Page 66 of Not That Impossible

This was my big break and I wasn’t going to mess it up.

I went for a quick morning run, brewed coffee while I was in the shower, and gulped down my protein shake as I rushed around, throwing things into my messenger bag. I grabbed a notebook, my iPhone and charger, three pens because I always seemed to lose them, a handful of protein bars, and my extra-large water bottle.

By six o’clock I was ready and waiting outside The Chipped Cup when Amalie’s brother, Charlie, opened up. As soon as he let me in, I claimed a table in the corner.

Yes, I was a couple of hours early. I needed all the time I could get to prepare.

I bought myself a coffee I didn’t want because otherwise Charlie would throw me out, flipped open my notebook, clicked my pen, and started scribbling some notes.

I’d heard plenty of gossip from colleagues and clients at the gym, and last night I’d read Mrs Strickland’s article. Even putting it all together, it didn’t add up to a whole lot of information.

What I knew thus far was that Craig and Kevin had been hired by Ray to lay a new carpet in Ray’s bedroom, and in the process of doing so, they’d stumbled upon a dead body hidden under the floorboards. Adam had told me that Ray was tight-lipped about it, but Adam had gone to Ray’s house and seen the scene of the crime once the police had let Ray go back home. I’d asked him to describe it. He’d told me there wasn’t anything to describe. It was a hole in the floor.

I now knew from Kevin that the body was in atubin the hole.Thathadn’t been in Mrs Strickland’s article.

I didn’t blame Ray for not wanting to talk about it. I wouldn’t, either, if I’d spent however many years sleeping in a room with a dead guy crammed in a tub under my floor.

By the time eight o’clock was approaching, Charlie had made me buy two more coffees to keep the table, and like an idiot, I drank them. I have a low tolerance for caffeine. After a cup at home and three cups at the coffee shop, I could feel my eyelashes vibrating.

I chugged more water to try and dilute the coffee blazing through my veins. My bladder twinged, and I realised my mistake.

I could drink a lot, but even I couldn’t hold that much liquid for hours. I’d probably drunk close to three litres since I’d rolled out of bed before dawn.

I squirmed in my seat.

Yeah, this was a problem.

I slipped my phone into my pocket, grabbed my notebook, and left everything else at the table. Chipping Fairford wasn’t exactly a hotbed of crime. It would all be there when I got back.

Probably.

My bladder twinged again and I rushed up to the counter.

“No,” Charlie said before I even opened my mouth.

“I haven’t asked yet,” I said.

“You’re practically doing the pee dance, Jasper. No. The toilets are for employees only.”

“Charlie, I willpayyou. How much?”

“Twenty pence.”

“Really? Cool. That’s all it costs for the public toilets down by The Lion.”

Charlie looked at me.

Right. “I won’t make it there.” I really was dancing on the spot now. I eyed Charlie. I eyed the doorway to the back. If I had to, I’d make a run for it, lock myself in the loo before he could stop me, and apologise after. “Charlie. I’ll…wash dishes.”

“We have a dishwasher.”

“I’ll cover the rest of your shift! I know how to use the machine.”

“If you so much as touch my baby, Connolly, you’ll be banned for life,” Charlie snapped. He was the one who’d yelled at me the most when I broke the knob off their five-thousand-pound espresso machine.

“I’ll clear the tables, then! Mop the floors! Empty the bins!” I tried really hard not to scrunch up my face in distress.

“Oh, dear god.Fine.”

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