Undercover Alice (4 page)

I called Barry when I got home, as had been planned,
to brief him on the day’s events. I obviously made a bit too much of the
pleasant working environment, and Matt’s popularity with his staff, as Barry
grunted and said, ‘Sounds like the fucking Waltons.’

He was impatient for information.

‘What did you find out? Did he beat up an
ex-girlfriend? Oh that would be a cracking story.’

I could picture him, sitting at his desk, rubbing
his hands together in glee at the thought of such a development. He really
wasn’t a very nice man, I thought.

‘I’m just trying to get to know people at the
moment,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to come over too strong and get myself found
out.’

Barry sighed impatiently but seemed to accept that
this was a reasonable tactic.

 ‘Just don’t forget why you’re there, sunshine.
Don’t go falling in love with Fancypants Matt and his band of merry fucking
thieves,’ and, with an unpleasant cackle, he hung up.

I was always left with a horrible taste in my mouth
after talking to Barry, and I quickly called Jen as she was usually the
antidote.

I ran down the events of the day, including my
unfortunate run-in with the unhappy Sarah Elliot.

‘She sounds like a cow,’ Jen observed succinctly.

‘I don’t know whether she is or not yet,’ I said,
trying to be reasonable. ‘Well, she doesn’t like me. But I think that’s only
because I’m working so closely with Matt. She’s clearly in love with him. She
might be a very nice woman otherwise. She seemed nice until she found out I
worked beside her soulmate.’

‘What does he think of her?’ Jen asked, and I
pondered for a few seconds.

 ‘It’s hard to tell. He likes her, I’m sure of that.
But I don’t know if it’s in a romantic sense. Probably, she’s gorgeous.’

‘So are you,’ Jen pointed out, ‘Looks aren’t
everything, anyway.’

I smiled at that; easy for Jen to say when she was
absolutely stunning, almost effortlessly so.

I started telling her about what a great environment
it was.

You’re gushing,’ Jen said.

‘What?’

You’re gushing. You’ve been speaking about Matt for
five minutes now.’

Crap, she was right. I hastily changed the subject
and we hung up a few minutes later. I really had been gushing.

I spent the rest of the evening watching rubbish TV.
I washed the clothes Sarah had lent me; the sooner I could get them back to her
the better, then maybe I could avoid her as much as possible.

I went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately. I
had strange dreams, though. I was running through a corridor, trying to find
the way out, but every turn I took, I ended up in a further labyrinth. There
was a man ahead of me, but I couldn’t see his face. I was trying to reach him;
maybe he could help me out of this place – but he wouldn’t stop, and I couldn’t
catch up. I woke up sweating. What on earth had that been about?

I  did manage to get back to sleep, but I woke up out
of sorts, and it got worse when I got into my car and the bloody thing refused
to start. I turned the key repeatedly, willing it to jump into life. It gave a
sad little wheezing sound and then silence. Great. I pulled out my phone and
dialled Matt, thankful I had had the presence of mind to put his work number in
my phone the previous day. He answered on the third ring.

‘Matt Westwall.’ He sounded very professional. I
realised he wouldn’t know who was calling as he probably didn’t have my number
in his phone.

‘Matt, it’s Alice. Your PA,’ I said. As opposed to
Alice in Wonderland, I thought.

‘Oh, Alice! Hello. Is everything ok?’ He sounded concerned.

‘I’m afraid I might be a bit late,’ I said,
apologetically. ‘My car won’t start, so I’ll have to get the bus.’

‘That’ll take you ages,’ Matt said.

He was right. Although I was only 30 minutes or so
from work by car, the local bus route was pretty much a scenic tour of the
whole south side of the city. I wasn’t looking forward to being crammed in,
surrounded by sweaty commuters. I’m quite antisocial like that.

 ‘Look I’ll come pick you up, you’re not that far
away from me. What’s your house number?’

He turned up 20 minutes later, not in a flash BMW as
I’d imagined, but in an eminently sensible Toyota Prius. I clambered into the
passenger seat.

