An Affair of the Heart

by David George Richards

  Robert undid his seat belt and turned towards her. “Do you still want my help?” he asked her.

  “You’re both mad, you know,” she said to him, staring straight ahead through the windscreen. “Both of you fighting for her heart even after the poor woman is dead. If I had the choice, I wouldn’t trust you for a second. But I don’t have the choice. All I want to do is help my Rachel. I don’t want anything to hurt her. If I had to, I’d sell my soul to the devil to protect her.” She turned to face him again. “And by having you on my side, I think maybe I have.”

  Robert glanced around the car park. “Do you want me to proceed against the MRI, or not?” he asked, not looking at her.

  “Yes,” Gina replied. “Do what you have to do. Fight him, and that woman he’s hired. Make him suffer like he’s making me suffer. We’ll soon see if he doesn’t care what people think. Drag everything out into the open. I want everybody to know what kind of a spiteful bastard he really is.”

  Robert looked at her again. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll get things moving today.”

  Gina stared him right in the eye. “But remember this, Robert McCord,” she said, sternly. “I might be a single mother, living in a council house in Northenden, with no money, and not much of a future, but I’m deadly earnest. I might have sold my soul to the devil, but if you cross me, and if Rachel gets hurt because of something you do, then I’ll make sure you go straight to hell with me. Do you understand? I’ll stick a carving knife in my handbag, and I’ll seek you out, and I’ll kill you. And don’t even think that I wouldn’t do it.”

  Gina got out of the car and slammed the door shut. It shook the car. Robert sat back in the driving seat and watched her walk across the car park towards the hospital. The outcome to this battle was going to be far more interesting than he thought.

  When he had first heard that Sarah was dead, Robert had been too shocked to take it all in. At first he had thought that Alex had murdered her. But he quickly realised that Alex was far more likely to have murdered him rather than his wife. He found out about the accident, and learned all he could. And after that, her death had slowly sank in. He would never see her again, or hear her voice, or hold her in his arms. All the best laid plans...

  And then he had heard of the lawsuit. Sarah’s heart was still beating in the chest of another young woman. And now Alex wanted it back. It was like Alex had said on the phone, that day when Sarah had died. How he said that he didn’t care about anything except getting Sarah back. But now it was just her heart that Alex wanted back. But Sarah’s heart didn’t belong to Alex; it belonged to him. And Robert McCord was going to do his very best to make sure that Alex, and the whole world, knew just that.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Media Attention

  Rachel was sitting up in bed wondering why her mother was late that morning when Gavin Smedley came in pushing his trolley full of books and magazines.

  “Hiya, Rachel! Still beating, is it?” he said with a smile.

  “You’ve got a nerve,” Rachel replied. Gavin asked the same cheeky question each morning. She could report him, of course, but she knew that he was only trying to cheer her up. She often wondered what bad taste remarks he made to other patients. “What have you brought me this morning?” she asked him. “And it better be good, or I’ll tell my mother you tried to take advantage of me while I was sleeping.”

  “Oh, God! She’ll flatten me!” Gavin replied, and quickly began to root through the books and magazines on his trolley. “How about this weeks Hello Magazine?”

  “Nah! I just get jealous of all the posh houses and pretty women.”

  Gavin put the magazine down and held up a book instead. “How about a thriller by Tom Clancy? Or John Grisham?”

  “What? With my poor, weak heart?” she said, putting a hand to her chest and pretending to be shocked.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot! We wouldn’t want our star celebrity keeling over.” He tossed the book back on the pile and rooted around for another.

  “What do you mean?” Rachel asked with sudden interest. “Why am I a star celebrity?”

  “Because of the court case,” Gavin replied, holding up another book for her to see. “Danielle Steel?”

  Rachel waved it aside. “Never mind that,” she said. “What court case? What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t you know?” Gavin asked. He seemed surprised and began to look slightly worried. “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, then.”

