He switched it off.
Had to admit, Agapova’s house was bigger than theirs. But where Colin and Isobel had a stylish Georgian sandstone mansion,thiswas a modern kit-build with all the class of a drunken jakey. Couldn’t be more than a couple years old, set in a big garden that sloped down to some woods.
Aye, it might’ve been big, but the garden was pish. No thought put into the planting at all.
It was one of a small cluster of equally fancy-but-styleless properties a few miles out past Peterculter. An enclave for captains of industry, movers and shakers, and the nouveau riche glitterati.
AKA: pricks.
He followed the snaking driveway up to the house, with its two-storey floor-to-ceiling glazed entrance hall, and parked right outside.
No sign of any other cars, but there was a double garage bolted onto the side, so the Rolls and Ferrari were probably safely locked away in case the squirrels got at them.
Kinda looked like every light in the house was on, blazing out into the dark, but the only figure visible belonged to amassiveteddy bear, dressed like an offshore worker in boots, gloves, T-shirt, and hard hat.
Cos editors were weird.
Colin climbed out, thunked the car door shut, and went to shoot his cuffs...Only he didn’t have any, cos he was wearing a T-shirt.
Buggering hell.
Should’ve changed into a suit and tie – pulled on the full armour. Given Natasha Bloody Agapova a glimpse of what she’d thrown away with her stupid power games.
Ah well: too late for that, now.
He swaggered over to her front door and thumbed the bell.
The overture to Mozart’sLe Nozze Di Figaroblared out, somewhere inside the house.
Talk aboutpretentious.‘Ooh, look at me, abing-bongisn’t classy enough!’
The thirty-second clip played itself out, and silence returned.
Off in the woods, a deer barked – like a cross between a grunt and a belch.
And there wasstillno sign of Agapova, tripping downstairs to answer the sodding door.
Well, he hadn’t come all the way out here to just go home again without telling her where to shove her crappy job.
He gave the bell another go, and Mozart started up again.
Still no answer.
Right: time to go old-school.
He raised a hand to knock. But perhaps a bit ofdramawouldn’t go amiss? So hammered on the thing with his fist instead...
It swung open on the first thump. Never mind locked, it wasn’t evenlatched.
‘Hello?’ He shoved the door all the way. ‘HOY! AGAPOVA!’
Nothing.
That great-big teddy bear stared at him with its dead button eyes.
Colin stepped across the threshold into the double-height hallway. The cold-blue glow of twilight wasn’t bright enough to compete with the LED spotlights in here, turning the front wall of glass into a mirror.
‘HELLO?’