WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (45 page)

ONE
HOUR EARLIER

K
ate parked her
red Mini Cooper in the driveway of Alan and Jenna’s house, grabbed her handbag
and strutted to the front door, angling her head against the cool breeze. 

What
is so urgent that it can’t wait until Monday?
 

It
was sacrilege to interrupt her shopping spree.  Why would Joe, Alan's
assistant, summon her to the office when Alan worked from home on the
weekend?  She had no intention of solving whatever software problem had
arisen.  Quite the opposite.  She'd had enough.  

I
can do this.  If Jenna can leave her marriage, then I can quit my job,
she told
herself, rubbing her temple.
 

The
idea had been banging around in her head for weeks, like an energised golf ball
fighting its way out.  It now had reached the point where she was
convinced that her head might explode if she didn’t blurt the words out. 
She loathed working for Alan and hiding his dodgy dealings.  Jenna was
only allowed to know about the yard business, not where the real money came
from.  Kate wished she didn’t know the truth either. 

Alan
had made it perfectly clear that if Kate ever breathed a word about his scam,
Jenna would go down for it, too.  He even showed Kate several documents
which Jenna had signed, not realising she was signing documents implicating
herself in the fraud. 

Finding
a way to bring Alan down without Jenna and herself taking the brunt for things,
too, had proved difficult.  Impossible.  If Alan didn’t let her quit
she’d have to blow the lid on his scam.  She’d just have to accept the
risks.  Kate feared she would end up in jail.  After all, she’d been
spending the money Alan paid her for months – money stolen from innocent
people.  Kate hoped Jenna would not be hurt by the consequences.  But
knew she would be.  Alan had ensured that the paper trail of the business
would lead back to Jenna.  Kate felt cornered, but she could not continue
working for Alan.  It was too much. 

Kate
straightened her posture and smoothed her skirt over her thighs.  

Alan’s
car was in the driveway along with another one she didn’t recognise. 
I
really hope Alan doesn’t question me about her disappearance,
she thought,
my
reaction might give me away. 

Jenna
often told Kate that her feelings were written on her face as clearly as text
on a page.  If that were the case, Kate had no idea how come Jenna hadn’t
worked out the truth about her husband’s illegal dealings long ago.  Every
time the conversation swung that way, Kate’s tongue practically tied in a
slippery knot of anxiety.  She struggled to change the subject and her
face would drain of warmth.  Perhaps Jenna suspected something but didn’t
want to put Kate on the spot by pressing her.  Besides, knowledge wasn’t
always a good thing.

Kate
pulled a small frameless mirror out of her handbag to practice her surprised
look.  A casino chip fell out and landed on the driveway.  She popped
it back into her bag on top of several others. 
I’ll use those tonight,
she promised herself while checking her reflection.  Drag Steve out to the
casino later
.  Why hasn’t he replied to my text yet?
 
His
phone’s gone walkabout.  Nothing new there.
 

Kate
would need an adrenaline rush to unwind after this, topped off with a sweaty
romp between the sheets.  But not only that, now that she’d have no wage
rolling in, she’d need a big win to see her through until she found another
job. 

Her
only other options were to sell her shoe and bag collection on Ebay, or work
for her boyfriend Steve and his brother Dylan at their outdoor adventure
park.  Working knee-deep in mud with rope ladders, tyre swings, and
screaming people flying overhead on zip lines, however, didn’t appeal. 
And waving goodbye to her precious shoes and bags would sting.

She
stretched the muscles of her mouth, forcing her jaw to drop down in mock
surprise, angling the mirror to catch a bit more daylight from the cloudy
sky. 
No, that won’t work.
  Her gaping mouth was as fake as
her breasts.  Rain spotted the mirror so she wiped it with her palm. 
She tried again, this time raising her eyebrows in sync.  She needed to
look convincing, knowing that the first thing to come out of Alan’s mouth would
be, ‘Where is Jenna?’

