Action

As Davina walked past him and out of the shop she replayed the morning in her head. At no point had she mentioned filming around Jack. She glanced at his clenched jaw. So what the heck was yanking his chain?

Jack was fuming. The woman was supplying half of Sussex with her drug-filled brownies. She was brazen about it. Making deals in front of him. Deals with tiny old people. Seriously. What was the world coming to? Didn’t she care that he was ex-police? They walked in silence down the steep hill towards the sea.

“Are you going to be with me all day?” Davina asked. Her tone was cool. Like she was the one offended.

“Yep.”

“Really? All day? If I tell you to get lost now are you going to be ten feet behind me hugging the shadows until I go to bed?”

If he wasn’t mistaken that was anger he was hearing. Good. He was angry too.

“What are you going to do about it? Dial 999?”

Her pink lips pursed.

“I can’t very well do that when you are best buddies with half the station, can I?”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason.?

?

Her heels clicked annoyingly on the pavement beside him.

“You’ve got an attitude problem,” she told him.

“Trust me, Davy, attitude is the least of my problems.”

She took a sharp turn into the covered car park beside the cinema.

“Where are we going?” He trailed behind her.

“To get my car.”

Jack had abandoned his car at the TV station, paying a huge hourly parking rate for the pleasure. There was no way he was going back for it now. Looked like he was hitching a ride with Davina. His jaw clenched so tightly he was giving himself a toothache. He cast a glance at the 1950’s sex bomb beside him. Gorgeous or not, the sooner she was out of his life – and his house – the better. He trailed behind Davina, all the way up to the fourth floor. At last she stopped in front of a car. His heart sank.

“This is where I get off.” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Bye, bye,” she told him.

“Please tell me that isn’t your car,” he said.

Davina turned towards the vintage miniature Citroen 2CV with pride. She patted the roof.

“My baby,” she cooed.

“It’s pink,” Jack said.

“You’re very observant,” Davina told him. “You should be in the police force.”

Jack grimaced at the car. It wasn’t just pink. It was bubble-gum pink. Who in their right mind would do that to a car? He folded his arms and stood straighter, hoping it would intimidate her even a little.

“I’m not getting in that,” he said.

“No one asked you to.”

She opened the door, squeezed herself in and started to pull the door shut. Damn, she was going to leave without him. He grabbed the door and wedged himself against it so that she couldn’t shut it.

“Get out of my way.” Her eyes narrowed. It made him swallow hard.

“Look,” he said. “Let’s be reasonable. We both know that I won’t fit in there. You barely fit in there. How about we go get my car? My nice big SUV. We’ll both fit in that and I can drive you home.”