Read Albatross for Free Online Page B

‘I’ll be back the day after tomorrow. And by the way, don’t be surprised if you’re moved.’
    He gaped at her for a moment, and then a sly smirk passed over his mouth.
    â€˜Moved? To an open prison?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Davina answered. ‘But it’s a bit too tight in here. Day after tomorrow, Peter.’
    â€˜I’ll be here,’ he managed a joke.
    â€˜Goodbye,’ she said, and opened the door to let the prison officer take charge of him.
    Frieda Armstrong was drinking tea with her colleague Miss Collins.
    â€˜If there’s one thing that really annoys me, it’s the way Miss Graham comes and goes and never lets me know! I had three personal calls for her this morning and I couldn’t tell any of them where she was or whether she would be in the office at all today.’
    â€˜Doesn’t she keep an engagement diary?’ Miss Collins suggested. She helped herself to a chocolate biscuit. She loved sweet things. Frieda was very careful of her figure; she dressed well and Miss Collins envied her style.
    â€˜No, she doesn’t,’ the older woman snapped slightly. ‘And that’s very unprofessional. I think I’ll mention it to her.’
    â€˜Mr Walden said she was meeting a client,’ Miss Collins said, pleased to know something Frieda didn’t.
    â€˜Very likely, but she didn’t leave a note of it. I don’t know why Mr Walden engaged her in the first place. She’s not really necessary.’
    Miss Collins sipped her tea and didn’t say anything. She thought exactly the same as Frieda Armstrong, but she didn’t dare say so. ‘She’s got rather a curt manner,’ she remarked instead. ‘I’ve noticed it even with Mr Walden.’
    There was a little spark in Frieda’s eye. ‘Well, I was fairly short with her callers. One of them said she was her sister; she asked me where she was and when she’d be in and could she reach her, as if I was her secretary or something. I said I really had no idea and hung up.’
    â€˜Quite right too,’ Miss Collins said. ‘There’s Mr Walden’s buzzer. Shall I go while you finish your tea?’
    â€˜No,’ Frieda said firmly. ‘I’ll see what he wants.’ She hurried out and the younger woman looked after her for a moment and then took another biscuit. Poor Frieda, she said to herself. She’s been in love with him for years, and he’s never even looked at her legs. He’s given mine a glance or two. She smiled to herself. She wasn’t going to fall into the older woman’s fantasy; waiting on the boss hand and foot, shielding him from every little worry and inconvenience when she could, and letting her own life slip away. Miss Collins had a man friend and a definite objective which included a nice little flat in Fulham and a change from single status. He liked her plumpness, too.
    The phone rang in the Marylebone flat. Lomax could hear it ringing as he unlocked the front door. He reached it just in time.
    â€˜Colin? Hello, it’s Charlie. How are you?’
    How he had disliked her on first meeting, he remembered. The self-confident voice still irritated him. Davina’s beautiful, spoilt sister, married to John Kidson after two divorces. The hell of it was that he had grown to like her very much indeed over the last six months. ‘I’m fine. Just back from a brisk mile walk – no, I’m not joking. Yes, I’ll be one of those fellows you see running round Hyde Park soon.’ Her infectious laugh gurgled over the phone; she had a jolly, rather loud laugh. ‘No, Davina’s not here. Try her office.’
    At the other end Charlie Kidson said, ‘I did. A very disagreeable person answered me. Snapped my head off and said she’d no idea where she was or when she’d be back. Tell her to ring me when she comes in. I want to make a date for dinner, Colin.