The Formidable

32

The phone was in the middle of the table, one missed call from an unknown number an hour ago.

"Do you reckon they'll call back?" Kieran asked, nibbling the peeling skin around his fingernail. Jase's eyes flickered from Sam, who let out an amused grunt, to Kieran.

"They wouldn't have given us a phone if they didn't want to talk," he replied. They sat in near silence, save for the wet clicking of Kieran going to town on his nails and the jogging up and down of Janine's knee.

After a few minutes, Jase snapped.

"Can you two give it a rest?" Both Kieran and Janine jumped. Kieran looked guiltily at the floor and Janine pulled her feet up onto the dining chair.

"How's Mia?" she asked, desperate for a distraction. Jase pursed his lips but quickly recognised what she was doing and forced himself to relax.

"She's good. Still weird being a dad but it's settling in," he replied.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to the idea of you having a kid," Sam said. Jase smiled, suddenly all the exhaustion hit him at once. His eyes were heavy, his muscles ached. It felt like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. Not since Madison had come back into the picture.

"It won't be long until you've got one-" The conversation was cut short by the shrill of the Nokia ringtone. They all looked at the phone vibrating in the centre of the table. Jase let it ring twice before answering.

"Hello?"

"Is this Jase Davies?" the caller asked. He had a gruff voice, an old-school cockney lilt to his tone. Jase shifted, unsure how to feel about being full-named by a faceless stranger.

"Who's asking?" he replied, without confirming nor denying his identity. Though, he had no doubt the person knew who they were talking to.

"We know you're looking for information on Caspar," they continued, disregarding his question in the same fashion. The use of 'we' didn't go amiss. Kieran, Janine, and Sam watched Jase cautiously, straining to hear the conversation on the other end.

"Who told you that?" Jase asked. He didn't want to let the caller know they may have something he wanted, not yet.

"Are you saying you're not?"

"I'm not saying anything until I know who this is," Jase said. There was a low chuckle on the other end, rattling through as a tinny crackle.

"Wise decision, but I can do one better. I'd like to meet," he said. That caught Jase off guard. He wondered for a second if he was speaking to Caspar himself.

"Am I talking to Caspar?" he asked, the others sat up attentively. Another laugh.

"No. Let's say I'm a friend of a friend for now." Jase didn't trust friends of friends, especially those so reluctant to reveal their identity but currently, the man on the other end of the phone was the only lead they had.

"When and where?" he asked. Sam's brows furrowed.

"Nine, tonight. Mayson's car park. You know where it is?" Mayson's was a hardware store that had long closed down due to lack of business in such an out of the way area. It would be empty. The perfect place to commit a crime.

"I know where it is," he said.

"Wonderful. I'll see you there then. Oh, and Jase," there was a brief pause, "don't tell Madison." The line clicked off and Jase remained with the phone pressed to his ear for a second before tossing it onto the table.

"Who was it? What did they say?" Janine asked.

"They didn't tell me who it was but they knew me. Said they're a friend of a friend. They want to meet-"

"When?" Sam cut in.

"Tonight, Mayson's car park." He looked at the clock, it was half-seven already. The car park was a twenty-minute drive from the house. Sam shook his head.

"I don't like this," he mumbled. "We're not prepared."

Jase shrugged.

"We have nothing else to go on. Besides, he didn't tell me to come alone, he just said don't tell Madison." Jase was sure this wasn't a threat based off gut feeling alone. He could usually feel when something bad was going to happen, it was like a sixth sense after doing his job for so long. You could pick it up in people's voices, their demeanour and wording gave it away. It was the same feeling he got when Madison first came to the house.

"Who's going then?" Sam questioned. Jase looked at him, then Kieran.

"Did you say he said not to tell Madison?" Janine asked, Jase nodded and she moistened her lips nervously. "Then I don't think she should be left alone." Jase tilted his head and Janine rolled her eyes. "Whoever it is knows who she is, knows who you are, knows that you're looking for Caspar. What if it's a setup to draw you away? Especially if he didn't tell you not to bring anyone. Maybe he's expecting you to turn up and leave Madison unprotected." She had a point. Not that Jase thought for a second Madison couldn't handle herself but that was only to an extent.

"You're right. Kieran, go to mine and stay with Madison. Don't tell her what we're doing under any circumstances, understood?" Jase said.

Kieran swallowed dryly. The idea of staying with Madison made him uncomfortable. Not that he'd tell the others she intimidated him. Possibly more so than any man he'd ever met in the house. There was this confidence about Madison, like she was untouchable, as if she knew something no one else did and she always had one more card to play.

He remembered when Jase first introduced her to him and was taken aback by how openly resentful of Jase she was. The look in her eyes when she glared at him wasn't a common occurrence in the house, most girls would have got a slap for a disrespectful sideways glance but not Madison. Never Madison. Kieran figured maybe that's why she had an overwhelming amount of confidence when it came to pushing her luck.

Kieran never did any of the muscle work, he was there for tech and that was it. He sold the odd ten bag but as far as he was concerned, any illegal activities he carried out were done on screens. Realistically, being surrounded by the people he associated with was both a blessing and a curse because, on one hand, he was safe. On the other, he was a perfect target to squeeze any information out of. And he knew a dangerous amount about the house. It was a miracle he hadn't had a nervous breakdown over the paranoia the thought caused him at times.

"So what am I telling her? Because you know she'll ask and I'm not very good at lying on the spot," he said, doing an awful job at concealing how nervous the thought of staying with Madison made him. Jase couldn't help but roll his eyes. Sometimes, he really had to question why they kept Kieran around. And then they needed to hack into cameras or install bugs or trackers and he remembered that a lot of the time, the risk was worth it. Besides, he understood why Madison would make him feel that way. She was very tricky to read and entirely unpredictable.

"You can't outright lie to her, she'll see right through you. Tell her we had a call and they knew her name and mine and that I wanted you to go round there to check up on her and I stayed here in case they called back," Jase said. Kieran nodded, hoping and praying that Madison would buy it and not question him further. "I'll text her to let her know you're coming. I'll tell her I didn't recognise the voice and wasn't comfortable with her being on her own because I don't know what they know."

Kieran relaxed slightly. If Jase lied to her, he would have no need to and Madison was less likely to question him.