WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (57 page)

“You
potted the white! Playing left-handed, bro?” Steve joked.

“Very
funny,” Dylan said.

John
strolled over to me.  “So what’s next for you, Jenna?”

I
sipped my drink and relaxed into my seat.  “I’ll have to sort out the
funeral, the house and this place, and then I’ll have to look for a job. 
I doubt my old boss would take me back.”

Kerry
glanced up from her sketch.  “What happened?”

“Alan
caused problems.  I had to leave to save face.”

Kate
shouted from the next room.  “You could set up on your own, Jen. 
There’s a big market for celebration cakes these days.”

I
twirled my hair around my fingers.  That wasn’t a bad idea.  In fact,
I loved it!  “Hey!  We could do it together, Kate.”

“I
suppose I am officially unemployed now.  We’ll talk later.”

I
looked at John.  “What about you?”

“I’ll
take whatever job I can get.”

“Know
anything about the scrap business?”

“Say
what?”

“Well,
you seemed to know something about metal when you rummaged through that
box.  I’ll either have to sell this place, or see if someone can make a go
of it. 
Legally
.”

John
exchanged an excited glance with Kerry.  “Sounds great.  We’ll talk
it over.  Thanks.”

I
leaned against
the doorframe between the pool room and back office, warming my hands on my
coffee mug. 

“Jenna,”
Kate said.

I
turned to her.  “Yeah?”

“There’s
a list here of all the people who were ripped off.”

“Oh,
I dread to think how much money people lost.”

“It’s
small amounts each time.  Less noticeable that way.  But still, I’m
sure it hit some people hard.”  She nodded toward the main room, toward
Kerry and John.  “What should I do with it?”

“Save
it to disk.”  I didn’t know how, but I hoped to one day pay these people
back.  “If I think about it now, I’ll get a headache.”  My body may
have recovered a little, but my brain felt like a bag of marbles scraping
against each other.

Kate
opened a drawer and pulled out a disk.  “No problem.”

 Pool
balls clattered in the main room.

“Beat
that!”  Steve said, then bent down to take another shot. 

“Keep
your voice down,” Dylan said, then walked over to the window and looked
outside.  “All clear.”

I
stared around the office and spotted the metal ‘Bugz remover’ wall sign. 
“We should bin that.”  I ran my finger along the spines of books and files
on the shelf.  “What about these?  Should we get rid of them?”

Kate
shook her head.  “Most of that stuff’s for the scrap business. 
Everything related to the software is digital, except those documents you
signed, but they’re stashed at Alan’s mum’s house.”

“How
do you know?”

“It
slipped out during an argument.  You’ll have to hunt for them, but at
least the police won’t find them.”  She paused.  “Oh, there is one
thing.  Can you see a purple file over there?”

I
set my mug down and scanned the shelves.  “Yes.”

“I
think that’s a report on you.  Joe was reading it.”

I
took the file and held it up.  “This?”

“That’s
the one.”

I
opened it.  Printed as a heading on the first page were the words: 

Surveillance
report.

“Jeez!”
I yelped, then flipped to the second page.  It was a typed document
outlining my movements, and Alan’s, starting about five weeks ago: 

2:50pm.
Jenna drives home and unloads groceries.

4:55pm.
Alan leaves house with black briefcase.  Kicks the wall and drives off.

4:57pm.
Jenna gets into car.  She’s crying and talking on the phone.  She
turns left out of town...

Uneasiness
washed over me as I skimmed the pages.  Not every day was accounted for,
but someone had been watching Alan and me at least three days a week.  I
searched for a name, a clue, or just a hint as to who had gathered the
information.  It had been typed.  No use at all.  But as I
turned to the last page, I spotted something.  “What’s this?” I muttered
to myself.  Below a coffee ring stain were faint indents, like someone had
written on a piece of paper while resting on this one.  I looked at
Kate.  “Got a pencil?”

She
rummaged through a drawer and threw one to me.

I
caught it and began shading soft strokes over the indents.  The
hand-written words, which ran off the page at an angle, came to life:

‘£80
gas bill.  Rent due Friday.  Need to pay for...’

The
actual words gave up little as to their author, but whoever had written them
must have had their hands on this file at some point, or at least the paper
before it was printed on.  I studied the writing, rapt, then showed it to
Kate.  “Know who wrote this?”

She
leaned forward, but then shook her head. 

“It
could have been one of Geordie’s men I suppose.  Or Geordie himself,” I
said, thinking aloud. 
Or perhaps the spy.
  Either way, it was
as useless as a fingerprint that wasn’t logged on a database for comparison. 
I closed the file.  I had other things to think about, like getting the
hell out of this place before someone found us.  “I’d better take this
with me.” 

