shut the file and tossed it to one side, running his hands through his hair. ‘How very crass of me, I do apologize.’
‘Please don’t worry.’
He looked genuinely upset. As he turned hastily to consult a computer screen on his desk, no doubt flicking up my notes, I took the opportunity to wonder how he’d squeezed those shoulders into that shirt. The sleeves were rolled up, a tie abandoned on the desk. For some reason he reminded me of Archie, the one and only time I’d tried to dress him smartly, for the funeral. His buttons had flown off in seconds flat.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he was murmuring as he peered at the screen and tapped away with the mouse. ‘As you might have noticed I’m minus a receptionist at the moment. Janice’s mother is ill, so I’m slightly rudderless. She usually points me in the right direction.’
‘Temp?’ I hazarded.
He turned from the screen to gaze at me. ‘Sorry?’
My sentences were sometimes somewhat truncated these days and I took a deep breath and tried again. ‘You could get a temporary secretary.’
He gazed at me a moment, then his face cleared. ‘What a completely brilliant idea. D’you know, that hadn’t occurred to me.’ He scribbled it down on a pad, cast me another quick, admiring look, then went back to the screen. ‘Ah yes, it’s all becoming horribly clear. Mrs Hastings is coming in next Tuesday, whereas you’re coming in today. I’ve got the dates muddled up. Mrs Hastings probably wants to know if she can change the locks and sell his Jaguar SJS, whereas you’re here to talk about a will, which at this precise moment is at home on top of the linen basket in my bathroom.’
‘Your bathroom?’
‘I took the papers home to read last night. Left them upstairs.’
‘Oh. Right.’
‘Sorry, too much information, it’s just I often read papers in the bath. I find a rush of blood to the head helps the grey matter.’
‘Fair enough, I read novels in the bath.’
‘Although I seem to remember I didn’t quite get to the Shilling bundle, I only got as far as the dusky bag handler. I do apologize, Mrs Shilling, you’ve come on a wild goose chase. Not only hasn’t your solicitor read the papers, he’s left them at home.’ He turned from the screen and held out his wrists across the desk. ‘Cuff. Or slap.’ He put them down and looked grave. ‘Or even fire, possibly. I would.’
I smiled. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not fussed. I’m not sure I’m up to discussing wills yet, actually, but one of my friends insisted.’
‘Did she? Oh, well, unless you’re totally insolvent there’s no immediate hurry. Nothing that can’t wait. Come back when you’re ready, if you like.’
‘Really?’ I stood up gratefully. ‘Thanks. I might do that.’ I had no idea if I was solvent or not. Just put the bills in a drawer. ‘It may even be a few weeks yet.’
He too got to his feet. ‘Which gives me plenty of time to retrieve your precious bundle from my laundry basket and give it the attention it deserves – couldn’t be better.’
We both smiled, equally pleased, I suspect, with the outcome of the meeting: both feeling we’d got a result. He went quickly ahead of me to hold the door as I picked my way back across his floor – him apologizing for the mess and me assuring him it couldn’t matter less and that it was a bit like playing Twister with my children – and as I went through Janice’s room and towards the stairwell, I was aware of him watching me from his doorway.
Outside in the street, Jennie was hunched at the wheel looking stressed, her car on a double-yellow line.
‘Well?’ she demanded, as I popped Archie in his seat beside Clemmie, buckling him in. I got in the front.
‘Yes, it was fine.’
‘What d’you mean, it was fine? Oh, piss off!’ This, to a traffic warden who was attempting to take down her number plate. She lunged out into the traffic to thwart him amid a blare of horns.
‘I mean, it’s fine, it’s all in hand. But there are a few incidentals to be sorted out, so I’m going to pop back in a few weeks.’
‘A few weeks!’ She turned to look at me, horrified.
‘Days. I mean, days. But I’ll manage, Jennie, now I know where the office is. I’ll be fine on my own.’ I felt exhausted suddenly. Really lie-down-on-the-pavement exhausted.
‘Well, I’m surprised you have to go back at all, to