Ruth left home early, anticipating another busy but peaceful day, preparing herself for their meeting with Jane's solicitor the following afternoon. It wasn't until she reached the centre of the bridge that she remembered that the recently absent Susie might be back, which unless she'd pulled herself together and was ready to get back to the serious business of work, would only add to her problems. Whereas a productive Susie was more than capable of sifting through the credentials of the applicants that she'd earmarked as potential replacements for Alex, which would at least allow her to plough on with her most pressing of cases, namely the Pearce divorce.
'There's a client that I don't recognise in your office, he said you'd be expecting him,' Susie told her, the moment that Ruth walked through the door, her quiet day already interrupted and Ruth fully aware or at least hoping that she knew who it was.
'It's good to have you back Susie, could you rustle us up some coffee and then check these?' Ruth asked her in a calm and collected voice, with no indication as to how Susie's statement had made her feel. So, he was here without her having to chase him, the relief that she felt was enormous.
The moment that she opened the door and walked in Harry stood up. It wasn't that she hadn't expected him to do it, but none the less it still took her a little by surprise. His expression said I'm sorry and his body language said perhaps I should go, but he did neither, he just stood there looking at her, until as though he'd only just remembered, he fished an envelope out of his coat pocket.
'I've been persuaded that my decision to walk away from you was unwise on both counts,' was said quietly, 'but I still need you to read this and come to your own conclusion,' he told her, proffering the envelope that had taken on the proportions of a bomb in Harry's mind. He'd been into Thames House long before even the birds had woken up and had taken a copy of his record at five, as far back as when he'd been in Northern Ireland. Risky certainly, but then if he was going to retain Ruth as his solicitor and hopefully more, then as Adam had said, it had to be a risk worth taking.
Persuaded, had he just said persuaded? What a very Harry expression. Tempted to say by whom, which would probably see him fleeing rather than staying where he was, Ruth stayed silent.
Slow motion taking on a whole new meaning in Harry's mind, he watched Ruth walk across the room and hang up her coat, before slowly returning to her desk. Whatever she was feeling, she was making a damn good job of hiding it.
'But this is highly classified information Harry, surely you're breaking the rules by showing me this?' Finally broke the silence, as she cast an eye over the first few lines of what appeared to be explicit extracts from his personal file.
'Yes but you're my solicitor Ruth and bound by the same confidentiality as I am and I'm asking you to read it.' At which point any further conversation was halted as they were interrupted by the arrival of Susie with the coffee and Harry joined Ruth who had decided that she needed to sit rather than fall down.
'That's fine Susie, we'll manage,' then 'thank you,' she added as an afterthought, realising that she'd sounded a bit too dismissive, as Harry's troubled eyes continued to bore into hers, before the door closed behind Susie.
'I am truly sorry about the way I behaved yesterday evening, but I panicked,' he continued. 'Incidentally, I stopped panicking by the time that I got to the end of your road and nearly came back,' was his attempt at a further apology. Better she thought. But Ruth the solicitor was a totally different person to the Ruth that lived at home and in this particular instance she was his solicitor. This was where she coped and she needed more than I nearly came back.
'But you didn't Harry,' and it was back to him to keep the conversation flowing.
'Which was a mistake which won't happen again,' he told her, not knowing that with those few words that Ruth's inner self had relaxed.
He so wanted to stay but he knew that he couldn't. 'I've got a heavy workload to get through today and I'm already late for a meeting, may I call you later?' He asked her, already on his feet and reaching for his coat, feeling as though his whole life lay in that single response.
She'd seen the four missed calls when she'd switched her phone back on that morning. 'I'll leave my phone on this time and I'll shred this once I've read it,' had him turning around and nodding, as he opened the door to leave.
'I'll be home by six,' she called after him in her Ruth at home voice.
'That's good, six it is then,' and he was gone.
Ruth didn't see the smile on his face or he hers.
'Have I missed anything of significance?' Harry asked the members of the JIC, having made a halfhearted apology for being late before sitting down. The fact that Juliet was there, looking as though she was the cat who'd got the cream was all he needed, in a meeting that he knew he'd be able to minute even if he fell asleep.
'We've invited Juliet in her new roll as Chief Security Coordinator,' the chairman and another one of Harry's deep - seated dislikes, Oliver Mace told him. 'I've been led to believe that you have no objection to her appointment Harry?' Was an unnecessary question that Harry wasn't in the mood for hearing or intended answering, such was the innuendo in Mace's voice. He knew full well that his one - time fling with Juliet hadn't been kept under wraps and that the snake like Mace had added it to his arsenal to be used at a time such as this.
There was more than one clearing of a throat as Harry poured himself a glass of water and glanced around the table at the various hypocrites who were daring to judge him, raking in money when they should have been put out to grass years ago and with more skeleton's in their cupboards than the vaults at Westminster Abbey. Knowledge was power and Harry had a memory that was as sharp as a razor when it came snippets of information that had inadvertently been leaked at one club or another, on evenings when someone had drunk far too much whisky. His insurance policy should he need it, was well and truly paid up when it came to these bastards.
'Moving on,' said Mace when Harry failed to reply but appeared to be listening, when in truth he'd shut down, his mind reverting to Ruth and how different the start of his day could have been, if he hadn't been forced to spend at least an hour of his valuable time around a table of old buffers, before he headed back to Thames House and got on with some real work.
