Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles, #3)(117)

‘There’s a Miss Thornton on the line for you, Mr Bruno.’

Sebastian burst out laughing as Bruno slipped meekly out of the room. He was spreading some marmalade on a second piece of toast when his friend returned a few minutes later and greeted him with the words, ‘Damn, damn, damn.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Sally can’t make it. Says she’s got a cold and is running a temperature.’

‘In the middle of the summer?’ said Sebastian. ‘Sounds to me as if she’s looking for an excuse to call it all off.’

‘Wrong again. She said she’ll be fine by tomorrow, and can’t wait to see me.’

‘Then why not come to Cambridge with me, because I’m not fussed about what you wear?’

Bruno grinned. ‘You’re a poor substitute for Sally, but the truth is I’ve got nothing better to do.’





46


‘DAMN, DAMN, DAMN’ caused Karl to come up from the kitchen and try to find out what the problem was. He arrived just in time to see the two boys disappearing out of the front door. He ran across the hall and out on to the pavement, but could only watch as the orange MG pulled away from the kerb, with Sebastian behind the wheel.

‘Mr Bruno!’ shouted Karl at the top of his voice, but neither head turned, because Sebastian had switched on the radio so they could listen to the latest news from Wimbledon. Karl ran out into the middle of the road and waved his arms frantically, but the MG didn’t slow down. He sprinted after the car as it approached a green traffic light at the end of the road.

‘Turn red!’ he screamed, and it did, but not before Sebastian had swung left and begun to accelerate away towards Hyde Park Corner. Karl had to accept that they’d escaped. Was there a possibility that Bruno had asked to be dropped off somewhere, before Clifton drove on to Cambridge? After all, wasn’t he meant to be taking his girlfriend to the cinema that afternoon? It was not a risk Karl could afford to take.

He turned back and ran towards the house, trying to remember where Mr Martinez was meant to be that day. He knew he would be spending the afternoon watching the women’s final at Wimbledon, but wait, Karl recalled he had an earlier appointment in the City, so it was possible he might still be at the office. A man who didn’t believe in God prayed that he hadn’t already left for Wimbledon.

He charged through the open door, grabbed the phone in the hall and dialled the office number. A few moments later Don Pedro’s secretary came on the line.

‘I need to speak to the boss, urgently, urgently,’ he repeated.

‘But Mr Martinez and Diego left for Wimbledon a few minutes ago.’



‘Seb, I need to discuss something with you that’s been worrying me for some time.’

‘Why I think it’s unlikely that Sally will turn up tomorrow?’

‘No, it’s far more serious than that,’ said Bruno. Although Sebastian detected a change of tone in his friend’s voice, he couldn’t turn to look at him more closely, while he attempted to negotiate Hyde Park Corner for the first time.

‘It’s nothing I can put my finger on, but since you’ve been in London, I’ve had a feeling my father’s been avoiding you.’

‘But that doesn’t make any sense. After all, it was he who suggested I join you at Wimbledon,’ Sebastian reminded him as they headed up Park Lane.

‘I know, and it was also Pa’s idea that you borrow my MG today. I just wondered if anything had happened when you were in Buenos Aires that might have annoyed him.’

‘Not that I’m aware of,’ said Sebastian as he spotted a signpost for the A1 and moved across to the outside lane.

‘And I still can’t work out why your father travelled halfway round the world to see you, when all he had to do was pick up a phone.’

‘I meant to ask him the same question, but he was preoccupied, preparing for his latest book tour to America. When I raised the subject with my mother, she acted dumb. And I can tell you one thing about Mama, she ain’t dumb.’

‘And another thing I don’t understand is why you remained in Buenos Aires when you could have flown back to England with your pa.’

‘Because I promised your father that I’d deliver a large crate to Southampton, and I didn’t want to let him down after all the trouble he’d gone to.’

‘That must have been the statue I saw lying on the lawn at Shillingford. But that only adds to the mystery. Why would my father ask you to bring a statue back from Argentina, put it up for auction and then buy it himself?’

‘I’ve no idea. I signed the release forms as he asked me to, and once Sotheby’s had picked up the crate, I travelled down to Bristol with my parents. Why the third degree? I only did exactly what your father asked me to do.’

‘Because yesterday a man came to visit Papa at the house, and I overheard him mention the name Barrington.’

Sebastian came to a halt at the next traffic light. ‘Do you have any idea who the man was?’

‘No, I’ve never seen him before, but I did hear my father call him “major”.’



‘This is a public announcement,’ said a voice over the loudspeaker. The crowd fell silent, even though Miss Gibson was about to serve for the first set. ‘Would Mr Martinez please report to the secretary’s office immediately?’