Free Spiking the Girl by Gabrielle Lord

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    After chatting for a while, they fitted the camera in a corner so that it could take in the whole room and the doorway through to Mrs Dunlop’s bedroom.
    ‘It’s movement-activated,’ Gemma explained. ‘It has a little memory and can store pictures.’
    ‘I don’t want that animal here in my flat. I want my little cat back. Little Pusskin. I was used to little Pusskin,’ Annie insisted.
    ‘We’ll check up in a week or so,’ said Gemma, noticing the old lady feeling around for the plate of slices on the table and only then remembering that she was almost blind. She clearly knew this flat like the back of her hand.
    When they left, Mrs Snellgrove gave Gemma a hug. ‘Thank you so much. What do I owe you?’
    ‘We’ll talk about that later,’ said Gemma. ‘When we find out what’s going on.’
    She and Mike drove back to her place and she went down the hall, leaving Mike in the operatives’ office while she attended to household chores. A little while later, over the spin cycle, she heard Mike call out.
    She came out of the bathroom to see him hesitating on the hall side of the door dividing her apartment from the front office area.
    ‘I thought you said you were going on another job,’ she said. ‘An hour ago. Don’t stand there. Come in.’
    He came into her living room and passed her the empty plate and mug. She took the things into the kitchen and dumped them in the sink.
    ‘Gemma?’
    She swung round.
    ‘I’d better be on my way.’
    She watched after him as he disappeared out the front door, wondering why she felt so disappointed. What had she expected him to say?
    Turning, she checked her office to find a fax in the tray. She glanced over it. It was about the new job from the insurance company. Mr Gordon Pepper was seeking huge amounts in compensation after a work injury had left him completely impotent. He claimed he couldn’t achieve an erection let alone climax; that his sex life was finished. Poor sod, Gemma thought. She felt for him. She took the fax across the hall and put it on the desk Spinner used.
    Trying Kit again, she went straight through to voice mail once more. Maybe she’d gone down the coast for a couple of days. Come home soon, Kit, she prayed.
    Household jobs done, invoices ready to send, Mr Dowling’s file in her bag with the pile of copied witness statements to read whenever she had a spare moment, Gemma drove to Forever Diamonds. On the way, her mind kept wondering about Rowena Wylde’s information concerning her family—Gemma definitely needed to speak to Kit before her appointment with Rowena Wylde the following day.
    She stopped off at the post office, then drove to Trafalgar Street, Newtown, and parked opposite a white goods warehouse. She walked over, pretending interest in a marked-down freezer, chatting with the young salesman.
    Forever Diamonds, she discovered, had started up eighteen months ago and, despite the locals’ initial scepticism of such a business having any takers at all, seemed to be doing good trade. She said she’d think about the freezer, thanked the young man and left, hovering outside the Forever Diamonds shopfront. Taped to the glass of the door, on a piece of stationery with silver-embossed edges and the stylised diamond logo she’d already seen on the card Mr Dowling had shown her, was an advertisment: Part-time Receptionist required. Experienced, reliable people-person. Sensitivity a must. Hours to suit. Must show good refs . For a split second, Gemma considered the position herself.
    She pressed the buzzer and the door clicked open, revealing a front office decorated with red velvet curtains and matching plush chairs. It reminded her of an undertaker’s premises or the foyer of an old-fashioned theatre. A perfectly groomed young man in a dark suit behind a long polished counter looked up at her arrival. He stepped out and proffered his hand.
    ‘Raymond Gardiner,’ he said. ‘I’ll be with you in a moment. Please make