Dead Heat - By Dick Francis & Felix Francis Page 0,119
cups of coffee, while Viola just sat there. I didn’t recognize either the barman who took the order, or the waitress who delivered it. I suspected that none of the happy team from six years ago would remain. But what hadn’t changed was the restful view of the six-arched ancient stone bridge that spanned the river, the endless sounds of gurgling water, and the seeming calmness of a mother duck gliding along in the sunshine followed by a line of six tiny fluffy chicks.
‘What a beautiful place,’ said Caroline. ‘Have you been here before?’
‘This is where I learnt to cook,’ I said.
‘Really.’ She was surprised. She had looked at the menu while I ordered the coffee.
‘It’s changed a lot,’ I said. ‘Where the bar is now is what used to be the restaurant. I’m rather sad to see that it’s all gone a bit downmarket. The place was taken over by a chain obviously more interested in selling beer than in fine dining.’
‘So why did we come here now?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I suppose I wanted somewhere peaceful to think, and to plan.’
‘So what is the plan?’ she asked eagerly.
‘I don’t know that either,’ I replied. ‘But first I’m going to make a few calls.’
I turned on my mobile and used it to telephone the car hire company in Newmarket. No problem, they said, keep the Mondeo as long as you like. They took my credit card details and told me that I would be charged weekly. Fine, I said, and hung up.
The phone immediately rang in my hand. It was my voice message service.
‘You have six new messages,’ it told me, and then played them. One was from Clare Harding, the news editor, belatedly thanking me for dinner, and the other five were all from Carl. He needed to speak with me, his disembodied voice repeatedly told me. Over the five successive messages he became more and more agitated that I hadn’t been in touch.
I rang him. He was relieved and delighted that I called, but I was hardly delighted with what he told me. ‘I need you back here,’ he said urgently. ‘And now.’ Things had clearly gone downhill quickly since we spoke on Saturday.
‘What’s the matter?’ I asked, concerned. It was not like Carl to be in a panic.
‘I’ve had to fire Oscar,’ he said. ‘Gary caught him in the office going through the papers on your desk, and some of the petty cash was missing too. Oscar denied it. But, then, he would, wouldn’t he? But that’s only the half of it. He was disruptive in the kitchen with Gary all last week. Then the two of them had a stand-up row on Saturday. I thought Oscar was going to stick Gary with a fish filleter at one point.’ A fish filleter is a very sharp, very thin, eight-inch-bladed kitchen knife. Sticking anyone with a fish filleter was very likely to prove very terminal, very quickly. I was very glad that Oscar had gone.
‘But surely you and Gary can cope without him for a few days?’ I said.
‘We could if Gary was here,’ he exclaimed. ‘He’s got bloody chicken pox and the doctor’s told him to stay at home for the next ten bloody days.’
‘Can’t you get another chef from the agency?’ I asked him.
‘I’ve tried that,’ he said. ‘They’ve got the hump over Oscar. They say we didn’t treat him right. I ask you. He was nothing but a bloody menace.’
‘Apart from all that,’ I said to him, ‘is everything else all right?’
‘No, not really,’ he replied. I wished I hadn’t asked. ‘Jean wants to know when we are going to replace Louisa. She claims she is being worked too hard in the dining room. I told her to shut up or get out, and now she has the hump too.’
I wasn’t surprised. Staff management had never been Carl’s strong point.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Is everything else fine?’
‘No, it’s not,’ he said. ‘Jacek says he wants more money. He says that the other kitchen porter gets more money than him and it’s not fair.’ Jacek’s English must be getting better, I thought. ‘I also told him to shut up or get out,’ Carl continued. ‘He’s still here today so I presume he’s shut up. But when are you coming back?’ Soon. I feared that, if I didn’t get back there quickly, the whole business would be destroyed.
‘I’ll call you again later to let you know,’ I said.