Back in their office, Sara sat down to type up her notes from the meeting.
“Never mind that,” Dave said. “Come with me.”
“I’d rather do this while it’s fresh in my mind,” Sara said.
“Time for a break,” Dave said and switched off the screen to Sara’s computer.
She followed him out of the door, down the corridor to the canteen. He asked for two coffees at the counter and he took them past Sara, to the fire exit. He leaned against the fire exit doors to open them, and went outside. A couple of tables and some chairs stood on the small balcony. With one foot, Dave shoved a block of wood between door and frame to stop the fire door closing and locking them both outside, and he placed the mugs on a table. He pushed a chair towards Sara and sat down. Sara eventually followed suit and sat across from him.
“Don’t take any notice of Rathbone. He’s a jumped-up arsehole,” Dave said.
“You can’t say that,” Sara said, shocked at Dave’s disrespect towards the Councillor.
“I can,” Dave said. “And when we’re alone and he pisses me off, I tell him to his face.”
Sara listened to her boss with eyes wide, her coffee forgotten. “What if he makes a complaint to Standards Committee?”
“He’s done that plenty of times,” Dave said. “The thing is, I’ve been here a long time. I know the ins and outs of Planning and it would take a long time for anyone else to come in and run the department as smoothly as I do. Having said that, I also know a few of the short-cuts and ‘work-arounds’ some of the Committee Members have been involved in and I don’t think they want anyone outside our office to know about them.”
“Got them over a barrel, have you?” Sara said. She smiled and took her first sip of coffee. “Ooh, this is better than the usual coffee.”
“Yeah,” Dave said. “Brenda makes the best coffee. Always go to Brenda. Tell her I said so.”
Sara nodded again.
Dave placed his cup on the table. “Now, in all seriousness,” he said. “This is going to be your case. You’re going to be in charge of it. In effect, you’ll be running it. I don’t have time.”
“OK,” Sara said, slowly. “I’m waiting for the punchline.”
Dave laughed. “No punchline. You were employed because my workload is overwhelming and of course, your qualifications and experience speak for themselves.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but are you sure?” Sara said.
“Yeah, pretty sure. Just don’t let arseholes like Rathbone get to you. If you’re in a meeting with anyone that behaves the way he did earlier, just place your Dictaphone on the table and set it recording. You’ll catch everything then. You can say it’s for your personal notes and will be deleted as soon as you’ve typed it up, but they’ll know their behaviour is on record. The Dictaphone is invaluable, that’s why you have one.”
A call to the office, just as Sara was preparing to leave for the day caught her by surprise. Dave didn’t pick up from his phone and she reached over the desk to pick up the receiver. “Hello? Planning,” she said.
“Oh, I wanted to speak with Mr Langtree, it’s about the Greenaway estate,” the voice said.
“Councillor Rathbone? It’s Miss Hickey, you can speak to me about the case, Mr Langtree passed it over to me,” she said.
Dave Langtree appeared at the door and watched Sara field the Councillor’s protests.
Sara looked at her boss and offered the phone to him once she realised how annoyed the Councillor was at the decision for her to take the case. Dave Langtree leaned on the door jamb, crossed his arms and shook his head. He pointed to Sara. ‘It’s your case, you deal with the arsehole,’ he mouthed.
Sara pursed her lips in frustration. She placed the receiver to her ear. “Yes, Councillor Rathbone, I’m aware that Mr Langtree is more experienced in these matters and it’s very important that things are done correctly,” she said. Taking a deep breath, she carried on. “The trouble is, Mr Langtree isn’t in the office right now and he notified Langtree’s Solicitors that I’m working on this, as he has other cases that need more experience than this one. Langtree’s Solicitors are perfectly happy with me taking the case and we’ve arranged a site visit tomorrow. You’re welcome to come along if you’d like.”
Dave Langtree stood up straight and gave Sara a double thumbs-up.
“Oh, it’s a shame you have meetings all day tomorrow, Councillor Rathbone,” Sara said. “No, of course. I’ll type up my report of the site visit and have it on your desk,” she paused. She lifted her hand in a questioning gesture at Dave Langtree.
‘A week,’ he mouthed.
“Yes, I’ll have the report ready by the end of next week,” Sara said. “Good evening, Councillor Rathbone.” She replaced the receiver, even though Dave could hear the Councillor still speaking.
“Oh well done,” he said. “You managed to hang up on him too. I’m impressed.”
“Thanks for dropping me in at the deep end,” Sara said. “Now, I’m off home, but you have some phone calls to make.”
“I do?”
“Yes. You have to phone Langtree’s Solicitors and tell them I’m taking over the case, and then you’ll have to make arrangements for a site visit for tomorrow morning. Good night.”
Sara went home, changed and checked the boiler. The water was hot and she shook her head at the puzzle. She heard her phone ring and checked her pockets.
The flash of panic when she couldn’t find it scrambled her mind for a moment.
“Silly mare, it’s in the bedroom,” she said to herself, out loud.
The phone’s vibration jiggled it off the same bedside table she’d bashed her upper arm on earlier that day and she found the phone on the floor next to a picture of her with her Mum and Gran. She picked up phone and picture and sat looking at the photo, forgetting the missed call. The phone rang again and the noise and movement in her hand startled her. She jumped and her hand jerked involuntarily, dropping both photo and phone. She scooped up the phone and answered it. “Hello?” Listening to her mother’s voice, she picked up the photo to place it back on the bedside table. She noticed a crack in the left corner of the glass and she sighed.
“No, Mum, it’s just that I dropped a photo and cracked the glass. I’ll have to vacuum to make sure there’s no glass on the carpet.”
She listened to her mother.
“Yes, I’ll do that now, so I don’t forget and I’ll be at yours straight after.”
Pictures from Pixabay