CHAPTER 2
Dad, of course, was the one who gave us a hand moving, after we finally found a suitable place up by Radyr. Blake and I were both renting, so it was Dad who helped with the deposit, Dad who helped with the fees, Dad who helped with the physical moving and so on, and Mam who ensured that we had all the little things that are always forgotten for a new home. I am embarrassed to say that the last included toilet paper. I had heard stories about people finding the only acceptable use for the Daily Mail, cutting it into squares, but just ‘no’. I mentioned that thought to my new husband, and he just laughed, pointing out that the whole purpose of toilet paper is wiping stuff off, not rubbing it on.

There was also the small matter of Fritz, Blake’s elderly ginger tom. We had a back garden, but cats are by their nature climbers, and so we kept him in for a few days until he had satisfied himself as to which territory he was in and whose it was.

His, of course.

Oddly, I had never had a pet, and it was strange getting used to the routine of litter trays and food dishes, and the early morning wake-up call of a heavy and furry lump lying on top of me and purring for his breakfast. That was bad enough, but his habit of slipping under the bloody duvet to warm his paws against my back soon had me wearing nighties again. Even with all that, I could see why Blake loved him.

Married life suited me, and I think it suited my big man as well. I still kept my maiden name for simplicity at work, though. And of course, the joking was non-stop. Deb asked for a look at our wedding shots---

No. That didn’t happen. What did was that Deb sent me a note signed by everyone in the house demanding that I produce ‘hunk and pictures’ at the first opportunity, and so we had a cake and picture-show evening, Blake and I surrounded by young women of various stages of completion, together with PC Welby, and the mood was very different from my first visit. It seemed that while the ripples from our individual sufferings had spread, so had those from the court cases. Apart from a couple of new arrivals, who were very arms’-length at the start of the evening, everyone was relaxed about having a man in the main room with them. Gradually, that relaxation settled the two new girls, and when one of them made a sighing comment about my wedding dress, I knew we were getting to them in a nice way.

There was something else going on, though, and it took me a while to work out where the focus lay, and I made sure I found a moment in the kitchen with Deb.

“What’s the score, mate?”

She turned round to lean her backside against the work top. Even though her words were sweetly innocent, her position told me she expected a longer conversation. I tried a smile.

“Deb, someone is up to something in that room, and they don’t want me to know about it. You got any problems? Anything I can help with?”

She cocked her head. “And you haven’t helped already?”

“Bollocks, Deb, that’s old stuff. This is something new. Who is getting shit?”

She shrugged. "Not really what’s happening, Di. More a little bit of nerves, a little bit of worry, some confusion and rather a lot of shyness”

I laughed. “Not Charlie, then! Tiff? Gemma?”

She sighed. “Nope. It’s Paul”

“Oh! He getting attached to someone here?”

“No, Di. Not here, so much”

“Is it Kim? Bit young for him, I’d have thought”

“No, not anyone that’s been here. He’s worried how work would take it”

“Deb, really? We have a few dinosaurs we haven’t got rid of yet, and we’ve not got that many trans people with us…”

Stop now, Di; do not ‘out’ Annie.

“But look at how they all pulled together for those arrests, yeah? I think South Wales are able to adapt a bit more, these days”

She shook her head, smiling softly.

“It’s not that, Mrs Sutton. It’s about boundaries, professional ones”

Sammy always said I had great insight, but it wasn’t working very well just then, and---oh!

“Deb: these boundaries: investigating officer and previous offender, by any chance?”

She looked away for a while.

“Yes, love. You have it. Paul’s always been someone slow to open up. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been good as gold with the girls, and there’s always that bit when someone is too friendly, too quickly, too much like a chaser, isn’t it? That wasn’t Paul. Always polite, always pleasant, but it took him a long while before he opened up to be able to tease the girls back when they tried to embarrass him”

“What, your lot?”

She grinned this time, and it was genuine.

“Di, teenage girls are always the same, and teenage girls just love to tease. Mine are just the same as any other. You not worked it out yet? I suspect you have”

I nodded. “If I have it right, this is an awkward one. What has he told you?”

“That she seems to be on the same wavelength, but both of them are worried it’s an infatuation thing. Man on a white horse, riding to the rescue stuff”

I nodded again. “Paula’s not stupid, Deb. I am right, aren’t I?”

“You usually are, my friend. He is wound right up about professional ethics, and at the same time terrified that her feelings aren’t real ones. Bit of a mess all round”

“Does he know you’re talking to me?”

“I suggested it. His own plan is simpler, he says: be there for Paula until she can get straight, get off the junk, yeah? Get her life back on track, as she was saying after the trial, and then, once she’s in a position to see clearly, only then deal with the work side of it”

I shook my head at his strength, and Deb put her hand to my shoulder.

“He’s a proper, old-school, gentleman is Paul, as well as a decent copper. You up to watching his back?”

I stepped forward for a proper hug.

“Stupid bloody question, Deb! Got any more pastries hiding out here?”

I talked it over with Blake that night, as the three of us lay in bed, Fritz’s purr loud in my ear as he lay along my pillow above my head.

“Dunno what the answer is, Di. If it goes wrong he could be done for all sorts of impropriety charges, but it’s her as well, her situation. I mean, she’s a smackhead street whore!”

