“From the mouths of babes. Why don’t you come round?” Romy leaned against the fence.
“Haven’t you seen enough of me?”
“No. I haven’t. And I think Mia wants to see you.”
I remembered what Glynis had said. Apart from Cara – and I doubted Cara would remember much of what happened in my office – it would be me and Mia who had that shared experience.
“I’ll come round.”
I did manage to sleep in Romy’s garden, ending up in the hammock, with Mia who decided she wanted to nap with me. This time I didn’t have bad or even strange dreams, just the flitting in and out of Heidi’s voice and the sound of the breeze and the gulls.
I made us omelettes for dinner in Romy’s kitchen, kind of familiar now where all the utensils and pans were, and how Heidi had a habit of seriously getting in the way when you had something hot in your hand.
It felt strange leaving them to their evening when I had football practice. A police officer was on patrol still, although he’d said it was the last few hours of the shift and he didn’t expect to be back on it. There was no need now.
Which was exactly what Roe Holland said as soon as I got to practice.
“Good evening to the hero of the hour. You’ll be glad to know there’s no camera near the door in Romy’s living room anymore.” He laced up his football boots.
“I can’t get my head around there are no more threats.”
He shook his head. “That’s not entirely true. Mia’s Stan Jarman’s daughter. She’s always going to have something to contend with because of that. Stan’s got another three to serve for laundering and then he’s out, and he’ll piss someone off, and Mia could end up in the middle of things again, but we’ll know about it before anything happens. That’s the good thing about these organised crime groups; they’re not bothered about being quiet about what they do because they think they’re above the law. Makes it easier to keep an eye on them.”
“And there are undercover cops too, I suppose?”
Roe shrugged. “Probably.”
“And the police have you lot to do things that they can’t without a warrant?”
Another shrug. “It would be inadmissible in court, but we help where we can. How is Mia?”
“Wanting to be a detective.”
Roe grinned. “That’d please her dad. Jesus. Stan Jarman’s daughter becomes a cop. Fuck knows how that’d go down.”
“He might become reformed.”
Roe choked.
The changing room door swung open, Thane, Finn and Caleb strolling in, and that was when the banter started, beginning with a very out of tune version ofI Need a Herowhich demonstrated Caleb’s incredibly dodgy dance moves and definitely took the attention off me.
Practice was exactly what I needed. The couple of pints in the pub with Amelie’s thrice-cooked chips went down a treat, and for the most of it I just ignored the hero comments, accepting those from Puffin Bay residents who weren’t trying to start another chorus, because no one needed more of Caleb’s dancing.
If you could call it dancing. I wasn’t sure you could.
“How’s Romy?” Amelie sat down with us, passing Caleb an ice pack as he’d knocked his shin when trying to do the Can-Can.
“Tired. Relieved. Still nervous, but everyone’s telling us that the threat’s pretty much over. Mia’s resilient. Heidi’s trying to listen into everything. I have a pile of work that’s mounting up, but I don’t think it’s going to get tackled until next week.” I had a very demanding parent wanting a meeting about an adaptation to their child’s curriculum because they didn’t want them to learn about something to do with the Romans, which was probably going to be one of the madder conversations I’d had this month, including Cara's side of the dialogue.
“Well, you’ll be dining out on it for a while. We’ve had a load of customers asking to buy you a drink, so there are about twenty pints in the pump for you, when you’re ready.” Amelie sat back and folded her arms. “It’s also the girls’ birthdays next week, soplease can you tell Romy I’ve booked out the cakery for them on the Saturday afternoon. She mentioned it before everything happened with Mia.”
“I can help you with those pints.” Caleb looked hopeful.
“Not until your dancing improves.”
Gully choked. “None for Caleb then. And no, I’m not teaching you how to dance.”
Caleb frowned. “You can’t dance.”
