Part 22 (1/2)

'If I don't get something to eat soon, you'll be representing me on a manslaughter charge, Brodie.'

The farmers' market was taking place in the car park opposite the office in Castle Terrace, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep Lavender indoors. The vendors had travelled from all over Scotland and were plying their wares like medieval shopkeepers under the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Compet.i.tion was fierce and marketing tactics came from the sharp end. Fish merchants from Arbroath were smoking their own haddock in whisky-soaked woodchips. They were all calling to Lavender, according to her, and I didn't know how long she could resist it.

'Stop thinking of your stomach for once, Lavender,' I entreated her. 'That reminds me, though did Eddie like your coq au vin?'

She snorted before replying. 'Those b.l.o.o.d.y books say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but Eddie just doesn't have that big an appet.i.te.'

I raised one eyebrow, a feat I had mastered at the age of ten, even though I had to spend a whole summer holiday in front of the mirror to do it.

Lavender went on I'd touched on her favourite subject now. 'He's not that interested in food.' Her eyes went misty as she added, 'which is how he manages to maintain his lithe footballer's physique.'

'I'll take your word for it,' I said, not wanting to spend any time thinking about Drunk Eddie's body.

'Don't you want details, Brodie? Are you not interested in my life? How about a blow-for-blow account, as it were?' she teased.

'No intriguing as I'm sure your s.e.x life is, Lav, I'd rather save my own a.r.s.e than hear about Eddie's.'

'Spoil-sport.'

The office was quiet on a Sat.u.r.day morning, the atmosphere relaxed, and Lavender and I tended to get through a lot of work. For once, the phones were silent and it wasn't a sign that business was going down the tubes. There were no courts sitting on a Sat.u.r.day, and criminals tended to be lying in their beds sleeping off a drink-and drug-fuelled fugue. They needed their beauty sleep before they hit Princes Street in the afternoon for a bit of shoplifting.

I wandered over to one of the two whiteboards that hung in my office. The one on the left was known as the prison visiting board. It did what it said on the label: all our clients who were in custody were on that board, along with the date that someone from the firm had last seen them.

'Laura McGuigan, Lavender? If she was at Cornton Vale, why didn't she pop in to see Tanya Hayder? Her rehab at Fearns is only down the road.'

'You know Laura, Brodie she's a law unto herself and this ha.s.sle isn't making her any easier to manage.'

The board on the right detailed Friday's trials we hadn't been that busy. The firm couldn't continue to leak money like this. I wiped it clean and picked up the red marker.

'Let's start from the beginning.' I motioned to Lavender to sit down so that we could get through things. 'How are you getting on with the witness in the Alchemist case?' I knew from our previous discussion that the man had phoned up to collect his reward, but when Lavender had asked him to be a witness he had refused. However, I also knew that Lavender was not the sort of girl to take 'no' for an answer just ask Eddie. She had stalked him until he had given in. Such was the cleverness of Lav, he was convinced it had been love at first sight.

'Strangely enough, he was on the phone yesterday. Apparently DI Bancho has been hara.s.sing him. Putting pressure on him not to testify.'

'How did you manage to get that out of him, you witch?'

'He's not in the witness box yet, Brodie, he's just not quite such a fan of our boys in blue as he was a week ago.'

'They're not all like Bancho.'

'No some are like Desk Sergeant Munro.'

Much as it pained me to defend him, in all fairness I couldn't tar Munro with the same brush, even if he was constantly horrified by the notion of a 'la.s.sie' taking a man's job.

'Munro's honest enough, I guess so what are you going to do to turn the reluctant witness to the dark side?'

Lavender tapped the side of her nose with her finger.

'Ask no questions and you'll get no lies.'

I had nothing definite to write on the board, so I wandered over to the window. The market was getting busier. The mobile coffee box was heaving and a large queue of caffeine addicts had formed. Lizzie was too busy meeting their needs to give her usual wave. She was working overtime trying to get enough money to purchase a pair of Jimmy Choos she'd fallen in love with in Harvey Nicks.

I saw Lavender check out where I was looking and thought I could use her calorie obsession to get out of the office for a few minutes. 'I'd kill for some chocolate right now. Do you fancy a mocha? Lizzie's working and I could text our order over?'

'I'm always up for one, but ask her to deliver because you're going nowhere until we've finished.' The striped canvas awnings on the stalls flapped cheerily in the breeze and I longed to be outside, but Lavender was a hard taskmaster. I knew she was serious. She would keep my nose in the office until our desks were clear.

'What's the score on the Tymar front, have you been able to make any headway?' I asked her.

Lavender took a small compact out of her make-up bag and applied her lipgloss. I knew then she was considering her options. It was rare for her not to just blurt out the first thing that came into her head. How much was she prepared to tell me?

'I've been trying to speak to Roddie,' she admitted. 'But he's avoiding me like the plague so it's a sure sign that the wee b.a.s.t.a.r.d knows something.'

After Kailash was found not guilty of the murder of my father, I was in a position to bargain. Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say, but when I gave Roddie what he deserved, everything was still sizzling. Roddie Urquart had been shown up as the lying toad he truly was, and although lawyerly etiquette would never take everything away from a man who had done so much wrong, they all knew that I was behind his fall. Sometimes, Edinburgh legal circles needed to be reminded of that fact. Perhaps I had been too rash. As my grandad had cautioned me, I should keep my enemies close.

'Where is Roddie these days?' I asked.

'He's in Geneva close to his money. I don't know why you're so soft with him, Brodie. He's a consultant with this firm, he draws his money every month, yet as far as I can see he does nothing.'

'Would you want him here, Lav, hanging around? Personally, I don't care how much it costs me to keep him away.'

'Has anyone figured out what he does in the Geneva office?' she replied.

'You know I'm not involved in the commercial department, but I've heard them say he's very useful in setting up offsh.o.r.e companies. He's also a tax specialist maybe we're too hard on him; the others seem to think he earns his crust.'

'Brodie, he earns a fortune for doing nothing crust, my a.r.s.e; that lad's on caviar.'

The phone rang to interrupt Lavender's diatribe.

'It's reception there are two coffees at the front desk. The doorman wonders if you want him to pay for them?'

'Tell John to come on up and I'll square up with him right away,' I answered.

John the doorman was keen not to be out of pocket because he was in our office in a flash. The mocha was still hot and sweet. There wasn't as much cream on top as I liked, given that Lizzie was quite fastidious with regards to fat content in her diet, and, consequently, in everyone else's. I really preferred it when Bob, the usual barista, worked on a Sat.u.r.day. He weighed in at eighteen stone and knew how to ladle on the chocolate.

'I'm in two minds about whether or not to get Moses involved,' Lavender told me when John had gone. She looked at me anxiously. I noticed that she had a blob of cream on her nose. 'I just wanted to run it past you in case it would jeopardise your career but then I thought it was a bit too late to start thinking about that.' She winked.

Lavender didn't usually bother to consult me on such matters.

'You must be worried.'

'Aren't you? I looked at what I knew about Alex Cattanach and the one thing I had to conclude is that she's not an idiot, or at least she wasn't before the attack.'

'Tasteless, Lavender.'

'You know what I mean she wasn't one to waste her time chasing wild geese. Alex was hunting you because she knew there was money laundering going on in this firm.'

'That's a serious accusation. If you're right, then I'm facing fourteen years under the Proceeds of Crime Act.'