“Our
taxi’s here,” John announced from the pool room.

I
turned and stood in the doorway.  “Take care.  We’ll have to meet up
again soon.”

Kerry
waved.  She lifted Elliot and made her way to the door.  He clung to
her neck, and nestled his little head on her shoulder.  “Sleeps, Mummy,”
he said, dreamily.

“This
is Kerry’s mum’s new address if you want to keep in touch,” John said,
scribbling it on the same paper that Elliot and Kerry had been sketching
cartoon characters on.  “Well, I guess this is goodbye.“

I
waved them off.  “We’ll speak soon.  Bye, Elliot.”

“Take
care, mate,” Dylan and Steve said at the same time.

They
walked out and closed the door.

Dylan’s
mood perked up the moment John left the building.  Pool banter bounced
between him and Steve.  They were back to their normal, competitive ‘wind
each other up’ modes.

“You
still pissed at John?” I asked.

Dylan
shook his head.  “It’s hard to hold a grudge against the person who saved
my life.  I haven’t forgotten, but I have forgiven.”

I
heard something smash in the office, then Kate called for me.

I
toddled back in on my crutches.  “Everything okay?”

“More
than okay.”  She beamed.  “I’m done.”

“Really?” 
I brightened inside.

“Yes. 
Website down.  Disks and backup wiped.  Hard drive destroyed. 
I’ve replaced it with the spare one so it looks less suspicious.”  She
brushed her palms against each other.  “Bugz Remover 5.0 is in the grave
where it should be.  Well, as much of it as I can bury.”

“Kate’s
done,” I shouted.  If it wasn’t for my weak leg I’d have leaped into the
air. 

The
room erupted into cheers.

“Fantastic!”
Steve whooped.

“Brilliant,”
Dylan said.

Kate
put the destroyed hard drive into a plastic bag along with the metal wall sign,
and carried them out.  I tucked the purple file under my arm and followed
her.  She raced over to Steve and claimed another free hug.  “It’s
over.  I’ve done all I can.”

Dylan
dumped the pool cue and rushed toward me.  He took the file from under my
arm and placed it on the drinks table.  Then he lifted me into the air and
twirled me around.  I let my crutches clatter to the floor, leaned my head
back and laughed.  Then he set me on my feet and kissed me.  The plug
on my tension had been pulled, draining me in one continuous slurp.  

Steve
put his arm around Kate.  “We’ll meet you at the car.”  Smiling and
chatting, they left the room.

To
me, the world had started turning again after a long aggravating stall. 
Perhaps there would be moments when I’d pause to think,
will it happen
today?  Will the police piece things together and knock on my door?
 But
by the same token, I could spend every day wondering if I’d get run over by a
bus.

Dylan
slipped both arms around my waist.  His seductive blue eyes never left
mine.  “Time to go home and celebrate,” he said.  “Bottle of
bubbly...”

I
nodded.  “I’ll feed you cheese and you can feed me chocolate.  Watch
a film in bed.”

Dylan’s
eyes, and then his hands travelled down my body.  A wicked smile played
across his face, taking my breath away.  He gave me a hug and kissed my
neck.

Warmth
shimmered between our bodies.  I couldn’t wait to get naked, let my mind
float with the moment and rock each other to a climax. 

While
we moved toward the door, he swept his lips up to my ear lobe and teasingly
nibbled.  “I’m dying to slip you out of those clothes.” 

Footsteps
pounded up the stairs.  Steve shouted, “Not in this office, you won’t! 
Get a bloody move on.”

Dylan
tipped his head back and laughed.  “You’ve just gotta love Steve!”

“Sure
do,” I whispered.  “Let’s get to your place and pick this up there.” 
I knew I should go to Kate’s house - where I’d told the police I would be - but
it would take something beyond remarkable to stop me from going straight to
Dylan’s.

Dylan
handed me the crutches and headed to the door.

“Oh,
hold on a sec,” I said, then doubled back to the table.  I snatched up the
purple file and the paper Kerry and Elliot had been drawing on.

“Let
me help.”

“I
can manage.”  I struggled to grip both my right crutch and the papers, but
was determined not to let a simple task beat me.  “It’s Kerry’s mum’s
address.  I nearly forgot about it.” 

“Great,”
Dylan mumbled.  “Wouldn’t want to lose touch now, would we?”

