‘I’m sure it will be fine,’ Trudy promised. ‘Did you say Charlotte’s there?’ It was as much as she needed to hear to motivate her into action. She grabbed her coat from the back of her chair and rushed to the office door. ‘I’ll get over there ASAP. See you soon, Imogen.’
Then, after persuading Daryl to give her a lift, Trudy was rushing out of the HQ and heading towards Boui-Boui.
Chapter 26
The restaurant was busier than she had ever seen it. Cars filled the forecourt and, although Trudy was used to seeing a lot of traffic outside Boui-Boui, this was far more than she expected. She put it down to the Donny effect. He’d made another pitiful attempt to cause upset and embarrassment and the result was greater publicity, this time with Bill’s restaurant benefiting.
Daryl had driven. She owned a battered Mini, so it was a big change from the prestige and glamour of Charlotte’s comfortable Audi. She parked outside the restaurant’s main doors and told Trudy to get out.
Normally, Trudy knew, Daryl would have parked outside Bill’s cottage at the rear of the building. But this evening, with so many cars outside the restaurant, there was no way to drive round the back.
‘It looks like it will be chaos in there tonight,’ Daryl mused.
‘Has Donny always been stupid?’ Trudy asked.
‘Stupid and malicious,’ Daryl agreed. She nodded at the brimming carpark and asked, ‘Do you think this is because of his story this morning? The picture of you in a burger bar?’
Trudy shrugged uneasily. She was willing to believe Boui-Boui was enjoying extra publicity because of Donny. But she also knew the restaurant had a strict policy that booking in advance was essential. Few people turned up at the door in the hope of there being a free table for that evening. Most of those who did endured a long wait and the majority left disappointed.
‘Why did I ever treat Donny as a friend?’
Daryl shrugged. ‘I’m the wrong person to ask. I made the same stupid mistake.’
‘What did he do to hurt you?’
Daryl shook her head. ‘That’s a secret I’m never sharing.’
Trudy glanced at the twilight sky. The clouds were the unnatural colour of a bruise. She didn’t know whether it signified the promise of a bright tomorrow, or the threat of an impending storm. She only knew it made her feel uneasy.
Trudy thanked Daryl for the lift, climbed out of the car and hurried into the restaurant.
Harvey sat alone at table eight, his favourite table.
He waved to her as she walked past. His features were set in a dour frown. Under other circumstances Trudy would have stopped, sat at the table with him and apologised for making a press statement without his knowledge. But she needed to find Charlotte first and make amends with her friend.
‘Trudy?’
She was surprised to see Bill dressed in a suit rather than chef’s whites. Of all the suits she’d seen in his wardrobe, this was her favourite: a navy pinstripe with a Nehru jacket. The mandarin collar looked good against his broad neck. The navy colouring complemented the steel in his eyes. If there had been time to think about it she would have asked him what the special occasion was. But she had other things on her mind.
‘Thank God you’re back here,’ he exclaimed. ‘We have to talk.’
‘Have you seen Charlotte?’
‘No. Come in my office. We have to talk.’
She shook her head. ‘Not now.’
He put his hands on her arms. ‘Yes. Now.’ His eyes were earnest to a point that almost looked like desperation. She could feel him trembling as he gripped her biceps. ‘I’m not kidding, Trudy. We need to talk urgently. Now.’
She smiled at him. She was fairly sure she understood something he didn’t understand. She wondered if now was the time to teach him that lesson.
‘Do you love me?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Do you love me?’
‘You know I love you.’
‘Then why don’t you tell me you love me now?’
He sighed and said, ‘I love you.’
She kissed him lightly on the lips. ‘There,’ she said. ‘You love me. I love you. Nothing is more important than either of those two details. So, if you’ll let me go back and check the front of house, I need to see Charlotte.’
She didn’t let him say anything further. She rushed out to front of house to see if Nikki knew whether Charlotte had booked a table, but when she reached the maître d’s station she found herself staring at Aliceon instead.
‘You’re back.’
‘Yes,’ Aliceon agreed. ‘I’m back.’
She had looked harried when Trudy last saw her. Her eyes had been haunted by weary circles. Her skin had looked sallow and her hands had been shaking. Now she again looked like a woman in complete control. If anything, Aliceon seemed to be glowing. In addition to her usual dark suit she was wearing a flower in her lapel. It looked like one of the roses from the bouquet Bill had given Trudy.
‘Have you seen Bill this evening?’ Aliceon asked. ‘Have you spoken with him?’
