I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

calling after me and watching me, I had to go to the ladies again.
    The uniformed woman by the sinks gave me a curious look.
    “Champagne,” I said with a smile. “Goes straight through me.”
    I locked myself in a cubicle and lifted up my skirts to check the phone holster on my other thigh, but I didn’t need to. Something whistled in my ear and I dropped the phone on the floor. It skidded under the partition into the next cubicle. Rats.
    “Who was that?” Luke wanted to know, his voice sharp in my ear.
    “He’s just someone I met in Rome,” I said distractedly, trying to reach under the cubicle partition for my phone and hoping it hadn’t landed in anything unsavoury.
    “Someone like the guy you spent the night with?”
    “I did not spend the night with anyone!” I hissed, aware that not only could everyone else in the ladies hear me, but Alexa and One could, too.
    “Yeah, well, stop socialising.”
    “Hey, he cornered me. I’m going back out there in a minute.” I reached out, and the phone suddenly came skidding towards me. I grabbed it and holstered it gratefully.
    “Do that. Ask him about his business. Try and get some names.”
    “How am I supposed to do that?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe you could get a room and seduce it out of him.”
    “Maybe I will.” I flushed the toilet for appearance’s sake and stalked out of there.
    This time I made a beeline for David Wright, detouring only for a waiter and grabbing two glasses of champagne. I hadn’t had my drink for tonight and I needed some Dutch.
    Right. Sophisticated. Urbane. Suave. I could do this. I was trained for this.
    Crap, I wish they’d trained me.
    “Mr. Wright.” I handed him a glass of champagne. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Antonia Porter and I work for Ace Airlines. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while.”
    He looked me over and appeared to like what he saw, because he smiled a greasy smile and said, “Have you, my dear? And why is that?”
    “There’s a rumour in my company that you’re going to buy a majority in shares,” I said, hoping I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. “If I can speak frankly, I’d like to see it happen sooner, rather than later.”
    He looked surprised. “You want to be owned by Wrightbank?”
    I’d rather be owned by Saddam Hussein. “I think it’s what Ace needs,” I said. “Since we went public there’s been a lack of direction, and I’m sure you can see that’s a bad thing for an airline.” I gave him a cut-glass smile, and he beamed back, looking dazed. “What Ace needs is a good, firm hand—” I looked him in the eye and knew I was getting to him, “—in charge. We need someone who’s going to be more than a sleeping partner.”
    “Jesus,” Luke said in my ear, “you’re turning me on.”
    I ignored him. “So what are you going to do for us, Mr. Wright? Can I call you David?”
    He nodded, looking glazed.
    “Will it be just the fifty-one percent majority you’ll be buying? That’s not a lot of control, David. Maybe you need some surety.”
    Gosh, I sounded like I knew what I was talking about and everything.
    “Oh, I’ll have surety,” Wright said. “I have a partner who’s interested in stock as well.”
    “Bingo,” Luke said.
    “You do? A business partner?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “I thought you owned Wrightbank and its subsidiaries outright.”
    “Well, yes, I do—”
    “I thought you had no partner.”
    “No, well, I don’t, but when I say partner I mean a personal friend. Not a close friend,” he blustered, “not that kind of partner…”
    I smiled. “Of course. You’re well known for keeping your personal life private.”
    Was he? I had no idea. But it seemed to please him.
    “Well, yes, of course.”
    “But is this personal friend trustworthy?” I asked, as Luke said in my ear, “God knows how this imbecile runs a company.”
    I thought it was pretty obvious that he didn’t.
    “Oh, yes, very trustworthy,” Wright said. “She’s been in it with me from the beginning.”
    “She?” Luke said, and then Alexa broke in with, “Ask him about Jane Hammond. She was his partner way back when.”
    “Your partner is a woman?” I said. “I thought after Jane Hammond you might have changed your mind about working with women.”
    “I know I have,” Luke muttered.
    “What do you know about Jane Hammond?” Wright asked.
    “I know she was your partner way back when,” I said, hoping Alexa would come up with