Curious Campers

by Anne Lown

  “I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall. Even if Tom killed Ed, who the hell killed Tom?” Jenny put her empty cup on the coffee table in front of her and sat back. She just couldn’t see a connection.

  “Do you mind if I use your bathroom?”

  She glanced up. Dan was already walking towards the hallway. “Yeah, sure, at the top of the stairs.”

  While he was gone from the room, she collected the cups and took them to the kitchen, leaving them in the sink. It seemed like seconds before a knock sounded at her front door. She strode across the carpet and swung it open. Having Dan in the house seemed to give her the confidence to greet whoever it was without checking her safety first. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “I did say I’d call by.” Les stood on her doorstep. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  Jenny moved aside and allowed the man to enter. Right that moment, she was relieved she’d had the chance to move the cups from the table and hoped Dan would stay upstairs. She didn’t want Les knowing she had someone else in the house if he was currently unaware.

  “What do you want?”

  Les smiled. She no longer found his charm endearing. “Can’t I take time out to visit my favourite girl?”

  She bristled on hearing him speak. “I’m not your girl. Say what it is you came here for and leave.”

  “Now, now,” Les said.

  He held up a hand to catch some of her stray hairs in his fingers and pushed them behind her ear. That’s when she smelt it. It was the same scent she’d not been able to pinpoint at Nick’s house, the one only she could smell.

  “It was you.”

  Les stopped what he was doing and cocked his head to one side. “What was me?”

  “You hurt Nick. The bruises on his face, you hit him. Why?”

  Les shrugged. “Why not? He’s always been far too nosy. I couldn’t have him asking questions, not with his loose mouth.”

  Jenny pulled her head away from his hand. She tried to put some distance between them, not confident he wouldn’t take a swing at her, too. “Why are you here?”

  “You’ll stop asking questions, too. Know your place and do like you’re told, then there’ll be no trouble.”

  Creak.

  They both flitted their gaze towards the hallway. By the time she looked back at him, he was already staring at her with a face like thunder.

  “Is someone up there?”

  “No, of course not. You can take a peek if you like.” Jenny kept her expression neutral and hoped he’d not take her up on the offer. It was a tense few seconds that felt like they’d stretched into minutes, but eventually he relaxed and carried on.

  Les reached into his jacket pocket. “I’ve got something for you.” He drew out a mobile phone, and she could only guess what he was giving it to her for. “This is a burner. You use your Wi-Fi to make calls. Only use it to contact me, okay? No one else.”

  Jenny was reluctant to take it. “What do I need that for?”

  He smiled. “You’ve got a car. You can do some personal drop-offs. Someone will call you on this number, you’ll go to where they need you to be and then sell them some weed. Just pick them up in your car, drive around the block, do the transaction, and then drop them back where they were. It’s easy, and no one will know.”

  She stood there shaking her head. “How can I while I’m at work? Adam can’t have me nipping off mid-route, and anyway, my car will be in the mail centre car park.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” he said. “You do this in your own time. I’ll drop some product off later, and you can start right away.”

  Jenny was about to protest, but he’d anticipated that and raised his hand. She flinched, cowering a couple of steps back from him.

  What the hell? I can’t do this.

  When she didn’t say anything, he relaxed his posture and stared at her, contempt in his expression. She’d been a fool. All the red flags going off, and she’d ignored every one of them. She stayed where she was until he’d left the house, then a tear trickled down her cheek.

  “Who the crap was that?”

  Jenny brushed the tear away, not wanting Dan to see her cry. She took a couple of deep breaths before answering him. “Just someone from work, no one you know.”

  Dan was now in her living room and had taken up the same position Les had. He was staring at her. She’d turned away and could sense his gaze on her back. It didn’t seem like he was going to give up. More tears fell. Jenny’s body juddered with every sob. She’d gotten herself into a stupid position and didn’t know how to get out of it. His hand landed gently on her shoulder and squeezed.

  “I can help you. Let me try.”

  She shuffled to the sofa and sat. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve ended up in something and I don’t know how to get out of it.”

  It didn’t take much from this point for all the details to come out. It was a weight off her chest to tell someone who cared and thought it the big deal it was to her. By the end she was slumped to one side, her hands shaking in her attempts to blow her nose.

  “I need a drink.” Jenny’s mouth was so dry she had difficulty swallowing. She stood and walked to the kitchen, catching a glimpse of her swollen and mottled face in the mirror she kept on the wall just as you go in the room.

  Flip, don’t I look attractive.

  It was in that second of seeing what the strain was doing to her that she made a decision.

  I’m not giving in without a fight.

  Jenny turned tail and walked back into the living room. “I want to speak to George, but you’ll have to get him for me because Les is watching.”

  Dan nodded.

  At last, someone who’s going to help me put an end to it all.

  Chapter Thirty

  The washcloth grazed her skin. It’d been a while since she’d used one, the pieces of material having been discarded at the bottom of the airing cupboard. Getting ready to go out while she was feeling so fragile was a hard thing to do. Jenny wiped the mascara from her cheeks. She looked like a panda, and not in a good way.