I
didn’t comment.  Instead, while hobbling to the door, I glanced at the
paper of the cartoon sketch and laughed.  Kerry’s drawing skills were
questionable.  I wasn’t entirely sure if the cartoon had been sketched by
her hand or Elliot’s, or if an inked up spider had crawled across the
page.  The only thing I did know, was that Kerry had penned the words,
‘This is a pineapple,’ where Elliot had failed to write legible words. 
 
This
was next to the address that John had scribbled. 

I
looked up.  Something bothered me.

Dylan,
holding the door open, met my eyes.  “Come on.”

As
I crossed the room, my brain caught up with my eyes.  A sudden sharp
terror pressed down on my chest and the thrill of ending the mayhem faded.
 
I stopped walking and let my crutches bang to the floor.  “Oh...crap.”
 
How blind have I been?

Dylan
cocked his head.  “What’s up?”

I
swallowed hard.  “I think that...”  I opened the purple file and
flicked to the last page.  On recognising the handwriting, the little
hairs on the back of my neck raised.  “It’s the same.”  I glanced
up.  The truth made me shrivel inside.  “It’s the bloody same!”

Dylan
let the door swing shut and hurried to my side.  “What are you talking
about?”

I
thrust the file up to his face, along with the sketch.  I did not need to
re-compare.  I knew.  “Compare the handwriting.  Th-the notes I
shaded over in pencil with the writing next to that sketch.”

Dylan’s
eyes shifted between the two papers.  Some maddening seconds later, he
nodded.  “I’d say they’re pretty much identical.”

I
inhaled a sharp breath, tried to convince myself I’d got it all wrong. 
There had to be a good explanation. 

Dylan,
who’d been sharp most of the week, wasn’t connecting the points.

“We’ve
found the spy.”  I looked up.  Reality slammed me twice when Kate’s
earlier words popped into my mind -
Geordie’s not-so-little-surprise
. 
“Oh, hell!  We have to go.  No time.  I’ll explain on the way.”

S
irens warbled in
the distance as we searched the neighbourhood for Kerry’s mum’s house.  My
heart beat fast.  Damn fast. “Dylan, hurry!” I said, praying we weren’t
too late.   

Dylan
drove in a speedy, twisting manner, throwing me against the door on the next
bend.  Tyres squealed and CD’s clattered inside the glove compartment.

While
houses blurred past, my mind rewound.  I recalled our time boarded inside
the retreat, when Dylan and I had plotted to double-cross Kerry and John by
pretending we’d hide and then jump out to help them.  And all this time,
we were the ones double-crossed.

I’d
been so wrong when I told Kate it did not matter who the spy was.  It
mattered a lot now I knew who it was.  Everything we’d been through held
us together.  We’d become a strong team.  I thought we were
friends.  But no matter how cut up I felt about being betrayed, Kerry,
John and Elliot were in grave danger.  I couldn’t allow any more lives to
get destroyed. 

The
fallout had to stop.  Now.

Kate
gripped the headrest of my seat from behind.  She pulled herself
forward.  “It’s one of these streets.  I’m sure.”

I
checked every street sign against the address John had written on Elliot’s
sketching paper, while fiddling with my clothes, fretting.  “There it
is.”  I pointed.  
Finally.
  “Turn in here.”

Dylan
swerved onto the street. 

“Okay,
everyone,” I said, the paper crumpling in my hands.  “Keep your eyes
peeled for number ten.”

Kate
pointed to the right.  “That one.”

Dylan
skidded to a halt outside a terraced house with a small front garden, and bumped
up the kerb.  We piled out of the car and slammed the doors shut. 
Anger bubbled inside me as I limped behind the others who bolted along the
path.  I felt so betrayed.

Dylan
fought with the latch on the garden gate, trying to open it.

A
female said, “Excuse me.  Can I help you?”

My
shoulder rammed into Kate while I turned toward the voice.

A
dark-haired woman, in her late forties, stood up eyes wide with clothes and
newspapers in her hands.

“Weird,”
Kate muttered.

“Hi,”
I said to the lady, snatching a breath.  

“Are
you Kerry’s mum?” Dylan asked.  He opened the gate and we piled into the
garden.  “Do we have the right house?”

“Yes,”
she replied, eyeing us with caution.  “Who are you?”

“I
have to speak with her,” I said, wobbling on the borderline between rage and
panic.  “It’s really important.  Is Kerry here?”

“We’re
friends,” Kate added, both impressing and surprising me with her calm
tone.  Then she told her our names.

Kerry’s
mum bent down to pick something else up off the lawn.  She bundled the
items in her arms and showed us indoors. “I’m not sure she’s in the mood for
company right now, but... go through there.  I’ll let her know you’re
here.”  She directed us into the lounge.

