She’d held her breath as Jamie had told Jake to shoot, understanding her reasons but knowing it was wrong. Relief had washed over her when he had refused and, despite everything, she’d felt incredibly proud of Jake in that moment.
“What’s going to happen to him?” Jamie asked her. They watched from the front steps as they were driven away.
Turning and going back into the house and closing the door behind her, she sighed. “He will go to prison, there’s no doubt. How long will depend on what they decide to charge him with.”
“I believe him, you know.” Jamie said, following Kat into the living room where all the drama had taken place. “I mean, I believe him when he said that killing Ted was an accident.”
Kat nodded. “Yes, I believe him, too. He’s made mistakes, but he’s not a bad man and he loves you dearly. He would never have intentionally wanted to hurt you.”
“It was Dad. He made him the way he was. I remember it all now.”
“Will you be able to forgive him?”
“I already have. He’s suffered enough.”
“And so have you.” Kat took her in her arms. “I’m just glad it’s all finally over and that you’re safe at last.”
They stood there for a while, just hugging each other both lost in their own thoughts.
Forty-Five
“I’ve been doing some thinking,” Jamie said, breaking the silence. They’d both been caught up in their own thoughts since leaving the prison where they’d been to visit Jake.
He’d made a full statement to the police and there had been no doubt that he was totally ignorant of Carrie’s attack on Jamie. They’d also accepted that what had happened to Ted had been an accident and that he’d never intended to kill him. The D.A. had offered him five years, which his lawyer had advised him to accept, avoiding the necessity of a trial. They’d both been very proud of the way he had handled it, stepping up to the plate and being not only willing, but wanting to take his punishment.
“Yeah?” Kat briefly took her eyes off the road and glanced over at her. “And what have you been thinking about?” It was finally over, but Jamie had a tough road ahead and Kat was worried about her.
“I’m on my own now. Well, for the next five years, anyway.” She sighed. “It’s too much. I’ve got to run the business, which I know nothing about, look after the house and Jake’s affairs.” He had signed over power of attorney to her before he was convicted.
“It’s a lot to take on I agree, but I know you can do it.” Kat tried to reassure her.
“Yes, I can. But I can’t do it alone.”
“Well, I can help you find someone suitable before I leave. Maybe we could speak to John Cassidy, the lawyer. He might be able to give us some recommendations.”
Jamie shook her head. “No. I need someone I can trust completely. After everything I’ve been through, I need you, Aunt Kat.”
She’d had a feeling that this was coming, had even been thinking about volunteering herself, but now that the question was out there she had no idea what to say. “Jamie, I’ve got a career, one I need to get back to.”
It sounded empty even as she said it. More and more, lately, she’d been lamenting the fact that yes, she had a career, but very little else. And what was a life with nothing in it but work? She’d neglected her family while she still had one, and now that it had been torn apart, could she really just walk away?
“You could apply to the local PD, couldn’t you?”
It’s true, she could. But there was the small question of Finn. It was a small department, and if she did that it would mean working with him closely on a daily basis and she knew that that was something she simply couldn’t do. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jamie, but no. That wouldn’t work.”
“Okay, well how about this then. You come and work for me? Now that we’re taking on more sensitive projects, we need a security division and someone to head it up. You’d be perfect with your background. Will you please at least think about it?”
Kat nodded. Yes, she would think about it. “Okay, but I’m not making any promises.”
Forty-Six She was not looking forward to this conversation, but it was one that had been a long time coming.
She’d phoned Finn and they’d arranged to meet just outside town. When they were kids, they used to come to this spot to make out. It was one of the few elevated spots in an otherwise almost completely flat landscape, and from the top you could see for miles. She sat on the hood of her car waiting for him now, looking out over the town stretched out below her, bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun.
The sound of tires on dirt told her that he’d arrived. She gave him a small smile as he pulled himself up onto the hood to sit beside her.
“How’s Jamie doing?” he asked, his voice filled with genuine concern.
“She’s going to be fine. She’s strong.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m going to be by her side to help.”
“You are?”
