A Place of Safety by Natasha Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

that. And picking a middle-ranking expert like him to add legitimacy to the fakes had been the masterstroke. He had just enough influence to carry the right weight, but none of the security that would have allowed him to tell them to bugger off when they’d first tried to blackmail him into working for them.
    Jo was moving about in the outer office now, probably getting ready to go out to lunch. As far as he could tell, she did less and less work every day, as though she’d sensed his ever-growing vulnerability.
    ‘Have you finished those letters yet?’ he called through the closed door, to re-establish his authority.
    There was no answer, so he went out to see what she was up to, and asked the question again.
    ‘Nearly,’ she said, but she didn’t look round from her computer screen. He saw there was a half-typed letter on it, which was something. But she’d probably spent all morning chatting to
her mates on the phone, stopping all the important calls coming through, and leaving her work untouched.
    ‘Well, hurry them up. They’re urgent. And don’t forget to run the spell-check this time. You know you always make mistakes, and you’ll only have to print all the letters out again if you don’t correct them on the screen first.’
    As she turned to look at him, he flinched at the fury in her eyes.
    ‘I am the best secretary you have ever had, or are likely to have,’ she said. ‘So stop making excuses to blame me for whatever it is that’s eating you. I am not the problem.’
    Toby hadn’t the energy to deal with her now.
    ‘I’m going down to the basement,’ he said, turning away. ‘Buzz me on the internal phone when you’ve finished the letters or if my call comes through.’
     
    There were only a few barristers in the clerks’ room when Trish got back to chambers, but even one would have been enough to stop her going in. She couldn’t have her rivals knowing that her only brief at the moment was Tamara O’Connor’s tiresome bail application this afternoon. As she passed the open door, she overheard Steve talking to young Sam Makins about one of his other cases.
    ‘And if you get stuck, talk to Trish Maguire. She dealt with the family for years and knows the background.’
    ‘OK,’ Sam said in the husky voice that sounded as though he must get through at least forty full-strength cigarettes a day. In fact Trish had never seen him smoke anything while he was her pupil, and his skin had always had the taut clear look that came from perfect health and fitness.
    ‘As you know, she’s good,’ Steve went on. ‘Anything she says is worth listening to.’
    That’s something, Trish thought, moving quietly on down the corridor. Maybe Steve will get me more real work soon. And
with luck he’ll get a move on with calling in all the unpaid fees. Otherwise I won’t be able to pay my January tax bill. Or David’s next set of school fees.
    In her own room, she sat down, trying not to resent the fact that her father had left her with all the responsibility for his son. A DNA test had proved Paddy’s paternity, and yet he had never agreed even to meet David.
    Trish knew perfectly well that she had played a part in his stubbornness, but, at the time, she hadn’t understood what she was doing. She’d been trying to put it right ever since, but so far Paddy had held out against her, as well as leaving her to pay all the bills.
    ‘All the more reason to find out what Henry Buxford wants to know quickly,’ she muttered, opening up her laptop and plugging in the modem.
    Even so, there didn’t seem any point going back to the gallery this morning, now that she knew the director wasn’t going to faint at her questions about the de Hooch – or answer them. With luck she would learn something useful from the papers Buxford had promised to send her. Once she’d read them, she could try interrogating Toby Fullwell again. You always got more out of people if you had a few facts to use as a lever.
    The