Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing Read Online Free PDF Page B

Or difficult. Or Gemma did it herself. She was hoping both Mike and her other new operative, Louise Chapple would train up to be as good as the little ex-jock. It was the sort of work that required affability, ease with people of every sort, an understanding of human nature, a sharp flexibility for when things went arse-up, as well as the capacity to remain unseen day after day if need be, while the target is tracked.
    ‘Okay, okay,’ said Spinner. ‘We’ll see how he goes with the Wicked Black Swan.’
    Fourteen-year-old Belinda Swann was neither wicked nor black, but Spinner’s penchant for interesting nicknames for his targets overrode the facts of the matter. In this case the girl’s ex-boyfriend, now an ex-police officer as well, was facing charges of sexual intercourse with an underage person. He had requested Gemma’s aid.
    ‘She told me she was twenty,’ he’d said. ‘And I believed her. Why the hell wouldn’t I? She told me she worked for Qantas. She’s nearly as tall as me and takes a C cup. Now I find out she’s fucking fourteen ! Her father’s a superintendent and he wants my balls. You know what they’ll do in court. Dress her in short socks and pigtails. And I’ll look like a bloody child molester.’
    Gemma had given Mike Moody the Belinda Swann brief to see what he could find and Mike had sat off the Swann household every night for the last week, waiting to get something—anything—on Belinda that might help the defence. But either the girl had found renewed interest in schoolwork or, as was more likely, she’d been ‘gated’ by her overbearing father, because all he’d got so far was Belinda doing her homework, watching television and throwing leaves, sticks and dirt into her father’s swimming pool.
    ‘Mike Moody’s references are the best,’ she told Spinner.
    ‘Okay, okay,’ he said again. ‘I’m only wondering. Now tell me. What’s on your mind lately?’
    ‘Lions and scorpions and outer space calamities,’ she joked. ‘I dreamed of a black meteorite heading my way.’
    ‘That’s one way of putting it.’
    ‘What are you talking about, Spinner?’ She was sometimes irritated by his tendency towards the gnomic or scriptural or both.
    ‘Something’s troubling you. Something’s going on.’
    ‘You know I’ve got a lot on my mind at the moment,’ she said, as if he was merely stating the obvious.
    ‘That’s not what I mean.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘How long have I been working for you now?’
    ‘Spinner. I don’t need this discovery learning crap. Tell me straight.’
    ‘You can’t hide it from me. Something’s haunting you.’
    A long time later, she remembered those words and wondered if things might have gone differently if she’d told Spinner and investigated earlier.
    ‘ You are,’ she said, ‘with your fundo bullshit.’ That phrase usually stopped him in his tracks. ‘We were discussing Mike Moody.’
    ‘Like I said,’ he said after a pause, ‘maybe I’m too suspicious.’
    ‘Stay too suspicious, Spinner,’ she said, smiling. ‘It’s what makes you a great operative.’ She was about to ring off but thought of something else. ‘What about Louise? How’s she shaping up?’ Louise had joined the business a few months before Mike.
    ‘She’s good,’ he said. ‘She’s persistent. And she doesn’t stick out in a crowd. That’s a good quality to have in our game. Only time will tell if she’s suited in the long term.’
    Spinner rang off and Gemma put more coffee to perk, setting up the cups, the milk and sugar, and poured herself a big mug before switching on the computer. For a while, she couldn’t shake Spinner’s words about haunting out of her mind. It was good, she thought, to have work to take her mind off nightmares and electronic pests.
    She rang Minkie Montreau and made an appointment to visit her at her house next morning. Then she walked into her office and logged on. She typed in her password. Her heart