TOWN UNDER SEIGE

DI OLIVIA AUSTIN - BOOK THIRTY-NINE

NIC ROBERTS

Copyright © 2024 by Nic Roberts

‘Town Under Seige’

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

She aimed the gun around the area, trying to ignore the burning pain in her broken arm. It was hard to tell which bones were shattered.

But she was not going to back down. She gripped the handgun with her good hand and moved through the building, trying to ignore the searing agony rippling through her body or the sense of dread once she got to the other side of the building. She just had to keep pushing on.

Funnily enough, she’d always entertained a scenario where she’d have to use a gun. Rolled it over and over in her mind. But she certainly didn’t imagine anything like this happening. Not these circumstances.

She secretly hoped that she didn’t find what she was looking for. She prayed that somebody else would find him before she did. That someone else would have to make the call.

In the pain-induced daze, she stumbled and leaned against a wall for support… only to rely on her broken arm to prop herself up.

She screamed in pain and stumbled to the floor, tightening her grip on the gun as she fell.

More than anything, she knew she just wanted to hang back and let somebody else handle this situation. But she knew in her gut that if she let this one slip through the net due to personal reasons, then she’d never forgive herself. She’d certainly be unable to look her colleagues in the face… though she wasn’t sure if she could do that now, anyway.

She moved through the building, which felt increasingly like a labyrinth… maybe that was why he’d chosen it in the first place.

And then she saw him.

Outwardly, nothing had changed. He still had the same clothes that he wore on a day-to-day basis, the same hairstyle, even that same confident smile that’d originally won her over.

But there was something different behind the eyes. Something primal, a change had taken place that alone rendered him completely unrecognisable to her.

Or maybe he’d always been like this, and she’d just never seen that side to him.

Now he was talking, clearly trying to come up with all these half-arsed justifications for why he was doing the things he was doing. But that wasn’t the most bizarre thing of all. What really took her by surprise was that he actually expected her to buy into his bullshit.

She couldn’t understand how she could have got things so wrong between them. And maybe she should have bluffed her way out of this, tried to find a way to get him at a disadvantage later, but she was so overwhelmed with disgust that there was no way she could convincingly fake compliance. That had always been her flaw. She was terrible at maintaining a decent poker face.

Even when he tried the age-old trick of emotional blackmail, she wouldn’t allow herself to be swayed, instead making her position clear in no uncertain terms.

He looked at her with disappointment, though clearly it wasn’t much of a surprise on his end.

And just as her feelings for him hadn’t compelled her to change course, the same could be said for him.

A shot rang out and she opened her mouth in a silent scream.

1

Detective Inspector Olivia Austen was taken aback by this surprising first.

“Do you want a coffee?” Nikki Harding asked, gesturing to the pot.

“Can’t hurt,” Liv replied, knowing she’d be benefiting from a caffeine fix later on. But it was rare for Nikki to be anywhere near the coffee machine.

Nikki poured two mugs and handed one to Liv and the two women stood in silence for a moment. For the last few weeks, things had been quiet for Newquay CID, nothing major to investigate, the worst that they’d had to deal with was the occasional drunkard or shoplifter. But Liv had been working in the service long enough to mistrust the quiet.

But Nikki’s hardly going to get worked up over some teenager nicking from the off license. “Penny for your thoughts?” the inspector asked in a tone that was sympathetic without being too intrusive.

“Just been a bit of a stretch, if I’m honest,” Nikki replied, leaning against the counter and Liv got a good look at her for the first time. She had definitely lost weight, her jacket almost sagging against her body, and her face looked a little gaunt. But even though she looked like something was sucking the life out of her, there was still that spark in her eyes that hinted at the ferocity she was known for.

“Just this divorce case dragging out longer than it needs to,” Nikki explained, taking a sip of coffee, clearly looking disappointed that it wasn’t anything stronger. “I’m trying to look at it as a fresh start for myself, but Enzo’s determined to rake me over the courts. And it’s going to cost him money eventually. I honestly think he’d gladly bankrupt himself if he thought he had a chance of ruining my life.”

Liv hadn’t met Nikki’s husband, but she’d heard of plenty of divorce cases with no end of pettiness on both sides.

“Now, I don’t care about the money,” Nikki continued, setting the now-empty mug down. “I don’t need anything from him, I’m happy to just walk away… but he’s suing for full custody of Francesca, citing that I’m an absent parent working unreasonable hours.”

“You’re a police officer,” Liv retorted, wishing she could come to her friend’s defence. “That kind of lifestyle is to be expected.”

“Not where he was concerned,” the sergeant exclaimed, looking increasingly morose. “You know, the day I made it into CID was one of the best things that’d ever happened to me. I felt like I was finally getting to live the version of my life I’d always dreamed of… and Enzo just looked at me blankly, like he was fucked off he would be missing out on his perfect little housewife.” She gave a small smile. “I kept on playing happy families mainly for Francesca’s sake. This kind of shit doesn’t go unnoticed. They’re more perceptive than we give them credit for.”

Nikki gestured down the corridor towards Superintendent Collins’ office. “You know, I know that people look down on me over what went down between me and Steven. And I can’t say I blame them. It wasn’t one of my best moments.”

The sergeant exhaled deeply, as though being able to confirm the office gossip had given her a sense of piece.

“Steven was having problems in his own marriage - I won’t go into the details because that’s his business, not mine. But we were there for each other and we felt like we could unwind for them in a way we couldn’t for anyone else,” Nikki explained, and she relaxed at the mention of their commanding officer.

Liv felt a little shame for all the occasions she’d assumed that Nikki was seeing Collins for the hopes of a promotion.

“Luckily, Enzo hasn’t found out about it,” Nikki continued, her voice suddenly shaky. “I know that if he got wind of it, he’d weaponise it and make sure I didn’t see Francesca ever again.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Liv explained, knowing she wasn’t going to betray her friend’s secret any time soon.

“Well, it’s good to know I’ve got you in my corner,” Nikki replied, returning to the coffee pot, and pouring herself another cup. “You know, when I think back to how we were when we were first starting out, I think I was a little jealous of you.”

“How so?” Liv asked, setting down her mug in surprise.

“Because my marriage was limping on after Francesca was born. I can’t even remember the last time he could be bothered to touch me.”

OK, probably don’t need to know those details.

“But when I saw you and Dean, I could tell that you were instantly made for each other. The way you were both synchronised when you had a chat. It was like watching magic,” she gave a warm smile as she spoke.

“Thanks, Nikki, I really appreciate that,” Liv replied, needing the reminder of how lucky she was to have a man like Dean in her life. Handsome, perfect, considerate, able to stop the darkness from consuming her. She didn't’ dare imagine a life without Dean, but she knew it would be the stuff of nightmares.

“You know we’ve all been waiting for you to tie the knot, don’t you?” she asked with a knowing wink, her mood considerably lightened. And Liv would have liked seeing the sergeant back to her usual unspoken self if it weren’t for the light-hearted interrogation on her love life.

“We’re building to it,” she replied, trying to dismiss the question, and wishing she could get back to the subject of Nikki’s car crash marriage.

“Well, trust me, you want to do it soon,” she replied, not willing to let the subject lie. “Because you guys have ticked off all the relationship boxes, and marriage is the next logical step.” She paused before adding with a smile. “By the way, I am aware of the irony of a soon-to-be-divorcee advising you to take the big marriage leap before you bother pointing that one out.”

“Well, how do you know that we’re going to work out?” Liv asked, before adding without maliciousness, “I mean, you seemed so sure that you and Enzo were going to go the distance…”

“No, no, no, no,” Nikki replied, shaking her head. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. The level of devotion you show each other. I honestly think he’d kill for you if he had to… not that it’ll ever come to that, hopefully…”

Liv gave a little chuckle. “I don’t know if we’re ready for that…”

“Then when are you going to be ready?” Nikki asked, completely forgetting her drink, and giving Liv her full attention. “You could find any excuse; the timing, the work, the stress, everything. But for all the reasons it could be wrong, it’s not going to stop you two being absolutely right for each other. That is going to be one big constant. And if I’m honest, I need something positive to look forward to.”

The two women shared a light laugh.

But it did leave Liv thinking. It’d been four months since Dean had proposed to her and she’d given a noncommittal answer. She knew that they’d have to tie the knot at some point. But there was a part of her that still needed ideal circumstances. And she didn’t want it to be brought about by some recent tragedy.

But she knew Nikki was right. She couldn’t afford to sit on it forever. She thought about Clara and Diana, who were still dealing with the aftermath of Diana’s wounds incurred by the kill spree sponsor four months ago.

The light moment was immediately interrupted as Detective Sergeant Tim Harris came burst into the corridor.

“Someone’s clearly gagging for his coffee,” Nikki quipped, trying to play down the sudden tension.

“There’s been a bomb threat in the town centre,” he replied, his face aghast.

“Shit, when?” Liv demanded, forgetting everything else.

“The call came in six minutes ago,” he explained, leaving the two detectives terrified at what could have happened in the six minutes since.

“We need to get down there now,” Liv replied, nodding to Nikki who immediately followed alongside her.

2

Ten minutes later, Liv and Nikki were both wearing stab vests over their clothes and heading towards the town centre, doing a quick check to make sure they had everything they needed. Superintendent Collins wasn’t too far behind them and Liv wondered if they’d have enough time to set up a base.

They pulled up at the edge of the city centre and saw the group of people going about their day to day lives. Liv tried to do a quick head count of how many people were walking around the centre… and how many are likely to get caught up in the blast radius?

She could see several uniformed officers at work, including PCs Andrew Shaw and Diana Hershel setting up a cordon and warding people out of the main area. There was no sign of an explosion and Liv felt herself deflate with relief. But then she remembered that until they had a suspect in custody, comfort was a luxury she couldn’t afford.

“We’ve established a base in one of the charity shops, ma’am,” Diana explained as she pointed to one of the nearby buildings. Looking at it, Liv wasn’t sure how they could fit an entire team of police officers into what could pass for an oversized shoebox. But they couldn’t really be spoilt for choice.

“Where’s Collins?” she asked, not having time for a rank-first basis.

“He’s on the other side of the street briefing the negotiators,” Andrew replied, pointing to the far end where her superior was barely visible.

“I’m going to head over,” Liv decided, moving over and opening Nikki’s car door.

“Oh, no way I’m not letting you go in there alone,” she fired back, and Liv wondered whether she was more concerned for her partner’s safety or her former lover’s.

“We need at least one officer of a decent rank on site for this. The gaffer’s Gold Command, I’m Silver Command, so that makes you Bronze Command,” Liv replied, knowing that now was not the time for DS Harding to do her one-woman army approach. “I need you staying here to oversee any efforts on this end, and if anyone tries getting away, it’ll be down to you to stop them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nikki replied, knowing now was not the time to start going against rank. She got out of the car and joined the other uniformed officers.

Meanwhile, Liv was escorted over by a group of AFOs. As she moved briskly through the street, she looked for vantage points and any signs of possible danger.

Once she was on the other side, she approached Collins. “Sir,” she declared, her tone flat, trying to look as alert as possible.

“DI Austin,” he began, looking concerned. “I’m just finishing up with these people, then I’ll be with you.”

She looked at two armed officers escorting a family of shoppers out of the centre. Whatever they’d seen inside had left them stricken with fear.

“Is there a suspect in there?” she asked, pointing to the entrance.

“Yes, a young man in his late teens to early twenties,” Collins replied, his voice grave. “He’s got an explosive device strapped to his chest.”

“Christ,” Liv remarked, less from the circumstances and more that their suspect was someone so young. How the hell did he get in that situation?

“He’s threatening to detonate it,” the superintendent replied, looking at a loss as to what to do. “But he’s been in there for the past forty-five minutes, and so far, he hasn’t set off any triggers.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” the inspector answered, even though there was nothing reassuring about any of this.

“I’ve called in Dr Pike to see if she can offer any negotiations,” Collins continued, gesturing to the esteemed psychiatrist who’d lent her expertise to several cases already.

“What can you gauge about the suspect?” Liv asked, itching to get in there and see the young man for herself.

“Well, firstly, I wouldn’t go as far as to call him a suspect,” Helen retorted, and it was clear she wasn’t going to let something as drastic as a terror attack get in the way of semantics. “From what we’ve gathered, he’s a confused young man. But we don’t know who he is or what his motive is. So far, no groups have come forward to claim responsibility. But I think if he was such a devout believer, he would have done so as soon as he made his way into the shopping centre rather than wait for people to clear out.”

“Maybe he’s trying to downplay some of the damage he can do,” the inspector suggested optimistically, hoping that the kid was someone they could negotiate a peaceful surrender with him.

“Or maybe he’s trying to work himself up to it,” Helen suggested pessimistically.

“Do we have any witnesses? Any members of the public who saw him, or maybe even someone who spoke to him?” Liv queried, trying not to let the desperation sound in her voice.

“Not that we’re aware of,” Collins replied, looking sicker and sicker by the minute. “We’ve put out an appeal for witnesses, but right now, I think everyone is too scared to be thinking straight.”

“Well, thank God we’re above all that,” Liv muttered mirthlessly. “I’m going to need to go in there.”

“I really wouldn’t recommend it,” Collins insisted, and she started counting down for the inevitable rank-pulling. “We don’t have any eyes on the bomber, so we don’t have any idea what is going on.”

Suddenly, a crackle came through on the radio. “This is Superintendent Collins; will someone tell me what’s going on?” the officer commanded. But rather than a response, there was only a ragged breathing.

“He’s got a hostage,” the other voice finally filtered through. “I repeat, he’s got a hostage.”

“Oh, Jesus wept,” Collins exclaimed, almost throwing the radio to the floor in frustration.

“That settles it, I’m going in,” Liv declared, not even waiting for a response and began to march into the building.

“Same for me,” Helen stated, equally stubborn. As Liv opened her mouth to speak, the psychiatrist insisted, “I’m trained in hostage negotiation, DI Austin. I’ve done this several times before.” She looked to Collins, knowing that he was the one she needed to sway. “Sir, someone’s life is at risk, and that’s assuming there are no other civilians in there that the police have missed. We have to get eyes and ears on the situation, and we need someone who is able to talk him down, find out why he’s doing this. At the very least, we need to get the hostage away from him.”

Collins debated the situation quietly, knowing that if anything went wrong, he’d have to take responsibility.

Luckily, he had enough faith in DI Austin to know that she’d get the job done.

“Very well,” he finally decided, while making it clear how unhappy he was with the situation. “But the moment it looks like he’s going to flip, you get the hell out of there.” He turned to one of the officers. “I want her fitted with a wire. We need to know everything that goes on in there. And see if you can find out if we’re dealing with a dead man’s switch.”

Yeah, like we’re going to be able to slip that into the interrogation.

“Come on,” Liv commanded the psychiatrist, grateful that PC Shaw wasn’t there to see her escorting his girlfriend into a potential bombsite.

They moved through the shopping centre, Liv thinking back to all the times she’d walked through these shops in a thoughtless browse, now wondering if she could even look at the place the same way again.

They looked around to see if there were any more civilians that they could usher out of the building. One thing Liv hated not knowing was the blast radius. For all she knew, she could get everyone out of the building, but the bomber could still have enough explosives to level the entire street.

How the hell could a kid have acquired the explosives? She figured that it was possible he wasn’t working alone. Someone must have provided him. But who?

“STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” a voice called out, a voice reeking of desperation and fear, and Liv and Helen had finally reached the centre of the nightmare.

3

There were so many things that disturbed Olivia in that moment. The bomb vest that coated the young man from head to toe, the teenage boy who had long since given up fighting in the steel grasp… it was the age of the young man.

He looked like he’d barely lived and yet he was already willing to die.

“Stay back!” the young man commanded, holding his teenage hostage against his chest so tightly that Liv was worried that would end up triggering the bomb.

“What’s your name?” Liv asked, but the bomber shook his head from side to side frantically, as though he’d anticipated being asked that question.

“What’s your name?” Helen asked calmly, this time to the young hostage.

“N-Nathaniel,” he stammered, choking out the words. “My friends call me Nate.”

“OK, Nate, do you have anyone outside waiting outside for you?” the psychiatrist continued, thinking that if she could get the bomber to see his hostage as a person with a life and hopes of their own, then maybe that’d awaken his conscience.

“I came here with some of them,” Nate stammered, clearly trying to think of what he’d been doing with them.

“Well, you’re going to see them soon,” Helen assured her in a tone that showed no hint of bluff. She looked at the bomber, trying to extend the same level of empathy to him. “What about you? Do you have anyone outside who’s waiting for you?”

The bomber looked away. Clearly, the thought of family was a berserk button to him.

“Can you tell us why you’re doing this?” Liv asked, trying to look calm, but feeling like she needed to spring forward to get the teen away from the bomber.

The bomber looked stoic.

