He chuckled. ‘You always want to know everything, Pen. But in this particular case, let’s just say that the less you know the better it will be for everyone. Especially you.’
Chandler smiled and for once appeared to take him at his word. ‘As soon as the brass have cleared out we’re all headed down the Woodman for a drink or five. You going to join us this time?’
‘Maybe,’ Bliss said. ‘First of all, I have a grieving woman waiting to hear from me.’
‘Okay. Boss, I just wanted you to know that you did really well on this one. You stood your ground, you believed in the logic of your own mind. I didn’t always agree with you, and I apologise for getting a bit cranky with you at times. I pretty much held onto your wings throughout this entire op, feeling more than a little out of my depth.’
‘Thanks. There’s no need for an apology, and don’t be hard on yourself. I lived and breathed organised crime for a number of years, spent time working with people like Munday. This was my speciality for a long time, remember. Plus, if you hadn’t played such a blinder with Stacey Bird we may never have confirmed the connection between the artefacts and Wittering. Might seem like a small thing at the time, but it turned out to be significant. So it’s your win as much as it is mine. The team’s win as much as it is ours.’
‘Will you ever just take credit you’re due, Jimmy? I mean, certain people want to grind you down from a great height when things don’t quite go according to plan. I get that’s mostly due to what happened here all those years ago. But it’s time everybody moved on. They should look at what you’re doing now. If it had all gone to shit, your name would be the one they put out there for the media. You achieve all this, and it’s Thorpe Wood getting the credit, followed by Major Crimes, followed by DCI Edwards. No mention of you. You ever think of changing that? Putting your name out there, getting back in front of those media briefings?’
Bliss smiled and shook his head. ‘I’m happy enough that we closed a tough case, and that a handful of young women survived to be returned back to their families. My reputation was flushed away many years ago, Pen. What I achieve, together with you and the team, that’s ongoing and all I actually give a damn about.’
Chandler regarded him with what he thought was a somewhat wistful gaze. After a long silence she said, ‘Fair enough. I tried.’
‘Baby steps, Pen. Baby steps. If it’s any consolation, I realised earlier how much I’ve improved. I mean, I should have realised much earlier that none of those young women had left the base, and the younger me would have fretted about not spotting it sooner. The older me recognises the fact that it wouldn’t have changed the outcome, that whilst it was improbable that they had made it off base, it wasn’t technically impossible. It was also a busy, confusing and complex situation. So rather than fixate on that error, I would rather focus on the fact that the five women we could have saved were saved.’
‘Wow. Look at you, all grown up.’
They both laughed. The breeze died and the mist of rain expired also. Bliss reached out for his partner’s arm and gently gripped it. She looked first at his hand and then turned her gaze to meet his own. He smiled at her, a sense of intense warmth welling up inside.
‘In music there is a myth based around the lost chord,’ Bliss said. ‘It’s often better described as missing rather than lost I think, because in many of the myths it is about a chord not yet discovered, just waiting out there to be found. Something magical, ready and waiting to be unleashed upon the world if only we could recognise it. I realised tonight that you are that missing chord, Pen. That something magical waiting to be uncovered. In our line of work you can be anything you want to be. And you deserve it all because you’re the best of us.’ He shook his head as if lost in wonder. ‘If I didn’t need you to complete me, I’d be so bloody envious of you it would drive me insane.’
Chandler blinked. He saw a tear squeezed out of her right eye, rolling slowly over the soft curve of her cheek and all the way down to her chin. She sniffed and blinked back the flood that would otherwise have occurred.
‘Jimmy, I… I don’t know what to say.’
‘So say nothing.’
‘Just when I thought I had you all worked out, you turn out to be a decent man after all.’
That broke the moment.
Bliss laughed, his broad shoulders heaving. ‘You cheeky mare.’
‘I know, boss. Just like you taught me to be.’
‘I suppose I had it coming. Clearly I’m too good a teacher. Anyway, I have to get going. Night, Pen. Get yourself some decent sleep.’
‘I will. And, boss… thank you. Join us later if you can, right? Bring the Bone Woman with you.’
Bliss winked. ‘We’ll see. This night might be about to get even tougher.’
49
Emily was curled up fast asleep in his lounger by the time he got home. Bliss crept around the house, trying not to wake her. She looked so peaceful and serene, at peace for the first time in two weeks. He went into the kitchen, pulled out his phone and made a call.
