Free No Holds Barred by Lyndon Stacey

wondering just what they’d been discussing in his absence.
    â€˜So, what are you up to this weekend? Anything interesting?’ he asked instead, and he was relieved to see Dean relax as he launched into details of a golf tournament he was entering.
    â€˜Daniel. Can I have a word?’
    Jenny was in the doorway of the farmhouse as he passed with Taz at his heels.
    â€˜Sure. Down at the stables?’ He fancied he could feel Boyd’s eyes boring into his back.
    â€˜No, I ought to hang on here for a minute. I’ve just put Izzy down for a nap and she’s a bit restless. Come and have a cup of coffee,’ she said.
    Daniel resisted the temptation to look back and see if Boyd really was watching as he accepted the invitation. To do so would only make him look as if he had something to hide.
    â€˜Actually, I’ve just had a cup,’ he said as she closed the door behind him.
    Jenny made no move to put the kettle on. She turned to face him, and he thought she looked tired and stressed.
    â€˜You were right – about Taylor, I mean. He is up to something,’ she said.
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜I had to get something from the office earlier, and I remembered how you reacted when I said about him doing overtime. So I looked and there’s no record of his trip last night.’
    â€˜Well, he might have forgotten to log it. Especially if he got back late,’ Daniel pointed out reasonably.
    â€˜And another thing,’ she went on, as if she hadn’t heard. ‘The fuel bills have gone through the roof – yes, I know diesel has gone up a lot lately, but this is something else. It’s almost thirty per cent up on the last month Gavin was here. That can’t be right, can it?’
    â€˜It does sound a bit excessive,’ Daniel agreed. ‘Have you said anything to Boyd?’
    â€˜Not yet. After what you said, I didn’t know what to do  . . .’
    Daniel rubbed a hand over his tired eyes and gave it some thought.
    â€˜I reckon, mention it to him but in a non-confrontational way. Act puzzled and see what he says. If he makes some excuse, pretend to believe him. We don’t want to put the wind up him at this stage.’
    â€˜Don’t we?’ Jenny looked unsettled.
    â€˜No, we don’t,’ Daniel said firmly. ‘I think there might be more to this than a little low-level embezzlement, and I’d like to find out what. Let me know what he says. And, meantime, can you let me have a couple of addresses?’
    Jenny didn’t have a current address for the departed Mal Fletcher but suggested he ask the people who were now renting the cottage he’d vacated.
    Daniel had little more luck regarding her ex-employee’s reasons for leaving.
    â€˜He said he’d had a better offer and I didn’t question him. I was too caught up in what was happening to Gavin,’ she confessed. ‘It was early days then, you see, and we didn’t know if he might come round at any moment. I was at the hospital every spare moment I had.’
    â€˜That’s understandable. Were you surprised Fletcher left?’
    â€˜Well, it was a bit sudden, but staff come and go. There’s no loyalty these days. I think he knocked heads with Taylor once or twice, but he didn’t seem particularly unhappy. I didn’t really know him, but he seemed a nice enough guy.’
    Mal Fletcher’s new address, furnished in due course by the cottage’s current occupant, was in Ditton Cheney, a village not five miles away, and, tucking the sheet of notepaper in his pocket, Daniel drove straight there.
    A young, dark-haired woman opened the door to the brick-built terraced cottage, with a baby perched on one hip. She looked Daniel up and down and a guarded look came into her eyes. Belatedly, he remembered he was still wearing his polo shirt with the Summer Haulage logo.
    â€˜Yes?’ The enquiry was abrupt.
    â€˜Is Mal