Dead Feint by Grant Atherton

Author:Grant Atherton [Atherton, Grant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Nathan answered on the third ring with a brisk ‘hello’.

I stopped pacing the room and steeled myself. “Was I being a bit of a jerk earlier?”

“Yes,” he said, “but I’m used to it.” Direct as ever. But the icy tone had thawed to something warmer.

“How do you put up with me?”

He chuckled. “I guess you’re an acquired taste.”

Now more at ease, I slumped down onto the couch.

“I got it wrong. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know it’s not easy.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t you come over this evening and I’ll make it up to you? We both need to chill out. And it would be nice to get you to myself.”

A pause. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable being around Naylor right now. He is part of our investigation after all.”

I glanced up at the ceiling. The sound of Rusty’s heavy tread on the bathroom tiles announced his presence overhead. “He won’t be here. He’s going out for the evening.”

“Is that wise?” A hint of frost was back in his tone. “It does rather defeat the point of installing security measures if he’s not going to be there.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t expect him to stay indoors all the time. He’d go stir crazy. And it’s not as if he can’t look after himself.”

I got a grunt in response.

“And let’s face it,” I continued, “his moving in here was as much about protecting public safety at the Fairview as anything else.”

Begrudgingly, he conceded the point. “Even so, I don’t like the idea of you being on your own right now.”

“All the more reason for you to come over. You can keep me company.”

“I have to admit, I could use some downtime. We’ve not had much time together since this goddamn case blew open.”

“No argument from me there.”

“Okay, you win. I’ll come over later and pick up some pizzas on the way.”

“Great. We can make an evening of it.”

“Best if I don’t stay over though if Naylor is going to be around later.”

My heart sank at that, but I had expected it, and understood his reasons. “Just seeing you would be good.”

He promised to come straight over from the local station as soon as he’d finished work for the day and arranged a time before ringing off.

Now we’d cleared the air, I felt able to concentrate on my work. I sat at my desk, ready, once again, to rattle out my thoughts on the dark and dangerous world of the serial killer. It wasn’t exactly my idea of light relief but my improved mood made it a less sombre task.

Even Rusty sounded more cheerful. As I pulled the laptop towards me, his tuneful whistling filtered through from above. And when he finally came downstairs, he seemed a more jaunty self.

He’d hired himself a Mercedes Cabriolet from a local car dealer and, after promising to heed my warning about being extra vigilant while he was away from the house, he made his way out to the car and, a few minutes later, the sound of the engine faded into the distance as he headed towards town.

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