Where There's Smoke

A flush had begun to creep up Lucy’s neck to her cheeks, which were still red from earlier. “Look, Kate, it’s your life. If you’re serious about wanting a baby like this, then I’m not stopping you. But I still think you’re digging a hole for yourself, and you’re not going to get me to change my mind, so you might as well stop whingeing on about it.”

The words hung in the air between them. The silence grew, broken by distant laughter in the park and the sound of Angus pulling the fire engine’s ladder up, then down.

“I’d better go,” Kate said.

Lucy gave a terse nod. Neither of them mentioned the lunch they were supposed to be having. Kate walked away without looking back.

Her anger barely diminished during the tube ride back to the agency. Even there the conversation still left her raw enough to snap at Caroline for failing to find a file quickly enough. She went upstairs to her office. It was stuffy and close, so she opened a window and turned on the fan before sitting down to work.

The breeze from the fan stroked her face as she called up the Parker Trust file. But the concentration wouldn’t come. She found herself either staring out of the window or doodling on her notepad while the laptop’s cursor blinked, waiting.

When the phone rang, she answered it, irritatedly. It was Lucy. “Sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have had a go at you.”

Kate’s sense of umbrage lingered a moment longer, then collapsed. “It’s okay. I was a bit touchy myself.”

“Fancy coming round for dinner some time this week? We can have a proper talk then. And I promise I won’t let Jack anywhere near the kitchen.”

Smiling, Kate accepted, glad the near-argument had been patched up before it could begin to fester. But Lucy’s words stayed with her, pricking at her thoughts like a splinter. Am I doing the right thing?

There was a commotion from downstairs. Kate hoped a drunk hadn’t wandered in. It sometimes happened. She pushed herself back from her desk, and as she did so the raised voices were drowned by sudden thuds and bangs.

There was a scream, and then Kate was out of her office and running downstairs.

The door at the bottom of the stairs opened before she reached it and Caroline ran out. From behind her it sounded as though the office was being wrecked.

“They’re fighting! They’re fighting!” Caroline yelled, wide-eyed.

Kate pushed past her. Josefina was at the other side of the office, white-faced. A desk was tipped on its side. Chairs were scattered, and in the middle of the room two figures wrestled. One was Clive. The other was Paul.

“Stop it!” she shouted. They took no notice. Clive flicked her a quick glance, and then grunted as they slammed into a filing cabinet. It rocked, almost falling. Kate ran down to the basement kitchen. A heavy red fire-extinguisher was clipped to the wall. She tugged it free and staggered back upstairs with it. There was another crash from the office.

The two men had fallen onto a second desk, still clutching each other. Hugging the extinguisher under one arm, she pointed the nozzle at them and set it going. A jet of water shot out, and Kate moved nearer, directing it into their faces. They spluttered, shielding their eyes, but Kate kept it on them until they broke apart.

“Get away from him, Clive!” she ordered, still keeping the spray on them. Clive hesitated. “I said get away! Now!”

Reluctantly, Clive moved back. Kate struggled to turn the extinguisher off. The water finally died to a dribble, then stopped. She glared at where Paul and Clive stood, both panting, water plastering their shirts to their chests and dripping off their faces. Around them, the office was in turmoil. At least one chair was broken, and a leg had snapped off the desk they had overturned. Kate glared at them. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?”

She was shaking, not from fear but with an incandescent anger.

Paul wiped water from his face. One cheek was swollen. He pointed at Clive, sullenly. “I came to see you, and this prick wouldn’t let me!”

“He came in drunk and tried to barge upstairs,” Clive snapped, staring at him. Paul turned towards him again, and before they could restart the fight Kate moved between them.

“Get over there, Clive. Go on.”

Still glowering at the other man, Clive moved across to the other side of the office, where Josefina and Caroline, who had ventured back in, huddled. Kate confronted Paul. “Well, I’m here! What do you want?”

He seemed deflated by her aggression. It took him a moment to pump up his anger enough to answer. “I came to give you some good news!” he said, face twisting. “I’ve been fired! Satisfied, now, are you?”

Kate felt a pang of sympathy. And guilt, she admitted. She stamped down on both. “I’m sorry you’ve lost your job, Paul. But it’s nothing to do with me.”

“No?”

He gave a bitter laugh. “I bet you’re heartbroken, though, aren’t you, you backstabbing bitch?”