‘That’s why I don’t like most people. And, Tobey, I shouldn’t need to remind you that acquiring power and keeping it are not one and the same thing.’

‘I know,’ I said. I wasn’t a complete fool.

‘And, even if you are exonerated of Daniel Jeavons’ murder, when it all comes out, there’s plenty will say there’s no smoke without fire. You want my advice?’ Jon continued without waiting for confirmation. ‘Get ahead of the chatter.’

‘How d’you propose I do that?’

‘You need to change your image. You’re single and not even in a stable, long-term relationship.’

I shrugged. ‘I can’t really do much about that. My soulmate has proved to be … elusive.’

‘My arse she has,’ Jon snorted. ‘Do yourself a favour, Tobey. Tell Callie exactly how you feel about her and put a ring on it to seal the deal.’

‘Callie hates my guts.’ I didn’t even try to deny that’s who we were talking about.

‘Of course she doesn’t. She’s mad at you, sure, but a clever man like you can find a way round that,’ said Jon. ‘And think how it would play to the masses. Think of the headlines. Nought Prime Minister marries dual-heritage lawyer of renown. A lawyer whose grandfather was a respected politician. The traditional meets the modern in a new wave of change, and other such nauseating clickbait, tabloid bullshit. The press will view it as a marriage made in heaven and it’ll spike the guns of all your opponents. You’ll be seen as a representation of change, of the future. Anyone speaking against you will seem like dusty relics.’

‘Just one problem with that,’ I said. ‘Callie would never go for it.’

‘She will if you play your cards the right way,’ Jon insisted.

‘And what right way is that? I’m not exactly flavour of the month.’ Or anywhere near.

‘Listen, Tobias,’ said Jon, leaning forward. ‘Callie will have cooled down by now. She didn’t mean what she said to you. It was heat-of-the-moment stuff, though you had it coming for blackmailing her into staying on as your lawyer. Real classy move there, Durbridge.’

This bastard actually had me blushing like a schoolboy. Callie had confided in him? I took a moment or two to digest that. ‘Did she also happen to mention that afterwards I told her to recuse herself from being my lawyer?’

‘Yeah, like that was ever going to happen,’ Jon scoffed. ‘Callie cares about you, Tobey, in spite of all your shenanigans. God alone knows why. She believes that there’s still something decent deep inside you.’

‘And you know that for a fact, do you?’

‘Yes, because she told me so,’ said Jon. ‘Not in so many words, but that was the gist.’

Jon now had my full, undivided attention.

‘When did she tell you all this?’