The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

Apple, Find My Phone, app. Parents use it to keep an eye on their kids, spouses to keep an eye on unfaithful partners.’ Wade pointed to Jess’s iPhone. ‘He’ll have your Apple I.D. and password; just change that password and he won’t be able to track you.’

Jess grinned. ‘So, it’s as easy as that. What about the blue camera light?’

‘He tried to be a little too clever. I think he wanted to adapt the tracker code so the camera started up whenever he checked in on you. But it didn’t quite work and all that happened was, the light came on at random intervals. You were never being recorded. As I said, amateurish.’

Jess almost gave him a hug, but managed to stop herself just in time. Wade tipped his head to the side and looked at her quizzically.

‘Are you all right? You look like you’ve been crying?’

‘Oh, don’t worry, I’ve been watching an old movie on TV, this afternoon. They always make me emotional.’

Wade wasn’t convinced.

‘If you say so, but look, Jess, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m always on the end of the line.’

Jess patted him on the arm. ‘Unless you’re up to your neck in dead zombies?’

Wade’s eyes widened. He checked his watch then almost ran to the front door. ‘Sorry, can’t stay. I need to get my fingers warmed up for tonight. She’ll be online in thirty minutes.’

‘Good luck with the zombie slaughter,’ Jess shouted after him.

After closing the door behind the technician, Jess went back to the kitchen and started up the security camera software. She clicked on the cloud link and opened up the first of twenty photographs that the device had taken that morning. On opening picture six, she found herself looking at a perfect, hi-res photograph of the two men that had visited her. Downloading a copy to her laptop, she printed it off and put it in the drawer of the coffee table.

‘Gotcha,’ she said with a fixed smile on her face.

Chapter 31

‘What do you mean, she didn’t fall for it? She looked frightened enough when we left her.’ Paul Austen lit a cigarette, took a deep draw and slipped the packet of cigarettes and his lighter back into his pocket.

‘She saw through it,’ Bill sighed. ‘She’s a clever kid.’

‘Saw through what? We should be offered a part in the Sopranos we were that good.’

‘Well, for a start, there’s the suits? Why didn’t you just wear jeans and a hoodie? Casual stuff, the suits were well over the top.’ Bill looked the pair up and down. ‘Cheap Asda suits, she said, she wasn’t wrong, was she?’

‘Sod off! These are from Burton’s sale, we got them for Uncle Tony’s funeral.’

‘What about the car? She said it was a right old banger.’

Paul’s cousin, Neil, looked sheepish. ‘It’s all I can afford. We couldn’t very well just go out and nick one, it was too short notice.’

Bill held up his hands in mock surrender.

‘All right, all right… She picked up on your accents too, she grew up around here, she knows you’re local.’

‘Shit,’ Paul looked for an ashtray, when he couldn’t find one, he dropped the stub of his cigarette in the sink. ‘Do you want us to pay her another visit?’

‘Not yet, but we do need to ramp up the pressure. I’m her father, she won’t go to the police, she told me that when she rang. She might be angry but she isn’t going to see her old dad in jail.’ Bill got up from the kitchen table. ‘Right, here’s part two of the plan. Her lawyer’s name is Bradley Wilson. He controls the money via a trust. He might be persuaded to turn on the taps if enough pressure is applied. She might cave in if she sees other people being dragged into it.’

Neil shook his head. ‘A lawyer? I don’t like the sound of that. He’ll know every copper in the area, and every copper in the area knows us.’

‘If you’re smart, he won’t know who you are. Mask up, make it look like an attempted mugging or something.’

Paul scratched his head. ‘But how will he know what we want if we just take his wallet and watch?’

Bill tapped his head, then pointed to his feet. ‘Up here for thinking, down there for dancing.’ He looked at each of them in turn. ‘I was hoping that Jess would cave in straight away but she hasn’t and as I said, she’s clever, so, we need to box clever too. We’ll put the squeeze on in stages. A nudge here, a hint there, let the pressure build up gradually. She’s a woman, she’ll back down if things look like getting nasty.’

Paul was still puzzled. ‘So, how do we go about it?’

‘Don’t mention money, and for God’s sake don’t mention Jess. Don’t leave any clue to your identity. It’s one thing my daughter thinking you two are locals, but as far as she knows you could be working for the Duncan brothers. She has no idea who you are. Let’s keep it that way.’

‘So, ski masks, gloves, hoodies?’

‘That’s it, but as I said, be smart. Don’t do it in broad daylight, and make sure your bloody car isn’t in sight. There could well be CCTV on the premises.’ Bill thought for a moment. ‘It might be better to follow him home and grab him when he gets there. Whichever you think is safest. Just don’t get bloody caught.’

Neil nodded. ‘Erm, could you give us a bit of cash up front?’ ‘My Universal Credit doesn’t come through until next week.’

Bill shook his head. ‘You’ll be very well looked after when she pays up, don’t worry.’

Neil looked at Paul who shrugged. ‘Okay then. We’ll have a run out later. What time does his office close?’

‘Google it,’ suggested Bill. ‘But be careful. He doesn’t work there alone. There may well be others leaving at the same time.’

Chapter 32

Jess, still angry with her father’s machinations, decided to channel the outrage she