by Robert Innes
“Welcome to the team, Harrison,” Sally said, putting her arm around him. “Just remember though, you’ll have to keep up with me and Blake’s drinking habits when we three meet again.”
“Having seen the way you are after just a few gins, I think I should be alright,” Harrison replied, laughing.
Sally let out a cry of faux outrage, then pulled Harrison in tighter in revenge. “I’m honestly so happy for you both. Do me a favour and don’t go sleeping with any women, Harrison. I can’t deal with him being all depressed again. He’s dead boring in that mind-set.”
“Do you mind?” Blake exclaimed.
“I won’t, I promise,” Harrison replied, laughing again. He turned to Blake. “I’ll wait in the car, you two say your goodbyes. Don’t let it be too long before I get to drink you under the table though, Sally.”
“Try and keep me away, sunshine,” Sally told him, winking at him. As Harrison climbed into the car, Sally squeezed Blake’s hand and smiled happily. “He’s so much more confident now than when I first met him. You did that, you know. I’m proud of you.”
“He always had it in him,” Blake replied, shaking his head. “I’m just pleased he feels better about himself.”
Sally nodded. “Hey, before you go. Guess what? Gresham is fuming you got to the bottom of all this before him. He’s told me not to tell anyone at the station about any of this. So obviously, I rang the station after he’d gone and told gobby Mary on the front desk. The whole station will know within the hour.”
Blake laughed loudly and gave her one last huge hug. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Now, go. Your boyfriend awaits.”
Blake nodded, then released his grip on his best friend and opened the driver’s seat of the car. “See you soon.”
He climbed into the car and closed the door, before turning to Harrison. “Ready?”
Harrison nodded. “Best holiday ever, right?”
Blake laughed as he started the car and the radio came on.
After doing up his seatbelt, Harrison turned up the volume on the radio. “I love this song!”
Blake watched him dancing cheerfully in his seat for a few moments, a happier and lighter man, the effects from the past year of his life seemingly melting away before his eyes, and smiled warmly at him. Then, he pulled down the window and waved to Sally as they set off down the path towards the main road. They had a long drive ahead of them, but with Harrison by his side, Blake would have driven for more hours than he cared to think about.
Harrison opened the door to The Dog’s Tail pub and was surprised to see it as busy as he could ever remember. A large sign near the bar told him exactly why: ‘HARMSCHAPEL KARAOKE NIGHT – HAVE YOU GOT THE TALENT?’ Wondering why Blake had asked him to come along to a night that Harrison knew Blake would rather avoid entirely, he pushed his way through the crowd and found the table that Blake’s colleagues, Mini Patil, Billy Mattison, and Michael Gardiner were sitting at. Jacqueline was sitting next to Gardiner and looked delighted as Harrison approached them.
“Harrison!” Jacqueline exclaimed happily, passing him a pint. “So glad you could make it! Please have this on me. I feel like I owe you an apology after everything that happened on that awful holiday.”
Harrison gratefully accepted the pint. “It’s not your fault. How were you supposed to know?”
Jacqueline shook her head as she sipped from the large wine glass she had in front of her. “That Polly was always a cow at school. I never did like her. Murder though! Who’d have thought it?”
Harrison shrugged and took a large gulp of his pint before turning to the other officers from Harmschapel police station. “How are you?”
Mattison raised his own beer at Harrison in greeting. “Not bad thanks, Harrison! Good to see you mate.”
“Where’s Blake?”
Patil glanced at the others and grinned. “You’ll see. There’s a reason you’ve been invited here tonight.”
Gardiner folded his arms and shook his head in his usual grumpy manner. “I don’t know how you managed to talk me into getting involved in all this.”
“Because you’ve been promised two pints and my own personal little surprise when we get home for your trouble,” Jacqueline said sternly, though she tapped him playfully on the nose. It was not an action that Gardiner appeared to appreciate.
A moment later, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around Harrison. “Hello gorgeous man.”
Harrison looked up at Blake and kissed him before asking him “What is all this about?”
Blake sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know when we were sat in the hotel and you told me that one of your aspirations was for a bloke to serenade you? Did you actually mean it?”
Harrison glanced at the others in embarrassment. “Well, it was just a silly thing-“
“Yes, but did you actually mean it?”
“I guess so, yeah.”
Blake sighed, reserved. “Damn. Well, in that case, you better get comfortable.”
He stood up straight and waved to Robin the barman, who nodded in response and passed Blake a microphone. “Come on then, you lot. You know what to do.”
Harrison stared at the officers of Harmschapel as they all stood up and walked towards the centre of the pub, all of them with their back to him. Jacqueline too got up and joined them, squeezing a clueless Harrison on the arm as she passed. “You’re going to just love this, darling!”
As the crowd of people made room for them to gather in the centre of the pub, Blake gave one last nod to Robin and a familiar song began to play over the loudspeaker. Harrison gasped. It was the song he had heard in the car as they had been leaving the mansion and as Blake raised the microphone he had been passed to his mouth, Harrison realised that he was indeed about to be serenaded.
“You’re just too good to be true,
Can’t take my eyes off of you
You’d be like heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much,
At long last, love has arrived,
And I thank God I’m alive
You’re just too good to be true
Can’t take my eyes off of you,”
sang Blake, as the others began a clearly rehearsed dance behind him. Harrison was amazed that on top of Blake’s other talents, he also had an excellent singing voice. By far the funniest sight was Gardiner who had a face of thunder as the familiar instrumentals of the song crashed in and he half-heartedly joined in with the routine the others were performing behind Blake to the cheers and laughter of everyone else in the pub. Harrison could not take the look of pure joy off his face as he watched them all dance as Blake continued singing, directing every word of the song to Harrison. Then, for the final chorus, Mattison ran up to him and pulled him up with the rest of them. Blake put his arm around him and, completely unbothered by everyone watching, they all belted out the lyrics. As the song came to a close, the roof was practically lifted by the sound of the cheering and whooping around them.
As he kissed his boyfriend again, Harrison’s mind, for the first time since this incredible man had landed in his life, was free of doubt, anxiety, and self-deprecation. Although everything he had known had been thrown up in the air and landed around him in varying degrees of disarray, it all felt right, and that was all Harrison had ever wanted.
“Looks like we’re a hit,” Blake said to him. “There’s just one thing we need to sort so that everybody is happy for us.”
Harrison frowned. “What’s that?”
Blake raised a disdainful eyebrow. “That bloody goat.”
THE END
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Other Blake Harte Mystery Books By Robert Innes
Untouchable (Out now)
Confessional (Out now)
Ripples (Out now)
Book 3)
