AVENGE OUR OWN

DI OLIVIA AUSTIN - BOOK FORTY-EIGHT

NIC ROBERTS

Copyright © 2025 by Nic Roberts

‘Avenge Our Own’

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Some may be used for parody purposes.

Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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PROLOGUE

His gloved hands were still shaking from the violence coursing through them. He held them out and still in an attempt to stop the vibrations.

No matter how many times he did this job, the shakes just kept coming.

He thought back to the person he’d left lying in the car park, bringing the tyre iron down on them over and over and over. By the time it was done, a sound was emitting from the victim that could’ve been described as a death rattle.

He walked down the pavement as fast as he could, conscious of anyone seeing him. He knew it’d only be a matter of time before everyone else found out about the attack, and once they knew who’d been attacked, the whole of Newquay might as well be on lockdown.

There was a car parked at the end of the street, and he instantly knew it was for him. There was a part of him that wanted to walk straight past it, even though he knew it offered a safe haven. As he drew closer, a voice called out, “You want to take your chances with the cozzers? If not, then get in the fucking car!”

He could refuse, but he was sure that was going to backfire on him later. The people he worked for would look for any sign of disobedience, and they’d act accordingly.

Hesitantly, he slid into the passenger’s seat, and the car drove away.

The driver paid him no mind, keeping his eyes on the road before he finally asked, “So, is he dead?”

He thought back to the crumpled heap lying on the ground. “I’d be surprised if he wasn’t.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if he lives,” the driver said nonchalantly. “Once word gets back to them about what’s happened, they’re going to be shaken up by it, and they’re going to make mistakes. It’s a guarantee. Either way, they’ll be wrong-footed throughout the rest of the investigation.” The driver smiled. “You did a good job. Got to admit, I had my doubts, but it sounds like you really came through.”

He sat in silence, trying to think about what he’d done. “So… where does this leave me? Are we square?”

The driver looked at him, befuddled. “Square? You beat up a guy for us and you think that your debt to us is settled? You have no idea the strings we’ve had to pull to keep you out of trouble.”

“I’ve just killed a man for you!” he exclaimed. In truth, he wasn’t sure if the man was alive or dead, but he wanted to sell the gravity of what he’d been forced to do.

“Yes, and we’re grateful. But things are going to get even more hectic over the next few days. This is an all-hands-on-deck scenario, and we need you with us.’”

The passenger tried to think of a protest, but it died in his mouth. He should have known that they were never going to let him walk away. He was far too valuable to them.

“And in case you’re thinking of going to the police, just remember, we can still pull the rug out from under your feet, and all that protection is going to come tumbling down. But then again, I think you know it’s not yourself you need to be worried about.”

He knew exactly what the driver was alluding to, and it had the desired effect of stopping him in his tracks. He knew he couldn’t risk anyone else.

“Okay,” he muttered, feeling as if he were on autopilot. They had him by the balls, and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

“Good,” the driver replied, and they stopped outside a terraced house.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

“I need you to lie low for the next few days. They’re going to be coming at this case from every angle, and I need you out of sight until the heat dies down. If we need you for anything, we’ll call you.” The driver handed over a burner phone, prompting the passenger to shiver. He hoped they never found the need to call on him again because he knew exactly what he’d be required to do. He could only hope it would get easier the second time around.

Given the rate with which things were kicking off, that second time could be coming very soon.

1

Olivia and Dean made their way up the road towards the familiar sites of Newquay, trying to put the circumstances of their latest romantic getaway in the back of their minds.

They’d hoped that some time away from Newquay would do them good and given them a chance to forget about all the stresses of policing. They hadn’t expected to be pulled into yet another case.

After the incident at the guest house, they tried to make the most of the time away, but the trip was far too marred by recent events. Nothing killed a romantic atmosphere like being held at gunpoint by a crazed woman.

Briggs was fast asleep in the back of the car, worn out by all of the activity of the last few days. Right now, all I want is to get home and run a hot bath, Liv thought. Oh, to be as carefree as the spoilt dog stretched out behind her.

Suddenly, Liv’s phone started ringing. “That’s got to be Archie,” Dean guessed. “I’ll bet he’s going to say the whole office is falling to pieces without you.”

“I’m not sure whether to be flattered or worried that they need me to hold their hands,” Liv quipped as she looked at the caller ID. But to her surprise, it wasn’t Archie’s name lighting up the screen.

She held the phone to her ear. “Hi, Nikki.”

“Hello yourself, stranger.” The voice of the Detective Sergeant filled the car.

“Didn’t expect to hear from you for a while,” Liv commented, happy to chat with her old friend. “Derby getting boring for you?”

“Derby? I’m over in Newquay.”

“What?” Liv exclaimed, prompting her to look through the windows at the darkened street for a glimpse of the woman. “What are you doing in Newquay?”

“The gaffer told me that you were having trouble with some bent bastards and that you needed a pair of reliable hands. Apparently, I’m far too outspoken to be on the take.”

Given the number of people that Nikki had pissed off with her brusque manner, what she said wasn’t untrue. Most criminals would only be able to stomach Nikki for so long, though Liv wasn’t about to say that to her friend’s face. Shows how desperate we’re getting if Collins is calling her back to Newquay. “What about your daughter? Who’s looking after her?”

“Don’t worry, I’m all sorted on the childcare front,” Nikki explained. “Do you really think I’d be down here otherwise?”

“And what about…” Liv thought about Katie Gibson and their complicated history, knowing that leaving Katie in a room alone with Nikki was tantamount to locking somebody in with a caged animal.

“Don’t worry, she’s still walking the streets. We had a sit-down and sorted through things, so we’re not going to be killing each other any time…” Nikki broke off and Liv wondered if the line had gone dead. “Hang on, I’ve got a call coming in. Going to have to get back to you.” Before Liv could offer a response, the line went dead.

“Nikki is back in Newquay?” Dean asked as he continued driving on. “That’s a surprise.”

“Collins apparently called her in. It looks like things do fall apart when I’m gone,” Liv quipped.

Soon they were nearing the town centre and saw an ambulance speeding past them.

“What the hell was all that about?” Liv asked.

“Probably some kids getting drunk and walking into a wall,” Dean surmised, describing a typical weekend shift.

Two police cars made their way down the road, sirens blaring as they turned a corner, and Liv felt a chill inside her, wondering if something more serious had taken place.

“Do you think people might need us?” Liv asked, her sense of obligation creeping in.

“If you want, we can drop the bags off at home and then come back out for the lay of the land,” Dean suggested, knowing his partner would feel compelled to aid in any enquiry. He looked behind him at the sleeping dog starting to stir. “And I’m sure Briggs won’t want to be dragged along to a crime scene. Can’t risk him using the location as a toilet.”

The ringtone from Liv’s phone went off again. “Nikki, what’s happening?”

There was silence on the end of the line, and when Nikki spoke again, her voice was filled with dread.

“It’s Collins. He’s been attacked… He’s in a really bad way. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

2

Liv was certain she didn’t hear the words Nikki had spoken. They struggled to resonate with her. She was used to hearing about people getting assaulted, or worse, killed, but for the victim to be someone she actually knew… That was thankfully quite rare. Surely, she’s got to be talking about somebody else called Collins.

But it was true. All sarcasm had drained from Nikki’s voice. “He was found in the car park. Apparently, someone approached him and beat the shit out of him.”

“Is he… dead?” Liv asked, an image playing in her head of her boss lying on the ground as someone beat him senseless.

“He’s holding on, but only just,” Nikki explained hurriedly. “I’m just coming onto the scene where the paramedics are working on him.”

“Do the rest of the team know?” Dean queried.

“Not yet. Figured you’d want to be the first to know,” the sergeant explained.

“We should tell them,” Dean explained, all thoughts of getting home and relaxing now gone. “They might want to help.”

“No, we have to handle this delicately,” Liv explained. “We don’t know the whole situation. I don’t want to update them until we have the full picture. Drop me off and I’ll head to the car park and see what’s happening.”

“You’re kidding?” Dean exclaimed, sounding a little insulted. “Firstly, he’s as much my gaffer as he is yours. Secondly, do you really think I’m going to let you go wandering around Newquay after what’s happened?” He spoke more loudly into the phone. “Nikki, are there any suspects in custody?”

“No one yet, no,” she said regrettably. “And I’m asking about witnesses, but so far, nobody’s seen anything. Going to door-to-door as soon as the ambulance arrives.”

“Fuck!” Liv muttered out loud. “I want us out looking and knocking on every single door until we find the fucker.” She knew if the assailant was standing before her, she’d be tempted to kill him with her bare hands.

They arrived at the car park, and Liv bolted out, pushing past the paramedics and then slowing down, staggering as she came upon the scene.

She’d known Steven Collins for many years, always recognised by his steely look and resolve to follow procedure under most circumstances, yet always counted on to support his officers when they needed it.

But this… She didn’t recognise this victim as Collins. Not this crumpled heap lying on the ground, his face all bloody. She looked over his body, and it wasn’t just a case of working out whether anything was broken but how much. His legs lay on the ground at an awkward angle, and his right hand looked like it was hanging by a thread.

“Is he…?” She didn’t dare say the words. She didn’t want to risk making it real.

One of the paramedics reached down and felt at Collins’ neck. “I’ve got a pulse!” he called out. “It’s weak, but it’s there. We need to get him in the ambulance!”

Liv felt herself being pushed back as the paramedics went about turning the man over, fitting an oxygen mask over his face, and lifting him onto a stretcher.

“I want to follow in the ambulance,” Liv said, looking down at her boss. “Come on, guv, you’ve got to pull through. You can’t die like this.”

Dean got out of the car and only managed a few steps before he stopped in his tracks. “My God,” he muttered. Nothing in his career could have prepared him for this. “Go with them,” he instructed Liv. “I’ll stay here and get what I can from the scene. You let me know what is happening.”

She nodded, trying to remain composed. She needed to keep it together, at least until she knew what to tell the team.

She climbed into the back of the ambulance and gently held Collins’ hand. She saw his eyelids flutter and wondered if he was able to process anything going on around him. Can he at least hear my voice?

She had never seen someone so close to death and was conscious that the machines would start beeping any moment now.

It felt like the longest ambulance journey Liv had ever undertaken.

3

Liv sat hunched over in the waiting room. She didn’t feel tired, even though by the laws of nature, she should. She’d had a long journey back to Newquay and had now been thrown headfirst into one of the most personal cases of her career.

She’d watched as Collins disappeared into the operating theatre and feared it could be the last time she ever saw him. She hadn’t felt this helpless since her brother had gone missing, only to be gone for decades.

“Hi, stranger,” someone said, and a coffee cup came into Liv’s line of sight. She looked up the arm to see DS Nikki Harding standing over her. There was none of the usual lightness in Nikki’s face. No sarcastic banter. She looked just as forlorn as Liv felt. “It’s good to see you again,” she said wholeheartedly. “I’m just sorry it’s under these circumstances.”

Olivia took the coffee and had a long swig. Nikki slumped into the seat next to her and looked like she wanted to keel over herself. “I just want this day to end.”

“Your daughter okay?” Liv asked, trying to reclaim some semblance of normality.

“She's been left with a few people I trust,” the sergeant insisted, taking a swig of her own coffee. “Don't worry, I'm not going to go running off any time soon. I’m exactly where I need to be. And we’re going to get this sorted…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh, fuck,” she muttered, looking at something over Olivia’s shoulder. Or rather, someone.

Superintendent Collins’ wife Allison was coming down the corridor, and Nikki looked like she wanted to shrink into her seat. She wanted to comfort the woman, but that was going to be difficult considering the time she and Steven had spent carrying out an on-again/off-again affair behind their partners’ backs. Allison had twigged that her husband had been seeing someone but had never twigged who, and Nikki wondered how appropriate it would be for her to be the one that comforted the woman.

Tuning into Nikki’s subdued demeanour, Liv got up and wrapped her arms around the woman. “Allison, I’m so sorry.”

The woman’s eyes were wet with tears, and she struggled to speak. “Is… Is he…?”

“We don’t know yet,” Liv said, having asked herself the same question. “He’s gone in for surgery. We don’t know how long it’s going to be. My advice would be to go home and get some sleep. We’ll let you know as soon as he comes out…”

“No, I want… need to be here when he wakes up,” Allison insisted, and the pair instantly knew there was no budging her.

An hour later, a doctor came over to them. “Any of you related to Steven Collins?”

“I am,” Allison said, leaping up from her seat. “How is he?”

Liv instantly began reading the doctor’s face for any sign of reluctant news.

“Your husband suffered a subdural hematoma brought about by the assault. We’ve managed to relieve the pressure on the brain… but we’ve had to place him in a medically-induced coma until we can determine the full extent of his injuries.”

The three women had no idea how to respond. On the one hand, at least they weren’t hearing that he’d died on the table, but the doctor’s words didn’t exactly fill them with confidence. “But he’s going to be okay, right?” Nikki chimed in, needing that confirmation.

“It’s hard to say at this point,” the doctor finally admitted. “The injuries are severe. In my experience, I don’t honestly think there’s any way someone can go through that kind of assault and not come out with a certain amount of lasting damage. He could need physiotherapy or there might even be brain damage.” Allison wailed in response, burying herself in Nikki’s arms. “I know it’s not what anybody wants to hear,” the doctor continued, “but I think you need to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Whatever happens when he wakes up from the coma, he’s going to need you all around him.”

There was nothing more to be said. All they could do was hope that the surgery had got Collins out of the danger zone.

Liv knew she had to steel herself. She knew the atmosphere at the station was going to be challenging. She and her fellow officers were without their commanding officer, taking on one of the most complicated cases of their careers, and Liv had no idea what she was supposed to do. All she knew was that people would likely look to her to lead the investigation.

No pressure, then.

4

Liv walked into the office the next morning feeling like all eyes were on her. She collapsed internally at the weight of all of the officers staring at her, clearly expecting guidance. They had all heard the news and were in shock. Clara appeared as if she were about to keel over, held up only by Diana’s comforting arms around her.

Andrew, Tim, Archie, and Nikki tried to remain stone-faced, but they were clearly struggling with maintaining their emotions, with varying success. As she walked to the opposite side of the room, Liv thought about how she would be the one leading the charge if she ever ascended the ranks. She had expected to be doing this at some point in her career, but she didn’t think it would be under circumstances like this. She looked over into the office where she still expected Collins to be sat going over paperwork with nothing going on around him breaking his focus. The room was empty, and the office felt lifeless without his guiding presence.

“Right, everyone,” she said, clapping her hands together. She walked over to the board and got out a pen, as she had done many times before. She positioned the board in front of the office door, feeling protective of Collins’ position and not wanting anyone to feel like she was stepping into his shoes. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, last night, Superintendent Steven Collins was found in the car park having been brutally assaulted by an unknown attacker. No suspects have been brought in yet, and although we haven’t recovered the weapon used during the assault, I think it’s safe to assume we’re looking for a blunt object. We should also consider that the attacker might have disposed of that weapon.”

“How the hell did the guy get out of sight?” Tim demanded, letting his anger slip out. “People were on the scene within minutes of it happening and yet we didn’t bring in any suspects?” His tone was somewhat accusatory, and Liv began to wonder for the first time if the team would be inclined to turn on each other with emotions running so high.

“Our only guess is that the assailant must have had help getting away,” Liv suggested. “But at this point, we only have speculation. Without a witness, without a weapon, our only hope is a confession.” Tim’s aggravated tone left Liv feeling like she needed to address the elephant in the room. “The guv means something to all of us, so I appreciate that tensions are going to be running high. There are probably going to be moments when we want to go all out on this, but we need to try and treat it like any other case. We can’t let emotions get in the way of the job. It’s what the guv would want.” Fancy words, but are any of us going to live up to them?

“Well spoken,” a new arrival called out, leaving Liv wondering how long they’d been present and how much they’d heard. The woman had auburn hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing a slick business suit. “I would expect nothing less from your team.”

“I’m sorry, and you are?” Liv asked, stepping forward as though to shield her friends from this new presence.

“Steph Brown, acting DCI,” the woman replied confidently before turning to address the rest of the group. “As your commanding officer is currently lying in a coma, the powers that be have seen fit to replace him—albeit temporarily, I’m sure we all hope—with me.”

The group struggled to hide their discomfort, and Liv was biting her tongue so hard, she was sure to have holes in it before the day was out. Christ, it’s barely 9am, and already they’re rolling out a replacement.

“As DI Austin said, I appreciate that this case is going to be emotionally draining for some,” DCI Brown stated. “But I need everyone performing at their best. So, if anyone here feels like they will be unable to keep their personal feelings out of the case, please say so now. I promise you I won’t hold it against you.”

The group remained silent. Regardless of their turmoil, Liv could see they were willing to see it through for Collins. Liv shot a warning look at Nikki, the one person she felt needed to be reminded about holding her tongue in front of the higher-ups.

“We’ll go over the specifics of the case in a few minutes,” DCI Brown continued. “But first, DI Austin, I need to have a word with you in private.”

She immediately walked into Collins’ office, leaving Liv wondering if she was going to be forced into the role of damage control.

