Corrupted by Simon Michael

Author:Simon Michael [Michael, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2019-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

Charles enters the Temple via the studded arched doors of the Inner Temple Gateway. Outside the clerks’ room he pauses for a moment and then, taking a deep breath, opens the door silently. As always the room is a bustle of movement and activity and for a moment no one looks up. Charles strides to the pigeonholes, collects all the papers waiting for him without sorting them, and heads back to the door. He has almost made it back to the safety of the lobby when Jennie, one of the junior clerks, spots him. Her sharp intake of breath and involuntary exclamation at the state of his face is heard by everyone in the room. Before Charles can get himself out of the door, everyone has turned around. Charles just has time to register the mouth of Jeremy, Jennie’s male counterpart, opening in a silent ‘O’ and to note the identity of the only barrister in the room: Marcus Bradley. Charles could not have worse luck.

Bradley is reputed to have one of the greatest intellects of any barrister in practice. Still in his late twenties, he was called a short five years earlier, but is already being touted for silk. When anyone in Chambers, from the most junior pupil to the most senior silk, has a difficult legal conundrum, they will often put their head round Bradley’s door and ask if he has a moment to talk it through, despite the fact that he usually extracts a price for dispensing his wisdom. Before putting down his fountain pen, leaning back with his hands clasped behind his head and listening to the problem, he might require the poor stumped barrister to tidy his room, make him a pot of tea or, on one never-forgotten occasion, clean his shoes. But, on the occasions he is disposed to give assistance, his analysis is always scalpel-sharp and invariably correct and his colleagues are usually content to pay the price of mild humiliation. It is only for these reasons that his presence in Chambers is tolerated.

Bradley is also a notorious gossip, and very funny at the expense of his victims. His targets include anyone he considers to be his social or intellectual inferior; in other words, everyone. Charles was a favourite victim for a while. Having left Chancery Court under a considerable cloud, Charles had no choice but to bear it; he was lucky to have found another berth at all after the adverse publicity surrounding Henrietta’s death and his run from the police.

For almost a year Charles bore with amused tolerance the jibes and innuendos concerning his supposed expertise in murder, his impoverished East End origins and his Jewish background. Then, after several months and his practice re-established, Charles waited one evening for Bradley to descend the staircase from his room on the second floor. Charles stepped silently out of his room as Bradley went past, cornered him and lifted him off the dusty floorboards by his neck. Bradley’s feet kicked and flailed as he struggled for breath while Charles spoke a few quiet words in his ear.

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