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‘I’m so sorry – I’m so sorry,’ Jen says. ‘I’m having a family drama.’
She puts down her umbrella, leaving damp droplets on the carpet. ‘That’s fine, don’t worry,’ Gina says cordially. Jen had been wary of crossing the boundary from professional to friend with clients, but she has, in these past few weeks, with Gina. They’ve even texted a bit. It doesn’t matter – Jen is the business owner, after all – but Jen now wonders if all of that happened for a reason.
She tries to remember what she said in this meeting the last time. ‘Can I just ask,’ she says, removing her coat and powering up her computer, trying to step back into Jen the professional adviser, ‘what your plan is if you succeed in preventing your ex-husband’s access to the children?’
‘He’d come back to me, wouldn’t he?’ Gina says. ‘So he could see the kids.’
Jen bites her lip. ‘But – Gina. It doesn’t work like that.’
Gina looks around Jen’s office with panicked eyes. ‘I know I’m being mad.’ She drops her head. ‘You’ve helped me to see that.’
Jen feels choked up, despite herself. God, she relates to this, now. This desperation, this denial. This urge to exert some kind of crazy control, somehow.
‘That’s what I’m here for,’ Jen says thickly. ‘But – you know. It’s better to move on, isn’t it? Forwards.’
‘God, I’m getting all anxious again,’ Gina says, wafting her hands at her eyes.
‘The reason I’m doing this for free,’ Jen says gently, ‘is, really, because I don’t plan on doing it.’
‘Right,’ Gina says. She crosses and uncrosses her legs in the chair. She has on wrinkled clothes. ‘I know. I know. I realized when we were’ – she wipes her eyes – ‘when we were talking about fucking Love Island. I thought – those girls would never beg. How sad is that, taking lessons from a bloody TV show?’
‘It’s very informative,’ Jen says drily.
Gina looks down at her lap. ‘I just need to … I don’t know. I just need a bit of time. Okay?’
‘Okay – good,’ Jen says. ‘Good.’ This has gone better than it did the last time.
‘Fancy distracting me with your family drama?’ Gina says wanly.
‘Maybe?’ Jen says with her own wobbly smile. She glances at Gina as she straightens up in the chair.
‘Hit me,’ Gina says.
Jen hesitates. This is both unethical and, perhaps, dangerous. And yet … so useful. Here she is, on this day, at this meeting. Surely, surely, for a reason.
She’s already decided to ask Gina about the poster, the badge, and the texts on the burner phone. Baby or no baby. What does that mean? She isn’t supposed to know Gina’s occupation – she hasn’t been told yet – but she breezes past that, and Gina doesn’t seem to notice.
Jen explains how Todd has been behaving strangely, and then she found the bundle containing the police badge and the poster.
‘And you don’t have them with you now?’ Gina asks. Her eyes – alert now – are on Jen.
‘No. Sorry. My son had them, but he doesn’t any more.’ Jen licks her lips. ‘I’m pretty sure he’s mixed up in something dark. I need someone to find out what.’
Gina meets her eyes and blinks just once. Her mobile phone starts ringing, but she ignores it. ‘All right. Me.’
‘Yes.’
‘So – to be clear – you want me to find out what I can about the police officer, Ryan, and the missing baby? And Nicola Williams?’
‘Exactly,’ Jen says, marvelling at Gina’s upright body language. How different we are at work to how we feel inside.
‘Leave it with me,’ she says, and Jen could kiss her. Finally. Some help. Gina meets Jen’s eye. ‘And thank you. For – you know. For Love Island.’
‘No problem,’ Jen says, her eyes damp.
‘You need the info asap?’
‘Ideally today,’ Jen says. ‘Is that okay? I’ll pay whatever you need to get it by this evening.’
