Читать книгу The Fund - Jeff Edwards - Страница 18

As the ferry headed out to sea Toby took a newspaper from his attaché case and immersed himself in the sports section while Brian took his phone out and rang Lana. He let her know about the accident and requested that she contact the Jaguar dealership to arrange for the car to be repaired on his return.

Fred continued to seethe inwardly while silently watching the couple on the opposite side of the room.

Soh, like Brian, was soon on his mobile phone and became oblivious to the woman by his side.

Mrs Soh placed her Louis Vuitton purse before her and rummaged through it before extracting a compact and closely inspected her make-up. Not satisfied with the image in her mirror she applied more foundation to repair an almost invisible imperfection.

Toby glanced up from his paper. ‘Put your tongue back in, Fred. She’s married.’

‘It doesn’t cost anything to look. I wonder what else she’s got in that purse of hers?’

‘Definitely not War and Peace,’ said Brian. ‘I doubt if she’s read a book in her entire life.’

‘You’re being a little bit hard on her aren’t you?’ asked Fred. ‘She could be a very intelligent person.’

‘Married to someone like that?’ said Brian. ‘I doubt it. Our friend over there wouldn’t want anyone around that could possibly out-think him.’

Soh continued to talk on the phone, ignoring his wife.

Mrs Soh seemed to have finished the repair to her make-up and now was looking around at the other passengers and the expanse of sea beyond with a totally bored expression. Finding nothing to interest her, Mrs Soh said a few words to her husband, who was completely distracted by his phone conversation, and slowly made her way toward the duty free store.

Fred said to his companions, ‘She’s off to buy a novel.’

‘Bullshit,’ said Toby under his breath.

‘I heard that. I’ll bet she is.’

Toby smiled. ‘A fiver says she buys nothing more intellectual than a lipstick.’

Fred was quickly on his feet. ‘You’re on!’

Brian and Toby watched him make his way after the stunning Mrs Soh.

‘It’ll be worth a fiver to get him out of our hair for a while. He’s smitten by the woman,’ said Toby as he reached for his phone. ‘While we wait to find out the result of our bet I’ll ring Suzie and see if she wants anything from the duty free.’

The store had an open front and Fred had no trouble spotting Mrs Soh, but he was a little disappointed to find that she was rummaging through the racks of souvenir t-shirts.

As he approached he noticed that the shirts were in child sizes. ‘You’re either buying that for someone else or you’re thinking of going on a very drastic diet.’

Mrs Soh looked up and laughed at his silly joke. ‘You’re very funny.

Of course I’m buying it for someone else. It’s for my daughter Sunny.’

‘You’re much too young to be a mother.’

‘My Sunny is one. I miss her a lot. I wish I was home with her right now.’

‘You must have been just out of high school when you had her.’

‘Almost,’ she laughed.

She selected a tiny shirt and then moved on to the display cabinet showing Australian opal necklaces and other pieces of jewellery. Fred realised that she was a woman that loved to be complimented and followed after her.

‘Oh! They’re beautiful!’ she exclaimed as her eyes fell on a pair of large white opals made into earrings.

‘Almost as pretty as you.’

Mrs Soh blushed and smiled at the same time. ‘They’re my birth stone. I’m named Opal too.’

‘Ah! So you’re Mrs Opal Soh. In that case I should introduce myself as well. My name is Fred Marks and I am an accountant,’ he said, holding out his hand.

‘What are you doing?!’ came an angry voice.

Opal Soh’s mouth formed a frightened ‘O’ as her husband strode to her side. She cringed visibly as he took her by the upper arm.

‘I was simply making conversation with your wife. She was telling me all about your daughter.’

Soh ignored Fred completely. ‘Go back to your seat,’ he ordered.

Opal Soh returned the t-shirt to the rack and head hung low, returned to her seat.

Soh watched her go and then fixed Fred with a steely glare but said nothing. He turned to follow his wife and was soon engrossed in yet another call while his wife stared silently out to the horizon.

Fred returned to his seat while trying not to glance in the couple’s direction.

‘That went well,’ said Fred dejectedly.

Toby looked up from his paper. ‘Well? Was it War and Peace, or Revlon?’

‘Neither. It was going to be a shirt for her daughter Sunny. That is until her husband came along.’

‘Crashed your party did he?’

‘He’s a very warm chap. Not!’

‘Well, you will mess around with married women. What did you expect?’ said Brian.

