Nathan stands in the doorway grinning as Andrew Ward carefully closes the front gate behind him and walks up the path.

‘What's all this then?’ he laughs. ‘Heard the car. She let you out?’

‘Gerroff’ Andy scowls. ‘I’m still my own man.’

‘What’s that mark?’ Nathan peers at him.

Andy puts his fingers to his head, feeling for the spot where Nathan is looking. ‘What mark?’

‘Hmm…’ he parts Andy’s hair with his fingers. ‘Looks suspiciously like a thumb print to me.’

‘Bugger off!’ Andy knocks his hand away and steps up into the porch.

‘You after a night down the pub?’ Nathan asks, standing aside to let him in. ‘You should’ve rung, I’d have been ready.’

‘No…just wanted a chat.’

‘We could do that down the pub’ he says, closing the door.

‘Quieter here’ Andy hovers uncomfortably in the hall. ‘I’ll have a beer though, if you’ve got one.’

‘Does a fish swim?' Nathan grins 'This looks mighty serious. You’ve got a face on you like a bulldog pissing up an electric fence.’

‘It is…or might be’ Andy follows Nathan into the kitchen.

‘Why, what’s up?’

‘This gossip that’s going around,’ he hedges.

‘Ye-ah?’ Nathan hands him a can from the fridge.

‘S’ok I know there’s no truth in it.’

‘But? I sense there’s a big but in this.’ He flips his ring pull.

‘Ok, no mucking, I've got to ask. Don’t much want to but Lenny’s doing me head in. What have you got yourself mixed up in?’ The beer spits and hisses as he opens his can and he sucks up the froth.

‘Don’t follow’ Nathan takes a swallow from his beer and moves back into the living room.

‘When you took that job on…was it as some sort of favour?’ Andy asks, perching on the edge of the sofa and looking serious.

‘You what? Get real! I’m not in this game for the fun of it you know.’ Nathan laughs, settling in the armchair and muting the sound from the television with the remote control on the shelf in the alcove next to him.

‘A discount for friends?’

‘Friends?’

‘Friends you might owe?’

‘Andy, you’re making no bloody sense at all.’

‘You knew Wilson before?’

‘No. I knew of him, course I did, who doesn’t but I’d never met him.’ Nathan’s smile slips and he frowns. ‘Why?’

‘You don’t know any of his friends?’

‘What’s with all this friends crap? No, I don’t know any of his friends. I didn’t know him until I pitched up to size the job.’

‘Ever wonder why you got the job and not one of his regular contractors?’

‘Didn’t give a shit as long as I got it. It was a one off. Thought it could be a try before you buy, local firm for local projects, cheaper. Are you going to explain?’

Andy rolls the can between his fingers, his bottom teeth digging into his top lip as he looks down at it. He raises his eyes. ‘He’s in heavy with Gerry Bartlett’ he says baldly.

Nathan guffaws. ‘Bollocks is he!’

‘Straight up’

‘Nah, you’re wrong. A bit rough round the edges but ….. Nah’ He shakes his head, still amused.

Andy chews the inside of his lip. ‘See anything of a Roy Denton while you were out there?’ He says casually and raises his can to his mouth.

‘Don’t know him’ Nathan declares without hesitation and reaches for his cigarettes. He lights one and takes a deep draw. ‘Hang on…’ He tosses his lighter back on the coffee table. ‘I have…heard of him….he was mentioned’ he adds after giving it some more thought.

‘Friend of Wilsons?’ Andy nods, waiting for confirmation.

‘The daughter’s I think.’ Nathan exhales a curl of smoke with his words.

‘Gerry Bartlett’s sidekick.’

‘Yeah? Jeeze!’ he exclaims ‘…no wonder he…’

‘No wonder what?’

‘Doesn’t matter.’ He shakes his head ‘…Not now. I’m done with him, told him he can stuff his contract.’

‘What contract?’

Nathan puts his head back and stares at the ceiling for a few moments before rocking forward with a grim smile. ‘Think this might be a six pinter.’ He swigs from his can and stands up ready to get another.

‘I’ll ring the wife.’

Dell Cottage, Washbrook Lane

Chapter Three

Milliwick Newsagents

The High Street

‘Pssst!’ Jessie Shepherd looks from side to side to make sure she is not being observed or overheard ‘Got a minute?’ she asks Liz Applewhite.

Liz chuckles ‘You got fed up of being a witch? What you being now, some sort of spy?’

‘Shhhh!’

‘What?’ she lowers her voice to a whisper and leans over the counter.

‘Ernie’s got a drink problem’

‘He has?’ Liz's voice rises again with surprise.

Jessie waves her down. ‘Nooo…but that’s what I’ve told Kath. Ok?’

‘Oh…right you are’ She taps the side of her nose. ‘You spoke to George then?’

‘My flabber has never been so ghasted.’

‘I’ve never let anything slip before. I could have cut me tongue out!’

‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to say anything but how on earth did you get to find out? I should think you’re the only person in this village besides George that did know.’

‘Did?’

‘She died’

‘Oh, poor Ernie.’ Liz says sincerely.

‘So?’ Jessie prompts their whispered conversation.

‘So, what?’

‘How did you come to find out?’ she hisses

‘Oh…well… Just a minute..' Liz leaves Jessie at one end of the counter while she serves the small queue that has built up at the other.  'Tell you what….' she says when she has finished 'You come upstairs. I could do with a bit of a sit down.’

She takes the few steps to the doorway at the back of the shop. ‘ Geoffreeeeeeeeeee!’ she shrieks, making Jessie wince. ‘Come and take over for a minute will you?’