A Daughter's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page A

accountant’s disappeared, but I don’t know much more than that.’
    ‘Seems unlikely, considering you’re seeing our friend Christopher Vine’s daughter.’
    ‘Yes, and my job is to provide her with emotional support. I don’t want to have my judgement clouded by spurious press stories.’
    ‘You’re a therapist. People confide in you. You realize she was the last person to see him before he disappeared?’
    ‘I do.’
    ‘So you understand how vital her input could be to our finding him?’
    ‘Have you ever had therapy?’ He snorts, then tries to turn it into a cough. I know I should calm down, haughty was way better than this, but it’s beyond me. ‘I’ll take that as a no. The most important thing is that the client trusts the therapist. Even if I knew anything – which I don’t – it would be a complete betrayal. Don’t you think she’s been through enough?’
    ‘How about all those pensioners who’ve lost their life savings? Do you think maybe they’ve been through enough? I’m sure they’d love to come to your fancy office and pay you a small fortune to cry about it, but guess what, they can’t afford it. Or how about the women he’s trafficked? I’m sure they’d be really grateful if you handed them a Kleenex.’
    ‘Where do you get off being this hostile?’
    I feel colour flooding my cheeks, my breath suddenly twisting up high and tight in my chest. I hate everything that’s coming out of his mouth, not least the implication that what I do is nothing more than an expensive aspirin, a temporary treatment that masks the pain. He leans back, opening large hands up into a more believable kind of apology, but it just makes it worse. I’m scorched with humiliation, the humiliation of him seeing how much he’s riled me.
    ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come tramping into your place of work in my size twelves, I should have made an appointment, but I’m like you.’ I narrow my eyes, waiting for the follow-up. ‘I’m one of the good guys,’ he says, smiling self-deprecatingly. ‘I want to help. Stephen’s victims are desperate: if it turns out there’s a way you can help them, I’m sure you’d want to take it.’
    I stand up, put out a hand.
    ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr O’Leary, but my next patient is due any minute. I’m afraid you’re wasting your time as well as mine. I’ve only had one session with Gemma, nothing of which revealed any information about her dad’s whereabouts.’
    He gets to his feet, his body taut and rigid.
    ‘I can take a hint. But just so you know, if we end up needing more information from you, we can use formal channels to obtain it. The authorities are in no mood to let men like Christopher Vine, who give vicious criminals a fake respectability, get away with it. I’m asking myself how come they’ve got the cash to splash sending their daughter here, when their assets are frozen.’
    ‘I do know my legal responsibilities. If she told me something I thought was vital to your investigation I’d pass it on, but that’s not going to happen. I’m trying to provide some comfort for a traumatized child: if she brings in any bank statements for the Cayman Islands I promise you’ll be the first to know.’
    ‘You do that, Miss Cosgrove,’ he says, yanking a card out of his wallet. I snatch it from him. ‘This isn’t going away.’
    ‘I’ll put you on speed dial. And it’s Ms.’ I hate that word, it sounds like a speech impediment. I hold the door open before I can make any more of a fool of myself. He moves towards it, but then he turns back, his face flooded with anger.
    ‘Trust me, you’ve no idea what you’re dealing with, getting involved with the Vines. I wouldn’t lose that card if I were you. Something tells me you’re going to end up needing me more than I need you.’
    I hold his gaze a second too long, my eyes betraying me.
He’s going to hate you when I tell him
. I push it all away. I’m there to support her,