A Dangerous Affair

A Dangerous Affair Chapter 47

Stephanie slipped behind the wheel of Robert’s car and opened her handbag with shaking hands, searching frantically for the instructions to Carlton’s house that she had jotted down the last time they went there. At last she found them and she lay the paper out on the seat next to her before starting up the car and speeding off. She figured that, considering how difficult it had been to find the house before, if she had the driving instructions and Tom didn’t she might just arrive there before him.

This whole project was getting out of hand. Before Tom was involved she rarely thought twice about the danger of investigating criminal activity but now she didn’t only have herself to think about, and if Tom was doing this just for her then it was wrong. Even if he wasn’t, she still wasn’t happy about him returning to the Carlton house. She had to stop him before he got seriously hurt, or worse.

Tom pulled up at the side of the road a little way from Carlton’s house and got out of his car. He made his way down the road towards the entrance to the driveway, peering through the hedge at the house as he went. He was just contemplating his next move when he felt a hand on his arm and he spun around, taking hold of the hand on instinct and twisting it behind the back of his assailant. He immediately dropped the arm when he saw who it was.

“Stephanie! What the hell are you doing here? Do you want to get yourself killed?” he said under his breath, pulling her into the shadow of the hedge.

“I could ask you the same question Tom,” she whispered back. “You’re not going in there!”

“Yes I am!” he grated back. “Or at least I was. But I can’t bloody well now can I? Not now that you’re here!”

“Good, so let’s go then before Brick fires you,” she said, grabbing his arm and moving to pull him back down the road towards the cars.

He resisted. “I have a better idea. You go back to the office and leave me to finish this!”

“Not on your life!” she said adamantly. “Either we both go back to the office or we both go in there,” she said, pointing to the house and playing her trump card. That was one way of stopping him.

Tom gritted his teeth in annoyance. “Stephanie! I’m not…” he began but stopped when he noticed that she was staring over his shoulder. She tightened the grip on his arm and pulled him back towards the hedge.

“Look,” she said, eyeing a car that was on its way out of the driveway.

Tom turned to look as the car pulled out into the road and headed past them. He peered with interest at the melancholy expression of the dark haired young woman in the back. The woman gazed back at him with a dazed, far away look.

“Come on,” he said, taking hold of Stephanie’s arm and pulling her back in the direction of his car.

“Where are we going?” she frowned.

“We’re going to follow that car,” he announced.

“Why would we want to do that?”

He turned to glance back at her with impatience. “Because it’s better than trying to persuade you not to go running into that house…and besides, you never know it may lead us somewhere.”

They got into Tom’s car and managed to catch up with the car which they had seen leaving the Carlton house. Following at a reasonable distance so as not to be spotted, they finally approached a building not far from the house and waited until the car had parked in the driveway before pulling up outside and getting out.

“Eden Lakeside Hotel, Country Club and Golf Course,” Stephanie said, reading the sign in the grounds.

“Nice,” he said, looking up at the building.