Page 6 of All the Right Words
There was a hesitation, but in the end, Brenda gave in. ‘Alright.’
Thank god. Brenda wouldn’t help anything. She’d just flap and lash out, make accusations. It was what she did. The woman could write crime, but her functionality was minimal as a person.
‘I’ll ring you later,’ Harper said.
‘You better. I can’t deal with this kind of stress. I’ve got lumbago!’
‘I’ll call,’ she promised and hung up. Then she told the cabbie to forget what she’d said before and take her to Parker Press.
***
A young guy with a broccoli-style haircut was on the phone at the reception desk. ‘Hi, Parker Pr- Oh, no, yes. I see, I’ll just… Could you hold for a minute?’ he pressed a button and blinked. ‘Shit.’ He turned to a woman next to him, ‘Stacey, I hung up again instead of transferring them.’
Stacey rolled her eyes. ‘Vincent…’
‘Oh, hang about,’ Vincent stopped her, noticing Harper. ‘Hello, welcome to Parker Press. Who are you seeing today?’
‘I’m hoping to see Olivia.’
‘Do you have an appointment?’ Vincent asked.
‘No. I stopped by on the off chance.’
‘Well, she’s swamped-’ Vincent began.
Stacey stopped him mid-sentence. ‘But I’m sure she can squeeze you in, Miss Blake.’
‘That would be great,’ Harper said, switching her attention to the more competent of the two.
Stacey got on the horn, and within seconds, she gave Harper the green light. ‘She’s in, umm, Michael’s old office,’ she said, dropping her voice to a whisper on the now-discredited name.
Harper headed down the hall, past framed book covers of Parker's big hits, a lot of them Brenda’s. She reached Michael’s old office, and lo and behold, Olivia was in there, looking comfy behind Michael’s desk. She was looking at something Gina was showing her on an iPad. Olivia looked up as Harper walked in, smiling. ‘I’m so glad you came, Harper,’ she beamed as if she’d fully expected Harper to show up.
‘Sorry to drop by unannounced.’
‘Not at all. It’s good you’re here.’
Gina glanced up. ‘We’ve been trying to get you, but your out of office said you were on holiday,’ she said with a slight air of accusation.
‘I was. I got in an hour ago, and Brenda blew up my phone.’
‘You came straight here? That’s a good agent,’ Olivia said.
‘That’s apressuredagent,’ Harper smiled.
‘Can I get you a coffee?’ Gina asked.
‘Actually, that would be great.’
‘It’s a vanilla latte, right?’ Gina asked. ‘I’m going on a proper coffee run.’
‘Yes, thank you,’ Harper said, oddly pleased Gina had remembered. She was getting the treatment today. They were sweating.
Gina went off to get the coffee, and Olivia gestured at the sofa in the corner, getting up from her desk to join her on it. Harper could feel that she was about to get schmoozed.
‘Nice holiday?’ Olivia asked.
‘It was, thanks.’ She didn’t expand. It was just a pleasantry; she didn’t want to know that Harper had been forced to take a break in the country before she turned one of Brenda’s murder mysteries into a real-life case. Though it had been nice to get a little time to paint, nothing fancy, just watercolours. She’d come back with a country landscape that would go straight into a cupboard and probably never be seen again. She could never work in the city. She was too close to too much work bullshit. It made it impossible to focus.
