Mirren circled a hand over his shoulders. ‘Oh, Adrian…’
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s worry about that later. We’ve got a press to stop.’
TheExamineroffices were locked up, dark and quiet. Adrian made sure to slide the bolt on the door once they were inside. ‘That’ll stop Ferdinand sneaking up on us this time,’ he said.
They held hands climbing the stairs in the dark, Mirren lighting the way with her phone.
‘Boz said there was an envelope of cash waiting for him at the office. Do you reckon that was true?’ she asked.
‘I wouldn’t stake my life on it. Boz is a pretty simple guy. He fell for Ferdinand’s lies time and again, always believing he’d get paid in the next quarter, no matter how many times I warned him to cut his losses and leave the old stick insect in the lurch. My guess is Ferdinand was desperate for the picture and cooked up a story about an envelope of cash for poor old Boz, knowing that he was skint.’
They reached Ferdinand’s office door.
‘It’s kind of creepy in here in the dark,’ Adrian said, but Mirren breezed in and flicked the light on.
‘I’ll search his computer, you look for that envelope. You never know, maybe therewascash for Boz. It might repay you some of the holiday money you lost.Uh… Adrian, look at this.’ There on Mr Ferdinand’s desk was his computer and in it’s hard drive was a memory stick. ‘Yours, by any chance?’
‘That’s the one!’
Mirren sat at the computer while Adrian began a search along Ferdinand’s cluttered shelves and inside the cupboard, shoving aside empty crisp packets and piles of yellowing papers as he went. A few moths flitted up from the mess and circled the bare light bulb.
‘Bingo!’ Mirren called after only a moment’s searching through Mr Ferdinand’s computer files. ‘That was easy. He’s even called the file “The Wagstaff Exposé”. What a plum.’
‘He never was the sharpest tool in the box. Should we read it?’
‘Nope.’ Mirren clicked delete.
Adrian was smiling, still rummaging through the cupboard. ‘Mirren, is there a key on that desk?’
She searched for a moment around the furry coffee mugs before bringing up a whole bundle of keys. ‘I’d say every key Ferdinand ever owned was here.’
‘Find the smallest one.’
Mirren rifled through them before singling out a squat silver key and handing it to Adrian who was crouching in front of a small safe.
‘We make a good team,’ he said, as he took it from her.
‘Like Cagney and Lacey?’
‘Or Mulder and Scully,’ he corrected her with a smile.
‘That works too, I guess,’ she shrugged. Adrian worked the key in the safe but when the door sprang open it was empty.
‘Hmm, that’s weird,’ said Mirren. ‘It wasn’t empty when I came for my interview. In fact, Ferdinand was stuffing that thing full of banknotes. He got quite a fright when I disturbed him with it, actually.’
‘Hmm.’ Adrian closed the safe and stood up. ‘No cash for us then, never mind. Grab that memory stick and we’ll go.’
‘Hold on a second,’ said Mirren. ‘While we’re here we should get Kelsey’s money for her. I did promise her ages ago that I’d try.’
‘Well, let’s see. He transfers freelancer payments on that computer. I used to know the log-ins because it was me who paid out the staff expenses, taxis, working lunches, that sort of thing, back in the days when we actuallygotexpenses. But that was ten years ago now.’
‘Worth a shot? I’ve got Kelsey’s bank details here on my phone. It’s how I transfer the rent on my room at the barge to her, but do you think Ferdinand’s changed the log-in details?’
Adrian gave a wry laugh and sat down at the computer, clicking the keys. ‘Do you reckon an old relic like him wouldstilluse Ferdinand1 as his banking password after all these years? Oh… we’re in!’
‘You’re kidding!’ Mirren clapped her hands. ‘It’s like we’re in a heist movie!’
They scrolled through the payments onscreen. ‘Look, there’s the last time he paid Boz, the poor bastard, back in March! He worked here for six months after that.’ Adrian shook his head in disgust.
