Chapter 5
Vidya felt a lot better once she’d finally had a shower.
She dried her hair and put some clean clothes on.
She debated whether to wear the pair of jeans she’d brought with her.
The guys had both been in suits, but it was after hours now.
After some dithering, she decided smart casual was the way to go and put on a dress with a cardigan over it.
Her hotel room was near the top of the building, which meant she had a wonderful view of the sea.
The room itself was small, with just enough space for a desk, which doubled as a dressing table.
Vidya opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the tiny balcony with its iron fretwork railings.
There was only enough room to stand, but the view was spectacular.
The late March sun shone weakly on the sea, casting it in a shifting, gleaming gunmetal grey.
She was high enough up that the seagulls were mostly below her, annoying the tourists, although she noticed, warily, that they could fly higher.
The breeze blew her hair back, reminding her that it was still damp.
She had arranged to meet the two men at seven at the hotel restaurant. There was still plenty of time.
Vidya looked down at the promenade far below.
They had said they were going for a walk.
She got a definite vibe that they were a team already and she was an interloper.
The first impression she’d made, covered in seagull poop and stressing, was not what she’d hoped for.
Sarah had said all she had to do was show them she was confident and professional, and she had completely failed to do that.
Ah, well. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would do better. In the meantime, she had three missed calls from Udeni. She stepped back inside and called her sister.
‘Are you there? Did you see him?’
‘Hello to you too,’ Vidya said. ‘And yes, I am here. I met him, very briefly.’ She outlined what happened.
It took a full minute for Udeni to stop laughing.
Looking back, it probably was quite funny.
It had been mortifying at the time. And the guys had been …
pretty nice about it. One of them had given her tissues and they’d both sat with her luggage while she got the worst of the goop out of her hair.
‘So, what do you think?’ said Udeni, cautiously. ‘Did you learn anything useful?’
‘I think Angie was probably right about discounting Leo from the candidates,’ she said.
It had been clear that of the two men, Caleb was the chatty one.
Leo had been quiet and aloof, standing back with a slightly judgy expression on his face.
He had seemed fidgety and impatient as Stella showed them the meeting room they would be working in and sorted out their guest passes so that they could get into the non-guest areas of the hotel.
She couldn’t imagine Leo being described as kind, funny or sexy.
Caleb, on the other hand, had been charming.
He was exactly the sort of guy Udeni would hook up with.
‘Angie’s finding out more about Piotr,’ said Udeni.
‘You know, it would be so much easier if you could just meet them. I’m sure you’d work it out in a second.’
‘Look, I don’t even want to work it out. You’re the one who’s convinced we need to know stuff about the father,’ Udeni said.
Vidya pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘You might want to know at some point.’ She knew this was all part of Udeni being in denial.
She tried a different angle. ‘It’s for the baby too.
They’ll want to know when they’re old enough.
And it would be useful to have as much information as we can about the biological father – from a genetic point of view. ’
Udeni sighed. ‘Yes, yes. Fine. But you are not allowed to tell him. Only I get to decide about that.’
Which was fair. It was Udeni’s body. Her baby. Her choice.
‘I think Caleb could potentially be our guy. But I don’t know for sure. I’ll keep working on it,’ Vidya said. ‘Hopefully, we’ll be able to eliminate him or Piotr soon.’
‘All you need to do is check if he has a tattoo on his shoulder,’ said Udeni, with infuriating calm.
‘I can’t very well go up to a work colleague and ask to see his tattoos, can I?’
‘Why not?’
‘For the same reason I can’t ask them outright if they had a one-night stand. I’d get reported to HR for inappropriate conduct. Especially if it turns out to be the wrong guy.’
‘Oh, yeah, okay, maybe not. But maybe you could guide the conversation towards it …’
Vidya sighed. ‘All this is so awkward. The things I do for you.’
‘You know I love you, though, right?’ Udeni’s voice was more upbeat than it had been in days. That was good.
Vidya honestly didn’t understand her sister at times.
Quite apart from the one-night stand thing – where Udeni seemed blithely unconcerned about the fact that she couldn’t remember what the guy looked like – she genuinely seemed to think that she didn’t need the baby’s father in her life.