5

Once they were alone in the office, Steph closed the door, and Liv tried to keep herself from becoming riled at the sight of the woman taking Collins’ chair… only to go and sit in a spare one placed in the corner of the room. “I'm sorry for the entrance,” she acknowledged. “It's just that when there's emotion involved in a case, it can be hard to keep your eye on the ball.”

Oh, I know that a little too well, given my past experience.

“Obviously, they're all going to be a little shell shocked,” the inspector noted. “You've worked with Superintendent Collins since you transferred to Newquay over four years ago, right?” the woman asked. When Liv didn't respond straight away, she added, “A lot of loyalty can build up in that time.” Unable to find words that wouldn’t be taken as insubordinate, Liv just let the woman keep on talking. Steph sighed. “I'm hoping that we're going to be able to work well together, DI Austin. We're on the same side.”

Yes, but we probably have different interests. Liv had known officers like Brown before: young and ambitious people who had risen up through the ranks on the fast-track programme, determined to make it to the top office in as little time as possible.

“I’m just surprised that they managed to get somebody sorted so quickly,” Liv finally answered, feeling she might as well be open with the woman. “Collins was only attacked last night, and already they’ve got a replacement lined up for him. The man’s not even dead yet.” She stopped herself from going any further. Damn it, Nikki’s contagious.

Steph’s face softened momentarily before hardening again. “You seem to value bluntness, DI Austin, so I’ll be equally blunt. Firstly, when the victim is one of our own, especially one of high rank, the top brass take an interest in seeing the case solved as quickly as possible. Secondly, when I was given this assignment at five in the morning, I was given the option of bringing in my own team. It was considered that your team might be… too emotionally involved to function competently. I believe that’s what I got in the memo.”

Well, they wouldn’t be far off on that one.

“But I reasoned that it was because you know the victim so well that you are best placed to lead the case. So, for now, my team are on standby until further notice.”

Liv wanted to be grateful for the show of faith, but there was something niggling at the periphery of her thoughts…

“Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I know how much the superintendent means to you all,” she stated, allowing a softer expression to set in. “I know that for a lot many of you, he wasn’t just your boss, he was your friend. That is not lost on me in the slightest. So, I’m not here to replace him. I’m not here to be him. I’m here to help you find out what happened to him. And I will, I promise you, but we need to work together on this one. And I feel I have to get this out of the way now so that there is no clashing of personalities.”

Liv wasn’t yet sure what to think about the new arrival. On the one hand, she wasn’t exactly coming in and throwing her weight around. But on the other hand, something didn’t sit right with her. For one thing, Liv was angered by the woman’s insistence at referring to the gaffer in the past tense. He is our friend, not was. She wanted to tell herself it was just leftover loyalty to Collins, that DCI Brown was acting with the best intentions, but the speed with which they’d got another commanding officer into the room made her suspicious.

“So, what exactly is the next step?” Liv asked.

“We need to keep things rolling until Superintendent Collins recovers,” she confirmed. “I think we need to be looking at this from two angles, the first being the cases he was working on for the past few weeks, maybe even months, depending on how far we have to stretch it back. Secondly, we need look at criminals recently released with a grudge to bear.”

Liv grimaced a little. Most of their time had been taken up with the police corruption case they’d been building. She wasn’t sure who Collins had discussed the case with, but she was sure he wasn’t popular with everyone.

“I can always speak to his wife,” Liv suggested. “I’m sure if there are any gaps in his movements, my team will be able to plug them.” She wanted to make sure that they were as involved in the process as possible, with little to no opportunity for a takeover.

“I would say that if there were any cases he was working on, they might have to be turned over to another officer to look over.”

Oh, shit.

6

“I’ve got to ask in what capacity you’re here, DS Harding,” DCI Brown asked in the office as everyone dispersed and started busying themselves with work. The new arrival hadn’t even bothered taking the discussion into the office. Clearly, Nikki wasn’t worthy of that level of respect.

“I came down here because Superintendent Collins asked me to,” Nikki responded, having as many answers laid out in her head as possible, most of them smart-arse comments.

“So, is this like a transfer?” the DCI asked, the question hanging in the air. “Because I’m assuming you’re not here in an official capacity as a police officer. In which case, I’ve got to wonder why you’re here at all and being entrusted with an ongoing criminal enquiry.”

“Steven’s a friend,” Nikki said, blurting out the words before she could stop herself. She suddenly remembered Collins telling her that she couldn’t tell anyone about why she was down there. “It was just a chance to catch up. I also happened to be the first on scene when he was attacked.”

She’d intended the statement to indicate that it was worth keeping her around, but instead, she realised how suspicious it might sound to a complete stranger.

And indeed, DCI Brown raised an eyebrow. “I’m just trying to understand why you’re here. Because you’ve got to admit, DS Harding, it does look a bit dubious. You come back to Newquay, and all of a sudden, your former commanding officer gets beaten to near death.”

“Just a very bad coincidence,” Nikki said uncertainly.

“Yes… Bad coincidences seem to follow you everywhere,” the DCI noted. “Wasn’t it only a few months ago that your husband died during a case you were heading?”

Nikki shut her eyes. She had wondered how long it was going to be before someone brought up Enzo’s untimely demise. The fact that her husband had terrorist connections was a sour point for a lot of police officers, with many suggesting that Nikki ‘should have picked up on the signs.’

“My husband’s death has got nothing to do with this. I’ve had to spend the last few months putting my life back together and supporting my daughter through losing her dad, so I’ll thank you to not bring him up in the conversation.” Nikki was at her most restrained when every fibre of her being wanted to reach over and strangle the woman.

“I’m sorry,” Steph said, to Nikki’s surprise. “I’m sure you have no part to play in what happened to Superintendent Collins.” Nikki couldn’t decide if the remark was uttered with an air of passive aggression. “But I feel that if you are not here in any official capacity, we can’t have you involved in the investigation.”

“I’ve worked with Steven Collins for years, and I want to help find who did this. I’m not going to take a ringside seat just because you say,” Nikki shot back, folding her arms defiantly.

“I can understand that,” the woman replied, the words rolling smoothly off her tongue. “But this is no time for sentiment. Now, DI Austin has assured me that we are going to maintain an air of professionalism throughout the investigation, and we have to stick to that.”

For Nikki, the DCI’s words could be translated as, ‘We don’t want your loudmouth derailing anything.’

Nikki opened her mouth to protest, but she looked over the other woman’s shoulder to see Olivia shaking her head. Clearly, this wasn’t a battle worth fighting.

“Fine,” Nikki said tersely and turned on her heel, walking away from the woman and heading out the door, not even bothering to speak to anyone else.

Nikki was a slow learner, but she’d learned how to restrain herself and not rush in with the first comment to tumble into her head.

Clearly, she wasn't going to be on the front line of the investigation. And she didn’t want to risk being hit with an obstruction charge. She didn't want to have to explain to her colleagues in Derby why she had gotten herself into hot water in Newquay, and she couldn't risk being separated from her daughter.

Luckily, she knew enough about the case to know how to go forward. Liv could keep the new arrival occupied inside the station, but there were still some moves she could make on the outside, hopefully without anyone in CID finding out.

She took out her phone and dialled a number. She couldn't believe she was doing this, but she felt she had been backed into a corner.

“Hi, Katie, it's DS Harding. We've got to meet.”

7

Liv wondered whether she could shake off the temporary DCI, who was determined to hover over everyone like a bat, but at the present moment, she was busy going over some files with Tim and Andrew and wasn’t giving anyone else her full attention, which meant Liv had time to go over a few things with Clara.

She’d brought the technician Collins’ mobile phone. It felt odd having the gaffer’s phone on hand and potentially invading his personal privacy, but she wanted to understand what could have led to the him being targeted specifically. Was it something that was planned out meticulously or was it spur of the moment? Was Collins even the intended target? She knew they’d probably find some answers on his phone and despite Clara’s expertise, she figured it was going to be some time before they got into the—

“Got it,” Clara announced, taking Liv by surprise.

“Bloody hell, I didn’t expect you to work that fast,” the inspector exclaimed, moving closer to the computer. Having been out of Newquay for the last few days, she hadn’t been privy to the superintendent’s movements and felt like she was going to spend a lot of time playing catch-up. “I should have been here…” She muttered the words quietly.

“Don’t,” Clara replied, instantly spinning around in her seat. “You were away with Dean. You had no way of knowing what was going to happen. And even if you had been here, what would you have done differently?” She let the question hang in the air before continuing. “Whoever did this knew exactly when to hit out. It was just a matter of waiting for the right moment. It would have happened regardless of where you were.”

Liv nodded slowly, hoping that she might start believing that.

“Now, I’ve been looking over the phone, specifically trying to trace the guv’s last few movements, and I’ve managed to put together a bit of a timeline. He actually spent a bit of time out of the office, and he did have an interesting appointment scheduled a few days ago.”

Her face fell as she saw the specific entry on the calendar.

“Where was this?” Liv asked, hating being kept in suspense.

“It was at the local prison. He’d been to see Robert Lister.”

Liv’s gut tightened up. Robert Lister was a corrupt now former PC who had falsely imprisoned and sexually coerced at least one woman that they knew of. Since his arrest, he had been somewhat hit and miss regarding what he was willing to share with them. Some days, he was willing to sing like a canary. Other days, he’d clam up.

“What the hell was he going to see him about?” Liv asked, having conducted several interviews with the corrupt PC herself and believing they’d got as much as they could from him.

“I’d go and ask Lister yourself,” Clara suggested.

She knew that was one way to go about it, but she wasn’t sure it was the best use of her time. And there was another issue bugging Liv…

“I really think that you should bring the new guv in on this one,” Archie said to Liv later in the kitchen over a coffee. He winced at his choice of words. “Sorry, didn’t mean that.”

“If I tell her, she might try and shut it down,” Liv explained, sipping her coffee, unable to shake her mistrust of the new arrival. “She could see it as a waste of time and resources. She’s already binned off Nikki, who could have been a huge help to the team.”

“She probably saw that as her upholding the rules,” Archie replied, looking uncomfortable. “And at the risk of playing devil’s advocate, technically, Nikki wasn’t here in an official capacity. We can’t go bending every rule in the book, even in this case.”

“Archie, I need people around me that I can trust. Say what you will about Nikki, but at least I know she’s on our side. This copper… I’m not so sure.”

“Yes, that is always a risk,” Archie noted cautiously. “But let’s say that you go off for some clandestine visit and she hears about it secondhand—and believe me, they always find out about it—she could twist that back on you and get it handed over to one of her own people, someone who could drag their feet over the whole matter. Whereas if you tell her now and get it out in the open, how will she turn you down without looking suspicious?”

Liv nodded, considering the logic. “You always know the right things to say, don’t you, Archie?” she said confidently. “Okay, I’ll let her know.”

8

Nikki walked into the safe house where Katie was still struggling to make herself at home. She entered the living room and took a seat. “I’d offer you a coffee, but I don’t think they’ve updated the machine to one from this century.”

“I’m good, thanks,” Nikki replied. Even though she had made a conscious effort to put her feelings aside regarding the role Katie had played in her husband’s death, she was still not at the point where she could exchange light-hearted banter.

“So, what’s this all about?” Katie asked, taking a seat.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but Superintendent Collins was attacked last night,” Nikki said, gulping as she uttered the words. Just saying them made the situation far too real.

“Shit,” Katie muttered, sinking further into the seat. “How did it happen?”

Nikki wasn’t about to go through a beat-by-beat description of what happened. It was too painful. She’d been the first officer on the scene, and she’d had to look at the man who’d mentored her and with whom she’d shared a bed. She couldn’t wipe away the memory of his broken, bloody body lying on the floor of the car park. Whenever she tried to imagine Collins’ face as it had been the countless times they were together, all she could think about was how he’d been lying helpless, unable to move, blood covering his face… She had his assailant to thank for that. It was why she was not going to stop until the bastard was found, and there wasn’t a single rulebook that would tell her otherwise. “He’s in a coma right now. They’re not sure when he’ll be able to come out of it.” She held off from saying ‘if ever’.

“Well, I hope he pulls through,” Katie said sympathetically. “He really came through for me.”

“That’s actually why I’m here. We need to talk about what happens to you moving forward,” Nikki stated, waiting for alarm to rise on the woman’s face.

“I thought that the agreement I had in place with Collins was still standing,” Katie said nervously, suddenly feeling uncomfortable about her future. “I’m not being booted out, am I?”

“Collins wasn’t sure about who he could trust,” the sergeant explained in a measured tone. The last thing she needed was Katie to start panicking. “So, he kept your time in the safe house off the record and didn’t have it logged into the computer. He was worried about somebody paying you an unannounced visit.”

“So, what has changed?” Katie asked. “No offence, but if the only person who knew where I am is in a hospital bed, then what’s the issue?”

“We’ve got a new boss sniffing around,” Nikki explained, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “I’m not sure what to make of her. Best case scenario, she’s one of those jobsworths. Worst case scenario, she’s been sent in to scupper the investigation.”

“Why would she do that?” Katie asked, looking over her shoulder as if expecting there to be a bent copper standing behind her.

“Because this is a case looking into bent coppers,” Nikki explained. “It's one thing to deal with one rotten apple, but when it's an entire barrel, that's the kind of scandal that makes people lose faith in the police service. And most people already think we're shits.”

“What has Olivia said about this?” Katie asked, trying not to sound desperate.

“Liv’s currently operating under the watchful eye of the new guv,” the sergeant noted bitterly. “I’ll bet you the bitch will be watching Liv like a hawk. So, none of us can go into maverick mode right now, not unless we want to be kicked out of the service.”

“So, what is going to happen to me?” Katie asked. “Do I have pack my bags?”

“Not yet, no,” Nikki responded. “For starters, where would you go?”

“You haven't got a room to put me up in, have you?” the former journalist asked, only half joking.

“Not unless you fancy kipping on the floor of my hotel room,” Nikki noted. At any rate, that wasn’t likely to happen since Nikki knew that her patience with the woman would be tested by them having to share the same sleeping space. “For now, I don't want to be setting off any alarms with CID. They’ll never get off my back. The best advice I can give you is to sit tight and don’t answer the door to anyone who isn’t me or Liv.” Nikki stood up, not wanting to outstay her welcome.

“If the worse comes to the worst, will you be able to get me out of it?” Katie asked. “Or are you debating whether to toss me to the wolves?”

Nikki had to stop herself from openly considering the idea.

9

Chris Hayes paced up and down the room. It was fairly spacious, but after only a few hours, it had started to feel increasingly claustrophobic.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He’d been told to keep a low profile for the next few days until everything died down, but instead, he felt like he’d been caged.

The place he’d been stashed in had been devoid of all personal effects, probably because nobody stayed in the house long enough to make it feel like a home.

He thought about the man he’d left lying on the ground and wondered if he was alive or dead. There was no positive way to spin any of this. If the guy pulled through, people would be putting the pressure on him to finish the job. And if he died, he’d be looking at a murder charge if he was caught. Chris tried to remember why he had done such a heinous act in the first place. And not for the first time that day, he asked himself whether it was all worth it.

To remind himself why he was doing all of this, he took out his phone and scrolled through the numbers. He knew the people who had hired him would kill him if they were aware that he still had the phone on him. He’d done a lot of things he was not proud of, but discarding the only link to his previous life was something he couldn’t do.

He dialled a number and waited with bated breath. He knew that they’d never dare lay a hand on him as long as long as Chris was doing what he was told, but he couldn’t completely trust them. As the dial tone rang out, Chris’ heart pounded faster and faster until he thought it was going to beat out of his chest.

“Hi, Chris,” came the voice, a little worn out, leaving Chris wondering whether he’d not long woken up. “Didn’t expect to hear from you for a while.”

“Mike, you all right, buddy?” Chris asked, rubbing his forehead and pacing around the room again, beset with worry.

“Yeah, I’m great, mate,” he said, though there was a little hesitation in his voice.

“Mike?” Chris asked, putting on the authoritative ‘big brother’ voice, even though he was technically younger than Mike by nearly five years.

“I just had a bit of an episode,” Mike explained in a tone that suggested he was guiltily playing it down. “And before you say anything, yes, I have been taking my medication. Mum has been making sure of it.”

Chris grimaced. He had wondered how long it was going to be until his mother entered the conversation. “How is she doing?” he asked, trying to push back against the guilt.

“She’s doing okay,” Mike replied. “She misses you.”

Chris closed his eyes. More than anything, he wanted to see his mum again. He wanted her to hold him and tell him everything was all going to be all right, but he didn’t know if he could ever face her again after what he’d done. If she knew even half of what he’d been forced to do, it would shatter her image of him forever.

Suddenly, this cold and deserted place felt a lot more suited to him than the warm and comforting family home he’d left behind and might never go back to.

“She wants to know when you’re coming home,” Mike continued, unknowingly piling on the emotional blackmail. “She says she’s kept your room just as you left it.”

He could feel the tears starting to come. “Listen, maybe at some point, I’ll come home,” Chris said, forcing the words out and giving his brother false hope.

“She understands you’re looking out for us,” Mike explained. “Just like that guy you sent around to check on us.”

