Deception and Desire Read online

  A little embarrassed, Maggie looked quickly away towards the second person in the room– a statuesque redhead stunningly dressed in shocking pink. As Maggie entered she moved away from a corner bookcase where she had been idly examining the titles stacked there, meeting Maggie’s glance with a cool half-smile.

  ‘Maggie, meet Jayne and Drew,’ Steve was saying. ‘ Jayne is a designer with Vandina, Drew is …’

  ‘A professional layabout,’ the raddled man interrupted. His voice was lazy and surprisingly well educated – definitely public school, Maggie decided, Marlborough perhaps, or Clifton College, maybe even Eton or Rugby.

  ‘Drew is joking,’ Steve said swiftly. ‘He is actually a very fine artist. Drew, Jayne, meet Maggie – Ros’s sister.’

  Was it her imagination or did Maggie feel a slight change of atmosphere? No, ridiculous, it must be imagination. They would have known she was coming, surely? But there was something alert suddenly about Jayne, a sharpening of those green eyes, a slight but unmistakable curve to the scarlet lips that was not quite a smile.

  ‘Ros’s sister! Well!’ She shifted slightly on her high heels and turned her glass between scarlet-tipped fingers with a gesture that was somehow almost sensuous.

  ‘Maggie lives in Corfu,’ Steve supplied.

  ‘Gerald Durrell country,’ Drew said lazily from the depths of his chair.

  ‘Not quite,’ Maggie said. ‘I actually live near Kassiopi.’

  ‘Near enough.’

  ‘What will you have to drink, Maggie?’ Steve asked. ‘Gin and tonic? Sherry? Wine? Or something else?’

  Maggie glanced at the array of bottles set out almost haphazardly on a small pine table.

  ‘I’d love a Campari.’

  ‘Sure. With ice and soda?’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘And a slice of orange?’

  ‘Lovely.’

  He knew his drinks, she thought. So many people ruined Campari by adding lemon instead of orange. She watched him make the drink, as deftly as a professional bartender, and was aware of Jayne watching her.

  ‘So – what are you doing in England?’ Drew asked. ‘If I lived in Corfu I don’t think I’d ever leave.’

  Maggie hesitated. She had come tonight with the express intention of trying to discover something that would lead her to Ros, but to begin on the subject now, when she had scarcely stepped inside the door, seemed inappropriate.

  Steve, crossing the room with her drink, seemed to sense her hesitation and answered for her.

  ‘Maggie came over to see Ros, of course. The trouble is Ros has taken it into her head to disappear.’ He handed Maggie her drink, his eyes meeting hers almost conspiratorially, and once again Maggie sensed that momentary charge in the atmosphere without being able to identify it.

  She took her drink, sipping gratefully at the slightly bitter concoction which Steve had mixed in perfect proportions.

  ‘That is unfortunate for you,’ Jayne said. Her voice was silky.

  ‘Yes.’ Again Maggie hesitated, wondering if it was still too early to talk about Ros, but she was saved again, this time by a voice from the doorway.

  ‘Hello everyone. Sorry not to have been here to greet you.’

  Maggie turned to see a slender figure with silver-blonde hair, dressed all in black, and at her shoulder a pink-faced man, no taller than the woman, with thinning hair brushed carefully across his shining pink scalp. Both were more formally dressed than any of the others, though her little black dress would have gone almost anywhere and his dark suit was probably identical to the one he wore for business.

  ‘Dinah! We were wondering where you were!’ Jayne said, kissing her rather theatrically on both cheeks.

  ‘I had some business I wanted to discuss with Don. I didn’t want to bore the rest of you with it.’

  ‘We wouldn’t have been bored. Heavens – I eat, drink and sleep the business, Drew will tell you that. What was it?’

  ‘No, Jayne, not now …’

  ‘But later perhaps,’ Don Kennedy said. He was standing just behind Dinah’s shoulder – like a royal consort, Maggie thought irrelevantly. ‘Dinah has had a stunning new idea and she’s tried it out on me. But I’m the wrong person to give an opinion. You, Jayne, would be much better qualified.’

  ‘What sort of idea?’

