Page 71 of The Truth Will Out
Sam hugged her neighbour, popped Tilly’s harness on, then set off for the park. She wished there was somewhere else she could go within walking distance. The park brought back too many memories of how she and Rhys met while she was still married to Chris—and look how that had ended. As she walked, she contemplated the amount of shit that had been sent her way over the last few years. She dared anyone not to feel the way she did at that moment. Add the betrayal of her work colleagues, not to mention Rhys’s, and bang… how the fuck was she supposed to react?
Tilly tried to pull her towards the tree a squirrel had just scampered up. “Not so fast, sweetie. Let’s just have a leisurely walk at Mummy’s pace for a change. I need to learn to chill, to take my foot off the accelerator now and again. Maybe that will be beneficial to me.”
Tilly whimpered, desperate to get to another squirrel that ran past them barely five feet away.
“Come on you. Let’s go home.” The walk had satisfied Tilly’s needs, and she appeared to be a lot calmer now. Sam withdrew her phone from her jacket pocket and made a call. “Pick up, you ignorant so-and-so.”
The phone rang out until Bob’s voicemail kicked in. “You’ve reached Bob Jones. You’ve got this far; you might as well leave a message. I’ll get back to you soon.”
She glanced down at Tilly casually trotting beside her, her tail wagging. “I think he’s ignoring me, and who could blame him after what I said to him today? I’ll leave him to stew this evening and make it up to him in the morning.”
Sam waved at Doreen, who was in her usual spot, keeping an eye out for when they got back. They exchanged a thumbs-up, and Sam opened the front door. Tilly ran ahead of her. The day had been adamp one, and it had negatively impacted the temperature inside the house. She switched on the heating for just half an hour to take the chill off.
After feeding Tilly, she searched the freezer for one of Rhys’s batch meals he had recently knocked up. She kicked herself for not having the time to stop off at the supermarket and stock up the fridge. Eventually, she found a meatball dish with rice and put it in the microwave to defrost. While she waited, she rang Bob’s number again. She kicked out at the stool as the answerphone spewed out its inane message.
Furious that Bob was choosing to ignore her, she poured herself a glass of red wine to go with her meal. Tilly sat beside her, waiting for scraps. Sam left her some rice and sauce, making sure there was no onion in her bowl before she gave it to her. She rinsed her plate under the running tap, switched off the heating now the house felt warmer and put the TV on in the lounge. The local news was running the story about the murders that she and her team had been investigating all week. It highlighted her need to speak to Bob and apologise for the way she had treated him. Her walk had given her time to think and reflect, and she had realised she was in the wrong for taking it out on him. She was eager to put things right, and the only way she could do that was in person.
“Come on, girl. Let’s go for a ride.”
She put Tilly in the back seat and waved at Doreen. Her old neighbour looked worried at seeing her drive off again so soon after getting home. Tilly curled up in a ball, sensing something wasn’t right.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise. Bob and I have fallen out before over the years. He’s just winding me up. Playing hard to get, that’s all. Everything will be fine, trust me.”
There was that word again… trust!
She arrived at Bob’s address and hit out at the steering wheel. His car was parked on the drive.I was right; he is home. Bloody ignorant sod.There were no lights on inside the house. Sam left her vehicle, and as she walked across the road, she could see the front door was ajar. Sherecalled Bob had told her that Abigail and their daughter were away, visiting Abigail’s parents. She crept closer, eyes and ears alert. The hallway was empty; their house was colder than hers. She shivered, regretting not wearing a jacket.
Inside, the lounge was in chaos: drawers pulled out of the sideboard, cushions from the sofa scattered across the floor, and on the coffee table, she found a message written in blood.
You buried the truth.I’m digging it back up.
Sam’s pulseroared in her ears. She spun in place, her heart hammering, not knowing what to do next.
Where the hell is he? Stop it! Get a grip and do something to help Bob!
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Bob’s phone. She crossed the room to check it. The screen was cracked.
He couldn’t have answered it, even if it had rung. Where is he?
She fished her own phone out, made the call to the station, then searched the rest of the house. Bob was gone. It was silly to believe his disappearance wasn’t connected to the investigation.
It seemed like an eternity before a patrol arrived. She handed the scene over to them then rushed home to drop Tilly off at Doreen’s. En route, she rang the other three members of her team, requesting that they join her back at the station.
The first thing she did when she arrived was to put out an alert across Cumbria. She left that in the desk sergeant’s capable hands and flew up the stairs. The rest of the team arrived not long after. Everyone was shocked when she explained what had happened.
“It’s obvious the killer has him. I found a message written in blood at Bob’s house. I get the impression the perpetrator is watching my every move.”
“What did the message say, boss?” Liam was the first to ask.
“‘You buried the truth. I’m digging it back up.’ I don’t mind admittingthat I’m scared. Worried about what this crazy fucker is going to do next.”
Between them, they spent the next hour or so bouncing ideas around until another message arrived—this time from a different number. She read the message out: “‘You didn’t listen. Now someone else must pay.’” Attached was a photo of Bob, unconscious and slumped in a chair, his wrists tied to the arms, a dark stain covering his white shirt.
“Shit! I can’t do this,” Sam said. She perched on the desk behind her, eyes wide open, and stared at the wall in front of her.
“Boss, you can’t give up now, not when they both need us,” Oliver said.
Nick approached Sam and, having known her the longest, took charge of the situation. He gripped her shoulders and gave them a slight shake. “Sam, you’ve got this. We’ve got this. You’re not alone. We’re all here to support you. We dropped everything to be here and help you through this. Don’t give up now. You’ve led us through worse, Sam.”
