I froze at the sound of a key slipping into the door lock. If this was the killer returning to clean up, I was buggered. There was only one way out of the flat — past the killer.
I stared at the twisting doorknob, raced into the kitchen and grabbed a knife, then stopped halfway down the hallway. The lock snapped back into place.
My plan was simple. The second this tosser made an aggressive move, I was charging him with the knife. I didn’t care if I cut him, just as long as I broke free.
The door eased open and my grip on the knife tightened. I controlled my breathing by taking long and deep inhalations.
C’mon, you prick, I thought.
The door swung open and a blonde woman no older than twenty-three stood in the doorway. She froze at the sight of me, her key still outstretched.
I dropped my knife and raised my hands. Her gaze flicked past me to the mess in the living room.
‘It’s not what you think,’ I blurted.
My words must have gotten lost in translation somewhere along the way. Her expression tightened, distorting her attractive face into something ugly, as if I’d promised to kill her and her family. She reached into her shoulder bag and charged at me.
I kept my hands up and retreated into the living room.
‘Really, it’s OK.’
I tripped on something and fell backward. In the time it took me to land on a CD player that caught me across my kidneys, the blonde was upon me. She sprayed me in the face with something that smelled floral but burned my eyes like acid. I yelled out and clutched my face as she delivered the coup de grâce by kicking me in the balls.
So much for my escape plan.
Lap Eight
My vision was in shreds, but I recognized the beeping sounds of buttons being pressed on a mobile phone.
‘Stop,’ I choked out. I palmed at my eyes, but it did nothing to clear my vision or stop the burning. ‘I can explain.’
‘Do you want another kick in the nuts?’
‘Jason’s brother, Andrew, sent me to check in on his place.’
She stopped dialling. ‘What?’
I looked her way, but she remained a blur. I fished for the door key Gates had given me and held it out. ‘I came by and found this place turned over. I heard the door and thought it was the burglar coming back.’
She was silent for a long moment. I hoped she was deciding not to call the cops and kick me in the balls again.
‘You’re a friend of Andrew’s?’ A heavy note of contempt edged the question.
‘Not really, but he’s not the kind of guy to take no for an answer if he asks you to do something.’
‘That’s for sure.’
‘Look, can you help me up? That crap you sprayed me with is melting my eyes.’
I held out my hands and felt hers take hold. She guided me to the kitchen sink, where I doused my eyes. I groaned as the pain ebbed away and my vision returned.
‘What was that crap?’
She held out a small can of extra hold hairspray. ‘Pepper spray is considered an offensive weapon. Hairspray isn’t and works just as well.’
‘Good to know,’ I said wiping my face with a paper towel. ‘How’d you discover that nugget?’
This time she smiled. ‘A cop told our self-defence class about it and how it wouldn’t be classed as a weapon if we used it.’
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Carrie Russell. Jason’s girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend.’
‘Ex?’
‘We broke up three months ago. His idea. Not mine.’
The break-up hadn’t been serious enough for him to take his door key back. That explained the second toothbrush in the bathroom.
‘I’m Aidy Westlake,’ I said and offered my hand.
She eyed it for a moment before taking it. I’d yet to fully earn her trust. I needed to give her something to win her over.
‘I suppose you know about Jason.’
She nodded when the word yes wouldn’t come.
‘Could I talk to you for a minute? Please. I’d really appreciate your help.’
‘With what?’
‘With what happened to Jason. I was the one who found him that night.’
She paled and put her hand to her mouth.
‘Let’s sit down.’ I righted the sofa and we sat on its slashed and shredded cushions.
‘I talked to the police,’ she said. ‘They said someone from another team found him.’
I nodded. ‘I drive for Ragged.’
‘Did he say anything before.?.?. y’know?’
‘No. I tried to save him. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just trying stuff I’d seen on TV. I felt so useless.’
‘You aren’t a doctor.’
‘I know, but I should know the basics. We all should.’
‘We should know a lot of things that we don’t.’
Tears clouded my vision and I palmed them away in some lame attempt to hide the fact from Carrie.
‘So why are you here? And more importantly, how are you involved with Andrew Gates?’
‘He wants me to find out what happened to his brother.’
‘Why? Did you know Jason?’
‘No, but I found him next to the Ragged Racing team transporter. That and the fact that I drive for them was enough for Andrew to decide that I’m the person that can find something out. He doesn’t trust the police.’
‘Typical of him.’
No love lost between Carrie and Andrew. I thought that could help me. ‘I think Jason was looking for something when he was killed.’
Carrie’s eyes flashed recognition.
‘What is it?’ I said.
She said nothing.
‘Obviously, Jason was on to something and whatever it was got him killed. Whatever he had or knew, he didn’t give it up, so someone came here looking for it. I think they found it. Someone burned up printed pictures from a computer in the bathroom. Jason’s printer is here, but I can’t find a computer.’
Carrie jumped up and clambered over the wreckage to the corner of the room where the cheap office desk rested on its side. ‘His laptop’s gone?’
I followed her. ‘What’s going on? What was Jason up to, Carrie?’
‘I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.’
She sifted through the cast-aside papers, books and belongings.
‘It’s gone, Carrie.’
‘I know. I’m looking for a picture. Help me find it? It’s a print of Nigel Mansell racing in the rain.’
I knew the picture. It depicted Mansell’s second-place finish at the 1988 British Grand Prix in the vastly underpowered and temperamental Williams Judd. It has to be one of the top ten drives of the modern era. I found the framed print, or what was left of it, by the kitchen. The glass had been broken and the back ripped from the frame.
I held up the ruined picture. ‘Found it.’
‘No, no, no.’ She scrabbled across the room and snatched the frame from me. ‘It’s gone. They’ve got it all.’
‘What’s gone? Who’s got it all?’
She let the frame slip between her fingers and hit the ground. ‘Jason wouldn’t tell me what he was doing. I just know something happened with his team.’
‘Townsend Motorsport?’
‘No, Ragged Racing. It was why he left. He wouldn’t talk about it, but he was very upset.’
Ronson thought Ragged was cheating. Had Jason caught Rags in the act a year ago? Gates claimed that Jason was straight. If that were true, he wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with cheating. If Jason was trying to get evidence, it explained why he’d been trying to break into the transporter that night. If he’d gotten it, that would have been a problem for Rags. It’s easy to deal with a spy or blackmailer. You slap one around and pay the other off. An honest man is different. There is no paying off that kind of person. Rags’ reputation was massive. He couldn’t risk seeing that destroyed. Jason’s murder would make sense under those circumstances, which seemed like a stretch at this point.