Part One
"I'll be over there if you need me"
0-0-0
"I've sent my report in with Zaf, Adam." Jo said over the phone. "Do you have any plans for this evening? A few of us are going to the George if you want to join us."
"No thanks Jo, Wes's been asking all week when I'll bring him to the new playground. I said we'd go tonight."
"Fair enough. See you in the morning then."
0-0-0
The playground was packed with kids clambering up multicoloured climbing frames, slithering down the metal slides and generally making lots of noise. Wes looked eagerly up at his dad.
"I'll be over there is you need me," Adam said.
Wes joined the chaotic mob of children, disappearing from sight for several seconds and then reappearing at the top of the slide. He waved enthusiastically at Adam and slid down at great speed, landing in a heap on the tarmac. Adam was standing in an instant but Wes was quicker. He bounded to his feet, grinned over at his dad and gave a reassuring wave to show he was fine. He then proceeded to monkey up the frame a second time and do the same again.
Adam sat down. He felt his heart beat return to normal slowly.
"First time here?"
A woman sitting beside him on the bench was smiling kindly at him.
"Yes," Adam replied. The woman nodded understandingly.
"I wouldn't worry," she said. "They all do that the first time. Sean did too."
Here she gestured at a surly looking curly-haired boy who was swinging on the monkey bars.
"He nearly gave me a heart attack when he came off at the end. I was sure he'd broken something."
Adam looked back at the boy. He was probably seven or eight. The woman beside him didn't look old enough to be his mother.
"Is he yours?" he asked, more to satisfy curiosity than anything else.
"He's my nephew," the woman replied distractedly. "I live with his mother."
Sean was refusing to let another boy have a go on the bars. The boy kicked Sean and Sean lashed out in response. The woman leapt to her feet.
"Excuse me," she said to Adam, and jogged over to break up the fight. The other boy's mother was approaching the boys as well, looking seriously displeased. She said something to the first woman who said something back and then they both said something to their respective kids and something to each other again. A small row broke out which culminated in the other woman leaving the park with her child in tow and Sean's aunt returning to her seat.
"Racist cow," she muttered as she settled back into her seat. "I've had a run in with her before. Has a serious problem with Irish people."
"Oh, are you Irish?" Adam asked. She looked at him to see if he was being serious.
"Does the accent not give it away?"
"Your accent isn't strong, I couldn't tell." That was a lie. He could tell. But it wasn't strong, that much was true. She also looked distinctly familiar. Was she a contact?
"I'm Peter, by the way. Peter Ellis." he said, offering her his hand. She shook it.
"May Sullivan."
The name didn't ring any bells. Adam gestured towards Sean.
"And that's Sean Sullivan." he said.
"Yes," she said lightly. "McGuire-Sullivan"
McGuire, McGuire…The name struck a note of recognition. He suddenly remembered why. May was Gabrielle McGuire's partner, and one half of the couple Jo and Malcolm were keeping an eye on. Which would explain why she looked so familiar.
"You been here often since it opened?" He asked casually, never a man to let an opportunity pass.
"Everyday, more or less. Elle, that's Sean's mum, likes some peace when she comes in from work so we've been coming here for the last couple of weeks. Just an hour or two when he has his homework done. Sean loves it." Here she looked across at the sullen boy and sighed softly. "Even if he doesn't look like he does."
"Wes seems to like it too" Adam said. Wes was swinging down a fireman's pole as he spoke. A small girl stood at the bottom of the pole, waiting for him to land. They chattered briefly and then raced over to the climbing frame together. May and Adam watched them quietly for a moment.
"Back home, this playground probably wouldn't have lasted the weekend," May said pensively.
Adam looked at her. "Why not?"
"Place would have been torched," she said. "Kind of sad, don't you think."
Adam nodded. "Probably would have happened where I grew up too. If we'd had a playground."
"Where are you from?"
"Liverpool. You?"
"Lucan. It's near Dublin."
"I know" he said.
May looked surprised. "You do?"
"Yeah, I was there once. Nice place. Good pub on the corner. What's it called?"
"O'Shaughlins?"
Adam nodded. Pubs were always a good bet in an Irish town. "That could have been it. I was quite drunk. Stag night you know."
"I used to work there. When I was still in school. How long ago was the stag?"
