Chapter 135
Ten days later
Adam Malloy hadn’t slept for two weeks. Ever since that jailbait bitch had scratched his face and that psycho Poe had threatened to call the police on him.
All he’d wanted to do was watch a porno with her, to see if it would lead to anything.
How was he supposed to know she was a child?
She’d told him she was twenty-one. And yeah, she obviously wasn’t that old, but as far as he was concerned, anyone old enough to know they had to lie about their age was old enough, full stop.
And she had stolen his credit card. She’d been using it up until a few days ago.
He had paid the tab as soon as the charges appeared.
He didn’t want his wife asking why he was spending money they didn’t have, but she’d found out anyway.
She’d caught him cheating once before so was always on the lookout for suspicious credit card activity.
And he hadn’t been able to explain away the junior suite at the Crown and Mitre.
He couldn’t tell the truth and he couldn’t think of a decent lie.
He couldn’t even say his wallet had been stolen.
Couldn’t risk Poe turning up at work again.
His wife had thrown him out on his ear. Told him to move in with his dolly bird.
He was staying in the staff quarters at Musgrave Hall until he could sort it out.
Come up with a believable explanation. But there was good news.
There hadn’t been any recent charges on his card. Light at the end of the tunnel.
Of course, sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel was the light coming from the train heading straight towards you. The knock on his door was so loud it made him spill his cup of tea.
What now?
He flung open the door, ready to remonstrate with the staff member interrupting his time off. Just because he was living in didn’t mean he was permanently on duty. But it wasn’t a member of Musgrave Hall’s staff. It was a giant of a man. Six feet five if he was an inch.
‘You Malloy?’ the man said, his voice like gravel.
‘Yes.’
‘My name’s Towler. I hear you like little girls?’
‘Er … I don’t know where you heard that.’
‘So you didn’t try to force my friend Esmerée to watch porn with you?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘And those scratches on your face. They’re from rose bushes, I imagine?’
‘I think I’d like you to leave now.’
Malloy slammed the door. He waited to see if the giant would knock again. He didn’t. Instead, he put his fist through it. Opened the door from the inside. He could hear staff gathering in the corridor, wondering what the noise was. The giant didn’t seem to care.
‘I can assure you nothing untoward happened,’ Malloy said. ‘That young lady is a liar and a fraud, and I’ll see her in court if she so much as mentions my name.’
Towler cricked his neck and rolled his shoulders. He grinned, then started walking towards the rapidly retreating Malloy. ‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ he said.