Incinerator Read Online Free PDF Page B

fish.
    “We have a deal,” he said. But he didn’t let go of my hand. “That means you and I have a deal, Mr. Maguire. Fifteen grand by this time on Wednesday, and Mr. Llewellyn’s debt will be cancelled. Otherwise …” He sighed, like a ham actor in a TV soap.
    “I’ll be here,” I said.
    As I rode the Tube into the City for my appointment with Nicky, I wondered how I was going to explain why I needed fifteen thousand pounds in cash at such short notice. It was my money, of course, and she always insisted it was up to me what I did with it, but the way things had been set up I still needed hersignature to get hold of it. She was bound to be curious about what it was for, and I wasn’t sure if I should tell her. I’d back her any day to take on Sherwood in court and string him up with his own rancid guts, but once we left the courthouse all bets would be off. He’d find a way to make Delroy and Winnie, and me, pay. I decided I’d just tell Nicky I needed cash for some second-hand gym equipment. She’d probably guess I was up to something, but with any luck she’d just think I was buying bent gear that had been pushed off the back of a lorry, and wouldn’t ask too many questions.
    All the same it was going to place a barrier between us, for the first time, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Nicky was like the big sister I’d never had, except what I felt about her wasn’t at all brotherly, I knew now. I thought I’d been doing a good job of hiding my feelings from myself and everyone else, but I hadn’t fooled Delroy for a minute—and if I hadn’t fooled him, I probably hadn’t fooled Nicky either. I didn’t know if I would even be able to look her in the eye at this meeting.
    As usual Lincoln’s Inn Fields was a mêlée of lawyers in gowns and smart suits scurryingback and forward between their offices and the Royal Courts of Justice on the eastern side of the square. Nicky’s building didn’t look quite as intimidating as the first few times I’d been there; I knew now that she and her partner Kamlesh Vora were just tenants on one half of one floor, sharing a receptionist and secretarial staff with other small firms in the same building. The woman at the front desk gave me a professional smile, like she recognized me, but with an odd hint of tension and weariness.
    “I’m afraid Ms. Hale isn’t in today,” she said. That explained the weariness—she must have been telling people the same thing all morning. It didn’t explain much else, though.
    “I had an appointment at three,” I said.
    “I’m sorry. Would you like to reschedule?”
    “Did she say what the problem was?”
    “She hasn’t been in touch at all, I’m afraid. She just didn’t come in this morning.”
    “Have you tried her mobile?”
    “We’ve left messages, but no one’s heard back from her yet. We do have access to her diary, if you’d like to make another appointment.”
    For the moment I was stumped. It wasn’tlike Nicky to drop off the radar. I’d always been able to contact her, even way out of office hours. Once when I’d got through to her in the evening I gave her a hard time for answering her phone when she should have been having a life. She’d laughed. “I do have caller ID, Finn,” she’d said. “I didn’t think you’d be ringing me up to waste my time.”
    “What about Mr. Vora?” I asked the receptionist. “Is he in?”
    “I’ll try him for you.”
    When Vora opened the door to let me into his and Nicky’s office it took me a moment to recognize him. He was normally neat, dapper and expensively dressed, but today his tie was crooked, his neat white fringe of hair stuck out at odd angles and it looked like he hadn’t even shaved. When I told him I was supposed to be signing completion documents with Nicky that day—I didn’t mention the fifteen grand—he actually wrung his hands. I’d never seen anyone do that before.
    “I am sure this will all be sorted out when Nicky