Ghost Writer Read Free Page A

to do. First, we went to Mc Murtee’s
office. His desk had been cleared of all personal stuff – but the
business matters were there – neatly piled. We gathered them
up.
    Then we went to the Director’s
office – Bryan’s domain. The room was a mess. Untidy piles of
correspondence, bills, invoices and catalogues lay on his desk. The
filing cabinets were partly open and files had been shoved back in
roughly.
    “Bryan’s work?” I asked with an
arched brow.
    “No. Bryan is a sticker for
keeping things as they were. Dad kept the place tidy, so Bryan did
too.”
    “Someone searching for
something,” was my next suggestion.
    “Who knows?” Susannah shrugged.
“How would I know if something was missing?”
    “True. Let’s tidy up. I’ll take
the file cupboard – you do the desk.”
    Susannah began picking up odd
items from the desk and said thoughtfully, “Bryan always said
cleaning was woman’s work.”
    I said nothing. I always thought
it was the servants’ work. I looked at the files. The files were
not just out of order; the contents were just thrown in anyhow. I
found specification sheets in with invoices and bank statements in
with other correspondence.
    “The company makes meters?” I
asked as I scanned spec sheets.
     
    “Instruments,” Susannah
corrected. She passed a catalogue across to me. “Our speciality is
aero-instruments but some can be used in cars and boats too. We
also service instruments, maintain them, calibrate them and issue
certifications of accuracy.”
    “Do all instruments look the
same?”
    “Most of the ones made by other
companies are square or round. Ours are hexagonal.”
    “I’ve seen these before,” I
said, trying to recall where. “Aero-instruments. I must have seen
them in my plane.”
    An hour later, it was time to
let the employees in. We were not much wiser – but the office was
tidy.
    The men were standing around
outside, talking in small groups. Many were smoking, but all kept
glancing at the door. Susannah took a deep breath and opened it.
Her presence caused all conversations to cease. She didn’t need to
raise her voice to be heard.
    “Gentlemen, I need to talk to
all of you, so if you would wait in the staff room, I will join to
you there.”
    Susannah stepped back out of the
way and returned to Bryan’s office.
    “They know something is up,” she
told me.
    “Naturally,” I said calmly. “How
often are they greeted by such a beautiful decoration?”
    Susannah knew I was teasing
her.
    “What will I tell them?”
    “For now – just that Mc Murtee
is gone. Don’t mention the other matter until we’ve looked at it a
bit more.”
    “Business as usual, huh?”
    I shrugged one shoulder. You’ll
have to talk to the senior staff after that. No need to mention me,
I’ll just be taking notes.”
    I studied the men’s faces as
Susannah spoke. They seemed relieved when she explained that Mc
Murtee had left for personal reasons. It made me wonder what
rumours were going around.
    Within moments of returning to
Bryan’s office we had our first visitor. I saw an old man, still
stocky and solid, with grey hair thinning on top of his head.
    “Clarrie,” Susannah greeted. “I
wanted to talk to you. You’ve been around since before Bryan took
over – there are things I need to know.”
    “Any help I can give, Suze,”
Clarrie offered immediately. “Any news of Bryan?”
    “Nothing new. How did he seem
the day he disappeared?”
    “Pretty normal. He was a little
worried because the number of orders had dropped off. The Kittering
order helped. That’s the biggest order that we’ve had for years.
John organised that.”
    I lost the plot then. Kittering
– that was my surname. I realised then, that this company had been
responsible for installing the new instruments in my plane. Small
world.
    I started paying attention again
as Susannah was explaining about the charge of negligence against
the company.
    “No way, Girl!” Clarrie argued.
“Young