He gave me that grin then. The one that spread across his face, making him look like he wanted to laugh.
“Because I’m driving you home, that’s why.”
I started shaking my head, protesting, because I didn’t want to be a burden, but he just snorted.
“Do I need to go ask your manager?”
With a groan, I told him, and then he leaned close, tilting my chin up, so he could brush his lips over mine.
“Don’t work too hard, okay? I’ll be here when you finish.”
**********
ADAM
As I walked away from her office, I couldn’t help but want to find out everything I could about her. There was more going on than she’d ever tell me. Some kind of psychological damage, or trauma, that led to these responses of hers. Panic attacks? They could be for any number of reasons, but the way she seemed to put herself as not just low priority, but of no value at all? That was fucking with my head.
My fists were clenched, as I walked back to the café where I’d parked up. I checked the message again on my phone. Nige had responded to my last one, with a five digit code. I guessed that meant I could go to his place now. I messaged to let him know I was enroute, and headed in the direction of his house.
It wasn’t really a house. More of a fucking fortress. When I arrived outside, I waited for the camera overhead to focus on me, and then the door buzzed, letting me in. In the hallway, I punched in the number I’d memorised, on the door I’d gone through before with the others. It opened, and I stepped inside.
Nige, who was a strange little fellow, nodded at me, sitting in one of the chairs, scrolling through something on a tablet screen.
I stared at him. “Tell me you don’t do all your fucking tech mastery on a sodding tablet, mate. It’ll destroy all the mystery. I pictured a room with tons of screens, and keyboards and all kinds of whizzy shit.”
Nige snorted. “Yeah… and maybe I have one of those, but you’re not seeing it. Sit down, and I’ll give you what I’ve got.”
I sat on the chair across a small table from his.
“Hit me.”
He scrolled as he spoke, detailing the information he’d found on Jeff Clarke. I mean, he wasn’t really tracking Harvey’s phone, of course. Nor would he be tracking Lenore’s. Or even Cass’s. And I couldn’t ask him to look into what I really wanted, which was Julie. I couldn’t let any of them know about her, but I was desperate to know everything. So that I could try to fix whatever damage someone else had done to her.
I stared at him as he finished.
“You know, I still don’t get why they have me on this at all. You can do ten times what I can, and in a fraction of the time. I’m not actually doing anything.”
He leaned back, setting the tablet on his lap.
“Seems to me that if the Bennetts think you’re the guy for the job, they’re probably right. They don’t make many mistakes with this sort of stuff. Evidently your job is to keep this Clarke guy from making too many waves. We both know they have more extreme ways of making that happen, but they’re trying to avoid them. The main thing is to protect Lenore. And to do that, they will go to that extreme if they have to.”
I frowned at him for a moment. “Protect her? She doesn’t even know about it.”
He tilted his head at me. “I just narrowly avoided putting my foot in it, didn’t I?”
I leaned forward in my seat, my elbows on my knees. “Are they keeping something from me, Nige? Something that could be a problem? Or help fix this?”
He stood up, closing the cover on the tablet.
“I think if you have questions, you need to speak to the Bennetts, Adam. I’ve done what you asked me to do. And more than that, I did some things you didn’t even think of yet.”
I stood up too, thoroughly pissed off at being pushed back and forth by these bastards, and never having the whole story.
“Like what?”
He grinned. “I’ve sent you a completely fictional report on Harvey’s phone movements, based on a route toward where his body was dumped. I’ve also done the same for Lenore’s, and I’ve made it look like she’s away in the South of France at the moment. In addition to that, I’ve determined that a body should be washing ashore any day now, many miles from here. It’ll take them time to identify him, but when they do, we’ll notify you, so that you can take this forward with the father. As in, make sure he buys the story that gets spun. The police who are sympathetic to our cause, will make a decision, based on the evidence, and the manner of discovery, and let us know what to go with. Now… since I’ve done most of your job for you, why don’t you go and have a nice pint somewhere, and think about whatever the hell you were watching in your car this morning. Seems it was rather arousing.”
Fuck me. “You saw that too?”