  Downstairs, Dan was making arrangements. She hadn’t wanted to hear while he phoned various people. The less she knew the better, for her nerve’s sake. It’d taken some persuading on his part for her to let him formulate the plan. She was so used to people not turning up when they were supposed to that the thought of getting caught out like Ed and Tom filled her with dread. She shuddered. Their deaths must have been horrifying for them.

  A presence filled her bathroom doorway. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Nearly,” she said, “just got to put all this back on.” She swept her hand over her makeup that lay on the back of the sink.

  He nodded. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  Jenny leant both hands on the sink once he’d left the room. She listened to his footsteps on the treads, counting off each one in turn. Everything seemed so surreal. It was like her senses had been dialled up to maximum.

  You can do this, you can.

  She blew out a breath and waited for her hand to steady before touching the eyeliner pencil to just below her eyelashes. She drew a smooth line, much to her surprise. If she could turn up at the pub looking half decent, she had a chance of pulling off her part of the deal. Dan swore he’d be with her every step of the way. At this point in time, she had no other choice than to trust him. He was all she had.

  At the front door she chose a warm jacket. She tucked her hair behind her ear and gave herself a moment to compose herself. “We are going to do this, aren’t we?”

  Dan nodded. He’d been standing in the living room doorway, watching her put on the last of her things. “Yes, we are. Just follow my lead, all right?”

  Now it was her turn to nod. Jenny grabbed hold of the latch on the front door and opened it. Once outside, there was no going back. Not that she wanted to, not deep down. Her life back in order, that was the goal, and she was determined to get it.

  The pub was bustling like they expected i
t to be on the evening after a murder. She snorted. Anyone would think it was a common occurrence in the village with the way the locals turned out to gossip about it. She walked inside first, surveying the crowd to see who’d made the effort. This week the room was not heaving with all of her work colleagues. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with the likes of Riz and his karaoke machine.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Jenny pivoted on the spot and came face to face with Jason. She glanced over his shoulder, but Scott wasn’t with him. “Where is he?”

  Jason snorted. “Where’d you think? With Chantal. I think that boy’s got it bad for her.”

  The comment smarted. It reminded Jenny of just how little she’d come to mean to Scott. Not that the decline in his affections hadn’t started months before. He’d let her down back in the spring when she’d needed him the most. If he’d thought as much of her as he did Chantal he’d have rushed in and saved her. “So what are you doing here?”

  Jason shrugged. “Bored staying in on my own. Especially now Colette’s gone back to Harvey.” He nodded towards the bar, indicating where she was.

  Jenny placed a hand on his forearm. Even if he was messing her about, she still knew what it felt like to be spurned for another. “I’m sorry,” she said and tried to seem like she meant it.

  “You on a date?” Jason raised his chin in Dan’s direction.

  “No, I’m trying to find George. I thought he might be hanging around trying to find out more info. This seems to be his favourite place to do business.”

  “Over where he always sits.”

  Jenny held her hand up and pointed towards the other side of the room. Dan had been standing behind her during the whole exchange and must have heard it all but didn’t show any signs of listening. He followed her through the crowd to the far end of the tables that covered the main floor. It wasn’t until she was almost on top of the man that she spotted him.

  “I need to talk.”

  George peered up at her, his pen mid-scribble on the pad he always carried with him. “You’ll have to wait your turn. Take a seat, I won’t be long.”

  Jenny sat at the next table, and Dan pushed his way through the crowd to the bar to get them both a drink. People milled around, excitement still in the air. It probably helped to have George in the room. He seemed to be revelling in the sideways glances his presence was garnering.

  “What can I do for you?”

  The question threw Jenny. She wasn’t ready to speak to George yet, not without Dan leading the way. “Can we wait for my friend to return? He’s just gone to get some drinks.”

  Now she was making him wait, George sucked in his cheeks, his mouth pinched. “I’m a busy man, you’ll have to catch me later.”

  Damn it, where the hell are you?

  She scanned the faces in front of her, but none were the man she was searching for. “No, please wait, I have to get this off my chest.”

  George waved her over. She got up and sat at his table, facing him. Now she was on her own, her confidence, such as it was, abandoned her. Jenny glanced over her shoulder, willing Dan to come back.

  “Now then, what is it you want to say?” George held his pen at the ready and stared at her.

  She took a deep breath then exhaled. “There’s something you need to know. It’s hard for me to say, but I can’t cope with it any longer.” She closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself again. Once reopened, she returned George’s stare, but something made her flick her gaze to her left. Standing only a short way from her was Nadine. The woman glared, her body tight and rigid. She appeared ready to lunge at her. “Um, um.” Her mind went blank.

  What’s she doing here?

  “I’m sorry,” she said, “it’s about Scott. He’s been taking care of Chantal while her husband’s been missing, um, I mean dead.” Jenny shook herself. She felt a fool. So much for their planning if the man couldn’t be with her at the time she needed him to be.

  “George, isn’t it?”

