Chaos At Christmas – Episode 35
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
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- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 35
Franklyn wasn’t cowed by Lionel’s words. “Perhaps they’ve been dreaming of the money involved instead. You don’t seem to appreciate the value of those phones. To one of our competitors, a GroupChat phone would be worth the earth at the moment. A member of your staff handing it over could name their own price.”
“They wouldn’t do that. They have principles.”
“It’s amazing how someone’s principles can be affected by a handful of banknotes waved in their face.”
Within seconds, a blazing row had blown up between the two men. Ferelith was astonished. But then Lyle was on his feet and hurriedly moving between them before they came to blows. “Hang on a minute, everyone. Let’s calm down a bit. Have you forgotten that it’s almost Christmas Day? What would Santa have to say about this?” The humour in his voice seemed to ease the situation. Lionel stepped back, looking rather ashamed that he had allowed his feelings to get the better of himself.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, straightening his tie. “But I have complete trust in my staff. I don’t appreciate them being accused.”
No one is accusing anyone of anything,
Lyle assured him. “Neither is there any reason for us to worry about all this. The GroupChat head of security, Walter Hofmeyer, is perfectly capable of dealing with whatever is going on here. We’ll bring him in and he’ll get to the bottom of it straight away.”
Franklyn frowned. “That could be a problem. Walter flew to South Africa two days ago; his plan was to spend Christmas on safari there. He has been informed about the situation but he won’t manage to get back here until Boxing Day.”
Lyle grimaced. “We can’t afford to leave it that long. Someone needs to get on top of the things.”
“But who? We can’t go to the police. I’m snowed under with work on the launch. And you have your guests to deal with, Lyle.”
The two men turned to Lionel but he held out his hands. “I have a hotel to run. Tomorrow…” He glanced at his watch. “Today is one of our busiest days of the year.”
Silence fell over the room. But then it was broken by Ferelith’s hesitant voice. “What about me? How about if I do a bit of investigating to try and find out what happened?”
“Merry Christmas, Ferelith.”
“Merry Christmas, Geraint.”
It was an odd moment. Neither of them seemed to know what to do. Ferelith thought that she would like to throw herself into his arms and kiss him. They had tried that the night before and it had been very successful, she remembered. She could kiss his lovely lips and his cheeks and his nose and his forehead and his eyelids and his ears.
Everywhere, really. And then maybe start back on his lips again. However, the two of them were standing in the middle of the reception area and kissing people there wasn’t really the done thing. She was sure that Erik wouldn’t approve. So she stared into Geraint’s gorgeous eyes instead and blushed at the thoughts that were filling her head.
“It’s so nice to see you.” Even as she said the words, she realised how inadequate they were. It wasn’t ‘nice’ to see Geraint; it was wonderful…extraordinary…glorious…ultra-brilliant…hyper-fantastic…giga-amazing. Though it wasn’t even any of those things. The words hadn’t yet been invented to describe how she felt. “But it’s Christmas Day. You shouldn’t really be here. You should be having the day off.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything special planned. So I decided to drop by the Manor. There’s plenty needing doing to get the grounds back in shape.” A slight flush crept into his cheeks. For a moment, he couldn’t seem to meet her eyes. “And I hoped that I might bump into you.”
Oh PLEASE bump into me,
the thought rushed into her head. Then she began to blush rather furiously herself.
“I suppose you’ll be busy helping look after the guests today,” he said.
The realisation suddenly struck Ferelith. “Oh my goodness, you don’t know about the phones!”
He frowned. “The phones?”
“It happened last night during the Christmas Eve party; all the GroupChat phones disappeared. They seem to have been stolen. It’s caused a terrible fuss.”
Quickly checking to see if Erik was watching, she took Geraint’s hand and led him over to a sofa in a quiet corner. They sat down and she held onto his hand – just to ensure that they didn’t get separated accidentally – and she told him all about what had happened. “Franklyn is in such a tizzy. Apparently, it would be a disaster for the company if their competitors got hold of the phones before the official product launch.”
“Have the police been informed?” Geraint asked. He grinned. “Maybe we’ll have Sergeant Banks and PC Lyons back at the Manor.”
Ferelith shook her head. “Franklyn won’t hear of it. He says that if that happened then word about the theft would almost certainly get out into the media. And that’s the last thing they want.”
“So what’s going to happen?”
“GroupChat’s head of security is going to take charge of the situation. But he’s flying back from South Africa and won’t arrive here till tomorrow. So in the meantime, I’m going to investigate the matter and see what I can turn up.”
Geraint looked at her in surprise. But then a thoughtful expression fell over his face. “Maybe I could help?”
Ferelith felt a lurch in her stomach. “You?”
He shrugged. “Sorting out the grounds can wait for a day. I could work on the investigation with you instead.”
Ferelith’s mind whirled. Spending the day with Geraint. Having him at her side. All the time. “That would be great.”
A wide smile crossed his face. “The two of us could become another world-famous crime-busting duo. Holmes And Watson. Starsky And Hutch. Ferelith And Geraint.” His eyes narrowed. “And if they make a TV series based on our amazing exploits then I insist on you being played by Saoirse Ronan.”
She snuggled a bit closer on the sofa. “Maybe you could be played by Liam Hemsworth?”
She became distracted by the idea. With a gorgeous couple like Saoirse and Liam as the leads, the stories might involve a fair bit of kissing. In fact, possibly a great deal of kissing. Kissing at the start of each episode. Then at the end. Perhaps even from time to time in the middle as well.
She gulped and pushed herself to her feet. Her legs were feeling a little wobbly. “Perhaps that’s something to think about on another occasion. We have an investigation to be getting on with.”
The two of them were soon focussed on the task in hand. They started by visiting the cloakroom.
“What does this charger look like?” Geraint asked.
“It’s about the size of a beachball with lots of leads coming out of it. It was sitting on that table there and all the GroupChat phones were plugged into it.”
“It doesn’t sound like a very unobtrusive sort of thing.”
Ferelith laughed. “You’re right there. If anyone had tried to carry it through the reception area then they would definitely have been spotted.” She went over to the window and grasped the handle.
“Are you thinking that whoever took the charger and the phones might have passed them to someone outside?” Geraint asked.
“That must be a possibility. If the charger didn’t leave via reception then it must have been removed from the hotel some other way. Though there’s no sign of the window being forced.”
“So perhaps it was an inside job and the theft was carried out by a guest,” Geraint suggested. He frowned. “Or even a member of staff.”
Their eyes met in a troubled look. “Neither of those is a very comforting idea,” Ferelith muttered. She thought to herself for a moment. “Let’s speak to Erik. If anyone saw anything suspicious last night then it would have been him.”
