Page 48 of Cuckoo

‘Because I rang the HR team at Baker Rise PR, and they have no record of a Claire Arundale working for them in this time period. In fact, they had no record of a Claire Arundale ever having worked for them.’

Sukhi frowns at me and I feel my skin begin to itch with shame. It was such a stupid thing to lie about, but I hadsowanted the job and didn’t want to embarrass Noah after he went to all the trouble of helping me apply.

Sukhi turns back to Dodgson, her voice hard. ‘Is that a question?’

‘No, merely an observation.’ He smirks back at her.

‘Lying on a CV isn’t a crime, is it? If that is what you’re implying. PR is competitive and hard to break into. I won’t comment on how she got her job, that is for HR to look into,’ Sukhi adds.

‘So you acknowledge Miss Arundale may have lied? May indeed be a chronic liar?’ Dodgson thinks he has the way in he was angling for. But Sukhi will not give an inch of ground.

‘No. I will not comment further on this, not having spoken to Claire about her CV nor personally hired her. In our personal interactions, I have never known her to lie.’

Dodgson raises his eyebrows at the jury, stopping short of rolling his eyes.

‘You havenevercaught her out in a lie?’ he pushes again.

‘No.’ Sukhi’s voice is unwavering.

Dodgson allows a painfully long silence to drag out, andfor one crazy moment I want to burst out laughing as I watch Sukhi glare at him, refusing to back down.

‘Thank you, Mrs Dhillon,’ he drawls eventually. ‘No further questions.’

‘What a waste of her time,’ Grosvenor whispers to me, giving my shoulder a tiny squeeze as she stands and takes Dodgson’s place.

‘Hello, Mrs Dhillon. Can I just confirm Miss Arundale’s role within the team?’ she asks.

‘PR assistant. An entry-level role.’

‘And your position?’ Grosvenor asks.

‘Her senior– a senior executive. But she doesn’t report to me or anything. We’re on different accounts; she is lifestyle, I’m in literature.’

‘Did you interview her?’

‘I didn’t, no. Our boss, David, hired her but I did have some input about the candidates at CV stage. He said she interviewed well so I vouched for her as a good option. It’s important in PR that you leave a good first impression.’

‘And did Claire?’ Grosvenor asks.

‘Yes, she did. She’s knowledgeable and a hard worker, shows initiative, and was always last to leave the office and first to arrive. She’ll be a brilliant publicist one day.’

I feel a small glow of pride at being defended so warmly.

‘And outside of work, did you spend much time together? Or speak about things unrelated to the office?’ Grosvenor asks.

Sukhi darts her gaze at me again, and I’m finding myself mortified that one of the only people I might be able to calla friend has been dragged into this mess, forced to speak up for me in front of a bunch of strangers. I give her another little smile, as though trying to thank her telepathically for being here, to apologise for involving her in any of this.

‘We spent most lunchtimes together and spoke a lot about our personal lives. I would consider Claire Arundale to be my friend and not just a colleague,’ Sukhi says, looking directly at me. For some reason, I feel my eyes begin to water.

‘Good to know.’ Grosvenor pauses to let this sink in and then resumes. ‘And what did you know of Miss Arundale and her personal life?’

‘She is a kind, caring person,’ Sukhi replies.

‘Did you ever see her lose her temper? To use the previous witness’s phrase, “lash out” at all?’

Grosvenor turns to the jury, raising her eyebrows to demonstrate the importance of this question.

‘No, never. I never heard her raise her voice, even after everything that happened with Noah,’ Sukhi replies firmly.

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