“What?” Chris asked, instantly alert. “Who was this?”

“He didn’t give his name,” his older brother explained. “Just said that he was a friend of the family that you’d pointed in our direction. Said if we ever needed anything, you’d make sure we get it.”

Chris felt the world spinning, and he had to press himself against the wall to stop himself from falling over. “Listen, Mike,” he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. I need you to keep an eye on Mum for me. And the next time somebody comes to visit, just let me know, all right?”

He tried to make the request sound casual and knew he had failed miserably.

10

Liv and Archie walked into the prison room and waited patiently.

“Do you think they’re capable of organising something like this from prison?” Archie asked sceptically as he took his seat.

“Arch, they almost had Lister killed a few months ago with nobody else being any the wiser,” Liv reminded him. “I’m surprised they haven’t taken another crack at him.”

The door buzzed open, and the disgraced PC walked in looking a little worse for wear. Liv wasn’t surprised. A bent copper banged up with a load of criminals, some of whom he’d probably had a hand in putting away, would be better off dead.

He took a seat opposite the two coppers. “What do you two want?”

“You owe us, don’t you think?” Liv retorted, figuring she might as well start off with the trump card. “You wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me.”

“Yes, how noble of you to save me from certain death and make sure I’ve got a lifetime of prison to look forward to,” he said sarcastically.

“Would you rather that guy had finished the job?” Archie asked pointedly, for which Lister had no retort. He simply folded his arms and glared at them sullenly.

“So, what do you want?” he asked. “I think I’ve told you everything worth knowing.”

“Superintendent Collins was attacked last night,” Liv explained, looking down.

“Shit,” Lister muttered. “That’s rough. Still… guess it’s to be expected.”

“We know that he came to speak to you a few days ago, and we want to know what that conversation was about,” Liv explained pointedly.

Lister looked over his shoulder to see if the guard was paying attention. “You realise that the boys inside will be flossing my balls with razor wire by noon if they think I’ve been talking to you.”

“Firstly, this conversation is completely confidential,” Liv assured him, even though she knew if somebody wanted the information badly enough, they wouldn’t let anything stop them. “And secondly, if they thought you were putting bent coppers inside, they might look upon you more favourably.” In the prison system, it normally flip-flopped as to whether it was more dangerous to be a bent copper or a sex offender.

Lister mused over his options. “Okay, I’ll bite,” he said, leaning in close. “But just to be clear, I don’t want my name appearing in any reports, and I’m certainly not getting up on any witness stands.” He leaned back in his seat. “Collins was asking me about local haunts. Said he wanted to know a bit about where everybody goes to let off a bit of steam.”

“And what exactly do they do at these places?” Archie asked, wondering what they considered ‘letting off steam’.

“Mainly, they just have a few drinks, see a few girls,” Lister answered, sounding smug.

“Were these get-togethers legal?” Liv asked worriedly.

“Never bothered to find out,” the former PC said with a shrug, as though consent was no big concern to him. God knows what we're going to find at this place.

“You've had a few interviews with us before,” Archie said, sounding indignant. “Why is it we’re only hearing about this now?”

“You didn’t think I was going to spell it all out for you in one sitting, did you?” he asked, amused by their surprise. “If I gave everything up in one sitting, how do I know you’d deliver on any of the help you’ve offered me, like a reduced sentence or protection in prison.” He gestured to a fresh black eye. “Does this look like you’re following through?”

“You realise that these kind of deals are normally dependent on results,” Liv noted dryly. “And so far, we haven’t made any arrests from what you’ve provided. So, our incentive to follow through is practically non-existent. If we’re going to do this, I’m going to need a little bit more from you than the scraps you’ve been throwing our way. But if you think you can take on the rest of the prison by yourself, then be my guest.”

Lister considered his options. “Okay,” he said in a lowered voice. “You might want to get a pen and paper for this.”

Liv took out her pocketbook and pen, curious to see where this was going to lead.

11

“Istill would have preferred for him to give us some names,” Archie moaned as they left the prison and drove back into town. “Something we could translate into a conviction.”

“It’s better than coming away empty handed,” Liv noted, trying to look on the positive side. An address was scrawled out on a piece of paper. “It’s a summer house, I’d guess, based its location on the posh side of town… or rather the snobbish side of town.”

“Same thing, really,” Archie said, not referencing the irony of his own uptight, pronounced accent. “So, how are we going to play this? You realise we’re not going to do the whole ‘storming in’. He told us that these meetings take place there; he never said anything about when they take place. For all we know, we could burst in on a whole gathering in motion. Or an empty house. And if they get even a whiff that somebody else has been there, they’re going to dispose of any evidence, clam up, lawyer up, and bury their tracks so deep we’ll never find them.”

“And that’s not even getting into what we’re going to tell DCI Brown about this,” Olivia noted before silently adding, assuming we tell her anything at all.

“You’re not being serious,” Archie exclaimed, before quickly adding, “Oh, never mind. Stupid question, really.”

“Let’s say we take this information to her and she decides to shut down the investigation, tells us it’s not worth pursuing. Or even worse, she decides she wants to alert anyone who might be using that house and scare them off.” She’d had it all laid out in her head but was still conscious of how irrational it sounded out loud.

“You might be reading a bit much into her,” Archie suggested. “It’s one thing not accepting her into the group. It’s something else entirely going and omitting any and all information from her.”

“If it was Collins, I wouldn’t have any problem sharing it,” Liv stated, thinking back to a time when the good guys and the bad guys were so much easier to distinguish from one another. True, she’d had a lot of people pull the wool over her eyes, but at least she didn’t have to worry about them wearing a uniform or carrying a badge. “And I could end up giving away the single most important part of the investigation we’ve uncovered so far. I mean, for God’s sake, the gaffer got attacked over this.”

“Pull the car over,” Archie insisted, leaving Liv taken aback by his authoritative tone. She did as instructed and pulled the car up onto one of the pavements. “Look,” he began once she turned off the engine. “I get where you’re coming from. Collins meant—means—a lot to me too. But we can’t do this on our own. We need the police backing us. I get that we’re taking a risk by talking to her. But let’s be honest, do you think if we give her an address in regards to the attempted murder of a senior officer that she won’t do anything with it? Why wouldn’t she do everything she can to help? We stand to lose more from not involving her than we do from involving her. And we need to find a way to trust her, for better or worse.”

“Is there a good choice at all?” Liv asked sardonically, feeling overwhelmed.

“No, but they’re the only ones we’ve got,” he replied. “If you want, we could always scope out the address, see what it looks like, and maybe see what we’re dealing with.”

But Liv was only half-listening. There was an idea spinning in her mind as she thought of every way this could go wrong and how she could work around the obstacles.

“Actually, there is something we could do,” she said, smiling grimly.

Archie gulped. He knew from his experience working with Liv that there was probably going to be hell to pay later on. “Am I going to want to know what this is, or do I opt out of knowing for the sake of peace of mind?”

“Sadly, I’m going to need you on this one,” she said, not wanting to drag her friend into her own controversy but seeing no other way. “And I’m going to need the help of somebody else too.”

“And how are you going to persuade them to sacrifice themselves for this kind of martyrdom?” Archie asked without waiting for a reply, but Liv didn’t answer.

They made their way to the address, and Liv scoped out the state of the house, not surprised by the sheer volume of it. Looking around, she made her plan.

12

Chris had barely slept a night in the safe house. It wasn’t just that he was not in his own bed; it was that it felt like a prison. He was constantly on edge, waiting for someone or something to come after him. So, it felt ironic that the moment he was finally able to catch some kip, he was interrupted by a loud knocking on the door.

He grimaced, knowing that it could only be one person. He got up and opened the door to see the driver standing there holding a bag. “You going to let me in or not?”

Chris stepped aside to let him in, and as soon as the driver closed the door behind him, Chris grabbed him by the shirt and thrust him up against the wall.

“What the fuck were you doing visiting my family?” he snarled, trying to be as intimidating as possible. He wanted the driver to feel the sense of the fear that he’d felt when he learned about the unexpected visit to his mum and his brother.

“I was just paying them a visit,” the driver said innocently. “I have to protect my investment. Can’t hurt, can it? And I didn’t lay a finger on them. This time.”

“I said that I would do this stuff for you, and I have,” Chris screeched. “But I told you to leave my family out of this. They haven’t done anything to deserve this.”

“You just keep doing what you’re doing, and we’ll be okay,” the driver said. “Don’t forget that if it weren’t for us, your brother would be in prison on a Class A charge. And having met your brother, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t last long in there. So, unless you want to keep trying your luck, you’d better take your fucking hands off me.”

Chris considered his next move. He could probably beat this man within an inch of his life, but he knew that the moment he did that, he’d be forfeiting his mum and brother. Finally, he released his grip on the driver and stood back. “So, what do you want?”

“A bit of gratitude, for a start,” the driver insisted. “You know how many strings we had to pull to keep your brother out of prison? A lot. So don’t make out we’re asking for the sun and the stars just because your brother decided to have a go at playing big-time drug dealer.”

That wasn’t what was happening with Mike, but he didn’t want to waste any time arguing with the man. Instead, he’d settle for just moving as far away from the man as possible, but he was aware of what Chris was doing and crossed over to the other side of the room.

“Now, as it happens, we have another little job for you,” the driver said, slouching the bag off his shoulder and opening it up. He extracted a folder and sifted through it, pulling out a series of photographs. The photos depicted a house and a woman walking by it.

“I want you to go to this address and pick up this woman,” he explained, pulling out the picture of the woman in question. “Her name’s Katie Gibson. She’s a former journalist and is fancying herself a private investigator.” The driver lost his sarcastic edge, and it appeared that if he could reach into the picture and strangle the woman, he definitely would have.

“And what is she supposed to have done to piss you off?” Chris asked, silently appreciating the chaos the woman was causing.

“Sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong,” he replied sharply. “There’s an address in the folder. I want you to go to that address and persuade her to come with you.”

Chris scoffed. “How the hell do you expect me to do that?”

“Use your imagination. I’m sure you’ll think of something,” he insisted. “There’ll be a car waiting for you at the end of the road. We will take it from there.”

“And what exactly is going to happen to her once I get her to the car?” Chris asked, knowing he was prodding the bear by asking that question, but he would be kicking himself if he didn’t at least find out what he was signing up for.

“That’s not your business,” the driver said, sensing his hesitation. “And in case you’re thinking of getting soft, just remember, this girl is nothing to you. You should be more worried about your own family. You don’t want to be risking them over a stranger.”

Chris registered the threat for what it was. He tried to gear himself up for it, knowing that there was no other way forward. Not without risking his family.

“All right,” he said, feeling like he was parting with another piece of his soul. “Just tell me what I need to do.”

13

Liv took a deep breath as she walked into the main office followed by Archie. Just got to hope this works out.

They walked into Collins’ office where Steph seemed to be making a point of setting up shop. She had confined herself to a small area of the office without settling near Collins’ spot in a clearly misguided attempt at showing respect. “DI Austin, DS Elmhurst, please tell me you have something good to offer up. I’ve had the team going over Superintendent Collins’ prior movements as well as speaking to his wife. So far, we haven’t found anything that will lead to a suspect.”

Liv looked at Archie. It’s now or never. At a nod from her partner, Olivia stepped forward and began speaking.

“We found out that a few days before his assault, Superintendent Collins visited Robert Lister in prison, for information on a location that…” She paused, trying to find the right way to phrase the specific group.

“Bent coppers?” Steph asked with a raised eyebrow, prompting a nervous glance between the two detectives. “You don’t need to pussyfoot around me, DI Austin. Superintendent Collins was notorious among officers for his Boy Scout mentality.”

“Funny way of describing integrity,” Archie said suddenly, feeling the need to defend his boss’s reputation.

Steph quickly took the hint but wasn’t willing to back down. “Well, while I have no end of admiration for the man, he clearly wasn’t willing to go through the proper channels. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have left himself open to an assault. I hope that neither of you will make the same mistake.”

“I assure you, we’re not looking to do that,” Archie insisted. “Lister says that this address…” He held out the scribbled-on piece of paper with the address. “...has a gathering of bent police officers every now and then.” He finished speaking, waiting to see if any of what he relayed had registered with her.

“I see,” Steph said slowly. She took the address and turned it over in her hand, as though checking it over for discrepancies. “Listen, while I appreciate the need for more information, do you not think that Lister was pulling your leg? I mean, it’s not like he has anything to gain from telling you.”

“We’re sure he was telling the truth,” Liv insisted, having anticipated pushback from the DCI.

“Did he give you any indication of when these meetings take place?” she asked. “Like a schedule, specific names, or anything remotely resembling evidence?”

Liv and Archie looked at each other, pissed off that at best, Lister was holding out on them again, and at worst, he was outright bullshitting them.

“We need to be sure,” Liv said, falling back on instinct once again. “If this is connected to Collins’ assault, then we need to find out what the link is.”

This was the moment of truth, when Steph Brown showed herself to be either a careerist or a decent copper. “We can look at having some people monitor the house if it helps. Perhaps, DC Shaw and DS Harris can give some time.”

“Actually,” Liv said, conscious of losing the entire CID office to a single line of enquiry, “perhaps we can pair DC Shaw with PC Hershel. She has already done quite a bit of legwork with bringing in corrupt police officers.”

Steph nodded approvingly. “Well, you know your team better than I do, DI Austin. I will trust you to decide where to allocate resources. We need to keep the monitoring at a distance. We can only afford to put officers on surveillance for so long, so let’s just hope that this produces results in the next few days.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Liv nodded gratefully and quickly dismissed herself.

Archie followed closely behind her, and once he was convinced that there was nobody else in earshot, he whispered, “You didn’t tell her about the precautionary measure you’d taken? You didn’t think that was something she might need to know?”

“I couldn’t be sure which way she’d go,” Liv explained. “And besides, even if she ends up pulling the plug for whatever reason, we’re covered either way.”

Archie nodded slowly, trying to look convinced but still conscious of a backfire.

14

Collins’ wounds had been cleaned up since he’d been brought into the hospital, but the bruising still remained, rendering the man nearly unrecognisable except to those who loved him. His chest slowly rose up and down as the machines beeped.

Nikki stood over his body attentively. Since she’d been effectively booted from the case, she found herself with more time on her hands than she knew what to do with. As much as she missed her little daughter, she didn’t want to head back to Derby quite yet, not when she felt there were still moves for her to make here. And she certainly didn’t want to explain to her Derby team why she’d left them in the lurch. So, she’d done a video call to Francesca, making sure her little girl was doing all right. Francesca had been in the middle of a playdate at the time Nikki called, and she was happy to see the sparkle back in her daughter’s eyes. It was as if she was finally getting over her father’s death.

Afterwards, Nikki had taken a stroll around Newquay, particularly the beaches, partly to see if there was any part of her old home calling to her. In truth, Newquay felt like a thing of the past to her. She’d since moved on, literally and emotionally. Her heart was now with her Derby team, but she still owed it to Steven to see this through.

After her nostalgia trip, she’d sat by Steven’s bedside, willing him to wake up. She didn’t want this to be the thing that ended him. Her eyes darted over to the monitors, half-expecting an alarm to start sounding. If he did die, she could at least find comfort in the fact that they’d been able to mend their relationship while they had the chance.

“DS Harding?” Nikki bolted up in her seat at the sound of the one person she couldn’t bring herself to face. Allison Collins looked bashful as she stepped closer, her eyes dry but still reddened from crying. “Really sorry. Didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“No, it’s okay,” Nikki replied, stepping out of her seat and letting Allison sit next to her husband. Allison leaned forward and took her husband’s hand, stroking it tenderly.

“Has there been any change?” she asked for the twentieth time.

“No, same as before,” the sergeant said regretfully, feeling like more than ever, she had to watch what she said, though the guilt was eating away at her. When Nikki had had her affair with Collins, they’d both been lonely people in struggling marriages. And because Nikki had never got to know Allison personally, she hadn’t felt any real remorse over what had happened. But seeing his wife struggle, possibly about to become a widow, Nikki felt bad to be standing there as a supportive element when she’d damn near derailed their entire marriage. “Listen, Allison, I…”

“You know, when I found out he was playing away,” Allison said without taking her eyes off her husband, “I’ve got to say, I was pissed off with him. I said all kinds of things to him… but then he told me that I never stopped to ask if he was happy.”

Nikki remembered him saying something similar when they met at a hotel.

“He didn’t try to defend himself. He held his hands up that he’d been seeing someone, that this person had been keeping him grounded, but he never told me who she was,” Allison continued, oblivious to Nikki’s guilty expression behind her. “I could have tried everything to wear him down, and he’d still take it to his grave. She must have been special.”

Nikki felt touched that Steven had taken such steps to shield her.

“We attended a shitload of couples’ counselling and even did a trial separation, just to find out what it would mean to lose each other from our day-to-day lives,” Allison continued, looking at her husband and thinking of the life they’d built together. “And we recently celebrated our wedding anniversary.” Her voice started to break. “I honestly thought that we had a second chance, and now it’s being taken from us.”

Unable to stand back and watch the woman suffer, Nikki moved forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You need to give your husband a bit more credit. It’s going to take more than this to take him out. I promise you, he’s going to find a way through this. He loves you too much to just die.”

