pre¬sent you with a different set of problems." "I know," I sighed. "But what else can I do?" "You could talk to Josh," she said. Sometimes I forget the pair of them were at Cambridge together, they're such different types. It's true that they were both fasci¬nated by money but while Josh wanted to make as much of it as possible, Delia wanted to stop people like him doing it illegally. She was too bright for him to fancy, so he gave her his respect instead, and a few years ago he did me the biggest favor he's ever managed when he intro¬duced us.
"What good would that do? Josh deals with multina¬tional conglomerates, not backstreet detective agencies. I can't believe he knows anyone with investigative skills and enough money to buy Bill out that he hasn't already introduced me to. Besides, investigative skills never seem to go hand in hand with the acquisition of hard cash. You should know that."
Delia reached for a tin of black olives then turned her direct green eyes on me. "You'd be surprised at what Josh knows about," she said, giving a deliberate stage wink. "I'm not even going to ask if the Fraud Task Force is about to lose its major inside source," I said. "Besides, Josh is too busy extricating himself from business right now. He's not about to get involved in setting up a whole new partnership for me. Did you know he's retiring in a couple of weeks?"
Delia nodded, looking depressed. "He's been saying he was going to retire at forty since he was nineteen."
"I wouldn't worry about it, Delia. He'll never retire. Not properly. He'll die of boredom in a week if he's not spreading fear and loathing in global financial institu¬tions. He'll always have fingers in enough pies to keep you busy."
Whatever I'd said, it seemed to have deepened Delia's gloom. Then I twigged. If Josh was about to hit the big four zero, it couldn't be far off for Delia. And she wasn't a multimillionaire with the world her oyster. She was a hard¬working, ferociously bright woman in what was still a man's world, a woman whose career commitment left her no space for relationships other than the friendships that bind women together more closely than any other bond. I stopped the trolley by the spirits and liqueurs, put a hand on her arm, and said, "He might have made the money, but you've made the difference."
"Yeah, and everything at the agency is going to work out for the best," she said grimly. We looked at each other, reg¬istering the self-pitying misery that was absorbing each of us. Then, suddenly and simultaneously, we burst out laughing. Nobody could get near the gin, but we didn't give a damn. Like the song says, girls just wanna have fun.
Chapter 14
If you think it's embarrassing to get a hysterical fit of the giggles with one of your best friends in Salisbury's wines and spirits department, try having your mobile phone ring in the middle of it. Now that's really excruciat¬ing. At least when it's someone as laconic as Gizmo, you don't have to destroy your street cred totally by having a conversation. A series of grunts signifying "yes" and "no" will do just fine. I gathered he'd got the info I wanted and he was about to stuff it through my letter box unless I had any serious objections. I didn't. Even if it was Police Harassment Week and Linda Shaw and her sidekick were back on my doorstep, they could hardly arrest Gizmo for impersonating a postman.
Being midweek and midmorning, we were through the checkouts in less time than it takes to buy a newspaper in our local corner shop. Delia and I hugged farewell in the car park and went our separate ways, each intent on mak¬ing some criminal's life a misery. "Talk to Josh," were her final words.
Gizmo had done me proud. Not only had he translated the files into a format I could easily read on my computer, but he'd also printed out hard copies for me. As far as her patient notes were concerned, Sarah Blackstone's passion for secrecy had been superseded by a medical training that had instilled the principle of always leaving clear notes that another doctor could follow through should you be murdered by a burglar between treatments. I flicked through until I found the file relating to Alexis and Chris. Not only were their names correct on the printout, but also phone