Page 79 of Watching You
Molly reached out with her free hand and took his, completing the circle.
‘We’ll both be there, Mum, every day. I’m home for good. I can put a little studio in the garage and paint from home. The collection did rather well in Australia. I made some serious money. I had a show in a gallery in Sydney and called it “Beautiful Terrible”. All the awful things he sent me, all those rotting packages, I made something from it. You won’t need to worry about money even if you can’t work. And you’re already due your pension if you can’t operate any more.’
‘You didn’t tell me about your art show,’ Beth said. ‘Why not?’
‘I thought you’d worry about me, remembering all the bad times with me painting out my memories. But it was therapeutic in the end. I got it in perspective, and it gave me some power over what happened to me. You need to find a way to do the same. Maybe we can set up a charity, a support network or advice centre, for other women who are being stalked?’
Beth smiled. ‘I think that might help,’ she said. ‘Balance the scales in some small way.’
‘And I’ll move out, of course, to give you two some space. ButI can be there at a moment’s notice, whenever you want me or need me,’ Lively added.
‘No way,’ Molly said then looked at her mother to double-check. ‘Mum needs you as much as she needs me. When she first started talking to me on the phone about you, I couldn’t believe that she’d actually met someone. I’m glad you found each other, in spite of everything else. We have to grab hold of the good bits of life, however we find them.’
‘Yes,’ Beth said. ‘Say you’ll stay, Sam. I think that there was some part of me, buried deep in my subconscious, that needed you to save me from what I was doing. I saw that strength in you the first time we met. And there’s plenty of space in the house for us all. Only if you want us, of course. I understand that the two of us together might be a little overwhelming.’
‘Will there be cake?’ Lively asked, grinning.
‘As much as you can eat.’ Beth sat up and kissed him on the cheek.
‘And invitations to art galleries with my girlfriend’s ridiculously talented daughter?’
Molly burst out laughing, and the air in the room felt several tons lighter.
‘Yes!’ she cried.
‘Am I your girlfriend, then, after everything? After all you know about what I’ve done?’ Beth whispered.
‘Aye, Beth Waterfall, you are. We’ll take one another as we find each other, and be grateful for it. And I’ll carry on protecting you, both of you, with every ounce of strength in my body.’
Molly leaned across and kissed Lively’s other cheek and Beth smiled in a way that Lively had, for a time, given up hope of ever seeing her smile again.
Chapter 50
10 August
The hallway was quiet as Lively reached the top of the stairs. It was his first day back after taking leave to settle Beth at home, and he’d been looking forward to it and dreading it in equal parts.
‘And so,’ he could hear Detective Superintendent Overbeck’s voice bouncing off the briefing room walls like hailstones off a car windscreen, ‘we’ve been left with a substantial budget deficit at the end of this operation. The result is that there’s no capacity for overtime pay for the next three months, requests for special training will be put on hold, and—’
Lively walked in.
‘Ah, my life is complete. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes, if you will, on the team leader whose intimate friend was responsible for all the murders we were investigating, while he sat on her couch making eyes at her and eating her home baking.’
There was a round of laughter and applause from the squad and Lively could feel his face turning purple.
‘Right, that’s it,’ Lively bellowed, ‘Dr Waterfall is not a killer. She’s been the victim of a sustained and vicious—’
‘Sergeant Lively!’ Overbeck cut through his rant. ‘There’s no doubt in any of our minds that Beth Waterfall would never have done anyone any harm but for the brain injury she sustained at Karl Smith’s hands. What we’re all wondering, is what the incredibly successful, intelligent, hard-working, capable, level-headed, sophisticated and normally peaceful surgeon sees in a loser like you?’
Lively frowned and tried to think of a comeback. In more than thirty years of policing he’d never once been stuck for a sarcastic retort, and there he was, wanting only to rage about how amazing Beth Waterfall truly was, and yes, how he too could not understand what on earth she saw in a scruffy, earthy, no-frills cop like him.
Just as Lively was about to protest, Overbeck said, ‘But you’reourloser, Lively. You belong to the Major Investigation Team, and while I may, frankly, be flummoxed about the reasoning, everyone here appears to adore you. So they insisted we buy you a cake and stop any form of work temporarily to celebrate your return.’ She stepped aside to reveal an enormous cake that was a cartoon robber sneaking away with a bag of swag. ‘They also wanted to shout “Surprise!” when you walked in, but I put my foot down at that point, assuming that you would prefer the tradition of me giving you a hearty Police Scotland ribbing.’
‘Oh, fuck me,’ Lively said. ‘In the circumstances, ma’am, I think I’d have preferred the surprise party.’
‘Come now, sergeant, has falling in love made you lose your edge? What pleasure would there be in the job without a stone like you for me to sharpen my blade on each day?’
But Lively heard nothing after the word ‘love’. Someone, thankfully, had produced a knife and was handing slabs ofchocolate cake (his favourite) out on paper plates, while some other genius had remembered to bring canisters of squirty cream (the only thing that could improve a slice of chocolate cake) and still Lively couldn’t seem to move a muscle or say a word.
