Keep Her Close. M.J. Ford

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       Chapter 5

      Jo was thorough, losing herself in the details of the report, and not even looking up as Stratton, Carrick, and Cranleigh emerged from the office and picked up Dimitriou. She knew Carrick would feel terrible, but she was in too much of a foul mood even to give him the chance to show contrition for whipping the case from under her. Afterwards she texted Lucas and told him she’d be over at his place at eight, and could pick up a takeaway if there was anything he fancied. He answered almost immediately that he didn’t mind.

      Pryce came through. ‘I’ve told Catskill we don’t need him anymore. I thought you were going back to the college?’ Jo rubbed her cold hands together, and explained she was being sidelined in favour of the boys’ club. ‘It’s just you, Stratton, Carrick and Dimitriou. Think of it like a four-ball.’

      Pryce looked bewildered. ‘I don’t think DI Carrick plays golf,’ he replied.

      ‘It was a joke,’ said Jo. ‘To break the tension and prevent me killing someone.’

      She stood up, grabbed her coat, and left. Andy Carrick had texted with a single word, ‘Sorry’, and an unhappy emoticon. She appreciated the gesture and wrote back ‘No hard feelings,’ with a face gritting its teeth in rage. If the last six months had taught her anything, it was that life was too short. She hoped they found Malin quickly, in good health.

      Security lights illuminated the car park as she trailed over to her navy Peugeot. It was a dry day, but there was a thin layer of ice on the inside of the windscreen. She got in, started the engine and cranked the heaters. As she grabbed the de-icer, she wondered about getting a new car. Her brother had kindly offered her some money from the sale of the family house, if it ever happened, and her promotion had more than covered the costs of the fertility treatment back in the clinic in Bath. Compared to sixth months ago, in the aftermath of the break-up with Ben, she was comparatively well-off. At the moment, she was still paying for a one-bed flat in Oxford, though spending almost every night at Lucas’s. She’d been meaning to talk with him about it, about moving in properly, but it seemed to be just the opening of a much bigger conversation they needed to have about the future. About family, particularly. When she thought about it, it brought her out in a sweat. Somehow Dr Forster had coaxed it all out of her, like the forensic interviewer she was in just their second session. Lucas was twenty-eight, and there was really no reason at all he should be thinking about kids, but Jo didn’t have that luxury. She’d wasted her best years with Ben, only to be betrayed, and now – just shy of thirty-nine – she felt time slipping between her fingers at accelerated speed. The eggs she’d frozen with the Bright Futures clinic in the autumn would practically keep forever, but she was under no illusions that her chances of being a mother were anything but shrinking. If Lucas wasn’t ‘The One’ – and how she hated that term – then she had to make some difficult decisions soon. Maybe tonight was the night to do it.

      She cleared the ice, reversed carefully and drove out onto St Aldates.

      There was a Korean place on the route back to Lucas’s flat that they both liked, and she pulled up outside. She ordered a Bulgogi for herself, and veggie Bibimbap for him, and was waiting for the food to come when her phone rang.

      ‘Hello?’

      ‘Detective Masters, it’s Anna Mull, Malin’s friend. Have you found her?’

      ‘Not yet,’ said Jo. Anna didn’t answer but let out a sigh, so Jo asked, ‘Is there something else you want to tell me?’

      ‘I don’t know if I should say anything,’ said Anna.

      ‘Then you probably should,’ said Jo. ‘Even if it doesn’t seem important, it might assist us.’

      ‘You asked me earlier, about enemies …’ Anna was speaking quietly, and Jo wondered if she was with someone СКАЧАТЬ