Simmons was sweating profusely as he replaced the phone. An instruction from the top meant he had to tread carefully. He had to follow orders. Or else… It had been his weakness, his involvement with a woman, that had caused him to be in this unpleasant position today, he thought bitterly. How could he have known, he argued with himself, that a few meetings in a motel room, would bring so much of trouble? Photographs and videos had been sent anonymously to his mail and his phone and he had been alarmed. And the blackmail had begun. 

Simmons had a wife and three children, a small house which was mortgaged...