page24 (2/2)

I yelped, ‘Leave him alone!’

Winter and Pete began to circle each other Good grief, this was about to turn into a full-blown cock fight I certainly felt like I atching two cocks, anyway

‘You idiots!’ I bellowed We were hunting a serial killer There wasn’t tith or testosterone-fuelled one-upmanship ‘Clare told us about you, Pete You have a Chihuahua called Bruiser’

‘It has the hots for the cat at nu to hump it’

‘Bruiser’s in love with one of the cats from this same street!’ I shouted

Pete paused for a moment Unfortunately, it didn’t last as he bounced round and took another shot at Winter froed to duck in ti at least souy, all was lost

‘This is so stupid,’ I muttered to myself ‘Winter’s been possessed’

‘Nah,’ Clare said ‘He’s just defending your honour Pete said he’d never seen a burglar with such a fat arse’ She tilted her head ‘To be fair, it was all he could see of you at the time He doesn’t usually say much at all’

I should probably have been offended but I actually felt kind of warm and fuzzy that Winter was so worked up on my behalf But that didn’t mean I could allow this to continue

Until we knew the lay of the land, I didn’t want to alert Pete to the fact that Winter and I itches I could search for a bucket to throater over them but in the time it took to find one, both Winter and Pete could end up knocked out Instead I did about the only other thing I could think of Pulling down my waistband, I turned round and mooned the pair of theo!’

‘Nice,’ Clare said with an approving nod ‘They’ve both stopped and they’re just staring at you’

I sniffed, returnedto its appropriate position and turned round

Winter threw ?’

‘Getting you to stop acting like idiots,’ I yelled back ‘This guy is a friend of Clare’s He’s only looking out for her Just because he’s a ynistic bastard doesn’t mean you need to hurt him’

Surprisingly, Tattooed Pete looked rather abashed He put his hands in his pockets and looked away ‘I’m sorry But Clare is a nice lady,’ he said ‘A really nice lady She always has a kind word for me And I promised her brother I’d keep an eye on her place I didn’tin’

Oh, Pete Poor guy ‘We’re not breaking in’ It was unfortunate that I still had to shout to make myself heard; it didn’t exactly ease the situation that I was bellowing out of thelike a fishwife ‘And he wasn’t her brother Clare doesn’t have a brother’

Pete stiffened, his spine rigid He obviously didn’t knohether to trust us or not but either way he was still alarht? Where is she then?’

I glanced at Clare Her head drooped ‘Tell hi away ‘Tell him the truth’ I nodded at Winter He understood and spoke aardly to Pete His voice was low, so I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but the moment that Pete realised that Clare was dead was obvious His body language said it all

‘I think he really liked you,’ I said to Clare

She wouldn’t look up ‘I never knew,’ she said ‘I thought he was just a bit rude and bullish Sometimes he wouldn’t even look at me when I said hello in the street I’ve been such an idiot’ She sighed ‘About so s’