Free The Jump by Martina Cole Page A

her teeth. Her natural tidiness coming to the fore, she began clearing up, starting with the kitchen.
    Two hours later when Davey came back she was in the office. He walked through the door and nearly passed out. ‘What on earth are you doing?’
    After taking four calls from people who demanded to speak to Davey and had put the phone down on her in mid-conversation, then experiencing the fright of her life when she touched an old black bag in the kitchen and saw it move of its own accord, courtesy of a

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    them maggot-ridden sandwich, she turned on Davey. With two high pink spots on her cheeks she snapped. ‘What the hell does it look like?’
    Davey, taken aback at her sharp tone, said gently, ‘I know where everything is. Carol never touches anything, Donna. You should have left it.’
    Near to tears and upset by his attitude she said, This pile of letters here is for answering, this pile is for filing. These are bills - and incidentally they’re cutting the phone off tomorrow if that bill’s not paid. In the filing cabinet there are now files instead of old pizza boxes, and the notepapef and envelopes are all in this top drawer here. I found them under a pile of old brochures behind the door to the kijtchen. Also, I have taken three appointments and actually put them in the diary. In addition I also took four calls from a man called Briggley, and I have ordered new binders and invoices from the wholesalers. On top of all that, I have cleaned out the kitchen, which was practically on the verge of being condemned by the health people. That, Davey, is what I have been doing. And, I might add, not before bloody time!’
    Looking at her grubby face, her broken nails and white blouse covered in ink from the carbon paper he had stuffed into the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, Davey began to laugh. Donna, to her surprise, began to join in. Only her laugh was high-pitched, on the verge of hysteria.
    ‘I’m sorry, Donna, I should have got Carol to have a clean-out here. She does that, now and again.’
    ‘Now and again being the operative words. It wasn’t like this when Georgio was here.’
    ‘I meant to employ someone, full-time like, but I never got round to it. You know what my Carol’s like.’
    Donna wiped her eyes and grinned. ‘Well, I think now I’ve sorted this place out, I can keep it under control. To be honest it’s the first time in ages I haven’t been brooding over Georgio. I’ll take on the job of secretary, it might do me a bit of good.’
    ‘Whatever you say, Donna. You and Georgio own more of this place than I do.’
    ‘Doa’t be like that, Davey.’ She put a hand gently on his arm. ‘Georgio respects you a lot. He’s over the moon at how you’ve kept the place running since he’s been away.’
    Davey nodded. ‘You’ll soon learn the ropes.’
    Donna walked through to the kitchen and began washing her hands. She shouted over her shoulder, ‘By the way, what’s a goer? A bloke rang up for an XJS. I told him I was a temp and he put the phone down on me.’
    In the now tidy office Davey closed his eyes in distress and said lightly, ‘One thing at a time, Donna. You’ll learn it all soon enough.’
    And that, he remarked to himself, was just what he was frightened of. He had envisaged her coming in and doing a bit of typing, maybe a bit of the legit book-keeping, but no way had he thought she would start to look through everything. If she had bothered to read the files under the desk … It did not bear thinking about. He would stay late tonight, and move them to the inner office. Thank God she had not gone in there; he kept it locked. Now he would have to keep a few more things locked up.

    Donna stood up as Georgio was brought into the visiting room. She was smiling widely but as he kissed her, felt the familiar sting of tears in the back of her throat.
    ‘Hello, darlin’.’ His voice was gruff with emotion.
    ‘Oh, Georgio, it’s so lovely to see you!’
    While he went and