Blood Lines. Grace Monroe

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       Chapter Three

      ‘Have you been sleeping there all night?’

      It’s surprising how sharp and hard a ball of rolled-up paper is when it hits you in the face. I had been sleeping, head down on my glass-topped desk, and I could feel the drool running freely from the side of my mouth.

      ‘Was I snoring?’

      ‘Like a pig in clover – and the resemblance doesn’t stop there. Did you go home last night or have you been working in the office all night?’ Lavender looked sniffily around my office, which was littered with files.

      ‘When I finished at St Leonard’s with the custodies, it was hardly worth going home. I was busy at the weekend and I hadn’t had time to prepare the trial files properly.’ The mere mention of the word ‘weekend’ made my mouth go dry – Lavender Ironside wasn’t just the best secretary in the firm, she also knew me inside out and I was terrified she’d make me spill the beans about Jack.

      ‘If you employed an assistant they could do some of the preparation,’ she pointed out.

      ‘You know we can’t afford it,’ I replied.

      Lavender snorted. ‘I know the money that comes in for criminal fees – you’re paying more than your fair share into the partners’ pissing pot. Why don’t you ask the others to cut down on their expenses and get the overdraft down?’

      ‘If I had the energy, I’d laugh, Lav.’ The very thought of the rest of them walking to work or taking clients to McDonald’s was risible. ‘I need some caffeine –would you?’

      I knew that I must still be looking pathetic when Lavender switched the coffee machine on without a murmur. I wouldn’t get away without a few comments, though.

      ‘For all your money, Brodie, I wouldn’t have your life.’

      ‘Is that some sick joke, Lav? You of all people know I’m skint.’

      She considered her options. ‘Well, even for your body I wouldn’t have your life – well, I might consider it.’ Lavender self-consciously smoothed her hands over her rounded rump before continuing. Like a hound dog she turned on a sixpence – for all her flaws, I loved her to bits, and knew that it was reciprocated. She presented me with a steaming cup of strong black coffee before delivering the killer punch.

      ‘You’ve been shagging this weekend – haven’t you?’ Her bright blue eyes were hungry for details.

      ‘Come on, Brodie, share – don’t spare my blushes.’

      ‘Your interest in other people’s sex lives is, frankly, obscene.’ I tried to sound superior, but we’d had too many of these conversations in the past to take the moral high ground.

      ‘Oooh, you’re not denying it then?’

      ‘I didn’t admit anything – I was merely commenting on your unhealthy obsession with second-hand sex.’

      ‘Do I know him?’

      She pressed her face into mine, and for some bizarre reason sniffed as if she believed she would get his scent.

      ‘What the hell do you think you are doing, Lavender?’

      ‘Trying to get inside your aura.’

      ‘My what?’ Lavender came up with the oddest things sometimes. I’d known her ever since I was a student doing part-time work at the firm and she was a secretary there – over the years we had become friends much more than workmates, and I trusted her more than I trusted myself at times – but she was still strange on occasion.

      ‘You know that I’ve been going to the College of Parapsychology to increase my psychic ability,’ she said, as if she’d just signed up for woodworking. ‘Well, this weekend I went to an introductory course on psychometry.’

      Keeping up with Lavender’s fads was quite beyond me. I adopted my usual tactics – I put my feet up on the desk and switched off.

      ‘I found I was good at reading people’s auras – probably because it works at an emotional level.’

      If Lavender was trying to imply she was good at sensing other people’s feelings she was either lying to herself or ignoring mine. Knowing her, she would simply be disregarding my desire for privacy.

      ‘This man – the one you won’t tell me about – he’s very drawn to you, you’d be surprised at the depth of his feelings.’ Her head moved from side to side like a snake as she read me.

      ‘Was it Joe? Did you sleep with Joe?’

      I ignored her, but she continued undeterred.

      ‘Brodie, did you know that feelings get trapped inside material items? So …’

      There was a long pause whilst she stood up, before she pounced like a cat.

      ‘All I have to do is figure out what you were wearing when you were with him. And, unlike most women, you only seem to have one pair of shoes.’

      She snatched my shoe off my foot. She held it aloft and ran round the office, avoiding the piles of files and law books that were scattered on the floor. СКАЧАТЬ