Paper Scissors Stone

Marylyn Palmer

Description

Paper - poisoned by a penScissors - stabbed in the back Stone - rocked with accusations of a crimeThe Dominoes are stacked. At last, Jennifer has the much-coveted job of Deputy Manager at Little Ones Nursery but with one push the dominoes topple over, the game plan changes and she is embroiled in a psychological contest of Paper Scissors Stone. Fighting to save her reputation and career whilst at war with everyone she loves, Jennifer is desperate to win the battle of her life before her entire world comes tumbling down.

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 23 novembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785383304
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Title Page
Paper Scissors Stone
Marylyn Palmer



Publisher Information
Published in 2015 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Marylyn Palmer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2015 Marylyn Palmer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover: Marylyn Palmer/John Hitichins



Dedication
This book is dedicated to Ted, Richard and Pam
with thanks to Nigel Goodall



Prologue
Jennifer stared out of the office window, fiddling with a paperweight, impatient for Barbara, her Manager, to arrive with the Contract. The sooner it was signed and sealed the better.
Of course, the job should have been hers to start with.
Jennifer’s thoughts drifted to the day newcomer Karen had arrived to take up her Post, and felt a sharp stab of remorse at the way she had behaved towards her. Outraged at Karen’s appointment for the role she had vented her anger and resentment out on the woman. Karen had had retaliated in kind. Their relationship had been like a never-ending round of Dominoes, as they tried scoring points by matching each other - with bouts of humiliation, contempt and animosity.
Until the contest came to an abrupt end.
Not with a triumphant winner.
But with a dead body.
Karen’s.
Jennifer’s feelings of guilt evaporated and tears of self-pity filled her eyes, as she recalled the accusations and the police questioning after the murder. How the game had moved to another level and she was left playing solo; trying to stop the Dominoes Tumbling Down, before it came to her own endgame.
Jolted back to the present by seeing Barbara drive into the car park, Jennifer swiped the tears away, chiding herself - there was no good going over the horrible business again. It was in the past. She had to move on. And she would. Once she had put her name on the dotted line, and the much-coveted position of Deputy Manager of Little Ones Nursery was hers.
At last.
Then nothing or no-one would take it away from her.



