Page 38 of Pressure Head

He laughed. “They may do after today. Be interesting to see where he heads when they let him go—ifthey let him go. How’d the secretary take it?”

“Pip? Badly. I met her husband, by the way. Nice bloke—I’d known him for all of half a second when he took a swing at me.”

“Are you all right?” Phil’s voice was even sharper now, and his obvious concern for me sent warmth flooding through my chest. I’d been expecting something more like a joke about how I had that effect on a lot of people.

“I’m fine—he never touched me. I winded him, though. Course, I didn’t know who he was, did I? She went home with him afterwards.” I let my tone tell him what I thought about that.

“Did he have a reason for attacking you? Or do you just have that effect on some people?”

Ah, there it was. “Very funny. He told me to stay away from his wife, so he must have thought I was after her.”

“Interesting.”

“Which bit?”

“The bit where he just assumed there was something funny going on as soon as he saw you together.”

“Ah. Well, I sort of had my arm in hers at the time, so I s’pose it did look a bit suspect.”

There was a stifled sound on the other end of the line. “Christ, do you ever stop?”

“I never even started! I was just looking after her, that’s all. She was in a right state.”

“Fine. I’ll believe you; thousands wouldn’t. Right—I’ve got stuff to do. Thanks for calling; I appreciate it.” He hung up before I even had a chance to suggest we meet up for a pint or something.

Feeling a bit let down, I put the van in gear and headed over to Harpenden.

Where I found a pissed-off Post-it on the front door, withWaited over an hour for you. Don’t bother to call again, scrawled on it in angry Biro.

Swearing under my breath, I dug in my pocket until I found a stubby pencil. I wroteSorryat the bottom of the note, then I turned back around and headed home.