“I can’t take it!” the hyena behind him yelled, shoving open the door and running back down the road.
“Get back here!” the leader demanded, but the other two hyenas were already piling out and racing after their mate.
The whispers were now constant, walling them in with their intensity, the individual words barely distinguishable.
“It’s them, isn’t it?” Jason said, staring at the pale man beside him. “It’s the girls from the lake.”
With the words said aloud, the last of the man’s courage deserted him and he leapt from the car, heading after his friends down the road.
Jason quickly made to close the doors and make his escape, but he had no need to run.
Behind him, a familiar Nissan Micra was driving up to the boys on the road, who were begging and pleading to be let in. The familiar silhouette of Bryn Hesketh stepped out, waving his badge in one hand and handcuffs in the other.
The terrified boys came quietly, and Jason took his phone out of his pocket to kill the connection and stop the haunting of the stereo.
“Cheers, Amy,” he said, though he knew she couldn’t hear him.
It was always good to have a ghost on your side.
Chapter 8: All’s Well
As Jason emerged from the lift, Amy threw her arms around his neck, abandoning her crutches on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Jason pulled back from the embrace, holding her upright as he laughed.
“No need for that. I wasn’t scared.”
“But it was me,” she protested, trying to make him understand.
Jason looked at her incredulously.
“Yeah, I know it was you. I didn’t think the car was really haunted.”
Amy sighed.
“No, I mean…it was all me. The car theft at Dylan’s, sending you on a wild goose chase round Cardiff…”
Jason looked like she had just hit him over the head with a large object.
“You what? You faked a carjacking to…what? Entertain me?”
“For your birthday,” she mumbled. It sounded really stupid when he put it like that. “Surprise.”
For a minute, Jason said nothing at all, leading to the old familiar anxieties rising into Amy’s throat and threatening to choke her. She had really screwed up this time. She’d got Jason into hot water over a silly game.
“Maybe next time we could do a treasure hunt.” Jason smiled down at her, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“You’re not angry?”
“Nah, you meant well—like always. But I don’t need you to invent reasons for me to hang about, you know. I like you. I’m gonna stay anyway.”
Amy beamed until her face ached, relief flooding her body.
“If you two are done hugging it out, can we get by?” Cerys said
Bryn stepped around them and restored Amy’s crutches to her, allowing the party to move through into the living room.
“Where are the crooks?” Amy asked.
“Uniforms picked them up from the Valleys,” Bryn said. “They were raving about a ghost. You know anything about that?”
Amy affected a look of pure innocence. “Who, me?”
Bryn snorted. “Psych will look them over, anyway. Maybe there’s something to it.”
“Where have you been then?”
Gwen emerged from the kitchen, asking the awkward question that they’d all rather not answer. When her question was greeted by an uncomfortable silence, Gwen leaned in the kitchen doorway and showed no signs of budging, directing a look at her son.
Jason, their weak link, cracked first.
“Amy organised a surprise for me. It went a bit wrong.”
“As it often does,” Bryn said.
Amy would protest but he had a point, especially as Jason was definitely understating the case. She had more than screwed up.
“It’s over now and I’m fine,” Jason said, placing a protective hand on Amy’s shoulder. “What’s for dinner?”
“Kiss your mam first,” Bryn said, as if he were the grandfather of this little family.
Jason made the obligatory groan before crushing his mother in a hug and accepting the kiss to his cheek. Amy made her way to her computer chair, leaving the sofa for Bryn and Cerys to occupy while Jason checked up on what his mam had done with his kitchen.
“We were lucky today,” Bryn said, to no one in particular, but Amy knew it was directed at her.
“It won’t happen again,” Amy replied, uncomfortable at how defensive those simple words made her.
“It will.” Cerys leaned back against the sofa and folded her arms. “It will happen as long as Jay works for you and thinks he’s invincible.”
“Then how can I—“
“There’s nothing you can do about it,” Cerys continued. “You stop putting him in situations like these and he’s out of a job, or just your cleaner. Your only mistake was thinking he would stop and think instead of running in head-first. He’ll always run right in. It’s how we’re made.”
