Death at Rainbow Cottage, Jo Allen [top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT] 📗

alive and looking at him as she used to do, with the open eyes of a lover. He leaned down towards her and kissed her.

The hand that had touched his cheek slid around to the back of his head and pulled it down towards her. Almost at the same time, her other hand pushed him away. ‘Jude. No. We mustn’t.’

‘Why mustn’t we?’

‘It’s not that I don’t want to. But you have a girlfriend. Stop.’

It was the word ‘stop’ not the mention of Ashleigh that made him pull away. Thank God she’d stopped him. ‘Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.’

‘Is he bothering you, Becca?’

‘No.’ She swivelled on her high heel and wobbled off back towards the hall.

‘My fault,’ Jude said, though it wasn’t. He didn’t like and didn’t trust Adam Fleetwood and he knew the man he’d once called his best friend well enough to have good reason for it. He backed away, justifying his behaviour. ‘She’s maybe had a bit too much to drink.’

‘It’s a party,’ she called back over her shoulder, but she was smiling as she carried on her way.

Jude was left eye to eye with Adam, in a way he hadn’t been, and hadn’t wanted to be, for years. ‘It’s probably time I went.’

‘It probably is, Judas. Glad you worked that out for yourself. Or I’d have had to make you.’

Adam wasn’t that drunk, certainly sober enough to spin a line and see if his prey was foolish enough to bite but Jude had too much to lose. It was worth his while to allow Adam to humiliate him. ‘I expect I’ll see you around.’

‘Oh don’t worry. You will.’ Adam trailed him to the Mercedes, just far enough from him not to be too obvious a threat. ‘Just as well Mikey’s got me to keep an eye on him. You’re not doing a great job.’

‘I’m sure he’s grateful to you.’

‘What kept you away tonight? More blood on your conscience?’

Jude opened the car door and slid inside, but Adam’s hand flashed out and closed on the side of the door before he could shut it.

‘One more thing, Judas.’ He leaned inwards, eyes narrow, breath heavy with beer. ‘I’m watching you. One step out of line, one tiny mistake. You’ll be inside like I was. See how you like that.’

‘Let go of my car, Adam’ Jude brought out the sharpest tone he had, and it surprised Adam long enough for him to let go of the door and for Jude to drive away.

It was no surprise when blue lights flashed in front of him as he drive onto the roundabout that joined the A6 to the A66. Just off it, he obeyed their instruction to stop and got out of the car. PC Charlie Fry, an old acquaintance, was regarding him with grim horror, and the young female PC who was with him was looking rather more enthusiastic. ‘Sorry to stop you, Sir. We’ve had a report of this vehicle being driven under the influence of alcohol.’

‘Sure.’ He should have known. Adam had been out of prison for six months and it had been only a matter of time before he’d pounced. ‘That’s okay. Whatever you need to do.’

He breathed into the tube Charlie offered him, not bothering to look down. His conscience was clear but for the breath of warm white wine he’d somehow harvested from Becca’s kiss. On the A66 the traffic hummed and somewhere, a few hundred yards away, Natalie would be lying in her cell, playing back the chain of events that had led her to kill.

‘That's all in order, Sir. Sorry to have stopped you.’

‘That's okay, Charlie.’ Jude moved back to his car. ‘That didn't surprise me, after the night I’ve had.’

‘Got on the wrong side of someone, have you?’

‘Looks like it.’ Jude got back into the car and sat for a moment while Charlie and his partner headed off to apprehend some real wrongdoer. Adam had laid down a marker and it was one he’d do well to take notice of. This was what it was going to be like, every step of the way, until Adam’s bitterness ran out of steam or Jude had enough of it and left.

He could cope with Adam Fleetwood, because he no longer cared about him. But as he started the car and headed on towards home, he kept on thinking of Becca.

THE END

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