Traitor in the House

by Caz Finlay

  Pushing open the door, Patrick cleared his throat to announce his presence just in case it was Grace and Michael. The door was open but he had made the mistake of walking in on them once before. He wasn’t sure who had been more embarrassed by his intrusion, him or them. Not that they had reason to be. They were a happily married couple, and they were in their own office with the door closed. He remembered how they’d started apologising profusely as they scrambled to adjust their clothing, while he had put a hand over his eyes and assured them he hadn’t seen a thing. Then he had apologised sincerely afterwards, for barging in without knocking. But today the door was open, and he was sure that meant it was safe to enter.

  Patrick looked across the room and saw Grace standing there, but he didn’t recognise the man who was with her. He was much younger than her. In his twenties. Nearer to her son Jake’s age than hers. He realised it must be one of their new business associates, Luke or Danny. Michael had told him that Grace had taken a shine to them, particularly Luke. They all seemed to have. Grace and the younger man stood close together, so deep in a private conversation that they didn’t even see him enter.

  ‘Hi, Grace,’ Patrick said as he cleared his throat for the second time.

  They both looked up at him and his blood ran cold. It was their eyes that gave them away. He saw it immediately and wondered how nobody else had. It was obvious, wasn’t it?

  ‘Pat,’ Grace said with a smile as she walked over to him and put her arms around him. He returned her hug, all the while looking over her shoulder at her companion. After a few seconds Grace stepped back. ‘Pat, this is Luke Sullivan,’ she said as she looked towards the younger man. ‘He’s our new business partner.’

  Patrick eyed Luke suspiciously as he too made his way over before extending his hand. ‘It’s great to meet you, Pat,’ he said with a grin. ‘I’ve heard so much about you, I feel like I already know you.’

  Patrick shook his hand politely. He was too shocked to say any more.

  ‘Are you looking for Michael or Sean?’ Grace asked. ‘They’re not in today.’

  ‘No. I was looking for you. I need your help with Sue’s birthday. But I can come back later if you’re busy?’ Patrick replied.

  ‘I’m never too busy for you, Pat, you know that,’ she said as she squeezed his arm. ‘Luke was just going anyway.’

  ‘Yep,’ said Luke, as if sensing his cue, ‘I’ve got things to take care of.’ He got up to leave. ‘Nice to meet you, Pat, and I’ll speak to you later, Grace.’

  ‘Bye, Luke,’ Grace said with a smile.

  ‘Bye, lad,’ Patrick added. Then he watched Luke walk out of the door and frowned. If what he suspected was true, then what the hell was that kid playing at?

  Patrick Carter’s mind raced as he walked towards his car. He should probably go to Grace, or even Michael, with his suspicions, but he wanted to be sure first. His whole family had been through so much in the past few years and he didn’t want to throw another hand grenade into the mix without absolute proof, especially not considering the potential implications. He would need some evidence. The trouble was, he’d been retired for a few years and he was well out of practice at digging up information on people. Besides, it might provoke too much suspicion if he started snooping around, trying to glean information about Luke Sullivan. And not forgetting the fact that Grace was not only his daughter-in-law but she was also Grace Carter and everyone in the city worked for her, owed her or was afraid of her. Patrick shook his head. He would have to call on an old ally to help him with this, and hope that he remained discreet.

  Chapter Thirty

  Jack Murphy sat at the desk in his office and ran his hands over his shaved head. What he’d just been asked to do didn’t sit comfortably with him at all, but how could he turn down Pat Carter? The man had saved his arse more than once.

  ‘I don’t know, Pat. You realise that Luke is basically my boss now? And you want me to keep this quiet from Michael and Grace too? It’s a big ask, mate.’

  ‘I know that, Murf, but there’s no one else I can ask to do this. How long have we known each other?’

  Murf started to laugh. ‘Too long, Pat. No need to start with the emotional blackmail.’

