Page 23 of Fool Me Twice
“Only what Scratch told me about him.Which was plenty.”She narrowed her eyes at Si.Then she hurried over to hug him.“Babe, we don’t want you to get hurt again.”
Si wondered what she’d seen in his expression.And if she realised she’d wiped sauce on his Abbey Locksmiths shirt.He forced a smile.“I’ll be fine.Big boy, ain’t I?Now, are we all on for Friday night at the Prince of Wales?”
Adam gave him a dark look.“Is Zig going?”
“Dunno.”Si shrugged, hoping it looked natural.“Dunno if he’s staying that long.”
Adam grunted, which as an answer wasn’t all that helpful.
“I’ll be there,” Sasha said.“If he’s still around, I wouldn’t mind having a word with your Zig.”
Si winced internally.“Yeah, reckon he’d love to meet you and all.”He coughed, forcing himself to sound more cheerful as he went on.“Hey, Sash, you heard anything about the band they got playing this week?”
She smiled sweetly.“Only what you told me last Friday.”
Bugger.He had, hadn’t he?“Right, right.Forgot it was gonna be them.”He took a big bite of his sausage and got out his phone, cos he had no interest in seeing whatever significant looks Sash and Adam were exchanging right now.
It wasn’t until Adam nipped out back to the loo that Si got to talk to Sasha alone.
He leaned in close and kept his voice low.“Sash, that stuff I told you about Zig.About what I reckon he done for his dad, back in the day.You can’t tell Adam.He’d hit the flippin’ roof.”
“People who can’t do the time shouldn’t do the crime.”
“I don’t know for certain if he did, all right?And he was a kid back then.Doing what his dad told him to.He’s a different bloke now.”
“Is he?”
Uncertainty stabbed Si in the chest.Because Zig was...Well, he was Zig, wasn’t he?A little older, maybe, but...“He says he don’t work for his dad no more.Gone legit, like.”Okay, so Zig hadn’t exactly said that, but then he’d never actually admitted to anything criminal neither, so it balanced out, right?
“And you believe him?”Sasha sighed.“You want to believe him.”She said it flatly.“Babe, have you got any reason to think he’s not gonna hurt you again?What’s he here for, after all this time?”
Si screwed up his face.“I think...I think something’s happened.Something that shook him up.Dunno what, though.”
“He’s in trouble?”
“I didn’t say that.Could be that bust-up with his dad.”Except Zig had said it’d been years, hadn’t he?“Or, I dunno, he had a bad breakup?”
“So you’re gonna let him rebound onto you?”
“No!It’s not like that.Not this time.We’re just friends.Catching up.I’m not daft, Sash,” he added.“I broke up withhim, remember?”
“Yeah, but not until he did something really shit.Gonna wait for that this time too?”
“I told you, I don’t reckon he had nothing to do with robbing Adam’s dad.”Shit.Why did he have to go and tell her his suspicions about Zig?
“Ripped off plenty of other people though, most like.”Sasha’s face softened, and she grabbed him by both arms.“I don’t want you getting hurt,” she said in that little-girl voice he almost never heard from her.
Yeah.That was why.“You don’t have to worry.I’m on me guard.I’m not gonna let things go too far.”
She frowned.“How far have they got already?”
“They haven’t!”Si blurted, then cast a worried glance towards the back of the studio.Adam hadn’t emerged yet, for reasons Si didn’t want to speculate about.“Told you, I’m being a mate.Letting him stay for a while.That’s all.”
“Right.”Her tone said she wasn’t sure she believed him.“You see that it stays that way.”
Zig wandered down what passed for a high street in Glastonbury, although it was missing all the usual chain stores.Instead, there were more of the witchy-type shops he’d seen last night, all done up for the season.The vintage clothing store was all right—reminded Zig of Camden—but who the hell bought the crystals and dreamcatchers and other mystic stuff?Was that what the locals were into, or was it all for the tourists?And did anyone actually buy incense, when they could walk through town and get a lungful of the stuff for free?
On the corner, there was a bloke with feathers in his top hat selling stuff out of a handcart.Zig strolled closer.Wands.He was selling wands.Zig gave a half-despairing laugh.Jesus, what he wouldn’t give for a way to magic all his problems away.Still, he should be safe here, shouldn’t he?No reason for anyone back in London to guess he’d come here.
