He leaned back and stared at the numbers. A cold wave seemed to wash over his body followed by a burning sensation in his cheeks. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t frustration, it wasn’t even resignation, it was shame. That moment when he had paused and decided not to tell Tarek about his spread-betting had stuck in his mind. He was ashamed of it. And this was why. He knew that the US bond market had been balanced on a knife edge, pulled one way by those who feared global inflation and the other way by those who feared deflation. Over the last twenty-four hours, the fear of inflation had grown more powerful. Calder had completely failed to anticipate this. The reason was obvious: he had given the matter only passing consideration as his mind had been taken up with Todd and Kim and Benton Davis and Sandy and the day-to-day problems of running an airfield. Of course he had no idea which way the bond market was going to go.
He was ashamed that he had kidded himself that he had.
He may as well have bet on the spin of a roulette wheel or the three-thirty at Goodwood. And only the previous morning he had been complaining to his sister about his father’s gambling.
He quickly clicked the mouse a few times to take his loss and close out his position. He stared at the screen a moment longer. Maybe he should terminate his account with Spreadfinex? Remove the temptation.
Maybe. Maybe not.
He picked up the phone to call Steve at Little Gransden Airfield to see where they got their body bags from, or indeed if they had a spare one to tide Langthorpe over until Calder could order one.
‘So, Alex, have you been speaking to the police?’
Cornelius was wearing his half-moon reading glasses as he held a menu in front of him, and his sharp blue eyes flicked upwards, fixing on Calder. They were in the restaurant of a smart country-house hotel a few miles from the hospital. Todd’s sister Caroline had flown over from San Diego, and she and Cornelius had spent the afternoon with his comatose son. Edwin had arrived late that afternoon. Cornelius had accepted Kim’s suggestion that they all have dinner together. It was a sombre gathering.
‘Of course,’ Calder replied. ‘Once they realized the Yak had been sabotaged, they had lots of questions.’
‘About?’
‘About the Yak, about the engine fire, about the crash landing,’ Calder said warily.
‘Did they ask about our family?’
Calder carefully put down his own menu. ‘If you mean, did I tell them that Todd had been trying to find out about your late wife’s death, the answer is yes, I did.’
There was silence around the table.
‘I would rather you hadn’t mentioned that,’ said Cornelius. ‘Those are private family matters.’
‘And the police are conducting an investigation into attempted murder,’ Calder said reasonably. ‘Which means they are quite likely to want to know about private family matters.’
‘Matters which have nothing to do with you,’ Cornelius said.
‘I told the police about it as well,’ said Kim. ‘Not the first time I spoke to them, but once I’d thought it through I realized I had to. Alex is right. Todd could easily have been murdered; we have to tell them everything and trust them to work out what is and isn’t relevant.’
Cornelius glared at his daughter-in-law. She shrugged and smiled a small sad smile.
Cornelius’s stare softened. ‘I’m sorry, Kim. I’m worried sick about Todd, we all are, and I didn’t appreciate answering a barrage of intrusive questions from that policewoman. You know how concerned I am about the family’s privacy. But it must be hardest on you.’
Kim smiled weakly. ‘Alex has been quite a support to me over the last few days.’
Cornelius turned to Calder. ‘Thank you for all you are doing,’ he said grudgingly. ‘I’m sure Todd would appreciate it.’
Caroline, who had said very little, was sitting next to Kim. She moved her hand over to touch her sister-in-law’s. Kim grasped it, squeezing so hard that the knuckles went white. She had been doing well, but Caroline’s sudden gesture of sympathy seemed to pierce her defences. A tear ran down her cheek as she turned towards Caroline and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’
Caroline was a few years younger than Todd. She was thin, with Todd’s even features but not his easy self-assurance. She was well dressed in cream trousers and a silk top, but apart from some discreet but expensive earrings, there was no indication that she was married to a billionaire. She had left her nine-month-old daughter at home, and was intending to stay in England for only a couple of days before going back to her. But she had wanted to see Todd and hold his hand, even if Todd couldn’t see her.
There was silence as we all stared at Kim with varying degrees of sympathy. The waiter seized his moment and took everyone’s order. Kim was a tough woman; she visibly pulled herself together. ‘I saw your bid for The Times in the papers,’ she said to Cornelius. ‘The columnist seemed to think you’ll get it. That must be very exciting.’
Cornelius paused for a moment, but decided to respect Kim’s wish to change the subject back to safer ground. ‘There’s a long way to go yet,’ he said. ‘Evelyn Gill is a formidable opponent, it would never do to underestimate him. But it would be very exciting to own The Times. I just hope Todd can share in the triumph. I never understood why he walked away from the newspaper business.’
‘Different people are suited to different things, Pa,’ Edwin said.
Cornelius was taking no notice of his son, and instead was looking intently at Kim.
‘Edwin’s right,’ said Kim. ‘Todd is his own man.’ She smiled at Cornelius. ‘In that I suspect he is like his father. And there’s nothing you or I can do to change that.’
‘I guess not,’ said Cornelius, his disappointment showing.
‘I suppose this is your biggest deal since the Herald,’ Kim said. ‘When was that — 1988?’
‘That’s right,’ Cornelius smiled. ‘That was the deal that transformed Zyl News from a South African company to an international media group. If we can get The Times it will complete the process, give us a real flagship title to be proud of.’
‘That must have been a difficult time,’ Kim said. ‘From what I understand you nearly went under then.’
Cornelius looked at her sharply. ‘Did Todd tell you that?’
Kim didn’t answer, managing to look coy as though embarrassed by her husband’s indiscretion. Calder was impressed at the way she was probing Cornelius.
‘There’s no point in denying it now, although I don’t think the outside world has ever realized just how close we were to bankruptcy. It was the old junk-bond story. We needed to do ever-bigger deals to raise the finance to pay off the debt on the old deals. When the stock market crashed in October ’87, the merry-go-round came to an abrupt halt and a lot of guys went flying off the sides. We would have gone too if we hadn’t closed the Herald deal. Since then we’ve been much more careful.’
‘You don’t have any South African papers left in the Zyl News group,’ Kim said. ‘I’ve often wondered why that is. I mean, I know you had to sell them in the 1980s to satisfy US investors, but surely there would be no problem in buying one or two now?’
‘It’s a small fragmented market and it’s very competitive,’ Edwin answered.
His father ignored him. ‘I’ve left South Africa behind me,’ he said. ‘I have a US passport, an American wife and I split my time between here and there. But not South Africa.’ He glanced at Kim. ‘I hope to God that you never have to learn this, but when your spouse dies, you reassess things. You begin to realize what’s important to you. In my case it was my family,’ he smiled at Caroline and Edwin. ‘Not my country.’