Zara waved her hand. ‘Look, I thought you said you could handle shit like this? My father trusted you, so what’s the big deal?’

He stiffened. ‘No, honestly, you can count on me. I just don’t want anything to go wrong and you to get hurt.’

‘Well, do you have any mates who you trust to come along? My father usually had a couple of men during a swap. Would you know who they are?’

Victor gave a resigned nod.

‘Good. Well, that’s settled, then. Meet me at the hangar at eight thirty.’

Victor kissed her cheek and left.

As soon as he was out of the door, she returned to her father’s office and picked up the phone. She looked at the framed photograph of Izzy set above the mantelpiece and smiled wickedly.

***

Eric leaned back on his sofa with a bag of frozen peas pressed to his head. His eyes watered, the blow having been very hard. Zara’s eyes had looked at him so fiercely he wouldn’t forget that moment, not ever. It was not just the anger, there was so much disgust shown towards him.

Why couldn’t she look at him the way she looked at Mike? The sound of a ringtone made him snap out of his thoughts. It wasn’t one he recognized. He removed the phone from his pocket and saw instantly that it wasn’t his phone. Zara! He remembered now. He’d grabbed hers off the floor at her place. He thought about ignoring the call. But then something told him to answer it.

Perhaps it was her.

‘Hello,’ he answered eventually and somewhat dubiously.

Her voice was calm as she spoke. His heart was beating so fast, he wondered if she could hear it down the phone. He held his breath and listened. Although his head was still thumping from the clout, she’d given him, his shoulders finally relaxed. Just hearing those words that she’d forgiven him meant the world to him right now.

***

As Mike approached Kent, he called Staffie and gave him the low-down on Randy but was irritated by the bleeping sound until he realized it was another caller trying to get through. He ended the call and answered the unidentified caller. He quickly recognized the voice and before he’d a chance to talk he was told just to listen and listen very carefully. He didn’t argue. Unexpectedly, his phone died. Damn! He wanted to check up on Ricky one more time. He had a full battery when he’d left the lock-up. He wondered if there was a problem with his Bluetooth connection. But then, what did he know about phones?