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‘No, Storm,’ Jago said heavily, turning to face her, ‘you don’t know him. Go to him. Ask him, although I suppose he’ll lie to you, and you like a fool will believe him. Well, you can tell him from me that it won’t work. Sam Town-ley’s loss is no big deal, and Harmer has agreed to give us a chance. When I told him the circumstances under which David left the station, he was more than ready to agree that it was probably a question of sour grapes.’
Storm’s face burned. ‘You maligned David to him like that?’
‘I told him the truth,’ Jago interrupted harshly. ‘God, you stubborn little fool, can’t you see? Your David wanted to ruin this station; if I were a vindictive man I could probably drag him through the courts for what he’s tried to do, but I’m not. As it is I should have been in London today at an important meeting…’
Storm was close to tears. She clenched her fists, staring resentfully at his inflexible back.
‘I wish you had been,’ she said bitterly, ‘and I wish you would go there now and never come back. And as for your accusations,’ she fought against the tears thickening her voice and said huskily, ‘I won’t ask you to take them back, because I don’t care what you think of me. I’ll go and write out my notice and…’
She didn’t get any further. Jago swung round, gripping her arms, his eyes almost black as they swept her face.
‘Oh no, you don’t! You’ve got a twelve-month contract with the station with over ten months to go, and don’t you forget it. I want you here, Storm, where I can keep an eye on you. Now get out of here before I do something we’ll both regret,’ he told her curtly.
How she got to her office Storm did not know. She sat down, feeling sick and shaken. How could he have thought that she would deliberately…? Tears filled her eyes and she let them fall. She dialled David’s number and got no response. He was probably in Oxford. If tonight hadn’t been her parents’ last evening at home she would have driven round to see him. Her parents! She mustn’t let them see how upset she was, otherwise her mother would be worrying the whole time she was away. If only she hadn’t signed that contract two months ago, but it was binding and she knew she could not get out of it. She couldn’t understand why Jago wanted to keep her, thinking what he did, she thought bitterly. She would have thought he would be glad to get rid of her.
On a sudden impulse she dialled Harmers’ number and asked to speak to Greg. He sounded pleased to hear from her, and rather uncertainly she explained why she was phoning.
‘David Winters did come to see us,’ he admitted when she asked him outright. ‘My father was a bit alarmed when he told us that both he and Sam Townley were pulling out of the radio station because of lack of faith in Jago Marsh. Actually my father had been quite impressed with him and with your campaign, but when David told him how Jago was planning to cut corners…’
Storm closed her eyes, disbelievingly, the receiver sticky and damp in her hand.
‘You still there?’ Greg asked anxiously.
Her throat dry, she croaked an assent.
‘Of course it’s all sorted out now,’ Greg assured her. ‘Jago came over to see my father this morning. Once he knew that Jago was investing in the station himself and that contrary to what Winters said there would be more money for development and not less, it restored his faith. I must admit what Winters told us gave us quite a jolt, but we’d no reason to disbelieve him… Actually I nearly rang you at the time, but I didn’t want to involve you, and Winters told us that you weren’t at all happy with the way things were being run.’
They chatted for a few minutes and eventually Storm hunt up, staring sightlessly at the wall. How could David have done it? And to use her! But there must be some explanation, some reason. She shuddered suddenly, picking up some papers and opening the door.
She owed Jago an apology, which she must give him before she lost her courage, but nothing he could say would make her believe that David had acted through malice or a deliberate intention of ruining the station.
She knocked on his door, and opened it. He was staring out of the window, as he had been when she left, but he had removed his jacket which was draped over his chair. She could see the ripple of his muscles beneath the thin silk shirt, and her heart started pounding so loudly she felt sure he must hear it.
‘Yes?’
He looked through her rather than at her, and Storm wetted her dry lips with the tip of her tongue.
‘If you’ve come to ask me to release you from your contract, forget it,’ he told her roughly. ‘What I said before stands.’
‘No, it isn’t that.’ Even to her own ears her voice sounded nervously husky, and she saw his eyes narrow as they took in her clenched hands and pale face. ‘I’ve come to apologise,’ she said before her courage deserted her. ‘I’ve spoken to Greg Harmer and he told me…’
He was still looking at her with that same steely impersonal stare, and she took a deep breath, wishing she could match his self-control.
‘He told me much the same as you did,’ she said quietly. ‘I can see why you thought that David and I…’ Her voice shook and she had to take another deep breath. ‘I can see why you were so ready to blame us, but there must be some explanation. David would never…’
‘Damn you!’ Jago snarled suddenly. ‘Even now you leap to his defence. “There must be some explanation,"’ he mimicked savagely. ‘There’s an explanation all right, but you’re too stubborn to accept it. Winters wanted to make things as difficult for me as possible and has done right from the start. When the I.B.A. asked me to step in and try and salvage something from the wreckage he’d made of this place, I didn’t want to, and I told them so. But they have ways of bringing pressure to bear and…’
‘The I.B.A. asked you? But David told me he confided in you, quite by chance, and that you…’
‘I was called in by the I.B.A. when the results of the random rating tests they’d done in this area, prior to reviewing your licence, came through. Only the fact that I knew David from the B.B.C. made me agree to help him out. I even offered to invest in the station, but he told me he already had enough backing.’
‘But… but…’
‘But you didn’t have anywhere near enough. Oh yes, I discovered that for myself the moment I arrived here,’ Jago agreed grimly. ‘Whereupon Winters promptly resigned, probably hoping I’d back off and the I.B.A. would be forced to reinstate him. For God’s sake, can’t you see what manner of man he is? Or don’t you care? Doesn’t it bother you that he’s weak, a liar…’ He broke off to stare at her in mingled anger and exasperation. ‘Why do I bother? You don’t want a real man, do you, Storm, you’re more than happy to let David shelter behind you… using you…’
Storm tried to ignore what he was saying and his criticisms of David—criticism she kept telling herself could surely not be valid.
‘What about Sam Townley?’ she asked him.
