Read Online The Catch by Tom Bale - Free Book Online Page B

creature leery of surveillance. ‘I see you’re all tarted up for a day at the office, so you’ll be on the way out now, will you?’
    Robbie could hardly deny it. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Well, tell you what then, Rob. Grab some milk while you’re gone, will ya? ’Cause some twat just woke us to say we’re clean out.’
    Cackling, he vanished beneath the blankets.
     
    ****
     
    Robbie stomped out, distracting himself with the question of where to get Dan’s car fixed. Perhaps he could enlist Jed’s help to find a suitable place. At the same time there was an alternative plan brewing – a plan that Dan wasn’t going to like one bit.
    The flat came with a parking space at the rear of the building. Robbie’s motor was a BMW 335i Coupe, bought new four years ago when his profit-share from Compton’s was still healthy enough to sustain such extravagance. Last year he’d counted on trading up to something hotter still, but Mommie Dearest had quashed that idea. It meant he’d had to take it for an MOT, which in his eyes was a humiliation.
    He got in the car, started her up and checked his look in the mirror: eyes clear and bright and clever. He smiled: Life is good . The two and a half grand he owed to various people was sitting in the safe, but now his wallet contained five hundred quid that he hadn’t expected to see again. A bonus, right?
    And Hank the Wank was probably still lying in the ditch. Fox food.
    Driving into the sunshine, Robbie felt the first proper stirring in his groin and knew that he’d done the right thing in answering Bree’s call. Sometimes you had to put everything else to one side and just listen to what the big feller in your pants was telling you.

CHAPTER 14
     
    The detective wanted to see her as soon as was convenient. Cate was about to suggest meeting him at work, until she thought of the questions that his presence might prompt from her colleagues. Instead she gave him her home address, then called the office to say she’d forgotten to mention a doctor’s appointment.
    Thomsett hadn’t supplied any further information on the phone, and Cate made her brain hurt trying to figure out what he wanted. Something related to the business with Hank O’Brien seemed the likeliest answer. Hadn’t he warned them that this wasn’t the end of the matter?
    She knew that Robbie’s actions had been underhand, and he’d certainly breached the terms of the property-management agreement with O’Brien, but Cate couldn’t see why a detective would be particularly interested. Unless Hank had dressed up his grievance in more serious terms – alleging fraud, perhaps?
    Or assault. After all, she had punched him in the face.
    She considered calling her mother, but decided that it made no sense to spill the beans – and provoke her mum’s wrath – until she knew precisely how much trouble she was in.
    Instead she began to assess her case for self-defence. The problem was that she’d need to involve Dan and Robbie as witnesses, but doing so would expose the lie that they were merely strangers who had come to her aid. Suddenly Hank would appear to be the victim of a full-blown conspiracy. And any half-decent barrister would take her apart.
    One stupid favour for her brother and now she was looking at a criminal conviction; maybe a prison term. At the very least, her career would be finished.
    Cate found herself picturing her own disgrace and ruin, while Martin and Janine frolicked gaily over sunlit meadows with their beautiful bundle of joy ...
    The doorbell cut through her misery. She opened the front door and took an involuntary step back. The detective was tall and dark-haired, with strong features, rich brown eyes and the sort of winning smile that conveyed an intelligent, easygoing manner. What with that gorgeous voice, she could imagine him presenting an upmarket property show on daytime TV: Today’s couple are from Swindon, and they have a budget of six hundred thousand pounds ...
    ‘Miss