  “Well, you have! So now you had better tell me everything, or you’ll be wearing that trolley, not pushing it!”

  Gavin thought for a moment before quickly going to the door and glancing about. Coming back to Rachel, he reached under his coat for the rolled up newspaper he always kept jammed into his back pocket. He quickly hid it under the bedclothes and then grabbed his trolley and began to pull it back out the door. “I’ll pick it up at lunch time. But if anybody finds it, you didn’t get it from me, okay?” were his parting words.

  Rachel waited until the door was closed before fishing out the newspaper. She unrolled it, and the headline caused her heart to miss a beat.

  ‘MAN SEEKS RETURN OF DEAD WIFE’S HEART,’ it said. There were two pictures underneath. Just faces. One was of a beautiful woman with a radiant smile. ‘Sarah Williams,’ it said underneath. It looked like a portrait photo. The other picture was of a thin faced, unshaven, dark haired man. His hand was outstretched towards the camera, causing the photo to be a bit lopsided, and not very clear. What was clear in the photograph were the man’s eyes. They looked very sad. ‘Alex Williams,’ it said underneath the picture. Further down was another, smaller, headline. ‘Woman Facing Second Op.’ She saw her name, and that of Dr Jones. Her heart began to beat faster as she read the whole of the front page. She had just turned to page three where the story continued, when the door began to open, and she quickly stuffed the newspaper under the sheets.

  Nurse Kaye came into the room. She smiled at Rachel and went to check the monitor at the side of her bed. “Your heart’s beating rather fast,” she said. “Are you feeling alright?”

  “Yes,” Rachel replied in a shaky voice. She could feel her heart beating like mad, and knew that Nurse Kaye could see how fast it was beating on the monitor. She wanted desperately to calm it down. She forced herself to relax, to not give herself away.

  “Are you sure you’re alright?” Nurse Kaye asked her again. She looked concerned. “It’s just that your heart rate went up such a lot so quickly, I wondered if something had upset you.”

  Rachel swallowed. “No, I’m fine,” she said more firmly. “I hadn’t noticed the time, that’s all, and I wondered where my mother had got to.”

  Nurse Kaye looked at her watch. “Yes, she is a bit late. But don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll be along in a minute.”

  “Anyway, what else could upset me, sitting here all on my own?” Rachel dared to ask.

  Nurse Kaye paused. “Nothing, as far as I know,” she replied, slowly.

  Rachel was growing calmer. Her heartbeat was almost back to normal again. She felt back in control. “Well then,” she said. “I’ll just have to wait here worrying about my mother until she finally decides to turn up.”

  Nurse Kaye plumped up Rachel’s pillow, and tidied her bed. For a moment, Rachel thought the nurse would find the newspaper and her heart beat began to increase again. But this time Nurse Kaye didn’t notice as she quickly finished fussing with the bed, and headed towards the door.

  “I’ll see where your mother’s got to,” she said, with a smile as she left.

  Rachel took a deep breath. She made sure that she was completely calm before retrieving the crumpled newspaper. Slowly, carefully, keeping herself calm all the time, she read the whole story. Then she read it again.

  Finally, Rachel turned back to the front page and stared intently at the picture of Sarah Williams. There she was at last. The woman whose heart she now had. Instinctively, her hand went to her chest, and she fel
t the heart beating so strongly inside her. Where were you going, she thought to herself. What were you thinking? She sighed. ‘Killed in a car accident,’ the paper had said. ‘Died instantly.’ It was all so sad.

  She turned to the picture of the husband. He looked so sad, he must have loved her such a lot. Why else would he want the heart back? Maybe she was being silly, but somehow she thought that she would feel something when she looked at his picture, that her heart would beat faster. But there was no response from her heart at all. It was as if it felt nothing.

