by Fiona Leitch
‘Anything except tell her she was his.’
He nodded. ‘Can’t be an easy thing to tell someone, can it?’
I looked over towards the ambulance. The paramedic closed the rear doors and drove off, leaving Tony standing there alone, looking lost. Withers followed my gaze.
‘You’d better go and talk to him,’ he said. ‘If he hadn’t come and found me, things could have turned out very differently. And he insisted on coming along to rescue you.’
I walked over to Tony on legs that had almost stopped shaking, the adrenaline that had carried me through beginning to subside.
‘So…’ I said.
‘So…’ he said, and we both laughed. ‘I don’t really know what to say. Are you okay? What you did there was amazing...’
‘Why, thank you.’
‘And stupid. Really, really stupid. If anything had happened to you—’
‘But it didn’t.’
‘No. Thank God.’ He took my hands and scanned my face. ‘You really are all right? I’m so sorry I didn’t get your call. I went in to work to try and take my mind off things and I just didn’t hear the phone, and then I got your message and I was so worried about what you were getting yourself into—’
‘I know, I’ve had the lecture from Withers already.’
Tony smiled. ‘I went straight round to the station and told him we had to come and find you. To be honest he didn’t take much persuading…’
‘Fancies me, like you said,’ I said cockily.
He laughed. ‘Yep.’
‘So you and Cheryl…’
‘I don’t know. We’ll have to see.’
Chapter Thirty-One
Two days later, I walked into Penstowan to collect my van. As I walked, I thought about the conversation I’d had with Daisy that morning over breakfast.
‘So, all this investigating stuff…’ she’d started, hesitantly. I felt a huge pang of guilt, although I couldn’t honestly say that I regretted getting involved – I still thought it was more than likely that Tony would have been charged without me sticking my nose in – and I also couldn’t really promise that I wouldn’t do it again. But I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell my daughter that.
‘Sweetheart, I am so sorry,’ I said. ‘I made you a promise, and then the minute we came down here I got involved in this. I shouldn’t have, I know, but I—’
‘No, you were right to,’ she said. She sighed, looking older than her twelve, nearly thirteen years. ‘You had to help Tony, and I’m glad you did.’ She toyed with her spoon, stirring her bowl of granola. ‘You really loved being in the police, didn’t you? I didn’t realise how much you’d miss it.’
I stared at her. ‘It was my decision to leave.’
‘You wouldn’t have left if I hadn’t asked, though, would you?’ she said, and now she was the one looking guilty. I swept her up off her seat and into my arms, kissing the top of her head.
‘I’m your mum; my main purpose in life now is to look after you and keep you happy.’
‘I want you to be happy too,’ she said. ‘And you’re not happy unless you’re poking your nose into things.’
I laughed. ‘That’s a bit harsh. But accurate.’ She pulled away and looked at me with a serious expression on her face. She’s been forced to grow up too quickly, I thought.
‘I won’t ask you to make me any more promises you can’t keep,’ she said. ‘Just promise me you won’t put yourself in any danger.’
‘I’ll happily promise that,’ I said.
It took me about thirty minutes to get to the garage, but Rob hadn’t quite finished the van and told me to come back in an hour. I decided to make the most of this unaccustomed quiet time – with no Mum or Daisy, Tony or DCI Withers, not even the dog, competing for my attention and no murder investigation occupying my mind – and treat myself to a visit to Rowe’s for a coffee and a cake.
‘Jodie!’
I stopped and looked round in surprise. He was the last person I’d expected to see here, which was probably daft as he must live locally and he had to eat.
‘DCI Withers,’ I began.
‘I’m off duty. If I have to call you Jodie, then the least you can do is call me Nathan.’
‘Nathan…’ So that was what the ‘N’ stood for. I tried it out. It felt weird, but I was kind of relieved it wasn’t Nigel (no offence to any Nigels out there). He laughed.
‘What, did you think my parents christened me “DCI” or sumthin’?’ His accent, which he usually tried to hide, came out on that one word.
‘Ah, I’ve been wondering what your accent was,’ I said. ‘I mean, in as much as I spare you any thought at all…’
‘Yeah, I bet.’ He held the door open and stepped aside so I could go in before him, then followed. ‘Can I get you a coffee?’
‘Okay … Nathan.’
We sat down and didn’t speak until the waitress had come over and taken our orders – a latte for me, and a cappuccino and an apple muffin for him.
‘You don’t strike me as an apple-muffin guy,’ I said.
‘No?’ He looked amused. ‘Tell me, as you’re a cook – sorry, a chef – if you were going to bake me a cake, what would you make?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I’ve gateaux give it some thought.’
He groaned. ‘That’s a terrible joke.’
‘I know. I do tend to crumble under pressure…’
‘Does that count? Is that a cake or a dessert?’
‘If you were a true friand you wouldn’t ask.’
He laughed. ‘I’m desperately trying to find a way of introducing a cream horn into the conversation,’ he said. I willed my cheeks not to go red. Please don’t blush, please don’t blush…
‘Cheeky! You’re such a tart…’
The waitress came over with our drinks. The muffin looked delicious and I wished I’d ordered one; I’d intended to, but I hadn’t wanted to look like a pig in front of With— Nathan. Ooh, that was going to take some getting used to. I didn’t want to question exactly why I cared what I looked like in front of him.