Kate
slipped the mirror into her jacket pocket, took a calming breath and pressed
the door bell.  It didn’t seem to work so she knocked.  The door was
ajar. 
Strange.
  She waited out of politeness, knowing Alan
would already be worked up.  After some moments, she knocked again, and
then gave up and pushed the door inwards. 

Kate
edged into the dim entrance hall, veiled in gloom due to the overcast
day.  A small lamp in the corner, with its shade tilted off balance, cast
a weak glow over one wall.  The air was far less perfumed than usual,
perhaps even a touch... metallic.  Weird.

“Hellooo?”
Kate said gently. 

Alan
would be in a dark, stinking mood.  No sense enraging him further by
storming in, shouting.  She needed to go in softly, perhaps even act
jolly, hit him with the news as though it was no big deal, and then get the
hell out of there before he realised it was.  Hopefully, he would be so
distraught about Jenna today that he wouldn’t care about her quitting, wouldn’t
think about the consequences until she’d gone.  She intended to follow in
Jenna’s footsteps by making herself scarce for a few days.... or weeks.

Kate
walked further along the hall, heading for the kitchen.  “Alan? 
Jenna?” she said, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.  “Anyone
home?”  There was method behind her callings.  If Alan heard her
saying Jenna’s name, he might believe she knew nothing of her desertion. 

Kate’s
shoe lost purchase on something slippery.  She threw her palm against the
wall to right her stance, and glanced down.  A pool of liquid lay in
shadow near her feet.  There was a scrape mark where she’d slipped in it,
and dried drag lines coming out of the other side which led to the kitchen. 
The liquid was deep crimson in colour. 

Kate’s
heart drummed a little faster, thinking how much the spillage looked like...
blood.  No.  Surely not.  A trick of the light.  She forced
herself to press on, and do what she had come to do.

Sidestepping
the liquid as best she could, Kate continued on toward the main part of the
house.  Alan or one of his men should have heard her by now.  They
were normally faster than shit off a shovel. 
Where is everyone? 
And why was the front door open?
  He must have shooed them out of the
house in a rage, considering Jenna had walked out on their marriage
yesterday. 

A
metallic clang came from somewhere in the house. 

Kate
tugged on her bottom lip with her fingers, mulling things over. 
Oh,
maybe I should bottle this up for another time.  Alan’s angry. 
She
swivelled on her heels, then froze.

An
unfamiliar male voice travelled from the kitchen.  No.  It sounded
more distant.  From the patio out the back? 

More
loud bangs came from the rear of the house, making her twitch. 

A
light clicked on in the kitchen, and then that voice again.  Clearer
now.  Nearer. 

It
wasn’t Alan’s.

“Boss,
we may have a problem.”

There
was a pause.

“I
dug up the patio, stuffed the pants in his mouth, wrote those words on his
chest... did everything like you said.  But when I started to wrap him in
the rug, I remembered something.”

Kate
gasped. 
Who the hell is this?

“He
was on the phone, boss.  Alan was on the bloody phone when we barged in,
wasn’t he?  We surprised him, and I’m not sure if he actually hung up the
call.  Are you?  I got this real bad feeling...”

Kate
inhaled a wisp of breath and held it, leaned her shoulder against the kitchen
door frame, listening.  No one answered the man.  He must have been
on the phone.

“What
do you think I’ve been doing?”  The man paused to swear under his
breath.  “I checked his calls, the times, even dialed the last mobile
number and you know what I got?  It went to the... Okay, okay... 
I’ll cut to the point.   Our voices.  The shot.  Alan getting
topped... I think that the whole fucking thing was recorded on Jenna’s
voicemail.”

Kate
covered her mouth just in time to mask a scream.  She didn’t want to
believe her ears, but the word ‘shot’ had already filled her body with a flame
of panic.   She was too frightened to move, to think, to do anything.

Apart
from grunting, and something crashing in the kitchen, the man went silent for a
moment or two.  Every time he attempted to speak, his mumbling stopped
dead.  Someone was cutting him off.

