The Babysitter(61)
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Irritated, having been delayed while she took necessary action to ensure Mrs Jackson didn’t discover the girl, Jade parked outside the pub and texted Dylan back. He was worried, because his mother had apparently gone out without telling him. Definitely tied to her apron strings. Jade shook her head despairingly.
She obviously couldn’t find you. She’s probably visiting friends, or gone shopping or something. Bit tied up with children today. See you tomorrow first thing.
She would have to be there early, she decided. She couldn’t have him throwing a wobbly now. She needed him. As well as helping her move the girl, she had other plans that required Dylan’s participation. He was tall and dark, and therefore easily mistaken for Mark at the wheel of Mel’s car. He was going to need careful handling, though, with lots of physical and emotional reassurance.
One eye on the entrance to the pub, she waited patiently for her phone to ping back a reply and then breathed out a sigh of relief when it did.
Okay. C U then. Xxx
Rolling her eyes at his use of abbreviated text words, and fully expecting him to text again before the day was out, Jade sent him a smiley face back, with three reciprocal kisses, and then emitted a sigh of relief as DS Cummings exited the pub, bang on cue. Having googled his details and then followed him, she’d learned he liked a pint with his lunch, and one or two once he was off duty. He was also obviously everything she’d overheard Mark confiding to Melissa he was – a womanising, sexist wanker, led by his penis, which, Jade suspected, would make him just as malleable as Dylan.
Waiting for the right moment, Jade watched him pause in the car park, picking his teeth and leering after two scantily clad girls half his age as they teetered on vertiginous shoes towards their car. ‘Hope you’ve been watching your alcohol intake, Taylor,’ he called after them. ‘Wouldn’t want me having to arrest you now, would you?’
‘Depends…’ said one of the girls, smiling coquettishly back over her shoulder.
Yeah, depends on how much he’s paying. Jade curled a lip and sighed inwardly, supposing it was time to flash her own assets in his direction. Clearly the man couldn’t resist a pair of tits. Glancing over her shoulder to check on Evie, who was soundly sleeping, bless her, Jade adjusted her plunge bra and tugged down her strappy top to show off maximum cleavage, and then climbed out of her car. Her phone clutched to her ear, she swept her hair from her face and stared down at her flat tyre, looking suitably flustered. And then, bending from the waist, she leaned to examine it. As she was wearing her tightest skinny jeans, she guessed he’d be enjoying the view.
‘An hour?’ she said despairingly, talking to no one into her mobile. ‘No, it’s just that I have a baby in the car and I have to get her back to her parents. Yes. Okay, I’ll wait. No choice really, have I?’
Sensing a certain someone approaching, Jade sighed and ended her ‘call’.
‘Problem?’ Detective Sergeant Cummings said behind her, not that Jade had imagined he would be the slightest bit concerned unless he fancied getting into her knickers.
Jade turned, making sure to look girly and wary for a second, and then hugely relieved when he flashed his ID. Plainly, he was thinking she’d be impressed, the full-of-himself prat. ‘Slow puncture,’ she said, with a helpless shrug. ‘I don’t have a car pump with me, unfortunately, and I have to get my charge back to her parents.’
DS Cummings followed her gaze to Evie in her baby carrier. ‘Can’t you ring them?’ he asked.
Clearly not Sir Galahad then. ‘Well, I will, obviously, but her mum’s due to go out soon.’ Jade checked her watch. ‘Hell! I’ll probably get the sack.’
His gaze roving over her, Cummings ran a hand contemplatively over his chin. ‘I don’t have a pump in the car, but…’ He glanced at her tits, then down to her tyre, and then nodded behind him. ‘Tell you what, I’ll go and ask in the pub. The owner’s bound to have one.’
‘Would you?’ Jade all but wilted with relief. ‘That would be so kind. I’d be really grateful.’
‘No problem,’ Cummings assured her, glancing down to the hand she’d placed on his arm and then back to her face, lingering appreciatively at her breasts again on the way up. ‘Why don’t you wait in your car? You never know what sort of cretins might be hanging around a dive like this.’
Oh, I have a pretty good idea. ‘Thank you, I will.’ Jade fluttered her eyelashes and turned back to the car.
Cummings held the door open, all the better to ogle her as she climbed demurely inside, bum first, threading her legs slowly in and smiling suggestively up at him.
‘Don’t go anywhere.’ He winked, looking pleased with himself, as he turned to jog keenly back to the pub.
Five minutes later, Jade looked on in suitable awe as DS Cummings inflated her tyre. ‘So strong,’ she said, smiling coquettishly, God help her. ‘You have a wonderful pumping action,’ she breathed, her voice loaded with sexual innuendo.
He paused in his wonderful pumping action to scan her eyes questioningly. ‘So I’m told,’ he said hopefully, and most definitely weighing his chances.
Jade lowered her eyes, perusing the length and breadth of him slowly before coming back to his face. ‘I can see why,’ she said, running the tip of her tongue provocatively over her lips.