Page 45 of The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club Mysteries #5)

Jamie Usher does not like the look of this one bit.

A Manchester squad car right outside his house.

Parked across his driveway, so there’s no doubt which house they’ve come to visit.

The curtains in the living-room window are closed, on a fine summer’s evening.

That means there will be officers inside, talking to Jill.

She will have blocked the view of any curious neighbours.

She has some experience of it. Poor Jill.

He imagines her pulling the curtains closed, cursing him for bringing trouble to her house once again.

Guilt can wait though, Jamie has to think straight. What have the police come about? Could be a few things, but he knows where his money would be. And he’s been so careful this time. Perhaps he hasn’t. Sometimes, Jamie reflects, he’s not good at all this. You can’t keep kidding yourself, can you?

Jill will be furious, he knows that. He was supposed to have left all this behind him when they moved up here.

That’s why they moved up here, get him away from his old friends and his old haunts.

But it’s not so easy for him. Jill can just get a job in a nursery, meet new people, make new friends.

But Jamie? Old habits die hard. You do what you’re good at.

So far he’s had no trouble from the Manchester police, hasn’t raised a single flag as far as he knows.

So why are they here on a Tuesday? Jill will have told them he’s on his way home from work.

She won’t cover for him, won’t defend him.

Quite right too, Jamie absolutely gets it.

You can only push someone so far, whatever it says in the marriage vows.

Jill will want to know what the police have got to say.

She’ll want to know what he’s been up to.

Watching from his car, Jamie tries to think about a mistake he might have made. The mistake that led to the police knocking on his door. Who even knows where he lives?

Jill will have made them a cup of tea, there will be small talk.

She’ll be all smiles for the police, but she won’t be all smiles for him.

This will be the end for them, Jamie is sure of that.

He’s done some bad things, but she’s always forgiven him.

But he’d promised her it was all in the past, and she won’t forgive him breaking a promise. Flowers won’t fix this one.

That’s all long-term thinking though, and Jamie can’t think about the long term right now, any more than a fox being chased by hounds can think about tomorrow’s breakfast. What can he do now ? That’s the question to concentrate on.

He’ll have to run, that’s for sure. He has money on him, and he has access to more.

Not much more, but enough to spend a few days away, and see if he can find out exactly what the police want with him?

Perhaps it’s a false alarm? Something minor?

That would be a result. Perhaps it’s routine?

His name triggered on the police computer, ‘Sorry to bother you, sir’, ‘Eliminating people from our enquiries, sir.’ It’s only a squad car after all, not even real detectives.

Not worth the risk until he knows for sure though.

Where can he stay tonight? Get out of Manchester, certainly. The whole point of Manchester was that the police didn’t know him here. And now it seems they do, so it’s goodbye Manchester. And goodbye Jill if it’s something serious. But how to find out?

Who even knows where he lives?

Jamie thinks about the two old women who came to visit Jill.

Researchers? Maybe. But a coincidence that they call out of the blue, and the police are here a couple of days later.

What if that squad car, squatting outside his house for all the neighbours to see, has something to do with the women?

The taller one had something about her, something that sent Jamie’s radar haywire.

Jamie reaches around into the back pocket of his jeans and pulls out the card she gave him.

ELIZABETH BEST , it says, followed by a phone number.

Jill will be expecting him any minute. If he’s late, the police will be suspicious, and, if the police are suspicious, maybe they’ll be on the lookout for his car.

Best to get a few miles between himself and Manchester before that happens.

Jamie starts the car and pulls away from the kerb.

He passes his own house. The house that was supposed to be a new beginning.

But new Jamie soon fell back into the clutches of old Jamie, so here he is, running again.

He reaches the main road. Left is north, and right is south.

He looks at the ELIZABETH BEST card again.

Where did they say they’d come from? Kent?

Jamie Usher turns right, and heads south. He switches on Radio 2. A bit of Sara Cox for the long drive ahead.