A Room Swept White Read Online Free PDF

it with you. The woman’s a walking miscarriage-of-justice encylopaedia – there’s not a detail she doesn’t know. Why aren’t you trying to force this promotion on her?’
    It occurs to me that Laurie’s been patronising me.
How do you fancy being rich
? He’s always moaning that he can barely afford the mortgage on his four-storey townhouse in Kensington. Laurie comes from a seriously wealthy family. I’d bet everything I’ve got – which is considerably less than he’s got – that he regards his salary at Binary Star as acceptable, nothing more. The offer Hammerhead made him, the one he couldn’t refuse, obviously knocked a hundred and forty grand a year into a cocked hat. But of course a hundred and forty a year would be wealth beyond the wildest dreams of a peasant like me . . . I stop in my tracks and realise that, if that is what Laurie’s thinking, he’s entirely correct, so perhaps it’s unfair of me to quibble.
    ‘Tamsin’s a research assistant, not a producer,’ he says. ‘Look, you didn’t hear this from me, okay?’
    At first I think he’s referring to what he’s already told me, about the promotion I don’t want. Then I realise he’s waiting for me to agree before telling me something else. I nod.
    ‘Tamsin’s being made redundant. Raffi’s talking to her now.’
    ‘What
? You’re joking. Tell me you’re joking.’
    Laurie shakes his head.
    ‘They can’t get rid of her! They can’t just . . .’
    ‘It’s industry-wide. Everyone’s tightening their belts, making cuts where they can.’
    ‘Who made the decision? Was there a vote?’ I can’t believe Binary Star would keep me and lose Tamsin. She’s got loads more experience than I have, and unlike me, she isn’t constantly pestering Raffi for a dehumidifier for her office.
    ‘Sit down,’ says Laurie impatiently. ‘You’re making me nervous. Tamsin’s the obvious choice for redundancy. She’s earning too much to be value for money in the current economic climate. Raffi says we can get a new graduate researcher for half the price, and he’s right.’
    ‘This is so out of order,’ I blurt out.
    ‘How about you stop worrying about Tamsin and show me some gratitude?’
    ‘What?’ Was that the great crusader for justice who said that to me?
    ‘You think Maya wants to pay you what she’s paying me?’ Laurie chuckles. ‘I talked her through her options. I said, “If there’s a line in the budget for me, then there’s a line in the budget for Fliss.” She knows there’s no film without my cooperation, not for Binary Star. Ray Hines, Sarah and Glen Jaggard, Paul Yardley, all the solicitors and barristers, the MPs and doctors I’ve got eating out of the palm of my hand – one word from me and they walk. Whole project falls apart. All I need to do is bide my time, then sign a new contract with the BBC as MD of Hammerhead.’
    ‘You
blackmailed
Maya into agreeing to promote me?’ So that’s why she was less gushy than usual when I passed her in the corridor. ‘Well, I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m—’
    ‘I want this documentary made!’ Laurie raises his voice to a level some might describe as shouting. ‘I’m trying to do theright thing here, for everyone! Binary Star gets to keep the film, you get a package that’s appealing enough to make you get off your arse and do the work . . .’
    ‘And what do you get?’ I feel unsteady on my feet. I’d like to sit down, but I won’t, not after Laurie ordered me to.
Not when he’s just made a snide remark about my arse
.
    ‘I get your full cooperation,’ he says, so quietly that I wonder if I imagined his outburst a few seconds earlier. ‘Unofficially I’ll still run the show, but my involvement will be strictly between you and me.’
    ‘I see,’ I say in a tight voice. ‘You’re not only blackmailing Maya, you’re blackmailing me, too.’
    Laurie falls into his chair with a groan. ‘I’m bribing you. At least be accurate.’ He laughs.