Page 99 of Private Lives

Anna walked back inside, her heels tapping on the marble floor. She put a few coins into the vending machine and sat down on a bench in the atrium, gazing up at the sculptures and paintings, enjoying the calm.

‘Anna Kennedy? Not working? Never thought I’d see the day.’

She looked up and frowned when she saw Blake Stanhope.

‘Back in court, Blake? Who have you stitched up this time?’

Blake pulled a look of mock hurt. ‘Don’t take that tone with me. I thought we were friends.’

‘I wouldn’t go that far.’

‘Come on, Anna,’ he said, more evenly. ‘We’re in the same game, aren’t we?’

‘Blake, you belong in jail.’

His shoulders slumped.

‘I know you think I’m some sort of unprincipled rat, and maybe I have my moments, but believe me when I say I didn’t leak that story. And I don’t appreciate you quizzing every editor in town asking them if I shared the Sam Charles story with them.’

‘You heard about that?’ Maybe her discreet enquiries weren’t so discreet.

He nodded.

Anna looked at him, trying to read his face.

‘Well, someone did, and we only have two in the line-up: you and that girl Katie Grey. Or maybe someone in your office.’

Blake paused, looking up at the dark portrait of a rather forbidding-looking judge in ceremonial dress.

‘It was no one in my office,’ he said defensively. ‘I was the only one who knew about it. As for Katie . . . She’s not a bad girl. Just a frustrated one. It’s often the way with kiss-and-tell girls. It’s not just about the money. Someone they slept with makes a heap of promises to them and then doesn’t deliver. Speaking out is their way of lashing out. Katie felt rejected, hurt. But she understood the injunction had gagged her, and she wasn’t going to break the law.’

‘You all sound so moral.’

He took a seat beside her.

‘Have you considered phone hacking?’

She had.

‘We take every precaution. Our phones are swept regularly. We avoid leaving voicemail messages. Don’t you?’

‘Never been stung yet.’

‘To your knowledge.’

‘I’m careful. Besides, do you think the papers are going to take the risk of phone tapping after the last scandal?’

She downed her drink, deep in thought.

Silence rattled between them.

‘Have you ever considered that the leak might have come from your end?’ he said finally.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘You don’t think it’s possible? One of Sam’s staff, a driver, a PA? Or someone at your office. A temp. A cleaner.’

‘Don’t make ridiculous accusations just to get yourself off the hook.’