Читать книгу No Way Out - David Kessler - Страница 26

‘So how did you manage to overcome her objections?’ asked Martine over her hors d’oeuvre of torchon of duck foie gras with poached Adriatic fig in Muscat wine.

Ten minutes earlier, Martine and Alex had entered the Little Door, one of Martine’s favorite haunts. As they’d stepped through the wooden doors to the patio, it had been like passing through a gateway into another dimension. In an instant, they had left the city behind them and entered a rustic world of bougainvilleas, ferns, a tiled fountain and a Koi pond. A succession of light waves from the wrought-iron candelabra rippled across the lace tablecloth. They could even see the moon through the open skylight.

‘I don’t want this to end up on the evening news,’ said Alex.

‘Strictly off the record,’ Martine assured him.

‘We used a bit of gentle persuasion.’

He didn’t really feel comfortable telling her about the incident. It would probably make him sound like a bully. But the practice of law was a dirty business. They both knew that.

‘We?’ Martine raised her eyebrows with a delicate smile.

‘Paul Sherman and I.’

‘You mean you blackmailed her?’

‘I prefer to call it bribery,’ he said with a guilty smile, after a short pause.

He attacked his own hors d’oeuvre of farmer’s market butter lettuce and steamed spring vegetables, a light starter to allow room for his main course of filet mignon and roasted fingerling potatoes.

‘So what was the carrot?’ she smiled, alluding to the piece of carrot poised at the end of his fork with a smile.

‘I sold it as a fight for a man’s right to a second chance.’

His facial expression was nervous, as if he was expecting a torrent of skeptical laughter or a cutting response. But Martine’s smile was both piercing and bewitching.

‘And what did Sherman use as the stick?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Come off it, Alex. You were playing good cop, bad cop.’

He held up his hands in a gesture of helplessness, caught in the glare of Martine’s headlamps.

‘Okay,’ he acknowledged reluctantly. ‘You’ve got me. We did a little arm twisting.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me. It must be pretty hard for her, with her lover working at a rape crisis center.’

‘That’s a personal matter. They’ll just have to work it out for themselves.’

‘You make it sound so easy. Imagine what it must be like for Eugenia Vance: one minute she’s doing her job, next minute she gets handed an injunction telling her she’s not allowed to have any contact with the victim.’

‘I’m sorry. I may have sounded a bit callous. But the judge didn’t exactly have a choice. He had to do it to avoid a conflict of interest.’

Martine’s face turned suddenly serious. ‘Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.’

Alex had an uneasy feeling when he heard the words…and the tone. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I also have a conflict of interest. I can’t cover the case and carry on going out with you.’