by Bill Rogers
‘Don’t worry,’ he replied. ‘That bloody great tree in the foyer more than makes up for it. Put the champers in the fridge for a bit, lob me a corkscrew and I’ll open one of the reds.’
Leaving him to uncork the wine, Jo brought the antipasto misto through and put it on the table.
‘This looks good,’ he said. ‘You do know that you’re supposed to have fish and vegetables for the traditional meal of La Vigilia? To purify your body before you get stuck into the festivities?’
‘Firstly, it isn’t Christmas Eve,’ she retorted. ‘Secondly, I can’t speak for you, but my body’s pure enough.’
That set them both off laughing. Max handed Jo a glass of wine. As she sipped, she felt the stress and tension of the last few days finally beginning to leach away.
An hour later, they were relaxing on the sofa with a brandy apiece. Max had demolished the minced fillet steak, tomato, cream and chilli that was reputedly Ryan Giggs’s favourite, and she the eponymous Linguine Puccini with a crabmeat, crayfish, cream and tomato sauce. The remains of the tiramisu lay in a bowl on the table.
They had watched the Queen’s Speech, pulled crackers and managed not to mention the investigation, Max’s estranged wife and children, nor Jo’s bitter estrangement. Her mobile phone informed her that she had a text.
‘Sorry,’ she said as she reached for it, ‘I thought I’d switched it off.’
‘It’s probably your mum,’ he said.
It wasn’t.
It was Abbie.
Jo’s finger hovered over the screen. Damn it, she told herself, you mustn’t let it get to you like this. You can’t be afraid to open any of her messages. She flicked it open and began to read.
I’m sorry, Jo. I never meant it to come out like that. You once told me that there was a limit to how much evil you can experience without it burning you out. That you absorb it. That it changes you. Well, I’m sorry, Jo, but I think that’s already beginning to happen to you, and I don’t want to be around to see what it does to you or to us. I can’t risk exposing a child of mine to it either. But that doesn’t mean that I’ll ever forget the time we had together, or you. I hope that we will be able to stay friends, and that you will find peace and happiness in whatever it is you’re looking for.
Abbs X
She handed the phone to Max. He read the message twice and handed the phone back.
‘All that anger,’ he said, ‘and the tears. And now this. You know it’s because she still loves you, don’t you?’
Jo nodded.
‘I know. The problem is that Abbie’s right. I need this: it’s what I do. What she needs is a child, more than one. Without that, she’s never going to feel complete.’
She reached for the bottle of Italian dressing and held it up to the light. The balsamic a thick chocolate layer above the translucent golden oil. She gave it a shake. They watched the contents swirl into a seductive cloud, and then begin to settle.
‘This was Abbie and me,’ she said. ‘An unstable emulsion, slowly separating. We just couldn’t see it.’
‘You and me both, Jo,’ he said. ‘It was the same with me and the wife.’
He took the bottle from her hand, placed it on the table, handed her her glass and raised his own.
‘It’s taken me a while,’ he said, ‘but I’ve finally realised that there’s no point in trying to hang on to something that used to make you happy, but now simply makes you sad all the time. Life’s too short, Jo. It’s time to move on. Let’s drink to that.’
She raised her glass.
‘Moving on,’ she said.
The brandy filled her mouth, scorched her throat, and coursed through her veins. A metaphor for the pain of her loss, and the challenge of a new beginning.
Author’s Note
The statistics within this work of fiction relating to rape and sexual crime have been taken from reputable and reliable sources. Those statistics mean that there will inevitably be readers whose lives, or the lives of those close to them, have been touched by these crimes. I have listed below just a few carefully chosen sources of help from the thousands instantly available on the Internet.
Rape Crisis Support
Services set up to support victims of rape, child sexual abuse, or any kind of sexual violence.
RAINN, the USA’s largest anti-sexual assault organization, with direct links to sexual assault and counselling services across the USA.
www.rainn.org
Rape Crisis England & Wales is the national umbrella body for a network of autonomous member Rape Crisis organisations across England and Wales.
www.rapecrisis.org.uk
Also, in Scotland and Ireland:
www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk
www.rapecrisishelp.ie
Staying Safe on Campus, produced by RAINN, is full of practical advice for any student at high school or college, going away to university or leaving home for the first time. The advice is applicable to any setting, anywhere in the world.
www.rainn.org/get-information/sexual-assault-prevention/campus-safety-sexual-assault
Reporting Rape and Sexual Crime is the Greater Manchester Police online best practice guide on what to do, and what to expect when reporting such crimes, whether current or historical. The information given and the advice provided is what one would hope to find in any modern police force.
www.gmp.police.uk/live/nhoodv3.nsf/section.html?readform&s=AB606F6E10CE47448025796100403635
St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Manchester, offers YouTube videos such as this one, in which clients explain how important the Centre has been in helping them recover from their experiences of rape and sexual assault.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxnYa70pDBI
Men are victims too. While the overall percentage of men and boys affected by rape is much smaller than for women and girls, the impact is just as life changing. Organisations designed to support male victims are few, but the number is growing. This is one such organisation.
www.survivorsmanchester.org.uk
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the following whose specialist knowledge and technical advice has been invaluable: former GMP Officers – Chief Superintendent Brian Wroe and Gordon Ritchie; Anthony Wood, former Scotland Yard Senior Forensic Science SOCO, and Visiting Lecturer at Thames Valley University; Simon Nelson, Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner, Manchester North District, specifically for his advice in relation to the role of the availability of HM coroners and their role in directing that post-mortems be carried out; Kevin Murtagh, for advice in relation to legal terms and procedures; and finally, those Rape Crisis organisations whose details and links can be found in my Author’s Note.
My special thanks go to everyone at Amazon Publishing UK, and their Thomas & Mercer imprint team. In particular, Emilie Marneur for coaxing me over to the dark side after six years of total freedom; my editor, Jane Snelgrove for leading me through the process with great wisdom and sensitivity; editor Russel McLean, and copy editor Monica Byles for their ability to get inside my head, their meticulous attention to detail and their brilliant advice.
Bill Rogers
November 2016
About the Author
Photo © 2015 Paul Whur
Bill Rogers has written ten earlier crime fiction novels featuring DCI Tom Caton and his team, set in and around Manchester. The first of these, The Cleansing, was shortlisted for the Long Barn Books Debut Novel Award, and was awarded the e-Publishing Consortium Writers Award 2011. The Pick, The Spade and The Crow is the first in a spin-off series featuring SI Joanne Stuart, on secondment to the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the National Crime Agency, located in Salford Quay, Manchester. Formerly a teacher and schools inspector, Bill has four generations of Metropolitan Police behind him. He is married with two adult children and lives near Manchester.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Start Reading
> Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Author’s Note
Acknowledgements
About the Author
