wary as she contemplated his words. “You might have declined my offer if I hadn’t been such a bloody deceiver. My bike spill was no accident. I’m convinced it was a deliberate and malicious manoeuvre, designed to injure me, or maybe even kill me.”
***
Aela was shocked by Nairn’s revelation as his attention momentarily strayed to the nearby window.
“There have been incidents during the past couple of weeks which have harmed my business in some way or another. And I didn’t tell you about them either. I’ll understand if you walk out this door right now and go back to where you’ve come from, or wherever you want to be. It’s what you need to do.”
Nairn sounded furious, his body so rigid with tension she could see the muscles twitching at his neck, the effort to speak an enormous task. “I will, of course, lay on any transport you might need, pay you for your efforts these last two days and a retainer for the month you would have worked.”
“No.”
Nairn’s gaze whipped back. “No?”
She was resolute. She didn’t need to think about it. There was no way she was going to turn her back – even if it meant courting danger. “No, I don’t want to terminate my employment with you. Whatever has happened doesn’t change my mind. I’ll deal with anything that comes.”
She knew in her gut if this man had not been incapacitated by his present injuries he’d not be so frustrated, or be so vulnerable.
“Aela! Miss Cameron.” His voice was thready, and hoarse, as he entreated. “I can’t guarantee your safety. You can see I can’t even guarantee my own. Someone is causing malicious incidents which have escalated to a potentially lethal extent.”
Nairn’s terminology wasn’t exactly encouraging, but she was determined. “I’m not one to run from adversity. I’ve been in hazardous situations before and survived.”
“Have you ever faced down a saboteur?”
She watched a muscle spasm in his neck, his teeth clenching as his fist tapped a furious drumming on the desk. “No, I haven’t, though I’ve been in potentially deadly conditions which could have downed my aircraft.” Sensing she’d need to exert a good bit more persuasion to reassure him, she scooted her chair forward and edged closer. So tense he could barely breathe, Nairn’s skin tone was ashen amongst all the other hues. “Tell me about the incidents.”
She laid both of her palms over his left hand which still sat fisted at the place he’d just thumped. Ignoring the initial heat, she unfurled his fingers and stroked them free of the stress gripping them, flattening them on the desk, keeping them in place with her own. “I’m a good listener. This phone call is about the most recent of a string of catastrophes, you say?”
Nairn nodded, his gaze fixed on their linked hands, the pressure of his grip dissipating with her gentle strokes. As he related details of the current incident, she hoped she kept her dismay from showing. She’d been an innocent holidaymaker hiring similar diving gear not so long ago. Potentially evil situation.
Nairn backtracked. “The first incident happened thirteen days ago. Insignificant at first, it appeared to be lax processing. It annoyed me, but the perplexing thing was no one seemed responsible.”
“Somebody good at keeping below the radar?”
“Precisely. And has managed to continue.”
Nairn’s hand clenched again under her fingers. She continued her unobtrusive massage.
“A batch of kayaks, ordered for a new water sports centre in Ireland, was built here at the boatyard. It’s normal to dispatch Gale Breaker craft direct to the customer.” Satisfied she was tuning in, he continued. “The last quality control was being enacted when dispatch realized something was odd. The new paddles, and neoprene spraydecks, had been purposely deleted from the order.”
“Deleted?”
“We never send out new kayaks without paddles, though the spraydecks were on special request.”
He sounded so disgusted she almost smiled but guessed the rest of the story wasn’t so trivial. She picked up the threads.
“But no one seemed responsible for zapping the order?”
“Bang on. A thorough check of pending orders followed, and a number of them had had deletions, or irresponsible changes made to them. We dealt with a second similar incident, though again without knowledge of who’d initiated it. Then a small fire occurred in an area near the main dispatch doors of the London warehouses. A litter bin housing used alcohol wipe cloths had been set alight, but that was dealt with by an alert store man who tackled the fire with a nearby extinguisher, before the main sprinkler system kicked in.”
“The fire authorities were called?”
“No.” Nairn shook his head, a rueful expression clouding his face. “The fire was recorded in the incident log, but as it was found and dealt immediately with no further action was taken.”
“Is that usual?” She was struggling with the concept that something might have been overlooked by that tactic.
“It certainly won’t ever be usual again, Aela.”
Nairn’s tone was resolute; seemingly unaware he was using her first name. She put it down to his agitation over the situation. He was also unaware he was gripping her fingers so tight she thought he’d cut off her circulation, yet she wasn’t pulling away – she welcomed the pain, hoping she could absorb some of Nairn’s. When Nairn realized his grip was too firm his apology sought her understanding.
