Finding Katie

Chapter 3

Ben

"Could you check over the Aimtree contract for me again, please?" I looked up at the man on the other side of my desk. "Go through it word for word, paragraph by paragraph. I know it's a pain, but I want to be one hundred percent certain we've got it this time. I don't want another surprise."

Liam, my apprentice, took the stack of papers from the desk as he rose. "Of course, no problem. I have time before the three o'clock meeting."

I stood too and lifted my jacket off the back of my chair. It might be summer and hot as Hades, but I wasn't going to wander around outside in my shirtsleeves.

"You all right?"

I paused with one arm in the sleeve and looked up at Liam over by the door. "Why wouldn't I be?"

The younger man shrugged. "I don't know. You seem... glum, I suppose. Yesterday too."

"I'm fine." I looked away from my friend as I shrugged on my jacket. Then added, "We also need to check with Nathalie if she's okay with the new wording of the non-competition clause. She mentioned something about a new business idea she wanted to pursue once this is all over."

Liam didn't immediately reply, and out of the corner of my eye I could see he was looking at me with a slight frown. Then he sighed and nodded as he wrote down my last request on his ever-present notepad as he left my office. But he'd only just walked through the door before he backed up a step and caught my eyes.

"Incoming," he murmured and then disappeared into his own office next to mine.

A moment later, a tall, angular figure took up the doorway. Hands in his pockets and his tie loosened under his wilted shirt collar, my least favourite colleague leaned his shoulder against the doorframe. "Leaving already, Ben?" Dave drawled. "I should tell Robert you're slacking off. That behaviour won't do if you ever want to become partner." One of his eyebrows rose. "Or for any of our employees when I'm made partner."

I only glanced at him and bit down on my annoyance. This was just what I needed to make the day perfect. His words were supposed to be playful, but the note of aversion in them wasn't lost on me. It was too poorly hidden. Not that I gave a shit about Dave. Nor about the inherent threat in his mentioning of our boss, the head of the firm, Robert Darnell.

"Not at all," I said noncommittally as I smoothed the lapels of my jacket and made sure I had my wallet. "I'm just going out for lunch. I'll be back in an hour."

"Let me guess." Both eyebrows raised, my colleague pointed two fingers at me pistol-style. "Soren's, right?"

"As always." I walked towards him with enough determination to make Dave step back from the doorway and then closed the door behind me. Dave Herbert had been with Darnell & Morecombe longer than I had, but on the corporate scale we were on the same step. Dave was some years older, and we didn't usually work the same clients, but the Aimtree merger was a big enough deal that half the firm were involved, including Dave. Which gave him a reason to haunt my office.

Unfortunately, that many people involved also meant a greater risk of something going wrong and everyone assuming that someone else was doing the necessary work.

This last week, the atmosphere at the firm had been tense enough to cut with a knife. Ever since I'd sat down to do a last read-through of the final contract for the sale of Britain's second largest online clothing site, just hours away from it being signed, and had noticed a new paragraph buried in between two others that we had been over numerous times. That paragraph hadn't been present in the preceding version of the contract that we had approved and would have seriously damaged our client's ability to be even peripherally involved in another business in the future.