Read Online The Grass Tattoo (#2 - The Craig Modern Thriller Series) by Catriona King - Free Book Online Page B

flashing screen. No number, it could be the office. He hastily pushed another shirt into his case and pressed ‘answer’.
    The man’s voice wasn’t one that he recognised. The accent was so heavy that at first he didn’t understand what he’d said, so he asked him to repeat it. He understood him clearly enough the second time.
    “You bought the grass for her, Mr Leighton. And you will have it yourself soon.”
    He froze and drops of sweat formed urgently on his upper lip. Then he shouted down the phone. “Who are you?” Silence. “Leave me alone, for God’s sake. I don’t have it.”
    “You must find it, or we will find you.”
    “But it wasn't my fault.”
    “You were hired and you failed. Then you got greedy. Ten, Mr Leighton, by Saturday. This is the last call that we will make.”
    The line went dead, and Bob Leighton gasped wildly for air, his throat closing over in fear. He sat down heavily on the bed, coughing, and completely out of his depth. Who the hell were these people? What sort of people had Joanne Greer involved him with?
    He grabbed for his phone and was just about to dial her number when there was a soft knock on the door. It opened slowly inwards, revealing Kaisa and his toddler son. Ben’s tear-streaked face looked exactly how he felt.
    Kaisa ushered the boy towards his father with a sad look. “He is missing his Mama.” Oh God, so am I, Ben. He put the phone down and lifted his baby son urgently into his arms, hugging him tight, to comfort both of them. Kaisa sat down primly on the bedroom chair and stared at the chaos of clothes.
    “Are you going on other trip?”
    He answered her quietly so as not to frighten the boy. “Yes. I need to go to London for a couple of days. But when I’m back I’d like us to talk, Kaisa...about the future.”
    She smiled to herself quietly. Men often said such things to her, always talking about their future. She wasn’t being arrogant, it was just the truth. But she looked at him faux-questioningly anyway; it didn’t look good to be too confident. His quick look answered her question, and she smiled, gently extricating Ben from his father’s arms.
    “Shall we go to park, Ben? We can feed ducks. And then, when Papa is back, we can talk about the future...”
    ***
    “Thank you for coming, Mr Cabot. I know it’s rare for a Minister to volunteer for a meeting with the Commissioner.”
    Joe Watson laughed nervously and gestured the round-faced Commissioner for Public Conduct to take a seat. John Cabot looked at him curiously. He’d been surprised when Watson’s staff had called his office; politicians normally avoided him like the plague, keen to hide their bad habits from his scrutiny.
    But when he’d heard why, he’d been eager to meet. He’d gathered together the papers that he’d been preparing for months, in anticipation of just such a moment. As far as he was concerned, this meeting was four years overdue, but the retirement of one Minister often opened doors for another to come along, with fresh eyes, and hopefully more honesty. Now all of his preparation would come to fruition and with Joe Watson’s help he would expose a national fraud that would give the Chronicle column inches for months to come.
    ***
    Bob Leighton finally made the call to Joanne Greer just as he was about to board at Belfast City Airport. “You cow. My wife is dead because of you. Who the hell are involved with?”
    She hissed down the phone at him. “I warned you that London would get involved.”
    “You set some bastards on me, and now they’ve killed Irene. She had nothing to do with the deal. She didn’t even know about it. You’ve left my son without his mother. You bitch. I’m going to kill you when I get back.”
    “I think you’ll find you’d already killed her, Bob, once we paid you half a million pounds.”
    “Five hundred grand, you killed my wife for a poxy five hundred grand.”
    He was yelling as loudly as he could in an airport lounge,