I hadn’t been lying to Jett when I’d told him I had leads to pursue. Maybe I’d exaggerated their quantity and quality, but that was my business. Paki Paulie was high on my agenda, but there was no point in even thinking about that till later on.

There was a fax waiting for me from Josh, my financial broker friend. I’d rung him that morning to ask for a fully detailed breakdown of Moira’s financial history, in the vague hope that there might be something of interest there. But right now, I was more concerned with the little matter Jett had just raised. I needed the answers to some questions. And I knew just where to go for them.

Chapter   25

The smell of sweat was the first thing that hit me as I walked into the club. Not stale sweat, but the honest smell of hard-working bodies. Various voices greeted me as I walked over to the ringside where two teenage girls were engaged in kicking shit out of each other in as technically perfect a way as possible. For once, I hadn’t come to fight myself, though just watching made my body yearn for release.

The man I’d come to see was standing in a line-backer’s crouch, his face distorted by yells of encouragement. “Go for it, Christine,” he was screaming. And we think we’ve come a long way from the primeval ooze, I thought, as I tapped my friend Dennis the burglar on the shoulder. He whipped round and I took a nervous step backwards.

When he saw me, he straightened up and grinned. “Hiya, Kate. Just give me a minute. Our Christine’ll be through to the semifinals in a couple of minutes.” Then he spun back to face the ring and resumed his passionate cheerleading. Nothing comes before Dennis’s family.

The bell sounded for the end of the round, and after a moment’s conferring with the judges, the referee held Christine’s gloved hand up in victory. Let’s face it, with Dennis’s reputation, there wasn’t a judge in the place who wouldn’t have given any benefit of the doubt to Christine. Not that she ever needed that, I had to admit.

Christine emerged from the ring to a bear hug from her father. Even her body protector wasn’t enough to stop her wincing at the force of his embrace. She gave me a wry grin and said, “I’ll soon be good enough to lick you, Kate.”

“On that showing, you could do it now,” I told her. I wasn’t joking either. I turned to Dennis. “She’s really got it.”

“You’re not wrong. She could go all the way, that kid. She’s well sound. Now, what can I do for you, Kate?”

“I need your brains and your body, Dennis.”