“Blake…”

“No, luv, not how I meant it. Not my thoughts, aye? I saw what she was in court, and she’s not what she was reduced to, that’s just what she was made into. The person underneath, well, Ashley Evans, aye? I think she’s a bit like you, that she never lost herself, at least not completely How did you leave it?”

“Watch and wait, watch his back, yeah?”

“Spot on, love. Now, up for a trip out to Cowbridge next week?

“What for?”

“Lainey wants to say hello. She suggested the same pub”

“Who’s driving, then?”

“Neither of us is, Mrs Sutton! I’ve already asked at that place up the lane. They have a room! You didn’t marry an idiot”

I snuggled into him, relaxed and happy.

“I know that. Remember to take the laptop and the discs with the pictures on, then”

It felt odd, parking up outside what I thought of as Omar’s hotel, but any bad associations were disposed of by the welcome from the landlady, who remembered us both, and the stop we made on the lane to smash every window of a certain tosser’s cottage and set fire to his car.

I lied about that last bit. Our room was up the ornate wooden staircase I remembered, and it was a delight, with an awning over the top of the very comfortable bed. We laid out what little luggage we had, and as the evening settled around us we strolled hand in hand along the narrow little lane to the junction where the pub sat. We found a comfy corner, secured an extra couple of seats for our friend to use when she arrived, and grabbed a decent ale each.

I poked him in the ribs.

“Some honeymoon this is, DC Sutton. One night in a hotel in Cowbridge. Don’t think I’ll be marrying you again”

Happily, he got the joke, and as he already had the menus I settled back against him for comfort and began planning my meal.

Elaine and her wife weren’t too long in arriving, and after a few minutes of relaxation and similar menu study, we put the order in and settled back as we awaited food and, in the case of two of us, a reason for the meeting. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy to see them both, but rather that there was usually a reason for such meetings, and not always a pleasant one. She kept it light, though.

“Not driving tonight, Blake?”

“No, we took a room, innit?”

I smirked at her surprised grin. I didn’t marry a stupid man. I knew the look that followed, though; it was one she showed when she was building up to something important, something that affected the person she was talking to. And she didn’t disappoint us.

“Annie’s coming over by here in a week”

Shit. I was right, but it wasn’t anywhere near any of my guesses. I couldn’t help it, jerking upright, and speaking in reaction. I gave Blake a quick look as the words spoke for themselves, praying he would understand while knowing, absolutely, that he would.

“Could… could I see her?”

Elaine fixed me with a flat stare, what she called her ‘plismon look’.

“That be a good idea, girl?”

How the hell could I know? All I wanted was to see her happy, for fuck’s sake. I had been so close to making a fool of myself with Adam, if not both of us, but while I wished her all possible happiness I didn’t want her hurt, even with the best of intentions. Blake reached out for my hand, and mine was there, and I needed his, and he knew it, just as I knew once more that I had the right man.

“No, it wouldn’t. I just thought, you know, sneaky like. I mean, we did sort of get good at that, didn’t we?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Well, I know you, Lainey, we both do. You said you had her back, so we assume you’ll be actually there, watching her back, innit? Just in case?”

“I can’t be sure I’ll be free to do that. Tied up in bloody office work, can’t sneak off like I did for the wedding. And you call me sneaky, arranging it like that, aye?”

Blake chuckled.

“We do know you, Inspector Powell. Very well indeed. Lainey, if you can’t go you will have sorted a substitute, innit? Who you delegated the duty to?”

That got through to her, as Siân almost snorted some of her wine up.

“Sod it, I trained you two far too well. Siân, cariad, you sure you are happy to drive?”

The redhead wiped the drink from her nose, laughed and nodded, and Elaine rose from her seat, empty glass in hand. She called back over her shoulder to us.

“She’ll have a friend and her husband with her, and if I can’t make it, well, I will sort, aye. Now, what are your thoughts on this?”

I whispered a question to him, after working out that Elaine didn’t mean Annie’s hubby but rather that belonging to her friend. I suspected it would be the Woodruffs, of course, which I found satisfying, as what they had done for Annie had been spot on so far. I made my decision, confirmed by a nod from Blake and a comforting squeeze of my hand.

“Thought I’d go blonde for a while, Lainey, that and some specs. She’s going to be so wound up with nerves she won’t see past the stress blinkers. Just need to know where and when, assuming it’ll be somewhere like a caff or a pub”

Elaine returned from the bar with another pint, as well as a coke for her wife.

“Sure? You know that— “

The redhead simply put her hand over Lainey’s mouth, with a quiet “shush”

“Diane deserves this, Lainey. Di. You just want to see she’s happy, don’t you?”

Blake pulled me to him, into a cuddle, and my tension eased as I saw that she understood.

“Yes. Happy and safe. Then I can relax”

I didn’t relax, though, not until after the meal, after our goodbyes, when my man was able to take me to our room and hold me as I wept into his chest. I didn’t need to explain, I wasn’t worried he might feel jealous.

I just needed to make sure one more victim was safe now, and happy.

He held me, he soothed me, and we made love. The next morning, after a lovely breakfast and an effusive farewell from our host, we stopped by Addison’s for some hair dye.