‘I tell you what, sweetheart: go ahead, knock yourself out. You’ll find nothing out of order here.’
‘Thank you, Mr Tarasov,’ Chloe said. ‘I appreciate your cooperation.’
Leon kept the false grin stretched over his face as he walked back towards the cabin. Once the door was shut, he crashed at his desk and glowered at Pete, who was doing the accounts on the computer.
‘Patel must be losing it,’ Leon said. ‘That piece of skirt was a cop. Says she’s had a tip-off.’
Pete looked away from the screen. ‘There was nothing wrong with that BMW, uncle. It came from the dealer without a scrape on it. I can’t work out what kind of scam Patel’s trying to pull.’
Leon shrugged bitterly. ‘Join the club, nephew. Join the sodding club.’
11:24
James hurried towards the community centre, searching in the gutter as he walked. He spotted what he was looking for behind the rear wheel of a scaffolder’s truck. After putting both Sainsbury’s carrier bags over his left hand, he looked up and down the street to make sure nobody was coming and tried not thinking about what he was going to do.
He put one trainer in the gutter and crouched down low. A dozen bluebottles whizzed away as he put the covered hand over a giant pile of dog mess and picked it up. As it squished nauseatingly between finger and thumb, James used his free hand to turn the bags inside out, so that the turd was in the bottom.
34. STINK
12:08
While Chloe took her time inspecting the cars at Tarasov Prestige Motors, John was running the show back at the hotel. He left Lauren and Kerry in charge of the computers for a couple of minutes, taking advantage of an apparently quiet moment to go into his bedroom and strip off the garish Auto Club uniform.
Not long after John closed his bedroom door, a red warning box popped on to the screen in front of Lauren: Mobile 3 – Incoming call.
Lauren panicked. ‘Shall I call John?’
‘Let him change,’ Kerry said, calmly. ‘Just double-check the communications properties to make sure the call is being recorded.’
Lauren right-clicked the mouse and a list of parameters popped up on screen. Kerry pointed at one of them.
‘There, it’s automatically being recorded on to tape drive number five. Now, all you have to do is write the start time and details into the manual ledger.’
‘Chloe makes it look really simple when she’s running this,’ Lauren said, as she fumbled for a pencil.
12:09
There were fifty chairs set out in the main hall of Palm Hill community centre, but less than a dozen were occupied. Millie sat next to Michael Patel in the front row, while a man from the council stood up front giving a speech about an exciting initiative to improve street lighting around Palm Hill.
‘Sorry, Mil,’ Michael whispered, as he grabbed the vibrating mobile out of his pocket and saw it was his wife. ‘I’d better take this.’
Michael answered his mobile as he scurried through the double doors at the rear of the hall, stepping into a corridor that smelled of floor polish. ‘Patricia, hi.’
‘So, what did Leon say?’ she asked anxiously.
‘He tried to fob me off with some bullcrap about sending out a mechanic.’
‘I want to see all of that money back, Michael.’
‘I’m going over there after this meeting. I’ve told him I’m expecting the full whack.’
‘Don’t let him knock you down, Mike. We know enough about that sod to have him sent to prison for a very long time.’
‘I know we do,’ Michael said. ‘But that cuts both ways, doesn’t it? We’ve got to handle this delicately.’
‘Charlotte could have been killed in that death trap,’ Patricia steamed. ‘I can’t believe our baby was going round in a car that could have broken apart. I swear, if I got my hands on Tarasov right now, I could happily take a knife and stick him.’
‘Pat, you know I feel the same as you,’ Michael said. ‘But that kind of talk gets us nowhere.’
‘So when does your meeting end? When are you going over to Tarasov’s?’
‘It’s really dragging. We’re not even halfway down the agenda.’
‘Can’t you make an excuse?’
Michael thought for a couple of seconds. ‘Yeah … I suppose I could.’
‘I think you should get over to Leon’s and sort this as soon as you can.’
Michael nodded. ‘You know what, Pat? You’re right. I can’t think straight while this is going round in my head. I’ll tell Millie you called to say that Charlotte’s sick and I’ve got to pick