The Complete #LoveLondon Collection. Nikki Moore

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СКАЧАТЬ bit I mean.’ She fell silent. She’d be repaying it for a lot longer, given when she’d been with Christian she’d barely made a dent in the debts. He’d offered to pay the loans off for her lots of times, but something in her had always balked. It’d felt too much, him paying for the fun she’d had before meeting him. Now she wished she’d taken him up on the offer.

      ‘I always meant to go travelling again,’ he shared, ‘maybe I’ll look into it towards the end of next year.’

      ‘Yes,’ she replied absently. ‘Right here, please,’ she directed him down a side road that cut through to the main high street with all its shops and bars.

      ‘Thanks. Everything all right? You’ve gone quiet on me.’

      Even though she was staring out of the window at the soaked streets, she could feel him looking at her. She bit her lip, wondering if her life would have gone in a different direction if she had been at the vineyard a year earlier, if she’d met Zack then, had come back to the UK with a good friend, someone who had shared experiences and shared money worries. She might not have met Christian, or if she had, might have thought twice about falling into a whirlwind relationship with him. Of course, she’d fallen out of it almost as quickly, and on bad days wondered if that had been a mistake.

      ‘Frankie? You’re worrying me. I’m not used to you not spouting some opinion or bit of gossip at me. Is everything okay?’

      ‘Sorry.’ She turned and smiled at him. ‘I was just thinking. Anyway, my place is just down here on the right, just after that white van,’ she pointed out a dodgy looking vehicle with a partially concealed number plate, orange twine hanging out the slightly open back door.

      ‘All right,’ he pulled over, ‘here you go. I’ll walk you up.’

      ‘Er, no,’ she grabbed her bag from the floor, opened the door, ‘I’m only on the first floor. There’s no need.’ She jumped out. She wasn’t a snob but she was embarrassed about where she lived, the back alleyway always full of stinky, old potato peelings and her cramped, damp flat smelling of fast food. She ducked her head back into the car, quivering as chilly rain dripped down inside her collar. ‘Thanks so much, Zack, for the lift I mean. I really appreciate it. I’d invite you up but it really is getting late and I need to take a hot bath. My ribs are pretty uncomfortable.’

      He relaxed back in his seat, tapped a hand idly on the steering wheel. ‘Whatever you need,’ he smiled gently. ‘As long as you’re not running away because you’re traumatised by riding in my car.’

      ‘Oh well, there is that as well,’ she countered, ‘but at least it was clean.’

      ‘I do my best,’ he said. ‘Okay, well take care and have a nice evening.’

      ‘Will do. See you at work tomorrow.’

      ‘See you in the staff room,’ he gave a friendly wave.

      Slamming the door with a thud due to his earlier comments, she crossed around the back of the car, staring up at the shop sign Starr’s Kebabs. Huh, there are no stars here, she thought. Zack’s engine started behind her and she swung around to watch him pull away. As he went to drive off, a sudden thought occurred to her. She ran over to the car and knocked on the window.

      Zack wound it down. ‘What’s up?’

      ‘Random question.’

      He looked amused, ‘Fire away.’

      ‘If something happened and I needed to drive your car, or if I wanted to, what would you say?’

      ‘I can’t imagine for a minute why you’d want to drive this crap heap,’ he replied, ‘but if you needed to drive it, and were insured, it wouldn’t be a big deal. Why?’

      ‘Nothing. That’s what I thought. Night.’ Frankie stepped back from the car, tucking her hands in her pockets. It really was bitter tonight.

      ‘Right. Not sure about weird question,’ he quipped, starting to roll up his window, ‘more like weird girl! See you in the morning.’

      ‘See you,’ she whispered, watching his rear lights as he pulled away.

      ***

      ‘Here you go, found it! It was buried in a colleague’s in-tray in the office.’ The McLaren salesman’s voice sounded next to Frankie’s ear through the car’s open window.

      She let out a little yelp, hand flying to her chest.

      ‘Apologies,’ he tacked on, helping her open the car door, ‘I didn’t mean to startle you.’

      ‘No, it’s okay,’ she waited for the door to finish swooping up over her head and slid out sideways, a lot harder than it looked, as the car was so close to the ground. He offered her a helping hand and she accepted it gratefully, feeling like he was hoisting her up from a horizontal position. ‘It was my fault,’ she excused him, ‘I wasn’t paying attention.’

      ‘You did look quite deep in thought,’ he agreed, handing her an A4 manila envelope, which looked suspiciously bumpy.

      ‘Thank you,’ she ran her fingers over the envelope, wondering what was in it.

      ‘No problem. Sorry for the delay.’ He closed the car door smoothly and walked her over to shop front. He paused, manicured fingers wrapped around the door handle. ‘You know, he was lucky. We're not open all the time, some days we only do private appointments.’

      Intrigue fizzled in her belly, ‘He? What did he look like?'

      The man smiled politely, 'I don’t think that's for me to say, but to be honest I don't think the young man who delivered the envelope is necessarily the one who arranged whatever this is, for you.’

      ‘Why do you say that?'

      ‘Well, by my estimation he looked about twelve.’

      ‘Oh.' Now she was really confused. Christian didn’t have any relatives or know anyone that age and neither did anyone else she knew. Was this all a part of some elaborate schoolboy prank then? Was she going to come out looking like a prize idiot? But what schoolboys wrote poems / clues like that? There was only one way to find out.

      ‘Do you mind if I open this in here?’ she asked the salesman, ‘I probably need to go on somewhere else after this and it’s quite dark outside, even with the street lights.’ She checked out the window. It also looked freezing cold out there from the way people were rushing past, huddled in their coats and scarves, heads bowed against the wind.

      ‘I can give you five minutes while I start locking up.’

      ‘Thank you,’ she said gratefully, ripping into the envelope as he walked away.

      The bumps she’d felt turned out to be a handful of mini Bounty bars, her favourite chocolates. Smiling, she unwrapped one and stuck it in her mouth, savouring the rich milk chocolate alongside the crisp nuttiness of the coconut centre. She doubted anyone would go to all this trouble to poison her, and there were no signs of any serial killers so far.

      This note was similar to the first.

       You’ve found the next clue, you know what СКАЧАТЬ