Jane laughed. ‘I take your point. Beast Banks is pretty steep.’
‘Exactly. Take it too fast and you could end up in the mayor’s parlour.’
‘I’m happy, Andy. Are you?’
‘Of course. I’m really looking forward to the next few months. Kids are the gift that just keep on giving, believe me.’
‘Shouldn’t that be the other way round? We give, and they take?’
‘Up to a point, but it’ll be worth every penny, I promise. Of course we’ll love our child more than they can ever love us. That’s a given, really. But the best we can hope is that our love gets handed on down the generations, from our child to theirs. Better than any inheritance, that is.’
‘It will be.’
‘I know it will. It’s just natural, really. And it’s funny, even after all these years in the job I still can’t quite work out why so many of our regulars seem like the products of shit parenting.’
‘It’s just a cycle though, isn’t it? They had shit parents themselves, and so it goes on. It’s the opposite of what you just said, really.’
‘I know, but how did it start? That’s what I want to know. Who were the first parents in the chain? Why did they rebel against biology like that?’
‘Chemistry, I expect.’
‘Drugs?’
‘Booze, more like. Didn’t they use to call gin ‘mother’s ruin’?’
‘They did, which is why I’m going to drink ours up, long before you have this baby. I’m not taking any bloody chances.’
She laughed, and he joined in. ‘When did you, love?’ she said. ‘When did you?’
Epilogue
5th January, 2015
‘You are a skinny little sadistic bastard’ said Ian Mann, getting up out of the saddle and trying not to look at the road rising so relentlessly ahead of him.
‘They don’t call it The Struggle for nothing’ said Iredale, pedalling smoothly past.
‘I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t so bloody cold.’
‘All that fat should be keeping you warm.’
‘I’d teach you a bloody lesson for that, lad, if I could catch you.’
‘That’ll be the day. The pub’s not far now, anyway. You taught me to fight, and I’m teaching you to cycle. That was the deal, remember.’
‘Aye, I remember. There’s nowt to learn with the pedalling job though, is there? You just have to be as thin as a bloody lurcher and have a massive masochistic streak.’
‘Stop moaning, and dig in. It’ll be downhill all the way to Ambleside on the way back.’
‘Aye, and I’ll catch my bloody death then, I expect. I just wish I’d let you to fuck off to Sellafield now. I wouldn’t have to be doing this.’
‘That’s true. But you need to work off all that turkey and mince pies. So keep pedalling, mate.’
‘Aye, I will. What bloody choice do I have, like? And like you say, the pub’s not far now.’
For DI Jane Francis it felt like the last day of term, maybe even the last day of school. There’d been cake, which she’d brought in, and which everyone had tucked into, despite the emails from the Super concerning officers’ waist sizes. She’d joked with him that she hoped she was excused from censure on that point, and when he finally understood what she meant he said that she was. And Andy Hall had come down from HQ to take her home, although he’d said that he had sod all to do anyway, and that no-one would miss him.
‘I feel like one of those football managers who has the full support of the Chairman,’ he’d said on the phone. ‘He just keeps asking when my paternity leave is starting.’
Jane checked her email one last time, and noticed one from the analysis team with the Foster murder case reference in the title. She opened it, and was reading the attachment when Hall knocked on her door and came in.
‘Now this will interest you, Andy’ she said.
‘Is it my pension projection?’
‘I get that weekly. Did you know that you’re worth more to me dead than alive?’
‘I’m not surprised. Anyway, what is it?’
‘Summary of John Winder’s Will. Bloody hell, he was worth a few quid when he popped his clogs. But there are a couple of interesting bequests. He’s made young Matt Somes a full partner in his farm, with his sons. And he mentions young Tiffany Moore as well.’
‘She’s inside now though, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she drew five years in the end, just before Christmas.’
‘So what did Winder leave her? His best set of lock-picks?’
‘He’s left her money to fund higher education, if she goes that way when she gets out. He recommends criminology.’
Hall laughed, and slapped his hand down on the table, which wobbled and creaked. ‘I bet he does, given the amount he must have spent staying out of jail for those last few months. He didn’t mention us, I suppose? A nice little bequest would come in handy, just now.’
‘Oddly enough he didn’t, love. And I keep telling you, don’t worry. We’ll be fine, I’m certain of it. No-one can foresee what the future holds, Andy. Not even you. So let’s just enjoy the moment, shall we, love?’
Mortal Men (The Lakeland Murders Book 7) Page 27