Pinstripes (21 page)

“
Great. Can you do it quickly?”

“
Sure, can I ask why?”

“
No, you can’t.” Clara laughed again. “All will be revealed later. Toby, don’t tell anyone I called. Oh, and if you fancy a chat, call me after Tim’s meeting. How’s Alex?” Clara thought it might be useful for her, Ella and Virginia to have an unsuspecting mole in the office.

“
OK, I won’t. And Alex is fine. We’re getting along really well.”

“
Good. Thanks, Toby, you’re a real mate.” She put down the telephone and felt glad that Toby was with Alex. That meant she wouldn’t have to sleep with him.

Sex. That
’s what it was. Clara had sex, Clara got into trouble. She had to try to cut down on the number of men she slept with. She had told herself this for a while, but now she really would try to do something about her sex addiction. Although now that she no longer had a job, she wasn’t sure that she needed to.

She went to the kitchen and grabbed three pieces of kitchen roll – her cleaner bought all sorts of things for her. She took them to the dining-table, grabbed an SFH biro and started writing. On one piece, she wrote
“Tim Pemberton’, on the second, ‘Isabelle Holland’, and the third she kept blank. She knew that when the girls came she would be ready for them. She would do this to prove that she had more about her than her parents would ever dream. At first she had thought the idea of revenge was just her being drunk and over-enthusiastic, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. People shouldn’t be allowed to stamp on other people. It just wasn’t fair.

The telephone rang when Clara was still daydreaming about revenge.

“Clive, it’s Toby.”

“
God, Toby, are you going to call me Clive every time you speak to me?”

“
Probably. Anyway, I have the information you wanted.”

“
I feel like I’m in a spy movie.” Clara giggled.

“
Me too. I went to Ella’s desk and I asked Liam Rice what he knew. He was really angry and told me to mind my own fucking business. I told him I was concerned and I said I was sort of a friend of Ella’s. So he said he was sorry, but apparently everyone’s very upset about it. Anyway, he said that some new guy called Johnny had boasted the next day that he had discovered Ella’s secret and he was pleased with himself. Liam said they all hated Johnny, I don’t know his last name, and now they hated him even more. Liam seemed really worried about Ella. He said that if I spoke to her I should get her to call him. As if I’m ever going to speak to her! I barely knew who she was. Anyway, does that help?”

‘t
oby, you’re a miracle worker. Thanks. By the way, I know Ella and I’ll pass on Liam’s message, but remember, don’t mention it to anyone.”

“
I won’t. I’ll call you after the meeting with Tim, OK?”

“
Bye, Toby.”

Clara returned to the table and wrote
‘Johnny’ on the last piece of kitchen towel. She settled down to wait for the others to arrive.

***

Virginia arrived early at Clara’s flat. As she parked her scooter outside the magnificent building, she felt even more unsure of herself than she usually did. She looked up at it and was hit by the thought that this was the type of building she could have lived in one day if only she had the new job.

It was more intimidating inside. The doorman looked at her suspiciously, far more interested in keeping people out than the security guards had been at SFH. She hit herself on the head as she realised that every thought she had brought her back to SFH. She took the lift to Clara
’s floor, found her flat and rang the bell. She waited nervously for a few seconds until Clara opened the door. “I’m a bit early,” Virginia said, turning pink.

“
I see you dressed up for the occasion,” Clara said, looking at her. Although Clara was wearing jeans and a shirt, she looked nice; Virginia looked like a teenager in her old-fashioned jeans and big, baggy jumper. She felt embarrassed as she followed Clara in. The sitting room was bigger than Virginia’s entire flat.

“
Drink?” Clara asked.

“
Water, please,” Virginia said, her mouth dry.

Clara disappeared and returned with a glass.
‘do you wear specs?” she asked.

“
No. Why?”

“
You just look as if you should.”

Clara sat at the dining-table and, not knowing what to say, Virginia sat on the sofa. Virginia wasn
’t a great conversationalist at the best of times, but here, in this lovely flat with a girl who reminded her of the mean but popular girl at school, she felt out of her depth.

“
Do you think Ella will turn up?” Clara asked, after a while.

“
Why wouldn’t she?” Virginia had been so caught up wondering why
she
was here that the thought of Ella failing to materialise hadn’t occurred to her.

“
Because she seemed so cold and empty. I just felt last night that she might not.”

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang again and Ella appeared. She looked composed. She was wearing baggy grey trousers and a black cardigan.

“Hi,” Clara said, as she let her in.

Confronted by Ella
’s height and her style, Virginia felt even more inadequate.

“
Drink?” Clara asked. Ella shook her head.

“
Fine. Down to business. I have news for you, Ella. I know who stitched you up.”

“
Who?” Ella asked quietly.

“
Who do you think it was?” Clara replied, enjoying the drama.

“
Clara, I don’t fucking know. That’s why I’m here. I didn’t think anyone did.”

“
Well, you’re wrong. Someone did and it was Johnny, your new boy.” Ella sank down on to the armchair.

“
Johnny,” Ella whispered.

“
I called someone from my old desk who went to talk to Liam. Apparently Johnny was bragging about how, I don’t know how, he found out you were never at Durham. He told your boss, they checked it out, and that’s why you’re here.”

“Shit
. I don’t believe it.”

“
It’s true!”

“Thank
s, Clara, but I only knew Johnny for a week – less. Why was he poking around?”

“
Maybe he found out by accident,” Virginia offered timidly.

They shot her a look.