Helen was looking him up and down, trying to see if there was anything she could use. She could see that he was clean-shaven, and well-groomed, so he clearly wasn’t sleeping rough. His clothes were fairly expensive, the kind of jeans and trainers he’d have to splash out for. So, his family were probably upper-class or at least on the higher end of the salary scale.

“Is there anyone that you want us to call?” Helen asked, feeling that if she could find a connection on the outside, she could give him a reason not to die.

“No, there’s no one,” the bomber replied with some finality that suggested he wanted to shut this down. And the two women weren’t sure how much they wanted to push their luck when there was a young boy at risk of being blown to kingdom come.

“So, what do you hope to achieve by doing this?” Liv asked, figuring that for most people giving their lives for a so-called cause, they often wanted the entire world to know, if only as part of some half-arsed justification.

“I’m making a statement,” he replied, and Liv found herself exploring all the extremist groups she was familiar with, trying to see if there was anything that could indicate which group he belonged to. Oh, God, please tell me there aren’t more like him waiting to crawl out of the woodwork.

“Things need to change,” he continued, speaking in a heightened tone, as though he believed his words lent him gravitas. “I want to make sure that people sit up and take notice of us.”

“And how are they supposed to do that if they don’t know who you’re doing this on behalf of?” Liv asked, wishing she was armed. She could see that Collins had been right. There was a dead man’s switch. And if she had a gun on her, then she’d have been happy to hit the bomber in the head and hope the kid could make a run for it.

Helen began to step forward slowly, prompting the bomber to step back. “Don’t come any closer!” he commanded, holding Nate tighter than ever.

“You don’t need to kill Nate,” Helen pleaded earnestly, letting the emotion come through. “What has he ever done to hurt you?”

“I didn’t want to do it like this, believe me,” he replied in a monotone voice. “But would any of you take any notice of me if no one died?”

As the bomber continued to speak, Liv noticed someone positioned on the second floor… an AFO who had a weapon trained on the bomber. She needed to find a way to signal to him that killing the bomber would trigger the death switch.

“Look, I don’t know much about you,” Helen continued, not having noticed the AFO. “But is this really how you want to be remembered?”

“What’s the alternative?” the youth asked angrily, stepping back and Liv prayed he lost his balance. But no, he had a firm footing. Damn

“I let him go and you take me to prison, I spend a life inside, that’s what I’ve got to look forward to, isn’t it?” he asked, and Liv couldn’t bring herself to bluff her way out of it.

“We know that you’re not working alone in this,” Liv tried, growing desperate. “If you work with us, we can help you come through this…”

“I am NOT betraying the…” the bomber began in an acid tone, waving his arms wide… giving Nate enough time to start running… and for the AFO to take a shot.

The bullet hit the bomber in the forearm, and he screamed in pain.

“RUN!” Liv commanded Nate and Helen, pushing the kid forward in the hopes of shielding him.

There was a flash of light that absorbed the bomber and engulfed the shopping area.

Glass shattered around them and the three found themselves shattered in fragments as the shockwave knocked them all to the ground.

On the floor, Liv felt a loud ringing in her ears, the whole world around her disoriented. She looked over to Nate who was curled up in the foetal position, clearly expecting to have died. Helen was lying on the ground and Liv could see some blood dripping from her ears.

Trying to fight off the disorientation, Liv staggered to her feet and surveyed the situation.

The blast had not quite destroyed the shopping centre, but it had certainly shattered all the windows and taken chunks out of the infrastructure. Liv was hopeful that the building wasn’t going to come down on top of them, but she didn’t fancy sticking around to find out.

“Helen?” she called out, her voice sounding distant and barely audible to herself. She reached up to her head to try and cancel out the throbbing pain when she felt something sharp brush against her hands. Glass shards? Christ. She wasn’t concerned about the injuries, not feeling like she was at death’s door, but she knew that the moment the superintendent saw the wounds on her, she’d be taken off the case and sent down to A&E and Collins would probably put a man on the door to keep her from getting away.

“Helen!?” she called again; this time much clearer. “Helen, can you walk?”

She held out a hand and helped the psychiatrist to her feet. Helen staggered up, and they both checked over Nate. There were no major injuries on him, but they didn’t want to take the risk. They needed to get him to an ambulance.

Working together, the two women helped the youth to his feet, which took a lot of effort. It was as though he was scared to get off the floor in case he collapsed again.

“Come on, lad, you can do this,” Helen pleaded, and they moved one arm around their shoulders and helped him out of the building. As they got closer to the exit, Nate found the strength in his legs and made his way towards the exit.

Once outside, they were swarmed by ambulance crew who began wrapping blankets around them to the point of manhandling them.

There was a part of Liv that wanted to collapse into the paramedic’s arms. But she knew she still had a job to do. And she didn’t want to rest until it was done.

Then she remembered that they weren’t the only ones in the building. She thought back to the firearms officer who had their backs, who’d fired the shot that had momentarily disabled the gunman. Without him, we probably wouldn’t even be standing here right now.

“Guv!” she called out, shrugging off the blanket, not caring anymore if he saw her injuries. “The officer who was in the building with us. Did he make it?”

But the grave look on her commanding officer’s face told her all she needed to know. “I’m sorry, Liv,” he answered solemnly, hanging his head.

I didn’t even know his name.

4

“Liv, you need to get yourself off to a hospital,” Collins commanded as gently as possible while still making it clear that there would be no wriggle room.

“I’m fine, I promise you,” she replied, trying to resist the urge to rub over her body to assess the damage.

“Liv, you’ve received superficial injuries at best and that’s not even taking into account the trauma you’re likely to have endured.”

“Sir, it’s really not that bad,” she insisted, though in truth, she had no way of knowing how much damage had been done to herself. She felt a pang of fright as she thought of people who’d sustained superficial injuries only to fall down dead hours later without any warning.

But she couldn’t afford to think like that. “Sir, I’m Silver Command on this operation. Now, while I can say that the bomber has been neutralised, we don’t know the scale of what we’re dealing with. And I would very much like to be at the centre of this operation.”

“This is not a negotiation,” the superintendent fired back. “Your commitment is not in question. And I don’t doubt you could give your all to this case. But I need to make sure that you haven’t suffered any lasting damage from the blast radius. I don’t want to keep you on site and then have you suffer for it later. I’m not failing my duty of care.”

She admired the devotion he had to his officers, and she could certainly see his logic. She needed to tackle this case with a clear head. Something she was seriously lacking right now.

“OK, I’ll get myself down to A&E,” she insisted, seeing the tension seep out of his face. “But if I’m given the all-clear, I want to be back here. For the sake of our colleague, if nothing else.”

“PC Barton,” Collins explained, already committing the name to memory. “His name was PC Michael Barton. Mikey to his friends.”

She could tell that he was already going over in his head what he was going to say to the deceased copper’s family. It was a duty that Collins never offloaded to another officer, always making sure that he delivered the news personally. Liv suspected that other than duty, Collins looked at it as a form of penance. He felt like he’d failed the officers under his command and owed it to the family to give them the complete truth.

“Tell them that he saved the lives of three people,” she told him evenly. “That a young man is going to get to grow up because he took the initiative to disable the bomber.”

Remembering the reason why they were all in the building in the first place, Liv tried to recall everything she could remember about the young man. “He looked well-dressed. And from the way he spoke, I’d say he was probably well-educated, possibly at university level.”

“Did you manage to get a name out of him?” Collins asked, clearly wanting to narrow down suspects.

“No, nothing,” she responded to his clear frustration. “It’s not uncommon, sir. When suicide bombers put on the vest, they often see themselves as part of a collective.”

“And their handlers don’t want them thinking about anything that could ground them, or even make them forget about what they’re trying to do,” Collins growled through gritted teeth. “That lad might have had his hand on the trigger, but I’m fairly sure somebody else put it into his hand. He won’t have been working alone, I’m sure of it.”

“We’ll have to do a check to see if anyone has been moving suspicious materials around,” Liv suggested, feeling exhaustion overwhelming her. “And I think we should probably keep our ears to the ground to see if anyone wants to claim responsibility for the attack. This was definitely not the work of a lone triggerman… which means this could be the start of something.”

Collins went white and for a moment, she wondered whether he’d need the ambulance instead.

“We’ll talk more when you get back from the hospital,” Collins insisted, pointing to the paramedics who were ready to manhandle her away.

And for once, Liv wasn’t willing to stop them.

She sat in a hospital bed, clad in a hospital gown, hating the shapeless form and tempted to tear it off her body.

But the doctor had insisted on giving her a thorough check-over, shining a bright light into her eyes, making sure she wasn’t experiencing any headaches or tremors or any other symptoms that could land her a night in the hospital. She was tempted to say she was all right, but deep down, she knew that she needed to be at her best if she was going to crack this case and she didn’t want to be coming into work half-arsed.

“If I’m honest, I think I was lucky,” she replied, sitting back on the bed, figuring she might as well take the chance to relax now. It’s not like I’m going to get the chance later on.

“LIV!” a familiar voice cut through the fog and Liv instantly felt herself wide awake again, as though the sound of his voice brought new strength to her. And sure enough, Dean Lawrence was standing by her bedside, looking stricken.

“Collins told me everything that happened. How are you feeling?” he asked, taking her hand, and kissing it tenderly.

“How the hell did you get up here?” Liv asked, knowing that the hospital had a strict policy on relatives only.

“I told them that you were my wife,” he answered, looking a little bashful. “Seemed like a fairly innocent lie.” He smiled slightly, and it was clear there was a part of him hoping it was the truth. Maybe one day, it will be.

“You sly bugger,” she replied, kissing his hand, and soaking in the comfort he provided.

But it was like seeing them had unlocked something in her and a few tears started to trickle from her eyes, like a damn about to burst.

And he silently stepped back to give her space. They both knew what this was about.

Years ago, the first love of her life, Rhys, the man who she thought she’d be spending an entire lifetime with, had met his end in a suspected terrorist attack. And now Liv had come close to losing her life in a similar manner.

Dean knew how the trauma had impacted her and knew better than to offer half-arsed words of comfort. Liv could play those well-intentioned words on a loop in her head for the next twenty years and she still wouldn’t believe it, just like she wouldn’t believe that she couldn’t have done anything to prevent her brother from falling into a life with a demented cult. It was like she was always holding herself accountable for things outside her control.

“One of these days, I’m going to make you take a desk job,” Dean insisted, taking her hand tenderly. “I honestly thought I was having my worst nightmare come to life.”

“Don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” she chortled, sitting up in the bed. Suddenly, she remembered the young man who’d given them the opportunity to get away and suddenly, she didn’t feel like celebrating much. She felt a strong urge to find the bastard responsible. An attack on one is an attack on all of us.

“I brought you these from home,” Dean offered, holding up a bag of clean clothes. “I figured if you were going to head back to the office afterwards, you would want to look refreshed.”

“You know me too well,” she responded, taking the bag gratefully. “So, what’s been going on in my absence?”

“DS Harding and DS Elmhurst have been taking witness statements,” Dean explained, which felt like a box-ticking exercise for the most part. No one clearly believed they were going to get anything out of them. “We’re trying to trace the bomber’s next of kin, see if he had any affiliations.”

“How’s the boy?” Liv asked, knowing that while life and death scenarios to him would be as natural as breathing, for him, it could become a ‘before’ and ‘after’ moment of his life.

“He’s a little shaken up, but his family is with him. It looks like he’s going to pull through,” he offered, squeezing her hand. “You’re a hero, Liv. Wear it.”

But Liv knew she wasn’t the only one who’d risked going into that building.

5

Dr Helen Pike sat in the hospital bed, scared of falling asleep for fear that she wouldn’t wake up again. She’d always made a point of being in control of her emotions. When she’d began her psychiatry qualification all those years ago, she’d told herself that she needed to provide a blank slate to her patients and be a source of stability and clarity for them. Now she was wishing she could muster some of that reassurance for herself.

Andrew had rushed into the hospital to check on her, having refused to have any part in the investigation until he knew she was all right. And she’d put on a convincing front for him, telling everything he needed to hear, that there was no lasting damage, that she barely had so much as a scratch and she was expected to make a full recovery and that all of the check-ups were just a precautionary measure, even speaking to him in that authoritative tone that made the age gap between them even more evident.

But as soon as he’d left the room, she felt herself shaking slightly, and she’d been unable to stop.

“It sounds like it was quite a horrific experience,” a man’s voice came through, and Helen expected it to be the boilerplate words of a doctor.

But it wasn’t a doctor standing by her bedside. Instead, it was a man wearing a faded leather jacket clearly trying to make a trendy impression and failing miserably.

“I’ve had better,” she replied dismissively, not having the energy to talk with anybody who wasn’t Andrew.

“Do you feel that you could have done more to save the young man’s life?” the man asked, and his words cut through the haze she still found herself in.

“What do you mean?” she asked, wondering for a moment if he was referring to Nate. As far as she knew, he was recovering.

“The bomber,” the man continued, looking at her with cold, scrutinising eyes. “You’re an esteemed psychiatrist and clearly, you’ve lent your expertise to a number of high-profile cases. And yet, you couldn’t talk the bomber out of killing himself.”

“It was a difficult situation,” she stammered, knowing that normally, she would have swatted this man and his assumptions away like the fly he was. But instead, she couldn’t find the energy. “You weren’t there.”

“Do you feel that perhaps you took your eye off the ball?” he asked, leaning in close to the bed. “That maybe you let your reputation get to you? Or maybe it’s the way the police have been handling you? Putting you at the heart of dangerous situations with blatant disregard for your health.”

Before she could say anything else, Andrew appeared by the bed holding two coffees. “Who the fuck are you?”

The man suddenly lost a lot of his confidence. “I’m…”

Andrew walked up to the man and started rummaging through his pockets, pulling out a small recording device. “You’re a fucking journalist, aren’t you?”

“The shopping centre has been blown to kingdom come,” the journalist protested feebly, clearly feeling a lot more comfortable when dealing with an interviewee who couldn’t offer much in the way of protests. “I think the public are entitled to find out why that is, don’t you?”

“That woman,” Andrew spat, pointing to Helen’s bedside, not once taking his eyes off the reporter. “Is the reason so many people are alive today. She saved lives today. And your way of thanking her is to bollock her while she’s down? People like you make me sick.” He took the Dictaphone and made sure to delete everything that’d been recorded. “Now, fuck off, or I’ll make sure you can do an inside story on a night in the cells.”

Not needing to be told twice, the reporter scurried out of the ward as quickly as possible. When the young PC turned to face Helen, she was beaming, the first smile that had broken out since arriving at the hospital. “What?”

“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you, Andrew,” she exclaimed, taking his hand, and pulling him close. “But I’m going to make damn sure that I earn it.”

The reporter stormed out of the hospital, checking to make sure that nobody else saw him. He could have tried getting an interview with the boy’s parents but figured that they were going to be in no position to badmouth the police after saving their son’s life.

He was going to need to produce another tactic. Luckly, he always made sure he had an ace in the hole.

Once he got to the hospital’s entrance, he took out his mobile phone and dialled the number.

“Why the hell are you calling me now? You realise what’s been happening?” PC Katie Gibson called through in a hushed voice. Given that she was probably surrounded by her supposed fellow officers, she didn’t want to risk blowing her cover in front of them.

“This can’t wait. I’ve tried to get a chat with Helen Pike,” the editor spat into the phone.

“You’re kidding me!?” she asked in a tone that definitely wasn’t impressed. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I had a captive audience that I needed to take advantage of,” he replied before firing out, “Anyway, why are you biting my head off. It was you who told me where to find her. I mean, I’m only aware that she was even involved in all this because of you!”

For the last few months, he’d stationed Katie Gibson as a police constable, with no one any the wiser that she was an undercover journalist who’d been feeding unflattering information about the police to use for an expose on how ineffective the police service was as an organisation.

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect you to go after her when she was in hospital, did I?” Katie hissed into the phone, sounding beyond indignant. “Do you have any idea the shit you might have landed me in? If they find out it came from me, that’s my cover blown…”

“Oh, come on, this shit is all over the news,” he scoffed, not sharing in her concern. “Every major news outlet is going to be crawling all over Newquay by now. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody else found out about it. I was just lucky enough to get first dibs.” He didn’t want to mention how PC Shaw had caught him red-handed and marched him out of the room. “But it means I’m probably going to need a different approach… I need you to cosy up with PC Shaw.”

“This is actually a wind-up!” she chortled over the phone. “Oh, shit, you’re serious, aren’t you? If he wasn’t going to talk to you, why the hell do you think he’s going to talk to me?”

“His girlfriend is in intensive care, his emotions are going to be all over the place,” the editor suggested, thinking that maybe it was a good thing he’d been there, if only to get PC Shaw riled up so that someone more suited could pick up the slack. “He could be saying all kinds of things… classified things… at the very least, he’ll need a shoulder to cry on. And who better to give it to him than one of his fellow colleagues?”

