Part 34 (1/2)

I nodded. 'Then I'll start looking from now on for a business expert, someone to oversee the cash flow and do the accountS and try to keep us afloat. Because it's going to be a struggle, we can't avoid that.'

They both looked shocked and disbelieving. Cash flow seemed never to have been a problem before.

'Greville did buy diamonds,' I said regretfully, 'and so far we are only in possession of a quarter of them. I can t find out what happened to the rest. They cost the firm altogether one and a half million dollars, and we'll still owe the bank getting on for three-quarters of that sum when we've sold the quarter we have.'

Their mouths opened in unhappy unison.

'Unless and until the other diamonds turn up,' I said, 'we have to pay interest on the loan and persuade the Ibank that somehow or other we'll climb out of the hole.

ISo we'll want someone we'll call the Finance Manager, and we ll pay him out of part of what used to be Greville'

s own salary.'

They began to understand the mechanics, and nodded.

'Then,' I said, 'we need a gemmologist who has a feeling for stones and understands what the customers like and need. There's no good hoping for another Greville, but we will create the post of Merchandise Manager, and that,' I looked at her, 'will be June.'

She blushed a fiery red. 'But I can't. . . I don't know enough.'

'You'll go on courses,' I said. 'You'll go to trade fairs. You'll travel. You'll do the buying.'

I watched her expand her horizons abruptly and saw the sparkle appear in her eyes.

'She's too young,' Annette objected.

'We'll see,' I said, and to June I added, 'YoU know what sells. You and the Finance Manager will work together to make us the best possible profit. You'll still work the computer, and teach Lily or Tina how to use it for when you're away.'

'Tine,' she said, 'she's quicker.'

'Tine, then.'

'What about you?' she asked.

'I'll be General Manager. I'll come when I can, at least twice a week for a couple of hours. Everyone will tell me what's going on and we will all decide what is best to be done, though if there's a disagreement I'll have the casting vote. Right or wrong will be my responsibility, not yours.'

Annette, nevertheless troubled, said, 'Surely you yourself will need Mr Franklin's salary.'

I shook my head. 'I earn enough riding horses Until we're solvent here, we need to save every penny.'

'It's an adventure!' dune said, enraptured.

I thought it might be a very long haul and even in the end impossible, but I couldn't square it with the consciousness of Greville all around me not to try.

'Well,' I said, putting a hand in a pocket and bringing out a twist of gauze, 'we have here five uncut diamonds which cost about seventy-five thousand dollars alto gether.'

They more or less gasped.

'How do we sell them?' I said.

After a pause, Annette said, 'Interest a diamantaire.'

'Do you know how to do that?'

After another moment's hesitation, she nodded.

'We can give provenance,' I said. 'Copies of the records of the original sale are on their way here from Guy Servi in Antwerp. They might be here tomorrow.

Sight-box number and so on. We'll put these stones in the vault until the papers arrive, then you can get cracking.'

She nodded, but fearfully.

'Cheer up,' I said. 'It's clear from the ledgers that Saxony Franklin is normally a highly successful and profitable business We'll have to cut costs where we can, that's all.'

'We could cut out Jason's salary,' Annette said unexpectedly. 'Half the time Tina's been carrying the heavy boxes, anyway, and I can do the hoovering myself.'

'Great,' I said with grat.i.tude. 'If you feel like that, we'll succeed.'

The telephone rang and Annette answered it briefly.

'A messenger has left a packet for you down at the front desk,' she said.

'I'll go for it,' June said, and was out of the door on the words, returning in her usual short time with a brown padded jiffy bag, not very large, addressed simply to Derek Franklin in neat handwriting, which she laid before me with a flourish.

'Mind it's not a bomb,' she said facetiously as I picked it up, and I thought with an amount of horror that it was a possibility I hadn't thought of.

'I didn't mean it,' she said teasingly, seeing me hesitate. '

Do you want me to open it?'

'And get your hands blown off instead?'

'Of course it's not a bomb,' Annette said uneasily.

'Tell you whet,' dune said, 'I'll fetch the shears from the packing room.' She was gone for a few seconds 'Alfie says,' she remarked, returning, 'we ought to put it in a bucket of water.'

She gave me the shears, which were oversized scissors that Alfie used for cutting cardboard, and for all her disbelief she and Annette backed away across the room while I sliced the end off the bag.

There was no explosion. Complete anti-climax. I shook out the contents which proved to be two objects and one envelope.

One of the objects was the microca.s.sette recorder that I'd left on Prospero Jenks's workbench in my haste to be gone.

The other was a long black leather wallet almost the size of the Wizard, with gold initials G.S.F. in one corner and an ordinary brown rubber band holding it shut.

'That's Mr Franklin's,' Annette said blankly, and June, coming to inspect it, nodded.

I peeled off the rubber band and laid the wallet open on the desk. There was a business card lying loose inside it with Prospero Jenks's name and shops on the front, and on the reverse the single word, 'Sorry.'