To Cut a Long Story Short (2000) (35 page)

He walked out into the foyer and glanced towards the reception desk. Haskins would have gone home long ago. As the plate-glass door slid open he thought about Kevin sitting at home in Peckham
with his pregnant wife. He would have liked to have wished him luck for the job on the reception desk. At least that wouldn’t be affected by the McKinsey report.

As he stepped out onto the pavement, something caught his eye. He turned to see an old tramp settling down for the night in the far corner underneath the arch.

Bill touched his forehead in a mock salute. ‘Good evening, Chairman,’ he said with a grin.

‘Good evening, Bill,’ Sir William replied, smiling back at him.

If only they could change places, Sir William thought, as he turned and walked towards his waiting car.

J
EFFREY
A
RCHER
, whose novels and short stories include
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
,
Kane and Abel
and
A
Twist in the Tale
, has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 250 million copies.

He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (fourteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (
The Prison Diaries
).

The author is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge.

ALSO BY JEFFREY ARCHER

NOVELS

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

Shall We Tell the President?

Kane and Abel

The Prodigal Daughter

First Among Equals

A Matter of Honour

As the Crow Flies

Honour Among Thieves

The Fourth Estate

The Eleventh Commandment

Sons of Fortune

False Impression

The Gospel According to Judas
(
with the assistance of Professor Francis J. Moloney
)

A Prisoner of Birth

Paths of Glory

SHORT STORIES

A Quiver Full of Arrows

A Twist in the Tale

Twelve Red Herrings

The Collected Short Stories

Cat O’ Nine Tales

And Thereby Hangs a Tale

PLAYS

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Exclusive

The Accused

PRISON DIARIES

Volume One - Belmarsh: Hell

Volume Two - Wayland: Purgatory

Volume Three - North Sea Camp: Heaven

SCREENPLAYS

Mallory: Walking Off the Map

False Impression

First published in the UK 2000 by HarperCollins
Publishers

This edition published 2010 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-447-20304-9 PDF
ISBN 978-1-447-20303-2 EPUB

Copyright (c) Jeffrey Archer 2000

The right of Jeffrey Archer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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