There was silence on the other end, but it was clear she hadn’t gone anywhere, clearly weighing up the pros and cons. “Katie, we talked about this, remember?” he asked coaxingly. “I push from the outside; you push from the inside. I’ve done everything I can on that front. Now I need you to do it. I mean, it’s not like you’ve not been doing this before, right?”

He was worried about the possibility of her getting cold feet, that she might get attached to the job she was only pretending to do. When Katie had previously been chasing down stories for him, she’d been like a bloodhound, turning over every angle, and never once letting anything lie. And there weren’t many lines she wasn’t willing to cross in pursuit of a good story. So why should this be any different?

“This bombing could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?” he stated, trying to sway her with the vision of the story they’d outlined at the beginning of the year. “The chance to show all the holes in the police force, the kind of things that make a career, Katie. And you can be a part of that. After that, who knows, true crime books, podcasts, Netflix documentaries. The world is going to open up to you, darling. In fact, it’s going to be whatever you want it to be.”

6

Nikki Harding walked into the guestroom she was staying in for the next few days and fell onto the bed, feeling the springs beneath gently prod into her. It wasn’t the kind of room she wanted to be caught dead in - she was still wondering what that suspicious stain on the carpet was despite her best efforts - but it was the best she could afford on the money she had access to. She could have reached out to Liv and ask if she could kip on her sofa again - it wouldn’t be the first time. But she didn’t want to trouble her friend any more than she already had. And she figured after the day she’d had; Liv would want to unwind and seek solace with the man she loved rather than entertain an unruly guest.

Nikki could feel the strain of the day wearing on her even though she hadn’t done anything physical. She was kicking herself for DI Austin going into the building instead of her. But in that moment, seeing the possibility of death on a large scale surrounding her, she was terrified at the prospect of leaving Francesca without a mother.

She thought back to the conversation with Liv that morning, the rival that she now saw as a friend and a mentor. More than that, Liv was everything that Nikki had hoped to be as a detective. She felt a lot of loyalty to the woman. She’d been through a lot in her life, more than most people had to deal with. And yet she kept on fighting the good fight regardless. Nikki hoped that one day, she could be that kind of copper.

Liv had been more than happy to listen to Nikki about her marital woes, but in truth, Nikki hadn’t given her the full story. She hadn’t talked to Liv about her future goals.

She hoped to become an inspector herself, ideally at some point in the near future.

Nikki had weighed it all up in her head and tried to think of all the reasons why she might not be suited to the job. Because God knows somebody would be looking for them. But as far as she was concerned, she wasn’t on probation, she been a steadfast team player - although that one had taken some time to come into practice admittedly - and she hadn’t received any disciplinary actions. For God’s sake, she’d recently received a commendation for her work in apprehending a serial killer that’d been active for decades. Surely that’d be a huge tick on her box.

She felt that she was ready for the next step. That she was ready to lead a team of her own. The funny thing was, it wasn’t about her, having officers calling her ‘ma’am’ or enjoying all the perks that came with such a role. She wanted to be able to provide for Francesca. She wanted to be able to give her a good education and a good life. And eventually, if she ascended the ranks quick enough, then maybe she could get to a point where she wouldn’t need to put herself in harm’s way every day. She’d be able to work hours more freely so that she could enjoy more of Francesca’s childhood before it disappeared completely.

Of course, there was still the obstacle of Enzo. She’d been bombarded with letters from divorce lawyers making all kinds of unsettling demands. She knew there was nothing practical about any of it. It was just Enzo punishing her for not being the wife he wanted.

Luckily, she’d only have to tolerate this room for one more night.

Enzo was now working later nights at the university, some big project in the hopes of securing a grant that meant he had to shut himself away in the office at the uni rather than the one at home. And while he could have asked Nikki to watch over Francesca in his absence, he would have tried to hire a sitter to spite Nikki.

But that option was closed to him, thanks in no small part to Francesca. Whatever good behaviour the little girl had demonstrated around her parents had clearly not extended to the hired help, with them all describing her as an unruly child and Nikki remembering one of them having bite marks on their forearms. But as soon as Francesca was back in her mother’s arms, she was as good as gold again. Nikki wondered if this was down to some kind of separation anxiety, the four-year-old being scared that one day, her mother could walk out the front door and never come back. So, Enzo never hired any more babysitters. Because Francesca would always hold out for her mummy.

Nikki reached into her jacket pocket and took out a picture of herself, Enzo, and Francesca in happier times, when their daughter had been brought home from the hospital. Holding that baby in her arms, this little bundle of joy that’d suddenly become the gravity of Nikki’s universe… she’d never known a joy like that before. And she was willing to do whatever it took to keep hold of it.

“I’d give you the whole lecture about how going off on one probably wasn’t the best idea you’ve ever had,” Liv explained as she set a cup of coffee down in front of Andrew. “But I think it would fall on deaf ears. And if I’m being honest, I can’t think of anyone who would have done things differently.”

He smiled at this. Even though they were no longer together, Liv was grateful that their friendship had remained intact, and they could still support each other when necessary. It said a lot about Dean that he felt secure enough in their relationship for Liv to have no issue with her coming over to Andrew and Helen’s house to provide him with some comfort while Helen stayed in the hospital.

“She’s very lucky to have you,” Liv explained, taking a sip of her own coffee. “I hope she realises that.”

“I’m sure I’ll find plenty of ways to remind her,” he replied with a wink, and he knew exactly what he was referring to. Clearly, he’s still living up to his Duracell nickname in the bedroom department.

Then his face turned serious again. “You don’t think this is going to come back and bite me in the arse in any way, do you?” he asked, and she knew he’d been considering his career prospects, worried that his actions at the hospital had condemned him to an eternity as a PC.

“We can make the case that he was intimidating a witness in an ongoing investigation,” Liv replied, not sure on the exact legalities, but determined to help her friend however she could.

“I don’t even know how he found out she was there,” Andrew replied, and it was clear that that odd occurrence had been occupying his thoughts for the last few hours more than anything else. “There wasn’t any kind of media presence when this was all kicking off. And I doubt the civilians knew Helen well enough to make a trip to her bedside. So how the hell did that guy know where to go for her?”

“I’ve been asking myself that same question,” Liv explained, and she thought back to one of their most recent cases, where confidential information had been leaked to the press, information that Collins had briefly suspected had come from one of his own team.

“I think it’s a police tip-off,” he suggested, already going back into detective mode. “I heard that these journos are always looking for inside stories into ongoing cases. And if a copper could give them that behind the scenes look, then a small fortune could be made. I heard once about a case of a senior officer in another county who was suspected of a speeding fine. Next thing you know, one of his underlings leaked his name all over the tabloids. And I heard that the snitch behind it had walked away with five hundred quid in his pocket. Easy money as far as he was concerned.”

“You think someone is taking money for stories?” Liv asked, glad that she wasn’t alone in her suspicions.

“Either that or I need to start believing in fucking coincidences,” Andrew replied, his detective hat firmly on his head. “But I’m pretty sure that someone on that team leaked information to the press.”

“Hang about, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Liv insisted, holding up a hand. “We can’t jump to conclusions. We’ve got no evidence. And we can’t afford to start making unfounded allegations against each other. Especially on a case like this. It’s widespread, the public are going to be coming after us to solve it. And we don’t need to be alienating the people we’re supposed to be working with.”

“But don’t you see, that’s exactly the problem,” the young PC retorted, clearly uninterested in playing it safe. “The next few days are going to be painful for all of us. We’re going to have to make a lot of public enquiries. And all the while, we’ve got to remember that our every move is being watched and monitored. Because if they can leak the identity of a hospitalised witness, God knows what else they can put out there.”

7

“Good morning, everyone,” Collins exclaimed, addressing all the officers in the room, many of whom looked like they were still wearing the trauma of the previous day. Collins would have understood if they wanted to excuse themselves and avoid coming in. They’d been at ground zero for a lot of it. But to their credit, they’d all turned up and all eager to get to work on the case.

“Before we go any further, I’d like to take a moment to remember one of our colleagues.” He adjusted the PowerPoint presentation and pulled up an image of a young officer that Liv had only glimpsed from a distance. “Police Constable Michael Barton gave his life so that many of us could be sat here today.” He gave a knowing look to Liv as if to say Don’t push yourself too hard. “The death toll could have been so much higher were it not for him. And most importantly, he’s given us a chance to crack this case wide open. I think we’d be fools not to take advantage of that.”

Everyone nodded in muted agreement before going silent as a show of respect.

“Now, information has been limited, but in the time since yesterday’s attack, no one has come forward to claim responsibility for what happened,” Collins explained, and this fruitless search was reflected in his eyes. “So, we have to assume that this is a homegrown cell…”

Detective Sergeant Archie Elmhurst raised his hand. “Forgive me, sir, but do you not think we’re being a little presumptuous? They could just be waiting for the right moment to come forward.”

Liv should have expected that Archie would play the devil’s advocate, though she figured he often did it to encourage his colleagues to work even harder to prove their point.

“They would have done it by now if that was the case,” Collins explained, though he didn’t want to rule the possibility out altogether. “Now, it took a lot of digging on our end, but we were able to find a formal identification for the bomber.”

He pulled up a PowerPoint. “His name is Ryan Beck. Twenty years old and a second-year student at the local university. I believe he was studying for a history degree.”

“Did he have any family?” Liv asked hesitantly, wondering what would be worse for the parents; hearing that their child was dead? Or that he was a killer? Now they will have had to learn both. I’m glad I didn’t have the job of informing them. Maybe that was why Collins looked so put out that morning.

“Yes, his mum and dad and younger sister. She’s the one I feel for most of all,” Collins explained, clearly thinking about how in the absence of a killer, victims were likely to blame the families, regardless of whether they knew of their relative’s second nature or not.

“We’re going to need to speak with them again, find out as much as we can about the life he led, the circles he ran in.”

“I don’t think that’s going to get us very far,” Nikki observed. “No offense, but kids that age aren’t really known for being forthcoming. If he did have some secret life, I bet that his parents would be the last ones to know about it.”

“Even so,” Collins replied firmly. “We have to consider every single angle. DI Austin, DS Elmhurst, I want you both to get down to the university he was studying at, see if you can find out what he was like, what kind of friends he had.”

He paused, and Liv could see there was something else he was trying to fit in. She could tell he was put off by the little chat they’d had this morning.

“It’s also come to my attention that our leak is at work again,” the superintendent explained, prompting some murmurs among the staff. “Apparently, Dr Pike’s association in the case and the state of her recovery was leaked to the press, which led to her being accosted in her hospital bed.” He scowled deeply, clearly annoyed that the psychiatrist had gone in there to risk her life and yet her reward had been harassment and having her integrity questioned.

“Now, I don’t know who the source is. And I’m not looking to cast aspersions on people without backing it up with hard evidence,” he explained, clearly having learned from his mistake the last time this happened. “But we need to be on full alert. This case already has a high-profile attached to it. And I can’t risk having our witnesses or our evidence turn up in the media. Otherwise, that will jeopardise our chances of finding out why Ryan Beck went into a shopping centre with a bomb.”

“Well, surely we can rule out PC Shaw,” Liv stated, eager to come to her friend’s defence. She was tempted to add that he wouldn’t put his own girlfriend through such distress, but figured that the young PC probably wouldn’t appreciate having his private life aired around the briefing room.

“I’m having this conversation with all of you because I trust you all implicitly,” Collins replied, which reassured Liv immensely… before realising that that same reassurance didn’t extend to anyone not in the room. “I want you all to be very careful with what you tell your colleagues. If a detail appears in the press, think long and hard about where it could have come from.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. But Liv wasn’t satisfied.

“Shouldn’t we be thinking about how to catch this leak?” she queried, trying to picture the selfish bastard in her mind.

“Believe me, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to find this snitch and throw the book at him, followed by the bookshelf,” Collins exclaimed in a tone that indicated he was clearly out for blood. “But I can only do so many things at a time, and I need the right kind of bloodhound to handle a case like this.”

Liv wondered if he was going to assign anyone not involved in the bombing case the task of finding the snitch.

“Um, sorry to change the subject,” Nikki suddenly interrupted. “But you said that the bomber was a university student. Do you mind telling us which uni?”

“I believe it was Newquay University Centre Cornwall College,” Collins replied, struggling to recite the entire title.

Nikki’s eyes widened. “That’s where my husband Enzo works. He works as a history lecturer.”

Collins folded his arms, digesting the information. “So, it’s not unreasonable to believe that Beck could have been in one of his classes.”

“Well, there’s one way to find out,” she stated, rising from her seat. “I could head down to the uni and ask him myself…”

“I’m actually going to suggest DI Austin goes ahead with that responsibility.” Collins replied, stopping the sergeant in her tracks.

“Last time I checked, I was the one married to him, not her,” she replied, not feeling the need to correct them on the status of her marriage. She’d gone to a lot of effort to hide the ongoing divorce from her colleagues. Liv had been the only one she’d confided in and swore her to secrecy.

“Yes, but when it comes to family members, it helps to keep our distance,” Collins noted, before adding, “We’d be doing the same thing if it was anyone else’s family.” He looked at Liv as he spoke, and given her turbulent past, Liv could imagine the number of times her family had been dragged into the mix and they’d had to fight from Liv throwing herself into the fray.

Nikki opened her mouth to challenge, but then decided that with everything going on with the bomber and the snitch, the last thing Collins needed was an unruly ex adding to his woes. “Fair enough, sir,” she declared, returning to her original seat.

“I will need you to go and speak to the family again,” Collins declared, resuming his designations. “Now, forensics are still examining the remains of the bomb vest to try to determine some of the materials used to see if we can trace the original sources. So if anything comes in on that front, DS Harris, I trust you will be able to work with Clara on that front?”

“Of course,” Tim replied, hoping to put some of the skills he’d gained in his time away from Newquay to good use.

“Right,” Collins declared, clapping his hands together. “You all know what you need to be doing and where you need to be. Now let’s get out there and restore some sanity.”

Easier said than done, Liv mused.

8

Liv and Archie walked along the corridors, watching some of the young adults walking by, completely preoccupied in their day to day lives. But every now and then, Liv could tell there were some haunted glances from some of the pupils, clearly disturbed that a killer had been walking amongst them in such proximity and they hadn’t been aware. In Liv’s experience, whenever anyone found out someone they knew was involved in a serious crime, the most common question they asked themselves was, “How did we not see it?”

They decided to start with Ryan’s personal tutor. Liv had always imagined what Nikki’s husband might be like, considering that she’d never met the man.

Upon laying eyes on him, she could definitely see the studiousness that he allowed to define him. It wasn’t the largest office, but he’d made the most of the space he’d been given, and there was a set of history books lining the cabinet. They looked at the name plate on the desk. Enzo Ricci. So clearly, Nikki wanted to keep her maiden name. Can’t imagine how that would have gone down.

The man himself was immersed in a research paper when they knocked on the door.

Enzo ushered them into the space without taking his eyes off the paper. It was only when Liv cleared her throat that he looked up.

“Can I help you both?” he asked in a tone that suggest his support would only stretch so far.

Liv held up her ID card. “I’m Detective Inspector Austin, this is Detective Sergeant Elmhurst. We’re investigating the bombing that took place yesterday in Newquay Town Centre.”

Enzo’s face clouded over. “Yes, I heard about that. Really tragic business. I’m grateful that I wasn’t anywhere near the place when it went off.” Then it was as if the ID cards and ranks finally clicked in his head. “I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with me?”

Liv and Archie shared a look, feeling that they were about to take a deep dive. “Can I ask when you last spoke to your student Ryan Beck?” Liv asked, conscious of how much information they should be sharing at that stage.

“I spoke to him about two days ago,” the tutor replied evenly, clearly not seeing the gravity of the situation. “He called me to say that he couldn’t make the lectures for this week.”

“What reason did he give?” Archie asked, wondering if there were telltale signs that somebody else might have picked up on.

“He just said that he had some family stuff to sort out,” Enzo replied before furrowing his eyebrows. “He seemed quite agitated.”

“What did you think was the reason?” Liv asked, her pen primed on the paper.

“Honestly, I couldn’t think of any reason why,” Enzo explained, flexing his fingers. “He was quite an attentive and introspective young man. Always willing to jump into a debate. He had a bright future ahead of him. He could have gone on to do a Masters and then a PhD. He would have been one of the bright lights of academia. Most people come to uni because they want to coast by with doing as little work as possible - I even had one of my students say that they saw uni as ‘a three-year piss-up.’” He looked at them, perplexed and and still unable to explain their presence. “Has something happened? Has Ryan done something wrong?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” Liv decided, figuring they couldn’t dance around it forever. “But the bombing that took place yesterday, Ryan was the perpetuator.”