  Patrick smiled. Murf was ten years his junior, but they had known each other for decades. Pat had first met him when he was a teenager trying to make a name for himself. They’d worked together on and off through the years, and Murf had always proven himself to be a man Pat could trust. They had always had each other’s back. When Michael had set up Cartel Securities a few years earlier, Murf had been an experienced bouncer, and he was the perfect choice to be Michael’s second in command. Since Michael and Grace had merged with Luke and Danny’s firm, the two younger men had taken over the day-to-day running of the security business and Murf had been given a cushy desk job. Patrick knew that it was Michael and Grace’s way of looking out for him as he got older.

  ‘It’s just a bit of digging, I’m not asking for any more than that.’

  ‘Why though?’ Murf asked with a frown. ‘Is there something I should know?’

  ‘No. Not yet. But can I count on you?’

  Murf sighed and shook his head. ‘Of course you can, Pat.’

  ‘Good man,’ Pat said gruffly as he stretched out his bad leg, which was aching from driving. ‘Any chance of a quick brew before I go?’

  ‘Course there is,’ Murf said. ‘Let me go and make us a couple and then you can tell me what you have planned for Sue’s big birthday. Might give me some ideas for my missus.’

  Patrick Carter leaned back in the chair and waited for Murf to return. He could already hear that his old friend had been accosted by Edna, the cleaner at Cartel Securities, and realised he’d have at least a ten-minute wait for his brew now. Edna was a talker – Michael used to joke that her tongue was afraid of the dark. Patrick smiled to himself. He didn’t mind waiting and he enjoyed being in the office, surrounded by the bustle of people. Sue was out on a shopping trip with his other daughter-in-law, Sophia, and the grandkids were at school, so the house would be empty for a few more hours yet.

  Patrick stretched out his legs and listened as his bad knee creaked in resistance. He had never been the same since his attack a few years earlier at the hands of Grace’s ex-husband, Nathan. He had never fully recovered, physically or emotionally and it was shortly afterwards that he had taken the decision to retire from that life. He glanced down at his left hand and his two missing fingers. It was funny sometimes he forgot that they were missing, and it still felt like they were there – still a part of him. Much like people whom he’d lost, he supposed.

  Patrick looked around the office and noticed the photograph on the wall of Murf with Grace and Michael. It had been taken at some business awards event they’d attended. The three of them were smiling proudly, Grace holding their trophy aloft and the two men either side of her. Patrick smiled too. Grace was a force of nature. She drew people to her as though she possessed some kind of magnetic field. He’d met few people like that in his life. Patrick had met her fifteen years ago when he’d visited her pub to pay his long overdue respects to her dead father. Back then, Grace had been a pub owner but she hadn’t been the businesswoman she was today. It had taken some encouragement from him for her to see what she was capable of, and he smiled with pride as he thought about the part he had played in making her the woman she was today. He had seen something in her from their very first meeting. She had a way about her that made people want to spill their guts, and to trust her. She had integrity too, and despite the world she lived in, she had never lost that. People admired and respected her, and she never took it for granted. She was as smart as anyone he’d ever met, with a head for business and a unique way of seeing the world. She saw opportunities where other people couldn’t and seemed to have an in-built bullshit detector.

  The more he thought about it, the more Patrick realised that she was just like her father, Pete.

  Pete Sumner had been a few years
older than Patrick. He and his best mate, Tommy, had idolised him. They followed him around like a pair of puppy dogs and when he had finally relented and allowed them to join his burgeoning firm, the three of them had become firm friends and business partners. Pete had always treated people fairly and with respect. He was a natural leader – enigmatic and full of charisma, but he was humble with it. When his wife had fallen pregnant with Grace, she had given him an ultimatum. It was her and their child, or the life of a villain. Pete chose his wife and child and never looked back. He bought the Rose and Crown pub and left his considerable empire behind. Patrick had been gutted at the time. He had loved Pete like a brother, but he had always respected his decision, and admired him for sticking to his guns. Tommy McNulty had taken Pete’s place and, not being a natural leader himself, Patrick had followed Tommy and worked for him. But Tommy had never quite had the same air about him that Pete had, and so he’d never engendered the same level of loyalty and respect. Patrick saw of lot of Pete in Grace and he adored his daughter-in-law. He hoped that Luke Sullivan wasn’t going to try and ruin the life she had built with his son. Patrick would murder the bastard himself if he had to.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Michael took off his suit jacket and hung it over the chair in the bedroom. He sat on the bed next to Grace.