‘Her name is Opal by the way,’ offered Fred. ‘Named after the gemstone.’

‘Not unlike the rocks inside your head,’ said Toby as he settled down to work on the paper’s crossword puzzle.

‘Shut up and give me the finance section,’ said Fred. He needed something to distract him from looking at the couple across the room.

* * *

The ferry arrived in Jersey at the scheduled time and they were soon heading towards their hotel in St Clair. Fred was giving Brian directions from a map in his lap and they were soon hopelessly lost.

‘Will you get that woman out of your mind and concentrate on what you’re doing,’ admonished Toby before sticking his head out the window and asking a passing pedestrian for directions.

The local woman soon had them going the right way.

‘It’s a good thing that our meeting at the bank is not until tomorrow. It’ll take Fred that long to get us there,’ commented Brian good-naturedly.

Fred slunk back into his seat and refused to take part in the rest of their conversation. He couldn’t get the unhappy Opal Soh out of his mind.

When they eventually found their hotel they were surprised to find that the Sohs were at the reception desk before them. Fred listened in and noted that they were checking into one of the hotel’s most luxurious suites.

Being made to stand in line also allowed him one more opportunity to admire the rear end of the delectable Mrs Opal Soh.

Toby dug him in the ribs with his elbow. ‘Will you stop drooling!’ he laughed, ‘You’re making the floor wet.’

The Sohs completed their check-in and were escorted to the elevator along with their luggage.

Fred and his companions stepped forward to take their place at the desk and were in time to overhear one receptionist comment to another. ‘So, we have the marvellous Mr Soh with us again and of course he has Mrs Soh with him.’

‘Except this Mrs Soh is definitely not the same Mrs Soh as last time,’ giggled the other.

‘Or the one the time before that.’

‘I think this one might be the real thing,’ said the first girl. ‘This one is wearing a wedding ring. The others didn’t.’

Fred looked at his friends with a worried look on his face.

Brian held up his hand. ‘No, Fred! Don’t even consider it. I can hear your mind clanking over from here.’

‘But she should know!’ Fred hissed.

‘It’s none of our business. Now sign in!’ said Brian sternly to his friend.

With no wives accompanying them, the three men booked into three separate single rooms and then made their way upstairs to settle in.

After emptying his suitcase Brian opened his laptop and keyed in his code.

Several emails appeared, one from Lana wishing him luck and promising all manner of good things when he returned. He smiled as he sent her a reply and wished she could be here to enjoy the view from his window. He told her he would take a few photos of the area that she could use as the subject of a future painting.

Among the other messages was a long report on H Leong Soh and his wife Opal.

The computer whizzes had recorded their conversations with Soh and had taken the opportunity to give Brian a full background report on the person to whom they had been speaking.

The ‘H’ stood for Harry and it appeared that Celestial Clothing was just one of his enterprises as the list of companies he controlled began to scroll down the screen.

Finally, the computer gave up details of a more personal nature. Photos from various sources, mainly newspaper articles, confirmed that Opal Soh was indeed his current wife and that they had been married for just a couple of years. They had one daughter named Sunny.

There was a lot more information, but Brian couldn’t see any point in pursuing the matter at this time. He saved the information to a folder and decided that he would delete it completely once the car had been repaired and paid for.

He knocked on the adjoining door and Toby opened it.

‘Do you think we should tell Fred about the watch we presented him with before we left?’

Toby shrugged. ‘Is there any point?’

‘No. I suppose not,’ he conceded. ‘Our people are on the ball back home. They’ve sent me a profile on Soh. Opal is really his wife by the way.’

‘Fred will be disappointed. Was there anything else of interest in it?’

‘Well, it seems Mr Soh shouldn’t be a risk when it comes to getting the car repaired. He’s loaded.’

‘That’s good news. So, our little information net is up and working?’

‘And working well.’

* * *

That evening the three dined at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and after a leisurely meal they decided to take a stroll along the seaside.

Brian had brought his camera and was snapping off shots as they walked along a roadway that skirted the harbour with boats of all descriptions tied up at wharves just below them.

‘How many shots are you going to take?’ asked Toby as they slowed once again to allow Brian to catch up.

‘Never take one when you can take a dozen. You never know which one will turn out to be the best picture you’ve ever taken. If you restrict yourself to just one then you cut down the chances of getting that one perfect shot. Besides, I can delete the ones I don’t want later.’

