The Guilty Couple(20)
My heart’s beating so quickly now I can feel it in the base of my neck. As soon as I’ve got the keys I’m to turn and walk quickly in the opposite direction. Smithy will follow and we’ll let ourselves into the house without Rosa ever suspecting a thing.
We’re nearly at Rosa’s Mini and I’m starting to panic. What’s Smithy waiting for? Why hasn’t she knocked into her yet?
I jump as a car horn sounds. A black BMW is driving slowly alongside us and the driver of the white Fiat Uno behind it is getting impatient. As both cars pass us and turn left at the end of the street, Smithy shoulder-barges Rosa, who lets out a cry of surprise and drops her bucket. It tips onto its side and cleaning materials spill out onto the street.
‘Oh my god, sorry, are you okay?’ Smithy grips Rosa’s arm, her tone friendly yet concerned.
That’s my cue to go for the shoulder bag, strung across Rosa’s body and resting against her right buttock. It’s a bucket-style canvas bag with a zip across the top. I’m so close I can smell Rosa’s perfume and see the streaks of grey on the crown of her head. She must be able to sense how close I am. My hand shakes as I reach for the zip. I can’t do this. It doesn’t feel right.
‘I’m fine.’ Rosa gives herself a small shake to dislodge the hand on her arm but Smithy’s going nowhere. She’s talking nineteen to the dozen, something about her terrible day and why she wasn’t looking where she was going.
‘Please,’ Rosa says. ‘I need to get my things. I have another job to go to.’
She takes a step backwards, pulling away from Smithy, and I leap backwards to avoid a collision.
‘Of course of course.’ I can hear the tension in Smithy’s voice. She’s frustrated that I haven’t got the keys. I’m taking too long.
Rosa jerks her shoulders one way, then the other, trying to shake Smithy off. ‘I told you. I am fine.’
I look over her shoulder at Smithy and shake my head sharply. I can’t do it. This was a mistake. I can’t steal from people. That’s not the kind of person I am.
In an instant Smithy lets go of Rosa’s wrists, apologises profusely and ducks down to pick up the bucket and a bathroom cleaner. As Rosa bends to pick up a collapsible duster I take a step backwards, preparing to leave. Her handbag swings to the side of her body and then I see it – a piece of material, poking out of the rear pocket of her jeans. It’s one of the lanyard straps we used for staff during an exhibition, bright yellow with blue stripes. Dominic must have put a spare key on it for her.
Smithy heads towards me, pauses, turns back and then hoiks the lanyard out of Rosa’s pocket in one swift move.
Chapter 14
DANI
Dani indicates left, turning the BMW into Elyne Road. The chat with Detective Inspector Matthew Fielding turned out to be nothing more worrying than her annual appraisal. She was praised for leading a small team in successfully investigating burglaries that targeted the elderly, and asked to develop the management of the team’s overtime budget. The meeting had ended with a handshake and a ‘Good work’ from Fielding. Dani headed back to her desk, told Jess that she had a witness statement to collect and, a few minutes later, strolled casually out of New Scotland Yard.
Mood lifted by her boss’s feedback, her plan was to drive past Dom’s house to see if his car was parked up outside. She’d ring the doorbell if he was in. Texting or ringing wasn’t an option. He’d ignored every attempt she’d made at communication since their argument a week earlier. She’d calmed down since then, maybe he had too.
She’d decided to show him the photo of Casey looking gaunt and thin that Brenda had WhatsApped to her a few days earlier. Telling Dominic that Casey needed urgent help was one thing but seeing how ill she really was was another. Casey was only six years older than Grace when she fell in with the wrong crowd and started using drugs, and if Dani appealed to Dominic as a father, rather than a lover, surely he’d soften and offer to help. The house he lived in had to be worth nearly two mill and he drove an Audi R8 Spyder for god’s sake. Thirty grand was nothing to someone like him. If he was worried about Olivia stirring up trouble, or trying to get more cash out of him after the divorce, Dani would reassure him. When she saw him last week he was panicking, plain and simple, and she knew how to deal with people like that, and which strings to pull.
Only Dom’s black Audi isn’t parked up in the driveway of his five-bedroom house as she drives past. Wherever he headed after he told his personal assistant that he was ill, it certainly wasn’t home. Irritated, Dani continues driving down the street, then spots something that makes her pause. Walking along the pavement, dressed in a hoodie, skinny jeans and white trainers, is Kelly Smith, a career thief and waste of space that Dani’s arrested and interviewed multiple times. Even with Smith’s hood pulled up she’d recognise the hard planes of her face anywhere.
She slows the car. Smith’s heading for an older, dark-haired woman struggling under the weight of cleaning supplies. Surely Kelly isn’t planning on stealing the Henry Hoover? She’d be lucky to get twenty quid from Cash Converters for it. Dani glances into her rear-view mirror, in search of an accomplice. Sure enough, there’s another woman in a dark hoodie, trailing the cleaner, head down. The accomplice senses she’s being watched and turns to look at the car, giving Dani a good view of her face. Olivia fucking Sutherland. Dani’s breath catches in her throat. It couldn’t be, could it? Liv’s barely been out of prison for a week and she’s on licence. What the hell is she doing strolling down her ex-husband’s street, dressed like a teenaged boy? Dani glances back at Smith who’s dressed almost identically. Do they know each other? Has she just stumbled on them in the midst of a job? She touches the brake, mind racing. Should she get out and have a word or should she—