Page 89 of Be More Capybara

‘Hi, darling. Thanks for sending that article over. What do you think it means? Is it confirmation that Nigel’s been up to no good?’

‘Not necessarily. He might be implicated. But he could equally be the whistleblower. In fact, I’d say that’s more likely. ScandiSquare would’ve kept him on if he was in on it.’

‘I don’t even understand what “it” is.’

‘It’s a simple scam. ScandiSquare falsified their accounts so that their shares were valued far higher than they should’ve been. They took over Bartons via a share swap. One ScandiSquare share looked like it was worth 10 Barton ones, but really it was only worth 5.’

‘You’re confusing me now.’

‘If you owned 10 shares in Barton, after the transfer, you got given 1 ScandiSquare share in exchange.’

‘Oh, I see. But really I should’ve been given 2 shares?’

‘Correct.’

‘So they would’ve diddled me out of half my investment.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Bastards.’

‘But they’ve been caught, thanks to the whistleblower spotting it. And if that was Nigel, well done to him. I’m sure the ScandiSquare board hates him.’

‘But you can’t tell from the article whether he was the whistleblower or not.’

‘How much do you trust him, Mum?’

‘Before I found that appointment, 100%.’

And yet you automatically jumped to the conclusion that he was a crook. She felt ashamed that Angus’s actions were still having such a massive impact on her.

‘Perhaps you should talk to him,’ Callum said.

68

NIGEL

Nigel was sitting in the kitchen, absent-mindedly stirring his bowl of porridge. Madison’s voice was back in his head after yesterday’s meeting at the gallery. ‘You need flaxseed in that. Much better for your health. Your microbiome isn’t going to look after itself.’

He suspected his microbiome would do perfectly fine without any intervention. But he didn’t have to worry about that now. He could eat his porridge exactly how he liked it. Another positive to being single again.

Except he didn’t want to be single. He wanted Helen, who didn’t nag him about what he ate, thrashed him at tennis, made him laugh and had a greyhound who liked to lick his ear to wake him up every morning.

His phone buzzed with a text notification. He unlocked the screen. Helen! A miracle. But you don’t know what it says yet.

Nigel shut his eyes for a moment, not daring to read the message. But curiosity got the better of him.

We need to talk

As Nigel stared at the text, another one appeared.

When are you back in Devon?

She was finally communicating again, just when he thought it was all over. What the hell was he going to say? He tapped out a response.

I land in London on Tuesday evening. I was going to stay there for a while.

His finger hovered over the Send button. He reread his reply. Nowhere near enthusiastic enough, you idiot!