‘Goodbye, my dears. And play safely, won’t you?’
She shut the door in our faces.
‘Well,’ said Tom, stroking my cheek with a knuckle. ‘Your place or mine?’
‘Better be yours, I think,’ I said. ‘Unless you want to ruin yourself for good by booking another room here.’
He grimaced. ‘I’m living on gruel as it is. Come on then.’
The night was cold and we were both shivering as we climbed into his car. The freezing leather was shocking at first, then soothing on my bare thigh.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said. ‘That beating she gave me certainly made the effects of the brandy wear off.’
‘You didn’t drink anything before that, did you?’ I asked anxiously.
He shook his head. ‘No, though I could have done with one. Thought I had a great lead on the council story, but another promising avenue was blocked instead.’
‘Oh!’ I said, remembering what I’d seen before our liaison with Maria. ‘That councillor – the one you’re investigating.’
‘Judd Keane?’
‘Him, yeah. He knows Maria.’
‘What?’ Tom’s hand clenched around the gearstick and he stared at me, almost jumping a red light in his distraction.
‘Red!’ I cried.
He emergency-s
topped.
‘How do you know that? Did she mention him?’
‘No, but I saw them together. Before our appointment. He was kicking up a fuss, said the dungeon was double booked and he had priority.’
‘What? Are you serious? Keane’s kinky?’
‘Yes, and it made me think. Tom, his initial! And he was with a woman. It could have been Mia.’
The cars behind us honked. We hadn’t noticed the lights change to green. Tom put the car into gear and drove off. I was pretty thankful his flat was only a five-minute journey from here.
‘Right,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Bloody hell. A whole new angle. This could be the in I need. But I’m going to have to go carefully. Very carefully.’
‘You don’t think his sex life has anything to do with the corruption, do you?’ I said dubiously.
‘Probably not,’ said Tom. ‘But you never know. Perhaps he’s being blackmailed. Perhaps that’s why he’s pouring council tax money into these people’s pockets. It’s a possibility, at least.’
‘Maybe,’ I said. I was uneasy about this, though. It seemed deeper than we ought to dig, for our own safety if nothing else.
We parked and headed for the flat. I wanted him to put his arms around me, to kiss me or rub my bottom or anything, but he was preoccupied and he marched ahead of me instead.
I was a little way behind him on the stairs, so I heard the woman’s voice float down from the landing before I saw who it belonged to.
‘Tom, we need to talk. Oh.’
She’d seen the top of my head. There was no ducking down or turning back now.
‘Tilda,’ said Tom. ‘What are you…?’