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  She makes a sound in her throat that’s a cross between a sob and a cough. ‘You could say that. My dad was the copper that got shot.’

  ‘Oh my God … I don’t know what to say.’ Nathan swallows hard and Bryony’s eyes fill again but she flinches from his attempt at comfort, slaps his hand from her shoulder.

  ‘Why the fuck did you keep working for Ransom after what he did to your dad?’

  ‘I felt I had no choice.’ He shrugs, looks away from the venom in her eyes. ‘Mum was already depressed before Dad was killed. His death tipped her over the edge and if I’d stopped working for Ransom he’d have kicked her out of the house, my brothers too, though they were big enough to stand on their own feet by then. My sister had married and gone.’ Nathan shrugs and looks down the beach again. ‘I suppose I just thought I needed to be the head of the family. Try to make everything right.’

  Bryony clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. ‘Oh please. You always have a choice, Nathan. You made the wrong one.’

  This rankles. ‘I don’t expect you to understand. I grew up in it, never knew anything else. I do want to get out – have wanted to for ages, but how the hell could I get a job, start again? Imagine my CV.’ He laughs humourlessly.

  Bryony seems to consider this. ‘You have a point there, granted. But I’d want to kill him if I were you, after what he did to your dad. And now I know he was behind my dad’s death, I’d like nothing more than to see him join them.’

  ‘Oh, believe me, I’m with you there. When he took my mum I refused to … you know. But he said if I didn’t, he’d do something to Mum. I don’t doubt for a minute he would, either. But I couldn’t do it. Even before you rescued me I’d decided to say I couldn’t find you, to try and buy some time, try and find Mum, get her away. But if I succeed, he’d only find someone else to do the job. Once Ransom sets his mind to something, he does it.’

  Bryony leans back. She closes her eyes and tilts her face to the sun. ‘Yeah, and same goes for me. I set out to nail that bastard and I did it. It tastes all the sweeter now I know he was responsible for my dad. It’s all so fucking surreal though. Meeting you in the way I did, then last night, then all this today … it’s like I’m in a rip current and can’t swim out.’ She releases a long slow breath. ‘Can’t really take it in.’

  Nathan looks at her profile: the elegant line of her neck, the swell of her breasts, the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes. Though he’d told himself to keep his feelings inside, he feels them struggling to be free. ‘I’m not surprised it won’t go in. I knew the story and it still feels surreal.’ The last sentence comes out in a rush. ‘And last night … last night I meant every word.’

  In a second her eyes are open and flashing contempt. ‘You’re having a laugh. If there ever was anything between us, you can forget all about it now. I mean, really? Really?’

  Her words punch him in the gut and he wraps his arms around himself. What did he expect? But at least she acknowledges that there might have been something. Fat lot of good it would do him now though. ‘Sorry. Yes, it’s a dumb idea.’

  ‘Like most of yours, it seems.’ Bryony puts her head back and closes her eyes again.

  After a few moments of silence he ventures, ‘So what happens now?’

  ‘You go back to your world, I go back to mine.’

  At least she didn’t say she was going to arrest him. ‘Will you leave the force?’

  ‘Probably. I’ll go back in a few days, talk to my boss. But I’m almost sure I can’t stay there for the next twenty-odd years.’ A moment later she asks, ‘What will you do?’

  ‘I’ll try and find my mum somehow.’

  ‘And where will you look?’

  ‘No clue at the moment.’

  ‘Hmm. I could help you. I have more resources at my fingertips, after all.’

  Nathan’s heart leaps. ‘You’d do that for me?’

  ‘No. I’d be doing it to piss Ransom off. And for your mum, she’s a victim in all this.’

  ‘But like I said, Ransom won’t leave you alone, no matter what. I can’t let you get involved.’

  ‘Can’t see as you can stop me. I’m leaving the force and I’ll just get Immi to tell her dad that I’ve gone abroad to live. I doubt he’d be willing to send his thugs across the world trying to track me down. He can’t even find me in bloody Newquay.’

  ‘But I told you before, he knows where your mum lives.’

