Tall Poppies (38 page)

Hans Wolf gave him a reproving look. ‘You lost control at the end.’

‘Yeah, but only after I was through the gate.’

‘It’s not good, it shows you lose control. If it happens

on the run, glaub” mir, you can die.’

Elizabeth lowered her head, annoyed. She was burning

with triumph, she thought Hans might have been a bit

more upbeat.

3z4

‘Elizabeth, your dad’s flying home today,’ Ronnie said. ‘He wanted you to give him a call before he leaves.’

Elizabeth smiled. ‘I don’t want to talk to him. If he

asks again, tell him I can’t be bothered, simple as that.’ ‘Right,’ Ronnie said uncertainly.

Elizabeth reached over and took a yellow flask of isotonic squash from an official. Tony could go screw himself. Once she had the gold in her pocket, she could make his life a misery.

‘Still we have more work to do,’ Hans said, like he could read her thoughts.

Elizabeth nodded and smiled. Behind them Stars and Stripes were waving, the crowd cheering Kim Gideon’s competent three-eleven.

‘I know. It’s not over yet.’

The words sounded blissfully unconvincing. Bring them on, llizabeth thought, Heidi, Louise, Tony … she was going to blow everyone away. This was her moment.

She was invincible.

Nina arrived at the Halkin at nine precisely. Tony had avoided her calls all day, but he was going to have to deal with her now.

She checked herself out in the elevator mirror as she rode up to his suite. Her raven hair was twisted up in a formal French pleat; her suit was Comme des Garcons, chocolate brown piped with cream. Low mahogany heels from Pied-/oTerre, opaque silky tights, no jewellery. Her make-up was shades of brandy, berries and gold. She looked five years older in this rig. Beautiful, but serious too.

The elevator slid noiselessly to a halt and discharged her. Nina stared to feel a little scared. God, she wished she’d been able to get hold of Harry. They’d had just one Chinese together, the first night she got back, then he’d jetted off to France with Lilly. The dinner had not been.

3z5

the slam-dunk Nina wanted. She was tired and edgy from the flight and the shock of the report, and mad at Harry for coming on to her in front of Frank Staunton. Harry was loose and she was wound up like a string ball. They hadn’t fought, exactly, but Nina left early. Nina’s fortune cookie told her to beware the dark forces lining against her. Harry’s said he would be successful in all he did.

She wished she’d been a bit softer with Harry. She could have done with a friend right now.

Nina pressed the doorbell outside the earl’s suite. Tony opened it and ushered her in, smiling softly. Inside the expensive Japanese minimalism of his suite someone had laid a table laden with extravagant dishes, vintage Krug chilling in a silver ice-bucket and warm

‘ bottles of saki next to plates of sushi and vases of purple orchids. Nina’s glance swept to the single bed. There was a large, royal-blue box laid out on it, stamped with the gold crest of some jeweller or other.

She wanted to laugh. That was his answer to everyt.hing. ‘I don’t buy it any more, Tony,’ Nina said harshly.

He lifted an eyebrow. ‘What don’t you buy?’

‘This bullshit.’ She pointed to the table and the box. ‘Whatever it is, I hope you got a receipt.’

‘Nina.’ Tony Savage sat down calmly on a cherry wood-backed chair and looked her over. ‘What are you talking about? Come on, darling, I hope you’re not going to be difficult. You’re a clever girl, you know how stupid that would be.’

‘Are you threatening me?’

‘Threatening you? Don’t be idiotic. Think about who I

am and who you are. Sounds like you have delusions of grandeur, Nina. You’re really not that important.’

‘I’m the reason Dragon went up five points in two weeks,’ Nina said fiercely. ‘That work was mine. My

3z6

words in the report. But you didn’t credit me, you didn’t even mention me.’

‘Why should I?’ Tony said, and there was an edge to his voice. He reached for the champagne, popped the cork and poured out two glasses. ‘It wasn’t your work, it was Dragon’s work. Done with our funds, achieved with our name. We did struggle along quite nicely before you arrived.’

‘You have to give me credit for the work I’ve done. Nobody else in this company managed it. You owe me promotion and—’

‘I don’t owe you a bloody thing,’ Tony said, standing up and walking towards her. He didn’t shout, but there was a quiet menace in his voice that made Nina shrink inside. ‘I rescued you from Nowheresville, Brooklyn, I made you a wealthy young girl—’

‘Out of-the kindness of your heart.’

