The Jade Garden (The Barrington Patch Book 2) by Emmy Ellis (reading diary txt) 📗

She walked out, and he didn’t doubt her. That weapon he’d heard about would get an airing, and if Jimmy had been the one with the machete, he’d have a face that was worse than pizza come midnight.

Li Jun stepped into the kitchen and went to the cleaning cupboard. Took out a metal bucket and scrubbing brush. Bleach.

Time to fill the pail with hot soapy water and remove the remaining proof of Jiang’s murder. Then Li Jun had better leave the takeaway, a chef short or not, and nip round the corner to visit Mei. He didn’t relish telling her Jiang was dead and the story she must tell, but for all their sakes, that was how it had to be.

Chapter Four

The Barrington Life – Your Weekly

THE JADE GARDEN LOSES JIANG!

Karen Scholes – All Things Crime in our Time

Sharon Barnett – Chief Editor

EVENING EDITION - FEBRUARY 2021

Cassie has asked me to send this as an emergency leaflet due to many people using the Jade Garden. She doesn’t want anyone putting their foot in it, asking where Jiang is and why he isn’t cooking his excellent spare ribs anymore. Unfortunately, he’s decided to live in China now and flew there this evening. His marriage has been breaking down for some time, and he can’t pretend everything’s all right any longer. No one, and I mean NO ONE must mention him if you’re going in the Jade. The family are well cut up about it, and they don’t need the bloody hassle.

And don’t go bothering Mei. She’s upset, as you can imagine, so no chatting to her at the school gates or whatever. I know what you lot are like, you’ll want to help her, but wait for her to approach you for that help, don’t push to offer it.

If Cassie finds out anyone has ignored these rules, you know the drill. While she won’t get Marlene involved, she WILL let you know how annoyed she is by other means. So, mind your own and be grateful Li Jun’s spare rib sauce is just as nice as Jiang’s.

Over and out.

Karen Scholes was royally pissed off, to be honest. This was a ridiculous waste of time, not to mention she was traipsing round the streets delivering The Barrington Life, getting Sharon Barnett out of her nice warm cocoon beneath a blanket on her sofa and rounding up the lads who also helped deliver the flyers. She doubted many would give a shit about the lack of Jiang’s fucking rib sauce, but Cassie had stressed how devastated the family were about him leaving Mei and their kids, and Karen grudgingly supposed it was a nice thing to do on Cassie’s part, given how long Li Jun had worked for Lenny. She was saving them the hurt at having to explain time and again why Jiang wasn’t there.

Maybe she had a heart after all.

Karen battled to press ahead, the wind with a mind to send her in reverse all the way home. She cursed the day she’d thought of writing The Life, especially now, when she’d been ordered to do this one and had to deliver it at such a ridiculous hour. With Lenny, she had obeyed without question, secretly seething inside that he’d stepped in and taken over what she still considered her patch, her leaflet, but with Cassie? Fucking hell, she was a slip of a girl who’d bounced into her role once Lenny had died, letting folks know her brand of punishment, not giving people a chance to come to terms with her calling the shots. No easing in gently. She was a punch to the face and a kick in the bollocks.

Blimey, Lenny carked it, then there she was, lording it about.

Karen shrugged off a chill that wiggled down her spine. She was getting on in years now, or it felt like it anyroad. She creaked more than a newlywed’s bed.

Mind you, she lorded it before he’d even died, acting like the bee’s bloody knees. Right hand, my arse. She took on the leader role as soon as he went downhill, couldn’t wait to stick her oar in.

She ignored the fact Lenny would have demanded it, Cassie having no choice in the matter, and Francis wouldn’t want to take over until Cassie gained her gangster wings. No, she preferred giving her input in the background.

Well, Karen had ideas of taking the Barrington back. Years past, before Lenny had come on the scene, Karen and her buddy, Sharon, had fixed messes and dished out threats. All right, it wasn’t to the level of Lenny or Cassie, they didn’t have that much influence, but they’d managed the residents well enough, kept things orderly.

Karen was already sick of bowing down to Cassie, and she’d barely taken the reins, so fuck knows how she’d feel later down the line when the young woman’s feet were so far under the table she was horizontal. It was all well and good, working out how to approach people Cassie paid to stay loyal to her, asking them to switch allegiance, but the nuts and bolts of it would be difficult to carry out. There were some who’d run and tattle to Cassie, and Karen and Sharon would get shut down inside a second. Permanently.

Unless Cassie was dead.

Yesterday, Karen had suggested offing Cassie to Sharon, who’d stared at her like she was a mental case, saying she’d changed her mind and didn’t want to go down the route of reclaiming what Karen thought was theirs. They were too old for this lark, she’d said, but despite their age, Karen reckoned they could manage it. They’d be the ones coining it in, not that trumped-up little madam, and people would be afraid of them, not her.

As with most things in life, shit rarely ran smoothly for the likes of Karen.