  ‘Yes. But Mum will be briefed too. She’ll tell anyone snooping round that I’ve gone abroad. If he tries anything with her, I swear I’ll put him in the ground. You see, Nathan, that’s the difference between you and me. I stand up to playground bullies – you give them your pocket money.’

  Nathan bites his tongue. She’s all bravado and not thinking straight. ‘The thing is, if you’re moving here, he’ll find you when he sends someone snooping to your mum’s.’

  ‘For goodness’ sake!’ Bryony opens her eyes and throws her arms up. ‘Then I’ll move abroad for a year and then come back when the dust has settled. There’s always a solution, and a right choice, Nathan. For example, you could help by telling Ransom that you went to deliver some flowers to Mum and pretended she wasn’t in, to do some snooping of your own. You could hardly knock on Mum’s door and ask where I was out of the blue, could you? So … you’d got chatting to one of Mum’s neighbours. She told you that she was upset because I’d gone abroad. See, I thought all this up in seconds. It’s not hard.’

  Now she’s implying that he’s thick, but he’ll take anything she throws at him, under the circumstances. ‘That could work.’

  ‘Course it could. Right, I’m off.’ Bryony stands and starts to walk away.

  ‘What? So what are we doing about finding my mum?’

  ‘I’ll meet you back in Sheffield in a few days. I’ll give you a ring. And don’t mention any of this to Immi if you see her. The less anyone else knows the better.’

  ‘I won’t. There’s no way I’m ever going to be able to repay you for saving my life and trying to save my mum, even if I live to be a hundred.’ Nathan tries a smile.

  Bryony doesn’t smile back. ‘If you stay in the game you’re in, you won’t reach a hundred. You might not even reach fifty.’

  Nathan watches her walk away across the road until she’s out of sight, and feels his heart sink. Thanks to her, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel for his mum now, but he’s certainly messed up any chance of being anything other than a dumb spineless criminal to Bryony. Serves him right. He makes himself a silent promise that he will change, turn his life around, no matter how long it takes or how hard it is. Show her he’s more than that. He will do it. And though he can never repay her for what she’s done for him, he’ll do everything in his power to keep her safe from Ransom.

  21

  It will be hard to leave my flat in a few hours, but leave it I must. I’ve worked so hard to make it just right, like the rest of my life really, but change is necessary so there’s no use in getting sentimental about it. I’ve booked into a hotel for the foreseeable as Ransom’s spies might be still sniffing round here. The river sounds so peaceful as I sit on the balcony and try to relax after the journey up from Cornwall. My head is still full of plans though, so I close my eyes and let them come. I’ll arrange to see Nathan Walker tomorrow, and then the day after I’ll go see my boss.

  Mum’s face appears at the forefront of my mind. She was upset when I told her I’d be delaying moving down to Cornwall, but totally understood when I said I wanted to see a bit of the world first. The throwaway comment I’d made to Nathan about moving abroad for a year actually seems the safest option for now. Of course I’d boasted to him that I stand up to bullies, and I do. However, I know when to be cautious too, and this is one of those times.

  So Mum is sorted, but Immi is a different kettle of fish. She’s like a dog with a bone. She ought to have been a copper. When I’d told her I was cutting my visit to Cornwall a bit short and going
home to get things in order, she wanted to know all the ins and outs. I hope she swallowed my story about once having decided to quit my job, I wanted to move on with the next phase of my life. I told her to tell her father that she’d heard I’d gone abroad too, which she liked the sound of, but she still had twenty million questions. Mostly about bloody Nathan Walker. I told her she was barking up the wrong tree and to leave it well alone.

  A nip in the late afternoon air drives me inside for a cuppa and, as I make it, I decide not to tell Immi about moving abroad until the last minute, otherwise she’ll never stop asking why. God knows what she’d do if she realised that her father was not only trying to hurt me, but have me killed. She’d probably strangle him with her bare hands, Nathan too.

