The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 David Carter (autobiographies to read txt) 📖

happened to share the family name. Mrs Bloemfontein had devoured all the reports and couldn’t wait to interview Desiree Holloway.

Their meeting did not start well.

The young and headstrong Desiree couldn’t figure out what the freckled, greying woman wanted. The weird interloper seemed to talk in abstracts and vague possibilities. Desiree struggled to grasp the bigger picture. Yet by the time the second meeting came round, (Mrs Bloemfontein was staying three days in the Swindley Hotel, and longer if necessary), a clear promise had been made, or at least Desiree thought it clear, that all her tuition fees, and indeed more than that, additional extra curriculum courses at the best colleges, would all be covered. She would never have to pay a penny again, nor her father, not a bean.

Things were looking up.

When she told her father the news, he burst into tears.

‘Go for it, girl, grab it while you can!’

Desiree remained suspicious.

At the third meeting, the fog cleared.

Mrs Bloemfontein was offering Desiree a job once she had finished her studies on the banks of the murky Mersey. Perhaps Desiree had been a little slow on the uptake, for she had never conversed with anyone quite like Mrs Bloemfontein before, a woman who weighed up every syllable before it spilled from her thin lips.

The job would be well paid, guaranteed by contract for ten years, everything written and signed by both parties, one hundred percent legal and watertight. Desiree was encouraged to seek legal advice over the contract, should she have any doubts.

In addition, after her five year study programme was completed, she would be invited to attend exclusive and intensive courses at crammers yet to be agreed, and more than that, the hefty salary mentioned would be paid on the forthcoming January 1st, regardless.

How cool was that?

From paying fat tuition fees to landing a weighty salary in a matter of months. It seemed an amazing transformation. It seemed too good to be true. Things like this didn’t happen in the real world, in Desiree’s world. Nagging doubts continued to bounce into her head. Somehow she kept them at bay.

There were, however, several conditions.

First, she must not discuss the arrangement with her fellow students. It wouldn’t be fair or right if her colleagues discovered that while they were struggling to pay their way through uni, she was being paid well for the privilege. She was required to sign a secrecy agreement, but that seemed a small price to pay.

She would do it.

Second, it was vital she maintained her studies and followed clear research programmes, some suggested by Mrs Bloemfontein. That startled Desiree. She couldn’t agree to research into things that didn’t interest her. But when Mrs Bloemfontein produced a four-page document from her black briefcase that mirrored the fields that fascinated her, the objection was dropped.

Third, and last, Desiree would be required to travel overseas during the summer breaks to meet like-minded individuals researching into fields similar to her own.

‘Where would I be going?’ she asked.

‘Japan, Australia, Germany, the US, everything paid for, five-star hotels, first class air travel, and full expenses too. You’ll enjoy it.’

‘OK,’ she said. ‘That seems fair enough.’

What was that phrase, beware of Greeks bearing gifts? She thought more than once. Mrs Bloemfontein was clearly not Greek.

Then Desiree asked, ‘But why me?’

Mrs Bloemfontein thought about that for a moment.

‘Because you come recommended. Your initial work is groundbreaking, your tutors are enraptured by your work, and frankly, my dear, we want to work with you, because we believe you are heading for higher things. You are quite brilliant. We need the very best young brains, the best talent available. You are a shooting star, my girl; we have such high hopes for you.’

Desiree’s face cracked into a wide smile. She shook her head as if bemused, a little like Mrs Bloemfontein’s favourite dog, as Desi’s long hair danced about her like a black halo, dark eyes shining, her large teeth highlighted by her glowing rouge skin.

No one had ever been as complimentary to her before. How could she not be impressed? And more to the point, how could she turn the woman down?

Mrs Bloemfontein set the contracts on the desk.

‘You have a month to read them and sign them and return them to me,’ she said, in the same businesslike tone, adding, ‘There’s my telephone number,’ slipping a plain white card bearing a name and two numbers into Desiree’s hand. ‘If you have any queries, contact me at any time of day or night. If you haven’t signed within the month, the offer’s lapsed.’

Desiree took the card and the contracts back to her room and read every word three times over. There was nothing there she couldn’t live with. Her mind was in a whirl. She had to keep reminding herself it had really happened.

Afterwards, she respected Mrs Bloemfontein’s wishes and didn’t tell a soul of the meetings, or of the employment contract offered, not even her sister.

Three days later, she signed it.

The following morning she posted the papers to London.

As far as the Inland Revenue was concerned, Desiree Holloway was now officially employed.

On the following thirtieth of January the first instalment of her hefty salary dumped into her bank account. She had never possessed so much money before. She arranged a party, paying for everything herself, explaining that one of the premium bonds her grandmother had bought for her eighteenth birthday, had scrambled from the heap and paid a healthy dividend.

ERNIE was paying for the bash.

It was all a lie, but somehow to Desiree, that made it more exciting. They all stood in her room together, drinks in hand, grinning at one another, toasting the Lytham St Annes’ premium bond computer.

Much later, the memorable night ended with Desiree shovelling the hangers-on out through the door, everyone except her latest pleasure provider, Toby Malone.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Walter glanced again at Jago Cripps’s post-mortem report. He stood up and said, ‘Right! Listen up, everyone. Pay attention!’ They were all there, just as Walter had ordered, crammed into the main