‘You try that again and I’ll …’
‘You’ll what?’ Theo challenged. ‘You’re acting like a real …’
‘Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere,’ Ricky intervened. ‘If Bullet doesn’t want to go to the police then we need to come up with a different strategy.’
‘You can’t agree with what he’s doing?’ Theo asked, aghast.
‘That’s not the point, is it?’ Ricky shook his head. ‘The police are out. So what do we do to flush out the person who’s behind all this? That’s what we have to work together to decide.’
Casting a filthy look in Bullet’s direction, Theo swallowed the anger rising in him like bile and sought to control his temper. ‘Will someone please tell me what’s going on?’
‘We’ve told you all you need to know, Theo,’ Ricky said quietly. ‘Let it go.’
‘Oi! You three. You know you’re not allowed to be in here during breaktime.’ Mr Appleyard the caretaker stood at the open classroom door, waving them out.
Theo looked around. They were alone. Everyone else had left the classroom. Theo had been so wrapped up in what was going on with Bullet and Ricky that he hadn’t even noticed.
‘Come on. I haven’t got all day,’ Mr Appleyard snapped.
Theo followed Ricky and Bullet out of the classroom, but the caretaker was way down the list of things on his mind. Ricky and Bullet had all his attention. Why was he being excluded? What were they up to?
‘I know how we can go forward from here,’ Bullet said as they left the classroom and Mr Appleyard behind. ‘I think we should go and see my dad after school.’
‘Your dad? You mean at his office?’ Theo questioned.
Bullet nodded. ‘It’s not far. And that way we’ll have the chance to see the people he works with. I’ll phone him this lunch time and arrange it. Agreed?’
‘Agreed.’ Ricky spoke for both himself and Theo.
And Theo couldn’t help resenting it. And the way they told him some bits and kept other bits secret. But going to Mr Marriott’s was a good idea and as he couldn’t come up with a better one, he kept quiet.
The next step was to suss out Mr Marriott’s colleagues, and once that was done then they’d all be in a better position to figure out who wanted Darius Marriott and Bullet permanently out of the way.
Chapter Fifteen
Office Life
‘CAN WE SEE Mr Marriott, please?’ Bullet asked.
‘Mr Marriott? Mr Darius Marriott?’ the receptionist questioned.
Theo glared at her. How many Mr Marriotts did they have in the building, for goodness’ sake?
‘Yes, that’s right. Can we see him, please? He’s expecting us,’ said Bullet.
‘He is?’
‘That’s right. He’s my dad.’ Pride laced every beaming word. Theo smiled faintly to himself but said nothing.
‘Just a moment.’ The receptionist picked up the phone receiver and pressed four numbers in quick succession. She gave the three boys a suspicious look before swivelling her chair away from them and cupping her hand over the mouth piece before she spoke.
Theo raised his eyes heavenward. This woman wouldn’t have been out of place working for the American CIA.
‘What’s your name?’ the receptionist asked Bullet.
‘Toby. Toby Barker.’
‘And your names?’
‘I’m Ricky Burridge and this is Theo Mosley,’ said Ricky.
The receptionist swivelled her chair away from them again. She whispered into the telephone receiver, nodding, then shaking her head as she spoke. A few moments later she put down the receiver, a look of surprise on her face. ‘Take the lift up to the third floor. You’ll be met.’
‘Thank you.’ Bullet smiled, more than a hint of smugness turning up his lips.
Theo and Ricky followed Bullet to the lift. Theo turned to look out of the glass-fronted reception area into the street beyond.
‘What’s the matter?’ Ricky asked.
‘D’you think we’re still being followed?’ Theo asked tentatively.
Ricky turned to look out into the street too. ‘I don’t know. If we are being followed then they’ve got better at it.’
Theo nodded his agreement as they all stepped into the lift. Ricky checked the buttons in the lift. ‘Seven floors! Does the whole building belong to your dad?’
Bullet nodded.
‘Wow!’ Ricky whistled, impressed.
They entered the lift and headed up to the third floor.
‘Why are we here again?’ Theo asked drily.
‘Moral support,’ Bullet answered at once. ‘Plus three heads are better than two or one.’
