‘I didn’t want to bother you if it was nothing.’
‘And was it nothing?’
‘I don’t know. I think he was pointing in the direction of the killer’s escape.’
Huston was silent for a moment as she powered the car smoothly through the Surtees-McLaren-Clark curve complex again. ‘The security guard says he helped you recover your phone from a drain.’
‘Yeah, I dropped it.’
‘Because you were about to call me?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Let’s cut the crap, Aidy. I don’t like finding you shadowing my investigation and I especially don’t like finding you one step ahead of me. Your interference slows my investigation down and helps the killer get away. You need to come clean with me or I’m taking you in. Am I clear?’
I got the feeling that she didn’t know I’d been inside Jason’s flat or about my association with Andrew. I wasn’t about to admit to either of these things, but I had to give her something. I decided on the phone. It wasn’t any good to me anyway.
‘I found Jason’s mobile phone at the murder site.’
‘You what?’ The temperature inside the car dropped ten degrees. ‘Don’t tell me you touched it.’
‘Yes.’
‘What the hell is wrong with you? Were you dropped on your head as a child? That’s tampering with evidence. I should haul you in right now.’
‘The phone was useless. It had shorted out.’
‘I don’t bloody care. You destroyed a vital piece of evidence. The second you found it, you should have called me.’
‘I know. I’m sorry.’
‘Screw sorry. Where’s the phone now?’
‘I’ve got it in my car. It’s fried. I put a new battery in it, but I still couldn’t get it to work.’
‘You’re going to give it to me.’
‘OK.’
Huston jerked the wheel and pulled into the pits.
‘You’ve still got another five laps.’
‘I just want that phone.’
‘OK. Stop here.’
Huston parked the car at the start of the pit garages, away from the line of school cars. She followed me to the parking area behind the pit lane where the instructors parked. I pulled the phone from the glove box where I’d left it after unsuccessfully attempting to breathe life into it. She took it from me and wrapped it in a handkerchief.
‘I really should throw you in the cells. Maybe it would smarten you up.’
‘I really am sorry.’
She waved my apology away. ‘You’ve said that. What the hell did you think you’d get from it?’
‘I thought I could check for messages or see who Jason called that night, but we’ll never know.’
‘I don’t need the phone for that, love. I have the phone records. I’ve known for days who Jason spoke to the night he died.’
‘Who was the last person Jason talked to?’
Huston patted my cheek. ‘Stick to something you’re good at, like racing, because you’re a crappy detective.’
My mobile rang. It was Claudia.
‘Hey, Claudia.’
‘Aidy, I know who told George Easter about your reckless-driving charges. It was Chloe Mercer.’
‘That backstabbing cow,’ I said. ‘I’m instructing at Brands and she’s here.’
‘Aidy, don’t do anything stupid.’
‘I won’t,’ I said and hung up.
‘Problems?’ Huston asked.
‘Not if I’ve got anything to do with it.’
I raced back to the pits. I went from car to car looking for Chloe, ignoring the punters climbing in and out of the BMWs, but I didn’t see her. A handful of cars trickled into the pits. Chloe emerged from the second of these cars with her student. She was all smiles as she talked up her student’s performance. To the world, she was the consummate professional. Unfortunately, I knew differently.
‘You drive like that,’ she said to the student, ‘and you’ll do fine in the timed session.’
Chloe dropped the smile at the sight of me. I walked up on her just as her student headed back to race control.
‘That was a classy move leaking my private business to George Easter.’
‘People should know that you’re a dangerous driver.’ Chloe grabbed her helmet off the roof of the BMW and walked by me.
I snatched her wrist. ‘You should know the facts before you mouth off.’
She shook her hand free. ‘I do. Reckless driving. Driving without due care and attention. Leaving the scene of an accident. Those are the charges, aren’t they?’
Chloe was very well informed. ‘Where’d you get your information?’
‘From a fan. I received a very nice email via my website.’
I didn’t have to ask the fan’s name. Other than the police and me, only one person knew about the charges — Miss Angry Renault. She was the only person that would be interested in sharing the information. Why she’d go to Chloe was beyond me.
‘You can’t trust anything you read on the internet. No formal charges have been made. So you don’t know the facts and you should remember that before you mess with someone’s livelihood.’
Chloe smiled. ‘Rags giving you shit? Good.’
Seeing the disgust and resentment chewing up her expression saddened me and deflated my anger. ‘Does me having this drive piss you off that much?’
‘You don’t deserve it. You only got it on the back of your dad’s reputation.’
‘Why do you care? You have a Formula Three drive now, which is better than the ESCC.’
‘It’s the principle.’
‘The principle of being a bad loser.’
Tim Reid appeared between us. ‘You two cut it out,’ he whispered. ‘Everyone is watching. No one needs to see you two squabbling. If you’ve got dirty laundry, wash it elsewhere. Understood?’
Chloe snorted in disgust and stormed back towards race control.
‘Thanks for that,’ I said.
He looked back at Chloe as she was disappearing into race control. ‘She giving you a hard time?’
‘Yeah. She’s still bent out of shape over not winning the Pit Lane shootout.’
‘Well, she was the hot favourite.’
‘And I was the long shot.’
‘It’s over. You won. She lost. Move on.’
‘It’s hard to do that with her trying to ruin it for me. She’s the one who leaked the story about my reckless-driving case to George Easter.’
‘Really? You think she’s trying to disgrace you so that she can claim the title?’
I hadn’t thought of that, but it was an interesting point. No wonder she was trying to ruin my name. ‘Possibly, but who says she was in line after me?’
‘Rags does. You were his first choice. She was second. Remember I was part of Rags’ assessment panel.’
The PA paged Reid to race control.
‘They’re playing my song. We’ll talk more at lunch. Have a good one, Aidy, and don’t get any nutters.’
‘Thanks. You too.’
I turned around and found Huston standing by the pit garages, well within earshot. I groaned inside. She smiled.
‘I was starting to get a complex, but apparently you have a talent for annoying everyone. I see that I need to keep an eye on you from now on.’
Lap Twenty-One
I finished up at Brands at around four and drove up to Northamptonshire to meet with Nick Ronson. He’d left me a number of less-than-complimentary messages after I’d missed our meeting in Belgium. I arrived at the pub just before seven. As I climbed from my car, Ronson got out of his. He wasn’t alone. Russell Townsend of Townsend Motorsport got out with him. His presence added a new dimension to Ronson’s interest in Jason’s death. It seemed Ronson had management approval. I crossed the pub car park.
‘You didn’t mention you were bringing anyone else, Nick.’