They continued walking for a time until Fred broke the silence. ‘Isn’t that Soh’s car over there?’ he said, pointing to a Mercedes parked further down the street.

Toby nodded his head. ‘You are completely obsessed, aren’t you?!’

‘It is their car. I’m sure of it.’

They continued walking and as they reached the vehicle Fred exclaimed, ‘See! I told you it was!’ and pointed at the damaged front bumper.

‘So what?’ asked Toby.

‘I wonder what they’re doing down here at the docks,’ asked Fred.

Brian shook his head in exasperation. ‘You really are becoming a bore. If it means that much to you go and ask them. They’re down there,’ he said, pointing.

At the end of a pier stood the Asian couple and Fred noted that Opal Soh now wore sunglasses and the same clothes from their trip. She was standing apart from her husband as he spoke to a pair of men dressed in the rough woollen clothing of seamen. The conversation between the three men was very animated, until Soh finally turned to his wife and waved her away.

Unlike his wife, Soh had changed his clothes and was now dressed in a short black leather jacket with correspondingly dark trousers.

He followed the men down a rickety gangplank and onto a small fishing trawler.

Opal Soh stood watching from the pier as the men cast off and the trawler moved into the bay.

Brian was busy taking photos, recording the unfolding events on his camera, as Opal Soh finally turned away from the departing boat and made her way back towards their car.

‘Let’s get away from here,’ said Brian. ‘We don’t want to give the impression that we’re following them.’

They were well away from the dock by the time Opal Soh returned to the Mercedes and drove back to her hotel.

* * *

When Brian and his friends returned from their walk Toby spotted Opal Soh, still wearing the sunglasses, in one of the souvenir shops just off the lobby. Her brow was knotted in concentration as she went through the scenes of Jersey, trying to make her selections.

Fred couldn’t help himself. He knew her husband was nowhere around and decided to talk to her.

She looked up as he approached and appeared startled. A quick look over each shoulder told her that there was no way for her to escape and she hunched down, trying to look inconspicuous as Fred walked up to her.

‘Good evening, Mrs Soh. It’s good to see you again,’ he smiled. ‘Is your husband around? I’d like to apologise to him for being so forward with you earlier.’

‘My husband is upstairs, asleep. I must go now,’ she said as she tried to push past him.

Fred could smell the fragrance of her perfume as she edged past. It would have sent him into raptures except for the fact that he could now see the woman’s face from close quarters. He stepped back and allowed her room to pass and then followed her with his eyes as she crossed the lobby and entered a lift.

Toby and Brian watched as Fred rejoined them at the bar. His face had a closed in expression and his eyes flashed hate.

‘That prick!’

‘What?’ asked Toby.

‘Soh! That prick! He’s been bashing his wife. She’s sporting a black eye under her sunglasses.’

‘It might have happened in the accident,’ said Brian.

‘No way! I spoke to her on the ferry. There was no sign of it then. It’s happened since.’

They found a quiet corner and sat Fred down. Toby bought them drinks while Brian tried to calm his friend.

‘There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for her eye.’

‘There could. So, you give me an example of a reasonable explanation.’

Brian looked at his friend and conceded the point. From what they had already seen it was more than likely that Soh had assaulted his wife. However, there was little they could do without proof. ‘We can’t help her unless she asks for help. You know that, Fred.’

‘Yes, I know that. That’s why I’m so pissed off. She won’t give him up. In fact she lied to me just now. She said he was upstairs. Asleep.’

Toby had returned with drinks and Brian told him what Opal Soh had said. ‘Why would she lie about her husband’s whereabouts?’

Brian switched his camera on and flicked through his photos until he came to the section in which the Sohs appeared. The three of them gathered around the screen and looked at each photo in turn.

‘What do you think?’ asked Toby.

‘It looks as though our friend Soh is off on a sea jaunt,’ said Fred, ‘but he’s definitely not dressed to go fishing.’

‘The dark clothes makes it look like they don’t want to be seen,’ said Brian. ‘It all looks very suspicious. Especially going out at night.’

‘Another seemingly unusual act for Mr Soh,’ sighed Fred in frustration. ‘What can we do about him?’

‘Absolutely nothing. We can’t prove he’s done anything wrong. For all we know he’s going out to look at the stars.’

‘Bullshit!’ swore Fred.

‘Correct, but that’s how it is. Now I suggest we head upstairs. We’ve got important business of our own tomorrow.’