The
sound of running water, and clattering like metal hitting tile, drifted in from
behind a closed door at the end of the room.

Impatient,
I took a few strides toward the door.  “Is she in there?  The
kitchen?”

 “No,”
her mum answered.  “Wait in here and I’ll get her.”  She walked back
into the hall.

I
stood in the middle of the room, wringing my hands together.

“She’s
upstairs,” Dylan said, rubbing my back.  “She’s alive.”

I
had to see that for myself.

Kerry’s
mum dashed up the stairs to call for her, then entered the lounge again. 
“She’ll be down in a minute.  What’s this about?  It’s really not a
good time.”  

“No
shit,” Steve said.

She
emptied her hands of the pile of clothes and pursed her lips at him.  “And
please, keep your voices down.  We’re trying to get Elliot to sleep.”

Elliot.
  My heart
slowed down a gear.  He was here.  Safe.

The
stairs creaked.  Footsteps.

I
stiffened, held my breath and faced the doorway.  Time seemed to freeze
during the few seconds it took for the footsteps to descend to the entrance
hall.

Kerry
stepped into the lounge.  “Hey, guys.  Everything okay?”

“Oh,
thank goodness.”  I sagged and took a breath, not knowing whether to laugh
first, cry, or ram my fist down her throat. 

She
was in one piece and breathing.  I let relief wash over me for a few
seconds, just gaping at her, and then anger flooded in.  My cheeks burned
while studying her expression, irritated by its friendliness and
innocence.  What a complete lie.  Her expression was a mask of
bullshit.  Now that I’d seen she was alive, I wanted an explanation. 
I raised my head and mouthed ‘I know it’s you.’

I
registered the horror on Kerry’s face immediately.  Her eyes blazed with
shock and shifted across the room.  “Mum,” she blurted, her lips quivering
a touch.  “Go upstairs and finish reading that story to Elliot, will you?”

Her
mum hesitated and studied each of us.

I
put my thumbs in the loopholes of my jeans, forced myself to smile and glanced
away.

“Everything’s
fine, mum.”  Kerry softened her voice.  “Please, just leave us for a
minute, yeah?”

“Very
well.” 

As
soon as her mum mounted the stairs, Kate barged past me to confront
Kerry.  “What in hell’s name were you thinking?”  She shook her head
and wrinkled her nose in disgust.  “We could have died on Saturday and all
the time you were working with those... those monsters!”

“Are
you really the one who’s been spying on me?” I asked.  “Your handwriting
matched something I found on a report Geordie had on me.”

Kerry
wiped a tear off her lip.  The truth was splashed all over her face. 
It plunged a big blade of betrayal into my chest.

“You’re
unbelievable,” Steve said in a gritty tone.  “You’ve been lying the whole
time.”

“How
could you?” Dylan grunted.

“You’re
sick!” Kate hissed.  “How could you work with murderers?  You’ve got
a child for God’s sake!”

Kerry
recoiled at every word, her eyes overflowed with tears.  She pushed the
hall door shut.  A beat later, she brushed past me and plonked herself on
the sofa, hiding her face in her hands.

I
perched beside her.  My muscles bunched and my head was overheating,
caught in a fever of impatience.  “Talk to me,” I said, while Kate
muttered, “Lying little toad.”

Kerry
looked at Kate, her head coyly angled, an endless tap of tears spilled down her
cheeks.  “I’m not a bad person.  How could I have known all this
would happen?”

“You’d
better tell us everything,” I said, locking gazes with her.

She
swallowed.  “I was so, so very angry when we lost our money to that
scam.”  She stared up at the ceiling, blinking over red-tinted eyes. 
“I just wanted my money back.  That’s all.”

My
memory wheels began rewinding.  “You used to be a journalist.” 
Why
hadn’t I made this connection before now? 
“You discovered it was Alan
running the scam, followed him, and then me.”

“Yes,”
she confirmed, lowering her gaze.

Something
crashed in the kitchen, giving me pause.
 Is that John?  Why
hasn’t he come out? 
Perhaps he didn’t know that Kerry had been
working both sides either.  Perhaps he was hesitant to enter the room for
fear of exploding in anger at the mother of his child.

Kerry
grabbed a tissue off the coffee table and dabbed her cheeks.  “When
Geordie and his men caught me spying on you, they offered to pay me money to
continue.”  She sniffed and shrugged, her forlorn gaze intent on my face. 
“I kinda bigged myself up about being good at investigating.  I’ve got a
child to pay for.  Being broke, I couldn’t turn the money down.” 

“Money.” 
Dylan huffed, pacing the room.  “This whole thing has been about bloody
money.”

