Malicious Intent Read Online Free PDF Page A

favorite, how much weight she had lost since the divorce.
    Kicking off her shoes, Anya lay across the calico-covered lounge. Bought at a second-hand sale, it was a temporary fix-ture until the business could afford a leather Chesterfield. In the meantime it was serviceable, as were the ex-government computer desk and swivel chair in the corner. The high ceilings and ornate plaster cornices gave the room an elegant feel, unaf-fected by the cobbled collection of furniture. Monet prints on two walls disguised a fading lemon paint job.
    Back at her desk, Elaine switched off the answering machine. She replaced new cross-trainers with blue courts and pulled a bottle of perfume from the drawer. The sickly fra-grance was designed to obscure any smell of stale tobacco. Anya couldn’t decide which odor was worse.
    ‘Sperm Man paid another visit yesterday,’ Elaine said as she rummaged through her handbag.
    ‘The one with his wife’s underwear?’
    ‘That’s our man. This time he brought the bedsheets – red flannel.’
    Anya rolled her eyes and groaned. ‘Is he still convinced his wife’s having an affair?’ She sat up and took the lid off a water bottle. ‘Why can’t he accept we don’t do that sort of work?’
    ‘I tell him every time he comes. He wants us to help catch his wife out. All we have to do is check the panties – and now the bedsheets – for sperm.’ Elaine combed her neatly trimmed ash-blond hair. ‘I don’t suppose we could do this one, and charge a consultant’s fee for passing it on?’
    Instinctively, Anya touched the necklace her son had chosen and felt a lump rise in her throat. Only weeks ago Benjamin had beamed back at his mother in the jewelry shop as he picked the cheap gold chain for her thirty-fourth birthday. He proudly handed over the two dollars she had given him and hadn’t noticed when she paid the shop assistant the difference.
    To afford another custody challenge, she needed more KATHRYN FOX
    23
    work, which meant improving her profile. Insurance cases paid well, but too many of them could ruin her reputation in legal circles. If things didn’t improve in the next few weeks, she’d have to reconsider all options.
    ‘We’re not taking on Sperm Man.’ Anya sipped the water.
    ‘Just keep giving him the names of the private testing laborato-ries in North Sydney and Lidcombe.’
    Elaine walked to the doorway. ‘By the way, you have a nine o’clock appointment who should be here soon, a Mr. Deab. He wouldn’t tell me what it was about over the phone but kept saying how urgent it was that he see you.’
    ‘Let’s hope he doesn’t bring underwear.’
    Elaine chuckled. ‘Coffee?’ she asked, not waiting for an answer before wandering down the corridor to the kitchen.
    Unable to afford a separate office, Anya lived at the back of the terrace house. She slept in an attic bedroom and kept a smaller upstairs room for Ben’s visits. A functional lounge room, bathroom and kitchen became common property during business hours.
    At five past nine Elaine brought Anoub Deab from the waiting room into the main office. During a quick tidy up, Anya found under the lounge a Matchbox car, a LEGO block and a plastic road worker left from Ben’s last visit. She deposited the bounty on her desk just as the man entered the room.
    Before leaving to answer the phone, Elaine offered freshly brewed coffee, which they both declined.
    Anya shook the young man’s hand, which was bathed in perspiration. He must have been in his early twenties, with soot-black hair, olive skin and dark eyes. The neatly ironed jeans and an impeccably pressed white shirt meant he was either obsessively neat or still lived with his mother.
    ‘What can I do for you, Mr. Deab?’ Anya offered the chair opposite her desk, sat and opened a notebook.
    He cleared his throat a couple of times and lowered himself into the seat. ‘I want to find out about my sister, Fatima. She disappeared seven weeks ago. No one knows where she