“Of course – he was just walking down the street and accidentally found out that Ella was a liar and a forger. How did you get that done by the way?” Clara said.

“
It doesn’t matter. We had a couple of run-ins, mainly because I was supposed to be mentoring him and he disliked me. He was scum, really egotistical, and I knew he didn’t like me ... but to do that – to try to discredit me?” Ella rubbed her head; her hangover was returning.

“
Ella, people are like that. Look at us. Tim did it to me, Isabelle to Virginia. He probably wanted to get rid of you. All he knew about you was where you went to university, and he started there. He didn’t need to take it further – he must have thought it was Christmas.”

Ella took her head out of her hands. It all made sense.
“You’re right. He probably didn’t dream he’d find that, but he was looking for a way to get at me, or to humiliate me. God, I remember one argument we had when he was saying how he went to Oxford and Harvard and how he’d got an MBA as well as an economics degree, and I told him that just because I had a history degree from Durham, it didn’t make him any better than me. Shit, I hate him.”

“
Good. So we all hate someone. Now, can we move on?”

Virginia felt as if she was in a nightmare. Ella looked as if she was in a nightmare.

“Clara, wait. What else did Liam say?”

“
Well, he was concerned for you and he asked if you could call him. They don’t like Johnny either, but I’m sure he can’t take down the whole desk.”

Ella knew she had been hard on Johnny, but he had deserved it. She could just imagine what happened. After the trade fiasco, he had stormed off wanting revenge. She still didn
’t know how he had found out, or what had possessed him to try. He was such a weasel. He had ruined her life.

Clara called them over to the table and they all sat down. She produced her pieces of kitchen paper.

“What’s that?” Virginia asked.

“
Kitchen towels,” Clara answered.

“
Yes, but why?” Ella said.

“
Oh, I didn’t have any paper. Anyway, this is Virginia’s, this is mine and this is Ella’s.” She gave them each a bit. “I thought we’d start by writing what we know about each person on them and go from there.” She handed them each a pen.

They started writing. Virginia finished quickly, Ella ran out of steam soon after and Clara seemed to take hours. When they finished, Clara read out what they had.

“Virginia, I’ll read yours first because I feel you had the biggest injustice done to you.” Virginia felt flattered. “Isabelle Holland, manager of Emerging Markets at SFH. Tall, good-looking, a bitch. Is that it?” Clara looked at Virginia.

“
I don’t know much about her.” Virginia blushed.

“
Ella, do you know anything more about Isabelle?” Clara asked.

“
She plays squash at my health club,” Ella offered.

Clara wrote it down.
“Excellent, that’s the sort of thing we need. Now, I know that she’s heterosexual, single, thinks of herself as a cultural person and is as dull as dishwater.”

“
How do you know all that?” Ella asked.

“
I listen to things, I find out things, and if I didn’t you two would be in deep water. Luckily for you, I’ve been to a couple of parties she was at. She was like a bitch on heat. Anyway, now Johnny. Johnny Rupfin. Ex-Oxford, Harvard MBA, has pimples and is an arrogant little cock-sucker. Do you mean that literally?”

“
What do you mean literally?” Ella asked.

“Does
he suck cocks?” Clara asked.

Virginia flinched.

“I don’t know.” Ella was exasperated. She was beginning to regret coming.

“
Oh, I suppose we couldn’t be that lucky. I take it he’s one of the computer Rupfins?”

“
I don’t know, but his uncle got him the SFH job. He’s one of their private clients,” Ella offered. Virginia nearly burst into tears at thelatest reminder of her lost opportunity.

“
Then he is. My father knows his uncle, which might come in handy, although I’m not sure my father would approve of what we’re doing. Oh, well, every little helps.” Clara wrote it down. “Right, Tim Pemberton. Womaniser, takes cocaine, likes prostitutes and kinky sex. Never takes his socks off, likes champagne. Goes to the Tribor club on Thursdays, which is very exclusive, then goes to a seedy strip-joint or to see a hooker. Used to be having an affair with me. But isn’t now, thank God. Wife, two children, both girls, a dog and a huge house in Hampstead. Used to be poor and common, is now common and rich. That’s the type of information we need.”

“
What? That he keeps his socks on in bed?” Ella giggled.

“
What I mean is that all this information will help us to take our revenge,” Clara said reprovingly.

“
Before we continue, I need to clarify something. I’m not prepared to break the law to do this,” Ella said.

“
Me neither,” Virginia agreed, eyes wide. That idea hadn’t occurred to her.

“
Oh, God, don’t be so silly. Of course we’re not going to break the law. We’re going to do this in a way that keeps us well and truly out of it. I have my family reputation to think about,” Clara said.

“
I just don’t want to go to jail,” Ella said.

“
So, what are we going to do?” Virginia said.

“
I don’t know. God, you can’t expect me to do everything. What I’m doing now is collecting information. What we need to do is to plan a revenge for each one that relies on their weaknesses. Tim’s weaknesses are cocaine and sex. See? What about Isabelle?”

“
Well, I guess she’s motivated by money and power.” Virginia offered weakly.

“
Good. Johnny?”

“
He’s egotistical, arrogant and a cock-sucker, although not literally.” Ella was surly.

“
Fine. He probably thinks he’s special when really he’s an irritating, unattractive little wart. We use his ego to bring him down.” Clara was enjoying herself.

“
So what are we going to do?” Virginia asked again.

“
I don’t know why you think I should have all the answers,” Clara replied.