Kerry
gripped my knee with a desperate hand.  “Geordie said he was an undercover
cop, and that no one would ever suspect a young mum of spying on you and
Alan.”  She shrugged.  “I didn’t believe him.  I actually
thought that he’d been ripped off, and like me, he just wanted his money
back.  We all mess up once in a while.  Feeding him information was
my big fuck up, but I couldn’t go to the police and tell them I’d been robbed
to get my money back because, by then, John had got us tangled up in drug
dealing.  But you’ve got to believe me, Jenna, I had no idea what he and
his men were planning to do, or that they were—“

“Killers!”
Kate spat.

I
flinched at her sharp, clipped tone.

Sadness
flashed in Kerry’s eyes.  She hunched forward.  “I’m sorry.”

I
dragged my hands down my face, aggravated and trying to process everything.

“Is
that why you wouldn’t speak over the megaphone in the park?” Steve asked. 
“And why you thought those men had taken Elliot?”

She
nodded.  “Geordie would have recognised my voice.”

“Is
that why you went to the retreat on Friday?” Dylan asked.  “To follow
Jenna?”

She
glanced at her lap.  “We... we were going to stop at my mum’s place with
Elliot to get away from Machete, but then one of Geordie’s men contacted me and
said you’d gone to that retreat.  Th-they asked if I’d ever seen you go
there before.  I said no, and figured what the hell.  I reckoned
Geordie would pay me extra money if I could give him more dirt on you.  So
I spun John a line to get him to take me there.”  She clutched my
hands.  Regret coated her every word.  “I swear I wouldn’t have done
any of it if I’d known they were bad people.  And I honestly did not know
it was Geordie who had locked us in the retreat until you arrived at Dylan’s
house on Saturday.”

“Yeah,
sure,” Steve muttered, sarcastically.

Kerry
glared at him.  “What?  You really think I’d have gone to that
retreat if I’d known what they planned to do?”

Steve
heaved a sigh and shook his head.

Kerry
turned back to me, her eyes cold, and brimming with remorse.  “I didn’t
know.”

I
believed her. 

“Did
you have any contact with Geordie over the weekend?” Kate asked.

“No. 
Elliot broke my mobile so I didn’t have it with me.  Geordie didn’t even
know I’d gone to the retreat.”

I
tilted my head toward the door where the banging had come from.  “Does
John know what you’ve been doing?”

Kerry
shook her head.  “He’d never forgive me.”

“Why
didn’t you come clean on Saturday?” I asked, shaking off another wave of
anger. 

Kerry’s
eyes sharpened.  “I was terrified.  After I learned what an arsehole
Geordie is, I realised he would have killed me if I’d opened my mouth and I had
Elliot to think about.”  She hung her head. 

I
glanced back at Dylan, Steve and Kate, wanting to know what I should do. 
Their faces were slack from shock and anxiety.  We’d all had more than we
could take.  A mixture of emotions swamped my mind.  I didn’t know
which was the strongest.  Betrayal?  Anger?  I also felt
sympathetic.

I
steepled my fingers together.  “If you’d told us everything at the start,
maybe things would have worked out differently.  We nearly died, the park
is destroyed...”  I reached out to touch her hand, but pulled away. 
My feelings toward Kerry were jumbled, but I had to warn her of the danger she
was in.  “Listen carefully.  Y-you can’t go home.”

She
looked up.  “I don’t want to live in that awful neighbourhood ever
again.  It’s not good for Elliot.  I’m staying here until we find
jobs and can afford a nicer place.”

I
blew out a relieved breath.  “That’s good to hear.  But still,
please, don’t go home.  Not even to get your belongings.”

Kerry
frowned.  “Why not?”

“You’re
gonna have to phone the police because Kate overheard someone saying that—“

Kerry’s
mum stomped down to the lounge.  “I’m sorry everyone, but I can’t stay
upstairs all evening.  I’ve got things to do.  A pile of laundry
waiting to be...”

Kerry
burst into tears again. 

“Kerry?”
her mum said.

“Leave
me alone.”  Kerry stood, brushed past her mum and raced upstairs. 

“No,
Kerry.  Wait,” I shouted.  “I have to tell you something.”

A
door slammed above.

“So
she told you then?” Her mum asked, picking up an empty mug from the table.

I
blinked fast, confused.  “Er... yes.  She did.”

“I
know she’s snappy lately, but go easy on her, will you?  Things are extra
tough for them at the moment.”  She winked and dropped her voice to a
whisper.  “She’s only ever been this cranky one other time in her
life.  I bought the test this afternoon.  I think they just need time
to let it sink in.”