Heat Trap by J. L. Merrow

Author:J. L. Merrow [Merrow, J. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626497238
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2018-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

I nipped home to change before I headed off to Ealing. Not because of what Phil had said, all right? It was on the way, more or less, and steel toe caps are not exactly ideal summer footwear. While I was there, I put on a clean shirt as well, and some lightweight summer trousers Gary had persuaded me to buy last time I’d made the mistake of letting him drag me round the shops. I felt like some posh nob on his way to a Buckingham Palace garden party, but seeing as I also felt a lot cooler, I reckoned I could learn to live with it.

The traffic on the M25 wasn’t too bad in the end. Apparently all sensible people were soaking up the sun in their back gardens rather than driving around London in a hot little metal box with no air-con. It was a relief to arrive in Ealing—at least the air outside the car ought to be marginally fresher.

The swings Mrs. M. had asked me to meet her at were in a small, closed-off area that was on the edge of a much larger, leafier park, bordered by areas of well-grown trees and bushes. I couldn’t help thinking you’d be spoilt for choice for where to hide a body, and clamped down hard on my spidey-senses in case I found something I’d rather not. The kiddies’ area, though, was bright and open—in fact it was a bit more exposed than I’d have expected Mrs. M. to go for, but then again, it was only a hop, skip, and a jump away from her kids’ school.

And she’d have a better idea than I would as to whether him indoors was likely to come wandering along.

I parked the Fiesta under a chestnut tree down a side street and strolled over there. I was a bit early, so I sat down on one of the benches bordering the area and faffed about with my phone, trying not to look like some kind of pervert eyeing up the tots. There were only a handful of them, and soon after I’d got there, the last of them disappeared. Either they were being dragged off to pick up older brothers and sisters from school, or I looked more sinister than I thought.

One thing this playground could definitely have done with was a bit of shade. It was blistering hot out here in the sun, and the trees had been pruned back to well beyond the chain-link fence enclosing the play area. All they did was cut off entirely the feeble breeze that had cooled me down a fraction of a degree as I walked here.

I didn’t have to be a deductive genius to work out when school ended. The noise levels coming from the primary school rose by a factor of about a thousand as the kiddies were let out of their stuffy classrooms and into the playground. It was around three minutes after that when the first of the mums trundled their buggies into the play area.

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