She tried to contain her own feelings about Collins, not wanting them to get in the way of his wife’s grieving.

But then Allison called out, “There’s something I think he’d want me to show you.”

15

As soon as Liv closed the front door, she slid down against the frame, unable to keep herself upright any longer. Dean was sitting on the sofa, and he quickly came over to her. Rather than try and help her up, he knelt down in front of her. “You want me to join you?”

She nodded slowly, and he got down on the floor next to her. Briggs came over to fuss the pair, but Dean gently shooed him away. He knew better than to dispense words of wisdom and instead let Liv work up the nerve to say what she needed to say.

“This all feels so surreal,” Liv said finally. “Not the part about investigating the assault— that’s what we do for a living— but the fact that it’s one of our own.” It really hammered home to her how much of a close-knit unit they’d all been for the past four years and how lucky they’d been. She remembered her time in London when she’d lost colleagues in the line of duty. She remembered her commanding officer telling her that it was a terrible rite of passage for change to be brought about by the death of a fellow officer. So, she was lucky that in her time in Newquay, her team had undergone as few losses as they had. Because she hadn’t just built up a team; she’d built up a family.

“I had a call from Nikki earlier. No news at the hospital, which means he’s still stable.” She tried to tell herself that if he was going to die, he would have by now, but anything could happen until he woke up. And she was kept in a constant state of anxiety.

“We’re getting through this,” Dean said, reaching over to massage her shoulder. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we are.”

There was something else she wanted to tell Dean, about the precaution she’d taken with the summer house. She hated keeping secrets from him, but she knew it was for the best. She still wasn’t sure how many rules she was breaking by doing it, and if it came out to the new DCI, she didn’t want to risk dragging Dean down with her.

She would liked to have kept Archie out of it, but there was no way she could have done it herself. And now, the secret lay between three people. There was no need to add to that number. Not with a new DCI looking to make moves.

“Where’s your mum?” Liv asked, needing to think about something other than work.

“She’s out with her friends on a bingo night,” Dean explained. As much as he loved his mum, he was glad that they had the place to themselves.

“You given any more thought to the wedding?” she asked before catching herself. “Sorry… It doesn’t feel right to be talking about a wedding with everything going on.”

“Maybe that’s exactly why we need to discuss it,” Dean suggested lightly. “Unless you’d rather be all doom and gloom?”

Liv smiled. “You always know exactly what to say,” she noted, reaching over and taking his hand, stroking it tenderly.

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” he responded coyly. “I take it we’re still on for August?”

“I love a good summer wedding, me,” Liv noted, picturing the scene. Her dad walking her down the aisle, her friends and family on either side watching the happy occasion. Everyone who was supposed to be there actually being there.

And there was Dean standing at the end, dressed in a slick suit waiting to guide her into this beautiful new life they’d carved out for one another. She’d entertained many different fantasies of what followed after their vows, but as long as she had her man alongside her, it could all wait. And that time was just around the corner.

It gave her even more drive to get through what was happening, to put this case to bed, to make sure Collins recovered so that he could attend the wedding and she would have nothing overshadowing what was supposed to be the best day of her life. She looked at Dean and took comfort in his steadfast expression. He’d always been her anchor, always knowing what to do.

For his part, Dean was trying to do everything he could to hold things together. He couldn’t help but wonder how Liv might react if she knew about the secrets he’d been keeping from her. He was hoping that he could keep her name out of it, if only to make sure that she was protected in case it blew up in his face, which it still could.

But those were problems for another day. For the moment, they were happy to shut themselves off from the rest of the world.

16

It was supposed to be a positive moment. DC Andrew Shaw and PC Diana Hershel had built up an unbreakable bond during their time in uniform and had both keenly missed that since Andrew had transferred over to CID. To be working together was a treat they thought they’d never experience again. And yet any joy they might’ve felt was overshadowed by the events of late, specifically, the superintendent’s attack. Andrew had tried to keep the consistency going with the coffee order and the usual banter.

They were both sat in the car, parked a short distance away from the summer house Olivia had told them to drive to. The sky was still quite bright, which wasn’t doing them any favours in regards to stealth. They could only come up with so many excuses for why they were there if somebody came up to the house. But so far, it’d been left vacant.

“How’s Clara holding up?” Andrew asked, having not seen much of the technician since his transfer. They tried to arrange a get together, but it always came down to timing.

“She’s doing okay,” Diana said before quickly adding, “Come to think about it, she’s been really withdrawn. Barely said a word to me lately. I feel like she’s keeping stuff from me.”

“Maybe it’s just the shock of what happened to Collins,” Andrew suggested. “We’ve all been feeling the effects of it. I’m trying to look at it as wake-up call.”

“Oh?” Diana asked, curious but not taking her eyes off the house.

“Yeah, I mean, I thought that Collins was going to outlive all of us,” Andrew noted.

“He’s not dead yet,” Diana observed, feeling a little perturbed.

“I know he isn’t, but it does hammer home that you never really know how much time you have left,” he continued, sounding more and more introspective. “It’s certainly made me think about what I want in life. So, I’ve been speaking with Liv’s sister about setting me up with somebody. She’s been giving me a few pointers.”

“What about those wily charms you’ve always relied on?” Diana asked sardonically.

“Well, I used a lot of those when I was with Helen, and let’s be honest, my success rate there wasn’t exactly ten out of ten. And I want to have a partner, a family of my own. I don’t want to go through life thinking about—”

Diana shushed him as she pointed to the house. They saw somebody moving towards it, but they were unable to make out who it was. He was wearing a jacket with the collar pulled up and a hat. “Bugger must be sweltering in this heat.”

“Probably got something to hide,” Andrew chimed in as they watched the stranger go up to the front door and let themself in.

The two coppers tried to angle closer and get a look at the inside of the house. Andrew took out his phone and attempted to get some pictures in preparation.

Ten minutes later, the man emerged from the house carrying a bag. He was calling somebody on his phone. Andrew snapped as many shots as he could as he watched the man get into a car and drive off. “Snap the plate,” Diana instructed, but Andrew was already on it, managing to get several decent shots before the car disappeared out of view.

“Did you get those?” Diana asked and looked over the pictures herself. “Fantastic.”

“We should have a look at going to the house and seeing what’s inside,” Andrew suggested, preparing to jump out the car. “See what he’s done.”

“You realise we don’t have a warrant for this,” Diana reminded him. “I get where you’re coming from, but I’m torn between my need to find out more and my desire to avoid spending the rest of my career directing traffic.”

“We need to get this to Liv,” Andrew insisted. “So, you want to tell anyone?”

“Not yet. I want to see if anyone else turns up,” Diana said. “This guy has clearly got something planned in the house, but at the moment, we don’t have enough to justify a warrant.”

Andrew remembered Liv telling him to be wary of the new DCI and how much information he should be sharing with her. With everything that’d been going on, there were only so many people they could trust.

“Got any questionable jokes to share?” Diana asked, needing something lighthearted to take the edge off, and Andrew happily obliged.

17

Katie finished her call with Georgia Madsen, checking to confirm that she and her baby were all right wherever they were. She didn’t think that the bent coppers had a reach stretching that far, but she wanted to be sure. So, she told Georgia to make sure she gave as little information as possible and to be careful with whom she trusted.

She wondered whether everything that’d happened to her was some twisted form of karma. Last year, she’d been on trial for the damage she’d done to the police service as an undercover journalist, and though she’d narrowly avoided a sentence, she was now tucked away in a safe house having received numerous death threats—ironically because she’d suddenly decided to try doing the right thing.

Maybe this was all of her mistakes finally catching up with her. But she felt that she deserved a second chance, and she was going to fight for it as hard as she could.

She wondered when she was next going to be getting a visitor. The only people she was expecting were DI Austin or DS Harding, both of whom had come around with supplies to get her through the next few days. She knew she couldn’t stay there indefinitely, but there was the question of where she’d go. She hadn’t checked the money in her bank account, but she was pretty sure it’d only get her so far.

Suddenly, she heard a banging on the door. She looked at the time on her phone and wondered why Nikki or Olivia would be coming around at this time. It wasn’t like they were getting any overtime out of it. She approached the front door and was about to press her hand to the handle when the banging came again, this time much heavier.

Stopping herself, she thought back to all the times Liv or Nikki had knocked on the door and she didn’t think she’d ever heard either of them knock that hard before… unless their hands had increased in size since the last visit.

Katie began to step back, telling herself that it was probably someone getting the wrong house number. But no one could be that persistent, surely.

As she backed away, she stumbled into a cabinet in the hallway, sending empty picture frames hurtling to the ground. She winced at the loud noise they made as they clattered to the floor.

Outside, the knocking ceased. Katie was stood still, not daring to make another sound. She tried to angle around to the living room window to get a better look at the new arrival, but she couldn’t risk letting him see her.

Instead, she backed up the stairs—again wincing as the stairs creaked loudly—and into one of the bedrooms, looking around for any kind of weapon. The best she could find was a few coat hangers. She did a mental check in her head of the house’s layout. Had she locked all the doors?

One thing she did know about her mystery visitor was that he was not going to leave until he had her. What did he want with her? She thought about the warning DS Harding had given her… and that gave her an idea.

She called Olivia’s number first, knowing that at the very least, Olivia would be able to send coppers around to the house, or better yet, come round herself.

But instead, the phone went straight to voicemail. “Hi, you’ve reached Olivia Austin. I’m sorry, but I can’t come to the phone right now…”

Katie ended the call, grunting exasperatedly. She could feel the visitor’s presence downstairs, scoping out the house’s weaknesses, trying to find a way in. And from what she’d seen, the house wasn’t exactly Fort Knox. If he really wanted to get to her, he wasn’t going to let a locked door stop him, despite Nikki’s earlier advice, and that’s when Katie knew what to do.

Chiding herself that the woman she’d probably done the most to piss off was now expected to be her saviour, she dialled Nikki’s number and waited for the phone to pick up.

“What is it?” Nikki demanded on the other end, letting out a stretched yawn, clearly on the verge of winding down.

“Nikki, listen to me, there’s someone downstairs,” she said in a hushed voice. “I don’t know who they are, but I need you to come down here as soon as you can—”

She was interrupted by the sound of a window smashing from downstairs.

18

Nikki had returned to the hotel she’d booked into. It wasn’t fancy, but it had all the basic necessities—a bed, a shower, etc. She couldn’t ask for anything more.

She loaded up her computer and got ready for a call with Frankie. She tried to keep the chats as regular as possible, as the little girl had spent a long time thinking that her daddy didn’t love her anymore and that he’d run off and abandoned her. By that point, Nikki had had to tell her the truth. And every time it looked like Nikki was leaving for an extended period of time, she needed to reassure Francesca she’d always have a mother.

“Mummy!” the little girl exclaimed into the camera, pressing her face close to it… except it took a moment for Nikki to recognise her daughter behind the butterfly makeup.

“Me and Sophie have been doing face painting!” Frankie exclaimed happily, holding up her paint-ridden hands. The girl’s babysitter, Sophie, came into view, whiskers painted on her face and a pair of fake cat ears on her head, clearly getting into the spirit.

“There was no convincing her otherwise,” Sophie offered apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nikki waved her off. “It’s nice to see her looking so happy.”

“When are you coming home, Mummy?” Frankie asked impatiently, tapping at the screen and no doubt leaving smears of paint over its surface.

Nikki paused. She’d planned for about a fortnight away, thinking that’d be just enough time for her to lend her support to the case but not so much time that Frankie’s abandonment issues went into full throttle. But then again, she hadn’t counted on Collins getting attacked, and she felt an obligation to see it through to the end, regardless of what other obligations she had. She tried to choose her words carefully.

“Mummy’s going to be away for a few more days,” she explained carefully. “She’s doing very important work. I need you to keep on being a good girl for Sophie and Alice, all right?” She was lucky to have a boss who was willing to offer free childcare.

Francesca looked crestfallen at the idea of spending even more time separated from her mother, and she was trying to stop the tears from coming. She put on a brave face, especially as Sophie wrapped her arms around the girl. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Think of it as more opportunities for me to ply you with cake and ice cream.”

“Nice. Way to get the kid on your side, bribing her,” Nikki said lightly, though she quickly regretted her choice of words, given the situation she was facing in Newquay.

“Tell you what,” Sophie suggested. “Why don’t you go and see Auntie Alice in the kitchen? I think she has a bar of chocolate with your name on it.”

Frankie squealed in delight and ran off out of view, only pausing to give a, “Back in a moment, Mummy!” leaving Sophie in front of the camera.

“You aren’t going to be too long, are you?” Sophie asked, looking over her shoulder. “I mean, it must be really bad to keep you away.”

“If I could get back there with you lot, believe me, I would,” Nikki insisted. “But there are people here who need me even more, so I’m exactly where I need to be.”

At that moment, the phone started buzzing. Nikki hated it when anybody interrupted her time with her daughter, but then she saw the caller ID. “Katie, I’d advise you to make the explanation you were about to give phenomenally good.”

“Nikki, listen to me, there’s someone downstairs,” she said in a hushed voice, setting off the alarm bells in Nikki’s head. “I don’t know who they are, but I need you to come down here as soon as you can—”

Suddenly, there was the sound of glass shattering, and Nikki was on full alert.

“Nikki? What’s going on?” Sophie asked, still on the call.

“Listen, Sophie, I’ve got to go. Give my love to Francesca, and I’ll speak soon,” she said hurriedly, blowing a kiss to the screen and hanging up.

She threw on her coat and headed for the front door. She couldn’t do this herself. She phoned Liv’s mobile in the hopes of getting some backup, but instead, it went straight to voicemail. “Liv, it’s Nikki. Listen, I need you to get somebody over to the safe house where Katie has been stashed. Now! I think she is in trouble. For the love of God, pick up the fucking phone!”

19

Chris was feeling sick to his stomach over what he’d been forced to do.

He didn’t have anything against the woman, and if there was any way he could have spared her life, he would have done it. But he couldn’t. The driver had been right about one thing. If it came down to her or his family, it was always going to be them, every single time. Before he’d left the house, he’d taken out the crowbar he’d used on the previous victim. He hoped he wouldn’t have to use it, but he would definitely need to intimidate her.

He was dropped off at the end of the street and made his way down, keeping the bar concealed within his jacket. The cold metal pressed against his torso, and he found himself imagining that same metal crashing down hard on flesh and bone.

He came up to the front door and knocked on it, perhaps a little too loudly. He had considered passing himself off as a police officer or maybe someone that the woman could trust, but he was sure she wouldn’t fall for his bullshit so easily. So, he needed to be forceful.

Chris waited patiently for her to come to the door, but it was clear it wasn’t going to be that easy. He waited outside for a moment before hearing a crash from inside.

Had she worked out why he was there, or was her imagination simply getting the better of her? Either way, she was going to risk trying to get away. He quickly made his way around the back of the house, just to make sure the back door was locked. Perfect. There were no other exits, so she was essentially trapped inside.

He returned to the front of the house for another look inside. There was nobody visible through the window, but he listened closely, and he could hear what he thought was a phone call being made upstairs. The bitch was calling the police.

Suddenly feeling overwhelmed by a ticking clock and a surging sense of self-preservation, Chris gripped the crowbar and smashed it against the window, the glass shattering upon impact. He swung it again several times, the hole in the window getting wider and wider until he could step through into the house.

He steadied himself. He didn’t think he could call himself a murderer but was sure that wouldn’t be the case by the end of the day.

He moved through the house swiftly, cutting off every avenue of escape, checking that the doors were locked and that he had the only keys.

After he was done downstairs, he made his way up the stairs slowly. No effort was made to conceal his footsteps. She already knew he was coming, so it wouldn’t make any difference. Chris listened out for any sounds, hearing a distant noise coming from the bedroom. He headed towards it, gripping the bar and praying the woman wouldn’t make it too difficult for him. “Hello, police? I think there’s someone in the house.”

He moved into the bedroom. Nobody was there, but the conversation continued.

Chris moved around the master bed to the ensuite and pressed his head against the door. The conversation was clearly going on inside.

He kicked the door down, the wood buckling and splintering beneath his boot, and he made his way into the bathroom…

But the target was nowhere to be found. He looked to the sink and saw a phone. It was playing a pre-recorded conversation on loop.

He moved back around the bed, convinced that the woman was still in the house… when he screamed out in pain, his leg feeling like it was on fire.

He looked down to see a kitchen knife sticking out of his ankle, near his Achilles tendon, not quite severing it but being damn close.

He doubled over, screaming in pain. As he fell to the floor, he could see the woman crouched underneath the bed, her hand still clutched around the knife.

He lashed out, grabbing her by the wrist and trying to wrestle the blade out of her grip, but she held on for dear life. Both attacker and victim locked eyes with one another, neither willing to relinquish their hold on the weapon. But then Chris spotted the crowbar lying nearby, and gripping it, he brought it down hard on Katie’s wrist.

Katie screamed in pain, dropping the knife, and Chris quickly grabbed it.

She scrambled from underneath the bed and ran as he staggered to his feet.