She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t turn to meet his gaze. “Yes. I’ve decided it’s about time I came home.” She sighed. “I should have come back sooner, been more of a sister, more of an aunt. I can’t get that time back, but I can try and make up for it.”
He nodded. “So, what are you going to do?”
She told him about the job Jamie had offered her, and that she’d decided to accept it.
“Is that what you brought me up here to tell me?”
This was it. It was time. “No, I brought you up here to tell you why I left all those years ago.”
The End
Blood Sport is out now! Here is a sneak preview!
One
It looked like a pile of rags by the side of the road and she would have driven past were it not for a slight movement that caught her eye as she drew alongside. It was getting dark. It was the end of a long day and she thought maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her. Best check it out, Kat told herself as she stopped the car, put it in reverse and backed up.
There wasn’t much along this road, being several miles out from Brecon Point. She was only on it as the storm that had been raging most of the day had brought down a tree across the road she would normally have taken home. Unfortunately, around here if a road was blocked and unless you were prepared to drive across fields, you usually had to travel several miles out of your way to get to where you wanted to go.
As she pulled the car alongside and stopped, the pile moved again. Don’t be an idiot, Kat, she told herself. You’re on an empty road, after dark with no one around for miles. Although she had a permit to carry a firearm, she rarely did these days but she did carry pepper spray which she now got out of her purse and gripped tightly in her hand before opening the car door.
She was getting a bad feeling as she drew closer to the pile and it started to take shape. That feeling turned to shock as the reality of what she was looking at hit her like a punch to the gut. He was so filthy that at first it had been hard to see where his dirty clothes ended and his torn and bloodied skin began, but now there was no mistaking that she was looking at a severely beaten human being.
Having been a police officer for many years for the LAPD, she had seen more than her fair share of beaten and broken bodies, usually on a Friday or Saturday night outside various bars. But this was different. Much different. This victim couldn’t have been much older than twelve years old.
He was lying on his back with his eyes closed. Dropping to her knees in the dirt next to him, Kat reached out and gently touched his cheek. At the touch, the boy’s eyes flickered open and he looked straight at her. The desperation and fear she saw in them took her breath away. “You’re safe now. I’m going to get help.” The boy just closed his eyes again with a sigh.
Shit! The nearest hospital was in the next town and she knew that if she called for an ambulance, it would take forever to get there. From the condition he was in, she didn’t know how much time the boy had and if she could afford to wait t
hat long.
Brecon point was a small town but it was much closer and there was a town doctor. Decision made, Kat stood up, went to her car and opened the back door. Returning to the boy, she gently lifted him into her arms. He was much lighter than she’d expected and she could feel through his rags that he was nothing but skin and bone. Gently carrying him to her car, she laid him on the back seat. He moaned slightly as she did, but he didn’t open his eyes again.
Getting into the driver’s seat, she grabbed her phone from her purse and quickly called the police station in town and told them what she’d found. As it was after hours the doctor’s office would be closed, but they assured her that they would make sure the doctor would be there waiting for her.
Two
Kat stood in a corner of the room, not wanting to get in the way, as Dr. Crichton examined the child. She watched her as she carefully peeled away his dirty and torn clothes to look for injuries. Kat couldn’t help but flinch as every wound was revealed.
When she’d arrived at the clinic, the light had been on and the doctor had been there waiting for them. Taking one look at the child cradled in Kat’s arms she had ushered them into an examination room before immediately telling Kat to call an ambulance.
“Where did you find him?” She jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She hadn’t heard him come in. Chief Finlay had been chief when she’d first left town twenty years ago and now, pushing sixty-five, he showed no sign of slowing down.
“Hi, Chief,” she said, acknowledging his arrival. “I found him by the side of the road on the way back from work.” She shook her head. “If he hadn’t moved, I would have driven right past him.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t.” It was Doctor Crichton who spoke, drawing their attention. “This poor kid has suffered a severe beating. He has a broken arm, a concussion and severe lacerations all over his body. I’ll need to get him to the hospital immediately to make sure there’s nothing more serious going on internally. If he’d been there all night, there’s no knowing if he would have survived.”
“I’ll go with you,” Kat said immediately. She didn’t want to leave this poor boy’s side.
