‘Francie Beaumont? I didn’t. It was all an accident, if I’m honest. Or a coincidence? Either way, I ran right into the woman who brought the stolen jewellery to the repair shop.’
‘No!’
‘Yep, and she gave me enough to go on to get a positive ID on the man who assaulted me, and she said one or two other things, enough to add coercive control to his list of charges.’
‘Oh no, that poor woman. Is she in a cell too?’ The alarm must have registered on her face because Jamie brought his hand to hers at his cheek.
‘No, no, it’s OK. She’s safe. She’s the whole reason we caught the gang. I slipped my phone with its GPS switched on into her pocket before Francie got the chance to lump me, and she led us right to their door.’
‘You might well have saved her life,’ Ally guessed.
‘She saved herself,’ he countered. ‘By confiding in a safe person.’
He was a safe person. Ally’s heart swelled with the certainty of that.
‘She’s with her mum and her little girl right now, getting the support she needs.’
‘Jeez! A little girl? Will they be kept safe?’
‘Edwyn assured me they would be. Livvie’s already made her statement and that will be more than enough to send them all down, so far as I can make out. She was very vulnerable, by all accounts, and with no way out.’
Ally couldn’t stop her eyes welling. She dropped her head, remembering the woman that day, skulking into the repair shed, then seeing her again with a black eye in the middle of the night going who knew where.
‘She won’t even have to go to court,’ Jamie pressed, rubbing at her hand reassuringly. ‘She’ll never see any of them again. Edwyn gave me his word on that.’
Ally absorbed all of this, hardly able to see her way through the tangle of feelings and all the potential other outcomes that could just as easily have happened. They were lucky to have got out alive.
‘And are you going to be OK?’ she said, breaking from him for just long enough to pull up a chair so she could sit.
They clasped hands against the blue cover.
‘The docs said I could be discharged in a few days. They had to check for concussion and brain bleeds, but so far, they seem happy with me. Ally…’ he grew suddenly serious. ‘I won’t be allowed to work for a while, and then I’ll have to make up my required voluntary hours, and then my transfer will be over. I’ll be heading home to Edinburgh.’
Her heart quickened like it wanted to burst. What was he saying?
‘I wondered if…’ he paused, wetting his cracked lips, ‘you wanted to spend some time with me? Now the case is closing?’
‘Oh!’ Ally hadn’t even thought of the ramifications of all this for the pair of them. She hadn’t even dared to hope things could change.
‘Edwyn thinks it’s all right, does he?’
‘He was the one who told Andrew to bring you in. I was asking for you when they found me, apparently.’
‘When you were barely conscious?’ This shouldn’t be an image that conjured up joy, but hearts are funny things and Ally’s was drumming a tattoo in her chest.
‘So they tell me.’ He was smiling a cautious smile, trying not to move his jaw too much. ‘Ow!’ He whipped his free hand to his face.
Ally rose to her feet again.
‘So, you’re asking me out out?’
‘I am.’
Party cannons shot confetti in her cerebral cortex while news banner ticker tape simultaneously ran the headline this guy is leaving soon; so don’t get too carried away, missy, but all Ally could do was laugh at the dizzy thrill of it all and lean over him as gingerly as she could so as not to hurt him, pressing a hand into the hospital mattress to steady herself. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was Jamie looking helplessly up at her, his eyes glazed with wanting.
She pressed her mouth to his, the kiss shutting down all the noise in her head and the siren and traffic sounds from the road outside. She kissed him softly, loving the scratching sensation where his lips were dry. He exhaled shakily, melting down into the bed, his hands holding the backs of her arms, encouraging her, pulling her closer, the urgent hunger of their kiss sending the green jagged line on the monitor soaring off the charts, and Jamie Beaton forgot all about being in pain.
20
