When She Was Bad(24)

‘I just hope everyone is being discreet about it,’ she told Amira when she ran across her in the toilets. ‘I deliberately kept it low-key.’

‘I don’t know why you’re being so paranoid,’ Amira replied. ‘It’s not in work time. It’s not on work property. There’s absolutely nothing anyone can object to.’

Paula found it odd that Amira, with whom she’d always got on so well, wasn’t meeting her eyes. Was something going on? Maybe she was getting paranoid, after all. All day she carried around a heavy nugget of dread in her heart. Despite paying her lip-service at the start, Rachel had since made no secret of her scorn for the way Gill had run the department and her suspicion of anything connected with the Gill era. By organizing Gill’s leaving do, even though it was just drinks at the pub a few doors down from the office, Paula couldn’t help feeling she was allying herself too closely with her former boss.

‘Can you get down there early to make sure everything is sorted and we’ve got an area cordoned off?’ she asked Chloe at lunchtime when they bumped into each other in the kitchen.

‘Not really. I’ve got mountains of work to do.’

Chloe had been noticeably off with her since the previous morning when Rachel had taken her to task in front of everyone for doing Gill’s collection in work time and Paula hadn’t backed her up. Afterwards she’d regretted not standing up for her younger colleague. Not that she felt guilty exactly, but she could see that Chloe had taken it as a public slap-down, which she’d never intended. It was just that Rachel Masters had put her on the spot, trying to make her appear unprofessional – just for collecting a bit of money for a woman who’d worked hard for the company for eight years.

‘I’m not asking you to skip work, just to get off on the dot of 5.30 to put a few nibbles and crisps out on tables. Amira and Sarah are off getting the present now so I can’t ask them to do it. And anyway, it is the kind of thing the departmental assistant traditionally does.’

Chloe flushed and bit down hard on her bottom lip.

‘Fine. If I have to. I’d better get back to work now then so I don’t get completely behind.’

She flounced off and Paula briefly closed her eyes, knowing she’d been tactless drawing attention to Chloe’s junior status. It wasn’t like her to keep blundering like this. She’d always been quietly attentive to other people’s feelings, earning herself, she hoped, a reputation for quiet diplomacy. But now she felt that she was constantly upsetting people.

Settling back down at her desk, she glanced across to Rachel Masters’s office. As usual, her new boss was intent on her computer, frowning at the screen. The dark-framed glasses gave her a permanently angry look.

Three-quarters of an hour later Paula’s anxiety levels were once again rising. Amira and Sarah still weren’t back from their shopping trip. Surely it couldn’t take that long. She’d told them to get some nice-smelling stuff – scented candles and bath oils, or failing that a voucher. It was just a gesture. But they seemed to have turned it into an epic expedition.

She sent an email to Charlie.

Any idea what’s happened to S&A?

His reply pinged back almost instantly.

No clue. Have they absconded with the money? You can get a long way on £72.38, an extra-strong mint and three weird foreign coins.

The clock on her computer showed 2.10. They’d been gone well over an hour. From the corner of her eye she saw Rachel Masters glance up before going back to her screen.

By 2.30, Paula felt clammy all over as if she’d been out running all lunchtime instead of sitting hunched over her desk. Finally, at 2.43, they returned. Amira was first, sliding into her desk which, luckily for her, was the door side of the office, followed by Sarah, trying to hide her coat from view so it didn’t look as if she’d just arrived back. Rachel Masters’s head remained bent and Paula started to unwind. She needed to get a grip! Trying to second-guess the boss’s erratic moves would just mean she was anxious all the time. She called up her calendar. She had a list of calls she had to make before leaving work today. Better get started.

Sarah looked over and caught her eye. She shook her head and mouthed ‘nightmare’. Paula raised her shoulders in a questioning gesture and Sarah reached inside her handbag and held up a small bag with a reassuringly expensive brand name emblazoned on the side.

Paula began working through her list, but she was only a third of the way down when Rachel Masters flung open the door of her office.

‘Sarah? A moment, please.’

Immediately the tiny ants were on the move again inside her, swarming around until Paula’s very veins itched. If Sarah and Amira were going to get into trouble for being late back from lunch, would they tell Rachel it had been Paula’s suggestion that they go out shopping for Gill’s present? Three minutes later, Sarah emerged from Rachel’s office clutching a white envelope, her face pale in contrast with her red-rimmed eyes. She resolutely avoided looking at anyone as she sat back at her desk, but as she put her hand over her computer mouse, Paula could see it shaking. She glanced over at Amira, who was looking uncharacteristically grim-faced. She shrugged her shoulders almost imperceptibly when she caught Paula’s eye.