No Name Lane (Howard Linskey) Read Online Free PDF

editor. ‘I told you we needed a recording of them screwing or at least negotiating the terms of the shag in advance.’
    ‘And I told you there was no chance of that,’ said Tom, ‘it was his flat and he wasn’t daft. He used to just point at the bedroom when a girl arrived and she’d go in and strip off. There was nowhere to conceal a mic on her. He just did the bizzo and handed her the cash. You told us to write it anyway.’
    TheDoc shot him a warning look and Tom realised he would be expected to erase that little exchange from his memory, which had occurred when Alex Docherty was in one of his egotistical, print-and-be-damned moods.
    ‘Our lawyers are saying it’s flimsy,’ said the Doc, ‘it looks like a tabloid set up and he can just say he has never even seen her or her mates before, much less given them one.’
    ‘He has given her several!’ Tom argued, ‘and her mates – and they are all willing to swear it was him.’
    ‘They are hookers!’ the Doc shouted and he waved his arms in frustration. ‘Which means their word counts for a bit less than a cabinet minister’s!’ He seemed to force himself to calm down then. ‘And there’s something else.’
    ‘What?’
    The Doc seemed pained, ‘his lawyers are asking for the exact times and dates we are claiming he was shagging Miss Sparkle and her mates.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Our lawyers reckon it’s so they can go back to Grady and ask him if he has alibis for those times and dates.’
    ‘Well he hasn’t,’ said Tom, ‘has he?’
    ‘Well let’s see, shall we?’ The Doc made a great show of pretending that he was thinking. He placed a hand to his chin and wrinkled his forehead in a mock frown. ‘He’s a wealthy, powerful individual who might one day become Prime Minister, which means he can generously repay a lot of favours. There have been rumours of dodgy dealings surrounding him for years, so we already know he’s bent. What do you think, Tom? Reckon he’ll have any trouble coming up with those alibis?’
    ‘Butthis is …’
    ‘Unfair?’ offered the Doc, ‘to hell with fair. This tosser is fighting for his political life right now and most probably his marriage as well. He ain’t gonna fight fair, is he?’
    Tom was feeling bewildered now. Faced with his editor’s certainty, he suddenly ran out of arguments. ‘What are you going to do?’
    ‘About this? I don’t know. I’ll probably develop an ulcer and have a heart attack as well but you worry about yourself, not me.’
    ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘We can’t have you in the office writing more stories while we are being sued because of your last one. The lawyers would have a fit. I need you out of the building. Take a holiday,’ Docherty told Tom. ‘Don’t look at me like that. You’ll still get your money. I’d kill for some paid holiday right now.’
    ‘What about my contract? You know I’ve only got six months and it expires soon.’
    ‘We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?’ he told Tom.
    ‘Are you throwing me out? Is that what you’re doing here? Just tell me if you are.’
    ‘No, I am not throwing you out, so don’t give me any more grief!’
    ‘So why can’t you tell me what’s going to happen at the end of my contract?’
    ‘Because I don’t actually know if I’ll be there then, let alone you! I might not even survive the day. Nobody likes to lose a libel case, son; they are way too expensive, even for us.’
    Jenniferchose that point to put her head round the door.
    ‘Sorry, Chief, you said you wanted to write that letter to Cryptic Ken.’ And when he blinked at her in something like recognition she added, ‘I could come back later.’
    ‘No, Jennifer, come in,’ he told her, taking a deep breath, ‘I’m done here,’ He left Tom under no illusion that their conversation was over.
    Cryptic Ken was the paper’s resident astrologer, a man whose days were constantly rumoured to be numbered because his horoscopes were too mundane for the