Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 55

"A little bit of hope."
[PART TWO]

The music had changed.

It was country now, soft and melodic. You could hear the guitar strings, you could hear the distinctive rich deep voice of the male singer. It was Johnny Cash. I would recognise his voice anywhere and in that split second I found myself back in my youth when Sunday's were full of my mother's country albums. She had all the favourites. Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline. But of them all, the main one she listened to was always Johnny Cash.

She would often tell me stories of his life. How he had sung to the inmate at San Quentin. How he had been a rebel. How he had taken drugs. It must have been a brave thing to have sung to all those inmates and then suddenly, in a flash, I was shaken awake.

Prison.

I couldn't go to prison. It would be the death of me and in that sudden moment of truth I had found reality knocking loudly at my door.

I thought of Geoff. I had to phone him.

Max was sat blissfully unaware of the turmoil raging inside me. She watched impassively as I stood up.

'I won't be a minute,' I said smiling. 'I just need the men's room.'

I reach my hotel room and quickly dialled his number.

He answered immediately and came straight to the point saying that if we were ever going to find out the truth then we had to start right from the beginning.

He then asked me to explain how I came to work for Stamfords.

'There isn't much to tell,' I said. 'I applied, I went for my interview and I was accepted.'

'Too easy,' said Geoff. 'I need a lead, something to work off.'

I asked him there and then whether he thought I was innocent.

'Well you've phoned me,' he replied, 'and you are alone. That in my book accounts for something.'

There was a pause and then.

'I have never put you down as a villain Kirk but there is no denying that you are in one hell of a mess and this is not going to be easy but like all house of cards, you pull one card away and the rest will come tumbling down. If I can prove your innocence then I will be one step closer to finding those missing paintings.'

I really did want to tell him everything, blurt it all out but at what cost. I just couldn't. There was a lady downstairs waiting for me and regardless of what I thought and my own predicament I owed her at least my loyalty.

'So who interviewed you?'

'A Patrick McCormick,' I answered rather subdued. 'Their personnel manager. Adam wasn't there. That's why I went out and found the Jupiter in its state. Pat made the mistake of sending me out too early. I can't imagine he has anything to do with it because he was just as shocked as I was.'

Geoff knew whom I was talking about. It wasn't what he was looking for.

'There is always something,' he said calmly. 'A chink, an oddity. We just have to find it that's all.'

I then remembered what Richard had told me back on the Jupiter.

'It may not be anything but I have misled you a little,' I confessed uneasily, 'in regard to being chosen.'

I hesitated wondering how he would take to my news.

'Adam wasn't there. There was no one to do the interviews and so Jenny felt obliged to go through all the applicants. She didn't want to,' I stressed a little too eagerly, 'but a decision had to be made and in her words as all the candidates bar me were old codgers then I kind of got the job by default.'