She supposed she could try another book from the collection here but felt she’d read enough about the shoe trade for one day. Then a thought struck her. As boss she was at liberty to come and go as she pleased so she really didn’t have to come back to the office this afternoon if she didn’t want to. There was a film she was keen to see at the pictures, The Ladykillers, a crime comedy with Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness amongst other big-name British stars taking part. There was no reason why she shouldn’t go and see it this afternoon.
On her way out she was passing Jane Trucker’s office when she remembered there was something she wanted to speak to her about so made a detour.
Jane was just replacing the telephone receiver and it was apparent she was working through her dinner hour as a plastic box containing a sandwich and an apple stood open on her desk. She smiled a greeting at Cait and said to her, ‘Miss Thomas, I’m glad you’ve come in. I was just speaking to one of our suppliers of hides about a batch that’s late being delivered, which could disrupt our production schedule. It’s my guess what’s happened is that the firm has had an urgent order come in from another company, who have threatened to go elsewhere for their hides if they don’t receive supplies urgently. So what they’ve done is given them our order to keep them sweet, giving us a fabricated tale about the reason for the delay in our delivery. They never would have dared act this way with us before Mr Swinton died. Anyway, I’m waiting for a call back from their sales director with a firm delivery date, but it would carry much more weight if you’d be good enough . . .’
Cait knew the woman was going to ask her to speak to the supplier’s sales director and the thought terrified her. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Jane this so replied, ‘Well, if you’re waiting for a call I’ll make this brief. I want you to inform the foremen as a matter of urgency to pass on to the workers that in future there’ll be no more toilet breaks during working hours.’
Jane looked taken aback. ‘But people can’t be denied a toilet visit when they need one, Miss Thomas.’
‘It’s not the toilet they’re going to, though, is it? I witnessed that myself this morning when I went for a short walk and found several couples canoodling around the side of a building, two women having an argument, several other groups of people laughing and joking and smoking cigarettes . . . all on the firm’s time. So from now on the workers will visit the toilets before they start their shifts and during authorised break times only.’
Jane opened her mouth to inform Cait that all the workers in the production departments were on piecework, so weren’t paid if they weren’t physically producing anything. Those who did have an impromptu break would be up to their daily quota level as none of the workers would risk taking home a short pay packet at the end of the week. She could also assure Cait that those not on piecework were closely watched by their superiors, whose job it was to keep them in line. None of them were going to risk their jobs by turning a blind eye to shirkers. But before Jane could enlighten Cait on this, she was saying as she headed out of the office, ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
Jane immediately called after her, ‘Oh, but Miss Thomas . . . what about Mr Swinton’s funeral this afternoon?’
But Cait did not hear her. She was already out of earshot.
Jan could tell immediately she clapped eyes on Glen as he made his way over to where she was waiting for him on the canal tow path that evening that he had heard the same rumours she had. There was a grim, worried expression on his face. This, though, wasn’t the place to discuss matters, and Glen would talk about it when he wanted to. In a repetition of the previous night, they were both seated by the fire after dinner had been cleared away before he gave a heavy sigh and looked across at her, so many emotions blazing from his eyes it would be impossible to name them all.
In a helpless tone he said, ‘I don’t know what to do, Jan.’
‘About what?’