Fire in the Blood Read Free Page A

interview seriously. He was right.’
They both smiled and Jack started to get a good feeling about the early rapport that he seemed to have struck up with this strange, outspoken young woman sitting opposite.
‘So anyway, what do you want to ask me?’
‘Okay then, and I promise there’s absolutely no tricky psychometric stuff. How old are you Annie?’
‘Twenty-four.’
‘And how many jobs have you had since you left school?’
Annie had to think for a moment, before answering, ‘About thirty. Well, give or take a couple.’
‘If you don’t mind me asking, how many times have you been sacked?’
She s miled. ‘No, I’ve never been sacked. I have been asked to leave once or twice, admittedly at fairly short notice. Once with a security escort right out the front door onto the pavement, with my stuff in a cardboard box. But no, never formally sacked. Not so far.’
‘And if you got this job, would you need to work any notice?’
‘No, I walked out of my last job yesterday, so I can start right away.’
With the preliminaries taken care of, Jack cut to the chase. ‘Okay Annie, I normally prefer to work alone, but there’s been a recent change of circumstances, which means I now need an assistant. Why do you think that might be necessary?’
‘I’ve no idea.’
‘Humour me, okay. Pretend for a minute that you’re a private detective. Just look around the office here and use your powers of observation.’
Annie paused and composed her thoughts before replying, ‘Well I suppose you could be really busy with work, making loads of money, but that’s, um, unlikely. Or you might be getting a bit past it, a bit forgetful, needing someone around to help out.’
‘You’re getting warmer … go on.’
Annie looked again around the chaotic office and said, ‘Maybe you just can’t find anything. It looks as if you badly need someone to organise things around here. Where’s your office computer by the way?’
Jack hesitated and squirmed slightly in his seat before answering. ‘It sort of gave up the ghost last month and I haven’t had a chance to replace it. So I’m mainly just using an old fax machine at the moment to communicate with clients.’
Annie was incredulous and spluttered, ‘A fax machine ? You’re kidding me, right? I saw a couple of them demonstrated at the Science Museum last year, it was so funny. Where you put a sheet of actual paper in one end, press a button and maybe, if you’re lucky, a curly, barely legible document, reeking of chemicals eventually plops out at the other end.’
Jack felt his neck and both cheeks start to burn red with technophobe shame. ‘That probably does just about cover it, yes.’
‘Well that’s just, like, so last century. I know you don’t have a website or a computer, but surely you must at least have a smart phone?’
Jack shook his head and crossed his arms, clearly now reluctant to reveal any further information beyond name, rank and number.
However, Annie was now fully into her stride and quite relentless. ‘Okay, I think I already know the answer, but how about a Facebook page, or even a Twitter account?’
‘No none of the above, sorry. They’re all the work of the devil as far as I’m concerned, but I don’t think that makes me a bad person. On the plus side of things, I do have a fully functioning flush toilet and a three-speed fan heater to get me through the winter months.’
Jack then winced as this young stranger, who he had met only ten minutes before, then summed up the pitiful current state of JD Investigations with laser-like accuracy. ‘Well, if you don’t mind me saying, you’re basically a dinosaur as far as technology and marketing goes. And to be honest, it’s not an intern that this place needs, it’s a miracle worker.’
Jack half-smiled and raised both hands in mock surrender, to stop the rant. ‘I prefer old-school to dinosaur, but I take your point.’
Annie then paused to catch her breath and rein in her enthusiasm.