‘Nina, this is silly,’ Tony said silkily. ‘I think I’ve been generous to you. Come on, darling, I can’t remember a woman I’ve enjoyed more.’ He leaned down and stroked the black satin coverlet on the bed. ‘You want a promotion, more money - that can be arranged, I’ll dream something up. Providing you stop all this nonsense about credit.’

Nina stared at him. ‘You think I’d sell myself to you? My God, is that the kind of woman you think I am?’

‘It’s the kind of woman I know you are.’ Now his eyes were black pinpricks of cold rage. ‘You proved that in Dublin.’

‘I wouldn’t touch you again if you were the last man alive!’ Nina snarled.

‘Of course. You prefer something a little more basic. Like Harry Namath?’ He laughed to see her pale in front of him. ‘You know me, Nina, I like to have my finger on the pulse. But I wouldn’t put too much store in that one, darling, he’s not interested any more.’

3z7

Tony’s aquiline mouth was twisted in amused contempt, watching her reaction eagerly. She felt sick.

‘You told him,’ she said dully.

‘Of course I told him. In some detail,’ Tony said lightly. ‘We had a long chat over the phone while I was in

Switzerland. I like to keep on good terms with the staff.’ Nina said nothing. She could almost hear him doing it. ‘It was a pity. He seemed rather put off, didn’t have much to say. You Americans can be so prudish … a shame, I’d have liked to swap notes.’

‘Go to hell, you bastard,’ Nina spat, her eyes flooding

with tears.

Tony reached up and traced his finger round her jaw.

‘But angel, you still have me. As long as we understand

‘ each other, I can make life very sweet for you.’

Roughly Nina pushed him away. ‘Yeah, we understand

each other. I got your number. I would rather luck a

leper with syphilis.’

‘I don’t think you understand. I’m not asking you for

this, I’m telling you. Otherwise,’ Caerhaven said blandly, ‘it’s over for you. You’ll be fired. You won’t find work at any other drug company, once I put the word out. You’re an alien in Britain, you have no friends here, as you so correctly put it, no credit outside. And I don’t think you’ve got many friends inside the company, Nina, in fact I gather you’re rather unpopular. People will assume that you’re just another tramp, this time one who worked for me and whom I’ve now tired of.’

‘I do understand,’ Nina said, quieter now.

‘Good.’ Tony ticked the points off on his fingers with a maddening smile. ‘You’re fired. You’re kicked out of the country. You have nothing to show for your time with us. Word will go out loud and clear that you’re a bimbo with an attitude problem. And you won’t have your boring little boffin to run to either. He had you all wrong, sweetheart; he doesn’t want used goods.’

3z8

He picked up a flute of champagne and held it out to

her.

‘Or’we can forget this unpleasantness, and you can look forward to a very pleasant life and a bright little

future.’

Nina hesitated for a second, then took the glass.

‘You were wrong about Dublin. I didn’t sell myself; I used you for what you could do for me.’

‘See? We’re so alike, Nina, we’re two sides of the same coin.’

Nina smiled back. She moved closer to him.

‘Wrong again, my lord,’ she said. Then she flung her chilled champagne right in his eyes, and walked out of the suite.

3z9

The alarm went at six as usual. Nina was halfway to the shower when she realised there was no need. She wouldn’t have to be in the office today.

She got up anyway, washed and dressed. She put on a butterscotch suit, Wolford hose and flat heels. There was no way she could feel comfortable in jeans on a Friday morning.

Her head ached but she was dry eyed. She’d done all her crying last night. Tony was gone, all her work had vanished like a puff of smoke. Harry was gone too, and maybe that was the worst thing. She wondered why it should matter so much; it was stupid, a few meals, a movie and one good lay. She wanted to batten down the hatches on her weak, leaky heart. Wasn’t this why she’d sworn never again? Namath had snuck his way in there and now she was hurting, really hurting, a fresh burst of that soul-searing pain she thought had gone for ever.

Nina put on a little make-up. She didn’t feel like it, but it was about dignity. Tony would love to picture her sat here crying, red nosed, with suitcases under her eyes. She felt hollow with grief and loss,’ but she wasn’t going to put it on a billboard.