The room went quiet as Enzo sumped back in his chair, unable to find the right words. “I… I don’t understand. There’s got to be a mistake. Ryan couldn’t surely…”

“Mr Ricci, I was there in the centre yesterday,” Liv explained, reliving the terrifying moment. “I saw him ranting and raving with a bomber vest while holding a young boy hostage. It’s not the kind of thing you forget in a hurry.”

“My God,” Enzo muttered dryly, his hand over his mouth. “Was the boy injured?”

“No, but one of our officers died in the line of duty,” Archie spat out, feeling the sting. “And we want to get to the bottom of how this happened.”

“Well, I don’t know what I can tell you,” the tutor replied, and Liv wondered if he was considering his role in all of this. Whether as the boy’s tutor, he should have seen this coming a mile off. “He never came across to me as a terrorist.”

“Well, he must have been good at hiding it,” Liv remarked before trying to think of a way to phrase the next question. “Do you think you can tell us anything about his social circle and the people he ran with?”

“He had two friends,” Enzo replied, looking a little uncomfortable as though he was betraying a confidence. “Ben Connor and Susie Ryman. They’re both in my class. The three were practically inseparable. If anyone can tell you what he was like as a person, it’s probably them.”

Well, here’s hoping they’re a good judge of character.

“I can’t believe I had anything to do with him,” Ben Connor exclaimed, a scowl on his face. “I’d spit on him if he was standing here now. At least he’s up there…” he pointed to the ceiling. “Where he can do no harm.

“I understand this is a lot to take in,” Achie offered sympathetically. “But do either of you know of any reason why Ryan might have turned towards terrorism? Did he have any causes he was passionate about? Any clubs he was a part of?”

“Not really,” Susan replied, looking a little shaken. “He always seemed too preoccupied with his history work. In fact, we had to turn up at his student flat to drag him out just for a drink down the pub.”

“What kind of stuff was he doing in his spare time?” Liv asked, knowing it wouldn’t be something as obvious as putting together a bomber vest.

“He focused on writing these history papers. I heard a few months back that he was putting together a piece on the Great Famine, but he abandoned it afterwards, said he felt that there was nothing that he could add that hadn’t already been covered by other more brilliant historians. He even hoped to write a book one day and get it published.” Susie smiled at the memory of her friend, clearly trying to remember him as he was. “He was always three steps ahead of the rest of us.”

“Can you think of anything that might have made him snap?” Archie asked, figuring that for a twenty-year-old man to have such an extreme and public response. It wouldn’t just be something that came out of the blue. It would have to have been something that built up over time until he was tipped over the edge.

“I feel he was doing whatever he could to get out of his circumstances,” Susie explained, looking over to Ben as though inviting him to join in, but the young man paid them no mind, having said all he wanted to say about his former friend. “He didn’t have the easiest home life. His dad barely paid him any attention and spent most of his time away from work. And his mum was injured in an accident and hasn’t worked for the better part of a decade, living on disability benefits. When his dad was away, which was most of the time, it meant Ryan had to step in as a full-time carer. And it clearly took a lot out of him to do that. I think uni was his big escape.”

Liv took onboard everything she was learning about the young man and tried to see how it was all relevant. But this didn’t feel like the profile of an aspiring terrorist. Unless he’d kept his affiliations close to the chest…

“Well, thank you both for your time,” she decided, thinking it’d be better to step away until they could find out more. It had occurred to her as she walked away that she could have been speaking to two aspiring terrorists right now. But from what she understood, most freedom fighters approached their lives with a sense of finality as they prepared to wrap everything up.

But after speaking to everyone associated with the young man’s life at the uni, there was something disturbing her that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Something that felt off. Maybe it was nothing. Just the work of an overactive imagination.

Here’s hoping that Nikki and Tim have better luck than we have.

9

PC Katie Gibson tried to consider how she was going to play this next move.

In hindsight, sending her editor to the hospital was not her smartest move.

But when she heard from Andrew that Dr Helen Pike had not only been partaken in the negotiations but been injured in the process, she was immediately thinking of the possible headlines. A famed psychiatrist having failed to get into the head of a psychopath. Someone who’d been used by the police and possibly hung out to dry. That would grab everybody’s attention.

It was only later on when Andrew had accosted the editor at the hospital that she’d realised how easily that tidbit could be traced back to her. And she’d spent the rest of the day praying that it didn’t come back to bite her in the arse.

But if Andrew even suspected her involvement in the leak, he didn’t show it. Instead, he vented to his partner about whatever inconsiderate arsehole had leaked information about Helen’s hospitalisation. She was beyond relieved to hear that he didn’t suspect her, instantly assuming that it was the work of a man, which she put down to mild sexism.

His normal partner, PC Diana Hershel was busy speaking with some of the witnesses at the shopping centre having taken down details and going doot to door, so Katie was partnered with Andrew for the day.

“How is Helen?” Katie asked, trying to keep up the role of the concerned partner, while also imagining some of the conversations he’d like had with PC Hershel.

“She’s at home recovering,” he explained, thinking about the state he’d left her in, clearly wondering if he’d done the right thing by heading into work. He offered to stay at home, but she’d insisted that she didn’t need a carer. “If you really want to do me a favour, go out there and find the bastard that put him up to it,” she’d implored him.

They sat in the car looking out at the people passing by. “You know the sad irony of all this?” he asked, gesturing to a family crossing the street. “We could be busting our arses trying to keep these people safe, and yet they could still turn on us just because they need somewhere to put their torches and pitchforks.”

Katie mentally logged that away, thinking what a great quote that would make.

“Who do you think could have leaked the information?” Katie asked, figurng there wasn’t much point in pretending there wasn’t a leak. It’d only make her suspicious. “You don’t think it could have been PC Hershel, do you?”

Andrew turned and looked at her with narrow eyes. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. I’ve worked with Diana for years now. And I can tell you straight, she’s both a good copper and a good woman. She’s got no end of integrity and is one of the most giving people I’ve ever known. There is no way she’d fuck us all over for a bit of extra cash.”

Kate couldn’t help but feel a little insulted by the insinuation that the leak lacked integrity… maybe because there was more truth in those words than Katie would have liked to admit.

But at the same time, she couldn’t help but admire the steadfast loyalty Andrew had to his colleagues. However she was going to get the information out of him, he certainly wasn’t going to badmouth his colleagues. So, she decided to try a different tactic.

“Well, I’m sure DI Austin will be able to get to the bottom of it,” she explained, and felt a rush of nervousness go through her. She’d been able to pull the wool over everybody else’s eyes. But she knew that DI Austin was good and the one she really had to worry about.

“Oh, I know she will,” Andrew replied, turning his attention to her at the mention of his colleague’s name. “She’s the best detective I’ve ever worked with.”

Katie wondered how much of this was general reverence… and how much was because they used to share a bed. Since she’d started working with Newquay Police, Katie had taken the time to get to know all her colleagues, trying to make out what made them tick, if there were any weak links she could exploit. And maybe, if she was ever at risk of being caught out… there was someone she could pin all the leaks on.

There was a part of her that originally thought Andrew would have been the best scapegoat but given the steadfast loyalty he showed to his colleagues, she knew she’d have a tough time selling that illusion. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t still be useful.

“So, you and DI Austin were pretty close at one point, weren’t you?” she asked, edging back in her seat, and settling in for a bit of in-work gossip.

“She’s one of my best friends,” Andrew replied with a smile, thinking back fondly on all the times they had shared together.

“From what I’ve heard, you two used to be more than friends,” she suggested coyly.

Andrew went bright red as she continued, “Everyone knows there was a thing between you both. It’s not exactly a secret. And from what I hear, it got pretty intense.”

Andrew thought back to all the times he’d shared with Liv. He knew that originally, the senior officer had thought of him as an escape, a way to deal with the trauma she’d been carrying since Rhys’ death. But what had started as a distraction had turned into a strong connection, and Andrew had even hoped that there might be a future between them.

But looking back, it clearly wasn’t meant to be. Her feelings for him weren’t as intense as his for hers. And there was a time where he resented Dean Lawrence for being able to win her heart so successfully. But ultimately, he wanted to see her content.

“We had a good time while it lasted, but we’ve both moved on to other partners,” Andrew explained, thinking about the amazing woman he was living with. Helen had rekindled the romantic spark in him.

“Do you ever wish that you could go back to how things were?” Katie asked pryingly, fully expecting him to talk about how if Dean wasn’t in the picture, he’d have a chance.

“Absolutely not,” he replied to her complete surprise. “I will always hold a torch for that woman. And I’ll always be glad for the time we had together. But she’s happy with Dean now. And I don’t want to ruin that for her.”

Katie felt a lot of respect for the man despite herself. Most blokes she knew would be harbouring resentful grudges and feeling like they had some kind of monopoly on their ex-girlfriends. So to hear Andrew take the decent approach came as a surprise to her.

“And it doesn't ever get awkward between the two of you?” She queried, fishing for something she could use.

“Not particularly,” he replied quickly, so sure of himself. “I get on with the job just like she does. We don’t have time to mess around with each other. I want to give everything I’ve got to this job. And I don’t want any distractions.”

“Don’t you think that Liv could have handled things differently?” Katie asked, knowing she was skirting towards dangerous territory. “Maybe then your girlfriend would have made it out in one piece.”

Andrew turned on her. “I don’t know what you’re implying,” he retorted, the muscles in his jaw tense. “But Helen knew she was the best chance they had of getting people out unharmed. And even if the gaffer had told her not to go in, she still would have found a way in. Because she wouldn’t have been able to sit on her arse doing nothing while that kid needed her. There’s nothing major about it. It’s what’s expected of us when we do this job. And one day, you might end up getting into a similar scrape. It’s just part of the job.”

The thought made Katie shudder. She’d known when she entered the job that she’d have to convincingly act the part of the dedicated police officer, chase down the occasional teenage scumbag. But the idea of throwing herself into a life or death situation was something that she’d always hoped she could get out of.

Thinking back to the bombing, she realised how close she’d got to being killed. If she’d been one of the officers who was in the shopping centre… then it could be her family that Collins would be contacting.

Her editor had wanted her to find out as much information about the deceased officer as possible, but even Katie was savvy enough to know that including Barton in the badmouthing would backfire on them and it’d be seen as tearing down a hero.

She felt like every incident she’d faced was testing her cover, to see how much she could take before everyone found out the truth of what she really was. She told herself that it would only be a few more months and then she could quietly step away from the job.

10

As next of kin briefings went, this certainly could have been better as far as Nikki was concerned.

Ryan Beck had grown up in the kind of house that would have people going ‘I can’t believe somebody lives in that house.’

It was the kind of house that the upper-class bought simply for the sake of tearing down. The brickwork was crumbling, the paint was shedding and the grass on the lawn was knee-length high.

When Nikki and Tim had knocked on the front door, they’d seen a flicker of movement in the curtains. A few minutes later, a woman stumbled into the frame, wearing a t-shirt that Nikki assumed had once been white.

“What do you want?” she asked, and Nikki almost doubled over as she smelt the whiskey on the woman’s breath.

“I’m Detective Sergeant Harding,” Nikki explained, holding up her ID card. “This is Detective Sergeant Harris. We wondered if we could ask you a few more questions about your son.”

“I don’t know why you bother,” she slurred, and Nikki thought she was going to keel over onto her. “The police asked me questions over and over and he might as well asked me only one. How could you not see it coming? It doesn’t seem to matter to any of you that I’ve just lost a son.”

Nikki had plenty of things to say about the woman’s ‘mad bomber son’ lodged in the back of her mind. But she tried to hold her tongue, remembering that she was dealing with a childless mother first and a suspect’s relative second. This was not one of the best times for her to be learning self-control.

“Mrs Beck, I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through,” Tim began, trying for diplomacy.

“We shouldn’t have had to,” a male voice called out and a man came to the door. It was like watching two separate worlds colliding as a man in a suit entered the doorway, his appearance crisp save for the fresh stubble. “I know that you’ve had a rough time over the last few years, but you should have kept a closer eye on him. Nikki could see his eyes were red from crying.

“I haven’t been well,” Mrs Beck protested weakly and Nikki wondered how many times that line had been trotted out when she needed to take responsibility.

“That’s no excuse,” the father retorted, clearly unwilling to be generous with his words. “I told you that I was going to be travelling more and more for work. And I honestly thought you’d step up for-”

“Mr and Mrs Beck,” Nikki interjected, knowing all too well how often marital squabbles could escalate. And the last thing she needed was a domestic on the doorstep. “We are trying to get to the bottom of what happened with Ryan. And if we’re going to do that, we will need your help. So perhaps we could have this conversation inside?” She glanced around the footpath to see if anyone was listening in. She did not want to be accused of inadvertently leaking Ryan Beck’s name to the media.

“OK,” Mr Beck agreed and led the two detectives into the house.

In the living room, Nikki could see a half-drunk bottle of Southern Comfort lying on the coffee table and the scent of vomit that hadn’t been erased despite several cleaning jobs.

Nikki and Tim declined the offer of a drink - Nikki feeling like it would need to be accompanied by a tetanus shot given the state of the mugs.

“I don’t see why we have to do this,” Mrs Beck protested indignantly. “The police already came here and told us about Ryan.”

“We are trying to establish the full extent of this operation,” Tim explained, his hands clasped together. “And we need to find out if there are any more attacks planned like the one Tim just unleashed. But we can only do that with your help. For all we know, there could be some other young lad like Ryan who is being talked into throwing away his life for a cause. And we want to make sure it doesn’t come to that.” Tim had worked this job long enough to know that if people were pressed on the timeliness of saving lives, then they were normally more cooperative.

“I honestly don’t know what we can tell you,” Mr Beck explained, looking guilty. “I didn’t have as much involvement in Ryan’s life as I should have. And he poured all his energy into his coursework. He had a real future ahead of him. So I don’t know why he would just throw it away.”

“Well, that’s something we’re looking to pursue,” Nikki explained, getting a raised eyebrow from Tim. “We are exploring the possibility that someone contacted Ryan and possibly groomed him into taking this extremist angle.” It wasn’t an angle she could actively prove at that point. But she could at the very least she could give his parents a bad guy other than Ryan.

“So, what do you need from us?” Mr Beck asked, trying to make a show of being cooperative.

“We need to have a look at Ryan’s bedroom, see if there’s any personal items that we can take a look at, anything that could indicate how this happened,” Nikki explained, knowing that normally they’d have to come up with a warrant, but conscious that that could take far too long. And sometimes, an emotional plea worked just as well.

“Wel, his papers and his laptop should be upstairs,” Mr Beck stated, gesturing to the staircase. “You’re welcome to take whatever you need.”

Mrs Beck suddenly started retching and ran to the toilet. Mr Beck offered a fleeting apology before going to join her, an act he must have done countless times before given his resigned acceptance. The detectives took that as their opportunity to leave the living room and head up the stairs.

“You know you don’t have any proof that Ryan was coerced,” Tim whispered once he was sure they were out of earshot. “For all we know, Ryan could have planned this himself.”

“That family is in enough pain as it is,” Nikki hissed, rounding on him. “Are you telling me that if that was your kid involved in this kind of shit, you wouldn’t want someone to come in and tell you not to think the worst of him? You wouldn’t want someone helping you to remember him on kinder terms?”

Tim bowed his head. He was the father of a newborn boy and he’d fallen in love with the child as soon as he’d laid eyes on him. In that moment, it’d been like everything changed for Tim and he knew he’d do anything for his little boy. “That’s a cheap move,” he admitted begrudgingly.

“Well, most of the time, they pay off,” Nikki admitted as they walked up the stairs and finally came to the bedroom.

The contrast between the downstairs and Ryan’s bedroom could not have been more blatant. Everything was so pristine and in order, nor a single item of clothing out of place. It looked more like a show home than the kind of room a twenty-year-old would occupy.

They pulled on a pair of forensic gloves and started going through everything they could find, seeing if there was anything they could take back to the station.

They pulled out a stack of papers which Nikki recognised as an academic paper. She glanced over some of the prose. She wasn’t much of a history buff - that was more her husband’s speciality. But she knew good prose when she read it, and the lad clearly had a good command of wording.

Tim was taking up time with the two biggest tech-related items they could find. One was a set of memory sticks linked together on a large keychain and the other was Ryan’s personal laptop.

“We should definitely get Clara to have a look at this,” he suggested, half-expecting to come across a manifesto from Ryan talking about why he was doing what he was doing. “His search history should also reveal something.”

But Nikki was barely paying attention. She was going over the paper in her hands, and there was something distinctly familiar about the paper, something that sent unease rippling through her. She took out her phone and with a trembling hand, took a picture of the paper with Ryan Beck’s name and student number printed at the top of the page.

11

Liv went to see her sister Mills, who was so far along that Liv half-expected the baby to pop out mid-conversation. Alex had been invited to the get-together, but he and Tara had been far too busy sorting out things with their new flat. While she was disappointed that she couldn’t see him as much as she would have liked, she was grateful that he was making a decent life for himself. And long gone were the days where she was waiting for him to crash and burn.

