Law and Peace by Tim Kevan Page B

you’ve grown up so much in the last year. If you’re even a fraction as reassuring to your clients as you are to me then you’re going to be an incredible barrister.’
    After I’d made her a cup of tea and she’d finally gone to bed, I tried to get a little sleep myself although I slept for only a few minutes before I was woken again by the worry of what was ahead. Slippery has me in a corner and I have little choice but to make the deal. I mean, he’s not asking me to actively participate in any shenanigans. Not that that would make any difference if it were to come before the Bar Standards Board. You see, that’s where he’s been clever. If he didn’t say anything then there was always a risk I’d start making my own discoveries and in some way upset the apple cart. But by disclosing it now, he has compromised me by the very fact that from here on in I won’t be able to plead ignorance. And behind all this I can’t help wondering whether the whole thing might be some protracted scheme of revenge by TheBoss.
    But on the other hand, I’m not going to be churlish. He’s also offering to solve what is currently the biggest problem in my life: keeping the loan sharks away from my mother and for that I am grateful. So this morning I made the call and told him he had a deal.
    â€˜A wise choice, BabyB. Which means I can now speak to ScandalMonger and we can come up with a plan.’
    â€˜Quite.’
    â€˜Oh, by the way, did I mention that he’s already representing RoundTheBlock in her negotiations with the press?’
    â€˜Er, no.’ The penny dropped.
    â€˜Oh. Must have slipped my mind. Should come in handy, though, wouldn’t you say?’
    I had no answer to make and then Slippery added, ‘BabyB, this could be the start of a bountiful friendship.’ Which as he said it made me suddenly realise exactly where one of his employees, a certain ClichéClanger, gets both his clichés and the habit of mangling them from.
    Once the deal was done I took the rest of the day off and collected my mother from work, let her go home and get changed and then took her out for a very expensive meal in Soho where I explained that I’d basically found someone who would take on the debt.
    â€˜BabyB, that’s the best news you could ever have given me. I’ve been so very worried that by next month we’d both be out on the street.’
    I told her that that would never have happened but now there was absolutely no reason to worry. I obviously failed to mention the fact of yet another compromise I’ve had to make.
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    Wednesday 5 December 2007
    Year 2 (week 10): Man with a plan
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    â€˜OK. So here’s the plan.’
    Slippery was on the phone again. ‘ScandalMonger fixes RoundTheBlock to become our witness. She decides to tell a new story about how someone from RedTop came to her and offered her cash in return for making a story up about BigMouth. He sells another front-page scoop and we win the case. He then packs her off to Brazil for a couple of years and RedTop will never get round to suing her for lying to them in the first place.’
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    Thursday 6 December 2007
    Year 2 (week 10): TopFlirt
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    With worries about TopFirst at the forefront of my mind, it was fitting that today was the day for my lunch with his fiancée. I figured that if she mentions it to TopFirst then at the very least it’ll raise the idea of my releasing the Ginny tape to her as well as causing him a certain amount of worry as to what I might be up to. If she doesn’t mention it to him then I still have the possibility of stumbling upon some useful information.
    Anyway, despite the contrived nature of our meeting, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the lunch, not least because, to my complete surprise, at one point I was fairly certain that she was beginning to flirt with me. Enough at least for me to give her