Mind Games

Chapter Twenty-Nine

  House Hunting

  As Rawlston drove the car, Julia sat in the passenger seat next to him fuming. She was still annoyed with herself for letting Matthew and Jayne get away. But it was the sudden realisation that it was her car that had put her off, that and the sight of Jayne Middleton smiling at her through the windscreen.

  She couldn’t understand it at first. Why was Jayne smiling? She had a gun pointed right at her, and yet, she was smiling. And then Julia had realised that it was her car, and then she knew why the cow was smiling.

  To Julia, her white BMW was her life. It was the only thing she kept whenever she had to move. Houses, men, and other possessions she always left behind. But not the BMW. She had slept in that car, lived in it for days, and driven it all over the country and around Europe. She had sex in that car far more often than she did in bed. It was her car, damn it!

  Jayne knew. That’s why she was smiling. She knew all about her car. Knew when she bought it, knew how much she liked it, knew she wouldn’t shoot at it. The bitch! Cow-bag!

  It was all Tyler’s fault of course. He must have given the cow far more of her memories than he had said he was going to do. The incompetent git! Now she knew far too much. But not for long.

  “Turn left here!” Julia said. It was the first time she had spoken since Rawlston had admitted to peppering the back of her white BMW with bullets.

  “I know where you live,” Rawlston replied as he slowed the car and parked it.

  “Then why have you stopped here?”

  “Because I don’t want them to hear us drive up!” Rawlston replied in exasperation. “Now stop thinking about that damn car of yours and get with it! It was a mobile trash-can, anyway! And you can always buy another one! For God’s sake, I’ll buy you another one!”

  Rawlston got out of the car only to find Julia confronting him over the roof. “But I don’t want another one! I want mine back!” she insisted, banging her finger on the roof. “And I’ll expect you to pay for every hole! Do you hear me? Every flippin’ hole! And don’t you dare call it a trash-can!”

  “Yes! Alright! But do you have to tell everyone in the street!”

  Julia glanced around at the houses. “Hah!” she said. “They’ll all be watching telly. Let’s get on with it before there’s an advert break.”

  They walked down the quiet road until they could see the house. Then Rawlston stopped her.

  “I’ll go in the front door, you go in the back,” he said. “Give me the key.”

  “It’s my house, I’ll go in the front,” Julia replied, fishing in her coat pocket for the keys. “Here, take the key to the back door. I’ll give you exactly a minute.”

  “Okay. But don’t shoot me when we go in. It was only a car, after all.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Julia replied as Rawlston went around to the back of the house.

  Julia approached the front of the house. Her car was nowhere to be seen. They must have abandoned it somewhere, she thought. If that cow had damaged it....

  Rawlston was in the garden. He drew his gun from his holster. He could see the back door and edged closer to it. When he was right next to it, he reached out and put the key silently into the lock. He glanced at his watch, just a few more seconds to go.

  Julia had reached the front door. Up to now she had kept the automatic hidden under her coat, but now she pulled it out and held it ready. The minute was up. Carefully, she slipped the key in the lock, turned it, and burst into the hallway.