Heart Stopper Read online

  CHAPTER NINE

  Tuesday, July 19, 2011

  The diplomat was tired. The weekend had been long and lonely. He had rattled around in the house, trying not to think, but only thinking. Thinking while he ate his badly cooked meals, thinking while he practiced with the device, thinking while he took out the garbage. Thoughts of death. Not his. If everything went as planned, not his. Thoughts of a woman he met every year. A politician who was doing her job. Who felt so strongly about her country that she wanted to protect it from what she considered the grasping nature of other countries. So she championed a cause and she would be signing it into being the day after their meeting. Did she deserve to die for that? The diplomat’s only answer was that he loved his country too, and it didn’t deserve to die.

  As the diplomat had lain in bed and tried not to think, he had realized his hand lay on his collarbone, a habit he had already formed after just 9 days.

  He had 13 days.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Tuesday, July 19, 2011

  It was 9.00 a.m. when Priya arrived at work. The clinic car park was full and most of the staff seemed to be around. Priya gave Clodagh a questioning look; the receptionist was on the phone, but she covered the mouthpiece and whispered, “Meeting at 10 a.m. in the boardroom. Mary sent around an email. They’ve been in for ages, even before I came in.” She gestured with her head towards James’ office.

  Priya found Tara already in their office. She was surrounded by folders and her hair looked like she’d been running her fingers through it.

  “Morning, Tara.”

  “Hi. Check out your email quick. We’ve got a meeting with the bigwigs at 10.”

  “Bigwigs...?”

  “Yup, someone from the Fairer crowd, I think the grandfather himself, and ‘Dr. Reddington’ of course.” Tara pulled a face. “I’m trying to refresh my memory on my cases, not much point though. What do you think they’re going to do about us?”

  “I don’t think they can close down just like that. We have patients and James is a good doctor, he has a great reputation now. So has Sean. You guys should be fine. The main problem is our research side. Daniel was brilliant at creating a vision. But Gerry and Valerie at Research are pretty smart too and I think they did most of the actual research and development.”

  Priya didn’t want to contemplate losing the job. She’d taken out a mortgage on the house in Barna at the height of the boom in Ireland to buy it from her father. Her mortgage payments, the car payments, the ever-increasing utility bills; even working fulltime she just scraped by, the bulk of her salary eaten into by taxes and various stealth charges introduced by the government in a desperate attempt to save the failing economy.

  “I’m sure it will be fine.” It sounded like Tara was trying to comfort herself as well. “Daniel did a great job of setting up this place and I’m sure James won’t want to lose the money that’s coming in. He’ll just have to work with Research himself. They’ll be relying on you to fill them in on Daniel’s thought processes though,” she grinned at Priya, “cos you would have known what they were, wouldn’t you...?”

  “Tara! Don’t you start on me. You know we didn’t have anything going on.”

  “I know, I know.” Tara was laughing now. “Wonder what Mary would think if she knew that all the rumors she started about you and Daniel were so way off,” she crossed herself and lowered her voice, “because you’re one of those ‘perverts’ whose souls she prays for every Sunday at mass?”

  Priya couldn’t help but laugh. Tara did a great imitation of Mary whose personality was a complete contrast to Tara’s irreverent one.

  ∞

  Priya and Tara filed into the boardroom with the rest of the staff. Just over a week on, the focus had already shifted from the news of Daniel’s death to the tension surrounding the retention of their jobs. The chatter was subdued, the glances at the door frequent, as they waited for James and Daniel Fairer II.

  At exactly 10 a.m., the door opened and James came in. His face had new lines and he had gained some gray hairs. Behind him, Reyna walked through the door. Priya could not control her face as her jaw dropped open. She quickly closed her mouth as James and Reyna took their seats at the head of the table. Reyna was wearing a deep blue trouser suit and her long thick brown hair hung in a ponytail.

  James said, “This is Reyna Fairer, Daniel’s sister.”