‘Thanks so much for this,’ I said. ‘I think it’s the
battery. My best friend’s brother is coming over tonight to try sort it.’

I shrugged.

‘I know about as much as cars as I do about
computers, I’m afraid.’

Matt waved a hand. ‘It’s no problem. I must confess,
I’m awful with cars, too.’

We chatted easily for the rest of the journey. He
made me laugh with anecdotes about some of the more awful meetings he’d been to
in the past few weeks, and I made him laugh with an impression of Dave Barry.

‘That was worryingly good,’ he said, when I’d
finished. ‘I’m looking at you in a whole different light now.’

We pulled up in the office car park and, as I was
climbing out of the car, I froze. Sarah Elliot was standing just a couple of
spaces away, and looking at me with barely disguised fury. I quickly realised
she had put two and two together and come up with five; which, I thought
charitably, was to be expected, I suppose, seeing the man she clearly loved
arriving with this new imposter.

‘Oh hi, Sarah!’ Matt waved at her cheerily. ‘Alice’s
car broke down so I’ve been on taxi duty.’

Sarah smiled at him, ignoring me entirely. I could
tell she was relieved, but she still didn’t look happy.

 ‘Oh I see. People will talk, you know.’ She turned
on her heel and walked away towards the entrance.

Matt looked at her, slightly puzzled.

‘Well, sounds like someone got out the wrong side of
bed this morning.’

I stared at him. Could he really not see it? It
seemed so obvious to me, but Matt seemed cheerfully oblivious. Mind you, he
wouldn’t be the first man I’d met who was blind to a woman’s subtle and
not-so-subtle hints and flirting. I’d met men before who made me consider
hiring a plane with a banner trailing behind it reading ‘Ask Alice out for a
drink.’

I followed Matt into the building and to our
offices. He had a rare morning with no meetings, and we sat chatting, the doors
between our offices open. I hadn’t laughed so much in ages, and certainly never
at work. He had such a way with words, even I, a journalist, was impressed. His
stories were hilarious and he had the attractive quality of being able to make
fun of his own shortcomings and embarrassing moments. The sock story was
brought up again, and he had me in fits as he recalled his shame when Melling,
the director of a global IT company, had glanced down and saw he was wearing
one black sock, and one with a reindeer on it.  

‘What did you do? I said, laughing.

Matt shrugged.

‘What could I do? I just smiled and said I was
preparing for Christmas.’

I howled with laughter.

‘It’s July,’ I pointed out, shaking my head.

The morning whizzed by, neither of us achieving much
work, but finding out we both liked the Foo Fighters, and thought the second
Ghostbusters film was the best one. I wasn’t sure this was vital information
for my exposé, but I suppose any background is background.

I went through to the canteen by myself for lunch –
Matt was popping out to the shops to get some bits and pieces for the house he
had moved into a few weeks earlier. I grabbed a sandwich and was about to sit
down at a table on my own when I heard Angus’s voice, loud over the babble of
chatter.

‘Don’t sit by yourself like a loner, come here!’

I turned round to see him beckoning me furiously. My
heart sank to see Sarah sitting at the table too, but what else could I do? I
took a deep breath, smiled, and made my way across the canteen. I sat down,
careful not to look at Sarah.

‘So, you came back for a second day,’ Angus
observed.

I didn’t need to be a mind-reader to be able to tell
what Sarah was thinking, it was written plain across her face.

‘I’m thinking I’ll try to stick out the week,’ I
said, taking a bite of my sandwich. Then, feeling mischievous, I said, ‘Matt
and I have been talking nonsense together all morning, I feel like we’ve barely
had a chance to do any work.’

I glanced slyly at Sarah, who was looking murderous.
That was a low blow, I knew, but I couldn’t resist it.

Angus chuckled, oblivious to the tension in the air.
What is it with men? I thought.

 ‘He could talk the hind leg off a donkey. Was he
telling you about his meeting with Melling a couple of weeks ago?’