  When Gina finally arrived, Rachel had already hidden the paper back under the sheets again. She said nothing to her mother about what she had learned, even though she dearly wanted to. She said nothing because Rachel knew that her mother simply did not want her to worry about what was going on. She wanted to protect her and shield her from it all. And Rachel knew that all this would be a great strain on her mother too, and the last thing she needed right now was the extra worry that Rachel might know what was going on, and that it might effect, or hinder, her recovery. So instead they talked and chatted about all the usual things. How she was feeling, and how they were treating her. Did she need anything, or was there anything she wanted from home? And so on, and so on.

  Throughout her visit, Gina never gave any hint about what was going on, or how it was affecting her. Rachel was terribly proud of her. She wanted to hug her and kiss her. Instead she could only smile, and like her mother, keep her feelings hidden inside.

  Chapter Eighteen

  A Conflict of Interest

  “I thought you said that they’d settle?” Alex said over the phone.

  “They were going to,” Helen replied. “I had a meeting scheduled with them tomorrow afternoon. They’ve cancelled it.”

  “So what went wrong?”

  “It seems that our victim has managed to hire a solicitor who thinks he can win. He’s some American. I think you know him, Alex.”

  “McCord!” Alex ground out the name, cursing under his breath. Helen could almost imagine Alex kicking the furniture at the other end of the phone.

  “His first move was to sue the MRI for ten million pounds,” Helen went on. “He’s scared them to death. There’s no way that they’ll settle out of court now.”

  “How could they afford to pay him?” Alex demanded. “You said they had no money!”

  “The rumour is that he’s doing it for free. A regular knight in shining armour. The media will just love him.”

  Helen heard Alex cursing on the other end of the phone again. She smiled. “You forgot to tell me about him, didn’t you Alex?” she said, softly. “You forgot to mention that he worked for you, and that you parted company on the same day that your wife died. That was very naughty of you, Alex. But never mind. You have my full attention now. I’m listening.”

  There was a pause, and then Alex told her about the affair. “He was also using my wife to embezzle money from my company,” he went on. “Sarah was a director. It was her signatures on the cheques, and the transfer documents. About two million pounds has gone missing. I traced it to an account in the name of Mrs Sarah McCord, but it had already been transferred. It was done by computer from a bank in Chicago. They said they gave a cashier’s cheque to the woman who called herself Mrs McCord. I’ve no idea who she was, and the money has disappeared. I’ve got people trying to trace it, but they’ve come up with nothing so far.”

  “I take it that you’ve got no evidence against McCord apart from the use of his name?”

  “No, only Sarah is implicated. I found chequebooks and credit cards in her room with the same ridiculous name. But I know he must have put her up to it.”

  “Thank you, Alex. That’s most interesting. Late, but interesting none the less.”

  “Can you get rid of him?” Alex asked her.

  “Yes, very easily. It’s a conflict of interest. All I have to do is report his affair with your wife–”

  “No!” Alex’s denial was firm. “I don’t want my wife’s affair with this man to become known! Have you got that? Find another way!”

  “I don’t like having my hands tied, Alex.”

  “I said find another way!”

  Helen sighed. “I’ll see what I can come up with. But on the other hand,” she added, thoughtfully. “It might make the case more interesting. A walk over would have been too easy. At least now the media will have something to report on.”

  “The media! Animals!” Alex snarled. “I’ve got them camped outside my house already!”

  “I told you that you’d be the villain. The pressure isn’t getting to you already, is it, Alex?”

  “Don’t play games! Just do what I’m paying you for! And as for McCord, maybe you’re right. If he wants to get involved, then let him! It’ll keep him occupied while my people look for more evidence against him. In the meantime, press for an early trial. Who have you got in mind for QC?”

  “Sir Richard Hargreaves,” Helen replied. “He’s got a good reputation and he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty.”

  “Good! Keep me up to date.” The phone went dead.

  Helen put down her phone and sat back in her large leather chair. So, she thought to herself, Alex’s perfect little wife was having an affair. Maybe not so perfect after all. And there was a large amount of money missing, too. This might all be very useful later. Especially now that her lover and husband were about to play tug of war with her heart. How sweet. How so very, very sweet. She smiled. This was getting better by the hour.

