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

He’d have to put that notion firmly to bed if she brought it up.

She got in beside him, her phone screen still alight. “Come on. We need to be quick. Joe’s already been out to the pigs with Ted and Felix, don’t forget, and I just got him out of bed.”

Jason bristled. “It’s what he does, what he’s chosen to do even though Lenny’s dead.”

Joe had agreed to take the mince as a form of paying Lenny back when Jess had been snatched and her killer had been dealt with—except he hadn’t. Lenny had got the wrong bloke, hadn’t he—not such a top-notch fella after all—and Jason felt all kinds of down about that because Lenny had been a hero to him when he’d been young, someone he’d looked up to, a man who could do no wrong. To find out he’d fucked up by killing The Mechanic…

With Lenny dead, Joe’s debt was paid, but his wife, Lou, wanted the mince to keep coming. Something about her getting satisfaction from it, pretending it was Jess’ real killer being fed to their animals again and again. Vance Johnson was the real killer, some paedo who’d travelled the country abducting kids and offing them. He’d lived on the Barrington when younger, then fucked off, scared Lenny would find him, returning a while after his mam, Wanda, had died. Then Brenda had come along to fleece him of his inheritance, and the truth had come out.

It had a habit of doing that, and Jason needed to be careful the truth of the Jade shit didn’t reveal itself. He couldn’t hack being killed, leaving Mam all by herself.

‘Then you should have thought it through better, you little prick,’ his father’s voice said, the words flowing through Jason’s mind, swirling around and around as if heading towards the plughole.

God, he hated being called a prick, it set him off every time. That was why he’d killed Richie Prince, nowt to do with him selling drugs on Lenny’s patch. Angry at just thinking of the word, he gunned the engine and shot off, turning to speed down the road the same as he’d done when he’d been here earlier.

“Fucking hold your horses,” Cassie snapped. “We’re not out to win a sodding race.”

He eased his foot off the accelerator and tried to dampen his temper, put the flames out. “I want tonight over with, that’s all. I’m tired.”

“You and me both, but we keep going until everything’s done. There’s the pigs to feed, then back to the factory to clean the box, then I was thinking of calling round to the laundrette, knocking the manager up, not to mention me burning the clothes and the towels in the furnace at the squat.”

Jason glanced at the clock. It was well late, and Jack Daniel’s called his name, a siren’s song, luring him with the need for the burn of alcohol. He sighed. It was no good saying he wouldn’t help. She’d use that as an excuse to rip him a new one. “Right.”

He drove towards Handel Farm, thinking of what he could say to steer her away from the Jade business, although that would be difficult, seeing as that was why they were out at shitty o’clock. Coming up empty, he made the firm decision to go with his other plan. Rob it himself. That cemented in his mind, he smiled across at her. “Shall we try that date tomorrow night then?”

“Might do. It’ll give me a chance to show my new hair off.”

“What new hair?”

“I’m fed up of it being straight. I’m getting a wave put in. And anyroad, the hairdresser I’m using works in the salon on the other side of The Donny. I want to see if anyone worked late tonight and saw people hanging around.”

She really wasn’t going to let it go, was she.

For Pete’s sake. “Sounds like a plan.” But one of the kids I used to tell people to leave the street is the salon owner’s son. What if she talks about Cassie going there when she gets home tomorrow and the boy hears? He might tell her his part in it.

Jason didn’t think he could kill a lad, so he’d have to be content he’d been in disguise when he’d approached them at the park. The kid hadn’t realised it was him, so he wouldn’t have owt incriminating to say if Cassie questioned him.

He turned off the road onto a track. The farmhouse stood in complete blackness apart from a light on beneath the porch overhang above the front door. As usual, he drove around the back, and the kitchen light spilt out onto the grass. Joe stood at the door in wellies and a thick padded coat, Lou beside him, bundled up in a dressing gown, a tartan throw blanket over her shoulders.

“What’s she doing up?” Jason hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Cassie dragged her palms down her face. “She likes to watch the pigs eating nowadays.”

“Each to their own.”

Privately, he thought Lou was a fucking weirdo, moping around the way she did. Jess had been killed twenty-three years ago, so surely the silly cow should be over it by now, but no, there she was, face like a slapped arse, her body so skinny it was a wonder she managed to stay upright.

Jason parked, about to cut the engine, but Joe and Lou came over and got into the back seat.

“All right?” Joe asked. “It’s easier to drive across to the pig barn. Lugging that box wouldn’t be pleasant.”

Jason hadn’t thought of that, yet he knew damn well the mince was heavy and the barn was couple of hundred metres away. He drove off, annoyed at himself.

“Sorry to wake you up,” Cassie said.

“Oh, get away with you,” Lou said. “I was