Free Black & Blue (Lord & Lady Hetheridge Book 4) by Emma Jameson Page B

anywhere."
    "But he cried." Ritchie's breath quickened. "Cried and said he had to go. That Maura will turn up and take him away, and no one can stop her."
    "I beg your pardon." To assure his full attention, Kate not only plopped down on the sofa beside him, but dared to pause the movie. "I'm not just your mouthy little sis. I'm Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield. No one is taking anyone out of this house without my permission. And if they try, I'll force them through Traitor's Gate and lock them up in a dungeon."
    Ritchie considered that. He said nothing, but his breathing slowed, and finally he touched the remote, restarting the movie. Meltdown averted.
    "All right, love." She kissed his cheek, laughing as he tried to shrug away. "I'm off to right wrongs and keep the city safe." But as she turned to go, Ritchie said, "Hetheridge."
    "I told you, Rich. Tony's not here. Knowing him, he'll nap behind his desk and work straight through tomorrow."
    "Not Tony. You. You aren't Kate Wakefield now. You're Kate Hetheridge, aren't you?"
    "Oh. So I am. Thanks for that, stinker."
    "Things have to change."
    It was her own phrase, words she'd repeated to him time and again, ever since she'd accepted Tony's proposal. And it had been one thing to expect Ritchie to live by those words, knowing she was in full control of said changes and would always do her best by him. But suppose Maura was actually permitted to regain parental responsibility for Henry? Suppose some ivory tower magistrate, nurturing fantasies of absolute social equality and foolish enough to believe Maura's tales of rehabilitation, ruled that Henry belonged with his so-called mum?
    I've held the family together despite all the disappearances , Kate told herself. I'll keep it together through reappearances, too.
    "You're right. Things do have to change. And that's for the best," she said, hoping at least one of them believed it.
    * * *
    "Wonders never cease. The cavalry's arrived," DCI Vic Jackson said in tones of mock astonishment as Kate stepped off the lift. "Who knew the poshies worked after six o'clock?"
    As he frequently seemed to live at Scotland Yard, she wasn't surprised to find him casting gloom over the detectives' bullpen, his not-inconsiderable hindquarters parked on some poor bugger's desk. Never the radiantly healthy sort, Jackson, who was known for surviving on fags, office coffee, and powdered doughnuts, looked significantly worse than usual.
    "Crikey, you dead or summat?" Hardened as Kate was to the man's unshaven jowls, foul breath, and dandruff-bedecked shoulders, she couldn't help but goggle. "Zombie apocalypse kick off and claim you first?"
    Usually such abuse seemed to energize him. Tonight, he looked startled. "No need to get personal," he said, gaze flicking to the linoleum floor.
    If I didn't know better, I'd think I hurt his feelings.
    But the moment that came to Kate, she instantly rejected it. To have hurt feelings, one must first possess feelings, and DCI Jackson did not. He harbored no sentiment, no hopes, no dreams, no inner life whatsoever. Within his overtaxed veins, shriveled by nicotine and clogged with dietary fats, coursed no mortal blood, only sexist jokes and racist remarks.
    "Why're you loitering about?" she asked. "Busted down to DI again? I hear there's an opening for a copper in Snowdonia National Park. Deep in the heart of Penrhyndeudraeth," she said, rolling those Welsh r' s with relish. "Mountain air! Feral goats! Perfect for a man of your talents."
    "You'll see your precious Bhar there first," Jackson said, eyes flashing. "Word's already spreading about his latest cock-up. But never mind that. Your little insinuations and slights don't even register. I'm bulletproof, ain't I? Every last one of you tossers wakes up wanting to be me and cries yourself to sleep at night having failed again."
    Wow. He even sounds hurt , Kate thought, mystified. At the far side of the otherwise deserted bullpen, two constables she recognized as part of