  ‘So, John and DI Moss, eh?’ he said with a grin. ‘Who would have thought it? Big John and a copper?’

  ‘I know. I could hardly believe it. But I suppose it makes sense.’

  ‘Oh? How?’

  ‘Well, he knows all about her past. She doesn’t have to pretend to be someone she’s not with him. There’s a lot to be said for that. And besides, John’s quite the catch, isn’t he? I mean, if I wasn’t married to you…’

  Michael frowned at her. ‘What?’

  Grace started to laugh as she placed a hand on his cheek. ‘God, you’re so easy, Carter.’

  ‘Easy?’ he said with a grin as he pushed her down onto the bed and rolled on top of her. ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Very.’

  ‘Well, maybe I just don’t like my wife talking about other men being a good catch,’ he said, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘Especially John?’ She grinned at him.

  ‘Especially John,’ he said before kissing her.

  ‘You know I only have eyes for you, Mr Carter,’ she said as she began unbuttoning his shirt.

  ‘Hmm, you better had,’ he growled.

  Grace lay in bed with Michael’s arm draped over her stomach and his body pressed against hers.

  ‘Now that John is Leigh’s new sidekick, does this mean she no longer requires your services?’ Michael asked.

  ‘Not quite,’ Grace replied.

  ‘Oh, I see. Still needs your brains as well as your muscle, does she?’

  She ran a fingertip over his bicep. ‘Something like that. I could always offer your services. Brains and muscle in one package?’

  ‘What, you’re pimping me out now then?’ He laughed.

  She looked at him and bit her lower lip, as though giving his question serious thought. ‘On second thoughts, I have much better uses for your muscle,’ she purred.

  ‘Well, you’ll have to give me ten minutes to recover, babe. I’m not as young as I used to be,’ he said with a flash of his eyebrows.

  She kissed him on the lips. ‘Actually, I was thinking you could come with me to my meeting with the contractors tomorrow. They want to go over the renovations for the new restaurant. I was going to ask Luke, but if you don’t mind?’

  ‘Of course I will. Are you expecting trouble?’

  ‘Not trouble as such. But the foreman is a bit of a dick who thinks he can shaft me because I’m a woman. I can handle him, but it would still be nice to see his face when you walk in behind me.’ She laughed as she imagined the smug grin being wiped from Jim the smarmy foreman’s face.

  ‘Then yes, of course I’ll come with you. It will be nice to get to work with you for a change. Wasn’t that the point of us working together – so we could actually spend more time together? I feel like I’ve hardly seen you lately, between you overseeing the new restaurant and you and Luke sorting out the new security contracts.’

  ‘I know. We were supposed to be taking a step back, weren’t we?’ she said with a laugh. ‘It feels like we’re busier than ever. You can do the security contracts with Luke if you’d prefer?’

  ‘It’s not Luke I’m interested in spending more time with.’ He laughed. ‘Besides, he needs to learn the ropes from the best if we’re going to be able to hand the contracts side of the business over to him and Danny too. Anyway, I’d rather be the one overseeing the boys’ business dealings,’ he said pointedly, referring to the fact that their family were the primary importers and suppliers for drugs across Merseyside and beyond. The idea was that Jake and Connor would eventually take over the business full time, but not until they had proved they were capable of doing so without getting themselves killed or arrested. ‘You are the respectable face of our business, after all,’ he went on. ‘Can’t have you tarnishing this new image you’re creating, can we?’ he teased.

