Page 82 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
“Will you google?”
The guy rolled his eyes, but a short time later, he gaped at Jonty. “Hey, youcantake prints off a snake. That’s amazing.”
“Good. That will show you it’s my ex.” Assuming Brad had handled it.
The guy paled. “Not sure how I’m going to request we get fingerprints off a snake.”
The RSPCA van pulled up in front of the police car. Jonty wanted to watch, but a part of him didn’t want to see the snake again. The policeman spoke to the two RSPCA guys and gave them Jonty’s key.
“We might need to dust the snake for prints,” the policeman told them. “Try not to touch it.”
The guys looked as if they were trying not to laugh.It isn’t fucking funny!
Once they’d taken a peek, they shut the door again and went to get a plastic container and a sack from their van, along with gloves and a sort of metal grabber, before letting themselves back inside and closing the door.
A few minutes later, they emerged carrying the plastic box with the sack inside. Jonty didn’t breathe until it was in the van and the van door was shut. He’d have preferred it locked, chained, welded, but…
“We’re not sure what it is,” said one of the guys. “We’ll need to ask an expert. It’s not native to the UK, so it likely needs to be in a heated tank.”
“Would you check my flat too, please,” Jonty asked. “Just in case.”
The policeman raised his eyebrows. “You think your ex-boyfriend has a key?”
“I never gave him one, but what if he took one of mine and had a copy made?”Oh fuck.
The animal guys went up the stairs and Jonty’s heart pounded. When they came back and said they’d found nothing, Jonty thought he’d feel better. He didn’t.
“We checked in all your cupboards and under the furniture,” one of the men said.
Still not enough.Jonty wanted floorboards ripped up, walls knocked down, toilet pulled out. “Thank you.”
When they’d left, the policeman turned to Jonty. “I’ll go and speak to Greene.”
“Okay.”
“If he admits he put the snake there, we won’t need to dust for prints and we might be able to charge him with animal cruelty.”
It seemed an irony that charging Brad with that was easier than trying to stop him being a pest.
The policeman drove off and Jonty stood staring at his open door.I can’t go in.
There’s nothing there. They looked.
Tay was leaning against the window of the laundrette.
Even so. Would you want to live there now?
No.
Jonty stayed on the pavement and pulled the door shut. He’d brought Tay back because Devan had gone.
Way to make me feel loved!
Sorry.
So what happened to Mr Impossible?
Jonty finally allowed himself to think about Devan. And Ravi.I could have gone to the hotel with him if he’d asked.But he hadn’t asked. No use pretending that he wasn’t disappointed because he was. Bitterly. So much for the packet of Flakes he’d bought from the shop. So much for his plans for the rest of the day. But that was what life had dealt him, and he’d get over it. Worse things happened.