  ‘Something to retrieve the Reubens fiasco,’ Dinah said, ‘but I’m quite sure Maggie doesn’t want to hear us discuss business. You are Maggie, aren’t you? And I’m Dinah.’

  She spoke graciously, but Maggie could not avoid noticing the slight stiffness in her manner.

  ‘Yes. I’m very pleased to meet you, but I do hope I’m not intruding.’

  ‘Not at all. Any guest Steve chooses to invite is more than welcome.’ But the edge was still there and Maggie noticed she had been referred to as Steve’s guest, not Ros’s sister. ‘May I introduce Donald Kennedy?’ Dinah went on, indicating the man at her elbow. ‘Don looks after the Vandina finances, but he is also one of my oldest friends.’

  ‘I wouldn’t put up with being referred to like that if I were you, Don,’ Steve said.

  ‘Oh, I don’t mind. Why should I?’

  ‘I would have thought ‘‘most valued friend” would be a more tactful way of putting it. ‘‘Oldest” makes you sound as though you are in your dotage.’

  Don turned a little pinker. No sense of humour, Maggie thought. But Drew was smirking unpleasantly and Maggie experienced a wave of dislike for him. This was a man who would take a malicious delight in the discomfort of others, she was sure.

  ‘Shall we eat, then?’ Dinah suggested.

  She led the way across the hall to a dining room which was furnished in much the same style as the drawing room, with cottagey rattan rather than the elegant period furniture Maggie had half expected. The curtains, still open to reveal a view across open countryside, were of a chintzy material in softly faded blues and greens, the same fabric covered a small sofa and the cushions which formed the seats of the dining chairs. The glass-topped table had been laid with bright alfresco style pottery, carafes of wine and water and a basket of Italian-style bread sticks.

  ‘You are sitting beside me, Maggie,’ Steve said, pulling out a chair for her.

  ‘It’s rather odd, isn’t it?’ Drew remarked lazily as he took his place on her right. ‘That is where Ros usually sits. Tonight we have the pleasure of her sister’s company instead.’

  There was a small awkward silence. Into it Steve said easily: ‘And very charming company it is too.’

  Jayne was moving into the seat directly across the table from Maggie; as Steve spoke Maggie happened to glance up and catch a look that could only have been pure dislike on the other woman’s face. Had that look been meant for her or was it a reflection of Jayne’s feelings for Ros?

  She shouldn’t have come, Maggie thought uncomfortably as a pretty but rather harassed girl served them gazpacho. She should have insisted on an interview with Dinah at the office and kept the whole business of her enquiries on an impersonal level. There was no way she was going to learn anything here about Ros’s disappearance. The evening was going to be nothing but an embarrassing waste of time.

  Her misgivings continued as the meal progressed. But by the time pudding was served – a delicious apricot mousse covered with thick cream and tiny crisp meringues – she had begun to wonder if there was more behind her discomfort than simply being an outsider.

  The others did not seem genuinely at ease with one another either. For a group of people who worked together and were supposedly friends there was an atmosphere that might almost have been described as artificial.

  Drew remained aloof, reinforcing her first impression of him as an observer enjoying his own private joke at the expense of others, and Don Kennedy was quiet and seemingly preoccupied. Dinah, though she chattered brightly, seemed a trifle brittle as if there was hidden tension beneath the poise. As for Steve …

  Since he was sitting beside her it was inevitable he
should talk mainly to her, and when the conversation turned so frequently to topics of which she knew nothing, he was surely only being a good host when he made efforts to include her. But Maggie felt instinctively that there was more to it than that. She could not help noticing the sly little glances at Jayne, and she wondered if the attention he was paying her was partly for Jayne’s benefit. This suspicion was strengthened by Jayne’s own reaction – she had noticed and she did not like it. She was laughing too loudly but there was a hard set to her mouth and a steely sparkle in her green eyes whenever they came to rest on Maggie. Was it simply that she liked being the centre of attention, or was it more than that? With a woman like Jayne it was almost impossible to tell.

  When the meal was over Dinah asked the rosy-cheeked girl to serve coffee in the drawing room, but as the others filed out she took Maggie to one side.