  ‘Do you regret the decisions we’ve made?’ she asked. A few months ago, Michael had been ready to pack it all in and move to the suburbs. But after they had successfully prevented a takeover bid and managed to get the boys out of jail for murder, Grace had persuaded him that they needed to keep hold of the reins for a little longer. When they did eventually retire she wanted them to be able to do so safe in the knowledge that Jake and Connor would be capable of making good decisions that would benefit the whole family. And she also wanted to make sure she and Michael had made enough money to be comfortable for the rest of their lives.

  ‘No,’ he said softly. ‘I don’t want to leave this behind if you’re not leaving with me. There’s no point in any of it if I don’t have you.’

  ‘You will always have me.’

  ‘I certainly hope so, Mrs Carter,’ he said as he rolled on top of her and smothered her with a kiss.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Joey Parnell sat on the bench in Sefton Park and waited for his employer to arrive. Up until a couple of weeks ago, they had always met in the little wine bar which JB part owned, but since things had started to heat up, he insisted on meeting in the park with his dog Archie for cover. Joey supposed JB could explain away a chance meeting, but not so much the two of them sitting together in a wine bar. And now that Joey was attracting attention for lots of different reasons, his boss couldn’t afford anyone learning about their connection.

  Joey sat back and watched two teenage girls sitting under a nearby tree. Each of them was posing for selfies on their smartphones. Despite the cold weather, they wore midriff-revealing crop-tops beneath their open padded jackets, and jeans with more holes than a string vest. He felt his dick twitch as he watched them both and wondered whether they ever took photographs of themselves when they were alone in their bedrooms.

  ‘Close your mouth, Joseph. You’re drooling,’ his boss snapped as he approached him.

  Joey frowned and sat back on the bench.

  His boss sat down and took a faded tennis ball from his pocket before throwing it for the excited spaniel, who had just been let off his lead.

  ‘Yet again, you disappoint me,’ his boss said with a shake of his head. ‘Grace Carter has been asking questions about that bloody care home again,’ he hissed. ‘I swear I should have had that place shut down when I had the chance. I thought Collins and his wife going to prison would be the end of it, but I’ve had nothing but grief. I’m starting to wish I’d never got involved with the place. I’m sure we could have found girls some other way.’

  Joey nodded. In his experience, there was always a way of identifying and exploiting vulnerable girls, particularly if you had a knack for doing so, like Joey did. He could have found plenty of girls for JB and his associates if they’d only come to him sooner, and not relied on Vince Collins, the warden of Sunnymeade, and his wife. S
imon Jones had been the go-between. Vince and his wife would identify the most vulnerable girls as they were leaving care, and provide Simon with enough information about them that he could pounce. He’d spend a few weeks or months grooming them – however long it took – before introducing them to drugs and then a life on the game. It was the perfect set-up in a lot of ways, if only Vince and his wife hadn’t been stupid enough to get caught abusing the girls themselves.

  ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ JB snapped.

  Joey shrugged. He sensed that JB was beginning to get desperate now and that meant that the power balance was shifting ever so slightly in his favour. ‘I warned her off, but she’s a stubborn cunt. I half expected it not to work. Should I move on to Plan B?’

  JB sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘I’d rather it not have come to this, but, yes. Deal with Jake Conlon and Connor Carter and make sure you do it properly.’

  ‘And what about Grace and Michael?’ Joey asked.

  ‘I’ll make sure they don’t bother you for now. And then I’ll take care of them when the time is right,’ he said, in that tone that Joey knew meant he didn’t want to discuss the matter further.

  Joey disagreed but didn’t say so. In his opinion, the entire Carter family should be taken out. He would rather make a pre-emptive strike than wait for them to make a move. They would know exactly who was behind Jake and Connor’s disappearance and would come looking for him. But despite his newfound confidence, he was still terrified of the man sitting next to him, the power he wielded and the ease with which he could destroy his life.

  ‘Any luck in finding Simon Jones, or the memory card?’ JB asked.