Not even financially. There was a real chance that Vidya would do all the detective work, find out everything about Caleb, and Udeni would still decide she wasn’t going to tell him anyway.
Vidya had to respect her sister’s wishes though.
All she could do was make sure Udeni had the option to tell him – if and when she wanted to.
Vidya checked the time. ‘I should go downstairs. I’m meeting the guys for dinner. ’
‘You’re eating out on the company account. Make sure you have something lovely.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘I suppose.’
‘Aw, come on. You’re having dinner with two hot guys,’ said Udeni. ‘And someone else is paying. That sounds like the best dinner plan ever. I’d have so much fun with that.’
That was the difference between them. Udeni saw everything as fun. She never thought of the consequences – which happened, obviously. But then again, she didn’t have to, because Vidya could worry enough for the both of them.
***
Leo wished he could just go to his room.
They had chosen to have dinner in the hotel restaurant that evening.
It was an unremarkable place, with unremarkable food.
Everything felt terribly awkward. He was never really comfortable socialising but today seemed to be extra hard.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Whenever there was a chance to contribute to the conversation, he would look at Vidya and his brain would go blank.
Thankfully, Caleb could chat enough for three.
So, Leo sat at the dinner table, eating his salmon quietly, while Caleb made small talk with Vidya.
When the meal finished, Caleb said, ‘We should go to the bar and grab a drink before we head our separate ways.’
Leo really didn’t want to. ‘It’s been a long day—’
‘Oh, come on. We’re going to be working together, quite closely, for the next few days. We should get to know each other. Break the ice, as it were.’ Caleb turned to Vidya. ‘What do you say?’
Leo hoped she’d say no. They were all professionals here. They didn’t need to be friends to work together.
Vidya’s luminous eyes moved from Caleb to Leo and back again. ‘Just one,’ she said.
Leo gave up. ‘Sure.’ He paid up and they walked down to the bar. The hotel wasn’t exactly busy, but there were people in the bar. They found a table in the corner and got a round of drinks. Vidya opted for a gin and tonic. The two men got the craft beer.
Vidya leaned forward. ‘You guys were at the anniversary party, right? You came in wearing suits and rabbit masks.’
‘Oh, yes. That was fun.’ Caleb laughed. ‘We weren’t intending to go to it, but we’d just wrapped up quite a big project and it seemed only right to go celebrate. Just as well I’d ordered the masks the night before.’
‘You were Zorro,’ Leo blurted out, surprising everyone, including himself.
Vidya blinked at him. ‘I … I was. Yes.’ She gave him a small smile. ‘I’m amazed you remembered.’
‘You had a Z on your chest,’ he said. This had bothered him at the time, which was probably why he’d noticed her in the first place. ‘Why would Zorro carve a Z into his own chest?’
Her lips contracted, making a moue, like she was about to blow him a kiss. But she was frowning. He had the sinking feeling that he wasn’t doing very well at this ice-breaking thing.
‘I just noticed,’ Leo said. ‘That’s all.’ Then, because that didn’t seem enough and he didn’t want her to think he was being weird, he added, ‘It was a very nice Zorro costume. You looked very … Zorro-like.’
Her lips curved back into a small smile. ‘Thank you. I think so.’ She blinked, as though working out what to say next, then seemed to give up and turned to Caleb. ‘Did you have a fun time at the event? Since you came in late.’
Leo knew he’d messed up that conversation somehow.
Caleb was chatting as though nothing was wrong. ‘We’d been for a drink beforehand, so that we weren’t totally behind everyone else.’ He smiled at her. ‘How about you? Did you have a nice time?’
‘I did, yes,’ Vidya said. ‘My sister—’
She was interrupted by Caleb’s phone ringing. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘I have to get this.’ He stood up and headed out of the bar, leaving Leo, Vidya and an awkward silence.
Leo cast about for something to talk about. ‘So,’ he said. ‘You’re vegetarian?’
‘Pescatarian,’ she said. ‘Yes.’
‘Me too.’
They both nodded. Leo took a gulp of his drink. The awkwardness stretched.
Vidya looked around and seemed to come to a conclusion. ‘Do you think we’ll be able to get this review done in the time we have?’ she asked.
Ah, work. They were on firmer ground now. ‘I think it’ll be a challenge,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of contracts to check.’