‘Hedgehog,’ he said, relieved at hearing his friend answer. ‘How are you doing?’
‘I’m good, Jimmy. Suspended, of course. I will be charged. I will lose my job, but I will not go to jail.’
‘That’s something, I suppose.’
‘From what I hear, a certain friend and ex-colleague of mine went out on a limb to try and help me. That may be the only reason I’m not facing jail time.’
‘Yeah, well don’t believe everything you hear.’
‘Thank you, Jimmy. For whatever you did.’
‘It was nothing.’
‘Pursey called me earlier.’
‘Yeah? Wanted to chew you out for what you did, I suppose.’
‘No. Not at all. He told me he was sorry it had gone the way it had. That he had enjoyed working with me prior to that night. He wanted me to know that the murder of his man on the inside was nothing to do with me. That was confirmed by one of Bird’s men. He also told me you got a result today.’
Bliss was impressed with Pursey. He had spoken with the DI earlier, wanting the Essex detective to know that all their efforts were not in vain and that there was every chance of Lewis Drake or one of his crew putting Darren Bird in the frame for his part in the smuggling ring. Neither had mentioned Hanna Jez, so Bliss thought it showed Pursey in a different light that he had taken it upon himself to ease Jez’s fears. An unexpected touch of class.
‘Yes, we got a result. A bloody good one in the end.’ Bliss spent a few minutes telling her all about it. ‘Listen, Jez, I’ve asked to be kept informed about your own situation. I want to speak up on your behalf. It’s good that you won’t do any time, and there’s nothing I can do or say that will allow you to keep your job. But these people who will judge you need to know what kind of officer you are. And I want to be there to tell them. I know I won’t be the only one.’
Jez was grateful, but after they ended their conversation, Bliss felt as if the gloss had been wiped from his day. A good friend had lost her career, a young RAF officer lost his life having made one stupid mistake and after doing his best to rectify it, and a young woman snatched from her homeland thousands of miles away had been murdered for simply daring to escape her confines.
Bliss shook his head. It was such a brutal world at times. He wondered if he would ever make sense of it. He had switched his phone to vibrate only, and he felt it start to throb in his pocket. It was an unknown number, but curiosity got the better of him.
‘Hello, Inspector. I wanted to call to congratulate you on a fine job.’
‘Thank you,’ he said to Munday, surprised by the call.
‘I liked the cut of your jib, Bliss. It was a pleasure watching you work at times. Can’t say I’d offer you a job as I’m sure our man from Legoland did. I venture you’re too much of a free spirit for the powers that be at humble Thames House.’
‘Thanks all the same. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a spook at all.’
‘I would not rule out Six entirely if I were you. If ever a place mavericks were welcomed… Any rate, Bliss, I thought you deserved a little reward. In my regular meetings with your bosses, I couldn’t help but notice how your DCI felt about you. Fletcher likes you well enough, though in an aside she did describe you as one of the last of a dying breed. But there’s respect there, which is important. DCI Edwards, however, regards you as a thorn in her side. I wonder, Bliss, do you happen to know why that might be?’
‘Not really. She admitted that her guard was up because of the grenade I tossed into the whole sorry mess back in 2005. She doesn’t like the way I go about things, says I have issues with authority. Do you know something I don’t know, Munday?’
The man from Five laughed. ‘Dear boy, I know people. I make it my business to know about people I work with and people I am about to work with. So I know something about DCI Edwards I feel certain you do not. She has worked hard to conceal it.’
Bliss wondered for a moment if he was being toyed with, but he could not think what Munday had to gain from doing so. ‘Go on, please. I’m listening.’
‘Does the name Gascoigne mean anything to you?’
‘There was a uniform here by that name during my first stint. He worked very hard to get me in trouble at one point.’
‘Indeed. Gascoigne was one of many policemen who got swept up in the aftermath of your investigation into that young girl’s murder, Bliss. He wasn’t around at the time, of course. No direct involvement there. But a fine-toothed comb was used afterwards rather than a new broom, so anyone even remotely on the take or in thrall to the older officers who were caught up in the scandal, were either moved on or shipped out. Gascoigne was one of them.’
‘Good. He was a prick. But what does that have to do with DCI Edwards?’
‘Gascoigne is her uncle. He’s a man with a van these days, offering his services via cards in local shop windows and free local leaflets, that sort of thing. Seems he was never able to shake off the bad smell that came with him when he was kicked off the job.’
