The Piggy Farmer (The Barrington Patch Book 3), Emmy Ellis [electric book reader txt] 📗

she wanted to hug the old man, she couldn’t linger here, nor could she allow herself to show sympathy in front of the family. Anyroad, she had cakes to buy and Jason to visit, then she could get some much-needed sleep.

She strode out and down the street to The Pudding. The bell jangled with her push on the door, and the usual scents of baking wafted around her, as always, reminding her of childhood when Lenny had brought her here.

What she wouldn’t give to go back in time and relive those days.

Nicola Faraday, her dyed-black hair stuffed inside a net today, spray-painted the edges of some white icing roses with soft-pink dye. She glanced over the counter, a big smile in place to greet her customer, but stiffened upon seeing Cassie, that smile dropping. “Oh God…”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, it’s nowt to get in a bother about. I only want a coffee cake.” She’d opted for Mam’s favourite, knowing Lou also liked it. They’d sit at the island later and eat it, drinking champagne in celebration, and Cassie would remind Lou that this was it, over, no more deaths for Jess unless the man in the back of the van was found.

But Lou thinks it was Gorley. Barmy cow.

“Oh, okay.” Nicola took a flat box from under the counter and set it up, her hands shaking.

Cassie had thought this before on her last visit, but Nicola was overly nervy around her, like she was hiding something. Of course, she could just be shitting bricks because Cassie presented herself as a hard bitch who’d barb your face if you looked at her wrong.

“Everything sorted from before?” Nicola asked.

Rude of her to ask, but Cassie wouldn’t pick her up on it today. She was too tired. “Yes.”

“Good. I didn’t like the idea of there being trouble down here. Those kids haven’t come back, the ones by the lamppost.”

No, they wouldn’t have, because Jason had bloody sent them here to keep the street clear so Brett Davis could rob drugs from the Jade, and Cassie had warned them to stay away. The fact that the robbery hadn’t happened, and Jiang had been sliced with a machete instead, wasn’t owt Nicola needed to know. She was the same as everyone else on the estate, under the impression Jiang was in China.

This woman here was fishing, that much was clear. Had Helen Davis, the woman who ran the nearby laundrette, Brett’s aunt, been gossiping to Nicola while drunk? She’d better not have. Cassie had been sure the woman would keep her mouth shut about the Jiang murder business, seeing as her nephew was the one who’d killed him, but alcohol loosened lips, didn’t it, and Helen wasn’t known for keeping secrets.

Maybe Cassie needed to pay her another visit at some point to further establish the rules.

“No trouble,” Cassie said. “Nowt for you to worry about anyroad. And the lads won’t be hanging around out there anymore.”

Nicola placed a coffee cake from the glass counter inside the box. “Doing owt nice tonight?” She indicated the cake.

“Me and Mam are having a night in with Lou. A few drinks, the cake.”

“Oh. Nice.”

Cassie didn’t want to indulge in chitchat any longer so remained quiet while the sale was rung up and she paid. She said goodbye and left, sensing Nicola’s stare on her back, but she didn’t fret about it. Nicola was an older woman, had worked in her little shop for years under Lenny’s reign, before that even. She’d be stupid to push it.

Cassie placed the cake box on the passenger seat then drove to the squat, parking around the back so if any pigs came along, despite DI Branding saying the area was clear, her car wouldn’t be seen. She’d promised to message Jimmy and let him know if she was on her way, but she’d forgotten.

She WhatsApped him: I’m here.

Jimmy: Okay.

Watching all around her as she crept to the front of the house, and clutching the black bag, she let herself into the squat, the air tainted with something Jimmy must have cooked. Maybe instant noodles but definitely toast. She found him in the living room with Jason, who was awake, his face doing its best to heal, the blood and exposed flesh dried now. It appeared hard and uncomfortable, likely to crack if he tried to smile. His lip was worse, swollen and puffy. She’d sewn the slice in it tightly on purpose to give him maximum discomfort, extra pain to go along with that in his leg and face.

“Vuck ovv,” he said, clearly having trouble speaking.

She laughed, couldn’t stop it from roaring out, and Jimmy turned away to face the blind-covered window, grimacing. She dropped the bag and walked over to Jason, stared down at his ruined face, fascinated by the state of it, by the fact that she’d done this to him. The missing eyebrow and eyelids gave him a sinister air, some freak in an old-fashioned circus. Going by his body language, he hadn’t even bothered to tense in anger at her arrival, just remained slumped. Maybe his leg was so agonising he didn’t dare move.

“Are you ready to admit what you were going to do to me and Mam yet?”

He would have closed his eyes if he could, she was sure of it, shutting her out. How much was it getting to him being beneath her, so far down the pecking order now? His pride would be wounded more than his body. Him wanting to take over the estate was bad enough, but the lengths he was prepared to go to bothered her more. He’d planned to get them hooked on strong anti-depressants, drugging them so much they’d be in no fit state to work, then he’d take over as a ‘kindness’, all the while putting it about that they were