‘Yes.’ Trudy glanced back to the kitchen doorway. ‘I’ve just seen him in the kitchen.’ She shook her head, surprised that Aliceon was concerned about such things. ‘He’s looking very smart in his suit this evening.’ Smart wasn’t quite the right word. She smiled when the appropriate term came to mind. ‘He’s looking very dapper.’
‘You spoke with him and you’re happy with what he said?’
Aliceon sounded almost incredulous.
It was a puzzling response, Trudy thought. But a lot of people in the restaurant were acting in a puzzling fashion this evening. And none of this was getting her any closer to resolving the problem with Charlotte.
‘Does my friend Charlotte have a table booked here this evening? Charlotte Collins?’
Aliceon consulted the restaurant’s diary. She shook her head. ‘I’ve got no reservations under that name.’
Trudy glanced around the busy restaurant hoping to catch a glimpse of her friend.
‘Is she the brunette one who scowls all the time?’ asked Aliceon.
‘She doesn’t scowl all the time.’
‘Table eight,’ Aliceon decided. She paused, touched Trudy’s hand and gave her a smile that looked almost watery. ‘Thank you for being so understanding. I don’t have words.’
Trudy had no idea what that meant.
She backed warily away, not sure why people were behaving so oddly. She would have brooded on Aliceon’s words if not for the puzzling revelation that Charlotte was supposed to be sitting at table eight.
That was the table where Harvey had been sitting.
When she walked to that area of the restaurant, she saw Charlotte sitting alone at table eight. Her brow was furrowed, and Trudy wondered if Aliceon was right in saying that Charlotte scowled all the time. She tried to think of the last time she had seen Charlotte when she hadn’t been scowling.
The v in her brow deepened when Trudy slipped into a seat opposite her.
Trudy clasped her friend’s hands and said, ‘I’m sorry for what I said last night. I didn’t mean to upset you.’
Charlotte glared at her. Last night her lips had been pursed, and they were still wrinkled into the same sneer of disdain. She tried to pull her hands away but Trudy refused to let them go.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Trudy said again. ‘And the only reason I asked if you were seeing Donny is because I saw you at the station coffee shop with Donny on Tuesday afternoon.’
Charlotte nodded. ‘I figured it was that.’
‘I was dropping Bill off at the station,’ Trudy explained. ‘I wasn’t spying.’
‘I was trying to get Donny to back off,’ Charlotte told her. ‘I’d met up with him to see if I could talk him out of his repeated attacks on you and Sweet Temptation.’
Trudy nodded.
That made more sense than the idea that Charlotte was back with Donny. She quietly cursed herself for jumping to such a fatuous concl
usion. How could she have been so wrong?
‘Donny just laughed at me when I asked him to stand down. He said he’d either have his rightful share of Sweet Temptation or he’d see us all out of business. I think he’s gone insane.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Trudy said again.
Charlotte shook her head. ‘No need for an apology. I guess I would have thought the same if I’d been in your position. I suppose I just overreacted a little last night.’
Trudy clutched Charlotte’s hands tighter and smiled. She had managed to do one of the things she had promised herself that morning: she had made up with her best friend.
‘I’ve decided what I think we should do about Donny,’ she said.
‘What are you thinking? Murder? Make it look like an accident? Or don’t we care about making it look like an accident any more? Do you think we should bludgeon him to death and then do the time?’
Trudy took a deep breath.
‘I’m thinking we should let him have a third of the company.’
Charlotte snatched her hands away. ‘No way.’
‘We’ve managed to get a positive spin on most of the things that he’s pitched at us so far,’ Trudy acknowledged. ‘But we won’t be this lucky every time.’
‘He’s not having a share of the company,’ Charlotte insisted. ‘Damn it, Trudy. We haven’t worked this hard to give it all to someone who would happily hurt either of us.’ She folded her arms. The threat of tears made her eyes shine glassily as she glared into a busy corner of the restaurant.
Not that there were any quiet corners of the restaurant this evening, Trudy noted. Boui-Boui was inordinately busy. Curiously, there were many diners with cameras. If Daryl had been there, Trudy knew she would have been admiring the telephoto lenses and the tripods and the Nikon and Canon hardware. Trudy brushed the thought aside.
She reached out to take her friend’s hands.
Harvey slipped into the seat next to Charlotte.
He placed an arm around her and allowed her to sob against his shoulder.
