Sharp Turn - Marianne Delacourt [49]
‘Did you check out Clem’s background before you hired him?’
He shrugged. ‘He’s good at what he does. That’s all I needed to know.’
That didn’t seem right. Bolo was a businessman. I couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t do a reference check.
‘Is there a problem between you and Red’s girlfriend?’ I asked. ‘I saw you arguing at the track.’
His face reddened. ‘No problem really. She’s just . . . a nuisance. She distracts him. I was asking her to keep her distance when he’s at practice.’
‘You can do that?’
He gave a rueful smile. ‘Not according to her, hence the argument. I figure I’m paying him top dollar to perform. Track practice is just like working in an office. You don’t get to hang out with your partner at the office all day, do you?’
‘Ah, not normally,’ I said, thinking of hanging out with Ed at the photo shoot.
‘Thanks for the Bennett information. I need to know about Chesley asap,’ he said.
‘Working on it. I’ll call you tomorrow. The other thing is, I’ve got a guy who can be your bodyguard if you’re worried about the death threat.’
‘Thanks. I’ll think about it.’
His aura was still restless but it had stopped crashing into mine. He got out of Mona and hustled back to his BMW 6 Series. With a quiet purr of engine ignition, he was gone.
I glanced in the rear-view, preparing to pull out, when I noticed that the dark sedan that had spooked me twice before was parked only a couple of lengths behind me.
This time I made an impulsive decision not to run away and did a quick three-sixty turn out of my parking bay, heading straight at the suspicious car. The driver, who was hunkered down behind the wheel and wearing a cap, saw my intention and screeched out of his spot, accelerating south down the beach road.
I chased after him, but got caught behind an old Kombi van. With traffic coming the other way, I couldn’t overtake.
The sedan turned left into the road that ran through the middle of Cottesloe golf course. Not prepared to lose him, I overtook the Kombi on the left side and pulled a sudden left-hander. Seconds later, a police siren went off.
Crap! I pulled over feeling absolutely pissed off.
Not only had I lost my tail, I was about to get booked.
The officer who climbed out of the squad car and walked up to my window was an all-too-familiar figure.
‘Hello, Constable Bligh.’
‘Tara.’
We stared at each other in a weird kind of stalemate.
‘You were speeding and overtaking dangerously,’ she said finally, and pulled her biro from her top pocket. ‘Can you tell me why?’
I glanced in my mirror. Bill Barnes was sitting in the car with his head bent over a packet of fries. ‘Umm . . .’ I had nothing. ‘I was . . . in a . . . hurry?’
‘You appeared to be chasing that dark sedan.’
‘What sedan?’
‘The one that was speeding down this road ahead of you.’
‘Another car was speeding? Why did you let them go and stop me?’
We eyed each other steadily. I sensed she wanted to say a whole lot more. Instead, she wrote me a ticket.
Thrusting the fine in the window, she leaned in close. ‘I’ve already given you a friendly warning, Tara. Don’t get mixed up in this stuff.’
With that, she turned on her heel and stalked off back to her car.
I got a nasty feeling right below my two serves of cheesecake. Who the hell was driving the sedan? And what was Bligh holding out on me about?
Chapter 16
I WAS A FEW minutes late to pick up Cass but she was too excited about her new purchases to care. I dropped her at Lilac Street and changed into some gym gear, heading straight back out again to Rather Be Dead?
Plenty of nervous-glances-over-my-shoulder-looking-for-dark-sedans later, I parked in the underground car park and went upstairs to the gym. It took me forty minutes into the toughest level on the bike before I began to settle. When the program finished, I wobbled my way over to the bench press with a severe case of jelly legs.
‘Whoa there,’ came a deep voice from behind me and a strong hand steadied my swaying gait. Nice Guy, his palm cool on my back.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Thanks.’
‘You okay?’
‘Jelly legs from the bike,