  ‘You must think me very rude,’ she said with a smile that made her look suddenly very young. ‘I’ve hardly had the chance to speak to you at all, Maggie.’

  Maggie flushed slightly, wondering if Dinah had read her thoughts.

  ‘You had other guests too,’ she said quickly. ‘And Steve has been looking after me very well.’

  ‘Yes.’ The smile played again on Dinah’s lips. ‘I had noticed. But he said you wanted to talk to me about Ros. I’m not sure I can help but perhaps this might be a good moment. You are worried about her, I understand.’

  ‘Very worried. No one has the faintest idea where she is and I wondered if she might have said something to you.’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘She didn’t mention plans of any kind?’

  ‘No. To be honest I’m amazed at her letting me down like this. I rely on Ros. Since my husband died she has been a tower of strength. The whole thing is totally out of character, especially when she knows how busy we are. I simply can’t imagine why she should go off and not even let us know when we can expect her back.’

  Dinah’s bewilderment was obviously genuine and all Maggie’s fears began to reassert themselves. During the meal, awkward though it had been, it had somehow seemed impossible to believe something dreadful had happened to Ros. Now, brought face to face once more with the fact that she really had disappeared without a word of explanation, Maggie felt the sick weight of anxiety knotting her stomach once more.

  ‘It’s not possible, I suppose, that she could have … gone off with someone?’ she asked. ‘I mean, she has a steady boyfriend, Mike Thompson, but I just wondered if there might be someone else in her life – someone she was having an affair with, perhaps – a married man, say, or … oh, I don’t know.’

  ‘No,’ Dinah said. Her response was very quick and very definite – almost too quick and definite. ‘No, I don’t know of anything like that.’

  ‘So there wasn’t gossip of any kind at Vandina?’ Maggie persisted.

  ‘Not that I’ve ever heard. No – I’m sure not.’

  ‘I see.’ Maggie hesitated. ‘There is one other thing. Ros had mentioned that there was something odd going on at work. You wouldn’t have any idea what she was talking about, I suppose?’

  Dinah frowned. ‘ Something odd? What on earth do you mean by that?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Maggie hesitated again; she had promised Liz not to mention Ros’s suspicions to Dinah – but tough! All very well for those close to her to want to protect Dinah for whatever reason; the only thing that mattered to Maggie was finding out what had happened to Ros.

  ‘I don’t actually know what Ros meant by it,’ Maggie said, ‘but I think she may have suspected industrial espionage of some kind.’

  Dinah’s response was immediate. The colour drained from her face and one slender hand flew to her throat.

  ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Maggie said. ‘ I didn’t mean to give you a shock, but I thought it might be important.’

  Dinah fingered a fine gold chain that circled her throat.

  ‘It’s not so much a shock exactly, more a confirmation of something I had considered myself and very much hoped was not true.’

  A tingling sensation ran down Maggie’s arms and concentrated itself in the tips of her fingers.

  ‘You mean you think Ros might have been right?’

  ‘I’m afraid I do. Something has happened within the last few days – another company has gone public with designs so similar to the ones I had planned for a spring launch that it did occur to me that there might have been a leak. I have been trying to persuade myself it was just coincidence, creative brains plugging into the same wavelength – it does happen. But if Ros suspected a mole … When did she say this?’

  ‘I don’t know exactly.’

  ‘But before she went … wherever she has gone.’

  ‘Obviously.’

  ‘And well before we knew anything about Reubens copying our designs. Oh, it’s too dreadful! To think that somebody inside Vandina is actually working for Reubens …’ Her tone was rising sharply, she was verging, Maggie thought, on hysteria. But having gone so far she had to go on now, driven by the almost certain confirmation that Ros had been right.

  ‘Look, I know this sounds melodramatic,’ she said. ‘But is it possible they might be dangerous?’

  ‘Dangerous? A mole is very dangerous. He – or she – can undermine a whole company.’

  ‘I don’t mean dangerous to the company. I mean really dangerous – violent. Supposing Ros found out who it was – might they … ?’

  She never finished the question. Steve appeared in the doorway.

