Page 69 of Not That Complicated

“It’s a figure of speech.”

“It was not clear, Ray. And let me remind you, I have a marketing and communications degree.”

“Does that include logic at all? Because I wasn’t foundwitha corpse,Ifound it and I called the police! How could I sleep with a dead body—” now I gagged, “—when the police had it?”

She tapped the paper on the counter. “You could have another stashed away somewhere.”

“Stashed?” I said. “Stashed?”

“So far you’ve had two...” She trailed off meaningfully.

“I haven’thadtwo. They’re not mine, are you kidding me?”

She shrugged.

I rolled my head back on my shoulders and covered my face, breathing deep. “This is insane,” I said. I dropped my arms down, and that’s when I caught sight of the headline splashed across the front page of the newspaper she’d been reading.

LOCAL MAN ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF MURDER. WHAT IS HE DOING WITH ALL THE BODIES? SOURCES SAY THERE COULD BE MORE???

I snatched the paper up and held it in front of my face. Please let this be a coincidence and some other local man had...no. No, it was me.

That was me, being ‘helped’ into the car by Liam Nash.

My entire body went cold.

Goosebumps cascaded over me, from my scalp to my feet.

Every hair I possessed lifted, like a hedgehog bristling.

I dropped the paper on the counter. “I wasn’t arrested,” I said, loud and clear. “I am not a murder suspect!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I turned the paper toAmalie. “Do you see any handcuffs? No? That’ll be because I am not being arrested!”

“It looks like you are, though. He’s got his hand on your head. He’s putting you in the back seat.”

“Because he’s a dick! I’m not a murder suspect!”

“Uh-huh.”

“This is ridiculous. I’m going to sue. Defamation of character. Libel. Slander?”

“Come on, now. Liam’s all right.”

“Okay, one? No, he’s not. He’s a dick. And two? I was talking about this drivel.” I flicked at the paper. “This nonsense. This arsehole reporter, whoever wrote it. The man I’m going to sue.” I picked it up and squinted at it. “J.C. Connolly,” I said.

“Don’t sue Jasper, he’s a lovely lad,” Amalie said.

Wait.Jasper?

“I’ma lovely lad,” I whisper-yelled. “He’s a slanderous muppet who just cost his employer a hundred thousand pounds!”

She had the absolute gall to roll her eyes. “How d’you figure that? And if it’s in print, it’s libel, not slander. Slander is slagging someone off down the pub.”

I jabbed at my phone. “I’m guessing. I don’t know the going rate for libel these days, let me fucking ask fucking Google. Oh.” I stared at the phone.

Well, I’d been joking, but...

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