The Devil in Disguise by Martin Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

has got its claws into you. Remember the salesman who wanted us to sponsor a Formula One racing car? With our luck, it would have crashed at the first bend and incinerated the driver.’
    â€˜You’re prejudiced. Old-fashioned. We need to move with the times, keep up with the competition. The woman who phoned me is full of ideas. We could hold a season of seminars for regular clients, mailshot them with news of changes in the law.’
    â€˜Wonderful. Do you think the governor of Walton Jail might let us circulate our clients with details of how to lodge an appeal against conviction?’
    Jim scowled. ‘Your idea of practice development is buying a round for the villains who hang out at the Dock Brief.’
    â€˜Don’t knock it. It works. And I’m quite willing to raise my blood-alcohol level in the line of duty.’
    â€˜We need to be proactive.’ A thought evidently struck Jim and he tossed the brochure across the desk. ‘I’ve talked to her on the phone and she’s offered to come in for an hour to talk things through. Are you interested?’
    Harry glanced at the photograph on the front cover. ‘Juliet May Communications? And this is Juliet May, I presume?’
    â€˜Uh-huh.’
    She was a striking redhead with large brown eyes. Harry gazed at the picture for a few seconds and said, ‘Obviously, it would be wrong for me to pre-judge matters. I suppose in fairness I ought to give her a hearing.’
    Jim grinned. ‘I thought that on reflection you’d be willing to reconsider. Leave it with me, I’ll fix something up. I warned her you’d be a challenge - to say the least - but she was quite relaxed about that, said a one-to-one session with you would suit her fine.’
    â€˜She obviously has good taste.’
    â€˜She’ll learn. So how was your meeting at the Piquet Club?’
    â€˜I didn’t get to look at the naughty books. Must be slipping. The trustees spent most of their time bitching about Blackhurst. And guess what? She was out on the town herself last night.’
    He described his sighting of her outside the Ensenada. ‘I even wondered if the man with her was Luke. But quite apart from the fact he can’t stand the sight of her, he’s not as solidly built as the chap I saw. All the same, I’ll mention it to Jonah. The trustees were happy to instruct him and I’m seeing him for lunch. If anyone can dig the dirt on Vera, he can.’
    â€˜You think there is dirt to be dug?’
    â€˜Why not? How many people do you know without a skeleton in their cupboard?’
    Only as he left the office did Harry reflect on his partner’s pained expression and wonder if his careless final remark had been misinterpreted. Jim was an uxorious man, married with two children, but last year he had wandered from the straight and narrow with an attractive girl, a woman police officer much younger than his wife. Harry was the only other person who knew about the relationship: he’d once barged in on them at the most delicate moment imaginable. So far as he knew, Jim had now stopped seeing the other woman. He certainly hoped so; he cared for the Crusoes and did not want to see any of them hurt. But he sensed that even if Jim managed never to be found out, his conscience would continue to trouble him.
    He headed through the city streets under a sky that threatened rain. Charles Kavanaugh had been buried on just such a day. Harry had been required to represent the firm at the funeral because Jim was involved in a heavy property deal; it had given him the opportunity to meet Vera Blackhurst for the one and only time. She had been dressed from head to toe in black and kept wiping away tears from her heavily made-up cheeks. Harry had taken an instant dislike to her. Perhaps it was unfair, perhaps she had worshipped the ground that the dead man had walked on. But somehow he could not believe it. When he had muttered a few