The Jade Garden (The Barrington Patch Book 2), Emmy Ellis [best ebook reader under 100 TXT] 📗

disturbed at this time of night for a cup of sugar or a few teabags. Or was his dealer due? Cassie sifted through the masses of info in her mind. No, that was last night the runner in this area collected cash from people who had weed on tick. Jimmy was good for his money, so he was one of a few who were allowed the privilege.

He flung the door open, his red-and-white-checked onesie with scarlet ankle and wrist cuffs at odds with his usual appearance of jeans and hoodies. His short black hair, fuzzy as if just washed, didn’t have its usual wet-look gel on it, but his spotty face was as livid as always. “What?” Upon recognising Cassie, he paled, his droopy, relaxing-before-bed eyes going from glazed to sharp. “Sorry. What’s up?”

He’s too casual to have tried raiding the Jade, to have murdered Jiang. “Where were you this evening?”

He swept a hand down himself. “Telly outfit, innit. Netflix. Pringles. Got some of that cheese and chive dip from Tesco.”

Too much information. “All night?”

“Yeah, I’ve had a bastard of a day at work so holed up in here. Why, has something gone on?”

Cassie ignored that. “Can anyone back up your story?” God, she sounded like the pigs, but that couldn’t be helped. She had to find out who’d done this to shut them up. The story of Jiang going to China had to hold water, and having a killer out there with the potential to admit murder to a mate while pissed out of his head didn’t sit well.

‘Containment, Cass. Ensure you keep lids on all your pots and screw them down tight so the contents don’t go mouldy.’

Dad had once told her that.

Jimmy peered over his shoulder into his flat. “Shirl? Come here a minute.”

A young blonde woman appeared at the end of the hallway, leaning against the doorframe. Cassie knew her from school. Her cream onesie had multicoloured unicorns all over it, and she coiled a string of bushy hair around her finger.

“Yeah?” She spotted Cassie. “Fuck a duck.”

“Where was I tonight?” Jimmy asked.

“Here.” Shirl nodded, a bit frantic like, but she seemed genuine enough.

“Thanks. We weren’t here, got it?” Cassie walked off, giving no explanation as to why, and prodded the lift button, her mind zooming ahead to the next port of call.

“You’d better not be lying,” Jason said.

Cassie gritted her teeth and spun to glare at him pointing at Jimmy, his jacket pulled across so the man got a good view of the gun.

“Leave it,” Cassie barked, bloody fuming. The lift doors parted, and she went inside, holding one door until Jason got on. With them enclosed in the metal box, level button pressed so hard it hurt the end of her finger, she let rip. “Do not issue threats to people when I’ve established they haven’t done owt wrong. If I wanted to threaten him, if I needed to, I would have. He’s had a night in with his missus, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he was telling the truth, and so was she. Shirl is a scaredy-cat when it comes to me. She’d blurt it out if he’d been up to something. Now, when we get to Brett’s, shut the fuck up and let me do the talking, got it?”

Jason stared ahead at his reflection in the steel doors. “I was just saying—”

“Well don’t. Learn how to read people. Jimmy no more went to the Jade than he has taste in pyjamas.” She seethed all the way to the ground floor and stalked out of the lift, pissed off at Jason but also narked she hadn’t found the killer yet. One more fella to question, and if it wasn’t Brett who’d done this, she was back to square one, clueless, the only lead a skinny sort who enjoyed beef fucking curry and egg fried sodding rice.

Jason drove them back to Brett’s, sulking. Cassie let him get on with it, the mardy git. She couldn’t be arsed to climb off her high horse. She was too elevated up there and might hurt herself if she slid off. If she had time to interview someone else for the position of right hand, she really would ditch Jason, but who could she trust with the secrets of the Barrington? She’d told Mam he was all right, but honestly? Deep down, she knew he wasn’t the man to stand by her side.

Fuck it. I’ll get this mess sorted then deal with it. Give him one more proper warning, and if he doesn’t behave, then he’s gone.

Jason swerved into a parking space, a bit too sharply for her liking, wrenching the steering wheel, but she held back a snipe. He’d done it on purpose, she’d bet, and he’d get a kick out of any reaction. Though if he wanted to test her, push her, he’d soon see she didn’t suffer fools gladly, that he wasn’t immune to her brand of retribution. He should know that by now anyroad, but it was clear he wanted to test the boundaries.

Again.

Wanker.

She shot out of the car and waited for him to catch up. Brett’s house was still in darkness, and she whacked on the door with the side of her fist, the anger she’d kept at bay threatening to spill over.

No response.

“Try round the back?” Jason sounded tentative, maybe waiting for her to rip his head off for offering his opinion.

“Yeah.”

She led the way down the side and opened the tall wooden gate. Crept into the garden. She glanced right, at the back door.

“It’s open a bit.” Phone out, she selected the torch app, moving closer and flashing the light inside. “Oh, fuck me.”

Brett’s torso lay on the table, his red-spattered face pointing her way. Blood covered his grey hoodie, and a portion of his neck was on view,