  The tea drives the nip away and I put my feet up, flick the TV on. It’s an old film. Someone is droning on about how she’d give her life for her man. How she couldn’t live without him, no matter how badly he treated her. Dear, oh dear. Thank goodness for feminism. Actually, on second thoughts, some relationships are still like that. I’ve come across them far too often in my line of work. No man is worth that kind of dedication. A flash surfaces, of Nathan’s face close to mine in the garden, so I bury it. How wrong could you be about a person?

  Poor Maggie Ransom was wrong for years and years, wasn’t she? Dawson’s wife too, according to Nathan. Once the dust has settled and I’ve been off the radar for a while, Ransom will be fixated on something else, someone else, but I’ll find a way to make him and his buddies pay. Ransom will find that his easy ride in prison will get a bit harder and Dawson will trip up somehow and, when he does, I’ll be waiting. I’ll still have contacts in the force who will be only too eager to help me. I owe it to my dad.

  I nod off and when I wake the woman on the old film is dressed in a scarlet cloak and packing a pistol. She’s had enough of being dumped on and is off to get revenge. Now that’s more like it. Yesterday I’d had the idea of shopping Nathan. I’m sure I could dig up loads of incriminating stuff about him if I tried. Or instead, I might even find out where his mother’s being held and then get Dawson for it, if not Ransom. Nathan would be implicated in it all by association and he’d go down too. His poor mother would be in the middle of it all, but shit happens.

  Then I thought better of it. All that would take time, would involve me staying on in my DI role and getting mired in more filth. The target on my back would get even bigger and I’d be constantly looking over my shoulder. And quite frankly I’ve had it up to here. I want a fresh start, to do some good in the world, and even have some ‘me time’, as everyone is fond of saying nowadays. If I’m being very charitable, people like Nathan and his mother are victims to a large extent, pawns in the powerful games of people like Ransom. Having said that, pawns always have a choice, perhaps not great ones, but a choice nevertheless. They have to be strong though, have guts. If they do, they’re an asset to any board. Nathan, unfortunately, is not.

  The last time he sat here on Aggie’s bench he got the news that he was expected to kill someone. Today Nathan is meeting her. The woman who saved his life, the woman who will help him find his mum, the woman who haunts his dreams and every waking moment. Nathan sighs. The woman who wants nothing whatsoever to do with him because she sees him as a weak, spineless piece of … Ah. Here she is striding up the path. Everything about her says confident, intelligent. In control.

  ‘Hi, how are you?’ he says as she stops in front of the bench and slips off her jacket, under which she has a green sleeveless top that accentuates her well-defined upper arms and slim waist. As she turns to sit, a side glance reveals long legs in dark jeans, which hug a small but shapely bottom.

  ‘I’m as good as I can be, having left my comfortable flat for a hotel room and planning to leave the country shortly instead of moving to Cornwall as I’d hoped.’

  Nathan’s mouth drops open as she tells him her plans and the reasons for them. He’d expected a move to a hotel, but not the move abroad. All this was his fault. Well, Ransom’s, but he’d gone along with his crazy plot. ‘I’m so sorry for my part in this, Bryony.’

  ‘Yes, so am I.’ She hasn’t looked at him yet, just gazed over the valley, legs crossed at the ankles, hands shoved into the side pockets of her jeans. Then she glances across at him and he tries not to stare into her eyes. ‘I was thinking about finding your mother. This might be something you’ve already looked into, but if not, it could be the easiest way to find her.’ Bryony shifts her body to him. ‘You say she has mental health issues?’ He nods. ‘And that she has prescription drugs?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Who normally collects them for her? Does she go out or …?’

  ‘Not recently. She’s got more agoraphobic these last six months. I get them or one of my brothers does. She’s very keen on taking them. That’s one thing she does remind me about – you know, when she’s running out. I order them.’

  ‘So how has she been getting them since she’s been taken?’ Bryony’s eyebrows knit together and I feel like I’m being tested. I have already considered this though.

  ‘Well, whoever has her will have got them from elsewhere. It won’t be hard. She wasn’t due for any until this week anyway.’

  ‘Did you know that some prescription drugs aren’t as easy to get as heroin? Not even for the likes of Ransom?’

