A Debt of Honour – Episode 18
A Debt Of Honour
« Previous Post- 1. A Debt of Honour – Episode 01
- 1. A Debt of Honour – Episode 18
Want to listen to this instalment of our Daily Serial? Click the play button of our official audio player below:
It wasn’t easy, but Shauna had cracked it.
Firstly, she’d had to find Neil Caldwell’s department, then search through the university buildings until she found where they hid their Biology staff.
Now she’d reached the door marked Professor Neil Caldwell.
She paused, gathered herself, then knocked.
This was going to be either one of the most dramatic moments in her life, or she was going to look like a complete idiot.
After all, she knew two Neil Caldwells already – Neil and his dad. There could be dozens.
It was a woman’s voice which answered, with a crisp, “Come in.”
Shauna found herself looking at a lady about the same age as herself, sitting behind a computer.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
The voice was pleasant enough, but Shauna wasn’t fooled.
This was his secretary, the self-appointed guard dog, and she looked about as friendly as a starving Rottweiler.
“I’m looking for Professor Caldwell,” Shauna explained.
“Have you made an appointment?”
“No,” Shauna admitted.
Sliding a diary towards her, the secretary began to flip through its pages.
“Can I have your name? Why do you want to see Professor Caldwell?”
Shauna drew a deep breath. She had practised so many variations of her answer that she wasn’t sure which one she should now produce.
“He will know me as Shauna Rankin,” she told the woman, giving her maiden name. “We were next-door neighbours years ago.
“I am over from Australia and spending a few days looking up some old friends.
“I came across Neil’s name by chance and thought it would be nice to drop in.”
In her mind’s eye, Shauna saw St Peter sitting wearily behind a large desk up in heaven, ledgers scattered around him.
He opened the one marked Fibs, and began to write, shaking his head.
After this, I promise to be a better person, she vowed silently.
Unimpressed blue eyes were fixed on her.
“Professor Caldwell is extremely busy. It is the busiest time of year to drop in unannounced.
“If you had contacted us in advance,” the woman continued, “I could have arranged something. But it is twelve days before there is a gap in his diary.
“And if you are only here for a few days in passing, then an appointment is of little use to you.”
Shauna felt her Scottish genes stiffen into steely resolve. She was not going to be bossed around.
“I have a better idea,” she said. “I will leave my name and mobile phone number with you.
“Let him make up his own mind whether he can fit me in. Can I have a piece of paper, please?”
The secretary bristled and Shauna sensed steel was meeting steel.
“I have already told you that Professor Caldwell is extremely busy –”
“And I’ve already suggested we let him make up his own mind.” Aussie buccaneering devilry kicked in. “Unless I simply walk through the door and into his room right now!”
From the shadows, outlaw Ned Kelly’s ghost nodded approvingly.
“I cannot permit that!”
“Then paper, please.”
If looks could kill, Jean Ferguson in her Hamilton undertaker’s office would have had another funeral to handle.
Shauna refused to back down.
“A piece of paper,” she repeated coldly.
Shauna had come too far to worry about normal standards of politeness.
It worked. A piece of paper was thrown as much as slid across the desk and Shauna opened her bag to search for her pen.
She printed her name, then her phone number.
“Thank you,” Shauna said, then turned on her heel and marched out.
Only when she was clear of the building did she allow her legs to shake.
It was mid-afternoon and she had been too busy to eat or have a coffee.
She vaguely remembered having passed a café somewhere en route.
By some miracle, she found it again and sat down at a table with a mug of coffee and a bun she didn’t want.
She was beyond hunger. Indeed, her stomach was knotted into a tight ball. What had she done?
If this Neil Caldwell was a complete stranger, how would he react?
Worse still, if he was the real Neil, what would he think of her bulldozing a path through his door?
As a professor of marine biology and a member of scientific research teams, would he have acquired a new sense of dignity?
As the long minutes passed, she stared at her mobile phone.
Ten minutes. Fifteen. What if he really was busy all day? She couldn’t sit here for ever.
As she stared out of the window amid the noise of the café, her mobile buzzed, then began to ring.