He nodded. “Just Saturday on an eight while six. Why was today so bad?”
“I think you’ve just made it a hell of a lot better.” She meant that. Seeing Jonny this weekend was a brighter end to what had been a tough week. “A child made a disclosure. The police didn’t handle it like I thought they should. The Inspector dismissed it pretty much straight away.”
“Inspector?” Jonny frowned. “Hang on, why was an inspector involved? If it’s a disclosure isn’t it social care first?”
Rayah frowned. This was a good point. Disclosures and child protection concerns weren’t overly common in Severton, but they did happen. Never had she known a detective inspector get involved this early on, but never had she had a child say they’d seen a firearm at home.
“The child thought they’d seen a man with a gun in their house.”
Jonny’s eyes narrowed. “Do they live in Severton?”
Rayah bit her bottom lip and nodded.
“What did McKay say about it?”
“It wasn’t McKay – it was the man standing in for him. Garrison, he was called. He said the child had made it up and he’d checked the house and no one there had a gun. I don’t know why, but I can’t help thinking there’s more.”
Jonny reached across the table and took her hand in his large one.
“Jon, someone might see.” She didn’t try to take back her hand.
“I don’t give a fuck. You’re upset. I’d rather come round next to you and hold you. Half the town probably suspects something by now anyway.” His voice was low, almost a growl.
She smiled and interlaced her fingers with his. “It was at Felley Manor.”
“The cult?”
Rayah nodded. “I shouldn’t be telling you.”
“I’m not going to say anything, but what I will say to you is that you don’t go up there.”
“Alex said the same thing.”
“Alex is right. Ray, think of it this way: they’re going to know the girl told you. if you go up there and there is something illegal going on, they’re going to figure you’re noseying. Good people don’t have guns in front of kids. These aren’t good people. Promise me you won’t go up there?”
She could see the tension oozing from him, his shoulders almost frozen, eyes burning.
“If I think the girl’s in danger…”
“You phone Alex. Or me. You don’t go up there. Please, Ray, I don’t want to worry something is going to happen to you.”
And then she saw the fear.
A mangled car. Flashing blue lights and screaming sirens. A man left a widower with three children.
Back when they were kids, she’d jumped off a precipice into a stone cold tarn. Jonny had pulled her from the water when her body had gone into shock and she’d started to drown. It had been his warm arms that had held her as he’d swam her to safety, his body she’d been held against as she’d gasped air into frozen lungs. His eyes she’d gazed into as he’d saved her.
She was on that precipice now, her toes hanging off the edge, about to take the plunge and she had no idea how deep or cold the water was or if he’d be able to save her this time.
If he’d want to.
“I’m not going to let you worry.”
“Good. Although I kind of worry anyway. You’ve never been one to stay out of trouble.” His smile was soft, his eyes a maelstrom of things she couldn’t read.
Fear ripped through her. “Jonny, I’m not the same as when I was a kid. You don’t need to worry about having to save me.”
His other hand came across the table. He held both of her hands in his and a whole lot more. “I don’t mind saving you Rayah, I never did. I try to look after all my friends.”
