THIRTY-ONE
They were able to get onto a Portsmouth train pretty smartly, and as soon as they were settled, Jack called Mandy to tell her they were on their way home and to get Jimbo, after he had locked up Beth, to put the struts on the Christmas tree. He’d been worried about that all day and was about to get into a heated debate about why he was more worried about the Christmas tree than the shoot-out in the Bumblin’tons kitchen, but Martin was nudging his hand.
‘What?’ Jack asked, irritated, because he had not yet told Mandy to tell Jimbo the struts had to be covered in aluminium foil, to make them festive.
‘Get the feckin’ Waitrose bag of me head, bozo,’ and Martin shook his head so the bag rattled and Jack hung up on Mandy in order to get the bag off Martin’s head.
Jack’s phone ran