Chapter 1
‘I hate you.’ Jennifer hurled the words and the magazine at Ryan and ran out of the apartment, slamming the door.
Outside rain was hammering down and within minutes, her cotton nightwear was soaked through, making her regret her impetuous behaviour. Leaves and grass stuck to her bare feet as she hurried to find shelter in a sunhouse, set atop a grassy bank at the end of her parents’ acre long garden. Wincing as the jagged stones, forming the stairway, bit into the souls of her feet, she climbed up towards the sanctuary.
She huddled in a corner, on a moss-ridden bench, trying to protect herself from the biting wind and sheets of rain that whipped at her through the open front of the brick building. Her heart was pounding from the exertion of the run and the climb and the foul weather added more fuel to her intense anger.
From her cold and wet hideaway, she heard Ryan calling her name. She sniffed. He could go to hell. She was never going to speak to him again, after humiliating her like that.
Moments later, he appeared below on the grassy bank. Jennifer clenched her fists at the sight of him jacket on, sheltered under a large black umbrella. Furious at the thought that he had been more worried about getting himself wet, and had spent time finding something to keep himself dry, rather than just rushing out after her straightaway.
He puffed his way up the steps. Jennifer watched in contempt as he shook the brolly out before sitting down beside her. His mouth opened to say something, but she rounded on him before he could get a word out, her voice shaking with emotion.
‘How could you. When I told you I pushed that girl into the swimming pool, I didn’t expect you would tell the whole world about it.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you and what are you doing running off like that still in your pyjamas.’ He removed his coat and placed it round her shoulders and hugged her towards him. She looked like she had just been swimming herself, her hair dripping with water.
She shrugged off the embrace. ‘Getting away from you, that’s what.’
He gave an inward sigh. It wasn’t easy being a freelance journalist with so much competition. Beside she was the one who had encouraged him to write about her parents’ lifetime love of Cherish House. On hindsight he should have checked with her first before including the story about the swimming pool. But she had been busy doing stuff for the Nursery at the time, and he had been working to a deadline. He had thought she would laugh about it, when she read it, and quite honestly couldn’t understand why she was reacting so badly.
He didn’t say any of this to Jennifer. Instead he reached out and took hold of her hand and justified himself by saying. ‘It’s just a paragraph or two, to bring a bit of humour into the piece.’ She snatched her hand away, and from the fierce look on her face, it was clear that he had said the wrong thing.
‘Humour,’ she snorted. ‘You think the parents at the Nursery will find it funny. Will want their children to be looked after by someone who can’t control their temper. They won’t want me anywhere near their little ones after reading the bit about me.’
‘I’m sure they’ll be fine. I did mention you were only eleven at the time.’
Her teeth chattered and she pulled Ryan’s jacket closer round her slim body. Ryan thought that for a moment that she had seen sense. Then she launched into another angry tirade.
‘It doesn’t make any difference what age I was when it happened. They will still judge me. Besides, even if I was two years old at the time, you still should have asked me first before you wrote anything. I suppose my parents knew you were including the bit about the pool,’ she threw at him as an afterthought.
‘Well, yes, sort of,’ Ryan squirmed on the concrete seat, ‘and I realise I should have spoken to you about it before hand, but come on, this isn’t the place to talk about it. You are soaked through and frozen. Come back indoors and have a bath to warm yourself up. Remember we’re going out for lunch with your parents shortly to celebrate all our news.’
Jennifer nodded the cold seeping through to her bones draining her ability to carry on the fight, and she allowed Ryan to guide her back to the apartment.
Once inside she dropped his jacket on the floor. ‘I don’t think I’ll bother coming to the restaurant,’ she said listlessly. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing to celebrate.
‘I can understand you not wanting to toast my article being published in the Magazine, but what about your parents’ new venture’.
‘Yes what about it. Don’t you think it is hypocritical my divorced parents opening Cherish House as a wedding venue - fine example they make.’
Ryan ignored her jibe at Kevin and Sandy. ‘What about your job then. You’re Deputy Manager of Little Ones at last. You’ve wanted this for ages, surely that is something to push the boat out for.’
‘You think so, I might as well drown myself now.’ She pushed past him into the bathroom and shut the door in his face. ‘Thanks to you, when my boss reads the article,’ she shouted over the noise of the bath filling, ‘I doubt I will still have a job, and m boat will capsize and I’ll be well and truly sunk.’



Chapter 2
‘I’m glad you decided to come,’ Ryan said, as the four of them were shown to their seats in the restaurant.
‘Doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you or my parents for what you have done,’ Jennifer replied as she took her seat.
Kevin had ordered a bottle of champagne. The waiter filled their glasses.
‘A toast,’ Kevin said, ‘To Jennifer promotion to Deputy Manager at Little Ones Nursery.’
Jennifer picked up her glass of bubbly and downed it in one go. ‘Might as well enjoy it while I can,’ she said, at the sight of Kevin’s raised eyebrows. ‘As I said to Ryan, I doubt whether I will have a job when I go back to work, thanks to his slanderous article.’
‘Oh come on,’ Sandy said. ‘It’s not as bad as that. Anyway, I think the whole thing is brilliant and you had better fill up your glass again, because we are going to toast him next. It’s a fantastic achievement to get something published in a Sunday supplement.’
‘Yes wonderful. Millions of readers having a laugh at my expense,’ Jennifer said sarcastically.
‘Don’t be such a drama queen,’
Jennifer glared at her mother and picked up her fork twisting it in her hand. ‘It’s all right for you.
‘Yes it is, we love it. Thank you Ryan, you’ve done a fantastic job about your story about us renovating Cherish House and helped to promote our businesses,’ Sandy absentmindedly rubbed a scar on her forehead. ‘In fact, she went on, just this morning we’ve had four bookings for the holiday apartments and two enquiries about weddings.’
Ryan eyed the fork, held like a dagger, in Jennifer hand and hoped she wasn’t going hurl it at her mother. She’d told him about Sandy’s scar how, as a young child, she had lost her temper and flung a hairbrush at her mother, hitting her on the head and cutting her so badly she needed stitches. Sandy though seemed oblivious to Jennifer’s rising