The Sleeping Partner Read Free Page B

Street.’
    â€˜Oh … Yes, of course. Mrs Granville called in to see me this week.’
    â€˜Yes, well … She’s staying in London at the moment in a flat lent her by a friend, and I don’t happen to have the address by me. I wonder if you could tell me what it is.’
    There was a pause at the other end, and then a dick. ‘Hullo,’ I said.
    â€˜Er – where are you speaking from, Mr Granville?’
    â€˜My works in Letherton.’
    â€˜Yes, I see. Er—’
    â€˜You have her address?’
    â€˜Yes, we have it. She gave it us this week when she called in. We were to forward any correspondence.’
    I said: ‘Would you care to ring me back? That would establish who I am.’
    â€˜Of course. Yes … Actually this puts us in rather a difficult position because Mrs Granville left us with instructions not to give her address to anyone asking for it. Naturally—’
    â€˜I do happen to be her husband.’
    â€˜Exactly. Nevertheless in the face of these explicit instructions … I wonder if you would allow us to write to Mrs Granville and get her formal permission?’
    Someone tapped and half entered but I waved them angrily out.
    â€˜Can’t you ring her?’
    â€˜Unfortunately she didn’t leave a number.’
    I thought quickly, wanting to slap down the receiver but knowing I wouldn’t.
    â€˜When would you hear?’
    â€˜Let me see, today’s Friday. Posted this morning we might get our answer tomorrow. But Monday would be safer. If you’d care to ring us again then … or we’ll ring you.’
    â€˜Thank you,’ I said. ‘Perhaps you’ll ring me.’
    When I put down the phone Bill Read the works manager came in and we talked for a time on routine business; but I think I gave him even less attention than I’d given Dawson. What made me feel most sore and angry was that as early as last Monday Lynn had hinted to Ray French that she was going away; she had called, to see the bank manager and arranged things with him; she had warned Mrs Lloyd; only I had been kept in the dark. I was the enemy, the one she made plans to defeat.
    I went with Read into the factory to inspect some monitors we were making for a South African diamond syndicate for fixing at the gates of the mine so that if anyone went through carrying a diamond – even if it was inside him – an alarm bell rang. While we messed about, and in spite of Lynn, things registered; chiefly that the shortage of inspectors was the biggest bottleneck. Completed parts were piling up for lack of people with the technical knowledge to check them.
    Suddenly Read said: ‘ What about this girl who’s made a pig’s ear of the delay lines?’ When I stared at him he said: ‘Dawson complained, didn’t he?’
    â€˜My dear Read,’ I said, ‘ Frank’s been with me from the start and he has a privileged position. He’s head of the laboratory and pretty smart there but he doesn’t understand a thing about factory organisation. On the assumption that you do I employ you to make what arrangements you think fit. Well, make them. I can’t be a universal Aunt Nellie for the whole bloody workshop.’
    The saving grace of Read was that you could talk to him like that. He grinned his fox-terrier grin. ‘Anyway, don’t you want to know what I’ve done about it?’
    â€˜Not particularly.’
    â€˜Thanks … In fact I’ve taken steps. I don’t think it’ll happen again.’
    I went down the passage to the laboratory. Only Frank Dawson was there, and Stella Curtis. Because there was a row outside they didn’t hear me come in and I stared across at her for a bit. If my marriage had smashed up for the reasons Lynn implied and not because she was just fed up with me, then the job this girl was working on was as responsible as any other single thing for the break.
    Or