New Directions (14)

‘Christine, Julian and Margaret worked on this until eleven last night. They wouldn’t go home until they found something.’ Dev stayed calm, but I knew he was annoyed.

I prepared myself for a slice of humble pie. ‘Well I can see you’ve all done an excellent job. I understand now why you wanted to explain how you found this Mercer guy. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. It was rude. I’m very sorry. Please accept my apology.’ The tension in the room eased. The two next to me smiled acceptance and almost in unison looked over to Dev.

‘Terence, we were hoping you could use your experience to find this Mercer fellow. I know it may inconvenience you, but I’m more than happy to pay you for the work.’

I didn’t need a crystal ball to tell me what was on Dev’s mind. I already knew my reply. ‘Dev, I think said once before I’m not a private dick and I have no intention of being one. As far as I’m concerned you’re a friend who needs some help. I won’t take a penny in payment. The only thing I want to know is what you want me to do when I find him. Do you plan to hand his address over to the law or do you want me to, erm . . . there’s only one way to say this. Warn him off?’

‘Avoiding police involvement would be preferable. Julian called the lady’s bank manager this morning. He’s agreed to hold payment for up to seven working days until he receives a firm request from Miss Bowes to cancel the cheques. No money can pass to him. If you met him and explained he could be in trouble if he continued doing this kind of thing to Daniel’s clients, perhaps we could leave it at that.’

‘Good, ‘cos if you wanted to go to the police with this, you’re on your own. Oh and Dev, there is something else I’d like to discuss with you before I get started.’

‘Fire away, Terence.’ Dev leaned back in his chair looking relaxed.

‘We’ll talk about when this meeting is finished.’

‘Oh I see.’ Dev, no longer appeared relaxed, ‘Well, um I think we have covered everything, haven’t we?’

Christine and Julian both began speaking at the same time pretty much saying the same thing, ‘What should we do about informing Miss Bowes?’

Dev hesitated. I jumped in. ‘I reckon you should make a personal visit, Dev. She seems to have a great deal of respect for you.’

‘Well maybe Julian could go? I don’t usually—‘

‘Dev, she doesn’t know Julian, she will get confused. It’s not that simple you’ve got explain about the scam. Then tell her about changing to Daniels for real and most tricky of all, get her to tell the bank to cancel the cheques.’ I turned to Julian, ‘No offence, but I don’t think you can do it alone,’ the look on his face told me he agreed.

‘Well could you go with Julian, she does think you’re the account’s manager.’

Dev’s reluctance pissed me off. ‘For Christ’s sake, Dev. You have to go it’s the only decent thing to do. . . . OK I’ll go with you . . . we can discuss the other matter I mentioned in the car on the way over.’

‘Terence do you mean we go today?’

‘Now, Dev as soon as we finish this meeting. . . . If you want my help that is.’