“Running right in got him in deep trouble the last time,” Bryn reminded them.
“I never said he was bright,” Cerys laughed.
“You talking shit about me again?” Jason called through from the kitchen.
“Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but!” Cerys shouted back.
“Dinner’s ready!” Gwen said, appearing in the doorway wearing Jason’s TARDIS apron that Amy had bought him for Christmas—and he’d never yet worn.
Bryn and Cerys went through to the kitchen, Bryn asking quietly after Owain as they disappeared from Amy’s hearing. She gathered her crutches and slowly hefted herself up. She felt tired, drained of all energy and enthusiasm. Despite what excuses Cerys, of all people, might make for her, she had put Jason in unnecessary danger. Of course she liked having him for an assistant, but if he couldn’t keep himself safe, how was it responsible to keep letting him run into danger?
“Penny for ’em?”
Amy jumped, startled to find Jason in front of her. Her crutch threatened to slip but Jason grabbed hold of her arm, keeping her steady as she placed it firmly on the ground.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“So am I. You should stop beating yourself up.”
Amy both loved and hated being known so well.
“I am not—“
“Amy, stop. Really, stop. You couldn’t have predicted a real gang would pick me up like that. It was a good plan.”
“Cerys says I should’ve known you’d look for gangs instead of going to Bryn.”
“We grew up together, remember? She’s gone looking for trouble in her time.”
“I thought things were different now. You’re not a gang runner anymore. You’re my assistant and I don’t want you to die out there.”
Jason laughed. “It’s Cardiff—what’s the worst that could happen?”
Amy hefted one crutch in the air as evidence. “This. More than this. Look at Owain!”
Jason ran a hand over his shaved head.
“I don’t know what to tell you. I can try to be careful out there, as much as any man can, but it’s my instincts that get me through. I have to do my own thing too, or else I’m just your errand boy. I thought I was more than that.”
“You are.” Much more. So much more. “I just want you to be safe.”
Jason placed both hands on her shoulders, staring into her face with warm brown eyes full of concern.
“Amy, we can’t keep shutting the world out and hoping everything will be okay. We’re in the wrong business, for a start. I know we’ve both had bad experiences out there but it’s not all shit. Let me show me. Let me prove it to you.”
She wanted to believe, wanted to show him how much she trusted him, how much better she was. Yet she was filled with doubt, with terror for her life and his. Hadn’t today proved just how dangerous the world outside could be?
“How?” she asked tentatively.
“We’ll figure it
out tomorrow,” he said. “Just…promise me you’ll consider it.”
She could give him that, at least.
“Yes, okay. I promise.”
“Tea, anyone?” Gwen called, reminding her that other people existed outside their warm, little bubble.
Jason smiled and squeezed her shoulders once more before letting go.
“That’s Mam’s way of saying dinner’s getting cold."
They made their way to the kitchen and Amy thought everything might work out for them after all. If they had each other, loyal friends and family, and a full pot of tea, Jason could learn to rely on her as well as his gut and Amy might learn not to fear the shadows.
They just had to take that first step—together.
Join Amy and Jason for another thrilling adventure!
Book three of The Amy Lane Mysteries
Agoraphobic hacker Amy Lane and her sidekick ex-con Jason Carr are caught in a tortuous and increasingly dangerous adventure as Amy seeks to help track an art thief and Jason seeks to impress the National Crime Agency investigator Frieda Haas sent to recover the missing painting – and its abductor.
As the evidence leads Amy and the police in circles, Jason finds himself taking more and more risks in his hunt for the thief. Nothing is as it seems. Are Amy and Jason merely playthings for a vicious murderer? Can they survive the game?
Published by Crime Scene Books.
RELEASE DATE: 4th February 2016
CAR HACKER
Copyright 2015. Rosie Claverton
Edited by Katherine Fowler
Cover by Paper and Sage
Published by Rosie Claverton
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
For the latest updates on The Amy Lane Mysteries, please visit our website at http://amylanemysteries.com.
Car Hacker Page 4
