He could get more out of her then. He had the whole day to push the deal through before he met with her that evening. By Monday, he would be gone. He could execute the second part of his plan from afar. Richard would comply and hand over money of his own when James threatened to frame him for the extortion of Neena’s family. Either that or lose his job, go to prison, and never see his daughter. And Richard had more money than Neena’s family. Much more. He wasn’t about to lose that because of his wife.

‘Of course. Come over about six. The takeaway will arrive by seven.’

‘I’ll bring the wine. See you at six.’

She kissed his cheek, leaving a morsel of red lipstick on his skin. When James’ breakfast arrived, he pushed it away. He wasn’t hungry any more.

THIRTEEN

Friday 24 November, 13:22

James drove the car down the street at a crawl as he scanned the house numbers on the doors.

He glanced at the blank, brown envelope on the passenger seat with the memory stick inside. Usually he would send damning files through a private courier, like he had organised the night before when the letter was delivered to Neena’s family, detailing what he had on them and what was to come, with explicit stills from the video taped to the back of the letter to keep them quiet until the tape arrived, along with his demands. But now he was going to see the rest of the job through himself. Amber had rattled him.

It wasn’t always sex tapes. In fact, he had only orchestrated five in his career. He originally thought of them as tasteless, even for him, but when one deal fell through from his usual approach of incriminating photos and phone communications, he had decided to up his game. He had lost out on ninety thousands pounds on that job, the only time a deal had fallen through, and he refused to let it happen again.

He liked to keep his hands clean and had an army of people ready to do dark deeds for a cut of the profits or a night in his bed: private detectives, lawyers and hackers. But this one had become personal.

James stopped the car outside the quaint semi-detached house and turned off the engine. The family were more savers than spenders, which made them the perfect catch.