Die for You

Chapter 27

"Have you gone into your meeting with Joanna yet?"

"I was just about to."

"No you weren't. You were sitting in the car twiddling your thumbs and wondering how you could get out of it."

"I was not," I said, stuffing my things into my pockets and unclipping my seatbelt as I struggled to hold the phone under my ear. "I've only just got here."

"Freenky, you've been parked outside Joanna's for seventeen minutes. I know, I called the agency and I can see you on my computer."

'Fuck', I thought. I had seemingly been caught out again. I really needed to get JJ to sort out my new company car so I could get out of this monster truck.

Admittedly, it was a wonderful car, and I loved driving it, but the annoyingly clever little device under the bonnet had caught me out twice now. I'd asked Becky on the way home from Bath how she and Andy had found me at the cemetery, because I was pretty sure I'd done a number on them and given them the slip.

It was then that she admitted that all their family cars were fitted with tracking devices and that the agency that managed the contract could tell them the GPS location of the car down to a few meters.

"Freenky?"

"Becky, I'll call you back. I've got to go in now."

"Let me know how you get on, Freenky, and stop worrying. Joanna's a wonderful woman, she's been a lifeline to me over the years."

"I'm not worried," I told her, hoping that my voice sounded more confident than I felt.

"Of course, you're not," she replied and I could almost see the grin on her face as she said it. "Get in there now before you're too late. Go, get em, tiger."

She hung up the call and I shoved the phone into my jacket pocket with a snort of disgust; climbing out of the Range Rover and slamming the door behind me. I stood for a second looking at the door when it suddenly opened and a woman in her mid-to-late forties beckoned me in.

"You'll be Freen, of course," she said as I stepped across the threshold and she closed the door behind me. "Jenna described you rather well I think. 'Tall, blonde and carrying a 'don't fuck with me' attitude' she said over the phone. Seems to suit you nicely if you don't mind me saying so."

She paused briefly for breath and looked at me carefully holding out her hand for me to shake.

"Hello, I'm Joanna Foster, but you can call me Joanna or Jo whatever suits you. I'm not hung upon names personally, come on through."

We shook hands and I followed her along the hallway as she showed me down a set of stairs into what I assumed was her consulting room. It wasn't at all what I was expecting; in fact, rather than a musty old room with a dirty looking couch, it was light and modern with a couple of nice black leather chairs sat on a light-colored wood floor.

"Please take a seat, Freen, can I interest you in a drink, tea perhaps? I was just about to make a pot."

"Erm, thanks," I said a little taken aback by her demeanor which was not what I expected.

"White..."

"Oh no, no milk and no sugar. I'm afraid I only ever drink herbal teas and I only drink them neat," she interrupted heading for the door. "Good for the constitution they are; I won't take no for an answer..."

He voice tailed off slightly as I heard her walk up the stairs and back into the main part of the house. "Go on and sit down, Freen," she called down," we don't stand on ceremony here. I won't be long."