‘It seems they do.’
‘What about Brown’s fiancée? What does she think about their relationship?’
‘From what the barman told me, she’s as thick as thieves with them. She’s taken over the running of the local real estate agency on behalf of the owner, who’s incapacitated at the moment, and it was she who sold the factory to Brown in the first place. Her name is Susan Ryan and she now spends much of her spare time down there with him. The barman says she sleeps over.’
‘It looks like trying to get Jade Green by herself will be a very difficult thing. It would have to be planned well in advance.’
‘We’d need some sort of pretext to separate her from the rest.’
‘Well that’s not on the cards for the present.’
‘What’s our next move?’ asked Bree.
‘Tomorrow I’d like to get a look at the house she lives in. It’s out of town, in an isolated spot, so it might mean crawling around in the dirt to try to get a good shot of the place. Do you want to join me?’
‘Crawling is a last resort for me. I think I’ll stay close to the village and try to pick up some background information on the Jade Green gang,’
Next morning Sam rose before dawn so that he could be in position before the sun came up.
Bree slept in and had a leisurely shower and a full breakfast before wandering out of the pub and along the main street.
Several shops along she saw Lana emerge from a supermarket on the opposite side of the road with a grocery bag in each hand.
Sensing an opportunity, Bree crossed the road and wandered slowly towards Lana while pretending to look in the shop windows. Moving quickly, she ‘accidentally’ collided with Lana, nearly sending her bags flying.
‘Oh shit! I’m sorry,’ Bree exclaimed, as she grabbed Lana to save her from dropping her groceries.
‘Here. Let me give you a hand with that.’
‘That’s OK. I’m fine,’ said Lana.
Bree almost grabbed the bag out of Lana’s hand.
‘No. Let me give you a hand. It’s the least I can do, especially after your help yesterday.’
‘Oh. All right. I’m parked just over there.’
Lana pointed to a small Japanese sedan.
‘Ah, a luxury limousine.’
‘Yes,’ laughed Lana. ‘But it’s all I need to get me around the
village,’ She opened the boot and placed the bags inside.
‘Can I buy you a cup of coffee?’ asked Bree. ‘The distance I carried the bag hardly repays the artistic debt my partner and I owe you.’
‘Well, I was about to have coffee with friends. I suppose they won’t mind a fourth at the table. It might be interesting to get another viewpoint on things.’
‘There’s nothing I like more than to give my opinion.’
‘We won’t have you engaging in environmental brainwashing,’ warned Lana.
‘You have my word on it,’ Bree replied with a cheeky grin.
Lana led Bree to a small coffee shop on the high street. Several tables and chairs were set up beneath umbrellas on the path outside. Lana made her way to one where a woman was already seated, tending to a baby in a pram.
‘Hi Jane,’ called Lana as she approached. The woman turned and gave Lana a welcoming grin.
‘I think he just smiled at me,’ she said excitedly.
‘Probably just wind,’ Lana smiled back at her.
The two women sat and Lana performed the introductions. ‘Jane, this is Bree, she’s from the Save the Country Fund. Toby is creating a logo for them. Bree, this is Jane Taylor. Jane’s hus band Rodney is in charge of our local police station.’
‘Shit,’ thought Bree. ‘I’ve walked right into it this time.’
Lana made the final introduction. ‘And this is the new Master Tobias Taylor. Just six weeks and a couple of days old. The light of Jane’s life.’
Jane beamed as Bree did the obligatory cooing and aahing that meeting a new-born required. Bree was not the mothering type, which was why she still lived alone.
‘Shall we order now or wait for Suzie?’ asked Lana.
‘We’ll order now,’ said Jane. ‘I never know just when his master here will demand to be fed. I do whatever I can, whenever I can, these days. By the way, which country are you saving Bree?’
The coffees arrived just as Lana raised her hand and waved.
Bree looked in the direction of the wave and saw a pair of long legs, wrapped in a short skirt, tight, and lifted on a pair of stiletto heels, come towards them. The dynamic Suzie Ryan dropped into the last remaining chair. ‘Bloody men,’ she exclaimed.
‘Suzie, this is Bree. Bree is from the Save the Country Fund.’
‘Which country?’ asked Suzie.
‘Forget it,’ smiled Bree, ‘I’ll explain later. Now what about men?’ she asked to change the subject.
‘It’s that bloody Derek and Jimmy at the council.’
‘Jimmy and Derek are old friends of Suzie’s. They work for the local council,’ explained Lana. ‘Now what have they done?’
‘With all the work going on around here the council is being inundated with new development applications. So Derek and Jimmy requested help behind the counter. Council granted their request and then made the big mistake of putting Jimmy and Derek in charge of the selection process.’
Jane sipped at her coffee.
‘So what happened?’
‘Those two sex crazed madmen selected two women, two young women, two young women with even bigger boobs than mine.’
The three listeners burst out laughing while Suzie continued her tale of woe.
‘It was all right before. I just flashed a bit of cleavage and got the jobs passed without any problems. Now I have to wait like everyone else. And the worst of it is that I can’t complain. The bitches actually know what they’re doing. They’ve been taught too well.’
The other three would have felt very sorry for Suzie but were too busy laughing.
After
