The Formidable

12

"Pop goes the weasel!"

Mia was watching kids' programmes in the living room whilst Madison made her dinner. Lily would be there soon to babysit. She hadn't heard anything from Jase since Saturday.

The pasta started to bubble over on the hob, Madison turned the flame down and stirred it, spooning a piece out to see if it was done before draining it over the sink and letting some cool in a bowl for Mia. They ate in the kitchen, Mia's shows still playing across from them. Lily arrived at five-thirty, sharp.

"Hey cheeky!" she greeted Mia who ran over for a cuddle.

"She needs a bath and then she'll settle down but don't bother washing her hair, I'll do that tomorrow," Madison said as she finished wiping down the kitchen sides. Washing Mia's hair and combing the little ringlets out was a time consuming task.

"Got it. What time are you finishing tonight?" Lily asked, tossing her coat on the back of the sofa.

"One, I should get home by half past. If I get held up at work or something then I'll give you a message." She walked over to Mia and lifted her into the air, giving her a kiss and cuddle goodbye before plonking her back down on the sofa. "Help yourself to whatever's in the fridge and I'll see you later. Bye baby, I love you," she said, giving Mia another kiss atop her unruly bonnet, before leaving for the bus stop.

Greg was in the staff room when she arrived, hanging her jacket on the peg and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. He looked up then back to his phone, and back up again.

"Hey," he greeted, "good weekend?" Madison nodded,

"It was eventful," she replied. His brows furrowed.

"How so?"

"Bumped into some old friends. What did you get up to?" she asked, taking several large gulps of the icy water.

"Nothing interesting, I was working all weekend. It's pretty dead out there tonight, I dare say you'll get sent home early." Madison was always the one to get sent home early if there weren't enough customers to warrant two members of staff because she had a kid. Her boss was a good guy, always preaching about how important family was.

"It might pick up, you never know," she said. He didn't reply and she went out on the floor, taking her place behind the bar and beginning her pre-shift cleaning. Just as Greg had predicted, it was a slow shift and she was told to go home two hours early. She sent Jase a text after folding her bar cloth, waiting, as per his instructions, in the bar area until he arrived.

At quarter past eleven, he was outside. Madison got in the car, shuddering and rubbing her hands together. Jase turned the heating on before driving out of the car park.

"Heard anything new?" she asked, taking her hair out of the high ponytail and shaking it down, running her fingers through the roots to rid her head of the itchy feeling the tight up-do left behind.

"Nothing and the boys weren't supposed to fuck your car up so I'm going to assume that whoever put a tracker on it, if we're going with them knowing about us and the house, expected the car to be around me at some point," he said, flicking on his indicator and window wipers as the heavens opened.

"So me getting dragged to the house was a setup then," Madison replied, Jase hummed a confirmation.

"Which means we both somehow have connections to whoever the fuck this Casper guy is. How do you know about him?" Madison shrugged, shaking her head.

"I've never had any direct contact with him. I worked in a bar, a relatively dodgy bar. Someone asked me if I wanted any work for a guy called Casper, illegal work. I turned it down. A few weeks later, I received a letter telling me I needed to go back to London because Casper was looking for me."