Into the Red: The Murder Mile Book 1 by Christine Pattle

Author:Christine Pattle [Pattle, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Christine Pattle
Published: 2023-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Rose’s lovely weekend with Jack made it tough to go back to work on Monday morning. This morning turned out to be much busier than usual, with no time to stop. Finally, she sat down for five minutes to eat her sandwich before the lunchtime rush started. She took a glug from her water bottle, washing down her half-eaten cheese and pickle sandwich. The shop was doing good business recently. Perhaps people were over the initial shock of Roman’s murder. In a trade-off between potentially being stabbed or having to walk an extra mile, most of the people around here were lazy enough or incapacitated enough to choose the former option. Especially when the odds of anything happening to them remained pretty low. Indeed, it was equally likely they would get stabbed in the street while they walked the extra mile to the supermarket.

The busy morning really made Rose appreciate a quiet five minutes. She took another bite of her sandwich. At least she didn’t have to worry now about Sarah affording her wages. Rose now did most of the bookkeeping for the shop, and takings were well up compared to when she started working here.

The bell above the door startled her. She should have got used to it by now, but she was lost in her thoughts. She hurriedly swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and wrapped up the remains to finish later.

“Good morning.” She added a big smile to her greeting. Being friendly cost nothing, and it made the customers come back. Perhaps that explained the improvement in their profits.

As soon as she turned to face the customers, she regretted being so friendly. She froze as she realised it was the brutes who usually came to collect the protection money. They shouldn’t be here, not today, on a Monday. They weren’t due until Wednesday.

Ash lagged behind the man wearing his usual black leather jacket as if he didn’t want to come too close. Did that mean he hadn’t confessed to his friend about meeting her in the pub last week? Rose wondered if she should say something. It might get him into trouble. Or it might get him replaced by someone worse.

What were they doing here two days early? Rose supposed she should give them the benefit of the doubt. They may be here to do some shopping. She wished they would choose somewhere else.

“What can I get you?” Her smile was forced now, as if someone had injected her with a massive overdose of Botox, setting her features permanently in position.

The man in the leather jacket smiled back. His smile looked even less sincere than hers. “We’re here about the money,” he said, staring at her.

“It’s not due until Wednesday,” Rose said firmly. Best to remain business-like. Don’t show any fear.

The man smiled again, showing a full set of teeth that looked ready to eat her. “You’re absolutely right. We’re here to discuss the increase.”

“What increase? We can’t afford an increase. There is nothing to discuss. We made an agreement.

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