  Chapter Nineteen

  A New Player

  Robert McCord looked around at the offices of Brian Morgan QC. They weren’t very big, and they weren’t very tidy.

  “Come in and sit down!” Brian said brightly, clearing the pile of case briefs from the other chair and dumping them on his desk.

  “You have some work, then?” Robert said, indicating the pile of briefs, each neatly tied with a black cord. He stood in front of the chair, his hands in his pockets, as if deciding whether to sit down or not. He also carried a brief. It was tucked under his left arm.

  “Yes, I’m fairly busy,” Brian replied, glancing at the brief under his visitors arm. He sat down and waited for Robert to say something else. Instead, he remained silent, standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking around the office.

  Brian couldn’t stand the uneasy silence for long. “Is there something you wanted, Mr McCord?” he asked, rather hopefully.

  Robert looked at him. “Are these what you call your ‘chambers?’” he asked with a smile.

  Brian relaxed a little. “Yes, I’m afraid so,” he said. “It’s all I can afford at the moment. But with luck, and a few more cases, I hope to move into a better building a little nearer to the courts.”

  Robert seemed to make up his mind. He took his hands out of his pockets and sat down, placing the brief carefully on the desk between him and Brian Morgan, and dragging the chair closer to the desk so that he could lean on it. Staring intently at the surprised QC, he began talking quickly.

  “I have a proposition for you,” he began. “You’re a recently qualified QC. You’ve had a few cases, and a few successes. You’re reasonably smart, but more to the point, you’re poor, and you’re cheap. I have a job that’s just right for you. But the catch is, you’ll be doing it for free.”

  “Hang on a minute!” Brian interrupted. “Slow down, now!”

  Robert became silent. He leaned his chin on his hands, staring at Brian across the desk, eyebrows raised.

  Brian cleared his throat. “First off,” he said. “I have a number of clients–”

  “Yes,” Robert interrupted. “Who haven’t paid you.”

  Brian paused. “I charge the going rate,” he said.

  “The client can’t pay you,” Robert countered. “And you know that, because it’s virtually impossible for you not to know who I am, and who I represent.”

  “I can’t possibly work for no money.”

  “If yo
u win this case, you’ll never have to worry about money again.”

  Brian thought about it. He shook his head. “Look at this place!” he said. “It’s costing me a fortune! And you’re absolutely right! Over half of my clients haven’t paid me yet. I’d love to take this case, I really would! I sleep at night dreaming of such cases. But I’m in debt up to my ears! I need money, Mr McCord.” He rubbed his fingers and thumb together as if to emphasise the need. “Money, money, money!”

  Robert sat back in his chair. “Okay,” he said. “I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll pay you up to the end of this week. By then, I promise you that all your forgetful clients will have paid up.”

  “And how will you do that?”

  “Never mind that, that’s my business,” Robert waved the problem aside. “But once all your debts are paid, you work for free. Okay?”

  Brian folded his arms. “Alright, then,” he said, sitting back. “If you can get them to pay up when I’ve had no luck trying all this time, then you’ve got a deal!”

  Robert grinned as he reached out and slid the brief across the desk towards Brian. “Welcome aboard, Brian!” he said. “I promise you this is going to be a highly educational time in your career, not necessarily all perfectly legal mind you, but educational none the less!”

  Chapter Twenty

  The Next Instalment

  Rachel waited anxiously for Gavin Smedley. He seemed to take ages to get here. When he finally did arrive, and pushed his trolley through the door, Rachel thought that her heart monitor was going to give her away again.

  “Where’ve you been?” she almost snapped.

  “Hold your horses! What do you think I am, a bloody spy, or something?” Gavin replied. He winked at her as he closed the door quickly behind him. “You’re going to get me in trouble, you are!” he added.