Cuts Both Ways
Page 34
“There, you said it. And you’re already paying me, Lauren. Lunch really isn’t necessary.”
“I’m afraid it is. After all, what are friends for?”
Lauren got back into Eva’s car and shut the door. Eva walked around to the driver’s door with her jaw clenched tight. Inside the Alfa, Lauren Jaeger smiled serenely at the world beyond the window. They drove in silence, side by side, but a million miles apart.
Epilogue
His head still hurt, but despite Dan’s advice, Mark decided he wasn’t going to see the doctor. Chances were they wouldn’t even give him an appointment anyway. The receptionist and the triage nurse seemed to guard all doctors’ appointments with their lives. Mark decided he would rather put up with the ache in his skull rather than go through the two-call rejection routine. He sat in his room, the gloom of early morning pushing through the narrow gap between his curtains. His eyes swivelled from the laptop screen to his bed. It was empty – as was usual in the mornings. Joanne hadn’t shared his bed in over twenty-four hours, but it felt like a week. For months, they’d been close, shared his bed, been together almost every single day. But he knew what he’d heard outside last night, remembered Joanne’s odd looks, and the first loveless sex he’d ever had. The thought left him aching and hollow.
She thought he wasn’t good enough for her. How many times had it been said or thought by others? And they were probably right, all of them. But then he had seen it in Joanne’s eyes and felt it in her silences. Joanne had come to believe the same. Mark couldn’t stand it.
The screen was blank after he’d deleted the last attempt. Now he tried again. His fingers rattled on the keys.
Dear Eva and Dan,
I’m fine. I’ve seen the doctor, like you said. He told me to take some paracetamol and if I got worse to go to A and E.
Sorry I didn’t come into today. I think you both know that Joanne and me aren’t together anymore, and I know you would have been very nice about it, but the truth is I can’t face that right now.
The truth is that I don’t think I’m the right person to work for you anymore. I’m your apprentice and I earn from that scheme – but I don’t think I’m ever going to graduate to become a private investigator. I know you would say that we all have different skills and personalities, but deep down I know I am not the apprentice you need.
The job has been good for me in a lot of ways. You’ve built me up and given me confidence.
Now I am confident enough to say thanks and to walk away, so I can I make way for someone else.
I don’t know who you will choose… but Joanne would probably make the best replacement of all.
For clarity – I am resigning from my apprenticeship with immediate effect. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I will always wish you all the best.
Mark
Mark read his email. He highlighted and deleted a few words and then he stared at the screen. And this time, before he had time to think twice, he clicked send. He sat there, stunned at himself. At the bottom of the screen, a small notification informed him that the email was being sent. Beside the sending message was an invitation to “Undo.” In frantic haste, Mark reached out and clicked the undo message.
Message not sent, confirmed the webmail app.
Mark turned in his chair and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still leaving, Mark knew that. But maybe not yet. There were just one or two unsolved mysteries he needed to fathom before he could leave in peace. His eyes took in his empty bed, but all he thought of was the mysterious light behind Joanne’s eyes.
***
“That lead. The one you gave me for Roberts and Bradley,” said Joanne. Her words were hesitant and careful. She mustered an apologetic smile and put the cool wine glass to her lips. The glass he had poured her. An ice-cold white wine with a crisp dry finish on the tongue. It was a wine Eva would surely have approved of.
“How is it working out?” said the man turning to face her from his computer. He was slim, clean shaven, with a neat square face which some would have called boyish. He was thirty-something and liked wearing crisp white shirts. Every time Joanne had met him, he seemed to be wearing one, well ironed, no tie.
“To be brutally honest, it really didn’t work out very well at all,” said Joanne.
The man in the white shirt, Tobias – Toby to his friends – frowned – but only briefly. “Really. I’m sorry. That’s a shame? What happened?”
“It turned out the client lied. He wasn’t trying to find his sister at all. He wanted to find the woman because she had something of worth. A list of names or something.”