  There were muttered greetings from the staff. In the babble, Priya saw Aidan’s face. He looked stunned; his reaction to Reyna’s appearance making it obvious to Priya that he had recognized the woman from the pub. Priya could feel Tara’s fingers digging at her side, oh no, why had she been out with them when she’d made a fool of herself with Reyna.

  Priya’s heart beat faster as Reyna scanned the people at the table nodding a greeting to them. Reyna’s eyes flicked briefly over Priya’s face with no noticeable change in her expression. Priya noticed now that Reyna’s eyes were topaz-brown, clear and direct with crinkly lines set into their corners, in a face that was lean and full of straight lines. Straight jaw, long straight neck leading to a little hollow from which her collarbones curved. Her skin was tanned just a shade darker than the V-necked cream chemise she wore.

  Reyna said, “I can understand you are all anxious to know what is going to happen to the clinic. My grandfather is not able to travel, but it would probably not have been necessary anyway as Daniel’s Will has handed over control of the clinic to me.”

  There was a collective intake of air around the table and Priya noticed again that slight almost undetectable quirk of Reyna’s lips as she paused very slightly and then continued.

  “I have had discussions with Dr. Reddington over the past few days and as I am not a clinician, in fact I have a business and finance background, I will be spending the next few weeks working closely with Dr. Reddington and discussing the employment of a clinician and researcher to take over the work that Daniel was carrying out. Daniel was a gifted clinician and researcher and he will be difficult to replace. But he worked hard to set up this clinic. I know what it meant to him and to the patients his work has benefited. And I know this work is important to all of you too. So I can assure you that I will do everything I can to make sure that not only does the clinic remain open, but that we continue to make Daniel proud.”

  Reyna looked around at the assembled staff. “I will need to meet with each of you individually over the next few days.” She addressed Mary, “Can you arrange that for me?” Priya’s heart had been sinking further towards her shoes as she listened and now she felt it hit the ground.

  ∞

  Reyna left the meeting without another word and Priya avoided Aidan’s eyes and retreated to her office. Tara wandered in ten minutes later, a grin on her face.

  “So, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you go in for your meeting.” Tara was rubbing her hands together looking a lot like the fly in question.

  Priya put her elbows on her desk, rested her head in her hands and groaned in response.

  “My life has got to get better soon.” She was determined to wallow at least for a minute in self-pity.

  “You’ll be fine, love, at least this time, with this boss, you might actually live up to the rumors. She’ll certainly be more your type, all that repressed passion in such an attractive package.” Tara was on a roll.

  Priya looked up to see Reyna standing behind Tara in the doorway to the office and the expression on her face changed so fast that Tara winced and made a silent ‘she’s behind me, isn’t she?’ gesture then turned herself around to face the door.

  “Ms. McFadden, isn’t it?” Reyna voice was the gentle slice of scissors through silk. Priya was relieved that she wasn’t at the receiving end this time.

  Tara smiled. “Please call me Tara,” she said. “As you can see, I suffer from ‘foot in mouth disease’. Now, unless it was me you came to see, please excuse me as I am just going to the Ladies to wash my mouth out with soap.” She brushed past Reyna and her foo
tsteps beat a retreat down the hall leaving Priya alone with Reyna.

  Reyna stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. She placed one of the spare chairs beside Priya’s desk and sat down. Priya was getting fed up with the burning in her cheeks every time this woman looked at her with that critical gaze. But as the gaze continued, her cheeks grew even hotter. Reyna still hadn’t said a word to her.

  “I assume you will want my resignation.”

  “Dr. Joseph, I wouldn’t make any assumptions if I were you. I have many things to sort out, you worked closely with Daniel and I need you to fill me in on the ongoing projects. I would like that to happen as soon as possible before I meet up again with our research partners.”

  Priya said nothing.

  “There’s no need to look so confused, Dr. Joseph, I intend to find out everything there is to know and it seems to me that you know quite a bit more than you let on.”

