Half A Rainbow

PROLOGUE Just a mobile number. Probably a disposable burner phone. No instructions. She was trembling with nerves and excitement. This was her one chance to make a large amount of cash very quickly and she couldn’t afford to slip up. That evening, with nothing but coffee in her system, as alcohol might dull her senses and she didn’t want to be outwitted by a man who, from his public profile, she knew to be intelligent and on the ball, she wrote out and practised her script. Then she dialled. She’d expected it to go straight to voicemail, but he must have been waiting for her call. “Clyde!” he barked. She inhaled sharply. “Paula.” She spoke her false name quickly, hoping he wouldn’t hear the nervous quaver in her voice. “Just how much are we talking about?” She grinned to herself. She was enjoying this, her first ever attempt at blackmail; even more so because he had just tripped up and incriminated himself. She had already decided on a sum, not preposterously large but not so small that he would take her for an i***t, an amateur. She knew he could easily afford it as his father was a millionaire. “A hundred thousand will do nicely.”