The Fourth Season Read Online Free PDF Page B

was like. The industries were ropable, not to mention the Prime Minister. The day the story appeared, I went to my director and told him what I believed must have happened. He understood where I was coming from, what had prompted me to make documents available to a student. He believed in my good intentions and backed me all the way. But the FAS is a bitch who never liked me anyway. She took it straight up the line and encouraged the minister to throw the book at me. Which he did. At least the inquiry was internal. My name wasn’t made public and I wasn’t charged with a criminal offence.’
    â€˜Did you have any contact with Laila after that?’
    â€˜None at all. I was instructed not to and I didn’t.’
    â€˜Let me get this straight—Laila’s name wasn’t publicly released, but she’s referred to by name in the inquiry?’
    â€˜That’s why Brideson’s onto me. He’s a prick of the first order, by the way.’
    I’d formed the same opinion, but I wasn’t about to share it with Don. ‘And after it was over?’ I asked him.
    â€˜After I’d been sacked me, you mean. I had counselling. My wife insisted on it. But the way I saw it I’d done nothing wrong. An unscrupulous young woman had taken advantage of me. I was punished for that. Counselling—well, at the time it felt like extra punishment. Now Laila’s dead, and I just think it’s incredibly sad. Whatever she did, whoever else she may have hoodwinked, she certainly didn’t deserve to be murdered for it. I think of her parents, and what they must be going through, and—well, I can’t bear to think of it.’
    â€˜Where were you on the night she was killed?’
    â€˜That was the first thing Brideson wanted to know, of course. I was having a drink with a friend.’
    We discussed the timing, how long they’d been together, and where.
    â€˜The trouble is, you see, I didn’t go straight home. I drove around. I know that sounds suspicious, but it’s a thing I often do. My home—Clare and I—well, let’s just say home’s often not the most relaxing place to be.’
    Don’s replies had a wooden, embarrassed stiffness. I asked if he and Clare had children and he shook his head.
    â€˜Did you have a particular interest in marine conservation before you joined the team working on the park proposals?’
    â€˜Of course. We all did. But it’s funny you should ask that because my interest really came alive when I started talking to that girl. Before then it had been academic. Oh, I cared what happened to our oceans, but I didn’t know how much I cared .’
    â€˜How many people know what Laila did to you?’
    â€˜It’s hard to put a figure on it. People gossip, you can’t do anything about that. I haven’t spoken to anyone from the department, haven’t been near the place since I was forced to retire. A lot of people got to hear about the inquiry, knew I’d made a major blunder, but those who knew all the details—well, there was my director, of course, my branch head and division head, and the secretary. The minister. The department’s head of IT. The officers at my level—there were six of us working on the park proposals—I never referred to Laila by name. I don’t know how much they worked out. They would have been told to keep quiet. And they gave me a wide berth. I’d get sympathetic looks from time to time, but that was all.’
    â€˜You were ostracised?’
    â€˜That’s putting it too strongly. I wanted to keep to myself. I was in a kind of shock. I talked to my director. He was the only one whose sympathy I could bear to face, or maybe the only one whose sympathy I felt able to accept. You asked how many might have known that it was Laila. That depends on whether or not she was acting on her own. There’s that group she belonged to. Maybe they