20

Nikki drove the rental car as far as she could to the safe house, all the while still trying Olivia’s number. “Come on, Liv, pick up the fucking phone!”

She could imagine what the inspector might be doing at that moment, relaxing at home with DI Lawrence. All the while, Katie Gibson could be in serious harm’s way. She could only hope she wasn’t too late. It was roughly a twenty-minute drive from her hotel to the safe house. God only knew what could happen in that amount of time.

She tried Liv’s phone again and was elated when the call was picked up. “Jesus, Nikki, you’ve left me sixteen calls. What’s it all—”

“Olivia, when you’re quite done dancing on Dean’s dick, I suggest you get over to the safe house where Katie Gibson is holed up. I’ve had a call from her, and she sounds like she’s in trouble, so I need you to get down there with as many people as possible. Otherwise, we’re going to be recovering another body.”

“I’ll mobilise a team,” Liv answered quickly. “In the meantime, I suggest you hold back, Nikki. You don’t want to get involved with this.”

“Sure, guv,” Nikki said with enough subtlety that her sardonic tone was missed altogether. “I’ll hold back. I’m sure you’ll get there in time.”

She quickly hung up the phone, wondering whether Liv bought into any of that. Like she was actually going to stick to the sidelines when a woman’s life was at stake.

She did have a moment of pause when she considered exactly who the woman was. Katie Gibson may not have torpedoed Nikki’s life in Newquay, but she’d done her fair share of damage, and now Nikki was rushing to save her, even at the risk of her own career.

Still, she had to put aside everything she knew about the woman and focus on saving her life. If she did this, maybe it would lead her to the man who had attacked Collins.

She kept calling Katie’s number, but nobody picked up the phone, and Nikki was concerned about what could be happening over there. She tried to remember that Katie had been a police officer—before amending that to ‘pretended to be a police officer.’

She pulled up outside the house, and the first thing she saw was the broken window. “Shit,” she muttered to herself. Assuming Liv was able to disentangle herself from Dean and sort it out, it was still going to be a while before a group of AFOs piled out of a van, by which time the intruder could be long gone.

She stepped out of the car and rushed forward, approaching the broken window. She eased herself inside, her boot crackling against the shattered glass. But no sooner was she inside then she heard the sound of screaming from up above.

There was a thud, and she rushed upstairs. Katie was running out of the bedroom followed closely by a man in his early-thirties who was limping. Nikki could see that he was bleeding heavily from the ankle. Nikki shot a quick look at Katie in approval before heading to ward off the man, who she could see was holding a crowbar in one hand and a knife in the other. The man lunged at her but took a step forward on his bad leg and stumbled, crashing to the ground. Nikki quickly kicked the weapons away from him and moved until she was standing over his body. “I’d say get to your feet, but that probably isn’t the best suggestion right now, is it?”

She looked over at Katie, who was pressing herself against a wall. “Are you hurt?”

Katie shook her head numbly, looking a little dazed. She slowly sank to the floor.

“I’m guessing this is your handiwork,” she asked, gesturing to the torn open ankle. Katie nodded mutely. Nikki turned her attention back to the man who was now wriggling on the ground. “You’re not going anywhere, sunshine, so just give it up.”

“Please!” the man shrieked, writhing on the floor like a fish out of water. “You have to let me do this. Please!” He tried to push himself up with all his might, but Nikki refused to release her hold on him. She wondered what was prompting this fearful outburst and the sudden desperation in his voice, but he quickly surrendered, collapsing to the floor.

“Right,” she said, wishing she had a pair of handcuffs on her. “I’m arresting you on suspicion of attempted murder. You do not have to say anything; however, it may harm your defence if you fail to mention under questioning something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence”

21

Liv should have known that Nikki wouldn’t bother hanging back, not when somebody’s life was in danger. And judging by the scene that met Dean and Liv upon their arrival, it was just as well. Katie walked out of the front door, looking stunned.

Liv rushed over to her. “Are you all right?” she asked, rubbing the woman’s shoulders and checking her for any sign of injury.

“Nothing I can’t recover from,” she answered dryly, trying to sound like her old self but with questionable effort. “Nikki’s inside with the guy who nearly killed me.”

“And she couldn’t bring him out here why?” Liv asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You might want to go inside and look for yourself,” Katie suggested, leaving the inspector wondering what on earth had taken place that night.

“You stay out here until the other coppers arrive,” Liv instructed Dean before heading into the house.

“Up here, Liv!” she heard Nikki call out, and Liv rushed up the stairs to see Nikki straddling a man on the landing, keeping his hands behind his back. “Really sorry. Didn’t have any handcuffs to spare.”

Liv looked at the bloodied ankle on the suspect. “Jesus, Nikki, what did you do?”

“Hey, don’t look at me, this was Katie’s handiwork,” she said innocently, holding her hands up. “So, are you going to arrest this guy or not?”

Liv crouched down to look at the suspect. “What’s your name?” she asked, but the man looked away, clearly refusing to answer.

“I’ve already read him his rights,” Nikki noted, looking pleased with herself. “You just need to take him into custody.”

Liv nodded slowly and took out a set of handcuffs, slapping them on the man’s wrists. “You can hold out on us all you want,” she explained, “but we’re going to find out what we want to know sooner or later, so you could just tell us now and save yourself a world of trouble… and a lifetime in prison.”

But the man simply continued staring silently at her. She sensed there was something different about him to other perpetrators she had arrested. Liv had come across many suspects who would rather do years inside than cooperate with the police, but this wasn’t the ‘stubborn silence’ type. He was more the ‘scared silence’ type. She suspected he was holding onto a potential bombshell out of fear for himself or someone else.

“He also had those weapons on him,” Nikki said, pointing to a kitchen knife and a crowbar coated in dried blood. “You might want to take those in for analysis.”

“Yes, thank you for telling me how to do my job, DS Harding,” Liv retorted, pretending to sound ticked off. But secretly, she was happy that she and Nikki had settled into their old routine so easily. It’s like she never left.

“You should also call an ambulance,” Nikki continued, getting up from her spot before quickly looking at the man’s ankle. “I think that foot might snap off if he tries to step on it.”

Liv went downstairs to wait for backup, and soon enough, a plethora of police officers turned up and went about securing the scene and setting up cordon tape.

The ambulance turned up, and Liv directed the paramedics. She surveyed the scene, smiling thinly. All in all, this has been a good night.

But her smile quickly faded as she saw how public the incident had become.

Liv had tried to keep so many details close to the chest—the safe house, the fact that they were storing a former journalist there—and now they had a suspect in custody, brought in by a DS who technically wasn’t even based in Newquay anymore.

She was going to have a lot of explaining to do, and she wasn’t even sure where to begin. Liv watched as the intruder was brought out on a stretcher. “I’ll have a lot of questions for you,” she said, searching his face for any recollection of a past arrest. She nodded to the paramedics who loaded him into the back of the ambulance.

The phone rang, and as soon as Liv saw the caller ID, she wanted more than anything to avoid it. But the longer she put it off, the harder it would be later on.

HOLDING the phone to her ear, Liv listened to the stressed-out voice of DCI Steph Brown. even though she couldn't see her face, she had no trouble imagining the DCI’s scowl.

22

Liv was suddenly realising how lucky she'd been with Superintendent Collins.

Even though he’d expressed constant frustration at her antics, she'd always known what to say to appease him. But there was none of that with DCI Brown.

“Despite the stresses of the past few days, I had hoped to sit down tonight with a glass of wine and a mind-numbing soap opera, thinking I could leave all my problems at the office,” she explained calmly to Olivia and Archie, who were standing in her office like chastised students. “And barely five minutes into my detox, I get a string of calls about an attack on a safe house, which I wasn’t even aware was being used at the time. And before you get to the scene, DS Harding—who technically doesn’t work here anymore—swoops in to play the knight in shining armour. No police authority. Nothing.”

“Technically, if DS Harding hadn’t got there when she did, we could be looking at a murder,” Archie noted, feeling Nikki needed her due credit.

Steph shot him a warning look but didn’t say anything else. “You’re both on very thin ice, and remember that I’ll be under it when it breaks. Now, I’ve tried to work out how we have a houseguest living off the taxpayers money without you two being any the wiser, and the only thing I can conclude is that you already knew Katie Gibson was hiding there, which means that you deliberately went out of your way to hide information from me at a time when I insisted on complete transparency. So, I think I’m due an explanation.”

Liv and Archie looked at one another, considered lying, but both concluded they’d probably be caught out. “We’re looking into a case of police corruption,” Liv stated bluntly, “and we know that there are people who’d be more than happy to see this investigation brought to a halt. And we weren’t sure who to trust.”

“And you thought I was one of those people?” Steph asked, looking more hurt than insulted, which surprised Liv. “You took one look at me and thought I’d sold my soul?”

“You turn up the morning after our superintendent was put in hospital, and you boot out a colleague who not only knew Collins well but was also best placed to help us with this investigation. I’ve had people working in this station, looking me in the eye, all the while indulging in corrupt practices, and I didn’t see it coming.” She paused, knowing that what she would say next would surely land her in the shit but deciding to throw caution to the wind and take a leaf out of Nikki’s book. “And we all know how quickly you’ve risen through the ranks.” Archie looked like he’d been gut shot as the words left her mouth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steph asked, her voice dangerously low, but Liv remained silent, hoping that she’d said enough to get the point across. Steph scoffed. “Wow. Just wow. So, best case scenario, you thought that I was a single-minded careerist looking to leapfrog over everyone else, and worst, you thought that I was actively trying to sabotage an ongoing investigation, simultaneously breaking every single oath I took?”

Liv was taken aback by the sheer passion in her voice but didn’t back down.

“I told you at the beginning of this process that I wasn’t Steven Collins, nor did I have any intention of trying to be. And I can understand you having him at the forefront of your mind with everything that’s been happening. But trust has to go both ways, DI Austin. I know that to you, trust means nothing, but to me, it’s serious. That means when I give an instruction, I expect it to be followed to the letter. And this might surprise you, but I want the same as you, to find the people who put Collins in the hospital. Not because I think it will ‘make my career’ but because if the public see that one of our own can be taken out with impunity, nobody is going to take us seriously. Every one of us risks a target on their back.”

The woman sounds almost convincing, Liv thought to herself, trying to work out whether her words were coming from a genuine place of passion or if the DCI had spent several hours standing in front of a mirror revising them.

Steph rubbed her eyes, trying to stop herself from saying anything more. “It’s been a long night, and we’re all feeling a little ragged, understandably. So, I’m going to suggest we go home and get some shuteye. And then in the morning, we’re going to have another conversation wherein I decide if I’m better off working with a DI I can trust.”

Liv’s heart sank at the fear that she might have failed the superintendent. Sorry, guv.

23

Chris Hayes lay in the hospital bed, numbed by painkillers. He couldn’t bear to look down at his bandaged foot, worried it might be hanging on by a thread.

Regardless, his thoughts weren’t with the lifelong injury but with the act he’d almost committed in that house. Seeing the look of fear in the woman’s face, he wondered if he could have gone through with killing her. Every day, he inched closer to the moment he would reach the point of no return. He was thinking more and more about the price he had to pay. Not prison—he’d spent some time in there before. Granted, the crimes he’d been sent down for were quite minor compared to these that he'd be landed with if he stayed on his current path.

But the worst thing would be the looks on his family's faces, assuming they wanted anything to do with him after this. He thought it’d be ironic if Mike didn’t want anything to do with him, considering everything Chris had done had been for his benefit.

He wanted to get up and walk out, but then he saw two uniformed officers standing by the bedside and knew that even if he had two functioning legs, he was going nowhere.

“Hi, I’m here for Chris Hayes,” a familiar voice called out, and Chris seriously hoped that the voice he heard was the painkillers going into overdrive. Suddenly, Chris was fully alert as the driver was looming over him. He tried to call for the coppers to come back, but it was too late. They were already gone, and he was left alone with the driver.

The driver walked over to him, tutting as he took in the sight of his leg. “That’s a nasty wound you’ve got there,” he noted mockingly. “You really should be more careful.”

“What do you want?” Chris asked, pushing himself up in bed, his hand scrambling for the panic button… but the man was even faster, and he gently reached over and pulled it out of reach, leaving Chris’ hand hanging weakly in mid-air.

“I think we need to have a little talk about what happens moving fowards,” the driver said simply, towering over the man in the bed. “It’s funny all the work that went into getting you sorted and keeping you out of trouble, and you still manage to get yourself caught. I mean, you couldn’t write this stuff…”

As he leaned in, he reached down and his fingers curled around Chris’ foot. He screamed in pain, but the driver quickly covered his mouth to silence him.

“You were stupid enough to get caught,” the driver noted indignantly, gripping the ankle with such force Chris was sure he would yank it off. “And now, that bitch is going to have security up the arse. So, fuck you very much for that. The police are going to come down on you hard… especially if they find out you had anything to do with the attack on the super. They don’t like it when you go after one of their own.”

“Just tell me what you want!” Chris begged through gritted teeth, willing to do anything to stop the pain.

“The police are going to question you, and I want you to keep me out of it,” he instructed. “I don’t want anything linking me to the events of the last few days.”

“I don’t even know your name!” Chris insisted, hoping this would come across as reassurance, but the driver did little to loosen his grip.

“I’m not taking any chances. By the time all of this is done, your life might not even be worth living, but I promise you, if you fucking dare open your mouth about any of this… I promise you, hand on heart, I won’t lay a finger on you… but I can’t make the same promise for your family. So, every little punch or kick I would have delivered to you, I shall inflict on them, if the police start sniffing on my doorstep. Do I make myself clear?”

Chris nodded, tears running down his face from the pain. “Yes, fucking hell, yes!”

“Good,” the man said with a smile, releasing his grip on the leg. “Glad to know we understand each other. So, if anyone asks about why you did this, you can just paint yourself as a sad sack of shit with a grudge against the police. That one isn’t even much of a lie. Not really.” He leaned in close, whispering, “And don’t think that taking me out of the picture will make any difference, because it sure won’t. I’ve got people looking out for your family.”

He turned and walked away as the coppers returned to the bedside, looking down at Chris with a malicious glint, and he could tell they were aligned with the driver. One of them cracked their knuckles as a show of dominance.

He lay in the bed praying this was a dream he could soon wake up from.

24

Liv and Nikki walked towards the office the next morning, both looking like they were heading towards a firing squad.

“Have you thought about what you’re going to say?” Liv asked, and before Nikki had time to answer, she quickly added, “Whatever you do, don’t say anything to piss her off.”

“I can promise you, Liv,” Nikki said confidently, “it’s going to take a lot more than a classical resting bitch face to get the better of me,”

Great, if Nikki goes shooting her mouth off in there, that’s my career down the drain.

“Good luck,” was the last thing Liv said as Nikki made her way into the empty office.

DCI Steph Brown entered the office, fresh-faced after the dramatic events of the previous night but looking no less pissed off.

“I’m sorry, did I tell you you could sit?” the woman asked, irked at the disrespect.

“Well, in case you haven’t heard, it’s been a long night,” Nikki replied with a yawn that Steph couldn’t tell was exaggerated or not.

“I think you’re forgetting who your commanding officer is,” Steph snarled, trying to think of the various ways she could punish Nikki, who looked completely unfazed.

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” the sergeant responded with a smug look. “Last time I checked, she was in Derby. As you yourself was far too happy to point out, I have no authority as a police officer here. So, who am I supposed to answer to?”

“I could call DCI Taylor over in Derby and have her pull you up on a charge for interfering with an ongoing investigation,” she snapped irritably, holding up the phone.

“May I remind you that last night, Katie Gibson came under attack,” Nikki snapped, finally losing patience. “You saw the weapons, so you probably have a good idea what that fucker was going to do to her. And he would have followed through with it if I hadn’t got there when I did. Now you have a suspect in custody, so I think a thank you is in order.”

Steph’s nostrils flared. “You know, DS Harding,” she said through gritted teeth, “your reputation proceeds you.” Nikki couldn’t help but smile at that last bit. “Believe me, that’s not a compliment, so don’t bother taking it as one.”

“You need me to get this sorted,” Nikki stated confidently, wondering how far she could push it before Brown decided to bite the bullet. “And believe it or not, I need you. So, rather than tear strips off each other, maybe it’d be better to work together to find these people. I’ve taken time away from my daughter to be here. I’m going to be here for as long as necessary.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” the DCI asked, still sceptical.

“Maybe you can trust that I want to find Collins’ attackers,” Nikki suggested.

DCI Brown looked Nikki up and down. “Well, there’s no denying that the Superintendent had a good eye for talent.”

Nikki’s nostrils flared as she wondered whether that was meant as a dig at the affair she had been having with Collins. It was practically an open secret amongst the other officers, but Nikki wondered whether idle gossip had spread amongst officers beyond the Newquay precinct or if Brown had been filled in since she arrived. Either way, she didn’t need somebody holding leverage over her.

“So, where do we go from here?” Nikki asked, trying to rein in her mouth.

“I’m going to suggest that you work closely with DI Austin over the next few days,” the DCI suggested. “If you won’t listen to anything I have to say, maybe she’ll have better luck with you.” She sighed as she sat in one of the spare chairs, still making a conscious effort to avoid Collins’ chair. “Just don’t make me regret this.”

