Redemption (13 page)

“Actually, Michelle, let me have a word with her,” Oliver insisted.    

I nodded in agreement and left the office with Shaun and Hodgson followed soon after.    

“She’ll be fine,” Hodgson said to me. “These things happen. If I’d got to them earlier I wouldn’t have even booked them. No need to ruin your evening.”

“Thank you, but it was about time we stopped drinking anyway. There’s only so much of that beer I can handle.”

Hodgson laughed. “Did he make you drink English bitters? They can take some getting used to.”

“No, I had lager tops in the end.”

“Ah, lager and Sprite. Now there’s a refreshing drink. That’s just what I like after a long day.”    

I sensed Hodgson was about to leave, but I wanted to find out what the deal was with the officer who threatened Oliver. “What was all that about with the other detective?” I asked. “The one who spoke to Oliver.”

Hodgson laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about Winston. That guy has had it in for Oliver for years. He’s one of your lot actually.”

“American?”    

“Yeah. Moved here when he was young though, so he doesn’t have much of an accent. He’s convinced Oliver had something to do with an illegal betting syndicate and is trying to bring him down. I can assure you, that’s complete nonsense. Oliver’s as straight as they come. Anyway, I had better be going. You have a nice evening, Ma’am.”

“Thank you again, officer.” Hodgson passed me her card and told me to call if there were any issues with Maisie and then walked off.

I turned to smile at Shaun, but didn’t know what to say to him. We hadn’t spoken a lot and he was a shy kid, the complete opposite to Maisie.

“It’s not true,” Shaun said. “What Superintendent Winston thinks about Oliver.”

“I know,” I said. “Oliver would never do anything like that.”

“My dad did,” Shaun said. “And Oliver was his friend. That’s why the cop thinks Oliver was involved, but he’s not.”

Shaun sat down on a bench and didn't say anything. I looked into Hodgson’s office and saw Oliver leaning forward and talking casually to Maisie. He said something that made her smile, and then something else that made her laugh.    

I smiled too, even though I had no idea what they were laughing at. How could Oliver have changed so much? Shaun probably had a lot to do with it. Adopting your dead friend’s child certainly would force you to grow up.    

Maisie had a similar effect on me. I wasn’t her mother, but she looked up to me and I earned most of the money that supported us. It had made me serious and a touch grumpy, whereas Oliver had taken it all in stride. It probably helped that he earned millions a year playing sports, mind you.

They stood up and I moved away from the door so they wouldn’t know I’d been watching them. Oliver had his arm around her, and there were signs of tears on Maisie’s face, although whether that was from laughter or sadness I didn’t know.

“Sorry, Michelle,” Maisie said. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”    

“Don’t let it happen again,” I said, sounding more Mom like than ever.    

Maisie came up and threw her arms around me for a hug. Damn, it was hard to stay mad at her.

Hodgson quickly processed Maisie’s paperwork and it looked like she was in the clear.    

“You going to be at the game on Saturday?” Oliver asked Hodgson.    

“Nah, going to have to miss that one. This place doesn’t run itself.”    

“Well next time you’re free, give me a shout. I’ll sort you out with some good seats. Don’t tell Winston though. He’ll do me for trying to bribe a police officer.”

Hodgson gave a hearty laugh. “Depends on how good the seats are. I hope you two are going to the game?” she asked Maisie and me. “Rugby’s a real sport, not like that silly one you play with all the body armor. I tried to watch a Super Bowl once, but gave up after ten minutes. It just looks like an excuse to play adverts.”

“That about sums it up,” I admitted. I didn’t actually hate football, but I didn’t have a lot of love for it either. It seemed easier just to agree with her for the time being.

“Anyway, I’d better get back to work. See you later. Pleasure to meet you both.”

The fresh air hit me the second we walked outside and I realized that the aftereffects of the alcohol were definitely still lingering.    

“Can we get some food?” Maisie asked. “I’m starving.”

“Punching people gives you an appetite does it?” I asked. “We can eat something at the hotel. I’ll get room service for us.”

“Awesome. You want to come, Shaun? Oliver?”

“I’d love to,” Oliver said, looking at me as he spoke. “But we should probably head home. Remember Maisie, you were lucky tonight. If Hodgson hadn’t seen you, you could have been in a lot of trouble.”

“I know,” she said. “And I am sorry.”

“How did Hodgson know to step in anyway?” I asked. I’d been assuming she stepped in because of Shaun, but Shaun wasn’t the one who had been arrested. “She said ‘I saw her.’ It sounded like she recognized Maisie.”

“She did,” Oliver said. “She wouldn’t want me to tell you this, but Hodgson was the one who caught the men who attacked Maisie. It happened after you left the country of course, but she had the photos of her in hospital. She’s not hard to recognize and the name is firmly lodged in her mind.”

“I didn’t think anyone was ever caught,” Maisie said, taking the words right out of my mouth.

“They weren’t arrested for that attack, but they got them on other charges. They were definitely the ones who attacked you though. I’ve seen the evidence, but they couldn’t show it in court.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed. “I feel like we should go in and thank her.”

“No,” Oliver replied. “I’ll get no end of grief. She’ll insist she was just doing her job. I know she loved seeing you again tonight though. I could see it in her eyes.”

“You can come back to the hotel,” I said. “We don’t mind. I know I’m not going to be able to sleep for a few hours yet.”

