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?’
Don Pedro didn’t react at once, and then he rose slowly from his place, and said, ‘Something must have gone wrong.’ Without another word, he began to barge his way past the seated spectators towards the nearest exit, with Diego only a pace behind. Once Don Pedro had reached the gangway, he asked a programme seller where the secretary’s office was.
‘It’s that large building with the green roof, sir,’ said the young corporal, pointing to his right. ‘You can’t miss it.’
Don Pedro walked quickly down the steps and out of Centre Court, but Diego had overtaken him long before he reached the exit. Diego quickened his pace and headed towards the large building that dominated the skyline. He occasionally glanced back to make sure his father wasn’t too far behind. When he spotted a uniformed official standing by a set of double doors, he slowed down and shouted, ‘Where’s the secretary’s office?’
‘Third door on the left, sir.’
Diego didn’t slow down again until he saw the words Club Secretary printed on a door.
When he opened it, he came face to face with a man wearing a smart purple and green jacket.
‘My name is Martinez. You just called for me on the tannoy.’
‘Yes, sir. A Mr Karl Ramirez phoned and asked if you would ring him at home immediately. He stressed that it couldn’t be more important.’
Diego grabbed the phone on the secretary’s desk and was dialling his home number when his father came charging through the door, his cheeks flushed.
‘What’s the emergency?’ he demanded between breaths.
‘I don’t know yet. I only have instructions to ring Karl at home.’
Don Pedro seized the phone when he heard the words, ‘Is that you, Mr Martinez?’
‘Yes, it is,’ he said, and listened carefully to what Karl had to say.
‘What’s happened?’ said Diego, trying to remain calm, although his father had turned ashen white and was clinging to the edge of the secretary’s desk.
‘Bruno’s in the car.’
‘I’m going to have it out with my father when I get back this evening,’ said Bruno. ‘After all, what can you possibly have done to annoy him, if you only carried out his instructions?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Sebastian as he took the first exit off the roundabout on to the A1 and merged with the traffic travelling up the dual carriageway. He pressed his foot down on the accelerator and enjoyed the sensation of the wind blowing through his hair.
‘It could be that I’m overreacting,’ said Bruno, ‘but I’d prefer to get this mystery sorted out.’
‘If the major is someone called Fisher,’ said Sebastian, ‘then I can tell you, even you won’t be able to sort it out.’
‘I don’t understand. Who the hell is Fisher?’
‘He was the Conservative candidate who stood against my uncle at the last election. Don’t you remember? I told you all about him.’
‘Was he the chap who tried to cheat your uncle out of the election by fixing the vote?’
‘That’s him, and he also tried to destabilize Barrington Shipping by buying and selling the company’s shares whenever they were under any pressure. And it might not have helped that when the chairman finally got rid of him, my mother took his place on the board.’
‘But why would my father have anything to do with a creep like that?’
‘It’s possible that it may not even be Fisher, in which case we’re both overreacting.’
‘Let’s hope you’re right. But I still think we should keep our eyes and ears open just in case either of us picks up anything that might explain the mystery.’
‘Good idea. Because one thing’s for certain, I don’t want to get on the wrong side of your father.’
‘And even if one of us does find out that for some reason there’s bad feeling between our two families, it doesn’t mean that we have to become involved.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said Sebastian as the speedometer climbed to sixty, another new experience. ‘How many set books did your tutor expect you to have read by the beginning of term?’ he asked as he moved into the outside lane to overtake three coal trucks driving in convoy.
‘He recommended about a dozen, but I got the impression that I wasn’t expected to read all of them by the first day of term.’
‘I don’t think I’ve read a dozen books in my life,’ said Sebastian as he passed the first of the lorries. But he had to brake sharply when the driver of the middle lorry suddenly pulled out and began to overtake the one in front. Just at the point when it looked as if the driver would pass the front lorry and return to the inside lane, Sebastian glanced in his rear-view mirror to see that the third lorry had also moved into the outside lane.
The lorry in front of Sebastian inched its way forward allowing it to draw up alongside the lorry that was still on the inside lane. Sebastian checked his rear-view mirror again, and began to feel nervous when he saw that the lorry behind him appeared to be closing in.
Bruno swung round and waved his arms furiously at the man driving the lorry behind them, while shouting at the top of his voice, ‘Get back!’
The expressionless driver just leant on his steering wheel as his lorry continued to move closer and closer, despite the fact that the lorry in front still hadn’t quite overtaken the one that remained in the inside lane.
‘For God’s sake, get a move on!’ screamed Sebastian, pressing the palm of his hand firmly on the horn, although he was aware that the driver in front wouldn’t be able to hear a word he was saying. When he looked into the rear-view mirror again, he was horrified to see that the lorry behind him was now no more than a few inches from his rear bumper. The lorry in front still hadn’t progressed enough to move back into the inside lane, which would have allowed Sebastian to accelerate away. Bruno was now waving frantically at the lorry driver on their left, but the driver maintained a constant speed. He could easily have taken his foot off the accelerator and allowed them to slip into the safety of the inside lane, but he didn’t once glance in their direction.
Sebastian tightened his grip on the steering wheel when the lorry behind him touched his rear bumper and nudged the little MG forward, sending its number plate flying high into the air. Sebastian tried to advance a couple more feet, but he couldn’t go any faster without running into the front lorry and being squeezed between the two of them like a concertina.
A few seconds later they were propelled forward a second time as the lorry behind them drove into the back of the MG with considerably more force, pushing it to within a foot of the lorry in front. It was only when the rear lorry hit them a third time that Bruno’s words Are you certain you’re making the right decision? flashed into Sebastian’s mind. He glanced across at Bruno who was now clinging on to the dashboard with both hands.
‘They’re trying to kill us,’ he screamed. ‘For God’s sake, Seb, do something!’
Sebastian looked helplessly across at the southbound lanes to see a steady stream of vehicles heading in the opposite direction.
When the lorry in front began to slow down, he knew that if they were to have any hope of surviving, he had to make a decision, and make it quickly.
It was the tutor of admissions who was given the unenviable task of having to phone the boy’s father, to let him know that his son had been killed in a tragic motor car accident.