“Is it urgent?” said Lois. “I do have to get back to the office. Things I have to see to with Hazel.”
“Um, let me see. Shall we say in half an hour? Be there, please, Lois.”
Lois frowned. That was very unlike Hunter Cowgill. Definitely not so pliable this morning. Maybe it is something important.
She found Dot measuring out feed for the chimpanzees and asked her if she could spare a minute.
“Yes, but only a minute. I’ve been told the chimps can get very nasty if they’re hungry. What is it, Mrs M?”
“Can you come and see me this afternoon, then? I need to discuss something with you. Are you going up to the hall later?”
“No, not today. I’ll probably go up and have a dust around tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
“Yep, but we do need to get you back to our usual schedules, Dot. It doesn’t look as if Pettison is coming home soon, and the girls, and Andrew, are anxious to get back to their usual routines. They appreciate that things are a bit difficult at the moment, but I said I was sure you would understand.”
“Right. You’re the boss, Mrs M. Can we discuss it this afternoon? I need to get this stuff to those gibbering idiots before they wrench my arm off.”
“Chimps? Yeah, well, they don’t all dress up in frilly pinafores and serve afternoon tea. Like on the telly. They can be rough, I know.”
“I was exaggerating a bit, as usual. The keeper’s shut them up until I’ve finished, thank God! The fully grown ones can be really violent. And they’re very strong! That cleaning woman who got savaged by this lot is a lot better, so they say here. She’s lucky to be alive, if you ask me. So off I go, bravely into the lion’s den! See you this afternoon, Mrs M.”
Thinking that Dot Nimmo would be equal to any chimpanzee, however strong, Lois turned to leave. Then, as planned, she decided to go up to the hall and have a nose around while she was there. She would make a list of things for Dot to concentrate on, and then be off home.
The Fiat was there, round the back of the building, and Lois parked nearby. She went through the unlocked back door into the kitchen, and yelled, “Yoo-hoo! Justin! Are you there? It’s only me, Lois Meade. Just checking on jobs for Dot.”
There was no reply, and she guessed he must be out of earshot. Fine. She’d come across him sooner or later back in the village. She made her way around the ground floor, making notes. It was surprising how dusty and unattractive a place could look when nobody was living there. She came to Pettison’s office and stopped. The door was closed. He couldn’t be in there, since he was safely tucked up in hospital. She gently pushed open the door.
She stopped at once, seeing a figure kneeling by an open drawer in the filing cabinet. The figure turned in alarm, and she saw that it was Justin, with piles of letters of all kinds stacked around in little heaps on the floor.
“What the hell do you want?” he said in a scared voice. “Get out! This room is private.”
“I know it is, but private for Pettison, surely. And since you ask, I’m making notes for when Dot Nimmo comes back to work. It’s already dirty and dusty everywhere.”
Justin scrambled to his feet, and she began to feel nervous, and turned to leave the room.
“Come back here, Mrs Meade,” he said. “I do need to explain to you. Perhaps you should get on with your work and forget you’ve seen me here, and we could talk later.”
Lois stopped. “I’ll do no such thing,” she said. “Unless you give me a good explanation now why I should do so.”
He walked towards her nodding, and she retreated.
“I guess I owe you an apology,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just that riffling through Uncle’s papers is not something I wanted to be caught at. The fact is, I’m looking for letters between him and my father. Things were not good for my dad, and I’m hoping to put it right. Sorry, Mrs Meade. Could we sit down for a moment, and I’ll try to explain? It is quite a long story.”
They sat down on the sagging sofa, and he told her as briefly as he could how his father had been blackmailed by Pettison, and now he was in the same situation. When he finally stopped talking, she stood up and said she would have to think about everything. “I’ll give you a call later,” she said, and walked towards the door. He was choking, near to tears, and as she looked back at him, she tripped, cracking her head on a stone step as she fell.
Justin stooped over her, frantically checking that she was still alive, and then lifted her up with difficulty. He staggered back into the drawing room, where he almost dropped her onto the sagging sofa. Then he sat down on a nearby chair, breathing heavily, pulled out his mobile and dialled emergency.