She looked about twenty-two. "A few years ago now," he said. "Sorry if I gave you a hard time."
May laughed. "You wouldn't have been the first" she said. Then she stood up to leave.
"It's getting dark," she commented, somewhat unnecessarily. "Sean and I'd better go. Come on Sean!" This she shouted across the park. Sean scowled heavier than before, if that was possible, and plodded over to where May was standing with his coat.
"It was nice talking to you," Adam said to her, as Sean put his arms into his coat sleeves.
"You too," May said, and smiled. "Will you be here again tomorrow?"
"Yes, hopefully. You?"
"All things well and good, yes, we will," May smiled again before taking Sean's hand and leading him from the park.
Adam waited until May's tailcoats had whipped out of sight before he took out his phone and called Jo.
"Adam, is everything all right?"
"Jo, you'll never guess who I just ran into…"
0-0-0
"I can't believe it," Jo exclaimed the next morning when Adam stepped into the meeting room. She was on video call. "I wring my neck trying to get in with Gabrielle, and you casually open a line with her girlfriend in a playground. It's so typical!"
Harry stepped through doorway just after Adam.
"Typical? I'd rather call it astounding good luck. There's been a transfer of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds to another new bank account, this one in May Sullivan's name. Again, the money was paid in small sums from a multitude of different ghost companies, making it virtually untraceable. Malcolm, have you fixed the problem of Gabrielle's hairdryers rendering our bugs useless?"
Malcolm cleared his throat uneasily. "No, but we've tapped the land-line so we should be able to hear what's going on over the phone's at least."
"So, we still have no lead on what they're planning to do with the money, but as the amount in their accounts now totals roughly half a million pounds we can assume it's big and that they'll move soon," said Adam. "Jo?"
"I haven't had much luck getting through to Gabrielle. She's stand-offish and sarcastic."
"So Adam's encounter may be the opportunity we've been waiting for to find out what the hell Gabrielle and May are up to. Jo, for the moment you stick with Gabrielle. Your first appointment is in half an hour I believe?"
Jo nodded bitterly.
"You'd better get going. Traffic's a nightmare on that side of the city."
Jo signed off.
"Adam, May works in a café near where they live, which is conveniently near where you live. Malcolm will fill you in on your legend. You may need to rework your back story a bit, it was originally Tom's."
"Isn't re-using a legend a bit risky?" Ruth asked. "What if somebody recognises it or something?"
"We do it all the time. A different name, a different face, nobody will know, it's amazing how obtuse people can be." Harry replied. "Especially the Irish."
Zaf, Adam and Ruth opened their mouths in unison to speak.
"Sorry," Harry said in a quiet apologetic tone before they could start. "You know I didn't mean that."
0-0-0
"…Phone, button camera, expensive wallet with lots of money, we need that back later by the way, good tailored suit, nice coat, fountain pen, yes, it's really a pen, business cards with your office and mobile numbers on them and that's about it. Peter Ellis, your legend, is a hotshot investment banker; you're up to speed on quantitative analysis I take it? Anything else you can think of?" Malcolm looked quizzically at Colin. "A laptop maybe? Is Peter the type to take a working break?"
"No, I don't think so. A workaholic Peter wouldn't bring his kid to the park would he? No, our Peter's a hard-working yet well-balanced and devoted parent. Nice guy in my opinion."
"Nearly finished?" Adam asked. "Only my coffee break starts in fifteen minutes."
Malcolm inhaled sharply. "We've forgotten the watch," he said. "Rolex, do you think?"
"There's no time" Adam replied. "If she asks I'll tell her it's in for repairs or something. See you later."
0-0-0
"Yes, I'd like a large black coffee please," Adam told the busty waitress at the till. "And I'll have it here." It cost three pounds ten pence, daylight robbery thought Adam. He paid with a fifty pound note, it being the smallest note he had in his wallet.
There was no sign of May around. He took a seat and a minute or so later a waiter brought his coffee over. Adam sipped it, and picked up a newspaper which someone had left on the table by his. He glanced through the headlines and skimmed through the articles, not really paying any attention to what they said. He sipped his coffee again and looked around for May, but there was still no sign. He stayed in the café until his coffee was almost cold. Maybe she wasn't working?
