Chapter 35

chapter thirty-five

Now

‘I just think if we tell the police everything about Savannah it might distract them from finding Mum,’ said the client in the reception area of Marshall and Smith Criminal Defence Lawyers. ‘It will make them think Dad has a possible –’ She lowered her voice. ‘A possible motive.’

The receptionist, who had been at Marshall and Smith for over a decade, was used to overhearing conversations like this of a personal and sometimes salacious nature. It was a perk of the job.

The client, a woman who had very short hair but was a noticeably long person – she seemed double the length of an average woman, like someone about to stride out onto a field and win the gold medal for high jump – was here for a first appointment with the senior partner, Chris Marshall. She was speaking quietly into her phone, but the receptionist had excellent hearing, which was not her fault.

‘If they work it out themselves, that’s fine, I mean, we worked it out ourselves. I’m sure they’re more efficient investigators than us. I just don’t see why we need to hand it to them on a platter. It’s not relevant. It just makes Dad look bad.’

There was a long pause, and then she suddenly said, ‘Well, that’s up to you, Troy. I can’t stop you. But you may as well know that I’m finding Dad a lawyer. Just in case.’

Another pause.

‘Yes, I’m standing by him.’

Another pause.

‘No, I didn’t say I’m standing by him no matter what.’ Her voice was full of suppressed emotion. ‘I’m just trying to do the right thing. Oh, go to hell!’

She dropped the phone into her lap and looked straight ahead. The receptionist lowered her eyes to her keyboard. It was awkward to witness another person lose control.

‘Brooke Delaney?’ Chris Marshall stood at the door of his office, smiling expensively.

‘That’s me.’ The woman leaped to her feet, breathed through her nostrils and lifted her chin as if she were about to set that high jump record, and went striding into his office.