  Nathan found that hard to believe. ‘He can get anything. Trust me.’

  Bryony shakes her head and stares at the view again. ‘Perhaps, but I’m not so sure. And let’s suppose that the people holding her want to make sure the surgery don’t get worried when one of you lot doesn’t turn up as usual to collect this week.’

  Nathan wasn’t sure where she was going with this. ‘There’s also the possibility that they have made her go cold turkey … though that would make her more difficult to manage.’

  ‘Yes, and they’d want her quiet, docile and sitting in front of a TV like you told me she does every day. They might just sedate her, or …’ She gives him a quick glance and then looks away. ‘But let’s pursue my idea. I think you could ring the surgery and ask if her tablets have been ordered. Say you weren’t sure if one of your brothers had done it already. Then, if they have, ask when they’re picking them up. Meanwhile—’

  ‘I wait near the surgery and see who turns up,’ Nathan says, his heart lifting. It might come to nothing but it was certainly worth a shot.

  ‘Yep. Chances are you’ll know who it is and tail him to where she’s been held. Then we can figure out how to proceed from there. You can’t be involved. You can still be useful to us if Ransom doesn’t suspect you. I can’t be seen for obvious reasons, but I have a colleague or two who owe me big time, and whom I’ll swear to secrecy. They will turn up and get her out. As I said, not sure exactly how yet, but—’

  ‘But Ransom will suspect my involvement. It’s my mother they’re rescuing.’ And she thought he was dozy.

  ‘No. The neighbours had heard screaming in the night and alerted the police.’

  Nathan nods. That could work. But an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach won’t go away. ‘What if her kidnapper is armed?’ He couldn’t live with police deaths on his conscience.

  ‘These guys are experienced officers. They won’t put themselves at risk until they have surveilled the place and know exactly what to do.’

  Nathan’s hopes are rising with every moment; but isn’t this going to land her in huge trouble if anything goes wrong? If one of the officers were injured, the other would have to come clean to his superiors and that would mean that Bryony would take the fall. He says as much to her, but she shakes her head. ‘Nothing will go wrong.’ She stands and shrugs on her jacket. ‘Okay, go and do your part. We don’t know if this will work yet. If it doesn’t, I have other ideas.’ Bryony nods a curt goodbye and sets off down the path.

  Once again he’s left watching her walk away, but this time he feels a little less hopeless. She had a good plan, but he has a better one.

&
nbsp; 22

  So far luck is on their side, and it’s about bloody time. Bryony’s idea is working. The surgery said that his mum’s nephew had ordered the prescription and is coming this afternoon to collect. He said he had to do that because Mrs Walker’s sons were all on holiday and he was keeping his eye on her. Funny that, because his mum doesn’t have a nephew. Nathan knows that afternoon collections are after three o’clock, so he’s parked up in a hire car in case the collector recognises his and is waiting.

  Just before four, a car he recognises slows to a stop on the opposite side of the street about twenty yards away. Unbelievable. Of all the people they could have picked. Nathan slumps down in his seat and pulls his baseball hat further down his forehead. He needn’t have worried though; Jason Connor gets out of the car picking his nose. He doesn’t even bother to look around him, so intent is he on examining what’s on the end of his finger … then he wipes it down the back of his jeans. Nice.

  While he waits for Jason to come out of the surgery, Nathan tries to contain his excitement. The prospect of rescuing his mum has just got very real – candy from a baby type real. Could his mum be at the Ransom Mansion? Unlikely; Dawson seems to spend more of his time there than at his own place. He wouldn’t want a mentally ill woman cluttering up his fantasy of being lord of the bloody manor. If she’s at Jason’s little terraced house she’ll be easier to find than at the multi-roomed mansion, and it would mean there’d just be Jason to contend with too – fingers crossed.

  A moment later Jason comes out, gets into his car and tries a three-point turn, which turns into a six point. Dear God. Is he actually any good at anything? Nathan follows him at a distance, and after about five minutes realises that yes, they’re going towards Jason’s house. He’s been there once before to collect some gear when Jason was ill.