Read Shroud of Concealment (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series) for Free Online

returned and whilst Dillon prepared and cooked a meal for them both, he told her about his phone call to Hart that morning.
    She listened in shocked disbelief.
    “You’re supposed to be a highly trained intelligence officer. The work you chose to do requires you to be invisible to the rest of the world. And yet you decide to break every rule in your own rulebook. Jake, what were you thinking? All you’ve achieved is to warn Hart and insult his intelligence with one reckless telephone call. Dunstan will be pleased. Have you told him yet?”
    “I’ll get to Havelock later.”
    “Jake, I love you to bits. But I really think you’ve blown this one. I have to deal with the likes of Charlie Hart every day of the week, and he’ll check you out and discover that you don’t exist anywhere in the records of that insurance company you sometimes use as a cover.”
    “Oh, I do exist there. My details are on the company’s personnel database, thanks to Vince Sharp. But hopefully I will have stirred him up a bit, and if there is anything to stir up, he’ll soon want to find out what’s going on. I don’t need to tell you, Issy, that people like Hart genuinely believe they’re above all the common laws. So let’s not pass judgement just yet and see what happens.”
    “You’re positively mad. It could have been anyone phoning him.”
    “But anyone didn’t. He believed that it was a senior investigator with Worldwide Art Underwriters of London and acted accordingly. Had it been Jake Dillon he’d have told me to sod off and would have threatened me with the police. Come and eat this, I’ve been wanting to try this for a while. By the way, the pasta was freshly made this afternoon. So enjoy.”
    As Issy sat down he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
    She didn’t reply, trying the pasta instead. She knew him far too well and his ploy was to take her mind off what he’d done. It wasn’t like Dillon at all. Granted he was reckless, that’s what gave him the edge on his peers and counterparts alike. But, normally, he would have a clear plan in his head, and nothing as vague as this, which worried her immensely.

    * * *

    Charlie Hart sat alone that evening, as he frequently did. Solitude was something he could cope with. Reclusiveness sometimes had its advantages. After Dillon’s call he had emailed Worldwide Art Underwriters of London to discover that they did in fact have a Mr. Bateman, but that he was currently on a case in Argentina and would not be available for another two weeks. That partly explained the withheld mobile number, but not entirely.
    He walked down through exotically landscaped gardens to the water’s edge. Boarded the luxury power cruiser he’d had delivered only a few weeks ago, and went up to the upper deck with a large gin and tonic. He felt the chilled feeling of uncertainty run through him. He had aroused someone’s interest and that was something he’d managed to avoid for many years. Whoever had phoned him was professional and had handled it very well. But what sort of professional was he and who was his employer?
    He went and lay down on his bed in the main stateroom, gazing up at the watery shadows rippling across the ceiling. He’d left the curtains pulled back to allow the moonlight into the cabin. Because suddenly he wanted to avoid total darkness for fear of stirring up feelings he’d not felt for many years. It was as if the clock had been turned back. And he’d always looked forward. To look back into the past was a definite road to disaster and he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to cope with it.
    The anxiety that he was feeling had created confusion and self-doubt in his mind and drew a veil over reality. His thoughts became a farrago until he was not even certain who he was, and a cold sweat had broken out all over his body. A moment later, almost startling himself, he snapped out of the trance-like state, got up and went straight to the bathroom. He