Charlotte and Harvey, thought Trudy. Why hadn’t she made the connection before? It all made perfect sense. The reason why Charlotte didn’t want to reveal anything about her boyfriend was because she had said unkind things about the age difference between Trudy and Bill. Now Charlotte was involved with someone of a similar age to Bill, she clearly felt hypocritical about the comments she’d made.
Trudy felt foolish for not having realised before. She wanted to take Charlotte in her arms and tell her that she was happy for her. But they needed to resolve the discussion about Donny first.
‘I can understand that you don’t like the idea of giving him a part of the company,’ Trudy told Charlotte. ‘But we need to do something to stop him before someone gets hurt. That “Sex at Boui-Boui” article must have really hurt Imogen.’
‘Is this more of that Donny nonsense?’ Harvey asked.
Trudy nodded. ‘I was just suggesting that we should let him have a share of Sweet Temptation.’
Harvey sniffed. ‘Well, that’s just stupid. The oily little fucker has done nothing to deserve a part of the company.’ He pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and selected a number. Staring sullenly at Trudy he asked, ‘Would you mind if I tried to resolve this?’
Trudy considered him doubtfully and then shrugged. ‘OK.’
Harvey pressed a button to connect the call. His features were composed and serious. When the line was answered he blinked and seemed to stiffen with professionalism.
‘I’d like to speak with Donald,’ he began abruptly.
There was only a slight pause, a micro-beat, before he was continuing.
‘Good. My name is Harvey Walker. I represent Sweet Temptation.’
There was another pause. Again, it was so brief that Trudy didn’t think the person on the other end of the line would have had a chance to splutter more than a syllable by way of response.
‘I’m calling as a matter of courtesy, Donald.’
Harvey spoke in a tone that sounded like pleasant formality. Seeing the flint in his expression, Trudy realised it was no more than a veneer of civility over his anger.
‘You’ve been feeding stories to the media over the past few days. A suspicious person might think you’re trying to cause upset or embarrassment to my clients.’
Another pause.
‘Since you seem to know so much about the staff at Sweet Temptation and Boui-Boui, I took the liberty of having a private investigator follow you. I won’t bore you with the details of what they’ve uncovered. But, unlike you, I have no intention of taking that information to the media. If I find out you’re behind one more story being released to the press, I’ll take the information from my private investigators and present it straight to the police. Good day, Donald.’
He severed the connection.
Trudy stared at him in amazement.
‘Have you really had private investigators following him?’
‘No. Of course not.’
‘But why tell him that?’
Harvey shrugged. ‘It’s a calculated bluff. I don’t think he has anything more to throw at you. A man like this is likely to have done something illegal over the past few days. I’m fairly confident he’ll back off.’
‘And if he doesn’t?’
Harvey’s smile was untroubled. ‘If he doesn’t, I’ll really employ private investigators and we’ll make sure he gets what’s coming to him.’
Trudy nodded and grinned. She turned to Charlotte and reached across the table to touch her hand. ‘Do you forgive me for my stupid question last night?’
Charlotte nodded and grinned too.
Trudy wanted to push Harvey out of the way and hug her friend to seal the apology properly. Before she had a chance to move, though, Bill had stepped from the kitchens and was standing in the centre of the restaurant. He clinked a silver spoon against the side of a crystal goblet and carried on making the ringing noise until he had silence.
‘Good evening, everyone,’ he began.
A couple of people called, ‘Good evening.’ Most sat expectantly, waiting for him to continue. Trudy could sense a thrum of anticipation in the room. She got the impression that everyone had been expecting Bill to stand up and make an announcement like this.
She wondered what he was going to say.
‘I’m not going to interrupt your evening for long,’ Bill declared. ‘But I wanted you all to be the first to know. If she’ll accept me, I’m going to get married again in a couple of months.’
Trudy blushed and wondered if she’d heard correctly.
The photographers she’d noticed sitting around the restaurant began to snap pictures. Flashbulbs exploded and the whirr and click of images being recorded filled the silence.
‘I know I’ve been married a couple of times before –’
‘It’s five times, Billy,’ Harvey shouted.
Bill laughed. ‘If you say so,’ he allowed. ‘But this time, the lucky sixth, is very special to me.’ He extended a hand and said, ‘Assuming she’s agreeable to marrying me, I’d like to introduce you all to the future Mrs Hart.’
There was a flare of flashbulbs and a tumultuous round of applause. The room was made noisy by diners pushing their chairs back to stand up and make their approval known.
To Trudy’s dismay, Aliceon rushed into Bill’s embrace and kissed him.
Making herself heard above the cheers, cries and clapping, Aliceon laughed happily and said, ‘I do.’
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