Seeker by Andy Frankham-Allen Page B

up to ward off the words that were about to erupt from Willem’s mouth. “Seriously, it’s not your problem. You have your own life, and every once in a while you need to remember that.”
    â€œThat’s a selfish attitude there, Ste.”
    â€œProbably, but as someone once said, once in a while you need to give yourself permission to be selfish. You can’t carry everyone all the time. Eventually you’ll buckle, and I hate to break this to you, Will, but you’ve been buckling for a while now.”
    Willem let out a breath of air. The truth coming from Ste was too much, and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to hear it anymore. If this had been Jake then perhaps it would be different, since Jake had been there forever, but Ste, as much as Willem liked him, was still the kid he’d hired back in ’96. Hearing such personal observations was breaking a wall that Willem didn’t think ought to be broken. Yet at the same time he knew he could not talk to Jake about any of this; even now he could hear Jake’s response, and Willem wasn’t ready to be slated by Jake for finding love.
    Whoa. Willem turned away from Ste, no longer able to take the inquisitive looks, and wondered where that had come from. Love. That was a big admission, but was it actually true? Is that really what he was feeling?
    The answers to such questions had to be put aside, cause at that moment there was a knock on the office door. Kurt had arrived.
    Willem stood, all business, and opened the door. “Hi, Kurt,” he said, offering his hands, “thanks for coming. Erm, on your own?”
    Kurt nodded abruptly, but didn’t take the proffered hand. “That’s right, I don’t need no witness. Ain’t done nothing wrong, have I?”
    â€œRight,” Willem said, wincing internally. He never noticed before just how council estate Kurt’s accent was. “Well, if you’d like to take a seat?”
    Willem felt strange; the formality was too forced, and he didn’t like it. He’d known Kurt for years and now he was treating the man as if he was a stranger who’d just come in for a job interview. He moved to his own chair and watched Kurt sit, noticing the look of distaste that passed between Kurt and Ste. This was going to be fun.
    * * *
    As it turned out, fun it was not. Kurt, although no doubt thinking he was being helpful, had proved to be nothing but obtrusive, his chav accent grating on Willem’s nerves with every word uttered. He could give no good reason as to why the paperwork was missing, and refused to admit that he deleted the original document, despite Ste going into extreme detail on how it was clearly removed on purpose. Willem got lost on that technical stuff, but Ste knew his shit and it was clear from the look of anger in Kurt’s eyes that he’d been found out. Ultimately Willem decided to suspend Kurt on full pay while the matter was investigated further, and pointed out that external investigators were being called in, since he no longer felt he could deal with this impartially.
    Kurt had stormed out, putting up a front of arrogance, claiming they could investigate all they wanted since he had nothing to hide. Although his colourful language indicated he knew he was screwed and could probably be done for theft and possibly fraud, since somewhere along the way wages had been lost and yet clearly paid out to someone.
    A tense atmosphere was left in his wake, and although Ste attempted to lighten it with a few gags, Willem just wanted out. But he knew that he couldn’t go anywhere, since he had some paperwork to fill in before heading downstairs to run the shift. The only other person who could do so was at the hospital with her daughter, and so he was stuck on shift until half five.
    â€œMaybe you need to give Charlie a ding?” Ste suggested.
    â€œWhy?” Willem said. Well, snapped. He knew he was snapping, but