Death in a Far Country Read Online Free PDF Page B

are two things United needs – good results and a new stadium. And both depend on hard cash, firstly for better players, and OK is a start. And then to build a bigger venue so we can increase our revenue. It’s the same with all these small clubs. They can’t survive by standing still.’
    ‘Can you get the finance?’ Laura asked. ‘Won’t being a woman make even that harder? And with some of the directors against you?’
    ‘I have contacts,’ Jenna said. ‘I think it can be done.’
    ‘You didn’t stay in Bradfield though. Why was that, if you’re so wedded to the team?’
    ‘Are you born and bred in Bradfield?’ Jenna came back quickly.
    ‘I am, as it happens, though I was sent away to boarding school.’
    ‘Ackroyd? Are you Jack Ackroyd’s daughter?’
    ‘That’s right,’ Laura said. ‘Did you know him?’
    ‘Not really,’ Jenna said. ‘But he and my father were close financially at one time, weren’t they? They had some sort ofbusiness deals going?’
    ‘They could well have,’ Laura said. ‘I’ll ask my dad next time I talk to him. He and my mother live in Portugal now. He retired out there when his heart started playing up some years ago.’
    ‘He was lucky, then,’ Jenna said soberly. ‘My father’s heart only played up the once and that was it.’ She drained her glass. ‘Shall we eat?’
    Jenna led the way, nodding slightly to the group at the bar who returned her attention, Laura thought, with slightly uncertain smiles, and took their place at a table for two, again in a prime position by the window. Jenna flicked a menu in Laura’s direction.
    ‘It’s not three star Michelin,’ she said. ‘But it could be worse. I usually have the smoked salmon and then a steak. Difficult to spoil.’
    Laura nodded and agreed to have the same and then pulled her tape recorder out of her bag.
    ‘You don’t mind?’ she said, and Jenna smiled.
    ‘Harder for you to distort what I say,’ she said. ‘Record away.’
    ‘So tell me how you got from youthful supporter to owner, by way of a career in London. From what I read in the business cuttings about your company, you need to come back to Bradfield about as much as you need to go to Baghdad. What’s it all about?’
    Jenna nibbled at her smoked salmon and shrugged.
    ‘Maybe I need a new challenge,’ she said. ‘I haven’t lived up here since I was at school, and I’m not really intending to live here now. I’ll come up as often as I need to during the seasonbut my apartment in London is still going to be home. All my friends are down there, and the business, of course, although that runs itself to a large extent these days. The sign of a good boss, in my book, is the ability to appoint good people and then delegate. I can do that.’
    From most people the statement would have sounded like overconfidence, Laura thought, but this was a woman who did not over-estimate her capabilities, she just understood them.
    ‘PR?’ she said. ‘A dirty word to us reporters. If you want the truth about a story you don’t go to PR looking for it. You call it spin, we call it lies.’
    ‘That’s out of date,’ Jenna said, without apparently taking offence. ‘Companies that know what they’re doing are willing to pay a lot of money to present their best face to the public. But if there are problems they know it makes no sense to lie. You always get found out in the end. PR should be part of corporate strategy, not crisis management. That’s what we do for a number of blue chip companies. And we do it very well.’
    ‘And make a lot of money out of it?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ Jenna said. ‘I never apologise for that. My dad only sat up and took notice of what I was doing when he saw a healthy profit on the balance sheets.’ They paused for a moment as the waiter brought their steaks, rare and medium, exactly as ordered, and fussed with the bottle of Burgundy Jenna had ordered to go with them.
    ‘You’ll have that glass of wine?’ she asked