Patrick did up the zip on his coat and stepped out of the flat, turning to face her. ‘I don’t know. Nothing, possibly. Or everything.’
Thanking her again, and resisting the urge to give her a kiss on her plump cheek, Patrick walked away, his head full of all the new information he had received. The two teenage murder victims had collaborated on a piece of writing. Finally, a firm link between them.
But who were the other authors of that story?
And were they in danger too?
Chapter 41
Day 13 – Kai
Kai regarded Jade, who was leaning her forehead against the industrial-sized drinks fridge in Mervyn Hammond’s kitchen to try to cool down. She looked unbelievably hot – in both senses – in the tight black skirt, white blouse and weird little frilly white thing on her head that the temp agency had made her wear for the occasion. Her hair was scraped back off her face and she had not, to her rage, been allowed to wear more than the bare minimum of make-up.
They were both taking advantage of the fact that the chef – a scary-looking tattooed geezer – had gone for a ten-minute break and Mervyn’s housekeeper, an excitable Thai woman, was AWOL too.
‘It’s not fair!’ Jade grumbled. ‘Why should that tall slag get to serve OnT’s drinks, when I want to!’
She was referring to the fact that their agency boss had reiterated, in no uncertain terms, that Jade, Kai and the other temp staff were not permitted to talk to or even look at the boys in OnT, who had their own private waitress – an incredible-looking six-foot Somalian girl with skin like milk chocolate who was gliding around them smiling serenely and discreetly, waiting on them hand and foot. Jade was only allowed to serve the lesser mortals, and Kai only allowed to collect and wash the glasses.
‘Babe, you’re in the same frickin’ room as them! Ain’t that enough? And all them other slebs – did you see him off Match of the Day in there, talking to whatserface from The One Show? It’s dead exciting!’
Jade softened, happy again. ‘Yeah, bae, you’re right, how incredible is this? We’re really here. Aren’t you proud of me for getting us the jobs? I just gave a mini-burger to Nicoletta, you know, that model that Blake’s nobbing! But I tell you what, I’m gonna fill up Shawn’s glass tonight if it kills me. I’ll do it when the dragon isn’t looking.’
She hugged herself with joy. Kai secretly hoped she would spill red wine all down fucking Shawn Barrett’s front and get kicked out. But it was kind of cool to be there, he’d thought when they arrived. Jade had been directly approached on the forum by someone saying that the agency were looking for temp staff for a ‘special event’ and there was a rumour that OnT were involved. The rumour had turned out to be true.
But he and Jade had hardly seen one another for more than a few moments since before the party started – Kai was buried in clouds of steam, constantly loading and unloading the dishwasher. Cool or not, he was teetering on the edge of a pretty bad mood, despite his enthusiastic comments, and the steam was making his acne itch and burn. He was only allowed out of the kitchen and into the party itself whenever the clean glasses ran out and he had to go and collect empties, and every time he’d been in there, Jade was beaming and blushing and totally obviously being ogled by the pervy host, Mervyn Hammond, as she filled up the guests’ glasses, sticking out her massive boobies the whole time. Hammond’s bodyguard couldn’t take his eyes off her either, Kai noticed. His heart sank in despair – the guy looked like Ross Kemp while he, Kai, had to do about nine million chin-ups before he got any noticeable muscle definition in his biceps. He’d worked hard at it, and his torso was getting there – although there was nothing he could do about the fact that he looked like a fucking Oompa Loompa from the waist down. How could he compete?
The party planner, a.k.a. the dragon, their supervisor for the evening – an anorexic old lady of at least forty-five dripping in diamonds, in a hideous long purple dress that exposed her wrinkly old cleavage and bony shoulder blades – burst into the kitchen, waving a thin arm at them. ‘Come on! Stop standing around looking gormless, it’s at least an hour until your break! You’ – she pointed at Kai – ‘get out there and collect some more glasses, there are no clean ones, and you, Jane, take the beef satay out of the oven, now!’
‘It’s Jade,’ muttered Jade under her breath as she donned oven gloves and removed the tray of food. It was the first time in her whole life she had opened an oven door, and she only knew to use the oven gloves because she’d seen the chef do it earlier.
Once the dragon had swept out again, Kai scurried over to try to give Jade a quick snog, but she brushed him off impatiently. ‘Don’t, Kai, I just put on more lip gloss. Got to hand round this beefy shit – hey, maybe this is my chance! The dragon said I can’t serve drinks to Shawn and the boys, but she didn’t say nothing about beef on sticks!’
She was gone, leaving Kai hot and frustrated. He picked up an empty plastic basket and followed her back into the party. Gainful employment was not something that either of them had very much experience of, and it was turning out to be surprisingly hard work. He was not enjoying the dirty looks all the B-list celebs were giving him as he noisily stacked glasses into the basket. Not enjoying that creep Hammond and his meathead bodyguard staring at Jade’s tits. Not enjoying seeing Jade practically soak her pants every time she caught a glimpse of one of the OnT twats among the crush of bodies in Hammond’s massive living room.
Kai was becoming increasingly worried that Jade was going to leave him for someone more glamorous – probably not Shawn Barrett, though. Kai wasn’t so deluded that he thought Jade stood a chance with any of OnTarget. But that bodyguard . . . Jade wouldn’t be able to resist an offer of going out with him, Kai knew. It would give her a chance to hobnob with OnT and Hammond, and other people like that record company twat talking to Hammond now – the one with the hairy waistcoat and tweed baggy trousers even though the guy was, like, twenty-five.
His bad mood increasing, Kai picked up the full basket of glasses and pushed his way back towards the kitchen, accidentally on purpose barging a sharp corner of it into the tweedy guy’s arse.
‘Oi, watch it, idiot,’ the guy said, glaring at him.
‘Sorry, sir,’ Kai said, baring his teeth in a smile. Not sorry, arsehole. Why had he let Jade talk him into this? They were only earning six quid an hour, and most of that would go on a taxi home – no public transport out here in the Surrey countryside.
He craned his neck to look for Jade and his heart sank. She was talking to Hammond’s bodyguard, giggling and jiggling her boobs, leaning close to him and flirting for England. Every part of him wanted to stride over there and wipe the smile off the minder’s ugly face. But Kai knew he should never pick on anyone bigger than him, so he turned away, clenching his fists, reminding himself that Jade loved him. After everything he’d done for her, she owed him a lifetime of love, not to mention eternal access to those amazing boobs.
He went back into the kitchen and made himself feel better by picking his nose and wiping it on an hors d’oeuvre.
Things did not improve over the next hour. The chef came back in and shouted at him for not washing up the dirty platters fast enough. The dragon shouted at him when she caught him doing a bit of minesweeping – swigging the dregs from a couple of the glasses as he loaded them into the dishwasher. Jade shouted at him when he accused her of fancying the bodyguard: ‘Oh for fuck’s sake, Kai, give it a rest! I can’t help it if blokes stare at me, can I?’ Her mood seemed to have plummeted too, since some of the party guests, including OnTarget, had gone over to the leisure area of the house for a swim.