Page 39 of Kept
He shakes his head and mutters something I miss, something about ‘still alive, lucky, or charmed,’ I don’t quite catch the first part of his sentence, but I hear perfectly clearly the second:
“Of course, he wouldn’t suspect a canteen worker,” he muses, “too lower class.”
“James, fuck off.”
“Josephine, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I just mean..”
“I don’t give a rat’s arse what you mean. Get out of my canteen before I phone the principal – and stay away from me, or I will phone the police. Am I making myself clear, James?”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, Josephine. But you are in very real danger having read that journal. Please,” he dodges the tea-towel I throw at his head as I reach for my phone, “come to my house tonight. I will show you my journal, once you see it you will not doubt what I am telling you.”
“No, James. I am calling the police and reporting my friend missing, and I am most definitely not coming to your house. I think you should know that I think there is something wrong with your head.”
He frowns at me.
“Go.”
“Josephine, please, you have to..”
“I don’t have to do anything. You heard the principal. You may have friends in high places and be able to buy yourself a position, but I certainly don’t. Leave me alone, Mr Hunter.”
He takes a deep breath but changes his mind about whatever he was planning to say, and stalks away.
I turn back to the bench I was working on and begin rolling more dough before working on the biscuits for the 500 boarding girls who will descend upon this canteen like a flock of seagulls for their late morning tea/lunch.
I’m making them petits sabl?s de caen, a tiny little flat savoury biscuit that I will serve with a light salmon tartare and cucumber slices. The theme of today is ‘ladies’ luncheon,’ and I’ve been thinking of what to prepare all weekend, toying with ideas and floating recipes around in my mind. I’d also illegally dined at two more high society restaurants, and I’m not even embarrassed to admit I stole one of the recipe ideas from there, the little merveilles, or French doughnuts. I’d never tried them before, and I have discovered an instant love for them.
Despite my anger at James, I smile as I place the first batch of biscuits in the oven and pull out the first doughnuts from the deep fryer. When they are drained, I will sprinkle them with icing sugar and serve them warm – Margarita would have loved them, especially with the chocolate mint dipping sauce I have warming in the Bain Marie.
Thinking of Margarita, though, I begin to worry again and decide not to wait until tonight to call Blake.
My fingers shake as I dial. I am technically a criminal now, I mean I had lied and stolen in order to eat in fine restaurants – would a trained detective know I was one of the bad guys? Could he even be on the lookout for someone of my description?
I shake my head and press his number. I need to find my friend, regardless of whether I might be arrested.
My call, luckily, goes straight through, and I balance the phone against my cheek and shoulder as I cook and talk at the same time.
“Blake, it’s me, Josephine Bailey.”
“I know, Josephine, I have caller ID.”
“Of course, I’m sorry.” I feel my face turn ten times redder than it usually is as I lean over the deep fryer.
“Is everything alright?”
“Uh, no. Well, I don’t know, I just have a terrible feeling, and you said call you if I was worried so, uh, I’m worried.”
“OK, start from the top.”
I take a deep breath.
“Margarita and I went to Vegas for a four-day weekend. We had a few days off owed, it was great, but on day two she said she was going to meet her boyfriend, and she didn’t come back.”
“Nice friend.”
“Yeah. Only I’m getting really worried. She has skipped work before for hangovers and that kind of thing, but she always lets me know. At the very least she would have phoned me, but she hasn’t, and the principal just told me she resigned by email over the weekend.”
“If she resigned and someone has been in contact with her within the last 48 hours, she isn’t technically missing,” he muses. “but you think something has happened to her?”
