This Body Of Death by George Elizabeth

Author:George, Elizabeth [Elizabeth, George,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Suspense, Contemporary, Adult
ISBN: 9780061160882
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2010-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

HE DROVE ONTO THE PROPERTY ONCE AGAIN WHILE GORDON was watering the ponies. Ten minutes more and Gordon would have been off for the day, working on the roof of the Royal Oak pub. As it was, he was trapped. He stood inside the paddock with a hosepipe in his hand and Gina watching him from the fence. She’d not wanted to enter the paddock this time. The ponies seemed skittish this morning, she’d said. She’d lost her nerve for the moment.

Over the sound of the water burbling into the trough, Gordon didn’t notice the car’s engine as the vehicle rumbled onto the driveway. Gina, however, was near the edge of it, and she tentatively called his name at the same moment as the car door slamming caught his attention.

He saw the sunglasses. They caught the morning light like the wings of misplaced bats. Then he was coming towards the fence, and the movement of his lips told Gordon that whatever was to happen next, the other man was determined to enjoy it.

The man said to Gina in a tone perfectly gauged to convey an utter lack of fellow feeling, “Gorgeous day, my dear, wouldn’t you say? Bit hot again, but who’s about to complain. We get little enough good weather in this country, eh?”

Gina glanced at Gordon, a quick look shot through with questions that she wouldn’t ask. She said, “I could do with a few more cool breezes, to be honest.”

“Could you, now? Can’t get our Gordon to wave the fan over you in the afters when you’re both hot and sweaty?” He smiled, a baring of teeth that was as disingenuous as everything else about him.

“What d’you want?” Gordon flung the hosepipe to one side. The water continued to burble from it. The ponies, surprised by his sudden movement, trotted away across the paddock. Gordon thought that Gina might enter the enclosure at that point—with the ponies safely away—but she did not do so. She remained by the fence, her hands fixed atop one of the newer posts. Not for the first time, he cursed that upright piece of wood and all of its brothers. He should have let the whole damn thing rot to hell, he thought.

“That’s not very friendly,” was the reply to his question. “What I want is a bit of conversation. We can have it here or we can go for a drive.”

“I’ve work to do.”

“Won’t take long, this.” He made a minute adjustment to his trousers: a hitch, a shift, and the bollocks put into a more comfortable position. It was the sort of movement that had a hundred different interpretations, depending upon circumstances and the bloke making it. Gordon looked away. The other said, “What’s it to be, my love?”

“I’ve a job to get to.”

“That I do know. So …a drive?” And to Gina, “I won’t take him far. He’ll be back before you know how to miss him.”

Gina cast a look from Gordon to the other man and back to Gordon.

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