“Not long to go,” Mills stated as she ordered herself a glass of orange juice. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I was wondering how you’d feel about being my birthing partner.”

Liv almost gulped on her wine. “I’d be honoured,” she replied, trying not to be overwhelmed with emotion. “I would have been happy to do it the first time round when you were having Ru.”

“I know you would have,” Mills replied knowingly, sipping her drink. “But back then, you were knee-deep in work. And I don’t think you would have thanked me for pulling you away from a big case.”

Liv conceded the point, even though this meant that this was another part of her life that had been overwritten by her police work. “Yeah, I would have made it if it was possible.”

“I know you would have,” her sister replied, and it always spooked Liv how Mills seemed to know her psyche better than she did. “Speaking of kids, do you think you might ever start trying for one with Dean.”

Liv had to look away at that. “I think you are asking the wrong questions there,” she replied, hoping for a gentle way of shutting the subject down.

“No, I’m asking the right questions,” her sister replied, leaning back in her chair for support. “You just don’t want to give me them.”

“With the way work is at the moment, when am I going to have time to time a child?” Liv asked, feeling a little exasperated.

“I’m beginning to see a pattern here,” Mills noted, taking a swirl of her drink. “Work always seems to be the biggest thing for you.” Olivia opened her mouth to protest, but Mills shut it down, as though she were a teacher. “Now, I know how much your job means to you. And I think it’s great that you’re willing to go the extra mile. But sometimes, it feels more like a passion than a distraction.”

Liv said nothing, wondering if she could block out her sister’s words.

“Now, what happened with Alex hit all of us hard,” she continued, her face looking solemn as she remembered the early days of Alex’s disappearance. Terrible days, and the days after, looking, but not finding, until they’d had to come to the gradual realisation that he wasn’t coming home. “And I can understand you looking to the job as a distraction with everything that was happened. We all needed an outlet… but Alex is back now. His life is settled. And I feel like you will just have a new excuse lined up before you’ve even had time to settle. And I think with the way your brain works, you’re never happy unless you’re unhappy. And if Alex was sitting here with us, I’m pretty sure he’d say that he wouldn’t want to be the reason you throw away any shot of a personal life.”

Damn, I hate it when she’s right.

“I’m not saying that you have to abandon the job altogether,” Mills continued, drinking the last of her orange juice. “For you, it’d be like an amputation. But I’m saying maybe you need to find something in your life that doesn’t involve work.”

She signalled to the barmaid for a refill while Liv considered her sister’s words.

Nikki knew she was going to be tense when she walked back into the house she’d shared with Enzo.

Enzo was due to head out to give a talk and she was delegated the role of babysitter, even though she reminded Enzo that she was the child’s mother, that should trump the need for any eager teenager looking to make some extra pocket money.

“Mummy!” Francesca exclaimed, running into her mother’s waiting arms while still clutching her stuffed bunny. Nikki made a mock show of being tackled to the ground as she let the little girl climb over her. “Are you back for good now?”

Nikki kept the smile frozen on her face. She looked to Enzo who was paying no attention to the scene between them, simply packing his case. There was a small part of her that did want to step back into her old life as if nothing had happened. But she knew then nothing would change. Enzo would constantly grow dissatisfied with the life they’d built for themselves, hold it against her for not being perfect wife material, and Nikki would seek solace elsewhere, they’d have a few falling outs and then they’d decide they needed to stay together, partly because Enzo was not big on divorce, and partly because they wanted to give their daughter a stable home. It was a vicious cycle that would have never ended.

But that was not why she was there that night.

“I tell you what,” she suggested, handing back the stuffed bunny. “Why don’t you bring down some of your favourite toys and we’ll have a little game with them. Turn the entire living room into a playroom. Would you like that?”

“Yay!,” Francesca happily squealed before darting out of the room.

“Nicely played,” Enzo commented as he finished packing up his case.

“No point in getting her hopes up and then crushing them,” Nikki replied as she pulled herself to her feet.

“I thought this was all about protecting our daughter’s feelings?” he noted, sitting down on the sofa, suddenly not in a rush to go out anymore.

“I know, and for a long time, I thought we were doing the right thing,” Nikki replied, remaining standing. She knew he’d taken a seat in the hopes of getting her to join him. But she wasn’t going to fall for those tactics anymore. “But I think if this marriage had gone on any longer, we probably would have ended up killing each other.

“You know it wasn’t all bad,” Enzo noted softly, and he seemed to make himself more vulnerable. “There were good times, you can’t say there weren’t.”

She thought back on their marriage, trying to remember the last time they had a truly positive memory. The only one that’d come to mind was in back in March six months prior when the weather had started clearing up and they’d decided to go for a picnic. They’d found a nice spot in the shade by an apple tree. Francesca had stuffed the picnic basket with so many stuffed animals… and even though Nikki had gone on the trip out of obligation, she found herself enjoying herself… and now she was wondering if they could have any more moments like that.

“Yeah, there were good times,” Nikki replied, feeling like this was the first time she’d openly mourned what she was losing. “But we’ve reached a point where we both want different things. And we just can’t make them go together.”

Enzo sighed. She knew that it meant. It would mean more fighting it out in court, more battling over custody, more legal fees. And for once, Nikki wasn’t sure if she’d have the energy for such a fight.

“Well, I’ll look at being back tomorrow morning,” Enzo replied, picking up his case, the atmosphere now dead. “I’ve got Francesca’s food in the fridge for her. She might need a bit of help with eating her greens.”

Nikki thought it best not to mention her intentions of buying a pizza for herself and her daughter.

She waited until Enzo was out of the room and then she played with Francesca, acting out all the voices of her stuffed toys until her voice was hoarse. She loved moments like this and knew they wouldn’t last forever. That only made her more determined than ever to enjoy them while she could.

Once Francesca had fallen asleep watching Finding Nemo, Nikki set about the task she came here to do.

She went into Enzo’s study and started going through all of Enzo’s papers, taking pictures beforehand so she could put them all back in the right order.

Then she found what she was looking for. A copy of Ryan Beck’s paper, word for word… and yet with Enzo’s name on the front cover.

12

When Nikki made her way into the police station the next morning, she felt like she was the one walking in with a bomb.

Everything around her had changed, the way she looked at people. The world looked exactly the same. And yet… it felt so different.

She tried to think about how she would get across what she needed to say to the team. At the moment, she was coming up short, completely at a loss for words… a first for her.

She made her way up to the main CID office and looked about for Liv. There were a number of people that she could have shared this information with. Tim and Archie, who were both affable people who would take her at face value, Collins who had always had her back despite her claims she could take care of herself. But ironically, with the information she had, the only person she trusted to hand it off to was the woman she’d previously clashed with… and yet she was nowhere in sight.

Nikki looked over to Archie who was sat next at a computer, looking for any trace of a criminal record for Ryan Beck.

“Arch,” she began, her throat dry. “You don’t know where Liv is, do you?”

“She’s with Tim and Clara going through the young man’s laptop,” he replied with a faint smile, oblivious to her inner torment.

Nikki nodded at this, heading to the workstation. And as she moved, each step felt sluggish, like she was trying to delay the inevitable as much as possible.

She’d always trusted her gut, always prided herself on being able to separate the good guys from the bad guys… and yet, she was wondering how she could have got it so wrong. She thought back to the question that Ryan Beck’s mother was being confronted with, “How could you not know?” All of a sudden, her sympathy for the woman increased tenfold… partly because she knew it would only be a matter of time before somebody asked her the same question.

She finally pulled into the workstation where Liv, Tim and Clara were staring at the multiple screens, transfixed.

“Hey, guys,” she offered in a small voice. “I don’t suppose you’ve found anything useful?” She couldn’t make out if it would be better or worse for Ryan to have an extremist streak.

“Looking at his computer, this guy doesn’t exactly strike me as some hate-filled shitbag looking to get even with the world,” Tim explained, not taking his eyes away from the screen. “Looking at his search engines, a lot of them are for vegetarian dishes, for Christ’s sake.”

“That’s not exactly a great endearment,” Clara noted, pulling back her dreadlocks. “Hitler was vegetarian.”

“Did you find anything on the memory sticks we picked up?” Nikki asked, pulling up a seat and trying to make herself comfortable.

“A lot of them are for these research papers he’s done,” Liv told them, looking through the contents. “The man was quite the historian. Your husband must have done a great job tutoring him.”

Nikki felt herself gripping the chair at that last comment.

“Liv, I wondered if I could pick your brains over something,” Nikki asked, causing all three heads to turn towards her. “Just you and me.”

In hindsight, she probably should have come up with a better excuse. But unfortunately for Nikki, tact was a talent that other people possessed.

“Sure,” Liv replied, turning to Clara and Tim and instructing, “Keep looking and see what you can come up with.”

She followed Nikki out of the room and they were stood in the corridor alone.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the trust, Nikki, but Tim and Clara are your colleagues. They would want to feel included in this,” Liv noted sternly.

“That’s the thing, Liv,” Nikki replied, starting to shake. “I don’t know what I’ve got on my hands and I have no idea what to do with it. I just need someone to talk to get it all straight in my head.”

“What is it?” Liv asked, suddenly intrigued, leaning against the wall and folding her arms. “Is it anything to do with the investigation?”

“I need your word that you won’t tell anyone until we’ve talked it out first,” Nikki pleaded, her steely resolve melting.

Liv was about to offer a reprimand. But something was wrong. This was nothing like Nikki. In fact, the woman standing before her looked like a shadow of Nikki. Her clothes looked like they’d been shoved on. Her hair was a mess. There were bags under her eyes. Whatever this was had spooked her proper.

“When Tim and I were at Ryan Beck’s house, we saw some of the papers that he’d written.” She pulled up her mobile phone and showed it to the inspector.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what the big deal is,” Liv replied, clearly oblivious.

Nikki took back the phone and loaded up something else, this time it was a website link to the article… written by Enzo Ricci.

“They’re practically identical,” Nikki replied, leaning against the wall as though for support. “Word for word. I thought I had seen that paper somewhere before. God knows Enzo spent more time invested in his work than he was with me. And it was only when I was looking after Francesca last night that I went in his study. And I found that paper. And before you asked, yes, I checked the dates on both papers. And Ryan’s is dated three weeks before Enzo’s was published online.”

“Wait a minute, you went into your husband’s study?” Liv asked, knowing that Nikki wasn’t one for sticking to the rules, but wasn’t sure what parameters there’d be for a police officer searching through her husband’s personal belongings.

“I had a look through the papers,” Nikki continued, not caring for protocol. “And he’s done this with at least four articles. All written by Ryan Beck, all published by Enzo Ricci, and I bet if you and Tim pull up some of those papers on the memory stick, I guarantee you will find those have Ryan’s byline rather than Enzo’s.”

Liv tried to take in everything she’d just heard, to bring herself up to speed.

“OK,” Liv began, pinching her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “We need to think this through. At the moment, we’re looking at a possible case for plagiarism. Now, last time I checked, plagiarism and terrorism were two vastly different ballparks.”

“Look, I don’t know what I’ve found, OK!” Nikki snapped, taking Liv by surprise. “All I know is that something doesn’t feel right. I don’t know what this means for the case. I don’t know what this means for Enzo! All I know is that in this case, my husband has popped up with some unknown connection to the victim, something that he clearly didn’t bother to share with you when you interviewed him. Now, believe me, I really want to believe this is nothing, that Enzo is just an innocent bystander in this and I’m just being a vindictive bitch over the divorce. Believe me, anything would better than what this could mean. And I have no one that I can turn to talk about it…” She sighed heavily, looking down at the floor. “Except you, Olivia. You’re the only one I can trust.”

Liv definitely felt moved by the junior officer’s faith in her. She knew from bitter personal experience what it was like to have a family member involved in a criminal inquiry. But she wanted to make sure they did this right.

“OK,” she started steadily, knowing that she needed to a source of stability and clarity for Nikki at this point. “Here’s what we need to do. I’m going to ask you everything you know about your husband, any link between him and Ryan… and then I’m going to ask you to step away from the case.”

For once, Nikki didn’t put up a fight over the matter.

“For what it’s worth, you’ve done the right thing coming to me with this,” Liv offered kindly. “I can’t imagine the strength it must have taken for you to do that.”

“Well, it doesn’t feel like the right thing,” Nikki mused bitterly. “It feels like I might have condemned my daughter to growing up without a father.”

Liv wished she could offer a consolation, but the words fell flat.

13

Collins gulped heavily, looking like he was going to faint. “Where is DS Harding now?”

“She’s in one of the interview rooms trying to calm herself down,” Liv replied, thinking that Nikki would need some time to herself to get her head around things. If that was even possible.

“I should go and speak to her,” Collins suggested, rising from her seat. “Make sure she’s all right, see if I can offer…”

“With respect, guv,” Liv interrupted, standing in his way and knowing he probably wouldn’t be taking this approach if Nikki wasn’t his former lover. “I don’t think this is the kind of thing you can help her with. She doesn’t know what this all means. All she knows is that her husband is a fraud, and maybe something worse.”

Collins conceded the point and returned to his chair. “How much do we know about Enzo Ricci?”

“Only what Nikki’s told us,” Liv replied, trying to remember the details from their many conversations. His family came over from Italy, he majored in History and he’s been working as a lecturer ever since. He’s published a few papers online, the kind of stuff that would get his name buzzing in high-profile circles. According to Nikki, he was looking at writing a book on the Cold War.”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if that ended up being a fabrication,” Collins muttered, before trying to keep himself on track. “Was he only ever at this uni? Or did he lecture anywhere else?”

“We’ll have to take a look,” Liv replied, not looking forward to the prospect of looking into a relative’s background. “Sir, we need to decide what we’re going to do about Nikki.”

“We need to keep her as far away from this as possible,” Collins noted nervously, as though grateful that Nikki wasn’t there to hear him say that. “This is a delicate case and we don’t need her facing any accusations of covering anything up.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to accuse DS Harding of being complicit,” she responded, remembering how the sergeant had looked like she was going to keel over. “She could have chosen to sit on this to protect her husband, instead, she brought it to us once she was sure there was a case to be made. Can you imagine what that must have taken for her to do that?”

“I don’t envy her position one bit,” Collins replied, before pausing, and there was clearly something more to say. And why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like it one bit?

“There’s also the issue of this leak that is still active,” he explained, and she could imagine how much time he’d spent fretting about the next news item to pop up. “Whoever it is, they are making it their absolute goal to make us look as incompetent as possible. And so far, they’ve succeeded. If they found out that one of our detectives is married to a potential suspect…” His voice trailed off as he tried to think about the PR nightmare he’d have to deal with. “I don’t know how our reputation could survive a hit like that.”

“Well, for now, I think our main priority should be safeguarding Nikki,” Liv explained, thinking that she would probably need to go and check on the sergeant. “She’s in pieces about this and she needs to be convinced that she’s done the right thing.”

“Of course she has,” Collins replied, as though he was shocked she even needed to phrase it like that. “If her hunch is correct, then her actions could have saved lives.”

“I meant for her daughter,” Liv told him, leaning over the table. “Because Nikki knows that by letting us know about her husband, she will feel like she will be leaving her daughter fatherless. You could tell her that she made the right call, over and over until we’re blue in the face and she still might not believe it.”

“Where is the child right now?” Collins asked, thinking of her.

“She’s at nursery,” Liv replied, taking out a phone. “Should I look at having her picked up? She’ll probably be safest with her mother. And it’s not like Nikki is going to be able to have any other involvement in this investigation.”

“No,” he responded, taking her by surprise. “We are still trying to work out Ricci’s movements. If we go pulling his daughter out of school, he’s immediately going to know something’s up. And for all we know, he could still have some bombers waiting in the wings. And all it would take is the signal from him to go into another populated place in Newquay and set them off. Until we have more information, the best thing we can do is try to make sure that he knows as little as possible.”

“You realise we’re not going to be able to keep that up forever,” she suggested, feeling like they had a strenuous task ahead of them. “We’re going to need warrants to search his house and access his financial records.”

“I agree, it’s a risk,” Collins replied, wishing that he didn’t have command of the team. That someone else would have to make these tough calls. “But we have to do this in a way that doesn’t backfire on us.”

Liv went into the room where Nikki was sat clutching a coffee that had gone cold.

“Stupid question, but how are you holding up?” Liv asked, sitting next to her friend.

“Ask me in a few years time,” Nikki replied, taking a sip of the coffee and grimacing. “I’m positive I made the right decision. But I can’t help thinking of what I’ve done to Francesca. I know how this works. When the scumbag is locked away, it’s always the family that take the blame, you get spat at by your neighbours, some shithead spray-painting ‘murderer’ on your door…” Her voice broke as she said the next part. “And next thing you know, your kids are getting bullied at school.” She covered her eyes with a hand. “I feel like I’ve fucked my daughter over in the long run.”

