Page 9 of Love and Loathing

Zig nodded, eyes glowing with a fanatical sort of light Evie knew well. It was discomforting having it trained on herself. “If we could get access to that…” he breathed as though praying.

Fi nodded rapidly. “If she gets close to Aubrey, and Aubrey’s close to Domnall…” Then, catching Evie’s frown, “You said he’s not your friend, yes? And if he could help bring down Domnall White…?”

Zig picked up his laptop again. “Look, Eve, do I need to show you these pictures again? The burns on these kids? The conditions they were working in? These are the UK retail workers who lost their pensions. And look, here, this is the woodland he’s just bought. It’s got nightjars in it—”

“No.” Evie winced back from the laptop Zig had thrust at her and the horrible photos. It was currently showing Domnall topless and orange on his super yacht.Urgh.“I don’t need reminding.”

“Then you’ll do it?”

“I don’t see what I can do.” She looked dubiously at the jacket lying folded and innocuous. “Aubrey doesn’t like me.”

“Don’t worry,” said Zig. “We’ll figure it out. Tell us everything you know.”

FOUR

Mid-morning on Thursday andAubrey was wrestling with a particularly complicated bit of legalese when there was a knock on the door and Evelyn Blackton walked into his office.

He looked up from his screen, frowning, saying nothing as she came to stand before his desk. Part of him noted that she was dressed even more nicely than the other night, in a black linen summer dress that stopped several inches above her knee. It was plain, simple, almost boxy, but luckily for her she had legs for miles and would have looked good dressed in anything.

“Your father’s office is the big one at the end,” he said with a mild gesture back towards the door.

“I know,” she said. “…Actually, I didn’t know. I’ve not been here before.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“Well, there's a basin of holy water in the foyer. You can purge yourself on the way out.”

He returned his attention to his screen, though he knew full well it would be at least fifteen minutes before he could decipher where the hell he’d got up to.

“I came to give you this back,” said Evie.

He looked up, noticing for the first time the jacket she was holding. “Thank you.” He nodded to a chair in the corner. “Put it there.”

She did. Then, annoyingly, she came back to his desk.

“Yes?” he asked.

“I heard about the event tomorrow night. The Actuaris Awards. And that Roscoe couldn’t go with you. So I… I’d like to offer myself. To go with you. Instead of him.”

For a fleeting moment, Aubrey wondered if he’d gone insane. He kept his eyes carefully fixed on his screen while he tentatively probed his faculties.Name, age, address. What year is it? Who is Prime Minister?

Everything apparently in order, he raised his eyes to Evie’s face, saw the scarlet flush on her cheeks, and wondered if it was perhapsherwho had gone insane.

“Excuse me?” he said.

“You don’t want to go alone because Liv, your ex, will be there. So take me instead.”

He stared at her, fairly sure he was now as scarlet as she was. If this wasn’t insanity, it must be a nightmare. How the hell did Evelyn Blackton know his private business? And why on earth was she here in his office, throwing it in his face?

He glanced past her to the open door. They were vultures in this place, sharks scenting blood. He got up, Evie flinching back as he strode around his desk and shut the door. He turned back to her.

“I don’t for a moment believe Roscoe told you any of this. So how do you know?”

By rights, she should have been cowering, pale, trembling. He knew what kind of expression he had on his face. But, of course, she was a bloody Blackton, and that family didn’t know the meaning of the word cower. She just stood there, met his eyes, her own softening in sympathy.

He went back to his desk. Took a steadying breath, outwardly calm while alarm bells clanged in his head, a vital wall breached.

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