Free Each Day I Wake: A gripping psychological thriller: US Edition by Seb Kirby

the mean-spirited authoritarians that had dogged his life - now all rolled into one. It was bound to reignite the rage that he’d fought to control over so many years. An anger made all the stronger by the way Montague was keeping him waiting, pretending to be involved in the paperwork before him, a well-practiced artifice to let him know who was in control. Brogan knew that despite it all, he must not let the way he felt at this moment intervene. He wanted something from the man.
    When Montague looked up over his half-moon spectacles his attitude was dismissive. “I don’t know why I agreed to see you, Mr. Brogan. Call it a courtesy.”
    Brogan disliked the way Montague referred to him as mister . The false note struck made this into an insult, a token of how inferior Montague thought him to be. But what was required here was not anger but modesty. “I’m grateful you could find time, sir. As I told your assistant, it’s something important that’s best spoken of between the two of us.”
    Montague didn’t sound convinced. “So, out with it. You know how busy I am.”
    Brogan took his time. He knew that Montague found it hard to resist a deal. Any deal that he thought he would come out of as the winner. It was a weakness that must have served him well. “It’s about a trade, sir.”
    “What could you possibly have that I’d want to trade with you?”
    “Information. I think you know something that’s of great importance to me.”
    “Good for you. And what might you have to trade in return?”
    “Something happened in your office last week.”
    “Nothing has happened here.”
    “As far as you know.”
    Montague drummed his fingertips on the desk. “Nothing’s come through from Security. If what you’re saying is true, why hasn’t it been reported?”
    “That’s why we need to have this meeting.” Brogan paused. “And because you might want to keep this confidential, away from Security and the police.”
    Brogan knew this was a crucial moment. Montague was entitled to ask him to leave, entitled to call Brogan’s boss and ask for an explanation of why every rule in the book was being broken. Yet the look Montague gave him suggested the gamble of mentioning the police was about to pay off. If the rumors he’d been hearing were true, Montague would go a long way to avoid any form of police involvement in his business.
    Montague gave a smile that said relax , let’s take this one step at a time . “OK, Mr Brogan. Tell me what you want from me.”
    “The answer to a single question.”
    “And if I agree, you’ll tell me what happened here last week?”
    Brogan nodded. “Then we have a deal?”
    Just as in an exchange of prisoners at a deserted checkpoint could not depend on one side going first and the other agreeing to respond, they had arrived at the matter of trust. The only solution was to meet halfway.
    Brogan began. “I found someone in your office at 2 AM checking out your computer.”
    Montague showed no surprise. “And you apprehended them?”
    “They left before I could do that.”
    “And you didn’t report it and then you waited all this time before letting me know?”
    “You’ve not been the easiest man to get to see.”
    “But you saw them?”
    “No.”
    “Then what do you have that could possibly be of any value to me?”
    “I have something. Something that could allow you to identify them.”
    “So give it to me.”
    “Not before we make the trade.”
    Montague leaned forward. “What, then, do you want from me?”
    “The intruder was using your computer.”
    “And?”
    “There was an image on the screen. A photograph of a woman. Someone who’s important to me.”
    “And how am I supposed to help?”
    “I want to know her name. The one she’s using now. And where she is.”
    “Why would you expect me to know that?”
    “A beautiful woman on the computer of the CEO of one of the largest investment companies on Canary Wharf? Why else would she be there? If you