Chapter Thirty-Nine
Gabriel called through to his secretary and asked if she had the information he had been looking for. Letta had told him not to look into the FCA investigation, but he couldn’t help himself. He was certain she was innocent, and he wanted to help prove that. The fact that his father had chosen to hit Letta when she was at her weakest and evict her was a thorn that he couldn’t excise. He knew the old man was ruthless, but this was simply spiteful, and he hated the fact that he was connected to any source of misery imposed on Letta.
At least now he understood the depth of her tears. He had looked up her bio online. There wasn’t a lot, but the bare bones made for a rollercoaster read. Born into a large and happy family she had been orphaned at the age of fourteen and her eldest sister had fought through the courts to take legal guardianship of her little sisters. Ten years later they inherited the family title and estate and swept from poverty to the upper echelons of British society. Letta – he couldn’t bring himself to think of her as Nick – had already built her own business, though; she was properly self-made. Being investigated and evicted must have reminded her of being orphaned and threatened with foster care.
The investigations on the island must have ripped straight through any plaster that she had applied to her grief and fears.
Elena buzzed him and told him the links were on his screen and he started to look through the social media photos that Elena had culled from various accounts. Apart from a LinkedIn account Letta had almost no social profile. She turned up in lots of photos standing beside her sisters, although Paddy had stopped posting after she stepped down from the modelling world and Clem’s accounts were full of her fashion rather than herself. Ariana’s account was scrubbed clean, presumably to protect the privacy of her children. The youngest sister Aster didn’t even have a profile.
There wasn’t much to go on and if Gabe was honest, he was wasting time – he just liked looking at photos of Letta. She rarely smiled directly into a camera lens but in unguarded group shots he would spot her somewhere in the back of a crowd; he imagined that she was looking for the exit. He laughed as he looked at the next one – it was clearly an office Christmas party and Nick was actually standing in a doorway ready to leave. The foreground was dominated by a group of people laughing and chatting in front of the camera, champagne bottles were swinging, and poppers were streaming. In his desire to look at another picture of Letta he almost missed it. Staring closely at one of the girls, blowing on a party streamer, he recognised her face.
Pressing his intercom he asked his secretary to get HR on the line and waited. A minute later he was connected; he might not appreciate being a Harrington, but no one in his father’s company would ever keep a Harrington on hold.
‘Mr Harrington, it’s Lydia Rodham here. What can I do for you?’
Lydia was exactly the right person to speak to, she was head of HR for all the Harrington subsidiaries.
‘It’s a bit sensitive, I’m trying to remember the name of Luke Rees’s fiancée. I think she worked in Acquisitions. ’
Luke Rees was one of the bankers that had been found guilty by the court during the collapse of the Bank of Harrington’s. No evidence had been found against any of the Harrington family directly but some of their staff had been found to be behaving beyond the scope of the law. Luke was one of four men that had been found guilty and given a custodial sentence. They hadn’t done much actual prison time, but their days were over in terms of being able to work in the financial sector ever again.
‘That was Daisy Hall.’
‘Thank you. And does she still work for us?’
‘Hold on. No, she left about eighteen months ago. And we don’t seem to have any details of where she went.’
Gabe looked out the window and wondered.
‘Is there anything else I can do for you?’
‘Do we have any notes on how she responded to Rees’s trial?’
‘Lots of sick days, a few reprimands from her line manager. Quite aggressive towards the company, her colleagues, couriers. Basically, it looks like she was a hot mess before she left.’
‘Was she fired?’
‘No, it looks like she just handed in her notice and disappeared.’
And turned up in a photo with Letta at a work’s Christmas do , thought Gabe. Thanking Lydia, he hung up and asked his secretary to find out when the photo was taken and what was going on in the image .
Why did a woman start working for the person who had been instrumental in sending her fiancé to jail? He could think of a few reasons and none of them were good.