Fair Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

there, which is great, and they get to play sports every day and they’ve got an amazing swimming pool. They do lots of day trips to the lakes and he’s learning to sail. It sounds great, Dad.’
    Shepherd smiled. ‘It does, doesn’t it? I might see if I can book myself in for a few months.’
    ‘It’s for kids, Dad.’
    ‘I was joking,’ Shepherd said. ‘Are you serious about this? It’s not just a whim?’
    ‘I want to do it, Dad. Really.’
    ‘OK,’ said Shepherd. ‘I tell you what, you get me the details of their website and I’ll take a look.’
    Liam’s face brightened. ‘And then I can go?’
    Shepherd wagged a finger at him. ‘Then we’ll talk about it.’
    ‘But you’re not saying no?’
    ‘I’m saying I’ll look at the website and we’ll talk about it.’ They were a hundred yards from the school entrance and he slowed the SUV. ‘Do you want me to drop you here?’
    ‘Why, can’t you take me to the gates?’
    ‘I thought teenagers didn’t want to be seen with their parents.’
    ‘Dad, this is a BMW X3. Do you think I don’t want to be seen in a cool car like this?’
    Charlotte Button didn’t call Shepherd for a week. He’d been working full-time on the Northern Ireland job for almost six months so he was due plenty of time off, and she was also well aware how mentally exhausting it was to work undercover. Shepherd spent his days lounging around the house and simply enjoying the fact that he was Dan Shepherd and not Matt Tanner, Real IRA enforcer, and that he didn’t have to be constantly thinking about what he was going to say next. He ran for at least an hour a day, usually across nearby fields, wearing his old army boots and carrying a rucksack filled with bricks wrapped in newspaper, and he worked on the garden, mowing the lawn, cutting the hedges and weeding the flowerbeds, and finally got around to repairing a leak in the roof of the garage.
    He made a point of taking Liam to school every day, and picking him up every afternoon. He stood on the touchline and cheered with the rest of the parents as Liam’s team lost 3–1 on Saturday and he took him shopping for new clothes and school shoes and ended up buying a pair of football boots that cost more than any footwear that Shepherd had ever owned.
    He kicked a football around with Liam in the garden, and had Sunday lunch with Liam’s grandparents at their home, and helped him with his homework. He enjoyed being a father again and not having to deal with the stress of constantly having to pretend to be someone else, but he was still happy to hear Button’s voice because that meant that she had a job for him.
    ‘Everything OK?’ she asked.
    ‘All good,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘And Liam’s OK?’
    ‘He’s thinking about boarding school. I’d like to pick your brains sometime. Your daughter is a boarder, right?’
    ‘And loves it,’ said Button. ‘How about you pop down to London in a day or two.’
    ‘For a chat about boarding schools or because you’ve got something for me to do?’
    Button laughed. ‘Cabin fever already? I thought you wanted time off.’
    ‘I do. Of course I do.’
    ‘I know you, Spider. You need to work or you start howling at the moon.’
    ‘Is that a yes, then?’
    ‘There’s an assignment that needs your particular skills and I’d like to run it by you. But it’s not pressing. Whenever you’re ready to get back in the saddle is just fine. You’ve racked up a stack of overtime and days in lieu over the past year.’
    ‘That’s the way it goes,’ said Shepherd. ‘I can hardly tell the bad guys I’ve got to clock off, can I?’
    ‘I’ve had a word with the powers-that-be and they’re happy to pay you for the extra days off, if you want. It’ll be a nice windfall. Or you can take the days.’
    ‘It’s a nice change not to have to be worrying about overtime and whether or not I’ll be paid for working on my off days.’
    ‘That’s the War against Terror for you,’ said Button.