Ruthless Girl: An absolutely gripping, gritty crime thriller by Emma Tallon

Author:Emma Tallon [Tallon, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838881412
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Six

Anna stood with her hands on her hips and stared down at the puddle on the floor, then up at the gaping hole in the plaster of the ceiling of the new restaurant. She raised one neatly arched eyebrow at the maître d’ who had called her in. He put his hands up in surrender.

‘It wasn’t me, I found it like this when I got here,’ he blustered.

The arrival of Tanya was heralded by the sharp tapping of her stilettos across the marble floor. ‘Gordon Bennett!’ she cried, as she saw the damage. ‘Well, that’s all we need. We’ve only been open a bleedin’ week.’ She sighed and stared up into the gaping hole to the assortment of pipes in the abyss above. ‘Pass me that table,’ she ordered the maître d’, pointing at the nearest one. ‘Come on, chop chop, we ain’t got all day,’ she continued, when he looked confused.

He pulled the table over, placing it underneath the hole as Tanya indicated. Anna watched with interest. ‘Surely you’re not going up there?’ she asked.

‘I sure am,’ Tanya replied chirpily, kicking off her Louboutins. She jumped up on the table and stuck her head up into the void. ‘Yep,’ she called down. ‘Bust pipe. Looks like it’s connected to the main but has its own stop valve. I should be able to isolate it and cap it off for now but we’ll need it replaced.’ She withdrew her head out and pulled a face at the devastated ceiling. ‘We’ll need to call that nosy plasterer back in too,’ she added with a grumble.

‘Since when did you become an expert in plumbing?’ Anna asked with a smile. Tanya never ceased to surprise her.

‘Oh, you’d be amazed at all the skills I’ve picked up over the years,’ she replied. ‘The benefits of a colourful dating history.’

Anna threw her head back and laughed as Tanya jumped back down and pushed the table back into place. ‘Oh Tanya…’ she shook her head and looked around at the mess. ‘We’ll have to close until it’s fixed,’ she said reluctantly.

They had sunk a lot of money into this place getting it up to scratch, and although the main purpose of the venture was as a front to launder money, it still wasn’t ideal having to shut down so suddenly and so soon. From a marketing perspective it was an absolute nightmare. They were still dependent on the initial boost of attention. It was the latest hot new place to visit and they needed to ride the wave of excitement from food bloggers and local magazines to really cement their place in people’s minds. If they shut down now the interest would deflate and the people they relied on to spread the word would move on to the next new opening.

Anna sighed and pursed her lips. She would have to think up something big to draw attention back to the restaurant when it reopened. Pushing her dark hair back off her face she shook it, then turned towards her best friend with a big grin.

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