Aimee nodded and smiled. ‘You’re always right. Bestie friends, just like when we were kids?’ Aimee held her hands out and they did their little clap routine, the same one that they used to do in the playground at school. They laughed as Aimee sipped the tea.
‘Right, I’ll grab my phone, then I really have to get to work. Looks like my lunch break has gone for today. She ran upstairs, leaving Aimee with her tea. The shed door still flapped. She placed the cup down, opened the kitchen door and began to walk down the garden. She’d wedge it shut somehow and later she’d peel the bit of roof off that was making the rest of the noise, but not in her slipper socks. She slammed the door closed and placed the small stone mushroom in front of the door.That’s better.She almost jumped back three feet as Barney ran out of the back door and started scratching and barking at the corner of her fence. She glanced across and her heart pounded as her gaze met the eye that was staring through the small hole in her fence.
She listened as her watcher ran along the path. Was it Rhys? She couldn’t be sure. She darted to the back fence and opened it, only to see the bottom of a foot turn a corner. ‘Nicole, get here now.’
‘What is it?’ Nicole said as she left the house.
‘There was someone here. I saw an eye through that gap.’ She pointed at the fence. ‘That’s what Barney has been barking at. There was someone watching me.’
‘Someone or him? He’s not going to go that easily. We should call the police.’ She went to call.
‘No, I don’t need them prying. They’ll catch him eventually. If he wants to be so sad as to watch me through a gap in the fence—’ She regained her breath. ‘No. I just want all this to go away. I don’t want my clients upset by this. Jade’s murder has already hit the news and I want to keep my name out of everything. I’m going to have a shower and I’m going to work.’
‘I think you’re wrong about the police.’
‘Well, it’s my call.’
‘He still has a hold on you, doesn’t he?’ As Aimee went to reply, Nicole stormed off, leaving the gate once again flapping back and forth in the wind.
Aimee kicked it shut, flinching as her toe hit the wood. Nicole was right. She went to call the police but stopped. ‘I hate you Rhys Keegan.’ She placed the phone back in her pocket and swore under her breath as she headed back inside, the dog yelping at her from the other side of the fence.
Forty
It wasn’t right. Gina flung off her loose black trousers which landed on the rest of her dirty laundry. As soon as she had a moment, she’d catch up on all the washing she needed to do. She had no idea when that would be. She grabbed her black jeans, they were much better for surveillance. They were comfortable and she could stretch and bend in them. They also made her look slimmer and firmer than she really was. She shook her head as she pulled them on. There was no point in trying to impress him if they couldn’t be together but for some reason, she couldn’t help herself. She had an hour to spruce up.
Her hair suited her when she wore it up. It was just long enough to fit into a small ponytail. She sprayed the sides. Her phone buzzed on top of the washing basket. She saw Briggs’s name flash up on a text message. Her heart fluttered in the way it had in the past. She was going to be working with Briggs that evening. Just him and her in the car together as they watched what was happening at the party. Jacob, O’Connor and Wyre would be close by too but the car would contain just them.
She grabbed the little bottle of perfume and squirted the smallest amount on her wrist before reading Briggs’s last message.
I’m heading back to the station. See you there. We’ll go in my car.
As she went downstairs, the phone rang. ‘Wyre, everything okay?’
‘Yes, we’re at the station. All set for later and just going over the schedule for tonight. It’s all very precise, thanks, guv.’
Gina knew she’d worked out the logistics of everything with precision. There was no room for error. She pulled the tight jumper over her head. This was not a date. She removed it and replaced it with her loose jumper, the older one that was slightly bobbly. ‘Great. I’m on my way in so we’ll run through everything one more time before we set off. I want to know that everyone is clear on what’s going to happen. Are Smith and Kapoor there?’
‘Check. They seem rather excited about this little mission. The wig actually looks good on Kapoor. They both scrub up, guv. I don’t think you’ll recognise them.’
Gina smiled. Just the type of people Swap Fun would love to have at one of their parties. Smith – run-of-the-mill, like most of the other men that took part. Kapoor, she was younger and was definitely a match for Aimee, she would definitely draw some of the attendees her way. She also knew Kapoor had a good eye for faces and she’d been studying their witnesses and suspects all afternoon. Both she and Briggs would be watching everything. Hopefully this would be an exercise in learning more about the group. She also needed to put names to Swap Fun profiles and see if any of the attendees at the last party would be at this party.
‘Just one other thing. I have managed to get an address for Derek Alton. There has been no one in all day, but I’ve instructed uniform to keep going back until we’ve reached him. And Colin Wray – we have him booked in tomorrow morning.’
‘Nice work. Catch you soon.’ As she ended the call another message from Briggs pinged up.
Gina, if you’d rather go with one of the others in your car, I can take someone else.
It would make life easier if she wasn’t with Briggs. She stroked her cat as she closed it in the kitchen, entered the alarm code into the keypad and locked up. It wasn’t much but that small amount of human contact with someone she had once been so intimate with almost made her feel alive again. Nothing would happen and she needed to show him that she wasn’t letting things get to her. She wasn’t unhinged or affected by her past. The case would not affect how she did her job and she could accept him being senior to her even though she’d seen him naked. She had a lot to prove. Maybe he did too.
Forty-One
Rain drizzled down the windscreen. It was seven thirty. Gina and Briggs were at their post. As per her planning, they were located down a winding road, beside a row of trees that separated the house in the distance and the river that trickled behind them. The road they parked on ran alongside SwapFunSarah’s drive but would not be obstructed by their guests. There was ample room for at least eight cars outside the house.
She shivered as she thought of another victim that they had found in the very same river a couple of miles downstream at Marcliffe. That of Nicoleta Iliescu, murdered by Jeff Wall. That case had been the start of her flashbacks, her nightmares and her anxiety – a trigger, reminding her of her past and the treatment she’d endured at the hands of Terry. She shook her head slightly. That case was in the past now.
She looked into her lap as she thought of Jade Ashmore, the reason they were sitting under the dark grey skies, in a car, waiting for a party to start. She had to let go of all the things she couldn’t control. The counsellor had told her that, but she hadn’t told the counsellor half of it.
‘Look, people are arriving,’ Briggs said, breaking their half hour long silence as he stared through a gap in the tall trees.
