I blinked back tears. Every time we spoke, I ended up feeling worse.
“This was a terrible mistake. I shouldn’t have come here. I’ll go.”
I left and walked out to the living room, where Simon was still standing in the same spot. “I assume you heard all of that?”
He shrugged. “I mean, you were both yelling.”
“Christ, this day just gets worse.” I turned on my heel and made for the door. Ollie walked out in front of me.
“Wait,” he said. “Talk to me about what you need.”
Chapter 21
We all took seats at the dining table. Ollie sat across from me and Simon.
“Right, well, there’s this letter,” I said.
“Start from the beginning,” Ollie interrupted.
I inhaled through my nose. “Okay, fine. Right, um. Right, so Riz and Simon” – I gestured at Simon, and both men rolled their eyes – “got back together in February. They’re engaged. But it was set up by Riz’s campaign manager, Marina.”
“Okaaaaay,” Ollie said. “Already not liking this.”
“Oh, it gets so much worse,” I said. “So, the campaign starts. Riz is twenty points behind Guy and the Lib Dem candidate, Suzy. But that’s to be expected because it’s Dorset.”
Ollie nodded. “Can I get either of you a drink?”
“No, please pay attention – Arden, show him the letter.”
I sighed. “Fine.” I grabbed it out of my pocket. It had become crumpled. “Long story short, we found this in Riz’s possessions the other day.”
I slid it across to him. Ollie read it. “This is from my office,” he said.
We both nodded.
“We’d gathered that,” Simon said. Ollie glared at him.
“Be nice,” I whispered. Simon rolled his eyes.
“This is taking too long. Look, did Riz come to visit you or not? He may have wanted information about Arden.”
Ollie was puzzled. “Why would he want information on Arden?” He looked at me. “You’re not in danger, are you? And what happened to your arm?”
“Oh, that. I fell over on a run.”
“We don’t know why he wanted info on Arden,” Simon interrupted. “We think he may have been looking for dirt to smear him with.”
“So, he came to me?” Ollie asked. “Hm. I don’t remember writing this letter. It’s a fairly generic response, so I probably would have asked Janet to draft it. I don’t recognise the name.”
“Yes, it’s addressed to a Mrs S Murray.”
“And we don’t know who that is. Do you have any clients called that?”
Ollie shook his head. “Ard, babe, you know I can’t tell you that.”
Simon glared at this answer. “Can’t or won’t?”
“Excuse me?” Ollie turned to me. “Can you call off your ginger hound, please?”
