Mummy's Favourite by Sarah Flint Page B

rugby team.
    â€˜Defence work pays well then?’ Hunter commented, with another low whistle. ‘It’s a shame the Crown Prosecution Service isn’t so lucrative. Maybe not so many guilty people would be walking free if we could offer the same rate of pay?’
    â€˜Innocent until proven guilty,’ Dana winked at them as she pulled out a chair and indicated for them to sit down.
    Charlie and Hunter made themselves comfortable. They were seated around one end of a large mahogany table so dark and shiny she could almost see her face reflected in the varnished sheen. She tried to smooth her hair back down. It was doing its own thing again.
    Dana leant back and placed her hands on the arms of her seat. Hers was at the head of the table, a position that Charlie noted with a wry smile. Dana was already at an advantage over them, at home, in her environment, while she and Hunter were uncomfortably out of place in this opulence. Charlie leant back in her chair, mirroring Dana, who immediately moved forward.
    â€˜So what is it that you need to talk to me about? Has Justin beaten you in court again?’
    She smiled a little too sweetly towards them.
    â€˜Not for a while, thank goodness!’ Charlie kept the mood light-hearted. ‘Annabel Leigh-Matthews did though recently. I think she’s got Justin as her role model. Mind you,’ she leant in conspiratorially, ‘it seems like Justin might be trying to poach her client off her now.’
    Dana frowned. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, sorry.’
    â€˜Ms Leigh-Matthews’s client had assaulted me.’
    â€˜Oh! I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you weren’t too badly injured.’
    â€˜She was lucky. Five stitches and severe concussion. If she’d fractured her skull it could have been much worse,’ Hunter interrupted. ‘He walked away from court a free man due to a technicality.’
    Dana said nothing. She wouldn’t look directly at Charlie. ‘I’m sorry to hear that too.’ She paused for what seemed like ages. ‘But what’s it got to do with Justin?’
    â€˜The day I got assaulted I was talking to Ms Leigh-Matthews’ client about the fact that he had reported his wife and child missing.’
    She paused and watched Dana. Her face was giving nothing away, which was unusual; Dana was normally expressive and animated, but this time her face was a mask, as if desperately trying to stifle her emotions.
    â€˜The client was arrested in connection with their disappearance yesterday and it appears that he has been receiving silent calls from your home number. ’
    Dana stood up slowly, her cheeks pale and walked towards the window.
    â€˜But why would Justin be trying to poach another solicitor’s client?’
    â€˜Maybe he is looking around to try and find a more prominent case that will give him more publicity or notoriety?’ Charlie tilted her head.
    â€˜Now why would I need that?’
    Justin Latchmere strode forward into the room, his voice hard and loud and his expression just as stern. ‘I have perfectly enough notoriety, as I’m sure both of you, and the vast majority of police and prosecutors, can verify. Now, perhaps you would tell me why you’re disturbing my wife and I on a Saturday morning?’
    â€˜Good morning, Mr Latchmere. Well, maybe you can tell me why you have been phoning Keith Hubbard’s home address then?’ She wasn’t going to be stopped.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Calls have been made from this address to his number regularly since his wife went missing.’
    â€˜I know nothing…’ Justin Latchmere stopped mid-sentence. ‘Are you interviewing me, officer?’
    â€˜There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation why your number is on Mr Hubbard’s call list. We’re just giving you a chance to tell us the reason, at the moment. Then we’ll decide whether we need to