‘We’ll all go,’ said Lil. ‘And we’ll all clean the mess up later, OK?’

And that was that.

158

Tom was sitting on his bed, fully dressed, when they arrived. His head was still bandaged. When he saw the three of them coming into the ward, he grinned. Then he saw Aunt June’s head and did a double-take.

‘Snap,’ he said to her as she hobbled up to his bed with Lil and Angel following on. ‘What the hell happened to you then?’

‘We’ll tell you all about it,’ said Lil. ‘Later, all right? First let’s get you home.’

‘You three look shattered,’ he said, his eyes going from his mum to Angel to June.

‘We are, a bit. It’s been a hell of a day,’ said Angel.

They took Tom back to the old family house, not to his flat. And then they told him about what had happened, about Frank Pargeter and his henchman coming, and how they had all nearly been toast.

‘Christ!’ said Tom.

Then just as they were all sitting down to dinner and Aunt Lil was bringing in the shepherd’s pie, the doorbell rang. They all stiffened. Glanced at each other.

‘I’ll get it,’ said Angel.

Frank is dead, she told herself. And that pet ape of his is locked up.

Still, she felt ridiculously nervous, opening the door. She felt even more so when she found Farmer standing there. And there it was again. The dread, and the excitement, the fear, all rolled up in one lethal package.

‘Miss O’Brien,’ he greeted her. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine.’

There was silence. They stared at each other.

‘Who is it, Angel?’ called out Lil from the kitchen.

‘It’s DI Farmer,’ shouted Angel. Then she turned back to Farmer. ‘We’re all a bit shook up,’ she said.

‘Listen, can we talk? I mean, can we try dinner this time? Since you walked out on our lunch?’ he asked.

He was going to get her. She could see it now. It was inevitable.

‘When?’ she asked, giving herself up to her fate.

‘Tomorrow night? Collect you at seven?’

‘All right,’ said Angel.

159

The following evening Angel found herself sitting across a restaurant table from DI Farmer with his deep penetrating eyes burning into hers. Angel felt that the whole of yesterday could have been one hideous nightmare, but at the same time she knew how real it was because the man sitting opposite her was just as much a part of it as Frank Pargeter and his henchman Baxter. Albeit on the right side of the law.

‘So,’ said Farmer when they’d finished their mains – salmon for Angel, steak for him. ‘Let’s try again, shall we?’

‘Try what? You don’t want to talk about that Frank Pargeter person, do you?’ She frowned.

‘Nope. He’s history. And as for his big mate Baxter Graves, who you nearly caused to bleed out, he’s going down for assault and battery. Jesus, that was vicious.’ But he was half-smiling. She felt she knew that quizzical half-smile very well, now.