Nikki agreed, getting up from the seat and walking out. “And send DI Austin in after you,” Brown called after her, her voice echoing throughout the whole office.

“Looks like you’re up next,” Nikki noted as Liv perched on the edge of her desk.

Liv looked towards the office and could see the scowl on Steph’s face. “What the hell did you say to her?” she demanded, prompting an innocent shrug from Nikki. “Great, you were supposed to keep her on our side.” She sighed, trying to gear herself up for the bollocking. “If I should die, think only this of me… I’ll be back to haunt you.”

She headed towards the office wondering if the next person she passed in the office would be her replacement.

25

“Close the door, Olivia,” Steph instructed, and Liv remained standing, clearly trying to mitigate some of the damage that Nikki had done during her confrontation.

“I’ve had a chance to reflect on our conversation last night,” she said slowly, drawing out every single word as if a form of torture. “And I can appreciate that trust doesn’t come so easily to you. I can imagine you need a bit more proof that I’m on the side of the angels. If I wanted to, I could just have you removed from the investigation on the grounds of you being far too emotionally attached…” But then her face softened. “But I appreciate how much Collins means to you, and if it were my commanding officer, I know I would want to stop at nothing to find the people responsible. So, I’m going to keep you headlining the investigation.”

“You’re serious?” Liv asked, wondering if this was a pleasant dream she was about to wake up from. “You’re not going to shuffle me out?”

“Think of it as a show of trust. But there are a few conditions if I’m going to let you stay involved,” Steph instructed, counting them off with her fingers. “One: you don’t operate outside the rules. They’re there for a reason and breaking them gives other people a good excuse to bury us. Two: you make sure that you keep me in the loop every step of the way. I don’t want you making a move without me knowing. And three: perhaps the most important rule of all; I need you to keep Nikki Harding as far away from me as possible.”

Liv nearly burst into laughter at that last one, but she quickly regained her composure, trying to remain on her best behaviour and not screw up the opportunity. “Of course.”

“Repeat it,” Steph instructed firmly, not satisfied.

“What you say, goes,” Liv stated, waiting for the response.

“Okay.” Steph nodded, seemingly satisfied. “We’re going to be going over a lot of the evidence that was gathered last night, and we’ve also got Helen Pike coming in. I want you to make her feel welcome.”

“What?” Liv asked, befuddled. They’d consulted with Dr Pike on several cases where they needed to hastily put together a psychological profile. “With respect, ma’am, why do we need a psychiatrist? Bent coppers hardly have a complex psychology. The motive is normally the simplest of all—plain, simple greed.”

At that point, there was a knock at the door, and the two turned around to see Dr Pike standing there. “Speak of the devil,” DCI Brown commented, ushering the doctor into the office. “Thank you for joining us, Dr Pike. We appreciate you coming in.”

“DI Austin,” Helen said to Liv, clearly dealing with a sleepless night like the rest of them. “I’m sorry to hear about Steven. I wanted to do what I could to help the investigation.”

“Well, I appreciate everyone coming in to play their part,” Liv said, shaking her hand. “I think a good place to start would be with the suspect we have in the hospital. So far, he’s refused to talk to any of us, and I’m not quite sure how we’re supposed to get anything out of him. We could threaten him with life in prison, but I don’t know how far it would get us.”

“Chances are he’s not working alone on this one,” Helen suggested. “A man with that level of prep would be acting on behalf of somebody else. And if he’s keeping quiet, there are three possible reasons: he’s doing it out of loyalty, he’s being offered what you would consider hush money, or he’s scared of them.”

“Which one do you think it is likely to be?” Liv asked.

“Hard to say without speaking to him.” Helen noted. “When’s he’s out of the hospital and in police custody—assuming that’s where he’s headed—I’d very much like the chance to speak to him. For now, I’d like to turn my attention to Katie Gibson.”

“Oh, right, Katie, of course,” Liv said, feeling guilty. In the heat of the moment, she’d forgotten about how Katie Gibson had survived an attempt on her life. She hadn’t seen Katie since she’d been moved to a secure location with people that Steph could trust, but she could imagine the distress she’d been facing.

There was another knock on the door, and Liv wondered whether the whole office was going to be joining them in there. It was Tim Harris, and he looked a little worried. “We’ve been going over the evidence on our suspect, and I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”

26

“So, we ran his fingerprints through the system,” Tim announced once they were all gathered around his desk. “His name is Chris Hayes. His fingerprints were listed in our database. His crimes were… actually low-key, if I’m being honest. He was arrested as a college student for selling Class A drugs on his college campus.”

“Really?” Liv asked, shocked. “So, how the hell did he go from junior dealing to full-blown attempted murder?” The profile picture showed a young man who looked spaced out and a little shocked at what he was doing there.

“We’re not sure,” Tim replied, looking over the file. “We’ve been looking over any associates, but apart from a few people in his year at college, there was nobody that you could peg as the bloodthirsty type. Maybe his friends and family will have a different story to tell. I don’t know.” He went silent, but something told them that that wasn’t the end of the story, and he was clearly holding out on them.

“You got something more to say, Tim?” Nikki demanded impatiently. “Shit or get off the pot. Don’t keep the rest of us in suspense.” She had followed him as he entered the office, but she remained just outside the door, giving herself some distance from Brown.

Nikki always has a way with words, Liv said, taking note at Tim’s restraint, leaving him wondering whether there was somebody he was worried about pissing off. She’d always been easygoing with him. Steph was in the office, so the only person there could have been… Nikki. Should she try and get the DS away from the scene?

“We took in some of the weapons that were gathered from the scene,” Tim noted, mumbling a little, as if hoping that people wouldn’t pick up on certain parts. “We took a special interest in the crowbar because we found samples of dried blood on there.”

“Right…” Nikki said slowly. “Sorry, but I’m not seeing the…” Her face fell as the penny dropped, and Tim looked at Liv for permission to carry on. She nodded slowly, having a feeling she was going to regret it later on.

“So, obviously, the crowbar had his fingerprints all over it, but we had a look at the blood on the item…” Tim prepared to shatter everybody’s world. “...and it matches the guv’s.”

Silence descended over the office as everybody took in the news. “So… he’s the one who assaulted Steven?” Nikki asked in a dangerously low voice, her bottom lip trembling. Liv would have preferred for her friend to be shouting the office down.

Without another word, Nikki turned on her heels and headed for the door, Liv quickly following behind her. “Nikki, maybe we should talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about?” she asked, not stopping. “This fucker put our guv in the hospital, now I want to have a word with him.”

“Yeah, knowing you, Nikki, it’s never going to be just a word, is it?” Liv asked, trying to angle around and move in front of the woman, finally succeeding in blocking her route.

“Get out of my way, Liv,” Nikki said firmly, and Liv wondered whether the woman would be forceful enough to push her aside.

“Nikki, look,” she said, refusing to budge. “I get how you’re feeling. The gaffer means a lot to me too. I’m just as cut up about this as you are.”

Nikki paused before retorting, “I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.”

“Nikki, don’t make me pull rank,” she insisted.

“Please,” the DS scoffed. “That didn’t work back when I was based here, and it’s hardly going to work now. Now… you need to move out of my way before I move you myself.”

“Nikki, for once in your life, think about what you’re doing, please!” Liv pleaded with her friend. “You go to the hospital and lose your temper with this guy, you’ll be accused of intimidating a witness. That could cause a lot of problems for you not just here but for the life you’ve been building in Derby. Think of your daughter at the very least. You’ve only just got her settled there, for God’s sake. She doesn’t need her entire life upended like this.”

Nikki paused, the thought of her daughter penetrating through her red rage as she steadied herself. “That’s a cheap move, Liv.”

“Has it worked?” Liv asked, not wanting her friend to make such a big mistake.

Nikki tried to restrain herself. “I still intend to have a word with the little shit, so I guess it’s just as well I’ve got you there to hold me back.”

27

“Have you thought about what you’re going to say?” Liv asked, still wondering whether she should have let Nikki come to the hospital with her.

“I’m going to ask him why he attacked Collins,” she replied, not breaking her stride.

Forward as ever. “How about you let me handle the talking? I don’t want to have to wrestle you off him halfway through the interrogation.”

“You make me sound like a wild animal you have to keep on a leash,” Nikki exclaimed indignantly before Liv shot a raised eyebrow her way.

“I was worried I’d have to bang you in a cell during the interrogation,” Liv said as they headed up to the ward. “If this guy lawyers up, I don’t want his side to have anything they can use to throw a conviction out of court… assuming it gets that far.”

“I’ll keep myself in check,” Nikki offered with an extremely put-upon expression.

They arrived at the ward where Chris Hayes was lying in bed, and for all Liv’s talk about trying to keep it in check, she found herself fuelled with a burning hatred for the man in the bed. He’d taken the man they’d all seen as a mentor and a friend and left him beaten senseless. Keep yourself in check, Austin. For God’s sake, don’t lose control in front of Nikki.

“Chris Hayes?” she asked, watching him flinch as they said his name out loud. She held up her ID card. “I’m DI Austin; this is DS Harding.”

“Look, whatever you want,” he began, trying to move away on the bed.

“We’ve looked over the crowbar that was used to attack Katie Gibson and found traces of dried blood—blood matching Steven Collins, whom you assaulted and left for dead two nights ago. Assaulting a police officer is a very serious charge, and you’re lucky you didn’t finish the job, or we would personally make sure that you never saw the sun again.”

He tried to make himself as small as possible in his hospital bed.

“Now, the best thing you can do for yourself is to be as honest as possible and explain to us why you targeted Steven Collins,” Nikki insisted, trying to keep Liv from seeing her trembling fists. “And once we know the truth, we’ll decide where to go from there.”

Chris didn’t say anything, just sat and stared at the two detectives.

“So, why did you attack Collins?” Liv asked slowly, conscious of Nikki next to her.

“Do I need a reason?” he asked, putting on an air of bravado. “Guy was a fucking copper. He got what was coming to him. I’d wanted to kick the shit out of some shithead for a long time, and he was a convenient option. If I’d seen any of you first, I’d probably be giving you a taste of metal.” He looked the two women up and down snidely.

“Big words from a little man,” Nikki sniped, looking like she was going to drag him from the bed and down to the police station. But Liv remained calm.

“So, you’re saying that this was all just a grudge match,” she stated plainly. “But how do you explain going after Katie Gibson?”

The snide expression fell from his face. Clearly, he hadn’t considered that line of enquiry.

“That location she was based at was highly classified, only known to a select few. It’s not like we went handing it out to anyone who’d take it,” she explained, remembering that there were even some members of the police service who’d been kept in the dark. “So, how the hell did you know? Or are you going to tell us you have the gift of clairvoyance?”

Chris didn’t say anything, simply folding his arms and looking away.

“I don’t know who you’re protecting, but I can assure you they’re not worth it,” Liv said, trying to remain calm. “You do this, we can’t protect you from any legal consequences coming your way. So, I would think long and hard about what you want to say the next time we meet.” She turned and left.

“Well, that went well,” Nikki muttered sarcastically. “I can tell he was really gagging to get it off his chest. So, now we’re back where we started.”

“If you can think of a way of getting it out of him without violating every single rule in the book, be my guest,” Liv snapped back. “What he did to Collins… I don’t want to give him any wriggle room, and if you have any sense at all, you won’t hand it over on a plate.”

“So, what’s the alternative?” Nikki asked as they walked down the corridor. “Who else do you know who’s going to penetrate that thick skull of his?”

28

“This is something that needs to be handled delicately,” Dr Pike said back at the station. “He’s not going to crack so easily.”

“I’m sure I can help with the cracking,” Nikki exclaimed, prompting Liv to roll her eyes.

“And that, DS Harding, explains a lot,” Helen explained in a subtle dig. “He’s charged with serious offences. If this was indeed him acting out against the police and all by himself, then most people would be gladly offering up their firstborn for a shorter stint in prison. But he’s willing to risk all of that for the sake of not telling you every single detail about his motivations. So, there could be other reasons.”

“Like what?” Nikki asked. “Why don’t you look into that crystal ball and tell us what to look for? You seem to have all the answers.”

Helen looked blankly at Nikki before directly asking Liv, “Is that really what she thinks psychiatrist consists of? Do I look like Mystic Meg to you?”

“People, please?” Liv asked, looking behind the corridor to see if DCI Brown was lying in wait. “For God’s sake, I’m trying to show the new gaffer that we can keep our heads together throughout this job. How the fuck am I supposed to do that if you two are tearing strips off each other? There’s enough in-fighting going around as is.”

The two women went silent, so Liv gathered her thoughts. “Now, Helen, what do you feel you need to make a judgment on Chris Hayes?”

“Well, I’ve got his police file, but that just speaks to who he was years ago. It doesn’t explain who he is now. I can’t say or do anything without having a fuller hypothesis,” she admitted, speaking brazenly and clearly expecting backlash.

“How can you drag your feet knowing that the gaffer is lying in a hospital bed?” Nikki demanded, clearly unwilling to be talked down from her hot-blooded mindset.

Helen looked frustrated at having her professionalism criticised. “The constructive argument would be to say that it is because Collins has been injured that I am getting my bearings. There are clearly other people involved in this attack, and I want to ensure that they see their day in court. So, I’m ticking every single box.”

“And the nonconstructive argument?” Nikki asked, looking like she would be more receptive to that. Clearly, her time in Derby hasn’t dulled Nikki’s ability to play with fire.

“Would be to tell you to go fuck yourself and remind you that I have spent a lot of time in getting to the psychology of cases with a high success rate. Think of it like surgery; what tool would you give the surgeon—the scalpel or the hammer?”

Nikki stepped back, a little impressed with the woman’s tenacity. Liv silently wondered if this was how most people won Nikki’s respect. They had to not just take a bollocking but be able to dish one out.

“So, what happens now?” Liv asked, eager to move things forward.

“I suggest you go and speak to his social circle,” Helen stated. “That could be next of kin or friends. Maybe someone can make us understand why he did what he did. I appreciate we’re working against a ticking clock, but it’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

“And what are you going to do in the meantime?” Nikki asked, ever the smartarse.

“I’m going to go to the hospital and visit a man whom I have a great deal of respect for and wish him a speedy recovery,” she said plainly before turning on her heels and walking away, the click-clack signifying her departure.

“You realise that people like her are going to be running the place one day?” Nikki asked, a grudging respect in her voice.

“Well, I think we need to speak to Chris Haynes’ family, see if they can shed any light on his behaviour,” Liv announced, checking her phone for any news from Dean.

“I should say,” Nikki said as they walked down the corridor, “it is really good to be working with you again, Liv.”

“Even with the back-and-forth bitching?” Liv asked coyly.

“Hell, that was the best thing about our partnership,” Nikki retorted.

Liv smiled, feeling a lot more at ease. As they walked, she wondered where Dean was when all of this was kicking off.

29

Dean’s fear of prison had increased considerably over the last few years.

He never talked to anyone about it because he didn’t want to end up being psychoanalysed. But a few years ago, he’d been accused of police corruption, and even though he’d been innocent, he remembered how close he’d come to being locked up with a lot of the people he’d helped to put away. And now he was about to speak to the man responsible for that. A man he’d once seen as a mentor and a friend.

The doors opened, and the man stepped out, still carrying all the airs of a juggernaut. He still moved like he was the unrivalled star of the police service.

Neil Heaton had lost weight in the two years since Dean had last seen him, but he also observed that the man had gained some muscle.

“Dean Lawrence,” he said, taking a seat opposite the inspector. “Didn’t expect to see you again. How has life been keeping you?”

“You mean since you killed my former fiancé?” he asked, thinking about Gabriela, the former love of his life who’d been mowed down by a car in a hit-and-run organised by his former mentor as part of a plan to frame him.

“Oh, come on, you guys hadn’t been together for years,” the former officer scoffed. “If anything, I did you a favour. You were free to fully move on to that other bird you’ve been—”

“You keep her out of this,” Dean snapped, thumping his fist on the table.

“Ohh, struck a nerve there, did I?” he asked, looking pleased with himself. “Look, as much as I enjoy this back and forth, why don’t you tell me what you came down here for?”

“Bent coppers,” Dean announced, prompting a puzzled look from the other man. “Figured you would know all about them, given they’re your ilk.”

“And your point is?” Heaton asked, stifling a yawn.

“I wondered if you knew a few names,” Dean asked, looking steely. “People you can point in my direction. Might actually do yourself some good with the time you’ve got left.”

The other man’s bored expression broke into a smile. “Oh, this is classic,” he chortled. “I seriously wish I’d known why you were here ahead of time because I would have loved to record this. You coming in here to ask for help; it’s fucking classic.”

“You going to give me anything or not?” the inspector asked, trying to stay in control.

“Firstly, I’ve been in here for a long time, Dean,” he said, stating the obvious. “Assuming I was willing to part with any names, do you really think the same crowd are going to be running about? That they’re not going to move on to pastures new?”

Dean went silent, wishing he’d considered the passage of time.

