‘Don’t you see what’s going on here?’ Dan said, in gentler tones. ‘He’s undermining you, on purpose,’ he gestured at Jamie. ‘He saw you were vulnerable, steamed in and now the most likely person for promotion ahead of him is …’
Laurie folded her arms. ‘Is?’
‘… Not operating at full capacity.’
Laurie’s mouth fell open at this: ‘You what?!’
Michael couldn’t blackmail her out of dating Jamie so now he was going to shame her. She was raging: the bullying was abhorrent. She couldn’t find the words because there were so many she wanted to use, volubly.
‘Let me get this straight, you have an issue with Laurie and myself being involved as you think it might affect her concentration? Is what happened between the two of you, completely irrelevant to her state of mind, then?’ Jamie said to Dan.
‘There’s a difference between the breakdown of a long-term serious relationship and a colleague with previous for exploiting vulnerable women,’ Dan said.
Laurie made a coughing noise of disbelief. ‘Exploitation! Jamie’s some sort of predator now and I’m a powerless victim? You make it sound like he trafficked me!’
‘This is nuts,’ Jamie said. ‘Laurie is an adult, making her own choices.’
‘Did you or did you not take advantage of Salter’s niece?’ Michael thundered.
‘No, I didn’t and what the fuck does that have to do with anything?’
‘You were seen in the Principal Hotel with her, are you saying that’s a lie?’
‘I’m saying piss off, mainly.’
‘Oh, brilliant dodge. No wonder you’re a lawyer. I’ve got you worked out,’ Michael said, ‘It’s not enough for you to bone your way around Greater Manchester, it has to be high value targets now. There has to be an angle.’ He gestured at Laurie. ‘Once she was back on the market, you moved fast, didn’t you? Saw an advantage.’
There was a giant insult in this. Not only were two men she worked with, one her ex no less, appointing themselves her guardians – but they had jointly concluded that Laurie and Jamie were so unlikely a couple, she had to be the target of a scam. As if she was one of those poor older divorcees who got hoodwinked into marrying after a holiday romance with a Tunisian waiter, who got his green card and then cleaned out her current account. The way they wouldn’t accord her the same powers of perception they claimed for themselves was infantilising, it made her feel ludicrous. It was like their sexism was coming in through the air con units, invisible but utterly pervasive.
‘Sorry, I missed the part where I became a ward of court?’ Laurie said, fully shaking with rage now. ‘This place has always been chauvinistic, but this is incredible. You’ve decided I’m not seeing Jamie of my own free will?’
‘Of course it’s your choice,’ Dan said, ‘But both Michael and I care about you and we can see that he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.’
‘How dare you!’ Laurie spluttered, ‘You of all people, Dan, think you have my best interests at heart?’
‘I knew you’d hate me for this, Laurie, and I am still speaking up because, yes, I do. Unlike him.’
‘Ha! Incredible,’ Laurie looked wide-eyed at Jamie and he shook his head.
‘I mean obviously Laurie is a valuable possession, and this is about who will take more careful care when in charge,’ Jamie said. ‘No wonder you were trying to do this without her.’
Laurie snorted.
‘I’m not making the connection between us seeing each other, and my result in court today?’ Laurie said. ‘It’s as if you two have never cocked up?’
‘When have you ever fucked up on checking an alibi before? And where were you this weekend, when you should’ve been prepping?’ Michael said.
‘What the …!’ Jamie said. ‘Who do you think you are?’
Laurie spluttered. ‘You have opinions on how I spend my weekends now?’
‘You used to work cases into the evenings, now no one can find you for dust after half five.’
‘What? I have to clock in and out with you, Michael?’
‘Stop being obtuse. You know what I’m getting at.’
‘I actually don’t.’
‘Right. If you think I am going to stand by and let you try to damage mine and my girlfriend’s careers because of your petty jealousies, you’re badly mistaken,’ Jamie said.
Dan looked horrified, plain shocked, at Jamie referring to Laurie as his girlfriend. Michael gave a nasty laugh.
‘Laurie’s one of the most competent, hardworking people here and you both know it. A couple of results not going her way is neither here nor there.’
A pause.
‘Yeah, I’ve heard enough,’ Laurie said. ‘You can both stop right here, because I’m not having it. I had a meeting with Salter last week. He’s fine with my performance. If you want to raise concerns about me then do it, but you’ll harm me, not Jamie, which I presume is all that matters to you.’
A deeper sullen silence fell, as this was indisputably true.
‘Michael and Jamie, can you leave me to have a word with Dan, please?’ Laurie said.
They trooped out, Michael shaking his head at Laurie as he passed, Jamie frowning deeply.
‘Let me get this straight,’ Laurie said, fingernails digging into her palms with the effort of not shouting, ‘You do what you did to me, I start seeing someone else, and you think you have the right to sabotage the relationship? As if you, of all people, think you get a say here, Dan?’
‘I wasn’t going to do this now but Michael practically grabbed Carter by the scruff. I was going to speak to you first. I messaged you but you didn’t reply.’
‘Speak to me now. I want to know how you could possibly be this far out of line?’
‘I have no rights to comment on who you want to see …’
‘Could stop there.’
‘… I have no rights, but I was worried from the off when I saw you were involved with Carter. He will do you damage, and I know you’re not going to want to hear that, least of all from me.’
‘Based on?’
‘Based on tons of stuff, Loz, the stories that followed him from Liverpool, where he gave a woman at that firm a nervous breakdown—’ Dan paused to gather Laurie’s reaction. She tried to remain impassive, she badly wanted to know more. But not from Dan, and not now. ‘… Yep, bet he didn’t tell you about that, from Eve, to a client he was rumoured to have hit on. He’s bad news and you can bet he’s seeing you with a motive.’
‘Or it’s exactly what it looks like? We really like each other?’
Dan grimaced.
‘OK, someone who always stayed in the shadows was suddenly super keen to advertise being with you on social media, doesn’t that ring any alarm bells? You’ve met his parents, how fast? Do you think maybe this is for the bosses’ benefit, because he thought your standing would do him good in getting a promotion?’
Laurie rolled her eyes. This was a no score draw. Dan had it figured out, though not in the way he thought. Laurie hadn’t succeeded in making them believe it. He was jealous, though.