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“I should probably involve regional management and the police.”
“No, please… Don’t do that. No one has lost anything. It’s all here. They can have it back.”
“What’s to say you haven’t been stealing from the tills, too?”
“I’m not a thief!” Her shrill protest carried little weight, given the rather gigantic pile of evidence. “You’d know if there was money missing. It would have shown up on the till roll.”
“Maybe,” Laura conceded. “But you still need to leave.”
“But I need this job. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for something? Gray’s going to be so mad, and Dad’s going to be…” Her father would be just as he always was, overflowing with macho bullshit. He never really liked her going out to work anyway. Hell, he sabotaged pretty much every attempt she made to leave the house. Seemed to think her place was at home making things cushy for him and her brothers. Gray at least tried to help her out, but Cam, her younger brother, freshly minted into adulthood and full of his own self-worth, was an even more tyrannical version of her dinosaur of a father. “Please.”
“I can’t let you stay after this.” Laura waved her hand over the top of the box. “I’d be risking my neck, and besides, without those references, I couldn’t keep you on after today anyway. It’s company policy.” She handed Jodi her coat and bag. “I’ll make sure they send your wages to you. Now, please leave the premises.”
-chapter three-
Jodi Castle
Puce-faced, Jodi stumbled into the car park. This was bad. So bad that the last thing she wanted was to see anyone, which absolutely ruled out going home and being made to feel as if she was two inches tall. She needed to head somewhere, though. The evening was drawing in, there was a bitter wind howling, and the rain that had been incessant for days still showed no signs of stopping. Moving as fast as her short legs would carry her, she scuttled across the oil-stained tarmac, looking for what… security, maybe? A free ride into the sunset? Something to make her forget how shitty today had turned out to be.
Jodi didn’t deliberately acquire things – it wasn’t a lie to say she didn’t know where the things in her locker had come from. Ever since childhood, things had a way of sticking to her, as if she were a giant magnet. The teachers at school all seemed to think she’d grow out of it, but how did you grow out of something you weren’t in control of?
Cars, though, they were a different matter.
Jodi pulled the set of keys from the front pocket of her apron before screwing up the black tabard and hurling it back towards the wretched diner. Cars were a compulsion. Behind the wheel was the only time she ever felt truly alive and wholly connected with her surroundings. You could escape in a vehicle, be free, just you and the open road, headlights blazing, stereo pumping, and no outside interference.
If she had the money for one of her own, then she’d have no need to borrow.
Right now, though, she needed a loan. It would only be for a few hours. Then, once she’d cleared her head after some drifting along open roads, she’d return it to the exact place she found it, or close enough. Nothing would have changed by the end of her drive, but she’d know what to do next, or at least how to face it. After all, her future was tediously predictable. Every day started in the same place it ended, a room she’d outgrown twelve years ago.
There were precious few vehicles in the carpark. It was too early for the after-work crowd, and late enough that those seeking lunch were long departed. Only the staff cars and a couple of others were dotted about the main area, with a couple of larger vehicles in the overspill. She stood in the middle of the lot and hit the button on the keychain, watching for the tell-tale flash of the rear lights and the click of the locks releasing.
Nothing.
That was disappointing.
She tried again, walking between the rows. Still nothing. Okay, systematic approach; one at a time. She wove in and out of the cars, keys in her pocket, thumb on the door release, while she gazed at her phone screen so that it looked as if she was obsessing over some facet of social media.
Blood pressure rising, she nearly bounced the bunch of metal spokes into the nearest oil puddle, when a flicker of lights made her raise her head and laugh.
Now that was interesting.
Not her normal preference. She preferred slightly dated models, unremarkable, with nothing too fancy under the bonnet, so as to not draw undue attention. However, when things fell into your hands, it was wrong to dismiss them.
The beast before her was slick and silver, ostentatious by virtue of its sheer size. She’d never driven a bus before. There’d been a van once, and that old tractor she’d trundled over a couple of cornfields in, but they were both tiddlers beside this beast. She didn’t have a licence for this size vehicle, but then she hadn’t exactly passed her driving test. She would. Once she had the funds.
Okay, she was going to do this.
She took one last look around, but there wasn’t a coach party she was about to leave stranded, so she didn’t need to feel guilty about that. This was an empty ride waiting to be picked up. She’d have it back here before it was even missed.
The steps up to the driver’s seat were rather high, making it tricky to get inside, but once in, the seat was comfortable enough. Springy too. It bounced beneath her as she adjusted it. As for the rest of the controls, they were obvious enough, and as luck would have it, she could take it straight out of its parking bay without needing to reverse.
The engine purr sent a ripple of appreciation through her body. She ramped up the volume on the radio, pulled out onto the main road, and headed away from the lights of the nearby town.
Jodi’s grin stretched manically wide as she hit the open countryside and the streetlights faded away. It was black all around her, save for where the headlights lit the stretch of tarmac right in front of her. Overhanging branches clipped the mirrors as she slid the silver beast around an S-bend, revved it over a couple of humps, and somehow missed the sign for the ford.
The front wheels hit the inky water with a clap and waves sprayed out to the sides, so that it looked as if her metal monster was about to take flight. Awesome! She pounded the horn in delight. She was nearly at the other side when the music died and the lights on the dash blinked out. “What?” The engine cut out too.
“Fuck!”
