A Perfect Storm by Jane Retzig

Author:Jane Retzig [Retzig, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance Suspense, series
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-09-20T23:00:00+00:00

The Hen Party

At the hen party, Jaiden paused just inside the door of the Alan Bennett Suite, stunned for a moment by the booming sound system and high-pitched babble of one hundred and fifty women simultaneously having a good time. Perfume assaulted her nose. Colour jabbed at her eyes. In the strobe light that bounced crazily over the audience, she could see, along one wall, ten handsome bartenders pouring, pulling and dispensing drinks, like Tom Cruise clones on speed.

There was nothing unusual here. She’d been called out to plenty of parties, clubs, and discos in her uniform days, usually near the end of the evening when the drink had taken people from happy to paranoid, and trouble had broken out.

And nightclubs were such a fertile snooping ground for PIs, it was common in London to have a whole cluster of detectives propping up the bar at the bigger venues.

But she’d never been much of a party animal, and she found she couldn’t focus as she tried to sweep the room methodically in search of her girlfriend.

‘She’s up there,’ said a broad Yorkshire voice close to her ear.

Jaiden spun round gratefully to see Naz standing beside her. She had the glazed look of the almost-drunk and she was clutching a bouquet of cocktails in various shades and topped with fruit and paper umbrellas. Jaiden could have kissed her. Though she didn’t, for fear of spilling the drinks.

‘Where?’ she asked, following the nod of Naz’s head to the stage, where a group of women were shimmying along to ‘All About the Bass’.

‘There! In the chorus line, behind Tracey… It’s the Karaoke contest. They’re in the semi-finals.’

Jaiden scanned again and located Saskia, gyrating away happily, third from the left. Her heart leapt at the sight of her.

Then, ‘Is that Kate, next to her?’ she asked, peering at the stage and wondering, for a brief hallucinatory moment, if she was actually still asleep in the car and dreaming.

‘Yeah! Naz grinned. ‘I told her it wasn’t a good idea to take a Valium with two Pina Colada’s. She’ll be miming. She can’t hold a tune in a bucket, bless her.’

‘She can dance though!’

‘Oooh yeah! When she’s drunk, she can.’

Jaiden couldn’t help but notice that Naz had a bit of a smug, self-satisfied look about her when she said that.

‘She’s gonna feel rough in the morning!’

‘You’re not kidding! I’ve switched her onto Mocktails now. She won’t be able to taste the difference. Look they’ve almost finished. Come and join us. We’ve got a table.’

Jaiden followed her as the song ground to a halt and the women tottered down from the stage to a chorus of cheers from Tracey’s supporters and assorted boo’s and thumbs down from the tables of their opponents.

Saskia looked flushed and exhilarated as she wove through the crowd to the table, draping her arm over Jaiden’s shoulders and kissing her in an unusually public display of affection.

Jaiden prayed that there were no Paparazzi present.

And then, suddenly, she wished that there were.

It would certainly have been impossible to spot a camera flashing in the psychedelic lighting of the room.

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