Liv patted Nikki tentatively on the shoulder. “When I got Alex back from the Flock of Eden… I wasn’t sure what life was going to look like for him. I was sure that for him, the idea of any kind of a normal life was out of the question. I wanted to do the right thing by him, but I didn’t know what that was. Because sometimes, the right thing for some is the worst thing for others.”

“She’s going to hate me for doing this,” Nikki muttered, tears coming. “I’m going to be the bitch mum who took her daddy away from her.”

“That’s bullshit,” Liv snapped, levelling herself in front of her friend. “Listen to me, Nikki, you give yourself too little credit. I know you, and I know that if you were in your daughter’s position, you wouldn’t want anyone pulling the wool over your eyes. You’re a great detective and a wonderful mum. And if Francesca grows up to be anything like you, then it will hurt, absolutely. But she will know that you did the right thing and she will thank you for it.” She then took the sergeant’s hand and squeezed it gently. Nikki returned the grasp.

While they couldn’t outright look through the house just yet, Liv had set about sending the PCs on a door to door, trying to see if any of the neighbours had seen anything suspicious. Enzo wasn’t meant to be back from his conference until the next day, so that gave them a 36-hour window to find out what they could about the man.

Tim had gone about contacting the university he’d previously worked at to see if there was anything they could work with. Liv had gone through the meticulous task of looking through his papers with Clara, trying to see if there were any discrepancies.

But the biggest lynchpin they’d found was a set of exchanges on Skype between Ryan and an unknown user. In the exchanges, Ryan had protested the right to be recognised for his work. And the user, who was unnamed had said that students and researchers always thought they’d done more work than they actually had.

But Ryan had said he’d found something that would make him back off for good if he didn’t relinquish the rights to Ryan’s book. At this, they’d found a link to the book that was on pre-order under Enzo’s name. The Psychology of Terrorism in the 21st Century.

Liv knew exactly what this meant for the case and though she couldn’t prove that Enzo was the one on the end of those messages, she knew that it was not looking good for him and could only hope that by the time he got back to Newquay, they’d be able to make a strong-enough case and bring him in before anyone else got hurt… for Nikki’s sake if nothing else. Liv still wasn’t sure if she’d ever recover from this blow.

14

Liv listened patiently as the dial tone sounded out. They’d had a look at the details on the chat gathered by Ryan Beck, and after a bit of digging from Clara, they’d found that they belonged to a former student called Laura Jennings… a name that had also popped up when she’d contacted the university where Enzo had previously worked.

“Enzo Ricci,” the dean had said over the phone, sounding like he was going to throw up. “That’s a name I hoped I’d never have to hear again.”

“Can you tell me what kind of relationship you had with him?” Liv asked hungrily, wondering how much Nikki might have known, and not looking forward to the idea of filling her in.

“I didn’t really have a relationship. He was a tutor, I was his boss,” she insisted. “And I thought he was quite a catch for the uni, he had quite a way with words, was the kind of teacher the students had actually listened to… and he’d also published a few papers. If anything, we thought we were the lucky ones by having him.”

“So why did he get transferred?” Liv asked, wondering if there was another plagiarism case to be answered.

“He sexually assaulted a student,” the woman replied, taking Liv completely by surprise.

“You’re kidding me,” the inspector exclaimed disbelievingly.

“Inspector, I don’t make jokes when it comes to the safety of my students,” she responded curtly. “The student in question was singled out by Enzo, giving her compliments, marking up her work, he was clearly holding out for something that she wasn’t willing to give. And then, about three months into the autumn term… I heard that he assaulted her in one of the lecture halls. There was meant to be a study group and she’d gone along. I don’t think she would have done that if she’d known that she’d be there alone. She’d always taken care to make sure that she was never alone with him.”

“Utter bastard,” Liv growled, wishing she could strangle the man from afar.

“It was a while before she came forward to talk to us about it,” the dean continued, full of sympathy for the young woman even years later. “She assumed that no one would believe her, that they’d assume she was just sleeping around. But she came to me in confidence and told me everything. I tell you, Inspector, people come to this university to build themselves up. And it felt like she’d been broken. And I will never forgive myself that this happened on my watch.”

“It’s not your fault,” Liv insisted, thinking about Nikki and her daughter. “I’m fairly sure you weren’t the only one he was able to fool. He was surprisingly good at that.”

“She didn’t want to go to the police because she couldn’t face the scrutiny,” the dean continued. “Part of me feels that I should have pushed her with coming forward, but I could see it would have taken so much out of her. So I agreed not to. The problem is that women have a tough time being believed. And there’s far too much victim-blaming going on. It’s no wonder men think they can get away with it.”

“So what did you do?” Liv asked, appreciating that this woman must have been between a rock and a hard place.

“Well, there was no way I could have him teaching at my university so I called him into my office and told him it would probably be best for everyone if he moved on to pastures new,” she replied, taking some satisfaction in taking revenge for Laura’s sake. “Of course, he kicked up a fuss about it, and threatened to have me done for unfair dismissal, but I made a point of asking whether he really wanted his conduct investigated and being branded with something that would go on record. And to my complete lack of surprise, he backed off, left without any fuss. I’m just grateful that we got to him before he could do the same to anyone else.” Her tone darkened as she remembered she was talking to a detective on the other end. “Please God tell me he hasn’t done anything like this again.”

Liv gulped. They were still finding out sordid details about Enzo Ricci, and even though she wanted to be assured that he’d curb his proclivities since marrying and having a child, her hopes weren’t high.

“We don’t know about anything Enzo might have done to students,” the inspector continued, knowing she didn’t sound reassuring. “But he’s wanted in connection with an ongoing criminal enquiry. And we’re trying to get a glimpse of his background just to see if there’s anything we should be looking out for.”

“I see,” the dean replied, nodding slowly. “Well, I hope I could lay out for you what a shithead he is. One thing I would ask, DI Austin is that you refrain from contacting Laura. She still keeps in touch with me from time to time and since leaving the uni, she’s settled down in a steady job and is married with two kids. I can’t say if she’s been able to move on from the trauma, but she’s certainly managing to live around it. And it wouldn’t be right for her to have to relive a night she’d rather forget.”

Liv could understand that, having spoken with so many sexual assault survivors for whom it wasn’t just about that one incident. It could be something that stretched out over the rest of their lives, triggering them and making it impossible to move on.

“I will try and keep Laura out of it,” Liv assured her, as much to herself as the dean. “But if this case escalates, I can’t promise that we won’t need a testimonial.”

Once the call had ended, Liv had decided to check in on Nikki to see how she was holding up in the face of everything.

“Thought you should know, we’ve found a lot more damning evidence against Enzo,” Liv told her, sitting down opposite her. “Apparently, at his previous university, he sexually assaulted a student, but she didn’t bring it to a complaint.”

“Christ,” Nikki exclaimed, more loudly than Liv expected. “He told me that he wanted to spend more time focusing on his academic writing.” She buried her head in her hands. “How did I not see any of this coming? From everything I’ve learned over the last twenty-four hours, it’s like I’ve been loving a complete stranger. I’m supposed to be a fucking detective and yet I was so blind…”

“Some men are very good at putting on an illusion,” the inspector offered as condolence. “And in your defence, he worked very hard to blind you.”

“How is the girl he assaulted?” Nikki asked, and Liv could tell that in some way, she felt like he’d failed her.

“She’s recovered, got a life of her own from what I’ve heard,” Olivia explained, and she could see Nikki take a modicum of solace from that. “I know this isn’t going to be any consolation. But I hope you know that you did the right thing. Not just for yourself, but for Francesca. You wouldn’t want your daughter growing up around a man like that.”

“That’s what I keep coming back to,” the sergeant noted heavily, thinking back on all the memories they’d shared together. “Even when he stopped trying with me, when he made the full transition to shitty husband, he was still a wonderful father to Francesca, always going to her school plays, always preparing healthy food for her. When he was busy at work in the study, she was the only one that could coax him out. He’d stick all her drawings in the office… he did everything right… and now, I don’t know if that part of him was genuine, or just another part of him that he could turn off and on whenever he felt like it.”

“Well, we’ll find out when we get him into custody,” Liv said confidently, sure that the net was closing in on him now.

“There’s got to be something I can do,” Nikki pleaded, straightening up in her chair. “I feel like a tit just sitting here.”

“You’ve done plenty,” the inspector assured her. “If you hadn’t come forward with the information you did, then we’d be chasing a ghost for God knows how long. You leave the legal side to us, Nikki. You want to help out, here’s what you can do… when this is all over, and Enzo is in custody, go home to your daughter, hold onto her and never let go. The next few months are going to be tough for her. And she’s going to need her mum to get her through it, navigate it all. And I know you can do that, Nikki.”

“How am I going to tell her that her daddy’s a monster?” the sergeant pleaded, sounding like a shell of herself. “How do I tell her that the man who was supposed to protect her and look after her is like all of the bad men that I’ve tried to warn her about.”

“You’ll find away,” Liv replied, her faith in DS Harding unbroken.

15

Enzo Ricci had always known that he was meant for better things in life. If his family had imparted any lessons onto him, it was that he should never have to settle for anything less. And if he wanted something badly enough, he had to take it.

He thought that academia was the perfect calling for him. The chance to put a unique spin on historic events. He could see it all in his head, how he was going to be a philosopher in the veins of Locke, Dante and Plato.

But what he hadn’t counted for was the prolonged writer’s block he’d endured, struggling to articulate his beliefs. And on the rare occasions that he did manage to get a paper sent off to an academic journal, it was politely declined.

So when his college students started submitting their own papers, he thought he’d look to them for inspiration. Maybe that was what it would take.

He’d look through their papers, trying to see how they phrased their prose. And one night, he came across a particular wording that looked so magnetic, it was hard to believe it’d actually come from a student paper. Figuring that the student must have most likely stolen it from another source, Enzo had decided to lift it and put it in his own paper. It wasn’t really plagiarism. In academia, all opinions were shared. And students always believed they’d done more work than they actually had.

And to his lack of surprise, the article had been accepted and people had started asking for him to lecture at their universities. And with each success, he lifted a little more from his student essays. Going from wording to a paragraph to eventually an entire essay. And his career was very much on the rise.

And then Laura had happened. He’d hoped that in the eyes of his students, he’d be a subject of reverence. But she clearly resisted the pull, thought she was too good for him. And what’s worse, made it so that they could never really be alone together.

So he’d put out word of a study group one night in one of the lecture halls. And when she’d turned up, he was unwilling to take no for an answer. He told her that he should be grateful that someone like him would take an interest in someone like her, sure that he could keep her quiet. But then that bitch of a dean had told him he should stretch his horizons elsewhere. He could have thought them over it, but it wasn’t worth the time and the effort to put them in their place, especially if Laura decided to move forward with her allegations.

So he moved to Newquay with Nikki, who’d been fun and audacious when he met her, sometimes borderline outrageous. And he’d admired all of those traits about her. And when she’d had Francesca, he felt like his world was complete.

But he’d held out hope that Nikki would drop her career for the sake of becoming a housewife, often making the point to her that she was more needed in the home than she was on the streets. But Nikki was determined to have her cake and eat it and Enzo figured that he’d just have to tolerate it. His family had a very low opinion of divorce and he did not want to have to disappoint them.

So while Nikki was out saving the day, Enzo focused his efforts on his academic writing, wanting to become famous within his industry. If he couldn’t get the respect of his wife, then maybe he could get the respect of the academic world.

And it felt like fate had delivered Ryan Beck right to him. The young man had been a promising academic, with a clear eye for historical theory and was a master of language.

When Enzo had first read through the young man’s work, he’d felt a pang of envy. He;s struggled to become a noteworthy academic all throughout his career and had nothing to show for it… whereas this kid had had it all handed to him on a silver platter. It was not fair. As far as he was concerned, he deserved it more than Ryan did.

And then he heard about the book that he was working on. Throughout many of their classes, Ryan had maintained a focus on contemporary history, specifically, the psychology of terrorism. In fact, he’d put together a series of essays that he’d put together in his own time and kept to the side for a rainy day.

And Enzo knew he had to act fast. He didn’t know whether it was a moment of madnes or him finally taking charge of what he thought was his.

So he took the essays and sent them off to an agent, who in turn contacted a publisher. And before he knew it, he was seeing all of his dreams come true.

But Ryan had got wind of what he’d done and had threatened to tell everyone what he knew. Enzo assumed that it would be his word against Ryan’s. But he was also aware of the possible damage to his reputation. In the world of academia, plagiarism was worse than murder… and when the young man had threatened to take everything he knew to the police, saying how he knew all about Laura Jennings, then Enzo knew he had to act fast because the man would not stay silent forever.

He briefly considered deleting the book, but looking over the beautiful prose, he knew he couldn’t discard a golden ticket like this. He’d probably never get another chance. And then, as he was looking through the book, reading about the various psychology terrorists maintained… inspiration struck.

He put together a bomb vest, buying various supplies online. Normally, he wouldn’t have been able to do this under his own roof with a copper. But with Nikki living away from home since the separation, he could carry out his work in secret.

He met with Ryan under the pretense of coming to an agreement… when in actually, he drugged him and set about prepping him.

It would have been simpler to kill the lad, certainly would have been easier. But for Enzo, it wasn’t enough for him to kill Ryan. He had to discredit Ryan. He could talk about how Ryan had become radicalised through his study of terrorism, and that he’d decided to enact the dreams of his ‘idols’. And Enzo was sure that when Ryan died, having worked with the young man directly, this would inspire a new body of work.

He’d strapped the bomb to the lad and dumped him near Newquay shopping centre, telling him not to tell anyone what was happening or he would detonate the device himself remotely. He knew there was a chance that the police would get to Ryan and would question him on why he was doing this, but Enzo was listening in through a recording device strapped to the vest, making sure the lad wasn’t saying anything that could incriminate him.

With Ryan dead, Enzo could play the part of the troubled teacher, shocked that his pupil had taken such drastic actions and would be in a state of mourning, treating this conference away as a form of therapy… when really, he was hoping to promote his own brand.

There was a part of him that hoped with everything that was happening, all the publicity that was due to come his way, he was sure he could coax Nikki back into his life. It would be dangerous given that she was a detective. But he was sure that he could persuade her to keep quiet if need be, for their daughter’s sake, if nothing else.

Francesca was the light of Enzo’s life, his very reason for being. And it was his hope that the work he did would give her a better start in life, with plenty of opportunities.

He was driving back from the conference, wondering how the case was progressing. No doubt they would have brought in all of their terrorism experts to try and find a group that were never going to come forward.

As he was on the motorway back, he was looking over the news articles on his phone… when he saw somethng that made him swerve the car and pull over.

It was a news article that detailed how the mastermind of the bombing might be linked to someone working in Newquay CID.

Enzo’s blood ran cold. How could they have known? Then it dawned on him. Nikki. She’d never been invested in their marriage, and now she was trying to sabotage the life and success he was trying to build for himself.

He flipped through the article, trying to see if there were any specific details. Thankfully, his and Nikki’s names were left out of the piece. But they were clearly putting the pieces together.

He had to think of a way forward. He’d worked too hard to have it end this way.

But luckily, he knew Nikki very well. He knew what she valued more than anything. And he knew exactly what he needed to do to make her back off. And at the very least, he could still punish her for speaking out against him.

He drove on towards Newquay, a dark plan forming in his mind.

16

When Katie was given the task of going door to door in DS Harding’s area, asking questions about her husband and some of his habits, it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. A suspected terrorist was related to one of the lead detectives on the case.

This was a gift. This was everything she could have wanted and more.

She imagined that the team were keeping it close to the chest until they had more evidence, but it would only be a matter of time before they put out a request for a warrant.

When Andrew went off for a coffee break, she took out her phone and dialled the editor. “Just so you know, I’ve got the kind of story that is going to blow you away.”

“I’m listening,” the editor replied slowly, and she knew he’d been waiting impatiently for a fresh piece of news.

“Our new suspect related to the bombing is the husband of one of our detectives,” Katie explained, barely able to contain her glee.

“You’re shitting me? And there’s been proof of it?” the editor asked disbelievingly.

“Well, we’ve been doing door to door on their houses, so while it’s not wise to assume, in this instance, I think it’s pretty safe,” the PC noted, checking around the corner to make sure that Andrew was still preoccupied with the coffee. “So, how soon can we get the story live?”

“We can give them a smal peak with more information to follow,” the editor responded and Katie could tell that he was chomping at the bit to get the story out there. “I take it you know which detective is married to the rotten apple?”

Katie was about to confess all… but then she stopped herself. Not because of any sense of loyalty to DS Harding, but she knew the woman had a fierce temper on her, and if word ever got back to her that Katie had been the one to leak the information, then not even the entire Newquay Police Service would be able to protect her from that level of wrath.

“I’d rather not say at this point,” she replied, deciding to leave her reasoning out of it.