“Thanks,” Oliver said, “but we should get back. I still need to have words with this one.” Oliver motioned to a sheepish looking Shaun. “It seems that small gathering of friends tonight got a bit out of hand and a load of randoms turned up.”    

Maisie and I got into a taxi which took us back to the hotel. Now that things had calmed down, I remembered the worst part of what Maisie had done tonight. She’d managed to time her arrest just as Oliver and I were about to kiss.    

Maybe I should be thanking her. Oliver seemed pretty keen to pretend the entire thing had never happened. Better I find that out now than after we’d taken things further. We could have gone back to the hotel together. I had no doubt that my “wait until at least the third date” rule would have not been applied in the case of Oliver. If he’d kissed me, I’d have stood no chance.

But it didn’t happen. Our lips had barely touched, and now Oliver had rejected an invitation to come back to my hotel room. Perhaps he had his reasons, but I couldn’t help but think he was having second thoughts about the entire thing.    

“Sorry for ruining your evening with Oliver,” Maisie said, with her uncanny ability to read my mind. “I know you’d been looking forward to it.”

I tried to effect a casual shrug, but it ended up looking more like a muscle spasm. “I’m going to see plenty of him this summer when he’s training you.”

“Yeah, but… never mind. I’m just sorry is all.”

“Just try and keep the violence to the rugby field, okay?”

I needed an excuse to see Oliver again outside of his work. Somewhere I could have a drink to ease my nerves, and maybe even tell him how I feel. Because there was no point in hiding it anymore. I couldn’t deny what had been painfully obvious tonight. I needed Oliver back in my life. I needed to feel his touch again. Whatever else happened this summer, I couldn’t go back home without at least trying.

-*-

Even though Oliver had expressly told me not to, I couldn’t resist calling Hodgson the second I got in my room. She answered immediately even though it was now gone midnight.

“Is something wrong?” Hodgson asked.

“No, it’s just… well, Oliver told me that you were responsible for arresting the men that attacked Maisie.”

“All in a day’s work,” Hodgson replied casually. “Honestly, it was nothing. Unfortunately, the evidence we had on them wouldn’t stand up in court, but we nailed them for something bigger anyway. They’ll be in prison for years.”

“How did you find them?” I asked.    

“Some men matching the description you gave showed up on CCTV a few hundred yards down the road just after the attack. We traced them back to a hardware store they were using as a hideout. We eventually gathered enough evidence for a warrant and managed to lock them up for money laundering, among other things.”

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s not enough, but I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Like I said, it’s all in a day’s work. I mean that. There are just as many cases where we don’t catch those involved, so I’m almost as happy as you are that we got the men who attacked you and your sister. I know you both must still have the scars from that night, but they have it worse. I promise you.”

I thanked Hodgson once again and then hung up the phone. The news that our attackers were behind bars should have made me delighted or at least relieved, but for some reason I felt even more on edge than before.

Maybe finding out the men were behind bars was just a huge anti-climax. When I hadn’t known what had happened to them, I could pretend they died a gruesome death after being hit by a bus. Now I knew they were alive and getting three square meals a day.    

That might have explained my unease, but I didn’t think so. There was more too it than that, but by the time I fell asleep I was no closer to figuring it out.    

When I woke up in the morning, all my energy was focused on Oliver and our disastrous ‘date.’ One problem at a time. At least I could rectify the situation with Oliver. As long as I could find the courage to do so, that is.

Michelle and I spent the next week dancing around the idea of going on another night out. She wanted to—I knew she did—but neither of us wanted to call it a date. In the end, we ate out or went for a drink practically every night, but always with Maisie and Shaun in tow. I loved those kids, but damn, they did tend to cramp my style a bit. 

Not to mention, Maisie served as a constant reminder that my relationship with Michelle wasn’t supposed to be physical. I could ignore that, but Michelle had her doubts. It was almost like the closer I got to Maisie, the less chance I had with Michelle, and that was a tough position to be in.

I encouraged Shaun to have friends over so that he could hang out with Maisie again, but he’d retreated into his shell after the last time. Apparently one of his mates had spread the word that Shaun had an empty house, and some guys had come round that he didn’t like. They started getting to him by insulting me, but they didn’t anticipate getting a lesson from Maisie. 

That still made me smile, although I’d had a few stern words with her to make it clear she should never do that again. If she went around punching everyone who had an irrational dislike of me then she would end up with bloody knuckles and an intimate familiarity with the English legal system.

My actions in trying to get alone time with Michelle made me feel like we were the kids and Maisie and Shaun were the parents. Weren’t kids the ones who wanted their parents out of the house to fool around? 

Sundays were a day off for all of us. Maisie and Shaun didn’t have to train, and I had no game to play. Sundays were also one of my cheat days where food was concerned. I wasn’t technically allowed to eat badly any day of the week, but I found that Sunday was far enough away from my midweek physical that I could get away with it.

I’d invited Michelle out for a meal at the pub, but she’d responded with “
we’d
love to.” After dinner, I could hint that the grown-ups wanted to stay behind and have a drink, but I wouldn’t bet money on Maisie and Shaun picking up on the clue.

I’d headed to Shaun’s room to check if he was ready when I heard my mobile phone ringing. I dashed back to my bedroom hoping that it was Michelle to say that Maisie couldn’t make it tonight, but instead it was a number I didn’t recognize. This phone number hadn’t been given out to many people, and so far I’d manage to avoid prank calls or sales pitches, so I decided to answer it in case it was about training.