No Love Lost (The Kent Fisher mysteries Book 6) by Robert Crouch

Author:Robert Crouch [Crouch, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Nine

I close Nora’s garden gate behind me. “You have to admit, it’s looking incestuous. Prentice and Barber, Cassidy Developments.”

“Don’t put too much stock on Nora the Volunteer.” Ashley steps off the narrow footpath to walk in the road. “She spends too much time on her own.”

From around the corner, blinding headlamps dazzle us. The roar of the engine sounds deafening. The car swerves across the road, heading for us. Ashley freezes. I grab her arm and haul her onto the footpath. The Range Rover swerves away and accelerates towards the main road.

Ashley wriggles free and sprints towards the community centre. I chase after her and leap into the passenger seat of her Audi as she sets off in pursuit. She takes the corner so fast I almost tumble out of my seat and into her lap. I’m amazed the car doesn’t flip over. It veers left and then right, tyres squealing in protest as she brings it under control. Moments before we reach the junction with the main road, she slams on the brakes. Thankfully, I’ve engaged the seatbelt.

She looks left towards the traffic lights and then right in the direction of Pevensey Bay.

Not a Range Rover in sight.

She turns to me. “Did you get the registration number?”

“I was too busy saving your life.”

“He was ruffling my feathers, Kent, that’s all.”

She thumps the steering wheel with the heel and swings right for Pevensey Bay. At the traffic lights she turns left onto Coast Road and then right towards Mike’s bungalow. While the police hazard tape remains, the uniformed officer has gone. From the road, it’s difficult to appreciate the devastation on the other side of the boundary wall. His car’s still on the drive.

“Fancy a stroll?”

I stop when I spot the flowers outside the front door.

Ashley pulls me along. “I don’t want you to read what I wrote.”

I’m feeling guilty. It never occurred to me to bring flowers.

She takes hold of my hand. “I don’t want you to know what a mess I am inside. I’ve cried so much I don’t have any tears left. He’s in my thoughts all the time. I can see him the day he saved my life. He gave me a big smile, a bar of chocolate and took me home.”

She blinks back the tears. “You’re so much better than this, he said. I can show you how much better if you’ll let me.”

I give her a reassuring hug, my own emotions barely under control.

I should have made Mike extinguish the cigarette. I should have asked him to wait for me.

Hazard tape blocks the alleyway that runs down the side of his property. The brick wall that absorbed most of the blast has been shored up with scaffolding. Beyond, the sea twinkles in the light from the moon. Its gentle lapping reminds me how the world goes on, no matter what happens to those we care about.

“We’re going to get who did this.” Ashley’s voice is low and menacing, filled with vengeance. Her eyes reveal a vulnerability I’ve never seen before.

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