‘Well, maybe when our five years are up, we’ll meet properly.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You can buy me that rum in Barbados.’
Charlie made his way to the door, then stopped when their phones vibrated in unison. They looked to one another, knowing immediately what it meant. She approached him as he clicked on the red circle in the corner of the screen.
The footage appeared to have been shot inside a vehicle. Two people were present – a man who was restrained and a woman who could only be seen from behind. He appeared to be laughing and she was holding her hands over her ears until she suddenly burst into life. With her face still hidden, she plunged something long and sharp into his head and a thin jet of blood sprayed out like the first oil from a newly tapped well. Moments later, when he wasstill moving, she carved the name ‘Bruno’ into his forehead with the same sharp device. The camera focused on the name before the screen went black.
Charlie felt his fellow Minder’s hand gripping his arm as her eyes snapped to meet his. She was horrified by what she was watching, but he was not. He had to pretend.
‘You should leave,’ she said and moved to open the door. Charlie followed her but before he left, she grabbed hold of him.
‘Stay safe,’ she whispered in his ear, and hugged him tightly, only letting go when she spotted someone standing behind him.
Chapter 69
CHARLIE, LEICESTERSHIRE
Alix cleared clothes from a chest of drawers and a wardrobe rail, tossing them into her suitcase.
‘Please don’t be like this,’ Charlie said but even he recognised the apathy in his tone.
‘Who is she?’ Alix asked.
‘It’s not important.’
‘I saw you in the spa together and then you spend an hour in her bedroom and you tell me it’s “not important”?’
‘It wasn’t that long, was it?’
‘I should know because I was standing in the corridor outside waiting for my boyfriend to come out!’
‘She’s a friend of a friend.’
‘Do you think I’m an idiot?’
Charlie didn’t think that of Alix, but he did want her to stop shouting. He required space to process the implications of Bruno’s murder along with all he and the other Minder had discussed and shared.
‘She’s your DNA Match, isn’t she?’ Alix continued. ‘You actually arranged to meet her here, you two-timing bastard.’
‘My Match? Where did that come from? I don’t have a Match.’
‘This begs to differ.’ She reached inside her bag and brandished a tablet. ‘The man who claims to be someone“who doesn’t trust technology”;’ the man who doesn’t even have an email address or proper mobile phone actually hides a tablet under his sofa. The same man who reckons he’s a Turn Downer and would “rather rely on instinct than chemistry to find a partner” receives an email confirming he’s taken a testandbeen Matched.’
‘I have a Match?’ he repeated.
‘You don’t deny it then?’ yelled Alix and hurled the device at him with such ferocity that had he not batted it away with his arm, it would have hit him square in the jaw. ‘Good luck to you both, you’re welcome to one another. You could have had a bloody brilliant life with me but you’ve blown it. I deserve better than an emotionally bankrupt arsehole like you.’
Alix shut her suitcase and wheeled it to the door.
‘Let me pack my stuff and we can talk about this on the way home,’ Charlie said, but he didn’t mean it. All he wanted was to read what the email had to say.
‘Are you stupid enough to think I’m going to drive you home? The moment this door closes, you’ll never see me again.’
He didn’t say goodbye because before the door even had time to slam shut, Charlie was already picking up the device from the floor to read the email. ‘Match found,’ the subject heading read.
He took a deep breath as for the first time since becoming a Minder, something inside him began to stir.
Chapter 70