His phone rang. It was Malcolm. Adam stood to leave. He left a generous tip and thanked the waitress on his way out. Mentally, he cursed his fruitless morning. It hadn't even been nice coffee.
Once outside he answered Malcolm's call. "What happened? Where is she?"
"It seems she went to Gabrielle's hairdressing saloon. Jo let us know as soon as she could."
"What's she doing there?"
"Err, getting her hair cut."
"And how come we didn't know about this before now?" Adam asked, irritation thinly veiled in his voice..
"It was a last minute arrangement. She picked her nephew up from school, he's sick, and went to Gabrielle's with him. According to Jo one of the hairdressers insisted that she stay and have her hair trimmed. That's it. Oh, we've turned a corner of your apartment into a banker's office. Hope you don't mind."
Adam sighed. "Not really. I'm coming back to the Grid. Have one of the team outside the hairdresser's follow the subject when she leaves will you? I want to know where she's going."
0-0-0
"Now sweetheart, you look much neater."
Deborah, the hairdresser, had cut a few inches off May's hair and given her layers to make it lighter but as far as Jo could tell there was no real difference to the original style. However, May smiled and thanked Deborah before offering her some money which she wouldn't take. May then walked over to Gabrielle, who was on the phone, and waited for her to finish. Gabrielle ignored her and May hung around awkwardly until Gabrielle finally hung up.
"Couldn't you tell I was busy!" she snapped. May blinked, taken aback.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I wanted to tell you I was going."
"Fine. Bye. Thank you for dropping Sean over."
Still, May hesitated. "See you later," she said eventually.
Gabrielle was already dialling another number. She glanced up at May, nodded, and then the person on the other end of the line picked up. May lingered in the doorframe a moment longer before slowly leaving the saloon.
"She's a pretty girl, isn't she?"
Deborah stood beside Jo, wiping her hands on a towel. Jo jumped; she'd been so absorbed watching May and Gabrielle that she hadn't noticed Deborah walk up beside her until she spoke. Deborah apparently took her jump as a sign of guilt.
"Don't think I didn't notice you watching her as I cut her hair," she said. "She's a sweet kid. And she is pretty, in an awkward sort of way. I'd advise you not to go there though. Gabrielle is not the forgiving type."
Jo blushed, "I wasn't watching her."
Deborah raised a sceptical eyebrow. Jo continued.
"Well, I was watching her, but only to see how you cut her hair. Not like you said. I mean, I have a boyfriend."
Deborah tilted her head to the side. "Fair enough," she said, totally unconvinced, and walked away.
As soon as she was gone, Jo sent a brief text to the Grid.
Need a bf to walk me home after work.
About 30 seconds later she got a text back from Zaf.
Id luv 2, bt im washing my hair. Colin wud bt his mum sed hes grounded & Malcolm in luv with www. Will Harry do?
Jo exhaled quietly.
Don't be a dick Zaf, find me someone.
Two minutes later she got another message from him.
Alf aka Bob King will b dere. U no Bob 2 see?
Yes, she did. He was a squishy bloke, late twenties, middling height and he had great eyes, though no personality to speak of. They'd met on an op some weeks previously.
Thanks Zaf, she wrote back, before deleting all their correspondence from her phone.
0-0-0
"She's in the park Adam," Ruth called over to Adam.
"Are you sure it's her?"
"You tell me."
Adam hastily swallowed the bite of sandwich he was chewing on and strode over to Ruth's desk. It was May alright. She was sitting by the playground.
"I need a lift," he said as grabbed his coat and wallet.
"I'll take you." Zaf volunteered immediately.
Adam was already half-way to the pods when Zaf called after him.
"Adam, can I have that sandwich you're leaving on your desk?"
Ruth thumped him with a stack of files.
"Move!" she said. Zaf jumped up, laughing, and grabbed his cars keys.
"Come on Adam," he said. "Let's go play on the swings."
0-0-0
AN: This is my first fiction in about a year. Encouragement, comments and suggestions are very welcome. I already have the second part written and I may actually post the entire story as a one-shot at some point in the future, but I'd like to get some feedback on each part first. Stuff like this works, that doesn't and you said "said" too often (31 times in this chapter, 33 if you count the AN!) is great. In fact, anything at all is great.
So please review. Or at the very least, try part even two if you didn't like part one very much.
Thanks, Galleena.