Court Out - By Elle Wynne Page 0,57
cheek, but he barely stirs. He looks so peaceful I decide not to wake him and walk out, softly closing the door behind me.
I get to Chambers around ten thirty and run smack into Bill in the foyer. Literally. He drops the briefs in his arms and we both scramble around trying to pick them up.
“Darling girl!” he exclaims. “What’s this I hear about you examining witnesses in this murder?”
I laugh, “It was only one witness and a pretty uncontroversial one at that.”
“So it’s true? Scandalous!” he drawls.
“Hardly. Anyway, how did you get to hear about it?”
“Jungle drums my dear, jungle drums. The news that the great Corr allowed his junior to take a witness has spread like wildfire, pardon me for mixing my metaphors of course, but it’s practically unheard of!”
“Really?” I exclaim before I can stop myself.
“Yes! He never let Samantha ‘have a go’ so God knows what you’ve done to get in his good books!” He pauses then eyes me suspiciously. “You haven’t, have you?”
“Haven’t what?” I ask, not understanding what he’s on about
“You know, Lauren, pretty girl like you, lonely old man like him...”
As comprehension dawns I punch him hard on the arm and he yelps, almost dropping the briefs again.
“You and your filthy mind Bill. Whilst I don’t need to justify myself to a gossip monger like you, no, I am not sleeping my way to the top.”
“Calm down dear!” he splutters, “In that case, you should be very flattered. Right, I’d better get over to court. I’m already late. Toodles!”
As he walks off, rubbing his arm I feel slightly guilty for belting him, but the last thing I need is him telling everyone that we’re having some sort of sordid affaire.
Serena is waiting for me at the desk opposite to mine. I dump my handbag on the shiny mahogany between us and take my seat.
“Hello stranger,” I say warmly “All set for our class trip?”
“I’m not allowed to go,” she says forlornly. “It’s only the judge, the barristers and the jury really, plus a couple of court staff to record events. Because there’s no live evidence then there’s nothing for me to take a note of. I’m spending the morning catching up on some papers here.”
“I’m sorry, but we’ll only be gone for an hour or so.”
“Yeah, that’s what Andrew said last night,” she muses, not looking at me.
“You two seem to be getting pretty close,” I say tentatively, doodling on a piece of paper in front of me with an old biro.
“He’s lovely, we have so much in common. I feel I can talk to him about pretty much everything.”
“But you’ve only known him a few days?”
“He sent me a text on Monday evening, I replied, and we’ve been chatting ever since.”
I feel a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach.
“What did the text say? Does Lucinda not mind your new friendship?”
“No, she’s had to go back to London to deal with something for the wedding. Didn’t you notice that she wasn’t there yesterday afternoon?”
I try not to blush. “No, I had other things to worry about yesterday afternoon.” I wait, expecting her to mention my role in the proceedings, but to my amazement she carries on as if I haven’t mentioned it.
“I can’t remember what the text was exactly, but the gist was he wanted to take me out for a drink. He totally ‘gets’ me. We were up pretty much all of last night talking about the case and each other.”
What? Last night?
“Really? When did you two meet up again?”
“He called quite late in the evening and I went to meet him at Blue. We got pretty drunk if I’m honest.” She giggles and looks conspiratorially at me.
I decide to tread very carefully. “That’s nice.” I reply. “Where was Ewan?”
“God knows,” she responds. “I told him I was working. Which I was, I suppose. Andrew’s so deep. We talked for ages about the case, and well, about each other.”
“So if you were ‘up all night’ did you call him too?” I enquire.
“No? I went back to his hotel with him.”
She notices my troubled expression and correctly interprets it.
“Before you start, it was totally platonic. We just talked.”
The trill of her mobile phone interrupts her.
“Speak of the devil!” she exclaims. “I’ll see you in a bit, ok?”
With that, she answers the call and sashays out of my room.
Feeling troubled, all thoughts of breakfast forgotten, I make my way over to court. There is a huge executive coach parked alongside the side