Page 39 of Crazy Spooky Love
“They really can watch TV though,” I say. “Douglas asked for the TV, to watch cricket. And the books are for Isaac.”
“Is that a Polly Pocket diary?” Marina asks doubtfully.
“For Lloyd.”
“Did I miss the part where the grumpy-old-man ghost turned into an eight-year-old girl?”
“Can they do that?” Artie says, unguarded, and then sighs when Glenda gives him her little headshake again.
“I don’t suppose you can install the TV, can you, Artie?”
He looks pained, so I take that as a no. Glenda leans back on her chair to read the TV box.
“It already has Freeview built in. It should be a simple case of plugging the coaxial aerial lead into the back of the TV and leaving it to tune itself.”
See what I mean about Glenda? She knows everything.
“I knew that,” Artie says again.
“Good.” I smile. “You can be in charge of it when we get over there later, then.”
“Is that the plan for today, to go back?” Marina asks, and I nod. Glenda starts a new line and looks up with her pen poised.
“I take it your client has signed a legally binding contract with regards to your payment terms?”
“Well, not exactly legally binding,” I say, scratching the back of my head. “Well, not at all, to be honest. I should have done that, shouldn’t I?”
Her raised eyebrows and faintly disappointed look remind me of my mother.
“I’ll get something over to him this morning.” She slides her glasses down her nose and lets them fall loose on their golden chain around her neck. “Is there any other business or shall I close off this entry?”
I brush my hands together briskly and stand up. “Close it, please, Glenda.” I glance at Marina and Artie. “Come on, troops. We have a murder weapon to hunt for.”
The first thing I noticewhen we arrive at Scarborough House is that the front door is ajar. I know that I didn’t leave it that way because I don’t have a key, which must mean that either Leo Dark or Donovan Scarborough is here. Bugger. I can hardly waltz in there and install a TV with either of them poking around, can I? Leo would mock, and Scarborough would probably think I was claiming squatter’s rights and take his key back.
“There’s someone in there,” Artie says, leaning forward against Babs’s windshield and ducking to get a better look.
“Yeah,” I mutter. “I noticed.”
At that, an annoyingly familiar Saab pulls up in front of us and Fletcher Gunn unravels himself from the driver’s side. He looks at us all piled inside Babs and shakes his head before strolling away down the front path of Scarborough House.
“You know something?” Marina says. “He definitely wants a piece of your ass. I see it in his eyes. He tries to hide it, but I can see right through that big, tall drink of water, and I’m telling you that he wants you bad ways.”
I try not to observe the broad set of his shoulders as he proceeds down the path. “Marina, if that man had a gun and only a handful of bullets, he’d use one of them on me.”
“Totally. And your mother, and your grandmother too,” she agrees. “I didn’t say he liked you. I said he has the hots for you. It’s completely different, isn’t it, Artie?” She looks at him, and he gawps at me, wide-eyed and aghast at being asked for a male opinion on matters of the heart. I pat his knee to excuse him from answering, and Marina shakes a tab of gum into her hand as we all watch Fletch tap the door then disappear inside the house. “He’d probably look away while he shot you though, whereas he’d save his last bullet for Leo Dark and draw perverse pleasure from firing it right between his subtly made-up eyes.”
I’m caught by indecisiveness. There isn’t much point in us all going into the house while other people are in there, but I want toknow who those other people are and why Fletch has turned up. I reach for the ignition key to drive away and come back later, and then think better of it because I might miss something of vital importance going on in there.
“Hang on here while I just go and have a quick nose,” I say, grabbing the pack of pens and a small notepad. “No point us all going.” I pause long enough to tear open the pen packet with my teeth and pull one free.
Marina smirks. “You just want to get Fletcher Gunn on his own and test my theory, don’t you? Artie, give her your spare condom from your wallet.”
He goes as red as the mailbox over the road. “I don’t have a spare condom. Or an essential one, for that matter.”
I shoot Marina a withering look as I toss the pack of pens at her and slither down onto the pavement. “Just ignore her, Artie. She’s being a smart-arse again.”
She bats her wide, innocent eyes at me. “Just looking out for you.”
