Free Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings by Jodi Taylor Page B

…’
    â€˜Be silent, Mr Bashford, or leave the room. Continue, Miss Grey.’
    She returned from wherever she had been and focussed on me again.
    â€˜I took a gun on the assignment in case … in case … he was there.’
    She meant Clive Ronan. The man who’d snatched them out of Jerusalem and abandoned them in Colchester. Abandoned them to die.
    She was continuing, clenching her hands so tightly I could see red crescents where her fingernails were digging into her palms. ‘I can’t … I know … I know it’s stupid to expect him to be everywhere I go. I do know that, but I just can’t rid myself of the fear that I’ll step out of the pod and he’ll be there and I’ll be whirled off to somewhere and this time … this time … there won’t be anyone to pull me out and I’ll die. And yes, I know you allocated an extra guard. And I know there is no reason to suspect anything like that would ever happen again. I know all that. But I keep thinking, Max … suppose you hadn’t found us. Suppose you hadn’t pulled us out in time. Suppose it happens again …’
    Silence fell in the tiny ward. On the other side of the door, I could hear Dr Foster giving Cox a hard time over something or other. She’d be in here in a moment to find out what was going on.
    Bashford stirred. ‘Max, she’s been through enough,’ he said, and put a protective hand on her shoulder.
    It wasn’t needed. I wasn’t going to shout at her. Actually, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I fell back on more questions.
    â€˜So, what happened to the gun?’
    â€˜I don’t know. I was carrying it in my pack so I could get to it quickly if I needed to. And we stopped for water, and when I looked, it wasn’t there.’
    â€˜Could it have been stolen?’
    â€˜No. Not a chance.’
    â€˜Did you take it out and leave it somewhere?’
    â€˜No. I think … I fell … and my pack came undone. I think it must have been then.’
    â€˜Did you go back and look?’
    â€˜Yes. Three times.’
    â€˜So Cox and Gallaccio know what happened?’
    She nodded.
    I had huge sympathy for her, but she’d committed a cardinal sin by taking a gun in the first place and an even bigger cardinal sin by leaving it. My blood ran cold just thinking about a child picking it up, staring down the barrel and wondering what would happen if you pulled this funny bit here …
    â€˜Did the others know you had this weapon?’
    â€˜No,’ she said, too quickly.
    Another cardinal sin. They should have taken it off her.
    â€˜Get them in here, please. Now.’
    Bashford left the room.
    Tears ran down her cheeks. ‘Max, I’m so sorry.’
    â€˜Good, but don’t cry yet. We’ll think of something.’
    She shook her head.
    I had several options open to me. The correct procedure would be to go to Dr Bairstow who would probably place the matter in the hands of the Time Police. That was their function, after all. To police the time line, hoovering up anomalies. He would also arrest Miss Grey – he’d have to – and she’d be handed over to the Time Police as well. I really didn’t want that to happen. Their opinion of us is not high and the last thing we needed was to provide proof that we really were the bunch of irresponsible idiots they thought we were. Leaving something behind is unprofessional. Leaving behind a gun capable of killing a contemporary is a major crime. They would probably deal fairly leniently with Grey since she obviously had a problem, but we should have noticed this. I should have noticed it. She was in my department. I knew she’d been struggling, but I hadn’t known it was this bad. Neither had Helen Foster, who had cleared her for duty. And it wasn’t really Elspeth’s fault. She’d done everything she could to avoid going back on the