A Greater Evil by Natasha Cooper Page B

what’s happened.’
    Dennis shrugged and took a step towards the door. ‘I don’t suppose that would be too hard to fake.’
    ‘Maybe. In any case, I wasn’t going to ask you about him. I wanted to know about the man who’s been harassing her at work.’
    ‘Harassing Cecilia? Nonsense! We have powerful anti-sexist, anti-bullying policies in place, like everyone else these days. It wouldn’t have been allowed. Where did you get such a weird idea, Trish?’
    ‘I heard it came from one of your colleagues, but I don’t know who.’
    ‘Sounds like silly secretarial chatter to me. And wholly unlikely. I must go. Jenny will get back to you when we’ve been through all Cecilia’s files.’
    When he’d followed the others out of the library, Trish took her papers back to her room, thinking his idea of bullying might be different from hers. She quickly typed up notes of the meeting so she could return to Sam. There was plenty of work here to give her an excuse to stay in chambers, but the thought of him scrubbing away at his wife’s blood told her she had to go back to help.
    Before she left chambers, she picked up the phone to call Caro Lyalt, not sure whether she wanted an apology for the way Caro had treated them both this morning, or an opportunity to offer her own excuses for interfering. She and Caro had been friends for so long that it felt uncomfortable to be at odds with her like this. But Caro could look after herself in this situation and Trish didn’t think Sam could.
    To her surprise, she was put straight through once she’d found the phone number of the incident room.
    ‘Well?’ Caro said, tension rattling in her voice. ‘Have you phoned to offer cooperation or a complaint?’
    ‘Neither. Come on. This is me.’
    There was a long pause, which Trish didn’t even try to break. She had enough faith in Caro to believe all would be well in the end.
    ‘I’m sorry.’ It wasn’t a generous apology, but it was there. ‘I shouldn’t have been so angry this morning. It was just seeing you on your knees slaving for my chief suspect, getting between me and the truth on a case I absolutely have to solve.’
    ‘I’m not getting between you and the truth, Caro. All I’m doing is giving a bit of support to a very lonely man at a time of maximum horror for him. You can’t grudge him that.’
    ‘Will you tell me why he came to see you in chambers the day his wife was beaten to death?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Why not? He’s not your client any longer, Trish, even if he was as a child. There’s no privilege involved now .’
    ‘Maybe not,’ she said, realizing that Gina must already have told Caro everything she knew about Sam’s background, ‘but he talked to me in confidence. Neither he nor I have any legal obligation to tell you. If he wants it kept confidential, I can’t gainsay him.’
    ‘Gainsay? It’s not like you to be so pompous unless you’re trying to hide something. What is it?’
    ‘Nothing. Caro, think what you’re doing to him. Here’s a man so isolated it makes my whole skin shrivel to think of it, who’s found his wife dying and knows their baby may die too. He’s well aware you suspect him. Are you surprised he doesn’t want to tell you anything he doesn’t have to?’
    ‘If he’s innocent, he has nothing to fear from us,’ Caro said, pompous in her turn.
    Trish laughed, with a bitterness that shocked her and silenced Caro. Into the crevasse that had opened between them, Trish dropped a reminder of some of the famous cases in which innocent suspects had had their lives ruined by the police’s misguided attempts to get them convicted.
    ‘None of those have anything to do with me or the officers working with me,’ Caro said, more hurt than angry now. ‘We have no interest in anything except getting to the truth. By encouraging Foundling to keep silent, you’re stopping us.’
    ‘You know perfectly well that’s nonsense,’ Trish said. ‘In a state like his, it would be easy