Pay Off by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page A

with a villain like Laing. And we've got to be able to trust her completely. She's a vital part of the plan, David, but I can't find her. The sort of girl we're after doesn't walk the streets and she doesn't have to advertise. What am I going to do?'
    The question was rhetorical but David took it seriously, he shrugged and tilted his head from side to side like a budgie gazing at its reflection in a mirror. He was biting his lower lip with his uneven teeth, his face pained with concentration as he tried to help, feet now unmoving in the rushing water.
    'Don't look so serious,' I chided, and ruffled his hair. 'I'll think of something. It's going to be all right. Trust me.'
    Eventually he spoke, slowly and with a great deal of concentration. 'Tony like girls, you told me,' he said, eyes wide open, head tilted back, proud because maybe he'd found the solution.
    Tony had come to stay with us three months ago, before I'd gone down south, and he'd delighted David with his stories of life in London and his visits to the Middle East and suddenly I realized what he was getting at. 'Sometimes you amaze me!' I yelled and dragged him to his feet and hugged him hard.
    'Come on, back to the house, last one there's a cissy - and whatever you do don't blame me for your wet clothes.'
    I scooped up our shoes and socks as he rushed off and I held back to let him win. We were both out of breath and panting when we reached Shona who was leaning against the Rover, smiling and waving. 'Having fun?' she shouted.
    'Yes, yes, yes, yes,' chanted David. She helped him on 46 with his shoes and socks and we went in for tea. Afterwards, as Shona and I drove away from Shankland Hall, I watched him waving goodbye from the top of the steps, still holding hands with the nurse, and even from the end of the drive I could see he was saying 'Don't go' over and over again.
    'Sometimes he amazes me,' I said to no one in particular.
    'Who?' she asked.
    'David,' I said. 'My daft brother.'
    She drove in silence, handling the car expertly in and out of the twisting bends back towards Edinburgh.
    'I have to go back to London. Tonight,' I said and winced inwardly as her face fell.
    'No, you don't,' she answered and flicked her pony tail in annoyance. 'I meant what I said about the cracks starting to show. I've got a couple of big headaches and I need your help.'
    'Tell me,' I said, prepared to be convinced.
    'The main one concerns Crest Electronics. I'm having trouble convincing them that they should go ahead with their employee share ownership scheme. They know they can afford it, they know the benefits it'll bring, and I've trotted out all the old arguments until I'm blue in the face. They've got one foot poised over the edge, they just have to be persuaded to take the plunge. I think you'd swing the balance. Will you stay?'
    I couldn't help but smile. 'Yes, I'll stay. You knew I would.'
    'I hoped.'
    'One day,' I said. 'One day is all I can spare. Then I have to get back to London.' Tony could wait twenty-four hours.
    'Agreed,' she said, and drove me to her Edinburgh flat where we spent the night, together but apart.
    Shona and I had made the unspoken decision years ago not to get involved. Friends yes, lovers no. People who 47 knew us as a pair found it hard to believe that it was possible for us to work so closely together and to perform as well as we did as a team without going to bed.
    We'd never talked about it but it came to a head a couple of months after we'd set up Scottish Corporate Advisors, and were spending the night in a hotel in Aberdeen after helping an up-and-coming diving firm negotiate a six-fgure loan from the Clydesdale Bank.
    We'd booked separate rooms but we were so high on the adrenaline of a job well done that we spent most of the evening at Gerards, a top class restaurant, not just for the food and drink but for the sheer pleasure of each other's company, basking in the glow of mutual success. We were talking and laughing and touching as the