Bliss shook his head. ‘So it’s as much personal as professional. Now it makes sense, I suppose.’
‘Felt I should warn you, Bliss. Thought you deserved that much at least, whilst those who fought against you celebrate your victory.’
‘Well, thank you. It’s nice to know I still had a voice in the room, even if I wasn’t aware of it at the time.’
‘You’re welcome. Until next time, then.’
‘You think there will be a next time, Munday?’
But the line was dead and he was talking to himself.
He made a cup of tea and stood in the kitchen drinking it with his backside pressed against the counter. It felt strange coming home to a house that was not empty. Bliss knew it would last no longer than perhaps the night to come, but for some reason he could not fathom why he felt comforted by Emily’s presence. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself whilst she slept. It felt wrong to consider taking the other chair. He did not want her to find him sitting there looking at her when she awoke. It felt every bit as wrong to slip upstairs and into the bed she had been sleeping in these past few nights. To his relief, Bliss heard the squeal of the lounger and a shifting body easing out of it.
Moments later, Emily joined him in the kitchen, bleary-eyed and blinking beneath the harsh ceiling lights in the confines of the small space. ‘What time did you get home?’ she asked.
‘Only a short while ago.’
‘Long day, huh. How did it go?’
Bliss had intended sitting down with Emily and taking her through the entire series of events, including her husband’s connection with the case. But now that the moment had arrived he found himself lacking the desire to relate it all again. Not even the highlights.
‘As well as I could have expected at this stage,’ he said, instead. ‘We closed the case.’
‘That’s good. I’m pleased for you. I could tell it was getting to you.’
‘Thanks. It was. A tough op in so many ways.’
‘Well, I’m happy for you that it’s over. I’m sure it won’t be long before the next one comes along.’
Bliss nodded. ‘Sadly, that’s just the way it is. No rest for the wicked means no rest for us.’
‘At least for tonight you can close your mind to it all.’
‘That’s true,’ he said, peering deep into her eyes. ‘And Emily, tomorrow morning, you and I need to talk.’
She frowned. ‘We do?’
‘We do.’
‘About Simon?’
‘About Simon.’
‘Are you sure it can wait until then, Jimmy?’ Emily asked him.
Bliss nodded. Smiled. He thought about Chandler and his team out celebrating. He decided he was right where he needed to be for now.
‘I’m positive,’ he said. ‘It can wait. It’s not going anywhere. And neither am I.’
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Acknowledgments
I can’t believe this is book five already. In addition to everyone at Bloodhound Books, and my family and friends, I would also like to thank the book community in its wider sense. The generosity and support of fellow authors continues to astound me; the hard work and dedication of book bloggers is to be applauded and is very much appreciated by every author I know; and when it comes to readers, I have to say that their continued efforts in helping promote my work, allied to their invaluable support, is positively inspirational. When the time comes to hang up my quill, I will take with me the fondest of memories.
For this book specifically, I would like to thank the media relations office at RAF Wittering. Whilst I may have taken one or two liberties, their help was invaluable in resolving the more technical questions in terms of plot development.
I have also taken a few liberties by giving new names to real places in and around Peterborough. Those who live locally will, I’m sure, recognise these places and may wonder why I have opted to give them different names. The truth is, sometimes when you are dealing with actual places, what occurs within them as part of your story, or what an author may write about them, is not always appreciated due to the specific subject matter. It should always be remembered that whilst the places may be real, the characters and the storylines are not, and so in no way should they be viewed literally.
This has been an extremely eventful period in my life, with a new ‘career’ which has so far exceeded every one of my expectations. My only regret is that my father did not live long enough to see it happen. Another way of saying the exact same thing, is that I should perhaps have listened to my heart much earlier in life, rather than allow my head to rule my entire existence. I cannot know if I would have achieved even this moderate level of success had I taken my writing seriously a few years ago, but the one thing I now know for sure is that I would have been a lot happier had I done so.
If Fear Wins is, perhaps, a more procedural crime novel that my previous Bliss and Chandler offerings, but I hope that you enjoyed it and regarded it as one part of an overall journey. I never set out to write a ‘series’ but now that I am, I have to say that I am getting a t
hrill out of exploring the lives of these characters and the criminal world they inhabit.
Thank you for being a major part of it.
Tony Forder
May 2018
If Fear Wins (DI Bliss Book 3) Page 36