‘You didn’t think that earlier this morning,’ Theo muttered.
‘Pardon?’
‘Nothing.’ Theo looked away from the speculative glance being directed at him by Ricky. Theo knew he was being silly, but he couldn’t help it. Being excluded still rankled. The lift doors opened and they all stepped out.
‘Hi. Toby?’ A woman with impossibly red hair and a wide smile beamed at all of them.
‘Yes, I’m Toby.’ Bullet put out his hand.
‘And Ricky?’
Ricky nodded.
‘And you must be Theo.’
‘That’s right.’ Theo nodded as well.
‘Welcome. Darius said you might be popping in this afternoon for a tour. I’m Joanne Fleming. Call me Jo – everyone does. It’s great to meet all of you at last. Toby, Darius has told me so much about you.’
‘Has he?’ Bullet was pleased.
‘Are you kidding? He’s spoken of nothing else. I must admit, it was a bit of a surprise for all of us when we heard he had a son. A long-lost son you might say. But now he’s found you – or you found him.’ Jo grinned.
Ricky and Theo exchanged a glance. Goodness, but this woman could chat! She hardly paused to draw breath. But Theo liked her! She was friendly and bubbly. Theo suspected that most people would like this woman. They walked through the double doors at the end of the short corridor to find themselves in a large, open plan area with offices running down one side of it.
‘Let me introduce you to some of the people your dad works with.’ Jo walked almost as quickly as she talked. Theo had to practically trot to keep up with her. ‘This is Yves Hamilton’s office. He’s our Sales and Marketing Director.’
They approached an office with a painted wooden door and fluted, frosted windows on either side of it. Jo rapped smartly on the door and, without waiting for a reply, opened it immediately.
A black man with short hair at the sides and no hair at all on top, turned around in his chair to face them, his fingers still poised over his computer keyboard. He wore gold-rimmed glasses which dominated his face. His jacket was slung over his chair and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
‘Hi, Yves. This is Toby, Darius’s son, and his friends, Ricky and Theo.’
‘Is it now? Hi, there.’ Yves stretched out his hand to Bullet, who shook it. He waved to Theo and Ricky who stood behind Bullet, out of reach. ‘So what brings the three of you to this neck of the woods?’
‘Dad said he’d show us around.’
‘Ah yes! Your dad warned … told us about changing his will. So I suppose it’s only right. All this is going to be yours one day.’ Yves smiled.
Bullet returned the smile uneasily. ‘Not for years and years yet.’
Yves nodded but didn’t reply.
‘So what exactly do you do, Mr Hamilton?’ Theo asked.
Yves looked at Theo with surprise. Theo realized that the man had forgotten he was standing there. Bullet had all of his attention.
‘I’m in charge of making sure that we market and sell our products in the most cost-effective, efficient and profitable way possible.’ Yves smiled.
‘D’you do that all by yourself?’
Yves burst out laughing. ‘Thank you for your confidence in my super-human abilities but no, I don’t. I have a team of about one hundred and thirty in
this country alone. The sales staff are based at our other offices up and down the country, although most of the marketing staff are based in this building.’
‘Didn’t I see you a couple of weeks ago at our school when Mr Marriott came for a visit?’ bluffed Theo.
Yves Hamilton’s smile vanished. ‘That was the morning Darius had his heart attack, wasn’t it?’
Theo nodded.
‘You couldn’t have seen me. I was in a marketing strategy meeting all morning.’
‘My mistake.’ Theo shrugged. ‘I thought I saw you there but I’ve obviously got it wrong.’
‘Jo, you were there, weren’t you?’ Yves turned to Darius’s personal assistant.
‘Yep! At the back of the hall watching. Faith was there too – which is just as well because when it all happened, I’m afraid I lost it. Faith accompanied Darius to the hospital and I came back here. It gave me quite a shock to see Darius keel over like that, I can tell you.’ Jo shrugged. ‘Thank goodness he’s OK now.’
‘I still think he should be taking it easy. He’s trying to do too much.’ Yves shook his head.
