‘I was about to give up on you. You should have been here an hour ago!’
Emilia Garanita kept her volume down, but spat the words out. She was battling a number of tight deadlines and the copy wouldn’t write itself. Especially not while she was sat in this café, watching the Polish builders flirt with the teenage mums. Sarah Bradshaw ignored her, settling down in the seat opposite and wiping her brow with her sleeve. She looked breathless, sweaty and unhappy.
‘Where have you been anyway?’ Emilia enquired, softening her tone. It had taken several weeks to cultivate Bradshaw. She would be stupid to undo all that good work by coming on too strong now.
‘Staff training,’ Sarah said, not looking up from the table. ‘Couldn’t get out of it.’
Emilia had the strong sense that the prison officer was lying to her, though as yet she wasn’t sure why. She decided not to push it – she had other fish to fry right now. Checking that the counter girls were occupied, Emilia slid a smartphone across the table. Sarah snatched it up clumsily, stowing it in her jacket pocket.
‘It’s an unregistered phone with only one number in it. So it can never come back to you. The phone number can’t be linked directly to me either.’
Sarah nodded, but said nothing.
‘And this is for you.’ Emilia slid a fat envelope across the table. ‘There’s plenty more where that came from – if you get me what I need.’
‘Thank you,’ Sarah muttered, stowing the envelope with her phone.
‘Of course, if you do get caught, we never met.’
‘Sure.’
‘Good, then don’t let me keep you,’ Emilia concluded, keen to get cracking on her Evening Standard piece. ‘After all, time is money.’
Sarah nodded awkwardly and hurried away. Emilia watched her go with a mixture of amusement and concern. There was a lot riding on this – Emilia had taken a risk jacking in her job in Southampton – and Sarah was not the most reassuring of accomplices. On the other hand, few would suspect such a gauche character, so perhaps she wasn’t such a bad choice after all. Emilia hoped she’d picked right.
If she had, and things went to plan, then her gamble was about to pay off big time.