What the Nanny Saw Read Online Free Page B

why has he done this disappearing act?” asked Foy.
    “He’s not in his right mind,” said Bryony, fixing Foy with a steely gaze that made her look just like her father. “And he thinks that they’ll go away if he’s not around.”
    Her hand pointed toward the window and the other side of Holland Park Crescent, where the posse of journalists and paparazzi congregated almost every morning.
    “When did you last hear from him?” Foy asked.
    “A couple of days ago,” replied Bryony vaguely.
    “Do you know where he is?” Foy asked. Bryony shrugged her shoulders.
    “His disappearance has become the story,” said Foy, echoing exactly what Ali was thinking.
    “I want to listen to the news,” said Bryony, ignoring her father. She switched on a television that had been brought into the dining room from the kitchen after Malea had left. Bloomberg News immediately appeared on screen. A business reporter who had come to their last Christmas party was talking about the bank where Nick worked. Bryony and Foy moved closer to the screen. Bryony turned up the volume, warning Foy and Ali to stay quiet.
    “Liquidity crisis . . . Shares slump twelve percent . . . jittery investors . . . exposure to subprime . . .” Ali had overheard enough conversations under the Skinners’ roof over the past year to know none of this was good and that somehow it related to Nick.
    “What’s she talking about?” Foy questioned Bryony, pointing at the television screen.
    “There’s rumors that PIMCO has stopped trading with Lehman’s,” Bryony said.
    “Who?” said Foy.
    “The world’s biggest bond company won’t touch Lehman’s,” said Bryony flatly.
    “What does it mean?” Foy asked.
    “It means they’re fucked,” said Bryony.
    Ali moved closer to Bryony and Foy. This was surely the moment where the glassy-eyed reporter would finally reveal to them exactly what Nick was meant to have done. But by the time Ali reached Foy’s elbow the reporter had moved on to talk about some improbably named American mortgage companies that were running out of capital. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They sound like a couple of porn stars, thought Ali.
    “This could be good,” said Foy hopefully. “It could divert attention from Nick.”
    “Or put him in the eye of the storm,” said Bryony. “Remember, he still works for Lehman’s.”
    “Did you know the word ‘credit’ comes from the Latin for ‘to believe’?” Foy suddenly said. “I wonder if Nick knew that.”

 2 
    Felix Naylor was waiting at a table in the corner of the café. He was early, which Ali saw as a sign of aggression rather than politeness. He wanted to get the upper hand. He looked up as Ali approached and gave a quick smile, putting his newspaper down on the floor and pulling out the seat beside him. There was music playing. Noah and the Whale.
    The café was full of students. It was a good choice, thought Ali. She knew from experience that there was no more self-absorbed group than a bunch of undergraduates. No one would have any interest in them. And with his T-shirt, jeans, and artfully scruffy hair, Felix blended in with everyone else in a way that would have been impossible for someone like Nick.
    Ali sat down and glanced around her. The person opposite was examining a text message and asking his friend whether the fact the girl had signed off with a couple of kisses meant more than if she had used just one. And was it significant that the kisses were in uppercase. The friend was indifferent. He didn’t want to get involved in a plotline that had obviously been discussed too many times before.
    At the next table a couple were earnestly discussing whether Robinson Crusoe was a symbol of individualism that led to the rise of capitalism. “Did you know that in his book of travels around Britain, Daniel Defoe wrote about how two hundred ships sailing from Great Yarmouth sank in the Devil’s Mouth?” she wanted to ask. “And that Robinson Crusoe