  “Ms. Fairer, I can fill you in on the Program Controller which is the project I was working on with Daniel before he… died. And our past projects and some of the ideas Daniel had been thinking about. But apart from that, I don’t know in what way you think I can help you. I really haven’t been that involved in any more than routine checks on patients for the last while.”

  Reyna’s voice was sharp. “You were in his apartment that morning. My mother did not mention a little Indian woman being there when she found Daniel. She had a very strong feeling that there had been a woman in his bed. I assumed when he didn’t call on Saturday that both of you were spending the day together.”

  Priya said, “Why didn’t you tell your mother you brought me there. Why let her keep thinking that there was someone with him in bed?”

  Reyna leaned forward, a harsh expression on her face. “Women like you think you can get away with a sweet smile, all innocence. But you are not innocent. I blame myself for taking you there, but you were the one who slept with him, and then left him there. Did you even think of calling for help? What were you trying to save, your reputation?” Priya flinched at Reyna’s tone; in it, there was no reputation worth saving.

  “I was never Daniel’s girlfriend. I woke up in a strange apartment; I didn’t know how I had ended up there. I had a vague memory of meeting you. I didn’t really want to stick around anyway, and then I found him. He was dead already. I just reacted. I know it was a mistake. I’m not proud of it. I don’t know why I ran away. Why on earth did you take me there anyway?”

  “You were drunk. I had the keys and I didn’t know anywhere else in Galway.” Reyna looked slightly discomfited for the first time. “Besides, Daniel said that he had a thing with a researcher and he mentioned your name a few times.”

  “Your mother said you were supposed to meet him at Massimo?”

  “He sent me a text to say he wouldn’t make it, that he wasn’t feeling too well and was going to bed.”

  “Why did you stay on?”

  “You had come over. You were very friendly. I knew you didn’t know who I was.”

  “And you were curious to see why Daniel’s girlfriend would be chatting up a total stranger? And a woman at that. If you thought I was his girlfriend why didn’t you just say who you were? Or were you trying to see how far I’d go, see if you could report me to Daniel?”

  “No, it wasn’t like that.” Reyna stopped.

  “Why did you not just send me back to my workmates? They must still have been there, Aidan saw us getting into a car.”

  “No…, they weren’t there. They’d left before that. You didn’t notice them going.” Was that a blush?

  Priya said, thinking out loud, “Why would they leave me behind? Not even say goodnight? Tara recognized you from the pub, surely she would have come over before she left...” She paused at the growing redness on Reyna’s face. “...Okay, so she did come over and... what…? You might as well tell me, I’m just going to ask Tara anyway.”

  “You were kissing me, I looked up afterwards and saw her walking back into the crowd and then I think your group left.”

  Priya sat in stunned silence.

  Reyna stood up and her chair screeched on the floor. She walked back to the door opening it with a quick pull. Tara had her hand raised to knock, and Reyna ignored her and walked out and away down the hall.

  “Girl! Ye weren’t at it again, were ye?” Tara glanced down the hall to make sure Reyna had disappeared before she spoke.

  Priya didn’t react; she just sat there in a silent huddle.

  “Priya? Are you okay?” Tara walked over, took Priya’s hand, and rubbed it between hers. “Was she giving you a hard time? You know, you don’t have to put up with it. You could get her for harassment; from what I saw that night she was really into you too.”

  “She wasn’t into me. I seem to have just thrown myself at her. And she thought I was with Daniel.” And then I find her brother and I leave him dead and she thinks I was having sex with him when he died. Or that I killed him?

  “Well, you weren’t with Daniel. And as I said, and I’ll say it again, no matter what Miss Ice Queen says she certainly looked like she was enjoying herself that night.”

  ∞

  The rest of the day blurred by her. Priya gathered what she could on the projects she had worked on with Daniel. She placed the material into neat piles on her desk. She worked through lunch and ignored Tara’s frequent glances as well as her invitation to lunch.

