Ridley took no time at all to change his mind completely and agree that Jack could go to Taunton to interview Connie. His focus and commitment was all Ridley ever wanted. And now he felt as though his protégé finally had it.

“Thank you,” Jack said. “I get the strong feeling, sir, that on this one, we have to go backward in order to go forward.”

Even as the words left Jack’s mouth, he wasn’t sure if he was referring to the Rose Cottage case, or to his own search for his birth dad.

Chapter 10

On the evening of the diamond raid, Dolly’s only plan had been to make absolutely certain that Harry went down for the crime. She hadn’t even considered where the diamonds might end up—she certainly had no intention of putting herself at risk to steal them. No, this was pure revenge.

But when she learned of Shirley’s involvement, things started to go horribly wrong. No one Dolly cared about was meant to be at the event, but Shirley, when asked by her new boyfriend to model the jewelry they were intending to steal, had agreed, not knowing that Micky Tesco was one of Harry’s gang.

As soon as Dolly learned that Shirley was at risk, her plan for revenge vanished in the blink of an eye and was replaced with a desperate need to protect her friend. She knew for a fact that Harry’s gang would be armed.

By the time Dolly arrived at the event, chaos had already taken hold. Police were racing into the building and glamorous people in black ties and ball gowns were flooding out, heels in hand, fear in their eyes. But Shirley was nowhere to be found.

A gunshot echoed from inside the building. Before Dolly knew what she was doing, she found herself running down the back alley and in through the open kitchen door. Dolly had seen many sights she’d rather forget, but none was more harrowing than that of Shirley, dolled up to the nines and as beautiful as ever, lying dead on the kitchen floor in a growing pool of her own blood.

It took Dolly a good ten seconds to realize the horror of what she was seeing. Behind her, Shirley’s low-life boyfriend was frozen to the spot.

As Micky recovered from the shock, he raced forward, pulled the jewels from around Shirley’s neck and disappeared out the kitchen door. Rage filled Dolly’s heart and she charged after him like a woman possessed.

As Micky ran, he stuffed a dark blue cotton bag into his leather jacket, along with the broken necklace, jumped on his motorbike and raced away. Dolly was right behind him as she launched herself into her car and sped after the motorbike.

As Micky took a sharp right turn, he lost control of his bike and careered into a parked car. Without thinking, Dolly jumped from her car, grabbed the blue bag and broken necklace from inside his jacket, and drove off, leaving him for the approaching sirens to deal with.