Almost a Crime by Penny Vincenzi

phoned after lunch that day by
    the press officer who had suggested the photocall. Had he
    made his decision yet and if so when would it be
    convenient for the photocall to be set up? ‘The minister and
    his own family are more than happy about this.’
    Bob Macintosh said that he was still very unhappy about it, but that he was prepared to consider it, and that he would, in any case, prefer any future discussions to be held
    not with him, but with his advisers at Fleming Cotterill.
    The press officer said that sounded unnecessarily complicated,
    that it would be far better just to arrange things
    between the two of them. Bob Macintosh said that in that
    case there was nothing to arrange, and that he felt it should
    be known that a journalist had approached him direct about
    the affair, very anxious to hear his version of the story.
    Five minutes later he phoned Fleming Cotterill. ‘He said
    he’d be in touch with you, Tom. I do hope this is going to
    work.’
    Tom said he was very confident that it would and settled
    down to wait for a call from Westminster.
     
    The first call Tom received came not from Westminster,
    but Felix Miller, disproportionately irritated at Tom’s
    failure to return his call. Most of his emotions with regard
    to Tom were disproportionate, certainly the less pleasant
    ones. It was something they both recognised, but were
    totally unable to do anything about. Felix, because his
    hostility to Tom was so deeply rooted, an intrinsic part of
    the passionate emotion he felt for Octavia; Tom, because
    short of lying down and dying, as he had been heard to
    remark, nothing he could do would endear him to Felix.
    All they could do was dissemble, struggle for courtesy.
    ‘Hallo, Felix. Good of you to ring. Sorry about
    yesterday. Got terribly tied up.’
    ‘Yes, yes. Pity though. Probably too late now.’ It wasn’t
    of course, but he wanted to make his point. Tom should
    return phone calls promptly; it was not only discourteous,
    but inefficient, not to.
    ‘Well, in case it’s not, maybe we should meet? With your
    man.’
    ‘I’ll have to speak to him, Tom. He may not actually
    want to pursue it. All other things being equal, though,
    you’d be able to take it on, would you? Got the capacity
    and so on?’
    ‘Yes, Felix, we have the capacity.’
    ‘Because better not get involved at all if you can’t cope
    with the workload.’
    ‘We can cope.’
    ‘So you say, but if you’re too busy to return a phone
    call…’
    ‘That was not an indication of our overall capacity, I do
    assure you. I didn’t personally have the time to phone you
    yesterday morning. An assistant would not have done, I
    imagine? I was in one long complex meeting after another
    and—’
    ‘Yes, yes, all right. You’ve made your point. Well, I’ll
    endeavour to set up a meeting. With my contact. Cadogan’s
    his name, Nico Cadogan — his company’s Cadogan
    Hotels, as I expect you know.’
    ‘I certainly do. Very interesting company. Although not
    doing terribly well just at the moment.’
    ‘You hadn’t heard any rumours? About a bid?’
    ‘No,’ said Tom, ‘but—’
    ‘I’d have thought your ear was closer to the ground that
    that. Anyway, it’s no secret. Or won’t be much longer.
    Western Provincial are after him.’
    ‘That would be an interesting marriage.’
    ‘One that naturally Cadogan wants to prevent.’
    ‘Naturally,’ said Tom. ‘Difficult, though. Can’t always be
    done, in my experience.’
    He had picked up on the analogy about marriage,
    thought Felix, regretting he had used it. Tom didn’t often
    get to score points off him, but when he did, he enjoyed it.
    ‘Well, it would be up to you to prevent it,’ he said
    shortly. ‘Anyway, I’ll set up a meeting. I’ve done quite a
    hard sell on you, Tom, but from now it’s entirely up to
    you. Now, while you’re on the phone, is Octavia all right?’
    ‘Yes, I think so. Why?’
    ‘She sounded terribly tired the other night. She