Page 89 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Once we were sat down with our hot drinks, he said: “I should explain why I was so keen to meet. You see, we knew they’d be trying to suppress publication of the series. Helen’s been waiting for the legal letter. So when Zuri got in touch, I thought, here we go.”

“I don’t know how much I can tell you,” I said. “Zuri said you’re a lawyer, is that right? So you’ll know I have professional duties. We haven’t cleared conflicts yet, or confirmed we’ll be acting. But it’s a bit complicated, because one of the parties involved is an existing client of the firm.

“I resigned today, actually,” I added, and felt Zuri start nextto me. “But I don’t want the firm to represent these people. I mean, I know they’ll just go off and find some other lawyers who are willing to take their money, but…”

“If you can make life difficult for them, why not, right?” Ket Hau grinned. “If a firm like Swithin Watkins turns away a client like that, that might filter out into the market. Make other people more cautious about signing on. It makes sense to me.”

He was a reassuring sort of person. I felt the knot of tension in my chest start to unwind.

“Why don’t you tell me what you can,” he said. “And I’ll see how I can help.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Charles

Shaw rang Tuesdayafternoon. He tried my personal phone first. Then my office phone started ringing.

Didn’t pick up. Farah had popped by my office first thing in the morning to talk about the Shaw instruction.

Explained Kriya’s concerns, though I didn’t identify them as hers. Focused on the reputational risk to the firm of taking the matter on.

Farah got the point: “This needs to go to the risk management committee. The CDD team should escalate it, since the prospective client is a politically exposed person. But can you drop them a line and check they will do it? Who’s the relationship partner for Blackmount, can you remind me?”

CG: “Robert Anderson.”

Farah pursed her lips. “He’ll put up a fight, if we say we’re not going to act. All right, leave it with me.”

CG: “If the client chases, I’ll put him off, shall I?”

Farah: “That’s right. Tell him it’s going through our processes, if you must. But it’s probably best to avoid engaging until we’ve got a better sense of where it’s going to fall out.”

So I let my office phone ring until it stopped.

Then my personal phone buzzed. Shaw had sent a WhatsApp message. Notification read:

Call me when you’ve got a moment

Put my phone aside without tapping into the message, so Shaw wouldn’t know I’d read it.

Felt unnatural ignoring a client, but I was following instructions, after all. Irrelevant that I wasn’t particularly keen on talking to Shaw. Hadn’t enjoyed it the last time. And if I’d known it was going to upset Kriya…

Nothing I could do about it. She’d seemed all right at dinner the night before, not angry at me or anything like that.

But if that was the last time I was going to see her—which didn’t, at the moment, seem out of the question—I could wish our disagreement about the case hadn’t been hanging over it.

Stop thinking about Kriya.Path to nowhere.

Shaw got me the next day, Wednesday morning. Was waiting to hear from chambers about trial dates when my work mobile rang. No caller ID. Picked up, assuming it was the clerk coming back to me.

Shaw: “Morning, Charlie. I tried to catch you yesterday, but I didn’t get through. Did you see my message?”

CG, clearing throat: “I haven’t been checking my phone, sorry. It’s been busy.”

Shaw: “No worries. I’m at Swithin Watkins now, came by to talk to Rob about a deal we’re doing. We’re wrapping up now, but I wanted to grab you while I’m here. You free to talk? It’s to do with this case you’re picking up for my client. We’ve got a little problem on our hands.”

Shaw’s tone was light, but I felt a sense of foreboding.

CG: “We’re still in the process of doing our checks, so we aren’t cleared to act yet. It’s probably best if we avoid discussing the case till we’ve completed the processes to register Mr. Jamaludin—”

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