A Proper Charlie Read Online Free PDF Page A

it very well,’ Ben said with false cheerfulness. He rose. ‘I’ll bring us some coffee,’ he said giving Nicole an apologetic smile, but she looked far from embarrassed. She was gazing at Donald in open adoration.
    ‘ Ben,’ Donald called him back, and Ben turned at the door. ‘Staff at Core are holding some sort of celebratory party to mark the occasion when we takeover. It’s the Saturday before we merge, and I’d like you to be there.’
    Ben nodded, and found his mouth voicing dutiful words that he wanted to retract immediately, ‘Yes, dad.’
    In the kitchen, Iris was stacking the dishwasher. She turned as Ben came in. ‘If you‘ve come for food there’s not a lot left over. Mainly the mini tikka tortilla wraps. I think they were a little spicy,’ she said.
    ‘ Nothing for me.’ Ben placed the beans in the coffee maker and switched it on. ‘They want two coffees,’ he said. ‘Would you mind taking it in for them?’
    ‘ Can I throw it over Nicole?’
    ‘ You were telling me what a good catch she was earlier!’
    ‘ I lied,’ she said, and closed the dishwasher door more strongly than necessary. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked as he picked up his car keys hanging on the back of the door.
    ‘ To be honest I don’t know,’ he said banging out of the back door. He climbed in his gleaming red Audi S6, and sat for a moment. He thought about his life and wondered when it all started going wrong.
    Career wise nothing could have been better. His personal life, however, was crap. His conscious pricked as he remembered the promise to his mum. He promised he’d take care of Camilla. But she hadn’t been seen by anybody since she walked out of the church during hymn number five hundred and thirty-five while clutching her hymnbook. How could he take care of her, if he didn’t know where she’d gone?
    He started the Audi’s engine and drove out of the gates. He would handle the business side of things, which included finalising the takeover of London Core , and he’d try his hardest to sort out Donald and Camilla’s differences whenever she showed her face.
    He hit the A1, dropped the window and floored the accelerator.

 
    FIVE
     
     
    C harlie turned off Old Kent Road in her battered blue Fiesta as she headed home from the supermarket the next day. She spent part of the morning online researching article writing and collecting ideas on how to bring her idea together. She used to write countless stories in her younger days; losing herself in characters that had families, but became disillusioned when an overcritical teacher dismissed her dream of becoming a writer as a ‘fantasy’.
    As she jotted down ideas she was delighted to find the spark was still there, and she found she had to drag herself away to look for a Union Jack dress on eBay. But now it was early evening and she’d just done battle with others in the aisles of Tesco.
    Supermarket shopping on a Saturday evening; how totally middle-aged. She drummed the steering wheel with her fingernails as she queued at the lights. Ideas and thoughts flashed on and off in her head about angle ideas for her article that she almost missed the lights changing.
    As soon as Melvin had informed the office that they would be the first newspaper to leak the story, Charlie felt she had to be involved, and more importantly felt this was what she needed to do to impress the new bosses. She might only be the office clerk, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t write a story on prostitutes. Because of their disappearances, everyone was talking about them and it had maximum TV coverage – wouldn’t it be fantastic if she got an exclusive all by herself?
    How she was going to achieve that was another matter.
    She turned into the tenants’ only car park. She had been lucky to secure herself a council flat with easy commute to the office, especially one that was more or less in her price range.
    In her one-bedroom flat, she kicked off her shoes, and went