This time she stayed frozen, her mouth slightly open. Abby Walker wasn’t good at lying on her feet.
“I’m not going to ask any questions.” He started to walk towards her. “But know this: if you have something going on that you’re worried about I might be able to help. Just because I’m a cop doesn’t mean I don’t have secrets.”
Holy shit. Did he have secrets.
They walked from Alex’s house to Abby’s tiny terraced house. The town was quiet, just a few people milling about on the high street. The café owners and bars were getting ready for a busy day – good weather brought out the tourists. Some would head to Severton to trail around streets, bobbing into the shops and seeing the historical sites, like the monastery and various supposedly religious relics. The bones of a saint were meant to be held in one of the churches and several of Severton’s traditions stemmed from various religious observances.
Then there were the hikers and the climbers, the people who came to paraglide from the tops of some of the Peaks and teenagers who were looking for somewhere private to hang out away from the eyes of any elders. An hour’s walk away was the Tarn, a deep metallic blue lake, where lovers and kids would hang out on a day like this, seeking privacy and excitement, of any sort.
This evening there would be barbecues and drunken revelry and he wasn’t on duty. Not officially anyway.
“Did your colleague mention anything weird when he checked my place out?” They were almost the first words Abby had said since they’d left his cottage.
Alex shook his head. “Nothing unusual, but he didn’t go in, obviously. We’ll do that now.”
She nodded, taking her bag off her shoulder as they got closer. “I don’t spend much time there.”
“I figured. You’re always working.” She was, either at Scott’s bar or at Sorrell’s hotel. He knew she needed the money and she definitely didn’t spend any of it because she didn’t have time. “What do you do when you get a day off?”
“Go outside. I like this area.”
She climbed. Even though she was thin – he wouldn’t have said skinny – her arms and legs were muscular. She had a climber’s build.
“What do you do outside?”
“Walk. Run.”
Alex glanced at her. “I know you climb.” He took a deep breath. “I used to read your blog until you stopped writing it.”
She stopped walking. They were just outside her door, so it could’ve been that but he knew it wasn’t. He’d just thrown a curve ball, one he’d been holding for at least eighteen months.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Let’s check out inside. Does everything look normal out here?”
She nodded, fumbling with her keys. “You can’t say anything.”
He grinned. “I haven’t so far.”
“How did you know?”
“Dying your hair doesn’t make that much difference. Why did you stop?”
She made a noise that sounded like a frustrated growl.
The door opened and he entered first, stilling as soon as he took three steps inside.
It was a mess. Papers were strewn everywhere and a cushion looked like it had been slashed and the stuffing torn out.
“Okay. This is as far as we go unless you tell me you are seriously untidy.”
She was directly behind him, silent as usual, but he could hear her breathing in the now stillness of the house.
“I’m a neat freak.”
“Could’ve guessed. Abby, I need you to answer some questions before I get forensics down here.” Because he couldn’t not call this in. Things like this didn’t happen in Severton.
He didn’t hear anything from her. Turning round, he saw that tears were running down her cheeks, silent ones, and the look on her face was of sheer terror.
One step towards her and he was holding her into his chest, his arms wrapped around her, lips pressing down on the top of her head. Alex Maynard didn’t talk about his feelings, but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand other people’s.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to you. Understand that. But you do need to tell me some more so I know what we’re dealing with here. Do you have a stalker? An ex who wouldn’t let go? Do you owe someone money?” He still had hold of her.
“I can’t tell you.” Her words were muffled by his T-shirt.
“Why not?” He felt himself stiffen, everything becoming tense, bracing himself for something he couldn’t predict.
“You’re a cop. You have to tell your boss.”
The alarm bells in his head couldn’t be any louder. Alex knew that Garrison, the chief inspector who currently led any serious crimes investigations in the area, was in the pocket of a gang boss.
“Which boss do you mean?” Because he had two. He was part of the serious crimes unit when needed, but the area was quiet enough for him to do local policing most of the time. Kind of. There was always more going on that Garrison didn’t know about.
“It doesn’t matter, Alex. Can’t we say this was random? They thought I had the bar takings with me? It could be that.”
It could. But it wasn’t.
Alex put his hands on her shoulders and manoeuvred her gently so he could look at her. “Abby, I don’t believe that. You’ve changed your identity, you’re hiding here and now this. You can tell me and I can help, or I can start digging and find out for myself.”
What he didn’t expect was what she did next.
Her fingers threaded through his hair and before it registered, she’d pulled his head down and met his lips with hers, making him forget all about the fact that her name was not Abigail Walker.
Three
Abby watched as the woman in the blue boiler suit with ‘Forensics’ written in white across the back examined her tiny hallway. She’d been walked through her house by an officer she recognised from the bar but hadn’t really spoken to properly. He was nice, pleasant, not asking anything intrusive. Alex had explained what had happened last night, quoted the log number that had been recorded and then said nothing else, standing back and watching.
“Can you tell if anything’s been taken?” Mia, the forensics specialist said. “Any jewellery or electronics?”
Abby shook her head. “All my jewellery and my laptop were upstairs.” Where no one had been. Her bed was neatly made and everything she kept underneath it – because she was that obvious – was untouched.
“Looks like whoever broke in was disturbed before they could go up there.” Mia gave her the once over. “Any spare keys that you had hanging around?”
Abby’s heart rate increased to the speed of cheetahs. “Near the front door.”
“Okay, show me where and if it’s gone, it’s nothing a locksmith can’t sort out.” Mia smiled and her tone sounded lighter. Reassuring.
“It just means they’re going to come back.”
“Possibly. I don’t want to scare you but you need to be alert. Maybe stay somewhere else for a bit, if you can.”
Abby nodded but she had no idea where. Family didn’t exist anymore. All of her old friends had been left behind. There were people in Severton who would put her up, but then there would be questions.