The Society Karen Guyler (best books to read .TXT) 📖

lives being expendable again. Eva’s hand closed around the memory stick. She had no proof of his thinking, but what it contained might show it. “Thanks for this, I’m sorry to put you in this position, but this is why.” She gave him her print out, finished her drink while he ran the magnifier on his phone over the black-and-white image.

“One person.”

She nodded, not maintenance. It could only be what it looked like, the single figure near the beginning of the pipe network with some kind of upside down container, the thin end pointing into the water stream.

Dario looked as if she’d accused him of being the person in the image. “Sabotage, why? We’re only doing good there.”

Eva sighed. “I know, you know, our competitors know, at least I thought we were all on the same page.” Tiny doubts were solidifying in her mind. She pocketed the memory stick, hoping it would prove her wrong.

“I’ll let you know what I find.” She gave Dario the switchboard number of Gordon’s unit. “Call me if you need me.”

40

“Got that ping.” Iago’s welcome back to the surveillance room could have been him quoting from an obscure Shakespearean work for all the sense he made to Eva.

She corralled her whirlwind thoughts to focus on him. “Ping?”

“Yeah, the Oblov’s car. Involved in a crash near The Shard. They’ve been taken to St Thomas’ A and E, both still breathing.”

“What happened?”

“Just got the heads up about it. Let’s have a look see.” Iago wielded his mouse and one screen responded. A police car blocked off the road feeding the crash site.

“That must be theirs.” Iago paused over the black Range Rover crashed into a traffic light pole that was losing its fight to stay vertical.

 “I’ll go and question them.”

“You going off again, forfeit is doughnuts, proper sugar, pack of six, raspberry jam, none of that custard crap.”

“Deal, where’s Nora’s office?”

“You don’t have access.”

“Is security this tight at Vauxhall Cross now?”

He shrugged. “Barely get over there, we have everything here and I’m not senior enough to warrant summonsing over.” He grinned at her. “Thank God. What do you need?”

“To give her something.”

“You want me to?”

Eva shook her head. “I can knock.”

“Come,” Iago led her to the top floor and bellowed through the closed door opposite Gordon’s. “Nora, you up for a visitor?”

After a few seconds, Nora appeared in her doorway. “You saved me from myself, I ignored my last ‘get up and move around’ alert, want to join me for a cup of tea? Stairs are always good for my step count.”

“I can walk down with you, but I’ve got to get to St Thomas’. Iago found the Oblovs, admitted after an accident.” Eva’s question was hard to ask, but she had to. Rip the plaster off, faster was always less painful. “Do you know any good forensic accountants?”

Nora raised her eyebrows. “That’s a non sequitur.” But she nodded. “We have a couple of bodies who do accounting, they can forensically audit.”

“It’s private, I mean, not to do with what I’m doing here.” Eva made herself say it. “I want Every Drop’s accounts audited.”

“Leave it with me, I’ll see what I can do.”

Eva held out the memory stick Dario had given her. “Accounts as at yesterday.”

“You’re sure about this?”

She nodded. “You shouldn’t find anything suspect in there but I have to be know.” She took a breath, went with a deep unacknowledged hunch. “Can you cross reference any payments without a clear audit trail to Stuart Worthington?”

“Your Chairman? Of course.”

“Doughnuts.” Iago reminded her as she passed him going down the last flight of stairs to the exit.

“Six, proper sugar, raspberry jam, no custard crap, got it.”

Eva’s limited pass worked better at opening doors outside St George’s Grove, she was okayed to go straight to the ward where Kathy Oblov was.

The woman in the hospital bed appeared to be sleeping. The bedclothes rose in a rectangular protrusion above her left leg, they’d placed her hands on the blanket by her sides.

“Kathy Oblov, there you are.”

She leant closer, scrutinising Kathy’s face. Very heart-shaped now, a smaller nose, a few abrasions marred her perfect skin, so smooth and taut it was amazing her chiselled cheekbones didn’t cut right through it. The points of reference on this Kathy Oblov were all different to what Eva had been searching for, no wonder she hadn’t found her.

That perfume? Eva leant closer, her nose almost touching Kathy’s skin. Where? She breathed it in again, sweet, then smelt it once more, bitter. Eva closed her eyes, too strong. She sat back and let the answer find her. Was she sure? She hadn’t even noticed it then, not really, but now, oh God.

Eva limped to the nurses’ station. “I need a doctor for Kathy Oblov. She’s been poisoned. She needs an antidote immediately. Where’s her husband? He’ll need the same.”

“We’ll have to wait for her doctor.”

There was no time. “Can you call them? I can explain it.”

“They’ll be doing rounds soon.”

“She’ll be dead soon. Was she unconscious when she was admitted?”

“She’s been in an accident, big trauma. We’ll wait for the doctor.”

Eva left the ward searching for that most elusive of things, a public pay phone. Her reverse charge call was accepted right away.

“Gordon, it’s Eva. I’m at St Thomas’, Kathy and Aleksandr Oblov were in a car crash. She’s been poisoned, and probably he has too. I thought nothing of it when I said goodbye to Eric, but he had the same bittersweet smell on him. It’s got to be the same poison. The nurse won’t listen that she needs an antidote.”

“We’re still unsure what killed Eric. You’re sure about this?”

“I am.”

“I’ll call the hospital director.”

“Do you want me to stay here with them?”

“If either of them are up to talking, an idea of what happened would be helpful. Good catch.”

Not really. She hadn’t understood it when she’d hugged Eric goodbye. It had been right there for her to pick up, but she’d been so obsessed with getting back to the office she hadn’t