Rescuing Rose by Isabel Wolff

Author:Isabel Wolff
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780007390502
Publisher: Red Dress Ink
Published: 2002-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

‘HOW?’ he demanded half an hour later.

‘I don’t know,’ I replied. I glanced at the framed headline on the wall, ‘SHIT HITS FAN’. Too right. ‘I simply can’t explain how it happened,’ I said impotently. ‘It’s a dreadful breach of trust.’

‘You’re telling me,’ said Ricky. ‘It’s a dreadful breach of trust between you and the Daily Post!’ His face was puce and droplets of sweat pearled his gleaming brow. ‘How come the opposition have got this fucking great scoop and not us!’ he demanded as he jabbed his finger at the Daily News. ‘You get a letter from Electra about how she’s got the hots for a woman and you don’t bring it to me?’

‘No,’ I replied firmly.

‘Why not?’

‘It was a matter of conscience.’

‘A matter of conscience?’ He looked at me as though I were sick. His mouth opened and closed twice with cod-like non-comprehension. ‘Who do you think you are – a priest?’ He’d been shouting at me so much that the room was filled with the sour stench of his sweat.

‘I just don’t know how it happened,’ I said again miserably.

‘Well I think we’ve got a little mole, haven’t we Rose? Or maybe it’s you!’

‘What?’

‘Maybe you sold the letter to the Daily News.’

‘Why the hell would I do that?’

‘Because it must have been worth at least eighty grand to whoever did do it, because that’s precisely what I would have paid. Got money problems have you Rose?’

‘Nothing that would ever make me stoop to something so low. In any case why would I want to jeopardise my career? I love my job, and I’m good at it, Ricky – that suggestion is completely absurd.’

‘No, I’ll tell you what’s absurd,’ he said. ‘The idea that you’re going to stay in your job after this. I’ve spoken to Personnel: your contract’s up in ten days and you can kiss any chance of a new one goodbye.’

I was in a state close to catatonia as I returned to my desk. My face was all over a national tabloid and I was going to lose my job. My legs were weak and my cheeks felt hot and my breath came in ragged gasps. How the hell did it happen I wondered for the thousandth time. I’d guarded that letter like Cerberus guarding Hades: I’d taken such care. But someone had got hold of it, and copied it, and sold it. I think we’ve got a little mole…But who?

As I walked through the newsroom, aware of eyeballs swivelling discreetly in my direction, I mentally re-enacted what I’d done that day. The letter had been in my sole possession, and had been shredded personally by me. No-one else had seen it: it had been with me all the time. Except…I remembered I’d gone down to the canteen for half an hour, but I’d locked the letter away in my drawer. No-one else has the keys to my desk, and my own ones were in my bag. But in any case, how could anyone have

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