When Maserov called Betga he was looking after his daughter, Marietta, both to bond with her further and to assist Carla, who was temping across town that day for a greeting card and fine paper wholesaler in Thornbury. It was a brand new company whose advertisement – ‘You write it. We mail it. Beautiful greeting cards for all occasions.’ – was trying to capture the market of creative, caring, expressive, self-indulgent and lazy people in the northern suburbs and it was giving Carla some extra work and a need for more childcare. Who better than Marietta’s father? No one, other than Carla’s mother and one of her sisters, was as motivated and as free.
‘You are fucking kidding me!’ Betga said over the phone when Maserov told him what Jessica had found. ‘Oh shit! I shouldn’t have sworn. I’m holding Marietta. Listen, is Jessica absolutely sure that this is in Aileen what’s-her-name’s handwriting?’
‘Yes, she’s sure,’ came Maserov’s voice over the phone.
‘Fuck me!’ said Betga, ‘Oh! Sorry, sweetheart,’ he said to his daughter as he bounced her on his knee. ‘Daddy’s just heard some very good news from Maserov, good news for Mummy and for you.’
‘Obviously I’m going to tell all of this to Malcolm Torrent when I go to see him,’ Maserov told him.
‘Absolutely.’
‘But first I want to hear what Featherby says about it. I want to show him her file note, the handwritten post-it note and see what he says.’
‘Yeah but irrespective of what he says, you’re going to tell Malcolm Torrent the whole story, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah, I am.’
‘Good.’
‘But I thought you might want to be somewhere close by. This is likely to finish Featherby’s career at Freely Savage even if he’s got some kind of explanation. Hamilton won’t let him survive this. So, in your capacity as head of the Freely Savage Survivors, I thought you might want to be there to pick up the pieces.’
‘I take your point but we don’t usually come and scrape them off the pavement . . . so to speak. I mean they lose their jobs and then, only if they choose, they come to us for support, advice, counselling. But we’re not ambulance chasers. And anyway, what do you mean by “some kind of explanation”? What possible explanation could he have?’
‘Well, he could say that she’s making it up, that he didn’t say anything of the sort, maybe that he didn’t even know about Carla’s written account of the assault.’
‘Why should Aileen van der Westhuizen verbal Featherby? What could she have against him?’
‘She doesn’t need to have anything against him per se. She might just be protecting her own arse.’
‘But if he didn’t tell her to bury the report, why would she?’
‘No idea. But I thought I should ask him first before I go to Malcolm Torrent with this. He’s more likely to tell us if you or someone from the Freely Savage Survivors is there, as though you’re there in your capacity as his sponsor or counsellor or something. Isn’t that how it works? And anyway, it seems the decent thing to do.’
‘It is very decent. Uncle Stephen’s a very decent man, little girl,’ Betga said to his daughter. ‘Gives lawyers a good name, if that’s possible.’
‘Problem is,’ said Maserov, ‘he’s not in today. He’s not at work. I checked with his secretary and she said he’s at home, called in sick. So . . .’
‘So you’re thinking you’re going to have to go to his house?’
‘Yeah, and I was thinking you’d come with me.’
‘Really?
‘Not in your capacity as Carla’s lawyer, in your Freely Savage Survivors capacity, given that he’s going to be eligible to join any minute now. There’s just one problem. No one at Freely Savage will give me his home address.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘No, apparently it’s firm policy and, given that I’m an enemy of Hamilton’s, no one is willing to cut me any slack. Jessica’s working on it as we speak. She’s trying to get it from Freely Savage HR in her capacity as a Torrent Industries HR executive, a professional courtesy between HR departments.’
‘Yeah, well, even if she gets his home address, there’s still one problem. I can’t leave here. I’m meant to be looking after Marietta.’
‘Oh no! Really? There’s no one else you could leave her with?’
‘No, believe me, I’ve been through this. And anyway, it would set me back weeks if not months with Carla if I dumped Marietta on to someone else when I’ve made such a big deal of wanting to help her and be back in their lives.’
‘Hmm, then we do have a problem.’
‘I could always bring her along.’
‘What? To Featherby’s house?’
‘Why not?’
‘When we tell him we’ve caught him withholding evidence?’
‘Maserov, she’s only two years old. There’s plenty of time to teach her not to withhold evidence. But there’s one other problem. I don’t have a child seat installed in my car. You’ve got two kids. You must have one.’
‘No, they’re both in Eleanor’s car.’
‘Really, what kind of a father are you, not having a child seat in your car?’ Betga asked him.
‘I could say the same to you. You’re the one trying to impress Carla with your devotion and fathering skills. You wouldn’t even be a father if it wasn’t for me. Why haven’t you got a child seat?’
‘I’ve bought one. It’s just not installed.’
‘Well, hurry up and install it.’
‘I can’t. I don’t how to. Why don’t you come over and do it? Then we can all go together.’
‘What, you, me and Marietta . . . go uninvited . . . to Featherby’s house . . . when he’s unwell, and tell him we think we’ve caught him withholding evidence and knowingly permitting his client to swear a materially deficient affidavit of documents?’
‘Yeah. What’s wrong with that?’
‘I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that, quite apart from it being highly unusual —’
‘Yes, I’ll grant you, it’s highly unusual.’
‘I don’t know how to install a child’s car seat either.’
‘Didn’t you install them in Eleanor’s car?’
‘No, my father did.’
‘Where’s your father now?’
‘He’s dead.’
‘Well, at least he lived long enough to install the child car seats in your wife’s car. What am I going to do? My father’s dead too so I’m fucked. Oh sorry, sweetie, Daddy’s trying to think outside the square and it’s hard to do completely sober. How many lawyers does it take to install a child’s car seat? That’s not a joke. I really want to know how many we’d have to call before one us knows how to do it. Could Eleanor do it?’
‘Yeah, probably, but that’s not a good idea.’
‘Maserov, this is an emergency.’
‘Betga, this is my marriage. Besides, she’s at work teaching sonnets to tomorrow’s unemployed. Wait a second, Jessica’s just texted me with Featherby’s home address. He lives in Hawthorn.’
‘Okay, let me think,’ said Betga. ‘You come over here and by the time you get here I’ll have the car seat installed.’
‘It’s got to be safe. Are you sure you’re going to be able to do it?’
‘Not at all,’ said Betga. ‘But get here as fast as you can. I often do well under pressure.’
By the time Maserov arrived at Carla’s house Betga had indeed solved the problem but not by himself. Teaching him how to shorten and lengthen the straps of his newly installed top-of-the-range child seat was Kasimir.
‘Kasimir, you remember Mr Maserov?’
‘Sure I do. How you going, Mr Maserov?’ Kasimir nodded in place of shaking hands which he was unable to do because he was gently placing Marietta in Betga’s car.
‘I’m well, thanks, Kasimir.’
‘Betga, she’s such a pretty little thing,’ said Kasimir with surprise. ‘I didn’t even know you had children.’
‘I wasn’t keeping it from you, Kasimir. I only recently found out myself.’