Free Betrayed (Powell Book 4) by Bill Ward Page B

commune. She had joined the police because she wanted to help other people. She didn’t want to run away from life. Powell felt great sympathy for Clara Buckingham’s situation. She undoubtedly loved her daughter but was powerless to effect change. Powell wanted to help but also wanted to keep within the law.
    Powell found it difficult to fathom why someone like Hattie, with all her advantages in life, would want to live at Tintagel. In truth, he resented her a little for the way she chose to live her life. It may not always have been easy at home but she had wanted for nothing. It sounded a better upbringing than his own boarding school education.
    She was in danger of wasting her life while Bella’s life had been cut so short. Advice columns would probably say it wasn’t that unusual for Hattie to want to rebel against her privileged upbringing. If she wanted to escape her parents, why couldn’t she go abroad and work in a refugee camp, doing something useful?
    On many levels, Powell liked Hattie but she was making the wrong decisions in life. Who was he kidding? In his youth, he’d made decisions that now seemed completely inappropriate. His wrong decisions had led to the death of his wife and a multitude of other regrets.
    He believed, the wrong decisions shape your life more than the right decisions. The lessons you learn from the wrong decisions, equip you to go forward in life and use experience to make better decisions in the future. Some people do keep repeating the same mistakes but he wasn’t generally one of them.
    Hattie was no different to most other people her age. She was looking for answers to the same questions every generation tried to answer. Perhaps it was a phase she would grow out of but Powell wanted to ensure she had the opportunity to come out the other side, both in one piece and not broke.
    Whatever her feelings today, there would probably come a time when she would look back on her young life and regret the worst of her foolishness. Hattie was playing with fire by living at the commune rather than living it up in Mayfair and Chelsea. 
    Powell was driving his own BMW to the supermarket this time as the Land Rover was being used by someone else. Hattie had promised it was a smaller shop than their previous trip so they would be able to fit everything into his car.
    It wasn’t much more than a country lane from Tintagel to the outskirts of Haywards Heath town centre so he didn’t drive fast. Hattie seemed less chatty than usual and rather withdrawn, which she explained was due to tiredness. Powell resisted the urge to bombard her with questions and it was a relatively quiet journey.
    After less than an hour shopping, Powell emerged from the supermarket with a full trolley. Hattie was carrying an additional bag and between them they had a week’s supply of food for the commune.
    He was pleased there was no sign of the two crackheads, who had caused trouble last time. Perhaps they had learned their lesson. Although, they didn’t seem like the type who would learn from their mistakes and would almost certainly spend their life repeating their mistakes.
    As Powell approached the car, an instinct told him something was wrong. Something didn’t feel right. The car park seemed eerily quiet. Where were the other shoppers?
    He was still trying to analyse exactly what was the problem, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by police officers barking instructions. They had literally jumped out from everywhere.
    They all had their arms extended and were holding guns, which were gripped in both hands and pointing at his body. Powell was extremely nervous as he knew how easily a wrong movement could be interpreted.
    He hoped these were experienced officers. They had caught him by surprise and he was completely surrounded. There was no escape, not that he had any intention of running anywhere. He hadn’t committed any crime.
    Powell placed his hands high in the air and watched as the shopping