Chapter 19: The Seventh Floor

The boardroom on the seventh floor had a very long table and a window onto the river.

Fourteen people sat around it in dark suits.

Hugh sat at the far end, in the chair that belonged to Tristan.

A leather folder lay squared in front of him.

He had not expected us to walk in.

I saw it in his face, for as long as it took him to put the smile back.

Piers came in beside me.

Rosalind and the other two women came behind us, with the crate between them.

Tristan's mother stood up at the head of the table.

"These people are my guests," she said. "Sit anywhere."

We sat along the wall, in a row.

Hugh opened his folder.

"Madam Chair, members of the board, I'll be brief."

"On Friday night my friend Tristan, who was distraught and unwell, signed away his entire estate."

"I move that the signing be set aside, and that I keep his proxy until he is fit to vote."

He glanced at the row of us along the wall.

"The only witness was a woman he has been seeing, who has an interest in his money."

"I have no interest in his money," I said.

Hugh smiled at the table.

"You see? She's already speaking out of turn."

"She's speaking because I asked her to," Tristan said.

He stood at the other end of the table, by the window, in a clean suit.

He had shaved. He looked ill and entirely awake.

"Before anything else, I have a statement," he said.

"Margot Hunsicker and I are no longer engaged."

"That was never her wish or mine. I'm sorry I let it go as far as a ring."

Across the room, Margot's father sank back and put his hand over his eyes.

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