Page 52 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Not a real kiss. I knew that. But it had been confusing.

Kriya was in such a state then, she would have done anything to escape her ex. Didn’t mean she was attracted to me, or wanted to kiss me.

After a couple of hours of this, I turned on the lamp, thinking I’d go get a glass of water. Realised the patch of shadow on the ceiling I’d been staring at wasn’t shadow, but a damp patch. So I went and emailed the building management company instead.

Relief to be able to get up in the morning and go to the office, tired as I was. Flat felt quiet without Loretta. She’d left with Hayley and her in-laws to fly off to Japan. Would be awayfor four weeks—in-laws peeling off after the first week so Hayley and Loretta could have a proper honeymoon.

Busy start to the week, getting the DLP settlement over the line. Was waiting around for instructions on Tuesday evening when the phone rang.

Thought it was the client, calling to confirm they had approval from their Board in the US to sign the settlement agreement. Put the call on speaker. It was getting on for ten p.m. anyway: no one in the pods outside to be disturbed.

But it was Shaw Boey’s voice that issued from the phone. First thing he said was:

“Chinky Charlie! How are you, mate?”

Had a brief unpleasant shock, hearing the old nickname. Like being back at school.

Had forgotten people used to call me that. And that was when they were being friendly.

It was a different time. I was glad nobody else was around to hear him. Couldn’t imagine Kriya would be impressed.

CG: “Hi, Shaw. How are you?” Remembered his text, over the weekend. “Sorry I didn’t ring you yesterday. It’s been on the to-do list, I just didn’t manage to get to it.”

Shaw: “That’s all right. You’re a busy man. You good to chat now?”

Glanced at my inbox. There was an update from the client:

CEO’s in a meeting for the next hour. We should have confirmation to proceed shortly.

Suppressed a sigh.

CG: “Yes. I am waiting for a call, though, so I might have to jump off at short notice.”

Shaw: “Fine. I’ll cut to the chase. I don’t know how much you know about it, but I set up an investment firm a few years back, Blackmount Capital. We’ve been doing a lot of work with a chap at your firm, Robert Anderson. Do you know him?”

Didn’t recognise the name, but there are two thousand peoplein the London office. Looked him up on the intranet. Partner in Corporate, specialising in M&A. Went to our school, though that would have been some years before we were there.

Shaw: “We need help with an issue that’s come up for one of our backers. Between you and me, Charlie, this guy’s a big deal, very prominent person. He doesn’t like people to know about his personal affairs, so I do a lot for him, you know, help him out. He needs a lawyer in the UK, someone who can go to court on his behalf. Robert said it wouldn’t be him, wanted to refer me on to his Litigation colleagues. That made me think, hullo, I know who I need—Charlie Goh. You do litigation, yeah?”

CG: “Yes. This would be for an individual? Can you tell me about the case?”

Shaw: “There’s this crank who’s obsessed with my client—the guy I was telling you about, the VVIP. She’s been posting about him on her blog for years, all kinds of lies and conspiracy theories. Harassment, really. He’s been ignoring her, trying not to feed the flames, but she keeps escalating. Now she’s threatening to publish her allegations in the paper. My client’s a high-profile person, his name is very important to him. If people start believing this woman, that could be a problem for him.”

CG, taking notes: “Your client’s looking to bring an action to restrain publication? Against the newspaper, I presume.”

Shaw: “This is a very reputable UK paper. My client doesn’t have any issues with them. It’s this woman who’s making these trumped-up allegations. She’s a freelancer, she’s not on payroll. Problem is, my client’s overseas, right? He’s a foreigner. Whereas this woman is British, so of course the editors will believe anything she says. You know what these Brits are like. You can say anything you want about a third world country like Malaysia and they’ll believe you, so long as you’ve got the right accent and went to the right school.”

Funny Shaw saying that, given the school we both went to. That said, he’s not wrong.

CG: “So you want to approach the person making the allegations?”

Shaw: “That’s right. Enough is enough. My client wants to draw a line under this, get her to leave him alone.”

CG: “It sounds an interesting case.” Defamation not an area I had any experience in, but I’d been clicking around the intranet while Shaw spoke, looking people up. “Our Reputation Management team is led by Ellie Martin. I can put you in touch with her.”

Shaw: “Yeah, Robert mentioned her. Not really a name to strike fear in the hearts of the opposition, is it? ‘Ellie’?”

Didn’t see the relevance.

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