Each Day I Wake: A gripping psychological thriller: US Edition by Seb Kirby Read Free Book Online Page A

you?”
    He lowered his voice. “They thought they’d lost you. You’ve have, well, memory problems.”
    I bridled at the thought that they would think of me this way. But I knew I should expect nothing less. The newspaper game is ruthless and competitive. The world moves on each day in its own precarious and often baffling way. The need to observe, comment on and analyze that unpredictable perpetual motion couldn’t wait for any one individual, however important or otherwise they may take themselves to be.
    It wasn’t going to do me any good to play the invalid in the eyes of my colleagues, I knew that. The ride is too wild and unfathomable to carry passengers. If, despite what Hamilton said, I was ever going to re-establish myself in my old job, I had to rule out such perceptions.
    I took the first step along that path. “I’m OK now. Wanting to get back.”
    He grunted. I hoped that meant he believed me.
    I went over in my mind what I’d learned from reading the articles that Janet had collected. It was precious little. I knew it was going to be difficult to hold my own in talking with Jason but I had to try.
    “Does Hamilton know you’re calling me?”
    He coughed. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. And anyway, why wouldn’t I want to talk with an old friend and colleague?”
    “You’ve made progress while I’ve been away?”
    “Well, we’re still not there, to be honest, Tom. And not just because we’ve been without you. It’s gone quiet all over. No one’s saying a thing. We still haven’t nailed Montague.”
    In my mind’s eye, I was scanning through the articles Janet saved for me while trying to make it sound to Blair that I knew this for real. “Montague’s still standing?”
    “Worse than that, he’s expanding. OAM has just completed a successful takeover of Wild Cherry. Cost them eleven million. It’s like Montague’s sticking up two fingers and saying how could I mastermind a takeover that’s been through this level of due diligence if I’m involved in anything shady? And he has a point. How was he able to get away with the takeover if he’s skimming off from the company like we think he is? Must be working Albert Emery, that pet auditor of his, twenty-four-seven.”
    I was delving back into what I knew from the press cuttings again. Albert Emery, small, round-spectacled, respectable looking. “Emery?”
    Blair nodded. “Indeed. We’re sure he’s still cooking the books but once again there’s a wall of silence. Everyone’s too scared to speak because of Quinn.”
    I’d picked up nothing on anyone of this name from Janet’s articles. “Quinn? I need a refresher.”
    Jason Blair took a little too long to reply, meaning that he needed time to hide his surprise at my question, but what he said was helpful. “You remember. Mike Quinn. Son of East End hard man Charlie Quinn. Quinn senior wanted something better than he himself ever had and opened doors in the City for his offspring. The problem was that Quinn junior didn’t want to shake off the strong arm habits of his father and now has a reputation as an enforcer who collects with ruthlessness and violence. The word is out that Mike Quinn and Tyrone Montague are hand in glove but proof of wrongdoing is hard to find.”
    I passed off the lapse as best I could. “Of course.”
    “We’ve been receiving threats from Quinn and his men. There are those who blame him for what happened to you. But no one’s talking. There’s a climate of fear, even in the office.”
    Another reason, perhaps, why Hamilton had no interest in my rejoining the team. That could mean he wanted to protect me. Or that he’d been frightened.
    I struggled to build a picture of Quinn in my mind. If he’d been behind my accident, surely I would be able to visualize the man. But nothing came. “But there’s no evidence that he was involved in what happened to me?”
    “Nothing that definite. Seems you’re the only witness.”
    “Place