MURDER IS SKIN DEEP by M.G. Cole (read dune .txt) 📕

shorter person, who was also lugging a similar black bag. This new addition was wearing a puffer jacket and baseball cap that obscured the face.

“Who is this?”

“No idea. But if you go to the next file…”

Chib did so and watched them stuff the bags into the back of Rebecca’s rented Panda. Then they both climbed in and drove away.

“What’s your instinct about this new body?”

“Could be anybody. Average build. Man or woman. Same height as Ellis.”

“She is about this tall, in heels.” Garrick indicated a couple of inches shorter than he was. “And it looks like the newbie is wearing trainers. Which means they’re this tall.” He fractionally raised his hand.

“Oscar Benjamin is about my height. And really well-built.”

She walked with Garrick up Priory Road towards the busier main road. “So it’s not him. It’s a safe assumption that she met somebody at the dealership, but Stanley Matthews won’t tell us anything.”

They reached the junction and looked around. On the corner stood a large modern block of public toilets. Opposite the road was a Lidl and a bus stop; diagonally further over lay the train station. Everything was the same 1960s architecture that once held the promise of a modern vibrant town but now looked bleak and desperate.

“She left me on time. Came straight here to pick up this person.”

“Do we know where she went next?”

“Unfortunately not. Her plate didn’t flag up anywhere else. We’re sifting through footage from traffic cameras to see if they can spot our mystery person arriving. But I’m not holding my breath.”

Garrick had slept like a log after taking the pills, but from the moment he had awoke, he couldn’t shake the fog mussing his brain. He was supposed to be leading the investigation, making insightful decisions, but instead he felt rudderless.

“Isn’t she staying near Sevenoaks?” said Chib. “That’s not far. Why don’t we just ask her?”

Rebecca Ellis’s Airbnb was a rather impressive new architectural build that reminded Chib of something from the TV show Grand Designs. With a sweeping ash and tinted glass frontage, and a grass-insulated roof. It lay at the end of a curved private driveway, just across a quiet road from Deer Park. There was no sign of the rented Panda, although Garrick noticed fresh tyre tracks in the gravel driveway. Chib found the property on her own Airbnb app.

“Two hundred quid a night,” she reported. “Has its own cinema room and hot tub.”

Garrick gave out a low whistle. “I thought that app was just for cheap accommodation.”

“Not at all. When we got engaged, I found a castle in Scotland to stay at. It was amazing.”

Garrick gave a sidelong glance at Chib. They hadn’t been working together for very long, but he knew next to nothing about her.

“What’s your fella’s name?”

She paused for a second, as if deciding how much to say. “Michael.”

That was all he was getting. “You should bring him out one night. I heard Harry was trying to organise a quiz night.” Quiz nights, like most social functions, sounded like hell to him, but he had already decided he should make an effort with the team.

“Should I, though?”

Her scepticism made him smile. She was far too like his old self. “With that attitude, you’re going to end up like me.”

He didn’t know what to expect, but her aghast reaction wasn’t it. He slowly circled to the side of the property. A solid fence protected the rear garden. It was a pricey and isolated spot.

“Thoughts, Chib?”

She was clearly thinking along the same lines. “A hotel would have been cheaper, so she doesn’t want any attention or company.”

“She has friends in town she didn’t want to stay with. Which indicates she has something to hide. If she came back with whoever she met in Tonbridge, they were carrying enough stuff to spend more than a couple of weeks here. Contact the owners. Find out when she booked it and if she’s been here before.”

His mind was ticking over. Should he stretch resources and have somebody watch over Fraser? Or would it be better spent trailing Rebecca Ellis? She obviously knew more than she was letting on, and he was convinced she was protecting Oscar Benjamin… all he lacked was proof.

18

Garrick was thoughtful on the drive back to the incident room. Chib kept herself busy sending emails and making calls to track down the Airbnb owner, so she hadn’t noticed. When she finally did, Garrick was rapidly shifting his gaze between the road ahead and the mirrors.

“What is it?”

“We’re being followed.”

It was a strange twist for Garrick. He had followed suspects many times, but this was the first time it had happened to him. As soon as he spotted the tail, he kept his driving habits as mundane as usual, giving no hint that he was aware of their tail. He even gave a long signal as he pulled into the forecourt of the petrol station. He needed to fill up anyway, so it wasn’t anything unusual. As he stopped at the pump, he watched the black Hyundai drive past without slowing.

“Are you sure?”

“Ever since we left Rebecca’s he’s been behind us.” Of course, it was a busy A-road back to Maidstone, and it was the most direct route. It could just be a case of paranoia, and after the last few days, that was foremost on his mind. Yet their pursuer had diligently kept two or three cars between them, no matter how much the traffic had shuffled.

He took his time filling up, paid, then pulled out of the petrol station. Three hundred yards ahead, the black Hyundai i40 Saloon was parked in a layby. With a new bout of drizzle, he couldn’t make out the driver, but sure enough, the car pulled out and continued to follow him. He recited the licence plate to Chib, taking care to double-check each reversed character in his mirror. She called it in and was told it belonged to a seventy-year-old retiree from Guildford.

The car followed them all the way back to