  ‘Dinah, the coffee is getting cold …’ He broke off, taking in their pale faces and the strained atmosphere. ‘What is going on here?’

  ‘Steve – Maggie tells me Ros suspected someone in Vandina of spying. Industrial espionage, you know?’

  Steve raised an eyebrow. ‘A fairly obvious conclusion, I would have thought, in view of the Reubens episode.’

  ‘I didn’t think so.’

  ‘You wouldn’t – you didn’t want to.’

  ‘Of course I didn’t want to! It doesn’t bear thinking about – someone we work with and trust doing something so dreadful …’

  ‘Don’t upset yourself, Dinah.’ He put an arm around her. ‘ Not tonight. Not with a drawing room full of guests. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.’

  ‘But …’

  ‘Tomorrow.’ He glanced at Maggie. ‘Do come and have your coffee.’

  With an arm around Dinah he ushered them into the drawing room. The others had all stopped talking – presumably listening to what was going on.

  ‘Dinah, are you all right?’ Don was on his feet, oblivious to anyone else in his concern for her.

  ‘Not really, Don. There’s a suggestion that someone at Vandina is working for Reubens. That whoever it is leaked them the designs for the new range.’

  There was a small silence, broken only by Drew’s amused laugh.

  ‘Dinah!’ Steve said warningly, but Dinah ignored him.

  ‘I’m terribly upset. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘I’ve told her, there’s nothing we can do tonight,’ Steve said soothingly. ‘We’ll start investigations tomorrow. I’ll conduct them myself. Don’t worry, Dinah, if there is anything in this, we’ll get to the bottom of it.’

  ‘But in the meantime keep your drawings for your replacement idea under lock and key,’ Don warned her.

  ‘What is this replacement idea of yours, Dinah?’ Jayne asked, her eyes sharp.

  ‘Dinah has had an inspiration for a way to compensate for the Reubens fiasco – a range of luggage of which the bags are just a part.’ In his anxiety to console her Don had obviously forgotten his earlier misgivings. ‘But if Reubens really do have a spy in the camp we’d do well to keep any mention of it between ourselves for the moment. We don’t want them stealing this idea as well.’

  ‘They wouldn’t dare,’ Steve said decisively. ‘Luggage would be much too big a venture for them.’

  ‘How do you know?’
<
br />   ‘I’ve been doing some homework. Oh, they’re bold and they want to eat into our share of the market. But I doubt that at their stage of the game they have the facility to branch out that we have.’

  Drew chortled again. He seemed to be finding the whole thing outrageously amusing. Jayne silenced him with a furious glance.

  ‘How will you go about finding out who the mole is?’ Don asked. ‘We need to know fast or none of our future plans can be regarded as safe.’

  ‘There are ways.’ Steve was refusing to be rattled. He passed a cup of coffee to Maggie and another to Dinah as he spoke. ‘The first thing is to check the credentials of everyone who has joined the company recently. Everyone who had access to the designs, that is. If that doesn’t throw anything up then I shall set a trap.’

  ‘This sounds like something straight out of a James Bond film,’ Drew said lightly. ‘What sort of a trap, Steve?’

  ‘I think I shall keep the details of that to myself.’

  ‘Which means you haven’t a clue. And just for the record, dear boy, who will be checking your credentials? You are quite new on the scene yourself, aren’t you?’

  ‘This isn’t a joking matter, Drew!’ Don snapped, but Steve merely shrugged elegantly.

  ‘You’re quite right, Drew – as far as it goes I suppose I could be a candidate. But I’d hardly be likely to cheat my own mother’s company. And in case you are in any doubt, the fashion-world contacts that can be made on an oil rig are zilch.’

  ‘That was a preposterous thing to say, Drew,’ Dinah said. She sounded close to tears. ‘But then the whole thing is preposterous. Vandina employees are like a family to me. I just don’t know who could do such a dreadful thing.’

  ‘I should have thought it was obvious,’ Jayne said.

  They all turned to look at her, reclining in one of the squashy chairs, endless legs crossed with elegant grace in front of her. She smiled, looking from one to the other of them as if relishing the attention.