“No kidding, Einstein.”
As he watched her whole face light up, Jack found himself excusing the fact that she was trying to grow drugs in his basement and unreasonably wishing that it was a date.
When they arrived at Aunt Millie’s house Davina wouldn’t let him in. He sat in a tatty rattan chair on the veranda and fumed. This was the worst surveillance job he had ever done. What was he supposed to do? Sit around waiting for her to throw him some scraps of information? She was treating him like the family pet. He stood up, stalked to the kitchen window and stuck his nose up against it to see what was going on.
“Sit,” Davina shouted when she saw him.
Jack growled.
“Let me in,” he said. “This is stupid.”
“Well it would be. It was your idea.” She was baking again. She stopped what she was doing to point in his direction with a flour covered knife. “You’re not getting in here until the two weeks’ notice is up. Any sane person would go away and get on with their life, but no, you decide to follow me around, hoping to see who knows what. Well, suck it up or go home.”
“I could knock down the door if I wanted to.”
“Yes.” She glared at him. “You could.”
The words ‘just you dare’ hung in the air between them and were given more weight by the fact she was holding a knife.
“If you’re not doing anything illegal why don’t you let me in?”
“Even if I was doing something illegal, having you around wouldn’t matter because you’re NOT WITH THE POLICE ANYMORE.”
Jack glared at her before throwing himself back into the old rattan chair. It strained under his weight and he heard a pinging sound as another section of the weaving gave way beneath him. It didn’t feel stable so he swapped to another old chair and put his feet up on the matching table. This wasn’t working. He needed a new plan. He needed to wrestle back control. Control he hadn’t seen since she’d hit him on the back of his head. He needed evidence that she was up to no good, something he could take to his mates, something solid. His eyes narrowed. He needed to bug the house. A slow smile curled his lips. First thing tomorrow, when Jessica Rabbit was at work, he’d do just that. Feeling much more relaxed, he put his hands behind his head and leaned back into the chair.
“Here,” Davina said as she kicked the door open.
She plonked a tray beside him. It held sandwiches and a large mug of coffee.
“Feeling guilty?” he said as he reached for it.
“I feed people.” She shrugged. “If you don’t want it, I can take it back.”
He grabbed a sandwich and took a huge bite.
“Didn’t think so,” she said.
They stared at the overgrown garden.
“So.” Davina turned towards him. “What are you going to do with the place once you get rid of me? Sell it? Live in it? Run a B+B? There are enough rooms for one, but you’d need more bathrooms.”
Jack honestly hadn’t thought about it. He shrugged.
“I haven’t thought past dealing with you, princess,” he told her.
“Well.” She leaned against the veranda post. “Good to know I consume your every thought.”
Jack grunted while he ate. She wasn’t wrong.
“It is lovely here though, isn’t it?” Davina said on a sigh. “So quiet. It must have been beautiful once.”
The late afternoon sun caught the red in her hair and made it glow. He looked past her to the shabby garden and saw it through her eyes for a second.
“It was an amazing place when I was a kid,” he told her. “People came from miles around to look at the gardens.”
“You hung out here a lot when you were a kid?”
“A fair amount. Dad liked to keep an eye on Millie.”