Forcing herself to listen, she convinced herself she was just giving him the reassurance of an interested colleague. Nothing else.
“I only found out about the fire the day after it had happened, when I returned from a publicity event on Corsica. By then it had been internally investigated by my security people, their conclusion being someone had accidentally chucked a lit cigarette in it. The workers have to go outside those doors if they’re smokers.”
“Could it have been an accident? If, say it was raining, or windy, and someone was smoking at the open door rather than all the way outside, and in too much of a hurry to get back to work?”
“Maybe.” His breathing became more even as colour seeped back into his cheeks. “We’ve thought of all possibilities. Of course nobody owned up, and the cameras revealed nothing.”
“The next incident?” She dreaded to ask but sensed there were more to come from Nairn’s taut grimace.
“Two days later a nasty virus was planted on our main intranet at the London office.” Nairn slid h
is hand from her grasp to rifle through his thick hair, slicking it back from his forehead. She missed the contact immediately. “It was intercepted by the virus checker, though not quickly enough to avoid all damage. It wrecked some software we use for ordering systems, and deleted other information.”
“You fixed that?” She held her now redundant hands in her lap.
“Absolutely, though again it took time. The whole network was down for a day till it was resolved, and some customer orders for the previous twenty four hours had to be re-entered.”
Aela was no detective, but she considered the information she’d been given. “So the saboteur is maybe someone who works in your head office, or your warehouses; someone who can come and go with ease? Someone who wanted to cause minor disruption?” Her last question was hesitant since the incidents seemed to be increasing in severity.
“You’d think so on the basis of those niggles, because that’s what those initial ones were. They caused me time and money, but I’ve no idea who has such a grouse against me that they’d want to do this.” Nairn again rifled his hair and cupped the back of his tense neck, unconsciously massaging the tight muscles there. She realised she was desperate to jump up and do it for him.
“Have you had unpleasant dealings with an employee in recent weeks, someone you’ve had to get rid of?”
His swearing was vehement. “I’ve thought of that, and so did Brian. Brian’s the latest employee to leave, though I’m damned sure it wasn’t him.”
“You can rule him out?”
Nairn looked appalled at her seeming suspicion. He groped for her hand, and pulled her close again, as though he couldn’t do without the connection, his gaze intent. “Brian was with me on Corsica the day the fire was started, so I think that rules him out.”
“I agree. Unless he paid someone to do it?” Nairn’s negative gestures wiped out the possibility. “Okay. You trust Brian.”
“Definitely. He had no motive for doing any of this.”
She cringed at her next thought, releasing her fingers from his grasp though leaving her hand close by. She made sure she’d his full attention before speaking again. “You’re not going to like this question, but as a virtual stranger I have to ask it. Would you have pissed off some girlfriend to the degree she’d hound you like this?”
Her question was reasonable. Nairn looked startled though, his eyes narrowing as if the idea had never occurred to him. “I’m not aware of a previous lover being so unhappy she’d resort to anything like this. I’ve not had any long, or meaningful, relationships in years. Recent dates, or affairs, have been fleeting. I’m always on the move.”
“Mmm…”
It was easy to see how his constant business needs would make that the case. She thought some more, her next probe careful to catch his response.
“I don’t suppose a previous girlfriend would have easy access to your office, or warehouse anyway – except if she was a co-worker? Have you dated…?” His hand flashing up stopped her. “You’re going to tell me you don’t have relationships with employees?”
“Never!”
“Okay.”
Her new tack was marginally different. “Have you been harassed by any employees who’ve wanted more from you, and didn’t get it?”
Aela was treading in deep water and she knew it. She could easily understand female employees wanting to be his lover.
Chapter Nine
“What do you mean?” Nairn’s brow furrowed again.
“Jeeze, Nairn. Look in the mirror. You’re a good looking man.” Aela’s cheeky smile broke free when he gulped. “Okay, so hold back on the mirror right this minute, but you get my drift. There must have been plenty of women who wanted you to be more than their employer.”
His hand again raked his hairline, his eyes wincing at his inadvertent skid over the bump and deep laceration across his brow, a tinge of deepened colour flushing his cheeks. “Yes, Miss Cameron. I’ve been the target of women who’ve wanted to be more than my secretary, or PA, but I haven’t given any of them one single signal they were likely to succeed.”
