Read Online Dark Eyes of London by Philip Cox - Free Book Online Page B

together ? I don’t mean just in the same office, but seeing and doing the same stuff.’
    ‘No. She was involved in her client accounts, and I was in mine.’
    ‘So - she was the only person dealing with her client accounts?’
    ‘Oh, no - each account is looked after by a team of four or five.  An account manager, and three or four others.’
    ‘Have you got any suspicions? Any clients or other staff members who might not be what they seem?’
    ‘No, none at all.’
    Tom thought for a moment. Their walk had taken them off the bridge, and along the south side of the Serpentine. He paused outside a WC.
    ‘You okay to hold on a minute?’ he asked.
    She looked around anxiously, then nodded.
    ‘Only be a sec. You’re right out in the open here; nothing’s going to happen.  In any case, I’ll be less than a minute.  Promise.’
    ‘Okay.’ She put her hands in her coat pockets and shivered.
    Tom ran into the gents.  He was as good as his word: less than a minute later he was on his way out.  In his haste to get back out to Amy, he collided in the doorway with a man who was on his way in.  He froze as he and the man came face to face. He was very tall, more than Tom’s five feet eleven, but his height was accentuated by his thin, wiry frame. He was wearing a dark grey overcoat over a dark suit, matching tie and white shirt. For a moment, Tom’s gaze was   fixed on the  man’s face.   He had longish hair, combed back to just below his collar. It was the colour of the hair which caught Tom’s eyes: it was a brilliant white. Not silver,  nor a bit grey, but white. His face was gaunt, and pale.  Another feature of his face caught Tom’s attention: his eyes.  Rather than blue, or hazel, or brown, or any other commonplace combinations, they were red. Bright red.
    ‘Sorry,’ Tom muttered, as he squeezed through the doorway, keen to get back to Amy, a little embarrassed at how he had momentarily stared at this man’s face, and surprised, if not unsettled, by the expression on the man’s face.  It was one of pure hate and malice, heightened by the two burning red eyes.
    Tom hurried back to the pathway and to Amy. He quickly turned back to look at this man - albino, that’s what people like him are called, he recollected. Like the rabbit.  No sign of him, though; must have gone into the gents.
    Amy was waiting.  She gave him a slight smile.
    ‘Sorry about that,’ Tom said, as they started walking again.
    ‘Where were we?’ he asked.
    ‘You were asking about any of her workmates.  If I was suspicious of any of them.’
    ‘Which you’re not.’
    ‘No.  Sorry.’
    ‘If you want to get to the bottom of what happened to Lisa; as I do...’
    ‘I’d like to, yes. If I can.’
    ‘How about putting our heads together?’
    ‘U-huh.’
    ‘You sure?’
    She stopped walking and folded her arms, hugging herself. ‘Sure.’
    ‘You’re still working there, right?’
    Amy nodded.
    ‘Is there any way you could get anything about the cases she was working on?’
    ‘I don’t know. The stuff she was dealing with might have been reallocated.’
    ‘Worth a try, though?’
    ‘Sure.  I’ll try.’
    ‘You’re back at work Monday, right?’
    Amy nodded again.
    ‘Would you be able to try then?  Please?’
    ‘Okay.  I’ll try.’
    ‘Good girl.’ He reached out and squeezed her arm. She didn’t resist. ‘Don’t forget, you’re not in this on your own.’
    She smiled.  ‘I know.’
    ‘Give me a call Monday night.  Talk about what you could dig up.’
    ‘No promises I’ll be able to...’
    ‘I understand. But call me Monday anyway. Yeah?’
    ‘Sure.’
    ‘Okay then. Nice to see you again. Talk Monday.’
    ‘Monday,’ she repeated, and started to walk away.
    ‘Are you getting the tube back home?’ Tom asked. ‘I was going to walk down to Knightsbridge station.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘Haven’t been able to face the tube since - well, you know. I’ll get the bus. Only one