“And also, why the fuck would I help you after you destroyed my reputation and my career?” he snarled, leaning toward the glass until he was only inches from it.

“You’ve got to be having a fucking joke,” he continued, getting years of resentment off his chest. “I still don’t know what was going through your head, Lawrence. All you had to do was play the game. You could have kept your mouth shut, helped out when needed, had more money than you knew what to do with, and it all would have run like clockwork. It would have been perfect. But no, you just had to blow it up from your moral fucking high horse.”

Dean smiled, feeling the advantage coming back his way. “Well, it’s a good thing I decided not to turn a blind eye, otherwise, I’d be stuck in a cell like you.”

“Oh, trust me, you little shit,” Heaton growled. “If I had my way, you wouldn’t even make it to the prison by the time I was finished with you. Let’s be honest, you’re only here because you’re in a tight spot, and you don’t want to be left with your dick in one hand. And the way I see it, you must be pretty desperate to come here asking me for help.” He motioned for the guard to collect him. “So, if you wouldn’t mind fucking off now, I’ve got better things to do with my time.” He got up to go, stretching.

Seeing that he was going to get nothing else out of his former mentor, Dean got up to leave, but the parting words Heaton left him with chilled him to the bone.

“By the way, congratulations on the wedding! August is a beautiful time to get married. I’ll have to send you and the future Mrs Lawrence a wedding present.”

Dean picked up the pace, unable to shake the feeling that he was now contaminated.

30

“Chris? In prison?” Mrs Hayes asked, shaking from the revelation. Nikki stood helplessly in the living room, trying to work out whether she should try to steady the grieving woman. Liv looked on, stricken to see yet another family torn apart.

“Mrs Hayes, I’m afraid we’ve found conclusive evidence placing him at the scene of the crime, and he has admitted as much to us while in custody,” Liv explained remorsefully.

“Can I see him?” she asked breathlessly. “I need to understand why he’s done this.”

More than anything, Liv wanted to try any trick that would get the young man to open up. But she could imagine how the situation would go, and she was coming to the conclusion that Mrs Hayes had as little understanding for her son’s dramatic turn as they did. “I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible right now,” she said. “We’re trying to work out why he’s done this, and so far, he hasn’t been very forthcoming. So, any information you can give us would be really helpful. And anything you share could really help your son going forward.”

She rubbed her arms. “To be honest, I don’t know. He’s never been like this before. He didn’t hang around with a bad crowd—apart from that incident in college. He straightened himself out afterwards, got himself a decent job as a mechanic, stayed out of trouble, and really stepped up with looking after his older brother.”

“His older brother?” Nikki asked, looking around the room for any trace of a sibling.

“Mike,” Mrs Hayes explained. “He suffers from epilepsy, and he’s had several health problems brought about by the condition. We’ve had good days and bad days, but Chris has really stepped up with looking after Mike. I’m very proud of him. And Mike thinks the world of him. They have a lovely relationship, so great that sometimes, I even feel jealous.”

“Where is Mike now?” Liv asked, wondering if it was worth speaking to him.

“He’s upstairs in his room,” she responded, her face clouding over. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell him what’s happened. He’s going to be devastated.”

“Do you think maybe we could have a word with him?” Liv asked, secretly hungry for any information the brother could offer. “Maybe we can break it to him gently, stop him from getting worked up.”

“Is there anyone you need us to call for you?” Nikki asked, leaving Liv grateful that whatever aggravation she was feeling for Chris Hayes, it didn’t extend to his family.

“Well, we’ve had a few people who have been offering some help,” Mrs Hayes explained wistfully, preparing herself for the new reality. “I wonder if Chris knew something was going to happen. Because it was only a few days ago that he sent somebody round.”

“Who was this?” Nikki asked, suddenly interested.

“Some guy who said he was a friend of Chris’ and wanted to help how he could,” Mrs Hayes replied, not picking up on the concern on the detectives’ faces.

“DS Harding, take down as much detail about this man as you can,” Liv said as she got up from her seat. “I’m going to have a word with Mike.”

No sooner had she got up the stairs, she saw a figure standing at the top, who immediately rushed out of sight. “Mike?” she asked, putting a face to the name.

She came to the bedroom door and looked in to see Mike sitting on his bed. Liv hovered in the doorway, unsure what to do. “Mike, my name is Detective Inspector Austin. I’m not sure how much you heard of the conversation, but your brother…”

“This is all my fault,” Mike muttered, not looking at her.

“How do you mean?” Liv asked, moving closer to the bed.

“I did something really stupid,” he explained. “My epilepsy was really playing up, and the drugs I was prescribed weren’t cutting it. So… I went out and got something harder.”

“Something illegal?” Liv asked without judgment.

“But I got caught by these coppers,” Mike told her, full of fear. “I was so scared that I was going to go to prison, but instead, they just dropped me off at home. A few days later, this guy came round to see Chris. I heard them talking, and the guy was saying that in return for keeping me out of trouble, Chris needed to do them a favour.”

“So…” Liv asked, all the pieces falling into place, with one just hovering above the puzzle. “Would this be the man who came to visit you a few days ago?”

“Yes,” Mike said, and Liv wanted to bolt downstairs and retrieve Nikki.

31

Diana and Andrew had continued their surveillance of the house for a while by this point and were already feeling frustrated with the lack of progress.

“You don’t think this is meant as a diversion, do you?” Andrew suddenly asked. “Keep all the coppers preoccupied with pointless shit, then go and commit a crimes spree?”

“I don’t think criminals are going to be putting that much focus into diverting attention away from themselves,” Diana replied. “They’re not that organised.”

“Do you fancy guessing what’s likely to be going on in there?” he asked, pointing towards the house, which remained all but abandoned.

“Is this your copper equivalent of playing ‘I Spy?’” Diana asked dryly.

“Just trying to think of ways to pass the time,” he noted with a shrug. “Of course, if you’re happy to sit here in silence. I mean, I’m pretty sure you don’t get this kind of banter with the new partner. Stiff as a board, I’ve heard.”

“True, he’s not you,” she answered dryly. “But I don’t want to waste any time speculating. I’d rather think about something that isn’t related to a life-or-death scenario.”

“What do you have in mind?” he asked, glad for the reprieve from heavy thoughts.

“Whether you are going to be bringing a date to Olivia’s wedding in August,” she said, glad she could broach the subject without the risk of Andrew getting all sullen.

“Who knows?” Andrew said, not taking his eyes off the house. “I mean, I think it comes down to what people are looking for. Some people might just want a quick one-and-done instead of a lifelong relationship.”

“Well, there’s one way to find out,” Diana suggested. “Try dating apps.”

“Oh, hell no,” Andrew replied dramatically, as though she’d just ask him to walk over hot coals. “I take a lot of pride in knowing I’ve never needed dating sites. I’m that good at picking up people.” Diana smiled at the grandiose opinion he had of his prowess, though Andrew had certainly lived up to the nickname ‘Duracell.’

“How did you go about hooking up with Clara?” Andrew asked. “I mean, I look at you two and you’re pretty much the role model for what a good relationship looks like. Hell, even Liv and Dean’s relationship isn’t as steady, and they can’t keep their hands off each other.”

“Well, I’m flattered you think that,” she responded. “But we aren’t without our problems. We’ve both had our fair share of bad days, several of them with each other. But I’ve definitely enjoyed more good days with Clara than any other person. There’s no real trick to romance. Sometimes, you’re thrown together by circumstance, and you just make it work. It helps that me and Clara both understand what is required of us. So, if I have to work long hours, I don’t have to worry about getting a bollocking when I walk into the house in the middle of the night. She’s very understanding. And that’s what I need.”

“No offence,” Andrew said after listening, “but I’d be very worried if my only options for true love were limited to the policing dating pool.”

“Wait!” Diana called out, pointing to the house. The same man who’d inspected the house was walking inside. Only he wasn’t alone. Alongside him were three other people, all dressed in suits. “Looks like some kind of dickhead convention.”

“Should we go in after them?” Andrew asked, his heart beating faster.

“I say we should call it in,” Diana explained. “We can’t do this on our—”

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sound of a tapping from the other side of the car window. They looked around to see a man wearing a suit with a threatening expression glaring at them through the glass. His face had a mashed-up look to it, as though he’d been on the receiving end of too many fights.

“Out the car,” he instructed. “And leave your guns and radios behind.”

It was only when Andrew looked out the window that he could see the people headed into the house were now standing outside watching the car.

Diana wondered if they could pull out before the man was able to fire a shot but felt it best not to chance it. Instead, they both got out of the car, their hands raised in the air, both wondering why it was they always found themselves in these situations.

“Move,” the man instructed, edging them towards the house.

32

Back at the police station, Liv and Nikki were going over the conversation they’d had with Chris Hayes’ family with Dr Pike. “So, he was coerced into cooperating?” she queried.

“Yes,” Liv replied. “They threatened to have his brother turned over to us if he didn’t do what they wanted. So, all along he was protecting them.”

“And he decided to go and assault a copper?” Nikki asked, her voice completely devoid of sympathy. “I’m sorry, but he made his choice, so he’d better not be using that as his get-out-of-jail-free card. I still want to see him crucified. I’ll do it myself if I have to.”

“Nikki, I can assure you, he will face consequences for what happened to Collins,” Liv insisted, trying to remain objective and neutral. “But clearly there were mitigating circumstances. He was doing what he had to do to protect his family. Are you honestly telling me that if that was your daughter being threatened, you wouldn’t have done the same?”

Nikki was unable to come up with a response to that and simply went quiet.

“Some of the worst things are done in the name of love,” Helen chimed in, trying to be helpful. “Regardless of how I feel about the superintendent, I can sympathise with his reasons for what he did. He was placed in an impossible position.”

“So, where do we go from here?” Nikki asked, figuring that it probably wasn’t an option for her to keep on holding a grudge, not when everyone was feeling sympathetic.

“Well, now, we need to look at identifying the man who has been visiting them,” Liv said. “We can start with having a look in the database. But the first thing should be to get a pair on the Hayes family, make sure they’re all right. If Chris knows that they’re safe, maybe he’ll open up to us. He won’t have an incentive to hide all the details.”

“You really think he’ll do that?” Nikki asked, ever the sceptic.

“Why wouldn’t he?” Liv asked, thinking over the rough description they’d provided of the mysterious visitor. “What’s his incentive for keeping them out of the spotlight?”

“At the very least, it will get the new DCI off your back,” Dr Pike suggested.

“Always a plus,” Liv noted. “So, here’s the plan. First, I want a pair of uniformed officers on hand to take the Hayes family to a secure location, and nobody else knows,” she insisted. “Then, once we know they’re safe, Helen can initiate a conversation with Chris at the hospital, and maybe that can speed up the process of finding this mystery man.”

“Are you sure I shouldn’t be doing this?” Nikki asked. “I mean, I am a serving police officer, of course. And Helen is just a psychiatrist. No offence.”

“None taken,” Helen replied dryly. “So, tell me, DS Harding, if you were interrogating the suspect, what would you say to him?”

Nikki hesitated for a moment before she responded. “I’d tell him that if he doesn’t start cooperating, he can look forward to a having an arsehole like a clown’s pocket.”

Liv looked at Dr Pike, trying not to grimace, and said, “You’d better do the interview.”

Nikki looked a little put out but conceded the request. “Well, I suppose you’d better go and update her royal highness to see if she approves. What about the house?”

“Well, we could be waiting a long time before we hear any results,” she noted, conscious that she couldn’t keep Andrew and Diana parked outside forever. “If we don’t hear anything soon, we’ll have to either leave the house or storm it. We can’t do the latter until we’ve got proof of what’s going on inside.”

“Warrant wouldn’t normally stop me,” Nikki said with a shrug.

“How the hell are you still employed by the police service?” Helen asked incredulously, looking the sergeant up and down. “Do you have some kind of guardian devil to keep you out of trouble every time you break regulations?”

Before Nikki could give a smart-arsed response, Clara came into the corridor. She looked panic-stricken. “Liv, I need your help.”

“What’s the matter, Clara?” Liv asked, seeing her friend trembling and instantly knowing that there were only a few things that could make the unflappable technician seem so unsettled, and the top of that list was normally—

“Has something happened to Diana?” the inspector asked, remembering the assignment she’d sent the young PC on, alongside Andrew. Oh, no…

33

Andrew had lost count of the number of times he and Diana had been abducted during an ongoing investigation. It seemed to be a running gag. Whether it was kidnapped, held hostage, assaulted, or left in a deathtrap, trouble always seemed to find the two detectives. Despite the constant near misses, Andrew had always wondered whether their luck would run out eventually. This case was no different.

After the two had been marched out of the car at gunpoint, they had been taken into the house, which looked more like a show home than a party house. Neither had said anything, not wanting to give too much away about themselves and risk putting themselves in even more danger. The best approach they could take was to keep quiet and not give the game away. They were led downstairs to a basement and restrained to a radiator with their own handcuffs before being left there, their captors not even bothering to address them.

The door slammed shut as the two tried to work out what their next move should be.

“Are we ever not going to find ourselves in situations like this?” Andrew asked, attempting to stay calm. He often tried to mitigate serious situations with banter, but this was really pushing it for both of them, and he could see it was only having so much effect on Diana.

“What are we going to do?” Diana asked, trying to maintain a steely resolve.

“Look, they know we’ve been checking out the place,” Andrew stated calmly. “If we don’t get back to them after enough time, they’ll have to send somebody out to get us.”

“How can you be so sure that we’re going to be all right?” Diana asked, straining against the handcuffs. Despite her best efforts, she was hurtling towards panic mode.

“This is a recurring thing for us,” Andrew explained lightly. “I’ve got it pencilled into my diary; 5 pm, get taken hostage. It’s that common.”

Diana found herself laughing in spite of the situation. “If we get out of this, I’m never going to ask you to shut up ever again.”

“I tell you what, when all is said and done, I’m definitely going to start thinking about putting in for a desk job,” Andrew joked.

The doors creaked open and heavy footsteps came thudding down the stairs, and all the joy that Andrew had previously scraped together died away instantly.

The man came out and looked at the two. “So, we have two coppers on hand. I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and assume you’re not with Heaton?”

Andrew and Diana looked at each other blankly, trying to think of something to say that’d get them out in one piece.

“Right, come on, get to your feet,” he said as several other people piled into the room. They all worked together to uncuff the two officers from the radiator before recuffing them behind their backs.

They were led into the main living room where several people were standing, mostly men, but one or two women. A man came up to them wearing a pinstripe suit. He took a long drag on a cigar and blew it in their faces. “I know their faces. They’re part of Collins’ crew. Thought what happened to him would knock some sense into you both.”

“Well, I’ve never been one for common sense,” Andrew joked, keeping on a brave face even as a burly man drove a fist into his stomach.

The pinstripe man declared, “I think we need to make an example of them.” He got up close in Diana’s face. “And I can promise you that unlike your boss, it won’t be a half-arsed job. We will be happy to go all the way.”

It was then the pair could see all the instruments that the group were holding; crowbars and pipes gripped in their palms… They had every intention of bludgeoning the two to death.

Andrew and Diana went silent, waiting with bated breath. Andrew let out a little smile.

“Something funny?” the pinstripe man asked.

“I think the expression ‘caught with your pants down’ comes to mind,” he noted dryly, just as the front doors burst open.

“ARMED POLICE!” Liv called out, wearing a stab vest and holding up an ID card as a group of AFOs swarmed into the living room, holding every at gunpoint. “You’re all under arrest! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get away from my officers!”

34

Liv couldn’t believe how many people they had rounded up all at once. It was one of the most widespread arrests in her entire career. There was no way anybody was going to be getting off. Even the best solicitors would have a hard time sweeping it under the carpet.

“In some ways, it was probably just as well we were about to get beaten to a pulp,” Andrew joked back at the station, but Diana looked completely unamused.

“I’d say you should look at getting kidnapped more frequently, but I think that’s pretty pointless at this point,” Liv said, conscious of Diana’s more fragile state.

Clara came rushing towards the group, wrapping her arms around her wife. “You have got to stop scaring me like that.” She stroked Diana’s face tenderly. “Did they hurt you?” She suddenly remembered Andrew was there too and asked, “Either of you?”

“Nothing that a bit of TLC won’t solve,” Andrew chided, nudging Diana. “Obviously for her, but I’ll happily swoop in for a bit of pampering.”

Liv couldn’t help but notice that Andrew was rambling a little, and she wondered whether he was using his trademark humour as a cover for what he was really feeling.

“I knew nothing was going to happen to you,” Clara insisted, holding up the small bug that had saved them both and led to the arrest.

When Liv and Archie had first happened upon the house, Liv had arranged for Clara to put together a bug which had been placed on the window ledge and would be able to pick up just enough sound going on inside. Originally, it’d only been Liv, Archie, and Clara who knew, but after Diana and Andrew had started staking out the house regularly, they’d been informed about the bug and Clara had picked up on the sounds of the two being led through the house. She dreaded what would have happened if they’d got there a few minutes later.

“I take it the bug has since been removed?” Liv asked, knowing that she’d already avoided telling DCI Brown about the bug despite having had several opportunities to come clean. And if Steph found out now about the it, even arresting the entire criminal population of Newquay would not be enough to get her off the hook.

