Page 33 of Snow Going Back

‘Come on.’ Matthew stood up. ‘I’ll show you how it’s all done.’

She followed him down the side of the room and glanced up at the windows of the offices above. ‘Is Aubrey Rowlings here today?’

She didn’t really want to meet her yet, but after all the messages the woman had left, she knew it would be rude to leave without at least introducing herself.

Matthew’s expression fell into a grim frown. ‘I doubt it. After Cora got ill and couldn’t check in on her anymore, she’s been here less and less. It’s been a whole lot more peaceful.’ He glanced at her. ‘I probably shouldn’t say that to you, with her about to take over, but…’ He squinted into the distance and scratched the back of his neck. ‘When you get to my age, you get a bit tired of toeing the line with people like that. When she takes charge, I’ll probably just retire. Would make the wife happy, I guess.’ He sighed. ‘Company won’t last much longer, anyway, in her hands.’

Kate pursed her lips as he confirmed her suspicions about Aubrey. ‘Actually, it’s not been decided who’ll inherit yet. That’s therealreason I’m here, to work all that out.’

Matthew looked surprised.

‘I know. She made it sound more like it was pre-decided in that article.’

‘She’s been outright telling people that, too,’ Matthew told her. He tutted. ‘Will and Cora must be turning in their graves watching that girl right now.’

‘Is she really that bad?’ Kate asked.

Matthew sighed. ‘When she first came here, she worked for Jenna as an assistant. Thoughworkedis really too strong a word. She’d swan in late, leave early, do nothing but make personal calls between complaints that she wasborn for better things.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Jenna put up with it for as long as she could, not wanting to upset Cora. She was very close to Cora. Most of us were. But one day she caught her red-handed dippinginto the office safe. We always have a few hundred dollars or so in there for cash flow. Jenna saw her slip some cash into her pocket and called her on it. Aubrey kicked up a stink and left, and when Jenna checked, the books balanced fine. But when she dug in further, she discovered a whole load of fake receipts –goodones. A lot of them, too.’

‘You’rekidding?’ Kate asked, shocked. ‘Didn’t she tell Cora?’

‘She did,’ Matthew replied.

Kate frowned. ‘Why didn’t they fire her?’

‘Oh, Aubrey turned on the tears, swore blind she knew nothing, hadn’t taken nothing. Made up some tale for why she’d been in there. No one believed her, not even Cora, but no one could prove it, either. And even when it stung, Cora was a strong advocate for innocent until proven guilty, so…’ He shrugged, his disapproval clear. ‘Cora moved her over to marketing and tightened up the access to the safe. Aubrey still treats people like crap and walks around up there like she owns the place, and she does no more up there than she did downstairs. Not that anyone expects her to at this point. ExceptCora.Coradid.’

Kate felt troubled as they walked outside, feeling the weight of the responsibility she’d been handed grow heavier on her shoulders. She had to get this right. The last thing she wanted to do was hand over control of the company to someone who’d use that power to treat all the people Cora and William had cared about badly.

‘Who wouldyouhave take over this place?’ she asked.

‘Well,anyonewould be better than Aubrey, I reckon.’ Matthew skewed his mouth to one side as he thought it over. ‘You’d think there’d be a clear choice at this point, but there ain’t. The only person who knows the businesswellenoughis Sam. But he doesn’t want that, from what I gather.’

‘No.’ Kate stopped and looked out at the blanket of snow-topped pine trees that covered the valley below. ‘This is an incredible view.’

‘Yeah.’ Matthew moved to stand beside her with a fond smile as he looked out, too. ‘See that big one on its own there?’ He pointed to it and chuckled. ‘Every year Cora heads down on the first of November with one of the forklifts and covers it in enough Christmas lights to blind a space station.’ His smile faded. ‘Or shedid, anyway.’

‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ Kate said gently. ‘I’m learning a lot about Cora, and I’m sad I never got to meet her. She seems like someone I’d have really liked.’

Matthew turned and directly held her gaze for the first time with a warm smile. ‘No. You’d havelovedher. And I think she’d have rather liked you.’

Kate looked out at the beautiful valley where William and Cora had created so much and enriched so many lives, and wondered once more how the boy they’d raised had turned out to be such an arrogant idiot.

NINETEEN

Kate grimaced at her phone as it rang yet again and flicked it on to silent before slipping it into her back pocket. Her mother had called four times already today, not atallhappy with the news that Kate wouldn’t be coming home for the weekend as planned. She’d answered the first time, but knowing the other calls would just be more escalated variations of her mother’s upset indignation, Kate was now pointedly ignoring them. She was the harbinger of bad news all round, it seemed. Lance hadn’t exactly been happy with the change of plans, either. Though at leasthehad kept his annoyance to just one call.

Crossing her arms, she stared out at the garden through her bedroom window. The sky was clear today, a dazzling blue, and the deep snow that seemed to be in no hurry to disappear glistened and sparkled in the sun. Her pocket vibrated again, and she closed her eyes with a groan. Waiting for it to stop, she pulled the phone out and opened her messages. She typed out a quick text to her dad and read it over with a squint before deleting and rewriting it in a more jokey fashion.

Dear Mr Hunter, could you kindly stop paying your phone bill or perhaps drop said phone in a lake, so that your wifecan’t keep trying to break the world record for number of times calling the same person in one day? Would be much appreciated. With love, your favourite child.

Kate knew she needn’t worry about his reaction to her ongoing absence. Where Eleanor was the storm, her father was always the calm. She pressed send and turned to grab a jumper.

The reply pinged back swiftly.

Tony? Is that you?

Kate grinned and took a moment to think up a fitting response.

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