  When she had finished collating the information she had, it was after 5 p.m. She didn’t want to go home. She could hear others still working in the building, but she didn’t want their company. A visit to Michael, he often worked from home, maybe dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant. The city centre would be busy and distracting with the Arts Festival in its second week. She made up her mind and grabbed all the notes she had made and stuffed them into her briefcase.

  There were still cars in the car park as she walked out of the clinic. No dark car waiting for her this time. Probably all in her mind anyway. She wasn’t sure she would have noticed it this evening, her mind was still replaying the conversation with Reyna, and struggling to remember the night they had spent a part of together.

  “Dr. Joseph.” Reyna’s voice was real; it cut through Priya’s imaginings and she dropped her briefcase. A few sheets of paper spilled out and the wind caught them and blew them towards Reyna’s feet. This time as she reddened, Priya cursed out loud. She chased after one sheet that was wrapped around the base of one of the young saplings planted along the walkway. When she had retrieved the paper, she turned to see Reyna examining the other sheets.

  Reyna asked, “Taking work home?”

  “Just some notes.” Priya held her hand out and Reyna gave her the crumpled sheets.

  “My mother asked me to invite you to dinner tonight. She seems to have been quite taken with you.” Reyna’s tone seemed to suggest surprise.

  “I’m not really organized for anything, it’s quite short notice.” Priya was annoyed at the arrogance of it. After the things this woman had said to her.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, that’s why I actually went to your office. If you want to leave your car at home, I could follow you and give you a ride to my mother’s place. It’s very hard to find. I’m staying with her. Maybe pick up some things at your place; I could give you a ride back in tomorrow.” Reyna was already starting to turn away.

  “Maybe I had plans already.” Priya felt as childish as she sounded. Almost like she had just stamped her feet and sulked. There was that annoying smile again on Reyna’s lips.

  “I was merely passing on an invitation from my mother. You are free to refuse. I’m sure I’ll manage to eat what my mother has prepared. She is an amazing cook. I was only trying to help by offering a ride; you are of course free to bring your own car as well if you want.” Reyna said it so graciously, the words so subtly flavored with a smile that Priya now felt like a teenager and a gawky one at that. And she knew she couldn’t avoid the talk with Catheri
ne.

  “You are very kind.” She tried not to choke on the words, tried to sound like a 35-year-old adult. “I live in Barna, it’s on the way out to Connemara. If you want to follow me, I’ll pick up some things for the night. Which one’s your car?”

  Reyna pointed to a silvery blue Mercedes coupe parked beside James’ quiet Lexus.

  “Okay, I’m in the blue Volks over there; it’ll be easy to keep in sight.” Priya set off for her car without waiting for Reyna’s response.

  ∞

  She was tempted on the drive home to lose Reyna, but she kept a steady pace and pulled in to her driveway with the Mercedes still behind her. Reyna had the top down and her hair had come loose from its ponytail. She took off her sunglasses and looked at the house with curiosity.

  “Would you like to come in while I get my things?” Priya was hoping the woman would stay put, but Reyna nodded and got out of the car. Her sleekness reminded Priya of her first impressions of Catherine. They didn’t look alike, Catherine’s face was softer, her eyes a pale shade of blue. But they shared a grace in their movements.

  Priya opened the front door of her house. She was trying to remember whether she had left the house in a fit state for visitors. She was aware of every movement that Reyna made and conscious of the slight air of neglect that permeated the house.

  “Come through to the back, you could wait out on the deck. Would you like a glass of wine while you wait?” Priya rushed Reyna through the front room and into the kitchen suddenly anxious to show off the nicer side of the house. She was pleased to hear the intake of breath as Reyna caught sight of the view from the kitchen window.

  “No wine for me, thanks. The drive is difficult enough as it is. Remembering to stay on the right side of the road, or the left side. At least I was able to rent an automatic, I don’t drive stick shift. Perhaps a glass of water?”