“Now?”

Ridley wanted confirmation before he decided just how disappointed he was going to be with Jack.

“It’s my dad. I think. I mean, Mum called and . . . something’s wrong.”

Ridley sighed a long and heavy sigh, making Jack wait for his decision.

“We’ve just found a dead body, at the scene of a fire, next to approximately £1.8 million in non-legal tender, inside a cottage whose last occupant was a mounted police officer.” Jack knew exactly what Ridley wanted him to say but he couldn’t; his subsequent silence told Ridley, loud and clear, that his dad was more important. “Take the rest of today, Jack. This lot will take an age to process and transfer across to us anyway. I want every one of my team to be on their best game, and if you’re fretting about what may or may not be happening with your parents, then you’re a million miles away from your best game.”

Before Jack could thank him, Ridley had walked away and got into the driver’s seat of the car they’d shared to get there.

Fuck, Jack thought to himself. This is going to be one shit drive home!

Chapter 5

Maggie got up at her usual time of three o’clock and went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. On the breakfast bar was a scribbled note:

Gone to Mum and Dad’s. I’ll call you when you’re up. Don’t worry. Jack xx

And then Maggie’s phone rang.

“Hello, lovely,” Jack whispered. “I’m on a train so, if I lose you, I’ll call you back. I brought the car back to the flat for you.”

“What’s happened? Are Penny and Charlie OK?”

“Not sure. I’m two hours away, so I’ll call you when I know.”

Jack wasn’t being standoffish, and Maggie knew it. He just hated talking on trains, surrounded by strangers who couldn’t help but listen in. And this—especially this—was nobody else’s business. So Maggie did the talking.

“OK, honey. Well, I’m in work from four, but I’ll keep my phone on vibrate and, if you need me, you call me. I may not be able to pick up, but I’ll get to somewhere quiet and call you back as soon as I can. Was it your mum who called?”

“Yes.”

“So, it’s Charlie?”

“Yes.”

“OK. Well . . . whatever it is, we’ll be fine.” Jack’s phone pinged as a text message came through—which he ignored for the time being. Maggie continued, “We can cope with anything, you know—the four of us. And if you need me there, you ask, OK? Don’t think I can’t come, Jack, because I can. I’ll make work understand—”

And then the phone went dead and Jack lost signal.

The text message was from Laura—Ridley told me. Hope you’re OK. L x.

Jack texted Maggie—love you xx—and then watched it fail to send. Seven times. On the eighth attempt, it finally went through. He spent the rest of the journey looking out the window, thinking about how to react if his mum told him that his dad was dying.