“He lied? Hmmmm. Really?! That’s not good. Still, I never promised it was a good lead. I couldn’t guarantee that. It was just a lead like any other. I was too busy for it, you said your friends could do with the work, so I passed it on. Caveat emptor and all that.”
“Caveat emptor?” said Joanne.
“It means buyer beware,” said Toby, smiling. “In other words, they really should have checked out the client before taking the job. Missing persons cases can go like that. You never quite know for sure what case you’re getting.”
“No,” said Joanne.
Office hours had finished in Tobias Falk’s office. Joanne had spent most of the afternoon there, working through her online course, helping with filing, fielding calls and asking Toby questions as she needed. Toby was a modern PI, and a go-getter. He was the one who’d put her onto the fast-track crash-course idea. He’d said she had plenty of good hands-on experience, after all. She had worked in the field and knew what to do. All she lacked, he had told her, were the credentials to lay claim to the job. And so she enrolled in the course, and then came the offer of shadowing Toby in the office, of working the admin on his cases. It was only a trial. A two-way trial. The council still thought she was unwell. But already Joanne knew she’d made the right choice. Toby treated her like an adult. An equal. He didn’t just talk about her potential… he didn’t keep telling her she would be good one day. Toby had already called her an asset. And then there were perks like this. The Chinese takeaways in the office over a glass of chilled white wine. It almost felt like she was graduating already, about to create her very own version of the Eva and Dan lifestyle. She looked at Toby over the glass of wine and wondered if it would be so bad to start that life now, to let things go the way they might if she let them. Joanne’s eyes twinkled and stifled a smirk. Damn that wine.
Tobias caught the look and frowned. He sipped his own glass of white. It was hardly a macho lager. Dan would never have approved.
“What is it, Joanne?” said Toby.
“Nothing.” She changed subject before the investigator had a chance to read her mind. “But that lead…”
Tobias shifted in his chair. “Yes.”
“That client wasn’t just any old liar. It turned out he was actually working for Alex Galvan.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Galvan. Haven’t you heard of him? He’s a very bad man. A local gangster.”
Falk’s frown deepened, and he looked away, lost in thought for a moment. “I didn’t know that. Just how bad did things turn out?”
“Pretty bad,” she said, leaving the violent details behind. “But the good news is its finished.”
“And you? You didn’t get in any danger because of it?”
Joanne hesitated, before she nodded.
“Joanne,” said Toby. “I had no idea…”
“It’s okay. I’m fine… but I’d really like to know where that lead came from…”
“Why?”
“Because, Toby, they could have used you for the same reasons. But they ended up using Eva and Dan. It was a bad source for you and everyone concerned..”
Falk considered this, sipped his wine and nodded. Not for the first time, Joanne’s eyes drifted across the bare ring finger on Falk’s left hand. When she looked up, he was looking right at her.
“I would normally keep things like this absolutely confidential, b
ut seeing as you’re almost an employee…”
“Am I?” said Joanne.
It was Falk’s eyes that sparkled now. He smiled but didn’t reply.
“I can trust you, can’t I?”
“Of course you can,” said Joanne.
“Then I can tell you I got the lead from a lady I know.”
“A lady,” said Joanne.
Falk nodded. “A friend. She said she knew of a man who was looking for his sister and needed help.”
“And is she a good friend, this woman?” said Joanne, sipping her wine.
Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I think so. We’d had other dealings beyond this lead. I had no reason to disbelieve her.”
“I see,” said Joanne.
“It’s not like that, Joanne… not anymore… but she’s a very interesting lady as it happens. Very driven. Quite a lot like you, actually. I think you’d like her.”
“She sounds wonderful,” said Joanne, carefully managing her voice.
“She’s an ambitious young journalist, already making waves. Her name’s Alice Perry. Maybe I could introduce you some time. I think the two of you would get on like a house on fire.”
