Page 16 of Strictly Business

‘Just tell me what you know.’

She sighed. ‘There have been a few problems,’ she admitted carefully. ‘I’d say it started after we switched to a different airline for the charter flights out to the remote areas.’

Liam nodded. This change of airline, he was sure, had been Dennis’s decision.

‘The new company was much cheaper,’ said Alice.

‘But that economy came at a price?’

‘Yes, they were too casual. Vague about timetables. Passengers were left stranded, luggage misplaced. And fair enough, we scored some bad word-of-mouth publicity.’

Liam nodded and made notes. ‘What else?’

She tapped her pen against the cover of her notebook, taking her time before she replied. ‘We used to have about fifty popular farm stays on our books and quite a few fishing spots up in the Gulf Country, but a lot of them pulled out.’

‘Why?’

She hesitated. ‘Haven’t you already discussed this with Dennis?’

Liam had. ‘I’ve taken note of Dennis’s observations,’ he said. ‘But I’d like to hear your opinion.’

She frowned. ‘Our outback contacts said it wasn’t worth it.’

‘Are you saying that they removed their properties from our books, or they dropped out of tourism altogether?’

It was clear she didn’t want to answer this question. She opened her notebook, stared at a blank page, and then shut it again with a snap.

‘Is that what happened?’ Liam prompted again. ‘These cattle stations stopped taking tourists?’

‘No.’

Liam waited.

‘They went to other tourist agencies.’

‘Why?’ he asked again.

Alice looked away and drew a sharp breath. ‘I’m not sure.’

Now she was lying. He knew that, but he felt a grudging respect for her attempt to protect her colleague.

‘Could it have been a PR problem?’ he suggested carefully. ‘Were a few toes stepped on? A few egos bruised?’

She looked directly at him and the loveliness of her soft, grey eyes snagged at his breath.

Very carefully, she said, ‘I guess it’s easy sometimes for people in the city to misread country folk and to believe they haven’t kept up with the times.’

‘But that’s rubbish. When it comes to market trends and meeting consumer demands, the people in the outback are as astute as anyone else.’ He’d told Dennis Ericson as much.

He tapped long fingers on his desk top. ‘As you might have guessed, I plan to turn this situation around. I’m going into the outback to check things out. A kind of reconnaissance and goodwill tour.’

Alice nodded, her eyes watching him.

‘I want you to come with me.’

The look of dismay that swept over her face shocked him, but he kept his face stone-hard.

His assessment of the company records showed a clear period of growth while Alice had been in charge of the outback operations. And after observing the way she handled his questions, he felt certain she had the diplomatic skills needed to win back lost clients – if that was still possible.

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