Page 121 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
The red mist was clearing as fast as it had descended. ‘Yeah. Right,’ she muttered.
‘I never wanted to fix you,’ he repeated. ‘I just wanted to make everything around you as good as it could be. I wanted to make you happy.’
Jodie’s heart hurt. ‘I’m sorry. Again.’ She couldn’t look at him. ‘That’s turning into a theme.’
The silence sat between them for what felt like an eternity. Pavel cleared his throat. ‘Do you want to go do the sign then?’
Jodie looked out into the gloom. Pavel was fitter and taller and had been bashing the sign poles into the ground about three times as fast as her. If she tried to think rationally there was nothing to argue about here. ‘No. You will be quicker. Do you mind?’
‘It’s fine. If I’m not back in ten minutes, burn the van and make for the hills.’
Jodie forced herself not to react but that had definitely been a joke. The guard he had up might not be absolute after all. She stared out into the dark and she waited. So much could go wrong with this plan. Any of the drivers could miss the sign, and even if the whole group did make it to Lowbridge there was every chance they’d simply jump back into the minibuses and leave as fast as they arrived. A sensible person would never try this. A sensible person would never even have thought of it.
She checked the time. Eight minutes since Pavel set off. She knew the ten-minute thing had been a joke but, even so, he should have only been heading a hundred metres or so up the track and the ground was soft so setting the sign shouldn’t have taken him more than a couple of minutes at most.
Ten minutes. Maybe someone had seen him, but Pavel being around the estate wasn’t that odd in itself. He’d done work here before Christmas and whatever McKenzie thought about it the locals still used the footpaths across his land so it wouldn’t immediately look like trespassing.
Eleven minutes. So long as nobody in estate management actually saw him hammering the sign in, they ought to be fine.
Twelve minutes. Jodie jumped out of the van and made her way up the track, staying close to the trees, listening for anyone else around her. She heard the voices within seconds, and she knew it was all over.
Pavel was at the junction and Fiona MacCellan was standing right in front of him, her McKenzie estate four-wheeler stopped a few feet away. ‘What on earth are you doing?’
‘Out for a walk.’ That was good.
‘With a hammer?’ That was less good.
‘Oh yeah. I, I found this.’ From where she was standing, Jodie caught Pavel moving slightly to the side so the sign he’d been hammering in was hidden behind his legs.
‘Where?’
‘Where what?’ Jodie could picture Pavel’s perfect honest face. He really wasn’t built for espionage.
‘Where did you find the hammer?’
‘On the ground.’
Jodie winced.
‘Pavel, it’s a good job I know you, because a man your size wandering round a forest with a hammer could raise alarm bells.’
‘Yeah. Right. Sorry. Like I say, I found it. Someone must have dropped it.’
‘Someone else who was wandering about the forest with a hammer?’
‘Like a workman or someone.’
Fiona nodded. ‘Shall I take it then?’
‘Sure.’
He handed it over.
Fiona paused. ‘This has your initials engraved on the handle, Pavel.’
‘Does it?’
‘Yes. Is this your hammer?’
