Chapter 153: Occupant II

Adaeze, who said she wasn’t being the third woman in your weekend. In her own kitchen, with Jodie, on a Wednesday.

Is that fair on Adaeze?

“I’m ringing her first,” Danny said. “She invited me. I’m not walking you in on her.”

“Then ring her.”

He rang her from the window. It rang 6 times.

“Danny.” Adaeze sounded like she was out somewhere, with a till beeping near her. “You got my letter.”

“I got it. And your message off Kieran. I’m coming Wednesday at 6.”

“With my book.”

“Jodie’s got your book. She said on Sunday, through her chain, that she’d bring it back to you herself. I’m asking you before she turns up. Can she come?”

There was a pause. The till beeped twice.

“She’s the one who knows the pence,” Adaeze said.

“Yes.”

“Then bring her. She’s had my book 2 days and I want to see who’s been keeping it.” The till again. “6 o’clock. I’m not cooking twice for you, so you’ll both eat what you’re given.”

She was gone. Jodie had heard all of it from the settee.

“She said yes.”

“She said you’ll eat what you’re given.”

“Good. I’ll take something.” Jodie went back to the table and picked up the green hem. “Now stop thinking for an hour, because you’ve had a face on since Sunday.”

He watched her lean over the drop-leaf table to smooth the hem. The vest rode up at the back. The grey leggings were tight over her arse and down the backs of her thighs, and her hair was coming out of the pencil.

“Jodie.”

“I’m hemming.”

“Put the hem down.”

She looked round at him over her shoulder. Then she put it down very carefully at the far end of the table, away from the edge.

“Not on the green,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing, not on the green. It’s 165 pound.”

I came up behind her and turned her round and lifted her by the hips onto the edge of the table. She went “oh” and caught hold of my shoulders. 14 hours ago she’d had me flat on my back under her big light, calling it. This time she was sat where I’d put her, and she knew it, and she bit her lip.

“Leggings off,” I said.

“You do it.”

I peeled them down her legs and off, and her knickers with them, and she sat on the edge of the table in just the vest with her knees together. I pushed them apart.

“Lean back.”

She leaned back on her hands. I knelt on the rug, put her heel up on my shoulder, and kissed the inside of her thigh all the way up till she was squirming.

“Danny. Come on.”

“Not yet.”

“Put your mouth on me,” she said, “now, or I’m finishing that hem.”

I put my mouth on her. She was already wet. I licked her open with long strokes and went to her clit and stayed there, and her heel dug into my shoulder and her other foot came up onto the edge of the table.

She was spread wide in front of me with her cunt wet on my mouth. I slid 2 fingers into her and crooked them up while I sucked her clit, and her hips came up off the table.

“Oh God, there, that’s… there…”

I kept my fingers working and my tongue flat on her clit, and reached up under the vest with my free hand and found her tit, full and warm, and rolled her nipple between my fingers.

She came with both hands slapping flat on the table and her thighs clamping round my head, loud. The dress dummy by the window rocked on its stand.

I stood up. She was still shaking. I got my jeans open and my cock out, and she looked down at it and reached for it.

“Look at you,” she said. “Get in me. All of it.”

I pulled her to the edge of the table by the backs of her knees and pushed into her pussy in one long stroke, right to the balls. She grabbed me round the neck.

I fucked her standing at the edge of the table with her legs wrapped round my back and my hands under her arse, holding her where I wanted her. The table legs knocked on the skirting on every stroke. The tin of pins went off the end and scattered across the floor.

“My pins,” she gasped.

“I’ll pick them up.”

“Every one… harder… harder, Danny…”

I pulled the vest up over her tits and she dragged it the rest of the way off. I watched them bounce every time I drove into her, the freckles going pink across her chest. I bent and took a nipple in my mouth and she cried out and dug her nails into my shoulders.

“I’m coming again,” she said into my hair. “Keep going like that. Exactly like that.”

I did as I was told. She came with her heels drumming on my back and her cunt squeezing my dick in hard pulls, and it dragged me right to the edge.

“Where?” I said.

“On me.” She was breathless. “Not the dress.”

I pulled out, and she took my cock in her hand and stroked it, fast and tight, watching my face. I came across her stomach in long hot spurts, and she watched it land and laughed with her head back.

She lay back on the drop-leaf with her chest going up and down. I leaned on the table either side of her and got my breath back. The radio was still on low, and the dummy had stopped rocking.

“There’s 40 pins on my floor,” Jodie said.

“I’ll find them.”

“On your knees.” She sat up and reached for her vest. “And then ring that man.”

At 5 o’clock Danny was on his knees on the rug picking pins out of the pile and dropping them in the tin, while Jodie hemmed the green dress in her dressing gown with her feet up on the settee.

“Go on, then,” she said without looking up. “When can you do?”

“Tonight, if he’s still in London. Or Wednesday at 7 at the flat. He wants first thing. If neither, Thursday after 10, when I come out.”

“Not Thursday at half 1.”

“25 to 2. That’s Pat, and Deniz has my door.”

He rang the number at 10 past 5 with the tin of pins in his lap.

It rang 4 times.

“Graham Pettit.”

“Mr Pettit. This is Danny Flynn. Flat 40 at the Sterling. Ms Adeyemi gave me your card.”

A car indicator ticked at the other end.

“Mr Flynn. Thank you for ringing. Most people don’t.” The voice was flat and Midlands and polite. “I’d like 10 minutes with you at the property. Photo ID, a look round, a couple of questions. It’s routine after a declaration’s withdrawn.”

“I can do now. I can be at the flat in 20 minutes.”

“I’m on the M4 going home to Reading, Mr Flynn. I’m not turning round.”

“Tomorrow at 7 in the morning, then. At the flat.”

“I’m in Croydon all day tomorrow from 6, and Croydon runs late. I’ve got Thursday at 7.”

“I can’t do 7 on Thursday. I can do Thursday any time after 10.”

“I’m on the 11:03 out of Euston on Thursday, Birmingham till Monday.” Pages turned. “I like to see people at home first thing. It’s when they’re there. Thursday at 7, or it’s Monday, and on Monday the file goes up with occupant not seen on it.”

Monday. With Naomi’s letter, and a bank’s referral, and Priya’s Friday, and occupant not seen.

Or Thursday at 7, and the shift you confirmed 17 hours ago because you didn’t want somebody else stood in that room.

Jodie had put the dress down in her lap.

“I’ve an appointment at 6 on Thursday I can’t move,” Danny said. “It finishes at 10.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know yet. I get told at half 5 on the day.”

The indicator ticked. Pettit did not say anything for long enough that Danny heard him change gear.

“Mr Flynn,” he said. “If I come to your flat at 7 on Thursday morning and you’re not in it, where will you be?”

Tell him Monday, and the file goes up as occupant not seen, on top of a bank referral and Naomi’s letter. Or lie to a man who writes down everything you say.

Or tell him the truth, and let him see you.

But not inside. Attendance at a graded door is recorded. The door’s the line. You wouldn’t take Jodie through one last night, so you’re not taking him through either.

Can you step out of a shift for 10 minutes? You walked out of the gate in Dulwich with a ring in your pocket, and it didn’t clock you off.

And a pavement proves you’re real. It doesn’t prove you live on 40. So give him both.

Danny looked at Jodie on the settee, with the green dress in her lap and her mouth open.

“I’ll text you the address at half 5 on Thursday, Mr Pettit,” he said. “Be outside it at 7. I’ll come out to the pavement and give you your 10 minutes, with my ID. You wait outside. You don’t come in the door, whatever you see through it. And then Monday at 7, before your file goes up, you come to the flat and open every wardrobe I’ve got.”