Love You Dead

109 Friday 13 March

Tooth, munching a pulled-pork wrap and sipping a Coke in an almost-deserted golf course car park half a mile away, watched the afternoon progress into evening. Lemon cake and tea gave way to champagne and canapés. Oh, Jodie, he thought with grudging admiration, you are a true pro.

The tubby American was revelling in her attentions. Right now he was lounging on a sofa, stroking a cat and holding a freshly refilled glass of bubbly.

Meanwhile she was busy in the kitchen, swigging his champagne as she cooked.

She wasn’t going to be driving that Merc anywhere tonight.

But the one bit of good news was that she seemed to have persuaded him to cancel his limousine for tomorrow, and to let her take him on a further drive around the Sussex of his youth in her car, instead.

Tooth decided he might as well abandon his vigil for tonight and go find a hotel within easy striking distance, but outside of Grace’s likely search area. He googled and found several in the vicinity of Gatwick Airport, where he’d stayed on his last visit.

There was a Hilton at Gatwick. Hiltons were pretty anonymous places. He checked online and booked himself a room.

Erotic flashes of Jodie Carmichael naked in front of her mirror returned to his mind. There’d be plenty of hookers he could find online who’d be willing to come to an airport hotel like the Hilton. The thought cheered him up.

But not as much as the thought of Jodie Carmichael driving herself and her fat boyfriend out of the garage tomorrow morning did.