A Sprinkle of Sabotage by Fiona Leitch (bill gates book recommendations TXT) 📗

She patted the bed and Germaine jumped up to snuggle against her feet. I’d started out with such good intentions about not letting the dog even come upstairs, and yet here she was sleeping every night on Daisy’s bed. She occasionally got up in the night and cuddled up to me as well, and although I hated being woken up, I never minded when it was the dog because it was nice getting some affection, even if it was from someone even hairier and smellier than my ex-husband.

‘I like Nathan,’ said Daisy abruptly. I looked at her in surprise.

‘Do you?’

‘Yeah. So does Nana.’

‘Nana likes all men, particularly if they’re good-looking and single.’ I leant down to kiss her on the forehead.

‘If you ever wanted a boyfriend, I wouldn’t mind, you know,’ she said. ‘I want you to be happy.’

‘Oh, sweetheart, I am happy!’ I blinked furiously. I am such an emotional old baggage at times. It doesn’t sit well with my police training but there seems to be bugger all I can do about it. I sat down on the bed and held out my arms for a hug. She sat up and actually hugged me back, which doesn’t happen anything like enough when your kids hit their teenage years, and then Germaine’s nose appeared under my arm as she wormed her way in. We laughed and made room for her.

‘How could I not be happy with you two in my life?’ I said, kissing her again. ‘I’ve got everything I need, right here.’

I left her to sleep, and Mum went up to bed an hour later. I sat on the sofa, wrapped up in a blanket and with a mug of cocoa in my hands, thinking over the events of the day.

I thought about Tony, busting the door down in Faith’s caravan. Had the lock really been tampered with, or was it just faulty? If it was faulty the locksmith should have been able to pick it, but if it had been sabotaged … why? It hadn’t achieved anything.

I thought about Zack Smith. He had a nice smile, and if I were twenty years younger I would no doubt have been rendered speechless during our earlier encounter, but I’d reached an age where it was entirely possible to admire the beauty of something without wanting to possess it. Still on the subject of possessing things, I thought briefly about Tony’s tight trousers, but quickly steered away from that as it seemed to be leading me into dangerous and unfamiliar territory (I mean, come on, this was Tony I was thinking about!).

I thought about Nathan, and about how nice it had been to spend some time with him as a friend, to just hang out rather than be working on (or arguing over) a case. I hoped he wasn’t worrying too much about his dad; I really did know what it was like to be miles away when a loved one was sick. Mum’s increasing amount of health problems (although they were all fairly minor) had played a big part in us moving back to Penstowan.

Another less welcome thought occurred to me. What if the same worries led to Nathan moving back up North?

But when my eyelids started to droop and I made my way up to bed, the last thought that popped into my head was of his phone call, just before we said goodnight. What he’d said to his mum. ‘I’m with a friend… Yeah, her.’ Nathan’s told his mum about me, I thought, and I fell asleep with a warm glow enveloping me that wasn’t just down to the duvet.

I woke the next morning to a text message from Debbie, asking for a lift to Polvarrow House. I dropped Daisy off at school and found my fellow but rather more glamorous extra lurking at the gates, having dropped off her own offspring.

She chattered excitedly about yesterday’s shoot – she’d stayed on in the afternoon and had actually seen some action. I thought about telling her that I’d had dinner with Nathan the night before, but I knew she’d blow the whole thing out of proportion and make it sound like it was a date or something (and it so wasn’t, not with Mum and Daisy there, and with Germaine and her fussy bladder).

We pulled up on the gravel driveway and started towards the wardrobe trailer, where doubtless there was another magnificent gown waiting for Debbie, and another potato sack for me.

‘You came back, then?’

We both whirled around at the voice behind us. Zack Smith was standing outside another caravan, having a crafty puff on an e-cigarette. He gave me a friendly smile. He was dressed in a fancier though no less tight version of Tony’s costume from yesterday, but whereas Tony had looked like a cross between a camp pirate and an Eighties New Romantic pop star in his, Zack looked like—

‘Sex on a stick!’ breathed Debbie, mouth open. I nudged her hard and she pulled her jaw up with a snap.

‘I told you, I need the money. Where’s your friend?’ I asked. He looked around quickly, suddenly alarmed.

‘What? Oh my God, I’ve lost it…’ He looked back at me and winked. ‘Nah, I told Kimi I nearly got it – sorry, her – run over by this madwoman and she had a fit. She won’t be asking me again…’ He gave me a broad smile, and I could see he wasn’t exactly upset at having his dog-sitting duties revoked.

‘What a shame. It looked to me like you and the dog were starting to become friends.’ I smiled. ‘‘Princess and Zack’. Got a nice ring to it.’

He laughed loudly. ‘Yeah, right. One of them little dogs really goes with the image, you know what I mean?’ He finished his smoke and pocketed the cigarette. ‘Anyway, better get on. Laters.’

He went into the trailer and shut the door. I headed for Wardrobe, leaving Debbie open-mouthed behind me.

‘Wait! How do you—?