The Cradle in the Grave Read Online Free PDF Page A

feeling horribly out of control. This wasn’t supposed to happen; it’s all wrong.
    Laurie taps the top box file. ‘All the names and contacts you need are in here. I haven’t got time to go through it all with you, but most of it’s self-explanatory. Any more detectives come sniffing around, you’re making a documentary about a doctor determined to pervert the course of justice, and three women whose lives she did her best to destroy. Nothing to do with the investigation into Helen’s death. They can’t stop you.’
    â€˜The police don’t want the film to be made?’ Everything Laurie says makes me feel worse. Even more than usual.
    â€˜They haven’t said that yet, but they will. They’ll trot out some guff about you compromising their—’
    â€˜But I haven’t . . . Laurie, I don’t want your job! I don’t want to make your film.’ To clarify, I add, ‘I’m saying no.’ There, that’s better. Perfectly in control.
    â€˜No?’ He stands back and examines me: a rebellious specimen. Previously compliant, though, he’ll be thinking, so what can have gone wrong? He laughs. ‘You’re turning down a salary that’s more than three times what you’re on now, and a career-launching promotion? Are you stupid?’
    He can’t force me—it’s impossible. There are some things one can physically force a person to do. Making a documentary is not one of them. Focusing on this helps me to stay calm. ‘I’ve never exec-ed anything before,’ I say. ‘I’d be completely out of my depth. Don’t you want to cooperate with the police, help them find out what happened to Helen?’
    â€˜Culver Valley CID couldn’t find tennis balls at fucking Wimbledon.’
    â€˜I don’t understand,’ I say. ‘If you’re going to Hammerhead, why isn’t the film going with you?’
    â€˜The BBC commissioned Binary Star, not me personally.’ Laurie shrugs. ‘That’s the price I pay for leaving. I lose it.’ He leans forward. ‘The only way I don’t lose it is if I give it to you, and work with you when I can behind the scenes. I need your help here, Fliss. You’d get all the credit, you’d get the salary . . .’
    â€˜Why me? Tamsin’s the one who’s been working on 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.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜Tamsin’s being made redundant. Raffi’s talking to her now.’
    â€˜ What? You’re joking. Tell me you’re joking.’
    Laurie shakes his head.
    â€˜They can’t get rid of her! They can’t just . .