Mason
“Drive safely.” I kissed the tip of Ava’s nose and watched her drive down the driveway. Harry trotted over to me, nudging me with his snout. “You gonna miss your mama too, huh?”
Ava had nipped back to Kirkingham to see if she could find out Etta’s connection with the place. It might not be important, but we had the time to explore every avenue. Although Kirkingham wasn’t a million miles away from Manchester, it was a little strange why Etta would visit the small rural town. I’d done as much digging as I could over the New Year, and finally, late January, we’d had a small but significant breakthrough. Vickie Scott, Etta’s mother, grew up in Kirkingham, and we’d both been more than a bit surprised to find out her best friend at the time was Janice. It couldn’t be a coincidence, surely, and luckily for us, Ava had already reacquainted herself with Janice. I couldn’t find any more connection to the two friends through the years, though, but it was definitely worth checking out.
I was still sifting through various shit my guy had sent through, and I was staying behind to scour through old parish records and registers to ascertain exactly where Vickie had lived before moving out to Portugal where we had met her and her husband, Frank.
I locked Harry in his sty and made my way back inside the house. My phone rang, and I pulled it from my pocket. “Mr Fox,” Graham greeted me. “I found some old class photos from Vickie Scott’s school and a couple of yearbooks. Might lead us to nothing, but you asked for everything, so.”
“Perfect, thank you. Can you scan them and email over, please?”
“Already on it.” Graham Marple PI (Yes, that was his real name. And, yes, Ava and I had had more than a couple of giggles at how appropriate it was for his job) charged a whack, a lot more than his predecessor, but so far, he had gone above and beyond in helping Ava and me find our grandson and had proved his worth.
Flicking the switch on the Tardis, marvelling at how easy it was to make my own coffee, I sat at the table and opened the laptop. As promised, my email notified me to a new inbox message from Graham, and just as I was about to click on it, a knock on the door interrupted me.
It was strange to have visitors, and I frowned as I went to answer it. The blood in my veins started to boil when I opened the door and found Danny stood on my doorstep gawping at me. “Oh, uh, is Ava home?”
Shoving my hands in my pockets to stop them from making their way to his scrawny neck, I clicked my tongue. “Nope.”
From the grimace he made, he was clearly aware that I knew he had kissed my wife. But, apparently unfazed by the glower on my face, he remained firm and held up an envelope. “I came to drop off her wages.”
“You mean her severance pay? Or a bribe so she won’t report you for firing her because she wouldn’t sit on your dick?”
He looked a little shocked. He blinked a few times and his jaw worked, but nothing came out of his mouth. He made a face that looked astonishingly like his first grimace, only with a bit more pain. Eventually finding his nut sack, he managed to answer. “Hmm. Well, if you could give her this?”
“Yep.”
He jerked when I snatched the envelope out of his hand and took a step back. “I, uh…”
It took me all my strength not to roll my eyes at the cunt, but I amazed myself yet again. “Spit it out!”
“I, uh, bought her a gift. For Christmas.”
Oh, Jesus, what the fuck had Ava seen in this plonker? “It’s January!”
I caught the way he bit his tongue at my retort. Maybe the prick did have some spunk after all. “I know. I didn’t think she’d want to see me for a while. It’s nothing huge, just an apology really.”
Deciding to be the bigger man, I exhaled loudly and gave him a short nod. “Okay, why not!”
He looked quite jovial with my agreement and bobbed up and down on his heels, excited. “Brilliant, thank you. I saw it and immediately thought of her. It’s in the car. Two secs.”
I was freezing my nuts off, and I grumbled under my breath as Thor opened the back door of his car and reached for a red striped box that sat on the seat.
The Tardis played its merry tune from the kitchen to say my cup of black nectar was awaiting me and my mouth watered in anticipation.
“As I said, Mason,” Thor muttered as he walked back to me. “Just a little surprise.”
Nodding, eager to get rid of the twat, I held my hand out to take it from him.
“I’ll even show you, just so you know it’s nothing kinky like sexy undies. Or a new dildo!” he added with a laugh.
What the fuck had he just said?
He slid the lid off the box to verify his statement, but I was too busy glaring at his ugly face, debating whether to rip his tongue from his mouth or his bollocks from his dick to look at some stupid scarf or whatever the hell the thick bastard had bought her.
Stupid.
Turned out he wasn’t the cowardly prick I thought he was.