‘That’s what I thought too, from what Stella said.’
‘Well.’ He felt his shoulders unclench a fraction. It was always safe to talk about work. He didn’t need to think quite so hard about that. ‘We’ll have to see the extent of it when we get hold of the files tomorrow.’
‘There’s absolutely no way we’ll get through all those hanging files we saw today.’
‘No. I think you’re right there.’
They both sipped their drinks. This seemed okay. Whatever it was that had made his social skills desert him must be wearing off. The silence between them didn’t seem so strained anymore.
Vidya seemed to be thinking. Suddenly, she said, ‘Do you think your boss sent only a team of three out here for such a big job on purpose?’
‘Charlie?’ Of course he did it on purpose. He was trying to make the team fail so that he could nudge them out. Could he say that out loud though? ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘You’d have to ask him.’
She gave him a look that said she already knew. ‘I’ve been out of the general admin pool for a while,’ she said. ‘But I see that fee-earner politics hasn’t changed.’
This amused him. ‘No. I guess it never does.’
***
Vidya didn’t know what to make of Leo. He seemed so …
inscrutable. The only thing he seemed comfortable talking about was work.
Caleb was cheerful and charming – she could see how Udeni would have fallen for that, especially after a few drinks.
When Caleb was around, Leo seemed more relaxed too.
He didn’t contribute much to the conversation, apart from the odd comment, but she could tell that he was paying attention.
A lot of people at work had said he was difficult to work with. Did they say that because he wasn’t very sociable? Or was there more to it? She stirred her drink, making the ice clink against the glass. Leo was looking at the paintings on the walls, sipping his drink.
Now that he’d mentioned it, she remembered meeting him at the office party.
She had left the main room, in search of the toilet and he had been standing in the hallway, rabbit mask pushed up onto the top of his head, checking his phone.
He was still there when she came back. He studied her as she walked up to him.
‘Are you dressed as Zorro?’
She thought it was pretty obvious. She had the mask and hat and everything. ‘Yes.’
‘It’s … good. Well done.’
This was clearly not what he had meant to say. She gestured to the rubber mask that was scrunched up on top of his head. ‘Nice rabbit mask.’
He pulled it off and looked at it with distaste. ‘It was a last-minute choice. To enter the spirit of the thing. You know.’
She nodded, her thoughts already drifting back to finding where her sister had disappeared to. ‘Catch you later.’
He had given her a nod and set off as well, walking away from the hall.
Back in the present, Vidya considered what this meant.
He hadn’t seemed very drunk when she saw him and it looked like he had left early.
So, Angie’s assertion that Leo was definitely not the man they were looking for checked out.
They could safely remove him from the list of potential candidates. Which meant she could focus on Caleb.
She needed to think of a way of verifying whether Caleb was the father, maybe by verifying whether he had that tattoo.
While she figured out how to do that, she could find out more about him as a person.
She threw another glance at Leo, who was still pretending to be looking at the artwork.
Thank goodness it wasn’t that guy. He was so very awkward and closed off.
Finding information about him would be a nightmare.
At least Caleb was chatty. If she asked enough questions, under the guise of being friendly, he was bound to tell her useful things.
It wouldn’t be hard to do, because she genuinely was interested.
When Caleb finally came back, he looked a little worried.
Leo said, ‘Everything okay?’ His expression barely moved, but she somehow sensed that he was genuinely concerned about Caleb. How strange? They must be friends, more than mere colleagues.
‘Ah … yes. Just family stuff.’ He slid back into his seat.
Vidya watched as Caleb seemed to shrug off his worry and switch back into sociable mode. ‘So, what did I miss?’
Leo flicked his eyes up to the ceiling. Wait, was he rolling his eyes? Was he making fun of himself? But he wasn’t even cracking a smile.
‘Oh, right.’ Caleb grinned and gave Leo a gentle punch on the shoulder. ‘I forgot it was you. So, I didn’t miss much then.’
So, Leo was laughing at himself. Interesting.
She hadn’t expected him to have much of a sense of humour, but it turned out she was wrong.
She watched him finish his drink. What a strange man.
And then there was Caleb, who seemed to be very fond of him.
What was he like? She had a few days to find out.
Vidya took a good sip of her gin and tonic. This was going to be a challenging eight days.