“Just make sure that none of this comes out,” Liv instructed in a hushed voice, not wanting to have the conversation in the middle of the station, but feeling they needed to sort it out ASAP to avoid any crossed wires later. “I appreciate that we are all taking a collective risk here by keeping this quiet, but I need to keep myself at the front and centre of this investigation, so I need to know that you lot are going to back me up.”

There was a pause amongst the group before Andrew stepped up, clearly speaking for all of them. “Do you even need to ask? We’ve been on your side from day one, Liv. And we’ll be there to the bitter end. Right, guys?” They all nodded their heads in agreement.

Olivia felt overwhelmed with the show of support. “Thank you, guys,” she said gently. “I can’t tell you what this means to me.”

“You don’t need to,” Diana offered. “This has been tough for everyone, but you’re getting us through it, bit by bit. Hell, me and Clara owe you everything.”

“I’m definitely going to recommend we take a break when all is said and done,” Clara chimed in, having not let go of her wife since they were reunited.

Archie came rushing up to the group, his flushed face showing a smile. “Good news, everyone. I’ve just spoken to the hospital, and Superintendent Collins is stable enough to be brought out of his coma.”

There was a collective cheer amongst the group, and Liv was relieved that after so much struggle, they had something good to look forward to.

“Should we go and see him?” Andrew asked. “Put a smile on his face.”

“Not yet,” Liv reasoned. “We’re all happy to know he’s doing better, but we don’t want to overwhelm him so soon after waking up. There’s only one person who needs to be there right now and that’s his wife. So, let’s let them have their moment.”

They all nodded in solemn agreement.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to update the DCI on everything that’s been going on,” Liv explained, hoping that she could say all the right things to get her to leave the office intact.

35

“Well, that’s certainly an impressive arrest, DI Austin,” Steph noted, a smile breaking out on her face, the expression looking completely foreign to Liv. “We’re not just talking police officers, we’re talking council members, people of high influence, the likes of whom have been suspected of shady activities for a long time. But we’ve never been able to get anything to stick. Until now. You’ve certainly lived up to your reputation.”

“Oh, we’re still making arrests,” Liv noted. “Some of these people were former police officers who left the service under a cloud, given the choice of a quiet resignation over a public disgrace. But they decided they weren’t satisfied and were working with corrupt officers still in the process of serving, trying to use their influence to line their own pockets.”

Finally, Steph collapsed into Collins’ seat, overwhelmed by it all, but Liv didn’t tell her to get out of the chair. Or at least didn’t plan to until the meeting was over. “The sad thing is that I know a lot of these officers,” she explained. “They were around when I joined as a PC. And if they wanted to get involved in corruption, I would have rather it was down to something ideological, something grand, rather than the age-old excuse of cash-in-hand.”

“Well, they seem to be cooperating with the investigation, if only to reduce their jail time,” Liv replied glumly. “They’re all lawyering up as we speak, but my two officers are willing to attest that they were about to be beaten within an inch of their lives before we showed up. And they will testify as such in court, so their captors haven’t got much of a leg to stand on.”

“How are they both?” Steph asked, full of concern. “Must have been terrifying.”

“They’re going to be okay, I think,” Liv said, more hoping than knowing. She knew one could only go through so many life-or-death situations before finally burning out.

“Yes, the timing couldn’t have been better,” Steph noted knowingly. “Turn up too early and it wouldn’t be incriminating enough, but turn up too late and you might not have saved DC Shaw and PC Hershel. It was like you had a bit of clairvoyance.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Liv said, looking a little spooked. Is she fucking with me? Does she know something? The atmosphere suddenly felt a lot more tense.

“Just to be clear,” Steph noted, “I’m a pragmatist by nature. I know from others that you have quite a… reputation, Olivia. I care about seeing the right people get the right punishment. I’m pretty sure that you and I are on the same side, so if there are ever facets of the investigation that you’re not willing to share, then… if I’m ever asked, I don’t want to have to lie. All ask is don’t treat me like an idiot.”

“I can get onboard with that,” Liv replied, internally breathing a sigh of relief.

“Now, I’ve heard that Superintendent Collins is set to make a recovery,” she offered. “But as he is in no fit state to return to active duties, it’s been agreed that I shall be remaining here for the foreseeable future. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No, not at all,” Liv replied earnestly. Once, she might have been all too happy to see the back of DCI Brown, but the incoming officer had understood what was at stake and had trusted Liv to lead the investigation her way. Even though there were moments when Liv had thrown that trust back in her face. Now she had to prove that she had earned that faith.

“Have you had any luck on the man responsible for strongarming Chris Hayes into attacking Superintendent Collins?” Steph asked, and Liv wondered if the top brass had been begging for a scalp so as not to be seen as looking weak following an attack on their own.

“We’ve managed to identify him as Patrick Moore,” Liv explained. “He was a former police officer who was let go from the service about seven years ago for numerous offences like planting drugs on people or taking bribes to let them go. Even though the evidence was supposedly watertight, because of his connections, he was given public interest immunity. He’s since been working as a driver-for-hire and a muscle man for the wrong people. Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to find him.”

“He’ll stick around,” Steph surmised. “People like that are always looking for new moves to make. At least we’ve managed to get Chris Hayes’ family into protection.”

“Yes,” Olivia said, sounding glum. She understood that he’d only been doing what he had to do in order to protect his family, but given the assault on a high-ranking service police officer, no one was willing to let that slide. People would want to make an example of him.

36

Liv and Nikki called in to see how Katie Gibson was holding up after her ordeal. She’d been moved to a much more isolated location, and the two women had kept the address on a need-to-know basis. They didn’t want a repeat of the last situation.

“Got to say,” Nikki noted as she took a swig of coffee. “Nice self-defense there.” Her anger at the woman was slowly being replaced by a grudging respect. “Didn’t know you had it in you. You might still make a good copper yet.”

But Katie wasn’t in the mood to receive any compliments. “So, what’s happening to the guy who attacked me? I hope you’re throwing the book at him.”

Nikki sighed a little. “Do you want to take this one, Liv?” She leaned back in her seat, ready to enjoy the spectacle. “This will be good to hear.”

Liv shot a dirty look at Nikki for enjoying her discomfort a little too much. “We’re still waiting to find out what’s going to happen to him, Katie. We’ve discovered that people were threatening his family in order to force his cooperation. They had him over a barrel.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?” Katie asked. “I could have died. I only survived because DS Harding got there when she did.”

“I promise you that we’re pulling out all the stops to make sure you’ve got full protection,” Liv insisted, appreciating the woman’s fear.

“Until the next time,” the former journalist explained. “You know they’re just going to find me again. You put my attacker in the hospital and then in prison and you’re uncertain what charges he’ll face?” She slapped her hands on her knees. “You know what, I don’t even know if I want to take the risk anymore. I want to pull out of testifying.”

“Katie, you can’t do that,” Liv exclaimed, suddenly frantic. “We need you to help put these people away. You’ve been front and centre throughout all of this.”

“And I’ve been paying the price for it,” she exclaimed angrily. “You say you want to put these people away, but you seem to be focused on protecting them. This guy attacked Collins, for God’s sake… Yeah, I found out what else he’s been getting up to.”

Liv shot Nikki a look, who simply shrugged her shoulders.

“I get that this needs to be done, but I need to feel safe in what I’m doing,” she insisted, getting up and going to the bedroom. A slamming door signaled the conversation was over, and Liv and Nikki were left alone.

“Did you really have to spill the beans about Collins?” the inspector asked.

“She needed to understand what was happening with her attacker to feel safe,” the sergeant explained without a shred of remorse. “He almost killed her.”

“There were mitigating circumstances, and you know it, Nikki,” Liv snapped. “And what the hell are you doing agreeing with her? It was only a few days ago you could barely stand to be in the same room as her. And now what, she’s your bezzie mate?”

“Oh, I’m not agreeing because I suddenly like her,” Nikki insisted. “I’m agreeing because of what happened to Collins. We both want the shithead sent down.”

“He will get his punishment, I promise you,” Liv assured her with an exasperated sigh. “This is one of the most complicated cases I’ve ever worked, Nikki. I’m trying to do what I can with both hands tied behind my back. This case has given me a lot of grief over the past few months and will probably continue to do so before all is said and done. And I need people around me who can help me through it.”

“Let me guess… I’m not one of them?” Nikki asked sardonically. “You’d rather I fuck off back to Derby and leave you to it?”

Liv had to stop herself from agreeing with that. “No, that is not what I want, and you know it. I need you, Nikki, not just as a fellow copper but as a friend.” She hoped that laying herself bare emotionally would make Nikki see sense.

“Thing about friends, Liv,” Nikki retorted, “is they don’t always tell you what you want to hear, but they usually tell you what you need to hear. And you aren’t always going to like what I have to say. For what Hayes did to Collins, he has to be punished. If it’d been Dean’s head on the chopping block, you’d spare no quarter regardless of what you could get out of him, and you know I’m right. Deep down on some level, I know you know I’m right.”

37

Steven Collins opened his eyes once again, still adjusting to the lights above him.

He hated being awake, as every nerve ending felt completely scorched and he found himself flashing back to that night where he was on the ground having the life beaten from him. So many thoughts went flashing through his head: thoughts of his team, the dangers they’d be facing without him, Nikki, his wife… He’d found himself looking back on all his previous interactions with the people he was close to and wondering whether that could count as a decent goodbye.

He and Allison had a long talk about what the future would hold, facing his cancer diagnosis and now spending what could be months or even years being rehabilitated for his injuries. It was a long road ahead. And now, more than ever, he was grateful to have his wife by his side. Her very presence strengthened him.

“Good to see you up and awake, guv,” Liv stated, walking over to the bed with a bouquet of flowers. But she needn’t have bothered. Collins’ visitors had sent in enough flowers to turn his room into a small florist's, all reminders of how long it’d taken before Liv had worked up the nerve to visit him. “Sorry, I couldn’t see you sooner,” she offered apologetically, “but I’ve had a lot on…”

“You don’t have to apologise to me,” he offered sincerely. “If you’re not here, you’re out there doing important work. As you always have. So as far as I’m concerned, you’ve been exactly where you needed to be.”

She looked over his legs, still covered by the blankets and not showing the full extent of the damage done to them. “What have the doctors said?”

“They reckon there’s a chance I’ll make a good recovery, but it will require a fair bit of physio.” He said the words so nonchalantly, she figured he must have taken the time to get used to his new situation.

“Well, for what it’s worth, we’ve found the man who assaulted you,” Liv explained. “He’s in police custody and is cooperating with the investigation.” She didn’t feel the need to discuss the ins and outs of the treatment he’d been receiving. Nikki had already given her a big enough headache.

“How’s my replacement working out?” Collins asked. “DCI Brown, isn’t it?”

“She’s something of an acquired taste,” Liv replied honestly. “But she’s really come through for us when we needed her to. Though I wouldn’t go calling her a replacement. She is just keeping your seat warm until you get back.”

Collins smiled thinly, adjusting himself in the bed. “While I appreciate the sentiment, I’m afraid you’re going to have to start seeing her as my replacement.”

“What do you mean?” Liv asked, wondering if the conversation was going where she thought it was going. She took in the resolute look on his face. “You’re not…”

“I’ve just sustained an extended beating to my entire body,” he explained bluntly. “That’s one of a dozen memories I neither want nor need. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to do what I can to aid the investigation, from a bed of course and with limited hours. My doctor is not the kind of man you want to go against, believe me. But when all is said and done, I’m going to early retirement. I’ll get a few extra thousand on my pension.”

Liv’s heart sank. She opened her mouth to speak, but Collins held up a hand to silence her. “Don’t bother trying to change my mind. It’s already made up. And please don’t look at this as me throwing in the towel because I can’t hack it. I’ve had a long and prosperous career. I’ve done everything that I needed to do. If I can help you solve this case—my last case—I can walk away a contented man.”

Liv didn’t know what to say. Collins had been her commanding officer for as long as she’d been at Newquay. How could she cope without him there?

“And while Steph Brown is currently filling my boots, it’s my hope she’s not going to be doing it for very long,” he continued, a smile forming on his pained face. “Because when all is said and done, she’s just a placeholder. They’re going to want somebody more permanent to head the change, so I will be putting your name forward for the position of Detective Chief Inspector. If anyone deserves it, Olivia, it’s you.”

EPILOGUE

“You’re not serious?” Dean asked, still digesting the news.

“I know! I did have to ask him whether he was high on medication,” Liv noted as she paced up and down the living room, Briggs dutifully following behind. “But he said he meant every word of it. And I have no idea what to make of that.”

“Well, for starters, I would say congratulations,” Dean explained. “I’m a little bit miffed that I’m finding out now, otherwise I’d have brought champagne with me. Should I wait a few months, or should I get used to calling you DCI Austin right now?”

“Yeah, I don’t think you should be saying any of that around Collins,” she cautioned, half-joking. “He’s going to think you’re desperate to see the back of him.”

“Well, just happy for you to get that leg up in your career,” Dean explained, falling down onto the sofa. “Nobody deserves it more than you.”

Liv went silent. She wanted to feel good about this. Most police officers aspired to a rank of high command, and now, after years of hard work and suffering, she was finally being offered that. But she wasn’t sure if it was what she wanted.

It all went back to when her brother had gone missing. She’d spent so much time holding out hope that he might turn up one day, but the torture of never knowing was agonising. So, when she joined the service, she hoped that she could bring closure to families who were still missing someone and give them the salvation that she and her family had been forced to go without.

Over time, it had put a strain on her personal relationships. She’d seen loved ones die in the line of duty, and it had taken a huge emotional toll. As time went on, the job had become less about what she stood to gain from it and more about justifying what she’d put into it. Committing herself to the post of Detective Chief Inspector would mean more rigid rules. Not only that, but it could run the risk of making her more answerable to the higher brass. She’d heard of cases where recently promoted DCIs were expected to take a desk job and monitor from an office. But she knew that out there in the middle of a crime scene, comforting family members, interrogating suspects, that’s where she was needed most. And even that felt like an emotional debt she was struggling to pay.

But when she saw the pride and joy in Dean’s face, how could she turn around and say she was hesitant about it all?

For his part, Dean hid his feelings behind a congratulatory wave.

As much as he enjoyed his job, there were times when he felt like it’d come at the expense of everything else. His relationship with Liv was the most precious thing in the world to him, and yet there were moments when it felt like she had to come second to an ongoing case. He wanted to be able to give Liv the time and energy that she deserved.

Sometimes, he’d thought about packing in the whole job, just hitting the road and going travelling with Liv for a little while. Just the two of them, free from the shackles of trauma, just able to bask in each other’s company and comfort.

But that would mean asking Liv to give up the career that she’d worked so tirelessly for. And given that she’d just been offered the biggest boost of her career, how could he snatch it away from her? How could he make her feel like she had to give it all up just to make him happy? He wouldn’t do that to Liv. He loved her far too much for that.

When it came to lifelong plans, the pair had tossed around a number of ideas but had agreed that they weren’t going to commit to anything until they got the wedding done and sorted. That needed to be the best day of their lives, and they couldn’t afford to let anything ruin it.

“We’ve got a lot of things to be grateful for,” Dean exclaimed happily, sitting down on the sofa where Liv joined him. “The case is moving forward, Collins is out of the danger zone, Nikki is back on the scene…”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how good I’m supposed to be feeling about that,” she muttered. Having Nikki around for help had brought back not only the memories of all the times they’d worked well together but also all the times they clashed.

“She’s a huge asset to the team,” Dean insisted. “And you know that she’s always had your back when you need it. Just as you will with whatever’s coming our way.”

Liv tried to take that as a positive.

Dean wondered if he should tell her about the conversation he’d had with Neil Heaton and the implicit threat made against them. He knew Heaton well enough to know that the man didn’t make empty threats, and he didn’t want to lose Liv the same way he lost Gabi.

But he reasoned that Liv had just been handed a big victory. For now, everything was falling into place, and they just wanted to enjoy the peace while they could. All the problems of tomorrow would still be there.

He pulled her in close and kissed her on the forehead, soaking in the scent of her perfume and running his hands through her thick brown hair…

Suddenly, there was a shattering of glass and Briggs started barking at the newly made hole in the window. The offending object flew through the air and landed on the ground near the dining table.

The two bolted up from their seats and went to look at the item in question.

It was a petrol bomb.

THE END

TO BE CONTINUED…

Find out more in Book Forty-Nine here: Bones To Break

Looking for Book Forty-Nine? Don’t worry, it’s here!

Bones To Break - DI Austin Book Forty-Nine

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Sins Evoked - DS Leah West Book One

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Find the Girl - DI Austin Book One

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I’ve always had a passion for writing stories and loved being able to create a world and have my characters live inside it. Being able to do this has been a dream come true and I’m so grateful that you could join me on this journey .

I live in the United Kingdom with my Husband and four young children who keep me busy and who I wouldn’t ever be without.

I hope you enjoy reading my books and please feel free to join me on social media where I love to interact with my readers!

mrsrobertswrites@hotmail.com