‘You know Darius,’ Jo smiled. ‘The doctor at the hospital told him that it probably wasn’t a heart attack so he signs himself out and he’s back to work a couple of days later. You can’t keep a good man down!’
‘Well, I’ll tell you what I told him. He’s being too hasty. He should give himself time to recover. If it wasn’t his heart giving him a warning, then it was something going wrong somewhere in his body. You don’t just hit the deck for no reason. He needs to slow down.’
‘Yes, Yves. I’m sure Toby and his friends didn’t come here to hear your views on Darius’s health.’
Yves Hamilton looked at Toby sheepishly. ‘I guess I’m simply a fusser at heart! It’s just that your dad is not only my work colleague but a very good friend. I’d hate to see anything happen to him.’
‘Well, sorry to interrupt you, Yves. I’ll let you get on with it. Next stop – Faith Shanley’s office. She’s our R&D director.’
At Ricky’s puzzled look, Theo supplied, ‘Research and Development director.’
‘Oh.’ Ricky nodded his thanks.
They moved along to the next office. There was no need to knock, for this door was already open.
‘Hi, Faith.’
Faith Shanley slammed shut the drawer she’d been rummaging in before she looked up. She was pretty in a cold, detached sort of way. She had jet-black hair and the lightest blue eyes Theo had ever seen. They were so light as to be almost colourless. It gave her the strangest appearance.
‘Are you busy?’ Jo smiled.
‘Yes I am, actually,’ Faith declared icily. She glared at Toby, then Ricky and Theo.
‘This is Toby Barker, Darius’s son. And these are his friends, Theo and Ricky.’
Faith Shanley continued to scrutinize them all without saying a word. Finally she barked out, ‘Shouldn’t you three be in school?’
‘School’s over for today,’ Bullet informed her.
‘Already? It’s only four-thirty.’
‘School finishes at three-thirty.’
‘That early? No wonder you children leave school not knowing your backside from a hole in the ground!’ Faith snorted with disgust.
Charming! Theo glared at the R&D director. With her people skills – or the lack of them – Theo wouldn’t let her direct traffic, much less the research and development department.
‘Jo mentioned that you were at our school when Darius collapsed on our school stage.’ Ricky shook his head. ‘It must have given you quite a shock.’
‘I was in the car waiting for him. The first I knew about it was when the ambulance pulled up.’ Faith frowned. ‘I promised myself when I left school that I’d never set foot in another one and I’m a woman of my word.’
‘Yes, er … I can see you’re busy, so we’ll leave you to it.’ Jo hustled them out of Faith’s office and moved them down to the next one. ‘Don’t mind Faith. She’s been a bit … preoccupied over the last couple of weeks.’
Theo looked at all the secretaries and other workers busy at their computers in the open plan office. Talk about living in each other’s pockets. In the open plan you couldn’t even make a phone call with any degree of privacy. He’d hate to work anywhere quite that exposed. Anyway, the situation wouldn’t arise. He was going to be a world-famous, first-class detective.
‘Now this is Ron Westall’s office. He’s the company secretary. I don’t know if you know this Toby, but Ron started DemTech with your dad.’ Jo popped her head around the door and looked around the empty office. ‘Now where’s he got to?’ Jo straightened up to look around the rest of the open plan. ‘Oh well! He’ll turn up.’
‘If Ron Westall started the company with Mr Marriott, why does DemTech stand for Darius Evan Marriott Technologies?’ Theo asked.
‘I’ll answer that,’ a voice piped up from behind them.
Theo swung around. An older man than Darius with chestnut-brown, wavy hair, twinkling blue eyes and a friendly face grinned at them. The silvery strands in his hair were many. He kept running his fingers through his hair in an effort to stop it flopping down over his face.
‘I’m Ron Westall. And to answer your question, I’ve always been a “get on with it behind the scenes” kind of guy. Darius has always been better at presenting our ideas than me, so I let him get on with it. But the first couple of successful inventions DemTech engineered were based on ideas I had. I had the ideas, Darius put up all the money. Another reason the company is named after him.’
‘But we couldn’t do without you.’ Jo smiled.
‘Jo, you’re too good to me.’ Ron’s smile broadened.
