9 A PLAN COMES TOGETHEROver the following couple of weeks, conjecture mounted as the local press and friends speculated whether Daisy, the only child and heiress of multimillionaire, John Baltimore, was in love with the handsome manager of a nearby martial arts centre. John’s solicitors were able to keep it out of the papers, but it was becoming increasingly difficult, especially after one reporter showed him photographs of them kissing outside a nightclub.
However, John and Daisy continued to deny that there was anything more than a ‘strong bond of mutual respect between the two friends’. Nevertheless, despite her assurances to her father to the contrary, she continued to fuel the rumours in public by giving Claude signs of deep affection, if no more. She was behaving like a wannabe star