‘On second thoughts, can you bring another muffin?’ he said to the waitress, smiling at me. Cocky bugger.
‘No, no, I’m fine,’ I said, and he pretended to be surprised.
‘It wasn’t for you; I want two,’ he said, then laughed as I rolled my eyes at him. He added sugar then stirred his drink and said, ‘Liverpool.’
‘What?’
‘My accent. That’s where I come from. Well, Crosby. Liverpool-by-the-sea.’
‘Oh. So what brings you down here?’
‘My fiancée and I thought it would be a nice place to raise a family.’ For some reason there was a slight sinking feeling in my stomach, but I didn’t say anything. He sipped his coffee. ‘She was dead keen, so I transferred here and bought a house, and then she decided she was staying in Crosby, so…’
‘Oh no,’ I said, hopefully sincerely, although amazingly my stomach suddenly felt better again. The waitress placed the other muffin in front of me and I tucked into it happily.
‘Anyway, I just wanted to apologise for threatening to arrest you,’ he said.
‘Which time?’ I asked.
‘How many times did I do it?’
‘At least three, if I remember right.’
He laughed. ‘Okay, I apologise for however many times it was. But you don’t give up, do you? You’re tenacious. You must’ve been a good copper.’
I nearly choked. ‘What about “Big shoes to fill”?’ I asked him, a bit miffed. He looked genuinely surprised. ‘You know, when you found out who my dad was, and you said, “Big shoes to fill,” I thought you were implying—’
‘I wasn’t implying anything!’ he protested. ‘God, no, if anything I was thinking about me. Your dad was well loved, and I’m not even particularly well liked.’
‘Can’t think why,’ I said, but I said it with a grin. He smiled ruefully.
‘Yeah, right…’
; We sat for a moment in silence, enjoying our coffee and muffins. Then he looked up and said, ‘I mean it. You must’ve been a good copper. Why did you leave?’
And there it was. The million-dollar question. I was surprised that no one else had asked me; I knew there must be a few people round here – the people who thought I was getting too big for my boots by going off to the big city, as though Penstowan wasn’t good enough for me – I knew they must’ve been speculating about why I was back.
‘Do you know how my dad died?’ I asked. He shook his head.
‘Line of duty, that’s all I know,’ he said.
I nodded. ‘Yeah. Well, sort of. He didn’t really go out on the beat when he became Chief Inspector, it was mostly desk work. He was sixty-four years old when he died. He should’ve retired by then, only they let him stay because it was all admin so it wasn’t physical work, and they were short of experienced officers. He only had another couple of months before his birthday, when they would have made him take compulsory retirement.’ I remembered hearing the news. I’d left home by then, of course, and was in London, and it was the last thing I expected to hear. ‘He was on his way home one night when he saw this car being driven by a couple of teenagers. He knew them, and he knew it wasn’t their car, so he rang the station and said he was following them. But they got spooked and took off, and they crashed going round a bend on the A39. You know the one… And Dad crashed into them. Such a bloody stupid way to die, all because of a couple of bored teenagers.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Nathan. ‘But that’s not when you left the force?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t know if you remember, it was just over a year ago now, there was a van attack in Central London? We had a phone call saying there was a bomb planted in a tube station, and when we started evacuating, this madman drove a van into the crowd of commuters.’
‘I remember that; it was terrible. You were there?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah. There were five of us evacuating the station when the van came up on the pavement and started hitting people. We didn’t know what to do; we couldn’t send everyone back down into the station in case the bomb went off, so we formed a human shield in front of them and sent everyone into a nearby department store, all the time watching the van get closer and wondering if the station behind us was going to explode.’
‘Bloody hell, Jodie…’ Nathan reached for my hand, then thought better of it. I was mildly disappointed.
‘It could have been worse. The van hit a bus stop – thankfully there was no one still waiting there – and he got out, waving this big knife around, so we all ran at him and disarmed him. Gave him a bit of a kicking as well while we were at it, if I’m being totally honest. The bomb threat turned out to be a hoax, designed to get everyone out of the station.’
‘That must have been terrifying. No wonder you left.’
I shook my head. ‘I didn’t lose my nerve, if that’s what you think.’
‘I didn’t mean that.’
‘I would have stayed on. Yeah, it shook me up, but you know what the job’s like; you’re all in it together, and you keep each other going, don’t you?’ I smiled as I remembered the camaraderie, the banter in the canteen. I’d loved it. ‘I had counselling. But my daughter didn’t.’
‘Ah…’ said Nathan.
‘Everyone films everything these days, don’t they? Bloody mobiles. And the TV news encourages the public by using their footage. She was only eleven, so she didn’t see it on the telly at the time, but some of her schoolfriends did. They asked if she’d seen her mum being a hero, so she looked it up on the internet. She had nightmares for weeks. She cried every time I left the house. And I remembered how much I used to worry about my dad, out on the beat, when I was little. And all I had to contend with down here was housebreakers and joyriders. Daisy had so much more to worry about.’