'Chicken salad or cheese and tomato?' asked Susie, passing Ruth the list of the candidates, that she'd so far managed to contact and tell that they were on the short list, as Ruth closed the cover on the Pearce divorce file and Harry's life in MI5, that she'd been pouring over for the last hour. 'Lunch?' said Susie again, pointing at her watch and indicating that she was just about to pop out and get herself a sandwich. Like Ruth, Susie lived alone although their relationship had never crossed the boundary into a real friendship. Susie spent her spare time with whoever was her current boyfriend, one or two of which Ruth had met when they'd rocked up at the end of the working day to take Susie, to where, Ruth had never been interested or enquired. But the situation had changed, Alex was gone and Ruth needed Susie to step up and really pull her weight and that wasn't likely to happen without some gentle persuasion.
'Either, or whatever else they've got with salad and we'll have our lunch in here,' Ruth told her, taking her back to the day when Alex had died. It was Susie who had answered the call from Alex's friend and Ruth had been so shocked at the time that she'd agreed with Susie's request to go home without giving it too much thought. But it was something that they needed to talk about and if they left it beyond today then it would only get harder. She was the grown up here or supposed to be, besides which she needed to take a break and to clear her head.
'Who's our new client, he looked nice?' Susie asked her, standing her ground and changing the subject from the mundane to the potentially enlightening, if her boss didn't flounder. She'd seen the expressions on both their faces, their eyes locked together when she'd barged in with the coffees without knocking.
'He's called Harry Pearce,' Ruth told her, there was no point in lying. Susie was the person who typed up and registered all the files, although it wasn't until this moment that Ruth realised that there would be information in there that would be more than sensitive, it would be bloody dynamite if Susie read anything more into it than just another divorce case and passed it on. She'd never done it before over the two years that she'd worked for her and Alex and she just hoped that she could trust her when it came to Harry. If she couldn't, then her previous promise to Susie that her job was safe would be short lived.
'You'll have to hold the fort tomorrow afternoon,' she told her. 'We're having a meeting with his wife and her solicitor and I'll probably go straight home once that's finished,' and Susie schooled her expression. Wow this just got better and better. Ruth normally lived at the office.
On the other side of the road, Jason was enjoying himself, despite the fact that Harry had left home at silly o'clock. He'd followed Juliet's instructions to the letter and had managed to remain unobserved and follow Harry at a discreet distance. Lurking, or as he saw it observing from a café, he'd watched him enter Harrison and Evershed Solicitors. Knowing that when Harry left fifteen minutes later that he'd be heading to a meeting with the JIC, he ordered another coffee in the hope of seeing someone that worked there and maybe have a casual word. A twice read from front to back copy of London Weekly, four cups of coffee and two trips to the gents later, what in his mind was a piece of skirt that had him licking his lips, he watched Susie cross the road and head into a sandwich bar, exiting a few minutes later with two packets of sandwiches. Tasty he thought, his eyes firmly fixed on Susie's legs and the fact that Juliet was the reason that he was there, temporarily forgotten.
Had Adam or more importantly Harry seen Jason or known what was going through his mind, he'd have been swimming with the fishes, but as it was they didn't, so he was at liberty to sit there and indulge his fantasy whilst he pondered what he did next. He could hardly ring Juliet she'd be in the meeting, but at least he could saunter past the building from which Harry had exited and the skirt had re entered and try and get a few pointers to report back to his new boss.
Harry always felt better once he found himself within the confines of Thames House. It was safe, it was where he belonged, it was where he had a purpose. He'd walked back from his meeting with the JIC, knowing that Adam would be there and would want to buttonhole him as to whether he'd taken his advice. He'd done better than that, he'd seen her and there was a swagger in his step as he exited the pods and headed towards his office.
'Zafar Younis, sir,' said a voice from behind him as he hung up his coat and picked up the note from Adam, telling him that he was in the meeting room.
'Harry, Harry's fine,' he told his latest recruit that he'd completely forgotten was arriving that morning. 'A much - needed additional field officer at last,' he told Zafar.
'Yes, and I prefer Zaf,' said the young man shaking Harry's hand, only to be interrupted by Malcolm telling him that he was needed urgently.
Clive Mc Taggert, one of Harry's oldest friends had taken his own life, were the only words that Harry heard, as he stared at the TV screen and felt the blood drain from his face. It was impossible, he'd talked to him as recently as a month ago and although his cancer was spreading, the pain was still at a controllable rate with the drugs that they were giving him. He had two young grandchildren for Christ's sake and Harry knew without a doubt that he would never have willingly subjected them to this memory.
It had started, exactly as he had told Ruth it would, the relentless barrage of unwanted surprises that he'd have to keep to himself. He'd have to cancel this evening on the pretext that it was something mundane, but that he had to work. Would it ever stop, this conflict of interest that prevented him holding down anything that resembled a relationship?
The meeting room all but Adam had cleared without him realising it. He'd heard him dishing out instructions but little more.
'Thank you Adam, I need to make some calls,' he told him, all thought of anything other than finding out who had killed Clive, including Ruth, briefly gone.
'Absolutely not Harry, you were far too close to Clive. Please let me deal with this. One question though, is there any chance that Juliet might be involved?' Didn't need an answer, Harry's expression was sufficient. 'Then all the more reason for you to stay away Harry, let me see if I can poach Fiona from six, she'd be a real asset.'
'And what am I supposed to do, sit back and watch?'
'That's exactly what you need to do. Go to that meeting tomorrow, sort your life out Harry, watch your back and most importantly stay away from Juliet. She's lurking in the wings waiting to hang you out to dry Harry and I'm buggered if I'm going to let that happen.'
'You have to keep me updated Adam.'
'Every step of the way, I promise.'
'Then if I'm not at home, this is where you can find me,' he told him, scribbling down Ruth's address.