Private London (Private 4)
‘So it was all supposed to be an elaborate joke. Hannah getting back at her father. What went wrong? How did my god-daughter end up in hospital?’
Graham stood up from the bed, holding his hands out apologetically. ‘Like I said, Chloe wasn’t supposed to be there. Laura brought someone along. A real heavy dude.’
I had a fair idea who the ‘dude’ was and I had a fair idea who had introduced him to Laura Skelton.
‘Collect that stuff up,’ I said to Suzy.
‘Hey, come on, man.’
‘That’s “Mister Carter” to you.’
‘I told you all I know.’ Graham looked over nervously at his stash. ‘I need to move that on.’
‘Not going to happen.’
Suzy upended a kitbag that was lying on the floor and then scooped the drugs into it.
‘I got to sell that to pay for it. You know how this works. They’ll kill me.’
‘Hopefully,’ I said.
‘Shit,’ Graham said. I thought he was going to star
t crying again.
‘Where’s Laura Skelton now?’ I asked him.
‘I don’t know. Honestly. She hasn’t been seen since yesterday. Nobody knows where she is.’
‘Come on,’ I said to Suzy and walked to the door.
‘They’re going to hurt me bad,’ Graham called out to me.
‘Get used to it,’ said Suzy and kicked him full in the nuts.
He really shouldn’t have called her a bitch.
Chapter 92
‘WHERE TO NOW, then, Mister Carter?’ said Suzy with decidedly ironic deference.
‘What?’ she said then, puzzled by the look on my face.
‘I’ve been ten kinds of idiot, Suzy.’
I hurried down the corridor and back to the apartment that Chloe shared with Hannah and Laura. In Laura’s bedroom I picked up from the floor the bathrobe that she had been wearing earlier. It pretty much confirmed what I had suddenly realised. I sniffed it.
‘You going to tell me what this is all about, or am I just putting you down as another typical male pervert, Dan?’ said Suzy.
I tossed her the bathrobe ‘Do you smell that?’
‘Perfume?’
‘Chanel No. 5.’
Suzy held the robe closer and smelled again. ‘I think you’re right,’ she said.
I knew I was. I’d spent enough on the stuff for my ex-wife over the years.