‘You’re going against your own instructions you gave your team,’ he said.
‘This is different,’ she shouted back.
‘I agree with you,’ Ted said to Johnny, ‘but it is her job, and you know she’ll go anyway.’
‘But she should at least take someone else. I’d go, but what about you?’
‘I have Millie looking after me,’ Ted said.
‘It’s not good enough; I can’t let any of you be here alone.’
Millie came back downstairs after putting Lizzie down for a nap and looked worried.
‘I’ve got somebody changing all the locks this afternoon,’ Johnny told her. ‘You can go home, if you like,’ he said.
‘No, that’s not what I was thinking. I don’t want to leave Lizzie here. What about I take her to my house?’
Johnny tried to think of a way he could tell Millie that wasn’t a good idea without letting on that her home was just as much in danger because of her mother’s job. Kate had been spared last night, but that might not be the case tonight. Kelly had assured them that squad cars would be patrolling their respective addresses all day, but she couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t be called away in an emergency.
They were on their own until the coppers had something to investigate; in other words, until somebody got seriously hurt. Ted didn’t count because he wasn’t filing a complaint. He was set in his ways and couldn’t be moved on it. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in harm’s way because of his job, and he reckoned it wouldn’t be the last. But he could see that Kelly was riled.
‘I’ll get a squad car here,’ she said, and left the room. ‘And Millie, you go home, take some time off,’ she said over her shoulder. Millie got her keys and smiled at them. The day was a corker and the thought of having a day off was a nice surprise.
‘Stay local and in a group,’ Johnny told her.
‘Yes, boss,’ Millie said. She said goodbye and left.
Johnny stared at Ted.
‘She’s so bloody pig-headed,’ Johnny said.
‘That’s what you love about her,’ Ted told him.
Johnny smiled and nodded, giving up. He’d tried blackmail, emotional manipulation, and good old brutal truths, but Kelly saw through it all. Only the notion of Lizzie’s safety being compromised made her stop to think about her own actions.
She walked back into the room.
‘You’re right,’ she said.
Ted and Johnny stared at her.
‘I’ve got a couple of uniforms coming over here. My guess is they won’t hit the same address twice. They’ve done what they set out to do, which was letting me know they’re watching. Next time will be somewhere or someone different.’
Johnny folded his arms. He had no need to say anything else. All he cared about was her and Lizzie’s safety and sometimes her sense of justice blinded her own self-preservation. He was happy she’d seen sense.
‘I’ll take Fin,’ she said.
Instantly, Johnny’s stomach dropped, and he felt powerless to respond. He’d told her she shouldn’t go alone, and now she’d hamstrung him. He knew Fin was the bloke she’d been involved with after they’d split because he’d got it out of Emma one night at the pub, months ago, just before he left for Scotland. It wasn’t nasty; he simply wanted to know if anybody else was involved in Kelly’s decision to dump him.
It didn’t distract from the fact that losing her was entirely his own fault, but for some morbidly masochistic reason, he wanted to know if she was safe.
‘Fin?’
‘Do you want him here looking after Lizzie or there looking after me?’ Kelly asked.
‘Excuse me, I am more than capable of looking after my own granddaughter,’ Ted said defiantly.
They looked at him and he sat up.
