No Longer Safe(25)

No one else I know would have worked as well in this current situation – my real friends are too smart. That’s why Jodie and Mark are good, too – they’re too self-obsessed to see what’s really going on. We all have our parts to play.





Chapter 13




We’d settled into a routine by now, where I was the one who did most of the cooking, which didn’t seem quite fair under the circumstances. I’d agreed to it when there were only two of us; now there were four. So, I drew up a three-day rota with Mark and Jodie’s names on it and Blu-tacked it to the fridge. I waited for a big showdown, but the backlash from Jodie and Mark was minimal.

‘I see you’re taking it in turns,’ Karen said to me, later, when I began preparing the veg for that night’s chicken risotto. ‘I hope that’s going to work.’ Her tone was clipped and she made me feel like I was the hired help. She must have been overtired. I looked the part, standing at the kitchen sink with my rubber gloves on and my hair scraped back. It seemed like any chance of sharing any special time together was rapidly evaporating.

Without warning, my blinding headache was back, like a thick metal band squeezing my temples and I reached into my pocket for another painkiller.

After supper, I bumped into Mark at the bottom of the stairs, putting his jacket on as I came down from the bathroom.

‘We’re going to the pub,’ he said. ‘That wailing kid is doing my head in. You can come if you like. Karen said we can use her car.’

‘Thanks – but I need a cocoa more than anything.’

Jodie flapped her mittened hand at me by way of a goodbye, and they disappeared into the night.

I checked the fire was safely dying, made two hot chocolates and took them upstairs.

Karen was lifting a bawling Melanie out of her cot in the half-light as I eased open the door. ‘Can you pop into their room upstairs and bring another towel down from the linen cupboard? One of the soft white ones? She’s just been sick.’

‘Go into their room?’ I asked. ‘Shouldn’t we—?’ I glanced downstairs. I’d already heard the car leave.

‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘They know I need access – they’re fine with it. It’s the thin white cupboard in the far corner.’

I felt highly uncomfortable invading Jodie and Mark’s private space. When I pushed open the door, the room was a shambles. How could they have made that much mess in such a short amount of time? Clothes were plastered over the bed, shoes littered across the floor and there were open jars of potions and creams left out on the dressing table, the chair, the window ledge.

I snapped open the cupboard in the corner and scanned the shelves. There were sheets and pillowcases near the bottom, a squashed up counterpane, spare pillows, and at the top, under a canvas sports bag, the spare towels. I tried to drag one out without dislodging the bag, but it came down too, landing with a thud at my feet. There was a ripping sound as it fell and I stopped to inspect it, concerned I’d damaged it. I discovered it was only the zip that had made a sound – it had opened at one side and the contents were spilling out.

There were CDs, a tatty paperback, aerosol cans. Then I took a sharp breath and stood back.

Poking out at the bottom was a wad of fifty-pound notes.





Chapter 14




I’d rarely seen a fifty-pound note before and gave the bundle a closer inspection, tracing the silver line inside the top two. Curiosity got the better of me and in one swift yank I whizzed the zip open along its full length and took a good look inside. Salmon-coloured fifty-pound notes – a lot of them. Five batches, maybe forty notes to each one, held together with elastic bands. I worked it out in my head. Crikey – that was a heck of a lot of money – ten thousand pounds! Surely not. What the hell was anyone doing carrying that amount of cash around in a holdall?

I closed the bag and flung it back over the towels on the top shelf, backing out of the room. I held the towel I’d taken comfortingly against my face.

I tapped on Karen’s door and she called to me. ‘Can you leave it in the bathroom, Alice?’

‘Sure…need a hand?’

‘No, I’m fine. Don’t worry.’

I draped the towel over the edge of the bath and left the mug by the sink so she’d see it. Melanie was wailing now and I could hear Karen trying to sooth her. ‘It’s okay, sweetheart – we just need to get you cleaned up a bit.’

I didn’t relish Karen’s task of re-establishing the bond between them after so many interruptions. I sat on my bed with the door open and drank my cocoa, waiting for her to finish so I could tell her what I’d found.