Brotherly Blood
Page 25
‘Ah. Honey. I’m so glad you didn’t come to any harm.’
‘I’m so glad you didn’t come to any harm.’
She didn’t give him chance to continue but turned the phone onto loud speaker so that Doherty could hear too.
‘I’m resigning,’ Honey stated in a no nonsense voice. ‘I’ve had enough of crime. You’ll have to find somebody else to do it.’
‘Oh! I really didn’t think you would take that attitude.’ He sounded quite affronted. Not that Honey cared. Being affronted beat being killed any day of the week.
‘Well I am!’
She had never raised her voice to Caspar in the past, but she did now. No matter what he offered her, she would stand firm.
‘Well I do hope that our new Crime Liaison Officer will get on with Inspector Doherty as well as you do.’
Doherty grabbed the phone from her. ‘The prospect won’t arise. I’m taking early retirement.’
Honey’s jaw dropped. Doherty had hinted a few times about making changes in his life, but up until now they’d mainly centred on them getting married. The idea was there but she wasn’t sure about the will on both their parts.
‘Oh.’ He sounded quite peeved, but attempted to bring her round. ‘My brother sends his regards. If you ever want a day out he’d be pleased to show you around. I think he’d also like to take you to dinner again. To make up for things, if you know what I mean.’
Honey turned her back on him. ‘Tarquin St John Gervais can go to bloody hell!’
SIX MONTHS LATER.
‘Are you cold?’
‘No. Quite warm in fact.’
Honey rolled onto her back, arms behind her head staring at the deep blue sky. The aquamarine sea kept up a gentle slapping against the hull of the yacht they’d bought between them.
Every day she woke up and thought herself extremely lucky. That last case could have been her swansong.
Wearing a pair of threadbare shorts, Doherty was sitting at the stern of the boat trying a spot of fishing. He wasn’t terribly good at it but both he and Honey took the view that practise makes perfect. Nothing could compare with this.
Bath was over a thousand miles away and nobody back there was enough of a draw to make them return.
Her mother was happy with her new husband who indulged her something rotten. Her daughter was happily trekking around the world and on the last occasion she’d been in contact suggested she might be pregnant. To Honey’s surprise both she and Sean were quite ecstatic about it, but wouldn’t be cutting short their journey.
‘This kid will have an alternative lifestyle,’ Lindsey had told her.
She envisioned Lindsey carrying a back pack, a pair of tiny hands waving from the opening.
As for everyone else...her mind went back to that moment under the bed in the cottage. It made her smile. Where was Dominic Christiansen now, she wondered, and was just about to voice her thoughts but didn’t. He was out of her life and it was best it stayed that way. Doherty was well and truly in it. The world was their oyster.