Family Matters by Ellie O'Neill

Author:Ellie O'Neill [Ellie O’Neill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

18

Rosie

‘ROSIE, I THINK YOU NEED TO GET DOWN HERE IMMEDIATELY.’ Lorraine on reception at CRUSH was whispering with a furious intensity down the line. ‘Seriously. Now.’

‘Really? Why? Oh my God, is the Muffin Man here again?’ Rosie was already hovering out of her seat, happy to run away from the morning’s work to find the Muffin Man and his most excellent apple and cinnamon offerings.

‘No. Way more trouble than him. Two uniformed guards are here. They asked for you, but Serious happened to be passing and has started talking to them.’

‘What the hell?’ Rosie felt like someone had shoulder-slammed into her, knocking her down. ‘Why do they want me? Oh God, is someone dead, oh Jesus?’ She grabbed the edge of her desk, the wind sucked out of her.

‘No,’ Lorraine said immediately. ‘I don’t think it’s anything like that, because they’ve kept their hats on. Wouldn’t they remove them if the news was bad? They seemed more suspicious than anything.’

‘Suspicious of what? Me?’

Rosie heard the phone drop and started to half walk, half run towards reception. Catching a fleeting thought that maybe someone had called a strip-a-gram and there’d be a half-naked muscled cop waving hand cuffs at her from the lobby. She’d act surprised and be all, ‘You guys, it’s not even my birthday. How did you know I love a near-naked law enforcer?’

There they were. Two navy uniformed guards, not particularly looking like they’d take tips in their g-strings, were standing with their backs to the office in deep conversation with Serious Steve. Lorraine’s eyes had popped out of her head and she shook her hair wildly in the direction of the guards as if Rosie couldn’t see them for herself, the only people standing in reception. Serious looked up and caught her eye, Rosie heard him speak.

‘You can ask her yourself, guards. Let’s just move into a meeting room, shall we?’ With surprising dexterity, Serious managed to manoeuvre the guards into a nearby room, sit them down and quickly scurry out, shutting the door behind him. ‘Lorraine, can you make sure no one goes in there? Rosie, a word.’ He gestured to the side of the reception, a white leather couch that was too low to sit on, so purely existed for hovering or tripping over, and a glass coffee table. He spoke in a hushed tone. ‘They want to talk to you.’

‘About what?’ Rosie forgot to whisper, her hands automatically went to her waist in a stance of defiance.

‘Simon Fitzpatrick.’

‘What? Seriously? Simon? What about Simon? Is he dead?’ Rosie didn’t want to say I told you so but …

‘No, it’s nothing like that … Do you have a lawyer, Rosie?’ Serious had narrowed his eyes.

‘No. Why would I need a lawyer?’ Rosie felt appalled at the very suggestion. A lawyer might mean that she’d done something wrong. She was a law-abiding citizen. She broke out in a cold sweat if she thought she forgot to fully weigh her fruit and veg on the self-checkout at the supermarket.

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