“Sorry, Kat, but we’ll take it from here.” The chief put his hand on her shoulder gently. “It’s a police matter now.”
Kat opened her mouth to argue but then closed it again. She knew he was right. She wasn’t a police officer anymore. This had nothing to do with her, but the thought of leaving him all alone was killing her. But she had no choice. Though he probably couldn’t hear her, she wanted to say goodbye, to tell him it was going to be okay, so she walked over to him. Leaning down, she whispered in his ear, “It’s okay, you’re safe now.” He moved slightly then, inching his hand over to grip hers where it rested on the side of the examination table. She tried to gently pull it away, but he gripped it harder still. With tears in her eyes, she looked at the chief. “I can’t leave him.”
“If she makes him feel safer, she should stay with him. We don’t know the full extent of his injuries yet and we should avoid doing anything that’s likely to upset him,” Dr. Crichton said, addressing the chief.
Kat held her breath while he considered this and, after a brief pause, he nodded brusquely. “Okay, the doc’s right. Our main priority has to be making sure this little guy is okay. You can go with him. But Kat,” he carried on as she turned back to the boy, “he is a crime scene and I don’t have to tell you that you are now, too. And if he says anything, anything at all, you let me know. Got it?” Kat nodded. “Of course, chief. Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’ll get an officer and CSI to meet you at the hospital as soon as we’ve secured the area where he was found.”
The flashing of blue and red lights through the clinic window told them that the ambulance had arrived. Kat watched as he was loaded onto a gurney and put in the back before climbing in next to him and taking his hand in hers.
“I’m here and I’m not going anywhere,” she told him as the doors closed and they left for the hospital.
Three
He went over what they knew so far in his head as he made his way out to the main crime scene, which wasn’t much. When the chief had called on the radio to tell him to get out there and secure the area where the kid had been found, he’d also told him that Kat had had the foresight to leave the warning triangle from her trunk by the side of the road so they’d be able to find the exact spot again. He was driving slowly so that he didn’t miss it and sure enough, his lights hit the red plastic and it reflected back at him. Pulling over, he got out of his cruiser and shrugged on his coat. CSI better hurry up, he thought as he looked up at the sky. Storms had been battering the area all day and while it had been dry for the last few hours, it looked like it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
The wind ruffled his hair as he stood with his hands in his coat pockets, leaning against the hood of the car. There was nothing he could do until CSI got there and he could have waited in the car, but he’d been sitting down most of the day and needed to stretch his legs.
He was suffering from conflicting emotions. Part of him wanted to call Kat and make sure she was okay. What she’d come across wasn’t nice and would have upset even an experienced police officer but the other part, the part that he’d been listening to for the past few months, warned him to stay away. Until she’d turned up looking for her niece all those months ago he’d thought he’d put the past behind him, but her reappearance had opened all those old wounds. While searching for her niece, though, he’d grown close to her again and all the feelings he’d once had for her had started to re-emerge.
When she’d finally told him what had made her leave, though, he’d been floored. He hadn’t known how to react, still didn’t, so he’d avoided her ever since, acknowledging her when he did see her about town but no more than that. He knew he was probably hurting her but he couldn’t help it. He needed to figure out how to deal with what she’d told him.
Lights in the distance snapped him out of his reverie and told him that the crime scene techs had arrived. Kat was tough. She didn’t need him to hold her hand and he had a job to do.
A flash of lightning lit up the sky, then was closely followed by a loud clap of thunder. As he’d feared, big fat drops of rain started to fall slowly at first, gathering momentum until they were coming down fast and heavy.
“Come on, quickly!” he urged the techs as they climbed out of their vehicle. “We need to get a canopy up now!” Helping them pull it out of the back of their truck, they worked as quickly as they could, getting it up in less than two minutes. Finn’s heart sank, though, as he looked at the ground. It was already a soggy mess and it was likely that any trace evidence that had been there had been washed away.
“Do what you can guys.” He sighed, climbing back into the dry interior of his cruiser. He knew that he was going to be here a while, so he rested his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
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This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.
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True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1) Page 29