Free Dubious Justice by M A Comley Page B

you’re looking good. Can you give me five minutes to have a private chat with Tony, sweetheart?”
    Charlie waved her hand in front of her. “Of course. We’ll be in for dinner in about half an hour, Mum.”
    “Crikey, give me a chance.”
    “The dinner is done. No need for you to get your hands dirty. Tony and I threw a few ingredients into a dish and made a chicken casserole.”
    Lorne blew her daughter a kiss. “You two are brilliant. What would I ever do without you?”
    “Mainly? You’d starve. Did you have a good day?”
    “I’ll fill you in over dinner, sweetie. Quite eventful really,” Lorne called over her shoulder as she crossed the driveway and walked towards the house.
    Tony was chopping the accompanying vegetables and putting them in a pot when she walked through the back door. “Hello, you. Good day?” He kissed her on the cheek.
    “Kind of. Can we sit down and have a chat?”
    Tony’s nose wrinkled. “Oops… that sounds ominous. Did I do something wrong?”
    “Not at all. I think I might have, though. Be gentle with me, okay?”
    Lorne grabbed Tony’s hand and led him over to the table. Once seated, she gripped both of his hands in her own and looked down at the way his fingers entwined effortlessly around hers. She loved this man so much.
    “You’re starting to worry me, love. Should I be worried?”
    “Not really. Okay, I’m just going to come straight out with it. Katy has had to return to Manchester. Her dad’s suffered a massive heart attack.”
    “Oh, Lorne, that’s dreadful. What are the odds on him making it?”
    “They’re not sure yet. She’s driven up there alone. It’s a tough call for her. She’ll ring when she has any news either way.”
    “I wish her dad the best. Now what are you fretting about? I have a rough idea what you’re going to say next anyway.”
    “You do?”
    Tony smiled. “I’m not daft, Lorne. I know how these things work. I take it you’re in charge of the team, temporarily, am I right?”
    “Yes, you are. Sorry, darling, I tried to get out of it, but…”
    “Why are you apologising?”
    “Because it means that I will be reneging on a deal we made. That doesn’t sit comfortably with me. You’d feel the same if the tables were turned, yes?”
    “It’s not the same in the slightest, Lorne. This is an emergency. Neither of us could have anticipated such dire circumstances falling upon us. Anyway, I’m not that much of an ogre that I would expect you to keep to your word all the time. ‘Shit happens,’ as a wise man once said.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose.
    “I was so lucky the day you walked into my life.”
    Tony tilted his head back and laughed. “I seem to recall at the time you were cursing that particular event. We hardly hit it off the second we met, did we?”
    Lorne’s memory drifted back to the secretive meeting he’d called when he was a MI6 agent, regarding the Unicorn and the mole he’d helped uncover in her team at the time. Actually, Tony had done so much more than uncovering the mole. If it hadn’t been for his relentless digging, she would have been none the wiser about AJ coming from a well-to-do family with a father high up in the government. Not that it affected AJ in the least—he was such an unpretentious, compassionate guy. That’s why Katy had fallen for him after working alongside him for only a few months.
    “Penny for them?”
    Lorne shook herself out of her daze. “Just reflecting on our first meeting. That and other similar episodes that have occurred in the years since that eventful day. Like I’ve said already, I’m lucky to have found you. How’s your case going? I take it you’ve decided to proceed with it?”
    “Yep, Joe and I are going to begin in earnest tomorrow. We carried out a few background checks today, just to verify the authenticity of the case, and everything appeared to be genuine enough. We’ll start going over the missing man’s movements on that day