Finally
he got a full sentence out.  “The P.I?  The one who’s been
following...  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I ain’t heard shit from ‘em for
days.  I’ll make the call.  Say what, boss?”  He paused. 
“Escaped?  You’re serious?  I thought she was backup in case the password
didn’t... Okay, okay.  Has the computer chick arrived yet?”  He
paused.  “Sure.  I’ll send Jenna a message from his mobile. 
Yes.  Got it.  Mention our new guest and threaten to... 
Yes.  I agree.  That should stop her running to the cops.”

Hand
still flush over her mouth, Kate stared nervously toward the front door. 
The man’s voice was now only a murmur compared to her thumping heart. 
Time to leave.  Despite her overheating brain, it didn’t take a genius to
work out that
she
was the computer chick. 

She
slipped her expensive heels off.  She was about to hotfoot it out of there
when the man spoke again. 

“And
you want me to do what?  Say that again.  Dig two more spaces under
the patio?”  His shocked high-notes boomed into the hallway, making Kate flinch. 
“Who for?”

One
of Kate’s designer shoes fell out of her grip and banged on the hardwood
floor.  In her silence, it sounded as loud as the thunder that had plagued
the night’s sky.  She’d wanted those shoes for weeks, but didn’t give a
shit about them now.  She steeled herself, pressed her hand even harder
over her mouth to stop the whimper that threatened to escape.  She froze
on the spot, twisted awkwardly like a rubber-limbed gymnast, and squeezed her
eyes shut so tight that they hurt.  Shit.  Shit.  Shit.

“I
think we have a problem.”  Shoes clicked on tiles in the kitchen.
 “I’ll call you back.”

 Panic
twisted Kate’s gut. 

An
oversized shadow entered the hall from the kitchen and moved along the wall in
front of her.  A head and shoulders.  The kitchen light clicked
off.  The shadow vanished, but its source was still there, breathing
nearby in the kitchen.

Kate
leapt lightning fast over the spillage.  She now knew it to be blood and
could taste traces of copper on her dry tongue. 

“Who’s
there?” the man called.

She
raced to the front door, her heart springing in her chest. 

The
footsteps grew louder behind her.  Faster.  The sound changed from
tapping to clunks.  Shadow-man had entered the hallway.

Kate
shot through the front door, ran barefoot down the rain-spotted drive, her
watery gaze seeking her car but unable to focus.  She threw her other shoe
away, shoved her hand inside her flapping bag and fished around for her
keys. 

The
man cursed from inside the house.  His swearing ended in a thud. 

Her
fingers vibrated like the needles on her Mini’s dashboard as she pulled the
keys out, realising he must have slipped in the blood.  She couldn’t
believe her luck.  There was time to get away, drive to the police station
and get help. 

But
she couldn’t control her shakes. 

The
keys jangled, slipped out of her grip and landed by her feet.  “Stupid
girl,” she scolded herself.

Something
whizzed across the corner of her eye, and Kate gasped.

A
large figure rushed toward her, growing in size with every thundering
step.  “Who the fuck are you?”

“I...
er... oh shit.”  She bent to scoop up her keys, stumbled the remaining few
feet to her car, and felt for the key fob.  She missed the button, and her
keys scratched the paintwork on the door.  

The
footsteps halted beside her, and Kate thought her heart had stopped, too. 

She
turned to run onto the street, and then a strong palm clapped down on her right
shoulder from behind.  She tried to scream, but choked on fear. 
Wheezes escaped her lips. 

The
burly guy spun her around so fast that her head whirled like liquid sloshing in
a bucket.  He snatched the keys out of her hand and threw them into the
bushes.  Shoving her in the chest, he slammed her back against the
car.  “Woah!  Nice firm tits, but who the fuck are you?” he said,
voice sharp as claws, garlic breath a sinister blast in her face. 

Kate
screamed, but the man punched her in the stomach, killing all sound.