Contracts by Matt Rogers (i like reading txt) 📕

‘Sorry?’

‘Your guide. The man who brought you back here to wait for us.’

‘Oh — Sejun?’

‘I’d say so.’

‘He’s right through here. Do you need to speak to him?’

‘We’ll need to speak to everyone who was there. This is an ongoing investigation.’

Parker hesitated. ‘Am I under suspicion?’

‘Everyone’s under suspicion.’

From within the teahouse, King said, ‘We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it. I’m sure you can appreciate that.’

‘Of course,’ Parker said, but a look of befuddlement spread across his face, as if he were silently asking, Me? ‘Come in out of the cold, Will.’

Slater moved straight past. He wasn’t courteous about it. In fact he made sure to brush by aggressively. When he was inside, he nodded quietly to King, telling him, We’re on.

If he had to play the bad guy, he’d do a damn good job at it.

There was no entranceway or corridor past the front door — instead, the entrance opened straight into this particular teahouse’s dining room. There were a cluster of European tourists in the far corner, hunched around a polished table, babbling back and forth. On the opposite wall, a couple of solo travellers hunched over their masala and ginger teas, stoic in their silence. It seemed they were preparing themselves for the trek to come.

There was a Nepali couple — a middle-aged man and woman — behind the wooden desk, but they must have been briefed that King and Slater were en route. They just nodded politely to the newcomers, and went back to perusing the books.

No one paid them much attention at all.

Good.

On cue, King said, ‘Aidan, if you’d like to come with me, so we can speak somewhere more private.’

‘Of course.’

‘And we’ll get Sejun along the way. Will would like to speak with him.’

Parker seemed relieved. Which made sense. Better if the guide had to deal with the angry one rather than himself. Slater kept shooting him daggers all the way across the room, until he and King disappeared into one of the hallways leading to the sleeping quarters.

King put a hand on Parker’s shoulder from behind, and guided him out of the main room. Then he turned and looked over his shoulder and nodded knowingly.

Slater nodded back.

A few moments later, Sejun appeared.

21

King quietly scrutinised Aidan Parker as they stepped into a small private dining room up the back of the teahouse.

There were a couple of tables and a smattering of chairs, but everything was coated in a thin layer of dust, and there were supply crates stacked across one wall. A bulb hanging from the ceiling shone bright enough to illuminate all the nooks and crannies, but overall the space had the air of disuse about it. King had asked if there was somewhere to speak privately, and Parker had led him here.

The man had been here for three days now, and obviously knew the building inside and out.

Parker squashed himself into one of the benches and put his elbows on the surface of the table. King sat down across from him, in one of the thin chairs. It seemed it could barely hold his weight, and it creaked as he lowered himself into it.

One of the staff — a young woman in her twenties — appeared in the doorway, shooting Parker an enquiring glance.

‘Masala tea,’ Parker said.

‘Two,’ King said.

She nodded graciously and vanished.

Parker lowered his head into his hands. King didn’t react. He still didn’t have a measure on the guy, and didn’t know whether he was doing it for dramatic effect or out of genuine misery.

King said, ‘This must be tough.’

Parker didn’t look up. He nodded, staring at the table, pressing his palms into the side of his head.

King said, ‘I’m going to need to ask you some questions about exactly what happened. What you saw…’

‘I already told you everything,’ the man muttered.

‘You told someone. That someone wasn’t me. If it’s not too hard for you, I’d like to run through it again.’

‘I really don’t want to talk about it.’

‘I can imagine. But in this case, you’re going to have to.’

He said it politely, but there was something undercutting his tone that Parker noticed. Which was ideal, because King had made sure to inject a certain … something into his voice.

Just to let Aidan Parker know he wasn’t a pushover.

Parker lifted his gaze and said, ‘Okay. Sorry. I haven’t been myself lately. I don’t mean to antagonise.’

King held up both hands. ‘I wasn’t assuming anything, Aidan. I’m simply telling you we need to work together on this.’

‘I know, I know. Okay — what do you need to know?’

‘Walk me through it. Play by play.’

‘Raya and I were in the same room. When I went to sleep, she was there. When I woke up, she wasn’t.’

‘Did you hear her leave at any point during—?’

‘No. I slept all the way through the night. Didn’t wake up once. Didn’t hear a thing.’

‘Are you usually a deep sleeper?’

‘Not really. Job stress and what not. In fact, back home I’m something of an insomniac. But I’d never exerted myself like that before. I wasn’t prepared for how hard the trekking would be. It sapped all the energy out of me. I slept like a log every night on the trail.’

‘So you’re assuming she got up to go to the bathroom and was snatched outside?’

‘I’m not assuming anything,’ Parker said, and for a moment King’s guard fell away. The guy had serious pain in his eyes — he was either a world-class actor, or honestly affected. ‘I can’t tell you what happened, or your superiors who contacted me earlier. If I knew anything, or even suspected anything, I’d tell you — I swear to God. But I don’t have the faintest clue. I don’t want to assume a thing, because what if…?’

He trailed off, but King knew where he was headed. ‘What if you blame Perry but he turns out to be innocent?’

Parker paused to ruminate, then nodded. ‘I understand he’s the prime suspect. But I just can’t bring