“Fair enough,” he accepted to her relief. “In some ways, that works in our favour. Gives people something to speculate over. I will look at getting together something we can release and then we can take it from there.” Before he hung up, he added, “Well done, Katie. There were plenty of people I could have put on this assignment, but I’m glad I chose you.”

Katie beamed with pride as Andrew returned to her with fresh coffee. “What was all that about?” he asked, completely oblivious.

“Just thinking about opportunity knocking,” she replied, sipping the coffee.

“You know you’re going to have to come out of there at some point,” Liv insisted, trying to put a humorous spin on the situation with questionable impact. “You can’t start camping in here.”

Nikki hadn’t left the room since Liv had guided her in there after the disturbing revelation about Enzo. “I don’t know how I can honestly face anybody ever again,” she muttered, looking down at the floor. “However you look at it, I’m damaged goods. If I’m not the copper who was too naive to see that her husband was a scumbag, I’m the careerist who shopped her own husband to the cops. I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive this.”

This was perhaps the most morose Liv had ever seen Nikki Harding. She remembered how impervious the woman was to any kind of criticism, and wondering what it would have taken to break her. Now she was wishing she hadn’t found out.

“You know when I first met you, you know the first thing I picked up about you?” Liv asked gently, sitting down opposite Nikki.

“That I was an argumentative bitch who never did what she was told?” Nikki asked coyly with a ghost of a smile. “I’m pretty sure Enzo felt the same way.”

“It’s that nothing ever got to you. You could have people insulting you, questioning you, and yet there was nothing that ever got to you. It was like you were incapable of taking any kind of criticism. And I always admired that about you,” she continued, trying to get the woman to look at her. “You need to have that same resolve now, Nikki.”

“Last time, I didn’t have to worry about finding out my husband was going to be on the wrong side of the law,” Nikki mused bitterly.

“I’ve never known you to be preoccupied with what everybody else is thinking,” Liv explained, trying to get through to Nikki. “At the end of the day, it shouldn’t matter. Because yes, there’s always going to be some shitbag looking for the worst possible angle. But the people who know you, the people who matter, they will know that you’ve done the right thing. And we will all stand by you with whatever comes next,” she insisted, wanting her to feel that she was not alone in all this.

“I keep thinking about the next steps,” Nikki muttered, sounding like it was taking a lot to pull her out of her catatonia. “There’s going to be a trial, a lot of shit is going to come out… and I can’t bear to have Francesca go through all of that.”

“I promise you that whatever comes next, we will try to protect her from it all,” the inspector implored her. “Both of you. I’m not going to bullshit you because I respect you too much for something like that. The next few weeks, if not the next few months are going to be difficult, for everyone. But you don’t have to go through that alone, I promise you. We’re going to get you through this.”

Nikki smiled, finally taking the hand. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you.”

“Given my own bundle of neuroses, that’s probably not reassuring,” Liv offered, smiling as Nikki rose from her seat.

She didn’t know if things would get better, but Nikki was one of the strongest woman she knew, and she believed that she could push herself through it for her daughter’s sake, if nothing else.

There was a knock on the door and Archie entered. “I just thought you should know that we should be getting a warrant sorted to search the premises,” he explained, before softening his tone. They’d ran through the drill several times before, but never in regards to a fellow detective’s house. “Sorry, wasn’t thinking.”

“Don’t worry, it’s all right,” Nikki replied with a shrug. “It has to be done. He gets back from his conference within the next hour.”

“My advice would be to go and pick up Francesca from the nursery,” Liv suggested, putting together a plan of attack. “Then we can make the arrest and with any luck, we can wrap this all up and find out if Enzo is looking to blow anyone else up.”

“I’ll be back in a while,” Nikki stated, and strode out the door, starting to sound more like her old self.

“You think she’ll be all right?” Archie asked, wishing he’d spent more time looking out for his friend.

“She will be,” the inspector replied, putting her hand on her hips. “And if she isn’t, then we’ll get her through it.”

Nikki pulled up outside Francesca’s school, trying to think of all the explanations for why she was bringing her daughter back to the police station, thinking that maybe she could say it was a little adventure. She wanted to put off the conversation about Enzo for as long as possible. Nikki normally had no problem with telling people as it was. In fact, she prided herself on it. But she struggled to do that where her own daughter was concerned.

She watched as the first set of children exited the nursery, being picked up by her parents, and Nikki told herself that she was going to do right by Francesca. She wasn’t going to let something like this get in their way. It would be tough, but she was still going to give her little girl the best possible life.

She exited the car and walked towards the nursery, going over in her head what she’d say to Francesca… and what she’d say to Enzo the next time they crossed paths…

Nikki scanned the nursery, looking for any sign of Francesca, waiting for her to come running up to her mummy.

“Ms Harding!” the nursery nurse exclaimed, surprised. She was a plump woman who looked like she was fresh out of college.

“Where’s Francesca?” Nikki asked, her face starting to flicker with concern.

“Didn’t you know?” the woman replied, oblivious. “Your husband picked her up.”

17

The words didn’t resonate with Nikki at first, bouncing off of her. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” she asked, almost a whisper.

“Your husband, he turned up half an hour ago, said that you were busy with work and he was going to take Francesca home,” the nursery nurse continued, having no idea that with every new word, Nikki was on the vere of erupting.

“Where did he say he was taking her?” Nikki asked in a quiet tone, and when the nursery worker failed to grasp the severity of the situation, Nikki erupted. “WHAT DID SHE SAY!?” She backed the now-frightened woman into a corner, who was stunned into silence.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to get anything useful out of the woman, Nikki broke away, brushing past all the parents and children who were watching the scenes unfold and took out her mobile, trying to call Enzo’s number. It went to voicemail every single time.

“Enzo, where have you taken Frankie?” Nikki demanded, not bothering with the calm. “You bring her back to me right now!” She tried to keep herself strong for her daughter’s sake, but already the possibilities were circling through her mind. Knowing that there’d be no response on the end of the line, she hung up the message in anger.

Then a number flashed across the phone screen and for a moment, Nikki thought it was Enzo.

But it was Liv. She answered the phone immediately with, “He’s taken Francesca.”

“What?” Liv asked, feeling like this situation was going from bad to worse.

“He’s just turned up here and taken her and now he’s not answering his phone. I have no idea where he is!” Nikki screeched, scared for Francesca. She tried to tell herself that for all her husband’s flaws, he’d been a good father. But with everything she’d learned about her husband over the last few days, she couldn’t even take solace in that.

“How the fuck was he supposed to know what was happening?” the sergeant demanded, moving out of the nursery, feeling like she couldn’t just stand there.

“We need you back at the police station,” Liv insisted, prompting a growl from Nikki. “I know you want to be out there looking for your daughter and believe me if I was in your position I’d be dong the exact same thing. But we need to put our best heads together to find Enzo and Francesca. And we need you there with us, Nikki?”

Nikki conceded the point. She could tear down the whole of Newquay trying to find her daughter, but she knew it would only get her so far. She couldn’t do this alone. “How did he know we were onto him?”

Back at the office, Collins turned his computer around to show everyone the article that had popped up on all the media outlets.

“It says here that the main suspect responsible for orchestrating the bombing of the shopping centre is a spouse of one of the officers leading the investigation,” Collins detailed, looking stricken. He slammed the computer down before anyone else could get a look at the garbage. “That fucking leak. When I get my hands on him…”

“Oh, you won’t be able to!” Nikki retorted, who’d been pacing up and down the office like a wild animal. “I’m going to tear him limb from limb when I see him!”

“Nikki, I promise you we’re going to find Enzo,” Collins insisted, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

“I don’t care about him, I care about my daughter!” Nikki screeched, in a full-blown panic attack. “This is all my fault! As soon as I found out what Enzo was doing, I should have gone down to the nursery and brought her in myself. Then she wouldn’t be…”

Liv looked to Collins, conscious of their earlier conversations. She could see he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Either let Nikki carry the guilt, or relieve her of it while admitting his own complicity. I am so glad I’m not in his position.

“Nikki,” Collins began, clearing his throat. “You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“Guv,” Liv tried to interject, seeing exactly where this was headed. “Maybe this can wait until later-”

But Collns held up a hand and continued talking. “The reason your daughter wasn’t picked up was because I wanted to maintain the illusion that everything was all right. I didn’t want to risk giving Enzo any indication that we might be onto him. So, it’s not your fault. If anything, it’s mine. I swear to you, if I could go back and do things differently, I would. I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

Nikki looked to him, and Liv could see the despair in her face, the feeling of betrayal from a man she considered a friend.

“Nikki…” Liv started, trying to put herself between the sergeant and the superintendent. “It wasn’t his fault. It was an impossible situation…”

But Nikki wasn’t listening. She was storming towards Collins, fists bared, at which point Tim and Archie tried to hold her back. “You fucking bastard!” she cried, trying to fight them off. “You let my daughter be taken!”

The energy quickly drained out of her and she slumped in the grip before falling down, completely broken.

“I promise you,” Tim insisted, putting a hesitant hand on her shoulder. “We are going to find Enzo. And we’re going to get her back. Whatever it takes.”

Nikki immediately started thinking of all the times she’d said those exact words to traumatised parents, trying to tell them it’d all be all right, even when she didn’t know if that was the case. Now she could understand what it would be like to wait, having no idea if that promise would come to pass. And hearing those words now, this time on the receiving end of them… she couldn’t bring herself to believe them.

She got up from the floor and rushed out of the room.

“Just give her a minute,” Collins insisted, feeling devastated by Nikki’s scorn.

Liv looked from the door Nikki had just charged through to the superintendent. “I understand why you told her,” she offered sympathetically. “But I think maybe it should have waited until after this had wrapped up.”

“I didn’t want her kicking herself,” Collins offered, clearly trying to tell himself that he’d done the right thing… even if it meant earning Nikki’s hate.

“It’s not your fault that this happened.” the inspector replied. “This was just the work of some selfish bastard looking to get ad sales. And believe me, we’ll find them and string them up. For now, our main priority is getting Nikki’s daughter back.”

She went about organising the entire station in a manhunt. Whether CID or uniform, everyone was expected to drop everything and partake in the investigation.

As the PCs rushed through the building, Liv caught sight of Andrew and Katie. “What the hell is going on?” Andrew asked, feeling like his world was going to turn once again.

“The leak told the press about Enzo Ricci’s involvement in the bombing. He must have seen the article because the next thing we knew, he swung by the nursery and abducted his daughter.”

“What?” Katie Gibson exclaimed, louder than anyone else had expected.

“Yes, clearly he’s trying to use her as a bargaining chip,” Liv continued. “Nikki is beside herself. So as far as I’m concerned, no one is resting until we’ve brought that little girl back safe and sound. Can I count on you both?”

“Of course,” Andrew declared immediately, ever reliable. But PC Gibson remained silent, as though she was lost in another world.

“I’m sorry, PC Gibson, am I interrupting you from a busy schedule?” she barked, perhaps a little too harshly, but needing every officer on board for this.

“Sorry,” she muttered, still sounding distracted. “I was just thinking about the little girl…”

“As are the rest of us,” Liv declared. “We owe it to Nikki to get her home safely. If ever you needed a reason why we do this job, this is that reason. Now get out there.”

Andrew and Katie nodded, exiting the police station.

Liv tried to think of all the points they should check out, all the areas Enzo would go. They needed to do an assessment of the whole of Newquay… and if there was anyone else at risk.

And Nikki might be the only one who knows.

18

“Ican’t be in here,” Nikki exclaimed, pacing up and down the interview room. With all the hours she’d spent in here, there was a familiarity to the place.

“We just want to focus on making sure you’re all right,” the inspector pleaded, hoping the amassed effort would reassure her. “We’ve got every officer out there looking for them…”

“Every officer except me,” Nikki spat, turning on Liv. “What, are you worried I’m going to bollock up the investigation?”

Liv bit her tongue at the last bit.

“Olivia,” Nikki pleaded coming around the table and placing her hands on her superior’s shoulders. “I need to be out there trying to find Enzo. I know him better than anyone. If anything happens to my little girl, I’ll never forgive myself. I don’t give a shit about regulations. If there are consequences, I’ll face them. Hell, I don’t even care if they kick me out of the service. If it means I can hold my daughter again, it’ll be worth it. So, please, Olivia…” Nikki gripped the shoulders tighter, though Liv had never seen her friend so vulnerable. “I’m not insisting as a detective… I’m begging you as a mother.”

Liv nodded, knowing if it was her family, she’d be reacting the exact same way.

“We’re going to need to see if we track his cards and mobile,” Liv suggested, deciding not to add that he might have decided to toss them. She had no way of knowing how to put Nikki at ease. Every single reassuring phrase cycled through her head, but given she’d heard Nikki parroting most of them, she knew they’d only have so much impact.

Suddenly, the phone started ringing and Nikki immediately answered it. “Hello? Enzo?” she demanded, placing the phone on speaker, before noticing Liv pointing upstairs. Understanding the intention, Nikki carried the phone out of the room and along the corridor as Enzo began speaking.

“This was your doing, wasn’t it, Nikki?” Enzo’s voice asked in that soothing tone she’d heard so many times before, but now she could feel the malice seeping through.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nikki replied as she pushed through a door with Liv in hot pursuit.

“Oh, come on, we both know you couldn’t resist taking a peek into my business,” Enzo continued, showing that even after showing his true homicidal colours, he hadn’t broken away from the patten of holding Nikki responsible for all of his mistakes. “You know that all of this is down to you? If you’d just chosen to ignore what you found, none of this would have happened and Francesca would be with you right now.”

“Is that why you took her?” Nikki spat as they came to the door leading into Clara’s workstation. “To punish me?”

“I wanted you to understand that actions have consequences,” Enzo explained calmly, as though she was one of his students. “And sometimes, I need to show you dramatic examples to make you pay attention.”

They entered the workstation where Olivia signalled for Clara to remain silent as they went over to the computers and Olivia signalled for her to begin running a trace.

“Are you seriously going to tell me, after everything you’ve done that I’m responsible for this?” Nikki demanded, knowing that Enzo would never hold himself accountable, but needed to keep him talking long enough to handle the trace.

“Exactly,” her husband replied bluntly. “Now, I could just take Francesca with me, disappear and start a new life with me.”

“Will you, bollocks,” Nikki spat. “There’s no way you’re making off with my daughter.”

“Our daughter,” Enzo corrected her. “She will be safe with me.”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” Nikki replied, and Liv tried to find the subtle way of saying ‘keep calm.’

“But there is a way through all of this,” Enzo suggested, sounding like he was enjoying holding all the cards. “I would have suggested that you call off your dogs, but even you are just one woman so that’s not going to be possible.”

Clara gave the pair a thumbs-up.

“So I’m going to suggest that you help me get away. Get out of Newquay away from everyone else. I can start a new life elsewhere and you can get your daughter back. Everyone’s a winner.”

Nikki was about to bark out a response before Liv showed her on a Post-It, “What happens if I refuse?”

“What about if I say no?” she asked, trembling as she asked the question, not knowing what her husband was capable of.

“Then I’ve got a few more explosives to set off,” Enzo replied, sounding completely divorced from humanity. “Maybe I’ll find somebody else to strap them to and then the body count will go up. And it’ll all be down to you.”

“What do you need?” Nikki asked, knowing that she’d take any deal that safeguarded Francesca.

“I want you to come and pick me up,” Enzo instructed, clearly expecting Nikki to settle into the role of submissive wife. “You get me out of there and I give you my word, you’ll find Francesca safe and sound. You can’t tell me you’re seriously considering turning down that offer.”

Bastard. He’s using his own daughter as a bargaining chip.

“I’ll be there,” Nikki informed him heavily.

“See, it’s all so much simpler when you just do as you’re told,” Enzo instructed when the line went dead and all three women were left standing in silence.

“Clara,” Liv finally declared. “Please tell me you got the location.”

“Yes, I have,” the trutsty tecnhnician replied confidently. “We can circulate that to all the officers out there.”

“No,” Nikki commanded, taking control of the situation. “I’m going in there myself. I need to get to Enzo, and I need to get my daughter back.”

“Nikki, this isn’t just about your daughter,” Liv started, knowing that she’d be treading on thin ice with that statement. “He’s stated that he’s got armed explosives and he’s not above using them. We’re going to have to get a bomb squad out there. Now, as far as we know, he isn’t willing to harm your daughter, but if we don’t handle this right, she could get caught up in the crossfire.”

Nikki went silent as Liv made a silent plea. For once in your life, Nikki, please listen.

“OK, you’re the boss,” she decided, figuring that Olivia was probably her best shot at getting Francesca back.

“Clara, let’s circulate that location,” Liv commanded.

They found themselves outside a derelict building that looked like it was going to start crumbling down at any moment.

Nikki and Liv were both armed in stab vests, though Nikki couldn’t help but wonder what good they were going to do them in a bombing.

