Sharp Turn - Marianne Delacourt [48]
‘Then I’ll have my husband speak with the board. John is a close personal friend of the chairman. He’ll be here any moment,’ said Victoria.
Just as she finished speaking, a man walked into the café. He was balding and middle-aged with the sort of paunch that came from too many business lunches and airplane flights.
Victoria waved and he wound through the tables to reach us. It wasn’t until he got closer that I recognised the Zegna suit.
He didn’t really look at me until he’d sat down next to his wife. Then the irritated and slightly pompous look on his face gave way to sweaty alarm as recognition hit him. He cleared his throat in a choking kind of way.
‘John, darling, this is Jane Evans and her . . . friend Tara Sharp,’ said Victoria as she slipped a possessive hand onto his shoulder and dusted invisible specks from his coat. ‘I’ve just explained to them how you’re close friends with the chairman of the school board.’
‘Oh, no need for introductions, Vicky, we’ve seen each other around. In fact, quite recently, I think,’ I said, smiling innocently at her husband.
Victoria shot John darling a questioning look.
‘Now that John is here, I’m sure he’ll agree that this is just a storm in a teacup and that the best idea would be to talk to your son about his bullying,’ I added.
I made sure my expression told him everything he needed to know: that I would totally spill about seeing him at Madame Vine’s.
‘Our son’s bullying?’ spluttered Victoria.
John grabbed her flailing hand and covered it with his own. ‘Ms Sharp is right, Victoria. I do think this has been blown out of proportion. Why don’t we just agree that it was an unfortunate incident and put it behind us? We’ll speak to Reece, and I’m sure Mrs Evans will speak to her son, and nothing like this will happen again.’
‘But . . . but . . .’ Victoria never got to finish because John gently pulled her to her feet and led her away from the table.
Smitty watched them walk through the door, then turned, grabbed my face in her hands and yanked me forward for a kiss on the cheek.
‘What the fuck just happened?’ she asked.
‘Just another example of why you love me. I saw him twice at a brothel in Leederville earlier in the week.’
Smits’ face went from puzzlement, to comprehension, to pure glee. ‘I won’t even ask what you were doing in a brothel.’ She beckoned the waiter. ‘Another slice of cheesecake for my friend.’
By the time I met up with Bolo in the car park overlooking Cottesloe Beach, I felt nauseous. A bucket of chips for lunch and two whacking big slices of cheesecake with Smitty for afternoon tea had sent my calorie intake stratospheric and my liver into contortions. I’d need to lock myself in the gym for a day to work it off.
‘Tara?’
Bolo was standing at my driver’s window so I beckoned him around to the passenger side. He got in and stared out over the Indian Ocean while I swept pie crumbs off the section of seat between us and threw them out to the seagulls.
‘I have some feedback for you,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘Shoot.’
His aura was acting weird, buffeting into me as if it were stormy waves and I was the beach. He was clearly stressed. I put it down to the death threat.
‘Found out a few interesting things about the other teams. Riley Senior is so determined to win that he’s offered his son a house.’
‘Really?’
‘And Bennett Hardware is minutes off going into liquidation.’
His eyebrows lifted. ‘I didn’t know that. Tony always plays things very close to the chest.’
‘Desperation’s always a good motive,’ I went on, ‘but from what I can see, I think winning this race and keeping the sponsors on board will be too little too late for Bennett’s. I’d be inclined to count them out. They’re about to crash and burn.’
He nodded again, grinning at my choice of expression.
‘What about Chesley?’ he asked.
‘Still working on that one. Can you tell me what the fight between Clem and Riley’s wrench, Dave, was about?’
‘You know about that?’ He ran a hand over his bald head. ‘The two of them used to work together. There’s some bad blood between them