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

a long slice decorated with scarlet flesh and a thin layer of yellow fat. His trackie bottoms and boxers concertinaed in a material puddle on the floor, and trails of scarlet coated his inner thighs. He’d maybe gripped the table edge at some point, one arm stretched up, the other bent at the elbow, and some of the crap that must have been on the cluttered surface had fallen to the floor.

Jason breathed heavily beside her. “Christ Almighty. It’s got to have been him, hasn’t it?”

“Keep your bloody voice down,” she whispered, so irritated she wanted to punch him one. She glanced either side of the garden to check in case someone had come outside into theirs—the fences were five foot, and anyone could peer over. “Maybe whoever he did the Jade job for killed him because he didn’t nick the drugs. That’d be the whole point of the operation, wouldn’t it? Li Jun said they asked about the fridge, so someone in the know has definitely blabbed. Shite.” She turned away and switched the torch off.

Darkness huddled around her, Jason still breathing too loudly, and she forced her mind to work, to stop homing in on the residual images of Brett that lingered at the forefront. This was a tricky situation. If she left him there, eventually, the police would be involved, and no matter how much she paid a few of them, who was to say one who wasn’t in her employ arrived and treated it as they were supposed to, not informing her first. If his clothes from the Jade were found, that’d bring questions, especially the balaclava. Thank God she had the machete in the boot of her car. She wouldn’t need to contact a copper about getting prints off it now, so that was handy, but there was still the job of getting rid of it.

She came to a decision and messaged the head of her cleaning crew.

Cassie: House needs emptying. Give it an hour before arrival—needs to be done fast. Then tomorrow, clean it.

She typed in the address and sent the text. Sought Jason out in the dark beyond the light of her screen. “You keep two body bags in your boot, you said?”

“Yep.”

“Then we’re going to need the other one. We’ll take him to the factory. Fire Marlene up ourselves. Ted and Felix don’t need to know owt about it.”

Jason coughed. “They already know something’s up because of Jiang.”

She was on the verge of braining him. Had he told them what had happened? “What did you say to them?”

“Just that he’d had a machete slice, and they could see that for themselves anyroad.”

She rolled her shoulders to ease the tension building there. “Good. They’ll keep quiet, but with Brett… He’s the bloody grandson of the landlord at The Donny, isn’t he. Geoff talks to Ted and Felix a lot. I don’t want the risk of them letting something slip.” Not that she thought they really would, but she’d cover all bases.

Shitting hell. Geoff would report Brett missing, despite his grandson being a druggy skank. He was still family no matter what he sniffed up his nose and injected in his veins.

She listed in her head what she’d have to do. Luckily, Brett rented the house from Mam, one of many she now owned, so it was easy enough to say he’d given notice last month and said he was moving to Yorkshire tonight. A fresh start to get off the gear. Plausible, something to palm Geoff off with. The removal van being here in a bit and into the early hours would be explained away by saying Brett had left all his shit inside and they needed it cleared for the next tenant. Tomorrow, the cleaners could whip through it, removing any evidence, like Jiang’s blood transference, if that had even occurred.

But what if it wasn’t Brett?

She’d still get rid of the body and empty the place, and if she heard owt about someone else doing the Jade job, she’d sort them then. But for now, it was obvious to her that Brett had failed in his task and someone had taken umbrage. The question was, who the fuck was it?

Whoever it might be, when she got her hands on them, they wouldn’t be breathing for much longer. They had gall, sending Brett into the Jade like that, and she wasn’t about to let them get away with it.

Chapter Seven

Jason had fed Brett’s feet and legs into the chute on top of Marlene the Mincer, something Lenny had arranged to be fitted back in the day, and currently pushed his head slowly so Marlene didn’t get her blades in a tizzy with too much flesh and bones going in too soon. He shuddered at the feel of Brett’s manky hair beneath his palm and wished he’d put gloves on.

Cassie stuffed the druggy’s hoodie into a black bag—she’d scooped up the trackies and boxers back at the house, then they’d walked around it, touching nowt, on the lookout for the black stuff he’d had on in the Jade. Of course, Jason couldn’t tell her he’d already swiped them, and he’d had to continue as if nowt was amiss, making a show of searching with her, laughing inside at the fool’s errand and Cassie getting more uptight by the second.

She’d really dogged him off tonight. There was her barking at him in the lift at Jimmy’s flat—unnecessary, he was only making it clear to the bloke he meant business—and she’d also snarked about it being stupid to use kids to warn people off from going in the Jade.

He’d thought it was a grand idea, hence him doing it, approaching the little fuckers at the park earlier on, his fake beard and eyebrows disguising him well enough. He’d said Cassie wanted the street clear, something he’d have to feign innocence on as well. She’d