“Remember,” the sergeant insisted. “It’s going to be me he’s looking for.”

Nikki exited the car with Liv following closely by, trying to keep out of sight. Many of the officers were a street away being kept away until called forward.

Nikki’s phone started ringing and she answered it. “Enzo, is that you?”

“I’m going to be heading off in ten minutes. I’ll text you a pick-up point. And once you’ve got me out of Newquay, I will let you know where to find Francesca.”

“Of course,” Nikki responded, trying to withhold her glee that she was in the vicinity.

“I will speak to you soon and maybe we can help each other out one last time, for old time’s sake,” Enzo insisted before hanging up.

Holding her firearm up, Nikki entered the building, trying to take care not to make herself visible. But that was nigh-impossible. Every footstep brought with it a load of gravel and she could hear a distant echo.

She made her way up a stairway, praying that it didn’t crumble from underneath her.

The two detectives came up the stairs, looking for any sign of Enzo. He was nowhere to be seen. But they did glimpse…

“Mummy!” Francesca called out, having been lying on a rainbow blanket surrounding by stuffed toys and a colouring book. She bounced up and ran over to Nikki, who quickly tried to hide the gun.

Nikki sobbed with relief, holding her daughter close and never wanting to let her go. “Where’s your daddy?”

“Daddy said that he would have to go away for a long time,” Francesca babbled. “He said things didn’t work out between you both.”

“Come on,” Liv pleaded, relieved for her friend. “Let’s get you both out of here…”

“NIKKI!” a male voice screeched and the two saw Enzo coming into view, stricken with disbelief. In his other hand, he held a backpack. He quickly recovered and held a gun at Nikki. “Get away from her.”

But Nikki immediately stood her ground. “Not. Happening.”

“Franesca, sweetie, it’s all right,” Enzo whispered in a fatherly dispute. “Mummy and Daddy are just having a little domestic, that’s all.”

“Take her,” Nikki whispered, shoving her daughter over to Liv, and before Liv had time to work out what was happening, Nikki charged at Enzo, who tried to work up the nerve to fire at his wife. She crashed into him, knocking them both through a wall and through one of the floors, where they both fell to the ground.

Liv wanted to work out if either person was injured, but her first priority was escorting the child out of there. She picked up the little girl and carried her out of the building, down the street and handing her off to one of the officers.

“Wait!” Francesca called, holding out a small hand. “What about my mummy?”

“Don’t worry,” Liv replied, giving a small smile. “I’m going to get your mummy out of there.”

Arming herself, she headed back into the building.

Nikki tried to pull herself into a sitting position, putting pressure on her arm, at which point a shot of pain ran through her arm. She must have broken it in the fall.

She looked around to see if Enzo was lying nearby. But her husband had disappeared.

Nikki got to her feet and aimed the gun around the area, trying to ignore the burning pain in her broken arm. It was hard to tell which bones were shattered.

But Nikki was not going to back down. She gripped the handgun with her good hand and moved through the building, trying to ignore the searing agony rippling through her body or the sense of dread once she got to the other side of the building. She just had to keep pushing on.

Funnily enough, she’d always entertained a scenario where she’d have to use a gun. Rolled it over and over in her mind. But she certainly didn’t imagine anything like this happening. Not these circumstances. Certainly not going up against her husband.

Nikki secretly hoped that she didn’t find Enzo. She prayed that somebody else - hopefully Liv - would find him before she did. That someone else would have to make the call.

Whatever happened, at least Francesca was safe. That was the only thing that mattered.

In the pain-induced daze, she stumbled and leaned against a wall for support… only to rely on her broken arm to prop herself up.

Nikki screamed in pain and stumbled to the floor, tightening her grip on the gun as she fell.

More than anything, she knew she just wanted to hang back and let somebody else handle this situation. But she knew in her gut that if she let this one slip through the net due to personal reasons, then she’d never forgive herself. She’d certainly be unable to look her colleagues in the face… though she wasn’t sure if she could do that now, anyway.

She’d lived with this man for years, loved him, married him and had a child with him… and yet she’d been completely blind to his worst impulses. So Nikki felt it was down to her to put this right.

She moved through the building, which felt more and more like a labyrinth… maybe that was why he’d chosen it in the first place.

And then she saw Enzo.

Outwardly, nothing had changed. He still had the same clothes that he wore on a day to day basis, the same hairstyle, even that same confident smile that’d originally won her over. He looked a little dazed from the tumble, but clearly he hadn’t sustained any broken bones.

But there was something different behind the eyes. Something primal, a change had taken place that alone rendered him completely unrecognisable to her.

Or maybe he’d always been like this and she’d just never seen that side to him.

“Nikki,” he began in a patronising tone. “Do you not understand what I was trying to do? I was just trying to give a good life for myself… for us. For Francesca. She would have wanted for nothing.”

“And what about the Becks?” Nikki fired back, remembering the trauma they’d faced. “Did they deserve to lose a son?”

“That kid was nothing in the grand scheme of things,” Enzo replied, feeling no remorse whatsoever. “I had more to offer than he ever did. We could have had the life we deserved, made things the way we want them to be.”

Nikki couldn’t understand how she could have got things so wrong between them. And maybe she should have bluffed her way out of this, tried to find a way to get him at a disadvantage later, but she was so overwhelmed with disgust that there was no way she could convincingly fake compliance. That had always been her flaw. She was terrible at maintaining a decent poker face.

“You’re fucking crazy,” she exclaimed. “You actually buy into ths bullshit.”

“When Francesca was living the good life, she would have thanked me for it,” he replied, and despite all the lies, she was in no doubt of his love for his daughter.

“And what would you have told her when she was older?” she spat, prompting a brief silence. “You think she would have been on board with this terrorism crap?”

“She would stick by her dad,” he replied. “As you should have. Honestly, Nikki, we were happy once. You can’t tell me that there weren’t good times.”

She thought about the picnics and romantic outings they’d shared.

“So where’s that man?” she asked pointedly. “Because I’m sure as shit not seeing him right now. Yeah, there were good times between us, but that just makes the bad times even worse because that just means that every vile thing you’ve ever done, you made a choice to do that.”

He looked at her with disappointment, though clearly it wasn’t much of a surprise on his end.

And just as her feelings for him hadn’t compelled her to change course, the same could be said for him.

“Typical Nikki,” Enzo muttered. “When I asked for your hand in marriage, I should have known that you were already married to the job.”

“Francesca is going to know what you are,” she declared, wanting to fire off a shot at him, but being unwilling to hit the explosives. She didn’t know what the blast radius was, but she wasn’t in a hurry to find out. She focused on hitting him where she knew it would hurt. “I’m going to make sure that she grows up hating the very idea of you. She’s going to know everything that you’ve done to her.”

“Oh, she’ll never know,” Enzo replied, completely unfazed. “Because you won’t be alive to tell her.”

The mentality was clear. If he couldn’t have his daughter… no one could.

He aimed the gun at her…

…just as Olivia came into view and screamed, “NIKKI, TAKE COVER!”

A shot rung out and she opened her mouth in a silent scream.

Liv’s bullet pierced the backpack in Enzo’s hand and Nikki watched as the man she’d loved, the man she thought she’d grow out with, the father of her child… was engulfed in a ball of flame that threatened to bring down the entire building.

EPILOGUE

Three weeks later…

It was almost time to go.

Olivia stood on the beaches of Newquay, enjoying the gentle waves of the sea. She didn’t appreciate how beautiful the scenery was around here. When she returned to Newquay all those years ago, she’d hoped for a fresh start and a bit of tranquillity. Maybe Mills was right. Maybe she should start finding things to appreciate that didn’t involve the job.

She watched on the far end of the beach as Francesca collected seashells and showed them off to her mum excitedly. Nikki admired the shells with her free hand, her other arm in a cast. It would be the last time Nikki was able to do that with her daughter for a while. Liv looked at the happy carefree child and wondered how much of that sparkle was genuine, and how much of it was her putting on a front for her mum.

It’d been a risky move hitting the bag containing the explosives. Liv had only had enough time to calculate the distance between Enzo and Nikki, hoping that the sergeant would have enough time to get back and not get caught up in the explosion.

Enzo Ricci had died instantly in the explosion and the building had almost come down on them. Thankfully, they’d been able to get out in time.

It was the next few weeks that’d been difficult. Nikki had been forced to contact all of her and Enzo’s family members and give them a version of the truth they could swallow. And it’d come as a shock to them all that the man they’d held in their hearts could be capable of such cruelty. Nikki had always assumed his worse trait to be dismissive in their marriage. She’d never anticipated anything like this.

Many of the terrorism specialists that Superintendent Collins had called in had been a little disgrunted by the false alarm, but grateful that there would be no more deaths, with the main perpetuator dead.

It’d been odd going to the funeral. Nikki had been tempted to just steer clear of it all together. But even she had to admit that for all his faults as a man, Nikki still felt she needed to go, if only to give herself closure.

The hardest part was Francesca constantly asking what’d happened to her daddy. Nikki wasn’t ready to have the conversation about how life was short, simply saying that he’d had to go away for a while. And Liv knew that Nikki would try and put off that conversation as long as possible.

Nikki walked up to Liv while Francesca splashed about in the sea. Liv could see that all of the officers in the station had signed her cast

“So, when can we expect you back at work?” Liv asked, realising how much she’d missed Nikki’s banter while the sergeant had been away on compassionate leave.

“Well, you’re actually the second person to know,” Nikki replied, trying to look the inspector in the eye. “I’m not coming back. At least not for a while.”

“Please tell me you’re not taking early retirement,” Liv replied, trying to lighten the mood. “I’m not going to feel so safe without you covering my back.”

“Believe me, I’m tempted to leave early,” Nikki smiled and Liv wondered how many of those she’d flashed since the incident. She wanted to believe that her friend would be all right. That she’d be back to her old self in no time. But to find out that your own husband was a killer… and then to watch him die before your eyes… I don’t know how most people come back from that.

“I’m taking a secondment away from Newquay for a few months,” Nikki replied, completely flooring Liv.

“Why?” Liv asked, sad to be losing one of the constants of her day to day life.

“Don’t look so shocked,” Nikki assured her. “It’s not like I’m dying. You saw to that.”

Liv gulped a little. They hadn’t really spoken to each other much since Liv had fired the shot that saved Nikki’s life and killed her husband. “Look, Nikki…”

“If you’re waiting for me to do the whole disowning crap, you’re going to be waiting for a very long time,” the sergeant insisted gently. “You had a difficult decision to make, and barely any time to make it. You saved my life. And because of you, my daughter is going to grow up with at least one decent role model. Well, semi-decent,” she added self-deprecatingly.

“I’m sorry that we couldn’t bring Enzo in,” Liv offered.

“To be honest, I don’t think there was any positive outcome for any of this,” she muttered sadly. “If he’d gone on the run, I’d be looking over my shoulder. If he was in custody, me and my daughter would have been dragged through a trial. And now…” She inhaled deeply. “I’m trying to tell myself that the man I loved was just a facade… but I can’t help looking back on all the moments we shared together and trying to work out what was real.”

“You’re probably going to be doing that for a while,” Liv noted, knowing that some ties could never be severed no matter what.

“Whatever the outcome, I don’t feel I can stick around Newquay,” Nikki replied.

“You know that everyone is on your side,“ the inspector pleaded. “No one holds you responsible in any way…”

“Too bloody right they shouldn’t,” the sergeant exclaimed and Liv could already see some of that swagger seeping back into her. “I didn’t decide to go on a kill-crazy rampage. Just to be clear, this isn’t me being ran out of town by all the torches and pitchforks, or cowering in shame. I’ve done nothing wrong. My whole career has been above board and by the book.”

Liv cleared her throat, referencing the numerous bouts of insubordination she’d had to deal with in her time supervising DS Harding.

“Well, mostly above board,” Nikki chuckled. “I’m doing this because it feels right for me. The whole reason we moved to Newquay in the first place was so that we could be closer to his work. And I didn’t realise how much time I spent kidding myself thinking that’s what I wanted. I need to go somewhere to think about what I want for myself and my daughter. And I’m not going to get that here. I’m sorry. And I’m pretty sure that any half-arsed psychiatrist will tell me that hanging around the place associated with all my traumas probably isn’t going to do me any favours.”

“Well, as long as you’re not going to get away from me,” Liv exclaimed with relief before remembering another person with whom things had been tense. “Or Steven…”

She hadn’t been privy to any conversations between Nikki and Collins since that night.

“I was pissed off,” the sergeant offered. “I wasn’t thinking straight. And he made what he thought was the right call. I can’t give him too hard a time about that… but I think it’s going to be a while before we’re back to the way things were. I mean, I’ve had to play nice to get the transfer sorted.”

“I take it you can’t put it off?” Liv asked, as the reality of Nikki leaving started to come crashing down on her. “I mean, we still have to deal with the leak who coughed up the information on Enzo’s involvement.”

“Believe me, it was very tempting to stick around for that,” Nikki growled, her anger coming back to the forefront. “But I know that if I ever found out who was responsible, then I’d probably end up killing them. Because of them, I almost lost my daughter. You lot need to keep your wits about you, play them at their own game. They need somebody rational. And I’m sorry to say this, but that probably isn’t going to be me. So it’s probably for the best if I stay away from that investigation… just give me a call when you nab the bastard.”

“Oh, I will, I promise,” Liv stated, making that her next big target. The leak had cost them far too much and would have to be stopped. But that was an issue for another day.

“So, where are you going to be going?” Liv asked, trying to get a sense of what Nikki’s future looked like.

“I’m going to Derby,” Nikki replied. “I’m going to be part of the major crimes unit. You remember DCI Alice Taylor who was down here a few months back with her daughter? She told me that if I ever fancied a change of scenery, then I should definitely make my way down there. Frankly, I didn’t think I’d be contacting her so soon. But sometimes, you’ve just got to go with what life gives you.”

“You going to be there as a sergeant or should I get used to calling you DI Harding?” Liv asked.

“Believe me, I’d love to lead my own team,” the sergeant suggested wistfully. “But I don’t know if I’m ready for it yet. It requires somebody with a level head… something which I’m seriously lacking in.”

There was a time when Liv would have imagined Nikki had been headstrong in what she wanted for herself, regardless of whether she was ready or not. The growth present in this woman was incredible, a far cry from the obstructive copper she’d first partnered with all those years ago.

“What’s going to happen to Francesca?” she asked, looking at the little girl lost in her make-believe world.

“She’s going to come with me,” Nikki replied, smiling fondly at the most precious thing in the world to her. “For all his self-righteous bullshit, Enzo was right about one thing I haven’t spent as much time with Francesca as much as I should have. I want to be a bigger part of her life if possible. I’ve had a look and there’s a nursery I can put her in, and I’m pretty sure I can twist somebody’s arm into babysitting for me.”

“Well, we all know how persuasive you can be,” Liv noted with a smile. She noted Nikki’s tone flatten at the mention of Enzo’s name and waiting to believe that she would recover from this. But it was like the ghost of her husband would always be with her. I could suggest she get therapy, but she’d only turn it down. Best to let Nikki find her own way to cope…. “So how long is this secondment?”

“Nine months,” Nikki replied, surprising Liv with how much time could pass by then. “It’ll give me time to get Francesca settled, get used to my old team, assuming I haven’t pissed them off by the end of the first day…”

“And after that?” the inspector demanded, not wanting to believe that this would be the last time she worked with Nikki.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Nikki remarked before calling out to her daughter. “Sweetie, come on! We’ve got to go!”

Francesca ran towards them, fitting as many stones into her little arms as she could.

“I will say this,” Nikki declared. “Working with you, Liv, has been the biggest privilege of my career. I’ve learned a lot from you over the years and hope I can apply it moving forward.” She began to hold out a hand, before pulling it back and coming in for a hug, which Liv didn’t reject… suddenly there was the sound of Nikki flinching. “Sorry,” she muttered sheepishly. “Probably not the best idea with the bad arm.”

“Are we going to be having a leaving bash at all?” Liv asked, knowing that everyone in the station had grown close to Nikki and would want to see her flourish.

“Maybe something lowkey,” Nikki replied. “I’m not really in the piss party mood.” Her face went serious. “Listen, Liv. I stand by what I said earlier, you and Dean, you are made for each other. I’ve never seen a couple more well-suited to each other. So, I want you to take the next step. You owe it to him, and you owe it to yourself. I’d say you owe it to me if I thought it would twist your arm.”

Liv laughed at this.

“I’m serious. I don’t care how. I do care when. The next time I see you, I expect a decent ring on that finger.”

THE END

TO BE CONTINUED…

Find out more in Book Forty here: If It Bleeds

DS NIKKI HARDING WILL RETURN IN HER OWN SERIES:

BOOK 1 - BLOOD LIKE WINE

THE RELEASE DATE WILL BE COMING SOON

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

If It Bleeds - DI Austin Book Forty

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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