“Okay. Keep your hair on.” She refused to be cowed by his indignant tone as she continued her train of thought, still unconvinced by his statement. Her ardour cooled when Nairn’s expression resumed a blank stare. “I’m just covering as many angles I can think of.”
A tense silence accompanied their individual thoughts till Nairn’s swearing burst free. When she didn’t even flinch at the obscenities, he continued. “Anyway, my little mishap on Saturday puts the cat-among-the-pigeons on the jilted girlfriend theory.”
“How so?” she questioned, still ruminating over the details she’d heard so far.
“The saboteur wasn’t only in my head office and the warehouses, but was also here on Lanera.”
“Able to tamper with your bike?”
“Exactly!”
“Ruaridh told me you took your motorbike because you hadn’t ridden it for a while?”
“Yes.” Nairn looked confused by her change of direction.
“I assume you always do a thorough check before taking it out?”
“Of course. I did that before I left the garage here at the castle.”
“What caused your accident?”
“Initial investigation proved damage had been done to the brake discs.”
Aela digested his information, gnawing her bottom lip. She caught Nairn hastily withdraw his gaze as though he wanted to escape the room…the conversation…her? “Was your bike out of your sight on Saturday?”
Nairn seemed surprised by her question. “Sure, during the day. I drove it from the marina to the client venue. It was in the hotel underground car park for hours while we thrashed though details of the request.”
“Could the bike have been tampered with during that time?”
“I suppose so. I’d no problem driving it ten miles to the hotel, but it could also have been tampered with on Lanera before I left the island. The repair garage still has to establish if the malfunction happened where it did because the time lapse matched. They’re working on tests to prove how long it would have taken for the damage to manifest itself.”
“Who knew you were going to a client meeting?”
“Brian, Ruaridh, Aran…and Marsha.”
Marsha? The woman of the sexy phone call had been called Mhari, not Marsha. Yet she’d read the name Marsha somewhere. “Why would Marsha know of your movements?”
“Marsha Hilborne’s my Office Administrator in London. She isn’t in the office this week. She worked both Saturday and Sunday during the last two weekends so she’s now having days off in lieu.”
“Okay.” She nodded her grasp of the situation.
“Since Brian was quitting on Friday, Marsha was primed to handle my appointments calendar and any correspondence coming into head office for me on Saturday and Sunday.”
“Was that normal procedure?”
Nairn appeared distracted by her question. “Not really. Brian would normally have been with me during client meetings, and would have dealt with any urgent calls, or e-mails. It was rare both of us were out of contact for any length of time.”
“So Marsha was on alert and knew you’d be unavailable during your Saturday meeting?”
“Yes.” Nairn’s interest was evident in his concentrated gaze that never strayed from her.
Aela tapped a pen on the desk beside her. “If Marsha knew your venue then other people probably knew as well. When were the details of your meeting settled on?”
Nairn paused to recall, breaking eye contact as he scanned out the window. “It would have been firmed up on the call Brian handled last Tuesday. There was no reason in between to change the details since by then we knew Brian was going to spend his last working day, Friday, here on Lanera and he’d be going back to London on Saturday.”
“Is your appointments diary just electronic?” A frown developed as her pencil tapped. “Or, is it also on paper?”
“Only on
my computer and on Brian’s – now yours.”
“So, Marsha was given access to that file.” She segued into ferret mode, determined to root out some answers. “Can you confirm she was, in person, at headquarters on Saturday?” Nairn nodded. “Then someone else must also have had access to the file prior to Saturday.”
Nairn appeared to consider her line of inquiry. She was beginning to like the hint of something else lurking there-maybe some admiration? She wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter because they were back to being less tense.
“You’re thinking somebody had sufficient forewarning to be at the Glasgow hotel venue and awaited my arrival. Then tampered with the brakes?”
“Or, they came to the island on the Friday.” She felt her smile faltering as some doubt flickered in his eyes. “That’s all I can think of at the moment.”
Silence descended for a few moments as Nairn contemplated the possibilities. “How did you come to those conclusions?”
“Basic facts. No prior prejudices, no misleading information.”
“Nothing to do with good deduction skills, I suppose?”
His lazy smile warmed her and almost broke her train of thought. “How did this person know you would use your motorbike? Where were you when you made that decision?”
“At the boatyard with Brian while he made his last farewells. We arranged our Saturday morning pick-up with Aran. That’s when I decided to take the bike instead of ordering a taxi to meet me at the marina, and it saved Aran waiting for my return.”
Take Me Now Page 8