‘Are you going to the dance on Saturday?’ Jo asked.
‘Will you be there?’
Jo nodded.
‘Then of course I will,’ Ron beamed.
‘Ron, you are such a flirt,’ Jo said drily.
‘What dance?’ Theo whispered to Bullet.
‘It’s the DemTech annual company summer dance. They’re all going to some swish hotel,’ Bullet whispered back.
‘Jo, d’you know if Yves and Faith are going on Saturday night?’ asked Ron.
‘They both said they were – although Faith said she might have to duck out early.’
‘She always says that, and then she’s one of the last ones to leave!’ Ron chuckled. ‘Anyway, I’d better get back to my office. I wouldn’t want to be accused of slacking.’
Ron walked off with a wave. Jo carried on walking down the corridor formed by the offices on one side and half-partitions on the other. ‘This office at the end here belongs to your dad. I think his wife is in there at the moment but I’m sure she won’t be too long.’
They all stopped outside Darius’s closed door. Theo could hear Samantha Marriott’s muffled voice through the door and she didn’t sound happy.
‘I don’t think so …’ Samantha’s voice was becoming louder and more shrill.
Theo heard the lower baritone of Darius’s voice, although he couldn’t make out the words.
‘You can’t do this to me, Darius.’ Samantha’s words rang out loud and clear. ‘I won’t be treated like a pair of old shoes.’
‘At least old shoes were once of some use. You’re just …’ The rest of Darius’s inaudible answer seemed to make things worse, not better.
‘I’ll make you pay for this – I swear I will.’ Samantha was practically screaming by now.
Without warning, the door burst open and Samantha came careering out to crash straight into Jo.
‘Did you have a good time, listening at the keyhole?’ Samantha sneered.
‘I did no such thing, Mrs Marriott,’ Jo replied evenly. ‘We were just waiting for you to come out.’
Only then did Samantha realize that Jo wasn’t alone. Her eyes narrowed into wafer thin slivers of dislike when she saw Toby.
‘Come to inspect your inheritance, have you? Let’s hope you live lon
g enough to enjoy it.’
‘Mrs Marriott, I think that’s enough,’ Jo said quietly.
‘Who d’you think you’re talking to?’ Samantha rounded on the PA. ‘You’re just the hired help around here and don’t you forget that.’
‘Jo is absolutely right.’ Darius’s ice-cold voice piped up from behind his wife. ‘That will be quite enough.’
The look Samantha Marriott directed at first her husband and then Jo was scalding. Without another word she marched off.
‘Don’t take any notice of Samantha.’ Darius smiled at Toby. ‘She’s a toothless dog with a very loud voice! Come in. Come in! Welcome. Thanks, Jo.’ Darius shut the door after Ricky had entered the room, leaving Jo outside.
‘Have you just arrived? What’ve you seen so far?’
‘Jo introduced us to the other directors of DemTech,’ said Bullet.
Darius smiled. ‘Good! Now then … let’s see … How would you like to see our research and development labs? I’ll show you where we’re testing the Lazarus suit.’
‘That’d be great, Dad,’ Bullet enthused.
‘Yeah. Thank you, Mr Marriott,’ said Ricky.
Theo nodded his thanks. This Darius Marriott was a world apart from the one in the hospital. Maybe the last couple of weeks spent with Bullet had started to mellow him out a bit.
‘This way then,’ said Darius, cheerfully.
They all trooped after him as he led the way to the lifts.
‘Er, Darius, you have the Chivers meeting in less than five minutes.’ Jo came running after him.
‘Make them comfortable and tell them I’ll be with them in about fifteen minutes,’ Darius said.
‘But Mr Chivers …’
‘Jo …’ Darius’s smile had disappeared.
Jo’s sunny expression shut up like a penknife. ‘Yes of course, Darius.’ She nodded quickly. And she scurried back to her table outside Darius’s office.
‘Sorry about that.’ The smile appeared again.
As they stepped into the lift, Theo cast Darius a speculative look. This man was a right Janus – a man with two faces. The public face he used to impress people and make the world think he was wonderful, but his private face was a lot nastier. And Theo knew which one he believed to be Darius Marriott’s true face.