Tobias sipped his wine with a smile, celebrating his idea. Joanne’s lips smiled, but she could only look down into her glass. The lead came from Perry… and Perry had beaten her to Tobias Falk… Falk was still a charming prospect, but suddenly his stock had taken a tremendous hit. Even so, whatever had happened between them, he’d implied it was over. Toby wasn’t the only one to have been hit by that little vixen.
“I’d be careful with her if I were you,” said Joanne.
“Why?” said Falk, intrigued.
“She’s a journalist!” Joanne said, as if that was enough to explain it all. She was left wondering about Perry. However Falk had taken the lead – over the phone, in the pub, or between the sheets, it still came down to one thing. Perry was the one who had supplied Galvan’s lead. Toby leaned across and poured another measure of wine into her glass. Joanne looked up and caught the glint in his eye and wondered if work was the only thing he had on his mind. Either way, there was a price to be paid for Perry’s involvement. If romance was coming, Joanne intended to make him wait… at least a short while longer.
***
Jamie Blane arranged a meeting in the staff kitchen. A private meeting for two. A meeting arranged on the go, via meaningful looks. None of the other staff knew outright about him and Suzie, not yet, though he reckoned a couple of them had guessed. No harm in that. He was the boss. They couldn’t say a word either way. It was still early and dutiful Suzie was the first girl in. When she walked into the kitchen, Suzie already had that look in her eye, that colour in her cheeks… Under most circumstances, Jamie might have obliged. But he didn’t know how well this was going to be received…
“You wanted me?” she said, eyelashes working overtime.
“Always,” said Jamie. And on automatic pilot, Suzie glided towards him. “But…” He wrapped her in his arms but pulled back to keep her lips at bay.
“We won’t have to be so careful at work soon,” she said breathily. “It’ll be official, won’t it?”
“Yeah, of course. But… there might be a little delay with that.”
“A delay?” the girl tensed in his arms. “What kind of delay?”
“You know she’s a horror…” said Blane, letting his eyes say the rest”
The girl nodded, but he saw she was withholding her sympathy.
“Thing is, she’s made some kind of crazy move against me and I don’t know how the cards are going to fall, as yet.”
“An insane play?” said Suzie, shaking her head in confusion.
“She’s blackmailing me, saying I hurt her and all sorts. This could turn really nasty.”
“But that’s rubbish, isn’t it?”
“Of course it is. But that won’t stop her.”
“Then just kick her out. I’ll move in right away. I’ll stand by you.”
“I know you would, but she’s dangerous. Be ready, Suzie. Everything I promised you is going to happen. But she’s cottoned on to us, and this is her revenge.”
“Jamie… it really will happen, won’t it? I mean, us, living together?”
The man squeezed her arms. “Promise.”
Suzie nodded and leaned up to kiss him. Her hands began their usual trajectory running across his back and hips. If he let this carry on, he wouldn’t be able to resist. Suzie wanted them caught in the act, he knew that. She wanted it out in the open and didn’t care how. But that wasn’t the way. He kissed her, then gently forced her hands off him.
“Hold that thought,” he said.
“Spoilsport,” she replied.
“Go and do some work,” he said with a wink, and the girl turned away with a swish of her hips. Blane shook his head and breathed out, then took out his mobile and turned to the window, the pale light picking out the developing lines on his face. He put a hand to his brow as the call connected.
“Yeah. It’s me. Listen. I had to pull back. Lauren’s gone wild on me and this time she’s pulling out all the stops. I’m telling you, this time she’s out to destroy me for good.”
The other man said nothing. He breathed and he listened.
Jamie Blane felt the man waiting. It was like he was under a spotlight. There was nowhere to run. The time had come.
“I know what you’re thinking…” said Blane, his words faltering. “…but she’s got to go. I mean it – she’s got to go and she’s got to go now…”
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Between Two Thieves
The sixth thrilling series featuring Eva Roberts & Dan Bradley, private detectives
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CUTS BOTH WAYS
Between Two Thieves Private Investigator Crime Thriller series Book 2
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Great Leap
Copyright © Solomon Carter 2019
Solomon Carter has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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