Chapter 36

 

It was her parole officer’s visit at the gallery, and they were sat in Ingrid’s office. April knew there wouldn’t be a peep out of Ingrid since she’d told her she was leaving when her three months was up. Ingrid sat behind her desk presiding over things in her supercilious way

“So, do you want to start, Gemma?” Tom asked. “How are you finding things?”

“Good, thank you. It’s actually quite a nice place to work, everyone’s friendly. The hours are a bit unsocial, but apart from that, it’s fine.” She smiled sweetly at Ingrid.

Ingrid smiled back, “As far as I’m concerned, Gemma’s doing an excellent job. She’s very hard working which is exactly what Mr Rider expects.”

Tom Campbell appeared pleased. “That is good to hear. I wish all my clients settled into work as well as you, some are quite a challenge, I can assure you.” He gave an encouraging nod, “So, well done, Gemma. You’ve finished working at Mr Rider’s house now, haven’t you?”

“Yes, that was only temporary while his cleaner was off. She’s back now.”

“Good. That extra work is another positive tick for you and makes me think that perhaps it’s not necessary to have another visit here at the gallery from me. I can see you are doing really well,” he widened his eyes, “as long as you’re happy with that, of course.”

“Yes, that’s fine,” April agreed. “Do you still need to come and see me at my flat?”

“I think we can cut that down too. We can chat about that in a minute.” He turned to Ingrid, “Is that alright with you? It’ll save me keep coming here and disrupting the cleaning schedule.”

“That’s fine by me,” Ingrid nodded, “we know where to contact you if there’s a problem, but I don’t envisage any. Gemma’s fitted in here really well. We’re delighted to have her.”

“I’m pleased to hear it,” he said. “Would it be possible to speak to Gemma alone for a minute and then I’ll get out of your way?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll leave you both to it.” Ingrid stood up, and as if to reinforce her position, she turned to April, “As soon as you’re finished with Mr Campbell, can you get the toilets done, we are a bit behind tonight?”

Why does she always mention bloody toilets?

April smiled, “Yes, will do.” She looked questioningly at Tom. “I don’t think we’ll be that long, will we?”

“No, I won’t keep you. I only need a quick word and then I’m out of here.”

They both smiled at Ingrid as she left the room. Tom turned towards her and April stared into his eyes and shook her head as if to say, walls have ears.

He understood. “So, as far as you’re concerned, Gemma, you’re okay? You weren’t just saying that for your boss’s benefit?”

“No, not at all. I like it here,” she replied enthusiastically.

“Then we’ll move on from me visiting your flat to check on things, to telephone contact once a week, unless there are any problems at all. Is that okay with you?”

“That sounds fine.”

He passed her a note.

“I’m always in the office on a Friday morning catching up with paperwork, so if you could ring each Friday morning, then I can do the necessary tick list to say we’ve had telephone contact.”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

She opened the note.

 

There’s been an enquiry about you at the office. All the calls are recorded so I’ve listened to it back. It’s a male asking if he could contact you through your parole officer. Reception agreed to pass on a message to me, but the caller hesitated and said he’d leave it for now and rang off.  It sounded very much like someone was after confirmation you actually had a parole officer.

 

Tom stood up. “I’ve just realised I’ve forgotten to bring your last assessment document. Typical, it completely slipped my mind. I’ll email it to you when I get back to the office. You just need to read through it and keep it for your reference.”

She knew he was covertly saying he’d send her the recording to listen to.

“Thank you. I’ll do that.”

Would she recognise the voice?

“Right,” he smiled, “I’ll let you get on. You’ve done really well since you came out of prison. Keep it up.”

She nodded and mouthed thank you.

She opened the door. “I’ll walk with you to the exit. The security man, Joey will be around, he’ll let you out.”

Who the hell would be asking questions about her?

Who knew something?