Page 13 of A Merry Little Christmas
‘Saturday night. See you then,’ he said.
‘’Bye. Hope your meeting goes well.’
But I was talking to myself because he’d already ended the call, I guessed because he was in a hurry, his mind on this potential investor.
So hehadbeen at that meeting in Guildford...
I drove away from the market. But as I passed the building site, on impulse I braked and pulled into the side. Caleb wouldbe in the café having his meeting by now. But Amanda would no doubt be there. I’d drop in a couple of doughnuts for them.
I hated myself for being suspicious, but I needed to know for sure. I was ninety-nine per cent certain Caleb wouldn’t lie to me, as Richard had done with such callous ease, but there was always that little niggle – because nothing in life was certain.
Amanda would be able to clear things up in my mind. And then Caleb and I could go out for dinner on Saturday night and have a wonderful time . . .
CHAPTER SEVEN
In the site office, Amanda looked up in surprise from her desk when I entered.
‘Katja! How are you? You’ve just missed Caleb, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh, that’s fine. Don’t worry. I’ll catch him later. So how are you?’ I’d met Amanda just once before, on the day she’d started working for Caleb three weeks ago, and I’d thought she was lovely. On the other Wednesdays I’d popped in to see Caleb, she’d been out of the office, showing prospective house buyers around the site.
‘I’m fine, thank you.’ Amanda, who was in her late twenties, gave me a warm smile and pushed herself away from the desk to give me her full attention. ‘Just learning the ropes, really,’ she said cheerily, pushing back her glossy shoulder-length dark hair. ‘It’s quite a change for me, working in customer service on a building site, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Less stress than my last job. Can I get you a coffee?’
‘Oh, no. Thanks. I just popped in on my way to my next stop with the mobile cake van?’
‘Yes!’ Her blue eyes sparkled. ‘Caleb told me all about that. It sounds like such a great way to spend the day, driving through the countryside and chatting to customers. Especially on a sunny day like this.’
I nodded. ‘I do love it. You meet so many nice people. Doughnuts for you and Caleb.’ I handed over the bag.
‘Delicious!’
‘I... hope the boss is treating you well?’
‘Oh, absolutely. No complaints there.’
‘And even if there were, you wouldn’t be tellingme.’
She chuckled. ‘I absolutely wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t know how you keep track of him, to be honest. He’s always whizzing off to meetings at all hours.’
She gave me a quizzical smile.
‘Like last night. Goodness knows how long that meeting in Guildford went on for.’
‘Guildford?’
‘Oh, didn’t he go, after all?’ My heart gave a lurch. It would have been in the diary, surely? Caleb had said so. And an efficient assistant like Amanda would surely have known about it?
‘He didn’t mention a meeting in Guildford,’ she said slowly, looking at me with a puzzled expression. Then she suddenly backtracked and her frown disappeared. ‘Oh, wait a minute.’ She gave her head a little shake. ‘Silly me. He did mention something... I think maybe it came up at the last minute.’ She opened her desk diary and glanced at the previous day’s date. ‘Nothing in here.’ She nodded. ‘It must have been last-minute,’ she confirmed.
I swallowed hard. Was it my imagination or was she avoiding my eye now?
Caleb said his meeting had been in the diary for weeks . . .
‘Right. Actually, IthoughtI saw him last night, parked on Sunnybrook High Street.’ I shrugged. ‘But he zoomed off before I could go over.’
I caught the flash of uncertainty in Amanda’s eyes. It was unmistakable, that look of unease that came over her face for just a second, before the professional smile clicked back into place and she said, ‘You’re right. Heisalways zooming off somewhere! Like now, for instance. I’d bought some good coffee and some chocolate biscuits, knowing this meeting of his was important.’ She got up and went over to the little coffee station in the corner. Opening the packet of biscuits, she emptied theminto a biscuit tin. ‘But then he decided to take Mr Chandler over the road to the café.’
