Chapter 4
Jamie couldn’t get through to his sister.
This was it. This was their chance to make a new life away from the corporate rat race, away from their past, away from the incessant clashes between people pulling them away from their dreams.
He’d vowed to take care of her but recently it had been the other way around.
He’d left her at the hotel and told her not to leave her phone and now he was cut off from her. He went through all the scenarios in his head regarding what could have gone wrong. Low charge. That was it. Her phone was on low battery, so she’d plugged it in somewhere and forgotten about it. Or she could have gone to the toilet, she could be in the shower, she might have nipped downstairs at the guesthouse to order food, or she might have been exposed.
What was it that Sandy had said to him?‘She’s in love, Jamie. A woman in love is a woman distracted.’Had she been too distracted to see danger? He hoped not.
Only one of the explanations made any sense to him, and a creeping feeling of regret and fear settled in his gut, and he couldn’t shake it.
He tried her number again.
Nothing.
The conference was going well. Today was Tuesday, only the second day of the convention, so why did he feel sick to his stomach? All he had to do was see it through. He was lead chair of the annual innovation convention of Hampton-Dent Pharmaceuticals. This year, the setting had been suggested by him. As a relatively junior CEO of one of their premier healthenterprises, FairGro, touting everything from green juices to supplements for the gym, he was a rising star and they listened to him. The old guard at the centre of the empire was on its way out and Jamie was their new blood.
He’d chosen the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Lake District, and it was a masterstroke. It was remote, familiar and suitably impressive. The conference was about wellbeing after all, and gurus, bloggers, podcasters and scientists from all over the world had been invited to take part in the four-day event at the exclusive Heron Hall Hotel on the shores of Rydal Water.
It sounded idyllic.
He tried his sister’s number again.
‘You look as though you’re calling the police to report a dead body,’ a voice said behind him.
He swivelled around and saw Paul, his partner, standing in the hall outside the main conference room. Compared to Jamie’s beguiling charm, which he’d honed from years of grafting in sales, Paul looked more comfortable at the bar sporting a pint of lager and a pork pie. Jamie was the embodiment of the firm’s ethos, smart and stylish; Paul was the sturdy foundation, hard-wearing and brawny.
‘No, I just can’t get hold of Angie,’ he said.
Paul frowned. Jamie knew that his long-standing partner had a thing for his sister, and had done since they were starting out, in the bedsit they’d rented in London after working on the chemical components of a compound they believed could transform the health industry. Paul’s concern was touching but Jamie suspected it was more to do with the eight million dollars they each stood to make from their headline product. If everything went to plan. If Angie picked up her goddamn phone.
They were what was commonly referred to as flying. They were living their best lives. They were on the up.
And shouldn’t you always quit when you’re ahead?
‘You worry too much,’ Paul said, right on cue, suddenly confident again. He was the level head to Jamie’s nervous energy.
Jamie smiled, but it wasn’t one of his light-up-the-room usuals; it was reserved and hesitant. Paul slapped him on the back and Jamie flashed a wide, veneer-enhanced grin.
‘I spoke to the lab this morning,’ Paul said, as if that would help.
Jamie raised his eyebrows.
‘The results are in, and the new batch is completely safe.’
Jamie stopped and stared at Paul. They were both in their late twenties, with the world at their feet. They were intelligent, financially wealthy, and their product sought after, but Paul couldn’t half be a stupid fucker.
‘Mate, “safe” and “FairGro” shouldn’t be said in the same sentence,’ Jamie said.
‘Shut up! Jesus, here of all places. Christ, keep your voice down,’ Paul warned.
Jamie laughed. ‘Since when were you scared of them? You know what’s going on at Dow Bank House, as well as I do, and Angie knows it too.’
Paul glared at him.
‘And once this thing gets out, it’s all over. Boom.’ Jamie threw his hands apart as if simulating a nuclear explosion of biblical proportions. Paul looked terrified, but Jamie was losing patience with him, with Sandy, with the lot of them. They’d sold their souls for money and it was starting to show.