‘And that’s why you left,’ said Nathan.
‘It is. And as much as I miss it, I don’t regret leaving for a moment.’
We finished our coffees and said our goodbyes, which felt oddly … odd, almost formal. The investigation was over, but it wasn’t as if our paths would never cross again, not while we were both living in Penstowan. Then I walked back to the garage to pick up the van.
The engine purred instead of coughed, and Rob was right; it looked and drove as good as new. Except when you looked at it in a certain light. In a certain light, even without the old fetish shop decals and with several new layers of paint, you could still see a faint outline.
And I knew my van was destined to be the Gimpmobile for ever. I drove home.
‘Someone to see you,’ said Mum, opening the back door behind me. I looked back and saw Tony.
‘All right?’ I said, budging up so he could sit on the garden wall next to me.
‘Yeah. What’re you doing?’
‘Enjoying the view.’
He sat down and swung his legs around so we were facing the same way, his feet dangling over one of the many gorse bushes that dotted the Cornish countryside.
‘Oh, wow.’
‘It’s why I bought the house,’ I said, ‘but I haven’t had much time to sit and look at it.’
Most of the garden was to the side of the house, with just a small patch at the back, and the hillside made the stone wall low enough on this side to sit on but too high on the other for my ovine neighbours to jump over (I hoped). Beyond the field was the edge of the cliffs, and beyond that, the sea. The sun was starting to set, the sky turning from orange to red to purple to deep blue, reflected on the surface of the water.
‘It’s so peaceful,’ said Tony.
‘Yep.’
We sat in silence, watching the sun sink lower.
‘You know, you’ve never asked me why I left the force,’ I said. He smiled. ‘Reckon I know why. I saw you on the telly.’
‘I didn’t lose my nerve—’
He laughed. ‘I didn’t say you did. I wouldn’t dare! You left because of Daisy, didn’t you? I remember how much you used to worry about your dad, and I reckon you didn’t want her to worry about you.’
I turned to look at him in admiration.
‘Tony Penhaligon, you are surprisingly emotionally literate.’
‘I’m not sure what that means but I’ll take it as a compliment.’
I turned my head as I felt Mum hovering behind us in the garden. She held out two mugs of tea.
‘Thought you’d like a brew.’
‘Thanks, Shirley,’ said Tony. ‘You joining us?’
‘No, no, I’ll leave you two to it…’ She scuttled away with a knowing look on her face. I wondered if she’d look so smug if she knew I’d had coffee with the handsome DCI that afternoon.
‘So, Cheryl got bail,’ said Tony, his eyes on the vista in front of us.
‘I heard,’ I said. ‘I saw Nathan Withers earlier.’ I felt rather than saw him turn to me in surprised disapproval.
‘Oh, it’s Nathan now, is it?’
‘He’s all right,’ I said, and Tony scoffed. ‘He came through in the end, didn’t he?’
‘Eventually,’ said Tony, grudgingly. ‘I’d still be banged up if it wasn’t for you.’
‘Dunno about that.’
We sat quietly again, enjoying the view and each other’s company, even if we weren’t in total agreement about our local DCI.
‘She came to see me,’ he said after a while.
‘Cheryl?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Oh.’ There were so many things I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t.
‘She asked me if we could try again,’ he said, studying the view intently.
‘Did she?’ There went my stomach again, lurching. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about him and Cheryl getting back together. Not that it was any of my business – I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted Tony for myself or anything – but he was my oldest and, I realised with a shock, my closest friend. This unaccustomed emotional turmoil was too much for me. I was probably devel
oping an ulcer. ‘She might be going to jail, you know. I know it was self-defence, and I don’t blame her, but even so—’
‘I said no.’ Tony reached out and plucked a flower from a group of pink sea thrift growing out of a crack in the wall. ‘I told her I forgave her, but it’s not enough. I said that if she really loved me she would’ve trusted me to help get her free of Craig. All she had to do was be honest with me, and she couldn’t. And then to even think about disappearing without letting me know she was okay… I know Pauline confused her, but she didn’t stop to think how it might affect me. It shouldn’t have been down to you to prove my innocence. I’m just glad you did.’
He smiled and turned to me, holding out the flower. I took it.
‘So how do you feel? Are you going to be okay?’ I asked. He really did deserve to be happy.
‘Yeah, I’ll be fine. My only regret is I never got to try your cooking.’
I laughed. ‘Well that’s easily fixed. I’ve got two hundred pork sausages in my fridge.’ I swung my legs back into the garden and stood up, holding out my hand as Tony followed suit. I pulled him onto his feet.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Come with me and I’ll make you the best sausage sandwich you’ve ever had.’
THE END
* * *
Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker will return in
A Brush With Death…
* * *
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Jodie’s tried and tested recipes #1
‘Bung it all in the oven’ Cornish/Moroccan (Coroccan?) chicken
This is a great recipe for using up any veg you’ve got lying around. It’s quick and tasty, and once you chop everything up you just chuck it in the oven and wait, giving you plenty of time to mull over your latest murder case and work out how to prove your oldest friend is innocent. Proper job!