Catchee Monkey: A Rex & Eddie Mystery (Rex & Eddie Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free

that’s all your savings?”
    “I told my nan we started a business and she gave us ten pounds too.”
    “All the same, our total budget is four-thousand nine-hundred and seventy-one pounds. We have to keep things tight.”
    “This is our stop.”
    The pair exited the bus and walked a few doors down. There on the driveway stood the 1971 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller. Rex found the car on Craigslist for eight hundred pounds and immediately fell in love with it.  
    Described as an economy car in the same way as a cramped house is called modest, the Morris Minor was a lime-green estate with the passenger section made out of a wooden-frame. The minimal dashboard meant lots of room in the glove compartment for their surveillance gear. It was by no means an antique, but the car was old enough to be considered historic, so Rex and Eddie didn’t have to pay road tax.
    “What’s road tax now?” Rex said. “One hundred and fifty a year? In six years it will have paid for itself.”
    “If it doesn’t fall apart by then,” Eddie said.  
    Scratches, a smashed-in rear light, and leather seats held together with electrical tape showed how much of a mess the car was in. The paint job had faded so much it had a ghostly quality, like it haunted the driveway. Although the advert said it only had two previous owners, it failed to mention the current owner was a seventeen-year-old chav. The youthful mouth-breather, decked out in imitation designer sports clothes, swaggered down the driveway with a sneer. Gold bling jangled on his thin frame as he walked.
    Although the first owner was a sweet old lady who took good care of the car, the current owner, Tim, managed to clock up an extra sixty thousand miles in little more than nine months.
    Eddie bobbed his head side-to-side. “Eight-hundred is a lot of money.”
    Rex sat in the driver’s seat and played with the steering wheel. “It probably cost that much when it was new. That’s zero depreciation. It’s an investment.”
    Eddie opened the glove compartment and checked the legal stuff. He was pleased to see the car had just passed the MOT. Now he knew it was road-worthy, or as worthy as a car partly made of wood could be, he was interested.
    “OK, I’ll get it as long as we can haggle him down to seven-fifty at most.”
    “Thanks, Eddie.”
    They approached Tim who waxed his new car, a bright red 1999 BMW 3 Series, while the car radio blasted out drum and bass. Tim got the Morris Minor because his parents wanted him to prove he could be trusted with a cheap first car before they bought him something better. When Tim won five thousand pounds on a scratch card and spent it on the new wheels, his life lesson was cut short. He even had enough change to tint the windows and install a DVD player. This was of no interest to Eddie, but he learnt it all the same because Rex kept asking questions.
    “What a beauty, and the DVD is well sweet.” Rex forced in chav lingo in the hope of being accepted, or at least not beaten up. “We should get one of these next, Eddie.”
    “We need to be a bit more inconspicuous than that.”
    “You sayin’ I’ve got a gay car?” Tim asked, chest puffed out.
    “No, I’m not,” Eddie said. How had this escalated so fast? he wondered.
    “What you sayin’ then?” Tim stepped forward, his pointy face leaned into Eddie’s personal space. This would be why Rex talked chav, so he didn’t cause offence and accidentally start a fight.
    “I mean we don’t want to get noticed, that’s all.” Eddie realised how ridiculous this sounded when he remembered he was buying a lime-green car with wooden framing. “The BMW is great, it’s masculine, it’s bold, it’s, uh, it’s — ”
    “He’s saying you have a wicked ride,” Rex chimed in. “Everyone is gonna notice how cool it is.”
    Tim relaxed. “Thanks, mate.”
    “Will you take seven-hundred for it?” Eddie asked.
    Tim licked his teeth. “Go on then.”
    Rex raised a finger for attention.