Page 39 of The Monday Night Heartbreak Club
Once we were all refuelled, we set off.
‘Let’s start at Meeting Room One and work our way round,’ Flynn suggested, as we walked confidently up the stairs – ‘The secret is to look as though you belong here,’ he advised – and found the first meeting. ‘Designers’ Guild of Britain,’ it said on a temporary sign tacked to the door.
Fraser opened the door cautiously and slithered in. He was there for a couple of minutes, then slithered back out again, if anyone as robust as Fraser could be said to slither.
‘Nope,’ he said, definitively. ‘There’s loads of women and blokes in very tight trousers, though. It was all about colour, and scarlet will be “in” in 2028, apparently.’ He nodded wisely. ‘Which is great. It’s a good colour. Covers up the stains.’
‘Butno Eddie?’ I asked.
‘Nope,’ he said again. ‘Unless he were hiding behind one of the skinny blokes.’
‘All right.’ Flynn led the way down the carpeted corridor. ‘Oh. This is Meeting Room Three. Meeting Room Two must be on the other side. Let’s try in here. This ought to be…’ He took out the now much-folded piece of paper. ‘Overseas sales. It doesn’t say sales of what, though.’
Fraser again opened the door a crack and inserted himself into the room.
‘I was sure he’d be in design,’ I said sadly.
Within seconds, Fraser was back out again, holding a leaflet. ‘Someone tried to sell me a chalet in Lloret De Mar,’ he said, looking shell-shocked. ‘Honest, do Ilooklike someone who can afford a chalet in Lloret De Mar? Where is Lloret De Mar, anyway?’
‘Spain,’ Flynn said. ‘No Eddie?’
‘Hard to tell. Lots of people moving around, but I couldn’t see him.’
I tapped my finger against Flynn’s printout. ‘If it’s something like timeshare, and Eddie’s looking at buying a place… could be. Annie did say he watchesEscape to the Country.’
‘All right. We’ll keep an eye on Room Three when they come out,’ Flynn said. ‘Look, Meeting Room Two is over here. What was that?’
I looked at the paper. ‘Medical. Is it worth bothering? Eddie’s not exactly a paramedic wannabe, is he?’
‘Ought to check,’ Fraser said. ‘You never know.’
‘All right, on you go.’
Flynn and I stood shoulder to shoulder at the door as Fraser went in. As we jostled against one another, Flynn looked down at me and winked again. Behind those glasses, his eyes were full oflaughter. ‘What the hell are we doing?’ he whispered. ‘Playing Columbo?’
‘We’ve come all this way,’ I whispered back. ‘We might as well…’
From the other side of the door came a sudden thump, then the sound of a lot of people becoming agitated. Flynn and I looked at one another, then threw the door open.
Fraser was lying on the floor, a few metres into a large room. About twenty people were sitting around a table, and a woman was standing at the front of the room, obviously showing slides on a screen which had been erected on a smaller table. On the screen was averylarge image of something that looked like a joint of beef, under the enormous headline:
Gangrenous Limbs
Three of the seated people had got up and were attending to Fraser, who was moaning slightly as he came round.
Eddie was sitting at the front of the room, staring.
‘What’s going on?’ the lady at the front with the laptop clicker looked baffled.
‘I think I fainted,’ Fraser said in a distant tone from the floor. ‘That’shorrible.’ He waved a hand at the slide, without looking up at it.
‘You’ll be all right,’ said one of the men who’d assisted him to start sitting up. ‘Take it steady. Try not to think about what you saw. God knows, we all are.’
‘Can you turn it off, please?’ said another man. ‘It is a bit… well.’
‘But that’s thepoint,’ said Laptop Lady, looking from the enormous picture, which I could now see was a rotting limb, to Fraser and thento her audience.
‘I know. But let’s get this bloke out of here first, all right?’