I nodded, smiling as I recalled his ‘preparing for
Christmas’ comment. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall – Melling
sounded like a total ballbreaker. Matt had said he hadn’t even reacted, just
carried on with the meeting as if nothing had happened.

‘Aye, he’s full of stories like that. He’s had an
interesting life, so far, that’s for sure.’

Aha, perhaps this was my chance to find something
out. I remembered Matt telling me yesterday that he’d known Angus for years.
Perhaps he would know about those missing years in his biography.

‘Yes, I was reading his biography in my welcome
pack. There seemed to be a few years missing, though. Maybe a page got lost?’ I
said, innocently.

Angus suddenly looked uncomfortable, although
Sarah’s expression didn’t change. Perhaps she doesn’t know, I thought. Maybe
they’re not that close, after all.

 ‘Oh, really? I’ll take a look.’

I got the impression he knew exactly why those pages
were missing. I can tell when people are lying, which is a useful trait for a
journalist. Angus rose the top of my list of people to grill, if I got the
chance.

He changed the subject, moving on to a story about
an unfortunate interview he’d held the week before, where the person who turned
up had completely misunderstood the role they were applying for.

‘I asked him about his experience with Windows, and
he said his grandad had been a window cleaner.’ Angus howled with laughter and
I couldn’t help joining in. Even Sarah cracked a smile.

When I finished my sandwich, I hurried away, lest
Angus leave before me and I was stuck with Sarah. I hated making small talk at
the best of times, let along with someone who clearly wanted to make a purse
out of my skin.

I had to consider my next approach. Angus clearly
knew what had happened in those missing three years, but his relationship with
Matt made it very unlikely he would spill secrets to a stranger. I’d need to
win his trust, somehow. Or Matt’s.

 I was deep in thought when Matt appeared back in
the office. He’d taken his suit jacket off, and his white shirt clung to his
chest. I could see a hint of muscle through the thin material, and I quickly
averted my gaze.

‘Whew, it’s hot out there.’ Matt dumped some carrier
bags on the floor of his office and then came back out to stand in front of my
desk. I suddenly felt a bit hot, too. Strange,  I’m pretty sure the office is
adequately air conditioned.

‘What have I got on this afternoon?’

I glanced the screen, glad to refocus my mind.

‘You’ve got a meeting with Sarah Elliot at three, in
your office.’

Great, that meant she’d be coming here and I’d have
to greet her. Sarah Elliot was rapidly making my life much more unpleasant than
it should have been. I was tempted to change my exposé to one of her; surely
she’d done something dastardly in her life.

‘Well, I hope she’s in a better mood than this
morning,’ Matt said, shaking his head.

She wasn’t. She arrived in the office just before
three, and Matt was on a phone call, so she had no choice but to stand
uncomfortably in front of my desk.

‘Would you like a tea or coffee?’

I was determined to be pleasant. After all, I hadn’t
done anything wrong. Well, I suppose I had as I was an undercover reporter sent
to expose her boss and one true love. But
she
didn’t know that. All I’d
done as far as she was concerned was turn up for my job, not be a 60-year-old
toothless crone and actually be vaguely efficient.

‘No thanks,’ she said, coolly.

I reached under my desk and brought out a plastic
bag, handing it to her. She looked at me quizzically, and not a little
suspiciously.

‘It’s the clothes from yesterday,’ I explained.
‘Thank you for letting me borrow them. I’ve washed them.’

‘Thanks.’

We stayed in awkward silence for a while, and then
Matt came out of his office. He must have sensed the atmosphere, as he looked
from one of us to the other, looking puzzled. When no explanation was
forthcoming, he gave a little shrug to himself and beckoned Sarah into his
office. She closed the door as she went in, and I couldn’t hear what they were
saying. From the glances I stole through the glass panes, though, it didn’t
look like they were declaring their love for each other. Matt was scribbling
things down in a notebook as Sarah spoke.