“I’m sorry,” Jed said again, “But this is big stuff.”
Samantha sat on the edge of her bed and bit her lip. “It was really hard getting away on time,” she said peevishly. “Madeleine wanted to keep me there for training; I’ve rushed home and got ready.”
“I know,” Jed was sounding bored now, “and I’ll make it up to you but this is hot you know, I’ve got to go and follow something up.”
“Can’t I come with you?” Samantha whined.
Jed laughed. “Don’t be thick. I’ve got to be discreet. Keep myself out of the way. Can’t have two of us.”
“Shall I come over to your place and wait, then?” she asked hopefully.
“No, don’t do that.” She heard Jed sigh. “Look, it could be a long one. I might have to hang about all night. You stay there at your mum’s and chill. We’ll get our own place in town soon. Be together all the time.”
“Well, when will I –”
“Gotta go now, honey.”
Samantha looked crossly at the receiver as the line went dead. She wished Jed wouldn’t be so secretive. All he would say was that this was the one that would make the “dried-up old bitch at the top really sit up.” Davina! He was still smarting over the piece on the Blow-up-doll-found-in-Disgraced-Minister’s-prison-cell exposé when he’d done all the snooping about, brought the story to the news desk on a plate and hadn’t even got a by-line.
“But why not?” Samantha had asked indignantly, seeing her dream of a flat in London with a modelling career moving out of reach again.
Jed shrugged. “Old witch obviously isn’t getting any,” he said.
Patsy was getting plenty. She stretched, rolled over and picked up his Marlboro Lights from the bedside table, lit two and slid one of them between his lips. “I’ll let you have a little rest now,” she said, exhaling.
He looked nervously at the clock. “Better be getting back soon,” he said.
Patsy ran her nails slowly across his stomach. “I haven’t finished with you,” she said provocatively. “Not letting you go just yet.”
“You’re insatiable.”
“Complaining?” she asked, trailing her fingers lower.
She felt him stir. “Have to be careful,” he muttered. “It’s getting late.”
“So what? She doesn’t really care what you do anyway, does she?” Patsy balanced her cigarette in the ashtray and prepared to climb astride him again.
“No, but it’s not her, is it? If it gets out…”
“How will it?” Patsy took his cigarette from his fingers and put it with hers.
“I don’t know – there was this phone call – asking one of the girls…”
“Oh but you’re going to get that aren’t you – in your position.” “She lowered herself onto him, her tongue playing across his chest. She felt his breath quicken.
“And I’ve been worried ever since your husband –”
“I can handle Dave. He’s fine – completely off the scent.”
She ran her hands over him again, feeling him tense.
“It would be the end of this job. It could ruin my career.”
“Only if we get caught. Mmmn…”
“Robbie’s back tomorrow – we won’t be able to use this place any more.”
“I thought he was your best friend.”
“He is, but…”
“Can’t he help a mate out? Or in…” She blew into his ear, watching as he shuddered helplessly.
“When he’s here,” he struggled, “he’s got his own entertaining to do.”
“OK, well I’ll find somewhere else.”
“Well it’ll have to be –” he broke off and gasped as Patsy moved abruptly and impaled herself on him. She looked down triumphantly as his eyes rolled in sudden pained ecstasy.
“For fuck’s sake,” she said, rotating her hips with malicious pleasure. “Do shut up!”
Jed was getting pissed off. The mild evening had given way to a cold wind and he was shivering in his denim jacket. It had been too dark to see who was in the passenger seat of the dark blue Mercedes that had crunched up the drive four hours ago – for all he knew it was the bloke’s wife – and there was no sign of anyone emerging. It was probably one of their stuck-up celebrity dinner parties and they’d all be snorting away till dawn.
Though didn’t the bloke have to get up for work? Suppose the lightweight was staying over. He could be out here all night for nothing while his prey was tucked up in bed.
Jed rubbed at his arms, trying to warm up. Here he was freezing his arse off and they were sitting inside in the lap of luxury. It was enough to do your head in. Sometimes the waves of hatred that came over Jed shocked even himself. “Come out, you bastard,” he muttered aloud. He just wanted one good picture. One cast-iron shot. Both in the frame at the same time.
He looked at his mobile. After midnight and another naff picture message from Sam. She was just like a kid sometimes. But always very willing! Perhaps he should have told her to wait in his flat after all. He could do with a shag now after all this hanging about. He smiled. He liked to wind Sam up. Poke fun at the exclusive boarding school she’d been to. Her college for “Young Ladies”. He’d got a certain satisfaction out of introducing her to the real world. “What would Mummy think?” he’d say, making her go out in her little leather skirt, nothing underneath, watching her sashay across the dance floor for him in the sleaziest club in Streatham. “What would Mummy think if she knew what her little girl got up to?”
He could see one small light in an upstairs window beyond the tall hedge. No movement anywhere. He took a last look up the driveway to the house, pushed his mobile into his pocket and started to walk towards his car.
He wasn’t going to give up. He still had the first lot of photos and he knew there was a story there. And he’d make Davina-bloody-shrivelled-tits take him seriously next time too. It was all jobs for the boys on the Detail. Nepotism and smooth-talking graduates who wouldn’t know a story if it jumped up and parked the Porsche for them. Jed had done it the hard way. No expensive education for him. He’d been writing copy since he was fifteen, made all his own contacts, no help from anyone. And this was going to be his big break that would show them all. However long it took. He pulled out his car keys, took one last look back at the silhouette of the house in the moonlight and scowled. “I’ll get you, you bastard, you wait.”