Read Online Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Gabrielle Lord - Free Book Online

doing a deal with him because she’s just a lone, lorn widder woman. She could either be looking for a partner or she might say she wants to get out of the business altogether but she could offer him the Litchfield infrastructure, the distribution and services built up over many years as her part of the deal, and then introduce Steve as some big interstate buyer and business mate of her late lamented husband. That would give Steve the bona fides he’d need to meet Fayed.’ She paused. ‘And then, set up a meeting where Fayed is busted holding. Or get evidence on video like they did during the Royal Commission.’
    ‘That’s not going to be easy,’ said Gemma. ‘Men like him never hold now. The crims are getting better educated every day. That’s only for the lieutenants and the mules.’
    ‘Steve’s got a job ahead of him,’ said Angie. ‘But if anyone can do it, he can.’
    I hope so, thought Gemma. And I want this to be his last job. She corrected herself—his last job undercover , she added silently. Otherwise the phrase sounded too ominous.
    Angie dropped her back at her car in Riley Street a couple of blocks from the Police Centre. Gemma resisted the impulse to go back to Fayed’s fortress once more, despite the man with the binoculars. His minders wouldn’t know her car. Another time, she thought. Instead, she bought a meat pie and ate it in the car,‘ You shook me all night long ’ belting out on the radio. She regretted that pie for the rest of the day.
    •
    Several times in the afternoon she found herself in her office starting to do the same job twice, or leaving something half-finished, only to pick it up again a little later. Her work was constantly being interrupted by thoughts of Steve and Fayed. Finally, she stopped, made a brew of strong coffee and took it to the dining table, where she sat, staring through the glass doors out to sea. For a moment, she was tempted to take the rest of the day off and go down to the boatshed, but she rejected the idea. I’ve got to get my head back together again, she told herself, and do my job properly. First things first. Gemma knew she was good at switching off any worrying thoughts by taking practical action. So she spent the late afternoon busying herself with productive paper work, making sure the records were up to date with the many jobs the operatives on the road covered, entering any final results into her computer files. She made a note of the jobs that needed finalising, frowned when she saw that Louise hadn’t got much in the way of results over the last three weeks and then checked her voice mail. There was a message from Kit suggesting she come over for dinner tonight because she was cooking Gemma’s favourite lasagna, this message followed by a hurried but lecherous thank-you-for-last-night call from Steve that made her smile. This made her want to hear Steve’s voice, even if only for a moment. She dialled his mobile.
    ‘Hullo?’ A woman’s voice.
    Gemma felt her hackles rise. Who was this woman answering her man’s mobile? ‘Steve, please,’ said Gemma, her voice curt. ‘I want to speak to him.’
    There was a silence, then Gemma heard the woman’s voice. ‘Steve? It’s for you.’ The voice was dismissive. ‘Some woman.’
    Too right, honey, Gemma thought.
    ‘It’s me,’ she said to Steve’s formal and distant voice.
    ‘I’ll call you later,’ he said, still in the same impersonal tone.
    She rang off, regretting her impulse. She checked the third message.
    ‘Gemma? It’s me. Shelly. Please ring me. It’s really urgent. He’s done it again and he’s nearly killed her. Ring me. ’
    Shelly Glover, now retired from active service, as she put it, owned and managed one of the better brothels in Sydney. Gemma had met her years ago at a Neighbourhood Watch meeting. Despite the enormous financial liability of her on-again off-again boyfriend, Kosta, Shelly had paid off the house, Baroque Occasions, not to mention the