‘That’s the problem, man. If Tara insists she wasn’t roofied, she had to have used willingly. And that’s so much worse.’
15
Jemma
For once, Jemma was glad of Dad’s tendency to be overbearing. Although it meant he couldn’t claim insurance, he’d given in to her pleas to not immediately involve the police, but he’d ordered the restaurant closed for a few days and for her to message Gerard that she’d be working out-of-office. Then he’d whisked her away to the river.
Jemma hadn’t so much as poked her nose beyond the door for the last three days. Instead, she’d slept for a ridiculous number of hours, as though her body had closed down, demanding she catch up on the weeks of broken sleep.
Now, though, she would have to find a way to persuade Dad that giving in to his protective parenting had been a momentary aberration on her part.
‘I’m heading back to the city this morning,’ he announced, placing a plate of frollini alongside their coffees on the small dining table as Jemma stared through the window. The twisted branches of the willows framed the bronze mirror of the river like something out of a fairytale. ‘I’m going tolook at having a surveillance system put on the cafe and the trattoria.’
Her stomach lurched at the realisation that one of her avenues of investigation had been abruptly terminated: there was no footage of her stalker.
‘Do you need anything else picked up from the apartment?’
She snorted. ‘I reckon you and Uncle Dan pretty much cleaned it out already. It’s going to take me forever to cart everything back.’
‘That won’t be anytime soon, if you don’t contact the police,’ Dad said, offering the plate of Italian shortbreads like a bribe.
‘You know I’m a bit old to be told what to do?’
‘Have you not met my mother?’ Dad gave her a tight grin, lines of concern etched around his eyes. ‘I’ll be telling you what to do until the day I die. In fact, I’ll probably leave lengthy instructions for you to enjoy after the event.’
She huffed, but secretly drew his over-protectiveness around her shoulders like a blanket. ‘I’ll look forward to the read. However, you do realise my career is in the city?’ Like Nonna said,lifewas in the city.
‘And your stalker is in the city.’
‘Jeez, Dad, no need to put it like that!’
‘I thought you were a fan of blunt facts. You’re not going anywhere … except for the police.’
‘I can’t, I’ve told you that. It’s probably mixed up with my work.’ The rock through the window had made it clear that both of Tien’s theories about the notes were way off the mark, so that left only Wilkins and, more obscurely, Kain. ‘Three strikes, you’re out’ didn’t seem to fit her situation with either man … but it did seem far more threatening than the other messages. Which could mean that her initial suspicion about Wilkins was correct, and Rohan had told thetruth: Wilkins was dangerous, intent on punishing her even as he was paying her. But she had no way for sure to know whether it was him, and she couldn’t risk her job throwing around accusations.
‘You’ve pissed someone off, they’re dangerous, you need to involve the police.’ Dad punctuated each of the phrases with a chop of his left hand into the palm of his right. ‘I bloody well told you not to go into criminal defence.’
‘So I should spend all my time behind a desk, drafting wills?’
‘Yeah, spend your timesafelybehind a desk,’ he yelled, getting to his feet to pace the small room.
‘That’s not what I want from life.’
‘Being stalked is what you want? Have you thought that maybe you won’t have a life if you don’t get this sorted?’
‘Calm down. It’s just intimidation. I know how to handle it,’ she lied.
‘You’ve said before that you can work from home,’ Sam said quietly. She had a knack of blending unobtrusively into the background and Jemma wondered whether, at some stage, it had been a necessity that she be unnoticed and unnoticeable. Sam waved a hand at the cosy room. ‘So this is now home.’
The temptation flared within Jemma before Sam had even finished speaking. It would be so good to allow herself just a few more days of leaving her guard down.
‘Pierce and I’ll move ontoPelicanetfor a while. You can have our room and make yours into an office,’ Sam continued.
Jemma shook her head. If she sacrificed her independence for safety, it would be a slippery slope. ‘Thanks, Sam, but my job is as much about presence and networking as it is about winning cases.’
‘Cazzo, Jemma, what is even so great about this job?’ her father blazed. ‘For the last ten years you’ve been overworked, underpaid and, thanks to your boss, you’re on cases you don’t even want to handle.’
‘That’s not all on Gerard. It’s cab-rank rule, once the case has moved beyond initial acceptance and is assigned a barrister: we’re obliged to accept cases in our field and not discriminate against clients. Besides, if I want to have any chance of making partner, I have to play the game.’
