Page 79 of The Player
“I know. I know,” Jake apologised. “But the agency doesn’t have anyone they can send out tonight, and with half the staff off it’s going to be me on my own, unless you lot can help me behind the bar?”
“Can’t you borrow some of the security guys to help?” Colton asked, but Devon butted in.
“We’re short on security as it is, and under the circumstances, that’s not something we should be cutting back on right now, agreed?”
Adam huffed. “Fine. I’ll come and see this guy, check him out. Are you sure he’s not completely shit?”
“He has bar experience, and I might’ve already asked if he’s free to start tonight.” Jake grimaced, hoping he hadn’t overstepped the mark.
“Why don’tyouinterview him then?” Tyler suggested to Jake.
“Becausewevet all staff,” Adam replied. “And all things considered, we need to stick to that. We won’t be compromised. Not again.”
Adam stood up, cursed under his breath, and stalked out of the room with Jake following him.
“We need a plan,” Devon said, looking at each of us in turn. “Tyler, can you look into these guys?” He tapped the screen, pointing to the victims from the basement. “Find out about any police records, allegations, anything you can dig up.” He turned to focus on Colton. “Do you need to be with Shelley today?”
Colton looked at me. “Not until she’s spoken to Bryony. What time is she meeting her?”
“Not till early evening,” I told him.
“Okay. Then I’m here until she needs me,” he replied.
“Cool,” Devon responded. “Can you and Will focus on the forest? We need to be more methodical. Get a map of the place, chart where we’ve been and where we need to cover. Look for clearings, outhouses, anything where he could’ve hidden stuff. Once we get out there, we need to look for signs of vehicles, tyre tracks, anything. He had to have driven you both into the forest. How did he get you in and out?”
“We’re on it,” Colton stated. “We’ll do our best.”
“I’ll load up the van,” Devon said, assigning his role in our mission. “Get our best weapons and tools. Once we find this fucker, he won’t know what’s hit him.”
* * *
“We’ll focus on this side of the forest today,” Colton said, circling an area of the forest on the map we’d printed off and drawing arrows to indicate the direction we’d move. “If we split up, you and me here, Adam here, and then Devon and Tyler focus on this side, we should be able to cover more ground effectively.”
“Sounds good to me. The sooner we get going, the better.”
“We’ll need water.” Colton looked up at me. “We can’t go hours on a search without some. Can you go and get some bottles from the bar downstairs?” I nodded, and he folded the map, heading for the door. “Give me two minutes, okay? I’m gonna text Shelley. Make sure she’s okay. Then I’ll head down to the chapel and help Devon.”
“I’ll see you down there,” I replied and made my way out into the hallway.
As I walked down the staircase to the first floor, then the ground floor, I could hear Adam talking, asking questions.
“How many years bar experience do you have?”
“If you look on my resume, I’ve done three years in various bars and clubs around town. A few in Sandland and Merivale too.”
I stepped off the last step and walked across the dance floor towards the bar. I could see Jake at the back of the bar, lifting crates of beer bottles. Adam was sitting to the side of the bar with the prospective new barman, a dark-haired guy who had his back to me.
“I’m just heading down to the cellar,” Jake called out, and I put my hand up to show him I’d heard.
“It’s been a few years since you’ve worked in a bar though, hasn’t it?” Adam went on, giving the guy the third degree. I highly doubted bar work had changed that much in the time this guy had been away.
“Two years,” the guy replied. “But I’ve always worked. I can deal with money, cash up, do stock takes, deal with customers. I’m a hard worker.”
I walked quietly past Adam’s table to get to the bar, reaching down to open one of the fridges and grab some water bottles. I started to pile them up on the bar, counting in my head, estimating we needed about ten, fifteen bottles to see us through.
“I don’t doubt you’re a hard worker,” Adam responded plainly. “But a book shop is a bit different to a nightclub. It’s a lot noisier for a start. More rowdy too. You’ll need a thick skin to work here.”
“I think I can handle it,” he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice. “The book shop could get quite heated when certain best sellers came into stock. We were a small independent business. There was only the two of us, and my boss, Mr Wilson, he was… challenging… at times. But it was nothing I couldn’t handle.”
