P I Honeytrap Read Free Page B

see it. Someone who had genuine reasons to use her services, pushing this poor young woman to think it was the same for her. Hayley might not have much time for men personally, but she wasn’t about to help all women to lose the faith. ‘Your husband is as in love with you as ever.’
    Mrs Smith looked incredulous. As if her prospective personal investigator had just deliberately thrown a wheel as an exaggerated way to bring a runaway vehicle to a halt. It made Hayley want to laugh. ‘I want you to wait until your anniversary before you do anything. It is my belief that your crazy-in-love – with you –’ she hastened to add ‘– husband, has been planning a secret anniversary surprise. To show how much he adores you.’
    Mrs Smith blinked and wiped her eyes. That stopped the tears. ‘You think so?’
    Hayley could see the idea certainly appealed. ‘It would certainly fit the profile. More than any other explanation.’
    ‘You really think so?’
    Clearly her prospective client – soon to be ex-client – was having a little trouble grasping the notion that she wasn’t about to be dumped on. ‘I do.’ Hayley saw the wry humour in her words.
    ‘I never thought of that.’
    ‘You were too close. It needs a bit of distance to weigh the facts. Sometimes it takes a while to get to know a man enough to know if you can really trust them.’ Hayley knew what she was talking about. You generally couldn’t.
    ‘I’ve jumped the gun, haven’t I?’ Mrs Smith, or whatever her real name was, looked a little sheepish.
    Hayley presumed, having shone a new light on the situation, the young woman was starting to see a better explanation for all the strange little circumstances. One which certainly seemed to please her more than the old one. If it was true.
    She wasn’t totally won over yet. ‘But what if you’re wrong?’
    ‘Then you just come right back down to see me, honey, and we’ll nail the lying, cheating, two-timing rat.’ That did it.
    Mrs Smith couldn’t get out of there quickly enough. She looked affronted to think anybody might refer to her darling husband in such derogatory terms. Hayley knew she wouldn’t be seeing her again. Not over this marriage anyway. At least for a while.
    Her own cynicism struck her. As did the fact that she had just talked herself out of another big investigation fee. But what the hell; she had enough clients not to worry about that. And enough sorry-arsed cheaters out there to stop the well ever running dry.
    Hayley threw the paperwork into the tray, ready for her assistant to file away in the morning. She had a whole heap of things to get through before she went out on her honeytrap assignment tonight, not least of which was familiarising herself with the next two-timing bastard she was about to fuck. Up.

Chapter Two
    ‘We all set up?’ Hayley spoke to her field assistant, Paolo, in the front of the unmarked van.
    ‘The cameras are in place in the guy’s favourite hotel, boss,’ he reported. ‘I’ve paid the receptionist off so she’ll check him into the room we’ve bugged, if he takes the bait.’
    ‘The client says her husband told her he’s working late on a contract. She thinks otherwise. Sounds like we’re good to go.’
    Hayley’s team had already worked a couple of weeks on the Tanner case. She recalled what she knew. Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. Husband a big-shot advertising executive. Married eight years. Two kids. It was always the kids she had most sympathy for, but the wives needed evidence to secure their divorce settlement. And, she guessed, they liked the revenge too. Rather than their philandering husbands getting one over on them, they got one over on him. She appreciated the justice in that.
    ‘The surveillance photographs of the guy meeting women in a bar, weren’t enough then?’ Paolo asked.
    ‘His wife says he’ll talk his way out of it. Get any divorce judge to believe he was doing it for business. As in having dinner with a