Outside her window the sun rose into a balmy spring sky. Nina fixed herself coffee and listened to the Today show on Radio Four. She was never home this late. Outside her kitchen window Nina saw scrappy little flowers bobbing under the fence, crocuses next to wilting snowdrops and a couple of waxy yellow daffodils

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bobbing cheerfully. She stared at the flowers and wondered how they’d got there. She’d never had any time for gardening.

At nine a.m. Nina rang Dragon.

‘Can I speak to Anita Kerr in Nina Roth’s office, please?’

‘One moment.’ A brief pause, then, ‘There is no such office registered here, madam. Anita Kerr has been transferred to another department.’

God, that bastard works fast. ‘Which one?’

‘Label Production.’

Nina felt a chill run over her forearms. Labels - that was worse than getting fired. Anita would have to spend her days double-checking tiny E-numbers and drugs and RDAs. And it was based in Slough.

‘But she’s on vacation for a week.’

‘Then Personnel. I need to discuss collection of my personal effects.’

‘You’ve been terminated? Whom am I speaking to?’ ‘This is Nina Roth,’ Nina said, as calmly as she could. The scorn in the girl’s voice was something else. She knew exactly who it was, but she was loving making Nina jump through all these hoops.

‘I’ll see if Mr Sweeney can talk to you. Hold please.’ She put her on hold for a full five minutes. ‘I’m sorry, but he’s not available.’ ‘Then his deputy.’

‘Nobody in Personnel is available. Would you like to leave a message?’

Nina left her number and hung up. She had personal notes and research papers, phone numbers for the scientists she’d talked to, project studies on all the rival companies. Invaluable when she was looking for a new job. She decided to wait until lunchtime for Keith Sweeney to call her back. The blazing humiliation was bitter as raw sloes; she paced around her drawing-room;

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restless, her mind racing as she tried to seize on something, anything, she could do. She came up with zero. Nina Roth, mid-twenties putz from Brooklyn, versus the Earl of Caerhaven? Dino, Tom, Luc Viera, they’d be lining up to deny anything she said.

At nine forty the doorbell buzzed. Nina opened it to find a spotty kid in a grubby T-shirt clutching a cardboard box.

‘Nina Roff? Delivery for yer,’ he said, thrusting the box into her arms. ‘Sign ‘ere. If that’s your car out front, someone’ll be round to collect it in a minute. And the furniture.’

‘The furniture?’ Nina said blankly.

‘Yeah, it’s all in the papers,’ he said indifferently. ‘See

‘ ya.’

She slammed the door behind him and sat down on tile couch. The small box contained her pens and pencils, a pad of W. H. Smith writing paper, and three postcards from Zurich. Her notes and notebooks were nowhere to be seen. There was also a thick envelope franked Berman, Gaves & Bowler. BGB were Tony’s front-rank legal firm; they were the ones he used for serious shit, the real heavy-hitters. She ripped it open. A pink P-45 form from the UK government, a ‘you’re history’ form, fluttered to the ground. She ignored that and went straight to the letter.

Dear Miss Roth,

You are hereby advised that your employment has been terminated for cause, as verbally advised. You are prohibited from entering the premises of Dragon Chemical. Your work and contact notes are proprietary intelligence and will be retained. Your car remains the property of Dragon and you are required to return it immediately or face legal action. Other personal items, purchased for you on

33z

the ‘Settlement’ company allowance, are also to be returned (see itemised list attached). You will not be receiving a reference from the company. The Home Office has been notified of the change in your residency status …

There was another sharp rap on the door. Nina jumped to her feet and opened it, to be confronted with five burly men in red and black Dragon Security outfits. A white van was parked outside her fence.

‘Owright?’ said the team chief, pointing to the letter in her hand. ‘We’ve come for the stuff. You got the car keys?’

Nina stood aside to let them in. Silently she fished in her pocket for the keys to the Golf and handed them over as the other men filed past her and started to carry off her furniture:

‘That’s it,’ the foreman said approvingly. He handed her a small receipt. ‘Best to get it over with quickly, like. I knew you wouldn’t make no trouble.’

‘No.’ Nina was quick to reassure him, if it would get these baboons reeking of curry out of her place. ‘I won’t make any trouble.’

At least, she thought in silent fury, not yet.

Friday morning dawned, crystal clear over Verbier. The sun shone brilliantly over the rocky mountains. Snow had been patchy, and the piste at Veysonnaz had been thickly blanketed overnight with artificial snow.