‘Police,’ a voice announced. ‘It’s all right, love, you’re all right now.’

Hands rested lightly on her arms and someone led her towards the door. ‘Let’s get you sitting in the car, shall we?’ His accent was local, thick with burr and drawn out vowels.

Naomi allowed herself to be led outside and seated in the car. ‘In you get, big fella,’ the voice continued and Napoleon scrambled up inside, resting his big head on her leg.

Naomi leaned her head back against the seat and allowed the tears to flow.

Eight

Alec arrived about a half hour after the police. Naomi had, in the end, refrained from calling him and the policewoman now sitting beside her in the car had concurred. No point in risking an accident because he had driven back too fast.

She heard his car come into the drive and skid to a halt. He ran across the gravel, calling her name and she heard the officer who had been first through the door asking who he was.

‘It’s Alec,’ Naomi told the woman sitting beside her, and a moment later Alec had replaced the WPC and was inside the car with his arms tightly around her.

‘What the hell happened? Are you OK? Why didn’t you call me?’

‘I’m all right,’ she reassured him. ‘Just a bit shaken up. A man came, just after you left. He banged on the door and—’

‘You let him in?’

‘No, I didn’t let him in. I’m not that stupid.’

Alec was contrite. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just—’

‘He or another man broke in round the back. Dog and I locked ourselves in Rupert’s study and I called the police.’

Quickly, she filled him in on other details. Alec, reassured that she was all right, had switched, she noted, into policeman mode. He asked her questions, looked for more detail then, hugging her again, he got out of the car. ‘Stay there, love. I’ll be right back.’

Naomi sighed and leaned back into the seat once again. Her head hurt and, unaccountably considering the circumstances, she was now ravenous. She wanted to get away from this place, check into a nice safe hotel and find some breakfast or brunch, or whatever it was time for.

Panic and fear, Naomi noted, not for the first time in her life, promoted hunger. Vaguely, she wondered if this was a common reaction and decided that it probably was not.

It seemed that she had almost been forgotten now. She eased herself from the police car and stood listening to the conversations. SOCO had been called, but no one knew when they’d arrive. Alec had explained who he was and was now in deep discussion with the first officer on scene. Hand resting on Napoleon’s head, Naomi now made her way over to where Alec stood.

‘You feeling better, love?’ the other officer asked her. ‘I still think you should get checked out by the doc.’

‘Thanks. I’m OK,’ Naomi told him. ‘Have they done much damage inside?’

‘Right mess, I’m afraid,’ he told her. ‘I’m DS Fine, by the way. We didn’t get a chance for proper introductions earlier.’

Naomi held out her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she said as he shook it, aware that this was all just a little bit surreal. His handshake was firm and the hands slightly calloused. She remembered the man who had put his hand around the door frame and grabbed her own.

‘I bit him,’ Naomi said. ‘I bit hard, I think I might have drawn blood. There might be trace on the door frame.’

‘Trace?’ Fine was clearly surprised by her technical use of the term.

‘Naomi was a DI,’ Alec explained. ‘Until …’

‘I had an accident,’ she said.

‘I’m sorry.’

She smiled. ‘Life happens. Look, I’m ready to make a statement now.’

‘Sure you’re up to it?’

‘Best now, while it’s still fresh.’

‘I’ll get someone to drive you both to Epworth.’

‘I’ll drive us,’ Alec told him. ‘I think we’d better find ourselves a hotel, too. Can I get some clothes and such together?’

‘He … they … didn’t go into the bedroom,’ Naomi said. ‘The man that came upstairs stood outside the study door and turned the knob, then he was called back downstairs. I shouted at him that I’d called the police. I think they knew they’d better leave.’

‘Right. OK. Alec, DC Roland over there has laid out our path, so you’d best let him show you where you can go. We’ll secure the place before we leave and someone will hang on here until SOCO arrives.’

‘Thanks,’ Alec said. ‘Could you help Naomi and Napoleon to my car and I’ll be as quick as I can.’

Sitting in the front seat of a familiar vehicle, selecting her favourite channel on the radio and allowing Rachmaninov to soothe her nerves, Naomi closed her eyes as she still always did when trying to shut out extraneous thoughts.

She replayed the time from when she had first heard banging on the door right through to when the police arrived. It hadn’t, she realized, been that long. Ten, fifteen minutes, perhaps from start to end, but it had seemed like an eternity.

Napoleon woofed a greeting as Alec dumped their luggage in the boot and then got into the car. He took Naomi’s hand and squeezed.

‘It’s a right mess,’ he said. ‘But you’re all right. That’s what matters.’

‘You know,’ she said, ‘they must have been looking for something. Rupert owing money might be true, but I don’t think that was the important thing. They wanted to get inside the house and I’m sure they saw you leave. I think they might have assumed I’d gone with you and were just checking things out by banging on the door.’

‘Speculation,’ Alec said. ‘You can’t know that.’

‘No, I can’t and I’ll just stick to the facts in the statement. I know the drill. There was a strange thing though, Alec. The man who came to the front door. He got so angry so quickly that it was almost unnatural. It was as if he’d already worked himself up and what I did just tipped him over.’

‘Whatever the truth of the matter,’ Alec said, ‘we won’t be going back to Fallowfields for a little while, I don’t think.’

‘But we won’t be going back home either, will we? Just as well you booked more time than you thought you’d need.’ Just as well there was nothing dramatic happening back at work either, she thought.

Alec sighed. ‘I think if we had doubts before about Rupe being in trouble they’ve now been well and truly swept away. I’ve got to get to the bottom of this, Nomi.’

‘I know.’

‘But if you want to go.’

‘Right. I’m really going to clear out now, aren’t I. You know me better than that.’

He reached out and squeezed her hand again. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I don’t want you in any more danger.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘I’m not keen on being on my own in strange places just now, but apart from that …’

‘You think I’m going to leave you alone ever again?’ Alec half joked. ‘You can’t be trusted. Trouble magnet, that’s what you are. Always have been.’

Naomi smiled but she could hear the anxiety in his voice and her own mind replayed the violence the men at Fallowfields had exhibited. What would have happened, she wondered, had they been given time to break down the study door?

Nine

Naomi’s head was aching but she was beginning to feel better. A shower, a change of clothes and the promise of a late lunch helped in that regard.

They had checked into the hotel that Marcus had taken them to and considered themselves lucky to get a room this time of year. Alec had gone downstairs while she finished dressing, to order lunch and try and remember what the wine had been called. He hadn’t wanted to leave her, even in the safety of the hotel room, but Naomi had insisted. She knew she had to be alone, just for a few minutes, to get back her nerve. The longer she put it off the harder it was going to be. Alec would come back up and escort her downstairs but she needed that few minutes alone just to prove to herself she still could.

Behind her she heard Napoleon shift and snuffle. He was lying contentedly in a patch of sunlight that flooded in through the bedroom window. ‘Don’t get too comfortable,’ she told him. ‘You’re not staying up here on your own. I’d come back and find a hole eaten in the bedspread.’