Prime Deception by Carys Jones Page B

had her other half to share her journey with.
    ‘What exactly do you want me to do?’ Charles asked, his own mind weighted by the saturation of new information.
    ‘Help me decipher the truth. Find the police reports from her death; surely you have access to those things? And the guy from
The Shadow
, we could do with talking to him.’
    ‘We?’
    ‘Mr. Lloyd, I need your help, please. Alone, I’m just a girl with a vendetta. But you are the Deputy Prime Minister. People will listen to you – you can make things happen.’
    ‘I will only rouse suspicion if I begin investigating Lorna’s case,’ Charles argued.
    ‘You are a politician – I’d have thought the act of deception came naturally to you!’ Laurie’s fragility had faded away and been masked once more by her tough demeanour.
    The desk which made a barrier between them had been where Charles had first made love to Lorna. Laurie was here in everything but spirit and whilst Charles wanted to dismiss the girl to save his own reputation, he knew he could not. More than anything, he felt that he owed Laurie his allegiance. He had loved Lorna more than he thought was possible, so the least he could do was aide her surviving twin, who was the last trace of her upon the earth.
    ‘I’ll help you as much as I can,’ Charles agreed, shaking the hand he had been holding to seal the promise.
    ‘Thank you.’ Laurie broke into a smile, the anger and pain momentarily thawing away from her beautiful features and suddenly she morphed in to Lorna.
    ‘Until next time.’ The gravel of despair was gone from Laurie’s voice, replaced by the singsong melody which danced through Charles’ mind on a nightly basis. He watched Laurie leave, still wary that he may be in the presence of a ghost.

Chapter Five
    Every step I take leads me back to you …
    ‘I need this person to work beside you on the intern programme.’ Charles handed Faye a slip of paper with a name neatly written on it. Faye took the paper, read the name and scowled.
    ‘I don’t need your judgment, just your co-operation,’ he said tersely, angered by his assistant’s blatant disapproval.
    ‘Yes, sir, of course,’ Faye replied with all the sweetness she could muster.
    When Charles returned to his office she begrudgingly began to carry out the task he had just assigned her. Sat at her computer, Faye uploaded the list of current interns and the departments they were to be assigned to. She scrawled down until she found the correct name and clicked on it, being given the option to allocate the intern to her own department.
    Faye sighed as every instinct in her body told her that she was about to make a mistake, even though she were merely following orders. But what chance did she have? She could not risk further antagonising the Deputy Prime Minister by questioning his motives. The name glowed at her from the screen, taunting her.
    ‘This is dangerous,’ Faye muttered to herself, before taking the plunge and allocating the candidate to herself. On the main list, the name automatically updated. Laurie Thomas would now be working with the Deputy Prime Minister’s assistant. Faye felt a sickening sense of déjà vu.
    ‘So what do I do?’ Laurie asked into Charles’ mobile. He’d called her from his own personal handset for fear of the main system being monitored. He was outside, leant against his Bentley, with a faint breeze rustling through his hair. He’d feigned sickness to his driver so that they could pull over and he could get some fresh air and make a stealthy phone call. They were out on a deserted country lane, away from prying eyes.
    Henry had used the impromptu stop to have a cigarette and he had wandered away from the vehicle. Charles’ security team would have lost their minds had they seen them both behaving in such a nonchalant manner.
    ‘You’ll be reporting to Faye, my assistant, and working for her,’ Charles explained, his voice low even though Henry was some distance away,