Page 93 of Twisted Lies

‘Err… so where are you actually taking me? And why do I feel this is gonna end with the words “and she was never seen again”?’

‘My house,’ Kim answered.

‘You have a home?’ Frost asked, genuinely surprised.

‘No, I sleep in a skip every night. Of course I have a home.’

‘My mistake. I thought you had some kind of charging station in your office.’

‘You feeling a bit less shaky, cos you seem to have found your mouth again.’

‘Well, come on. This is a bit surreal, isn’t it? I have an overnight bag, and I’m going to your house. And we don’t even like each other.’

‘Yeah, tragic, isn’t it?’

‘So why?’ Frost asked pointedly.

Kim wasn’t even sure herself. All she knew was that when she’d seen Frost leaning against that car, draped in a jacket that was doing nothing to stop the shivering or put the colour back into her face, the thought of her having to go back in there, or find somewhere to stay and allow her mind to fester on what had happened hadn’t sat well with her.

‘Someone’s gotta keep you out of trouble,’ she answered.

‘You’re still weird,’ Frost said.

‘And you’re still a bitch. Both facts are unlikely to change just cos you’re kipping in my spare room for the night,’ Kim said.

Frost burst out laughing. ‘Oh, jeez, I needed that. It’s good to know that your act of kindness isn’t going to change anything between us.’

‘It won’t,’ Kim assured her, pulling up onto her own drive.

‘Hmm, nice but not what I was expecting. I mean, it’s just a house.’

‘As opposed to what?’

Frost shrugged as Kim leaned over and undid Barney’s seat belt.

‘Okay, spare room is up the stairs and second on the left,’ Kim said, opening the front door.

The second that Frost was inside her house, Kim wondered if she’d made a huge mistake. Her only visitor was normally Bryant, who she threw out if he stayed longer than an hour.

‘Happy now?’ she asked Barney as she passed him a carrot. He took it to his chewing rug in the middle of the lounge, which she took as a yes.

She emptied the coffee pot and prepared a fresh brew. It was one night. She could put up with a visitor for one night. The house was plenty big enough, and she could console herself with the fact that she’d done the right thing. And now she understood her own reasoning. Frost was trying to do the right thing.

‘So how long you lived here?’ Frost asked, walking around Barney who was hoovering up chunks of carrot. Kim noted that Frost’s limp was more pronounced when she wasn’t wearing high heels. Right now, her feet were encased in thick woollen socks, and she was a good two inches shorter than Kim.

‘Ten years or so,’ she answered.

‘You are kidding?’ Frost asked, looking around.

Kim followed her gaze from behind the breakfast bar. She had a decent sofa that Barney appreciated more than she did. There was a TV in the far corner for which she’d lost the remote. There were a couple of scatter cushions and a small coffee table. She wasn’t big on material things, and her one prized possession, the single photo she had of herself and Mikey, was safely treasured on her bedside cabinet.

‘Talk about taking Marie Kondo’s advice to the extreme.’

‘Who?’

‘Decluttering expert,’ Frost said, taking a seat on one of the bar stools.

‘Oh,’ Kim said, holding up a mug as a question.