  She flinched at the loud voice behind her, knocking her head onto her shoulder. She turned her body to see Dan standing over her with his hand outstretched and shaking George’s. Jenny’s muscles tightened, and she fell back onto her seat when she tried to stand. She glanced over to where Nadine had been standing, but the woman was gone.

  Did she hear what I said?

  She grabbed hold of Dan’s forearm and heaved herself to her feet. “We need to go. Now.”

  He stared at her, his face giving nothing away, but she could tell from his change of conversation he knew something was amiss.

  “Well, it was nice meeting you.”

  Jenny kept hold of his arm and led him towards the fire exit she’d left the room from with Jason on Halloween. She pushed on the bar, and the pair of them slipped outside into the night.

  “You want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “I saw her,” she said. “Nadine was staring right at me the whole time I was talking to George.”

  “And Nadine is?”

  “Les Mack’s girlfriend. She’s pretty nasty and she was listening to what I was saying.”

  Dan paced where he was, not moving far from her to keep their conversation between them. “So, what did she hear?”

  “I mentioned Scott, that’s all.”

  His arms engulfed her, drawing her in and comforting her. She lay her head against his shoulder, relieved to feel some sort of human contact that wasn’t only about sex.

  “We’ll just have to play it by ear.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Who’s that?”

  Dan spoke to a scruffy man standing in the doorway of a house she didn’t usually deliver the post to. They were in Three Stiles at the beginning of the road. Jenny looked over her shoulder, watching for something, anything that shouldn’t be there but was. She saw nothing. She turned back, and the scruffy man was still peering at her. Dan waved her forward, so she did as she was told.

  “This is Jenny. Jenny, this is Shane.” Dan’s tone of voice was firm.

  “Ah,” she said, “the alien.”

  “He’s going to help us, aren’t you, Shane?”

  Jenny waited while the pair continued to squabble. He’d still not told her what he was planning to do, but then she’d not wanted to ask. Their first idea had involved talking to George, but that had tanked pretty quick. She presumed this man was Plan B. She zoned back in to hear what was being said.

  Shane was talking, his hands gesticulating around his head. “You said I could have it, now you want to give it to the police?”

  “No,” Dan said, “we were going to examine it and when we’d finished we were going to hand it in. That was always the plan.”

  “Going to hand what in?” Jenny flitted her attention from one to the other.

  Dan sighed. “The knife that killed the dealer, we found it in the woods.”

  “You what?” Her eyes widened. “You found a murder weapon and kept it?”

  “It’s not quite that simple. We found the body before that mate of yours and removed a couple of items. You know this already, I told you at Harvey’s place.” Dan grimaced. He clearly didn’t like to admit to what they’d done.

  “Tell me again, then, I’m listening.” How the hell she’d missed that, she had no idea.

  “We built the trap to catch our mate, Maxwell, for a joke. He’s always pulling crazy stunts, so we wanted to get him back. We were here on that evening, you can ask Alex, and we checked the trap on our way back. That’s how we found the body. Shane recognised him; he’d bought grass from him in the past.”

  Jenny nodded. “Go on.”

  “We guessed he’d come to see Shane because we found my torch on the ground. We checked his pockets, and he had a bag that was definitely from Shane’s backpack. He’d been to the camp and ransacked it.” Dan spread out his hands palms upwards while his shoulders hunched. “We also found a map, but that’s it. After that it was scaring your mate off and cl
earing the camp of what we could carry.”

  She sat on a low wall that divided Alex’s home from the one next door. “When did you find the knife?”

  “Another night. We followed the map, and it was hidden in a clump of trees.”

  “Why didn’t you call it in? Or give the map to the police so they could find it?”

  “I’ll tell you why. Someone else was there, too. They snuck around and followed our progress. I’ve done tracking courses so I knew there was something not right. If we’d left it, the bundle would’ve been gone. If we’d called the police, we’d have to say how we got the map.”

  Jenny snorted. “You will anyway once you give them the knife.”

  Dan sat beside her. “Yeah, well, that’s the thing. We’re going to put the knife back and get the police to find it.” He glanced up at Shane. “That’s if I can get it off him.”

  She smiled. “I know a man who can.”

  *******

  Jason peeked out from the gap when he pulled his front door ajar. His gaze flitted from one to another of them. He didn’t appear ready for visitors.

  Jenny folded her arms and pursed her lips. “Can we come in?”

  “Um, um, I’m a bit busy tonight.”

  “Not the right answer.” She unfolded her arms, placed a hand on the door near the lock, and pushed it back against him. The door swung open to reveal him standing in his boxer shorts. “Now you’re busy.”

  She stepped inside, the other two following.

  “I’ve got someone here,” Jason said. “Go in the kitchen.”

  She raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask who. There was only one person she could think of and she had no intention of talking to her. Colette could play Jason off against Harvey if she wanted to, it was no concern of hers.

  Jason closed the kitchen door. He was clearly cold. He shivered, clasping his hands down by his legs and hunching his shoulders forward. He walked past her and grabbed his hoodie from the back of the kitchen chair, fumbling to get into it.