“Do you think Baby McRae will grow up calling me Aunty Spoon instead?”
She laughed at my deliberate attempt to ease the intensity of the moment. “Itwouldbe cute.”
“I think I like it.”
“Except …” Nee raised a questioning eyebrow. “You are technically a Shaw now.”
“I haven’t legally changed my name.” I hadn’t because I knew the marriage wasn’t real and I didn’t see any point in investing energy on all that paperwork for nothing.
“Are you going to?” Nee’s question clearly held more to it.
Sighing, I thought about yesterday at the house. Murray had disappeared on Monday afternoon before Kelly could know he’d overheard her emotional purging. After the lesson, I’d returned to my room, hoping maybe he’d come knock on the door. I tried to read a book and gave up and watched a comedy on my laptop.
Instead, Kelly knocked on my door later that evening and asked if I wanted to help her make dinner. Encouraged by her wanting my company again so soon, I ventured into the kitchen because she was more important than whatever weirdness existed between me and her dad. Murray and I had been cordial to each other while we ate and then he’d gone into the music room to play the guitar. Kelly had followed him in there to play the piano and I returned to my room to give them some alone time.
Tuesday morning, Murray had already left the house before I woke up. There was a note on the kitchen counter, asking me to wake Kelly just before I left, that Fiona would arrive to take her to school. He stayed late at work leaving me and Kelly to eat together alone. This morning, he didn’t come out of his roombefore I left early for work. I had to wonder if he was deliberately avoiding me at this point.
“Ladies, first order up!” Emmy bounced into the kitchen, full of energy and positivity. The Canadian postgrad seemed to love running the inn, but I had a feeling that was because she knew it was only temporary. I was a little ashamed to say I didn’t know much about her because I’d been wrapped up in my own life lately. However, what I did know was that she had a postgrad degree in hospitality management and had decided the best way to build an impressive résumé was to work her way around the world, in different kinds of establishments, growing her experience and having a great time doing it.
I thought it was kind of genius.
She’d also told me when she realized who Nee was that she was in awe. Tierney might have walked away from her family’s hotel legacy, but it still followed her around. Emmy thought Tierney was a badass for taking on the Silver Group and holding them accountable for her parents’ deaths. And she wasn’t wrong. My best friend was a badass.
She was also the most considerate, loving person I knew, and I’d missed her. I hadn’t realized how much keeping this secret about Nick and my worries over my marriage with Murray had created a wall between us.
Emmy’s interruption meant Nee couldn’t continue to ask me about what was up with me and Murray, though, and I was glad for the brief reprieve.
This morning, Nick’s texts blasted me back to the worst period of my life. The panic attack had drained me, and I needed what little energy I had left to serve the breakfast room some good food.
“We are going to talk about this,” Nee promised sternly, however. “Andabout your birthday on Friday. I hope you told Murray. It’s your thirtieth, Spoon.”
At my slackened expression, Nee paused at the kitchen doorway. “You forgot? Your forgot you’re turning thirty this week?”
Unbelievably, I had. With everything else going on, I’d totally lost track of dates. “I forgot.”
“Well, I didn’t. Remember to tell Murray, okay? He’ll want to know it’s your birthday.” She disappeared to see to her guests, and I filed away telling Murray about my turning thirty this week.
Within seconds, it was drowned out by everything else flooding my mind.
28.Murray
Iwalked out of Leth Sholas Police Station in a bit of a daze, trying to wrap my head around what the hell I’d just agreed to. DI Paul had asked me into the station at the crack of dawn, in the hopes that no one would see me coming and going from the building. They were keeping tabs on Joshua Hughes, and he had returned to Edinburgh for the time being.
Despite precautions, our conversation had gone on much longer than I’d anticipated. Fraser met me there, and we were greeted by DI Paul and a Detective Inspector Jock Smith and Detective Constable Gemma McCubbins. They worked for Police Scotland within the Specialist Crime Division, focused on eliminating drug trafficking, dealing, and drug use in the Highlands and Islands.
Fraser and I played the footage and recording of my conversation with Joshua Hughes, while I explained about the situation with Dorian Walsh and my ex-wife.
“It’s the Walsh’s MO,” DC McCubbins had explained grimly. “When they lock in on a target, they find ways to infiltrate their lives and use threat and intimidation to get vulnerable people to work for them. You … however, this is a big move for them. Usually, they target individuals to take over their homes so theycan deal out of them. Targeting a business … they’re attempting to expand.”
“By however means necessary. I need to protect my family and the people who work for me. Tell me what I need to do.”
What I hadn’t expected the officers to suggest was that my company work with them. With a crew of their undercover officers, to be precise. They wanted me to hand-select two fishermen I trusted to work a boat with a crew of undercover police officers and go through with the shipment but only to entrap the Walshes and their associates. The officers needed me to meet with Hughes to get the exact details of the pickup and delivery plan. For now, they asked us to add their officers to my roster immediately, backdated on the system, so if or when the Walshes investigated the chosen crew, it would look like they’d worked for me for ages.
Fraser had left with the list of officers to get started on that right away.
I’d wanted to refuse their plans, and I’d tried, but the officers had bluntly explained to me how the Walsh brothers dealt with their enemies. It was gruesome to say the least.
DI Smith had shaken his head impatiently. “This isn’t an impossible operation. Dorian and his brother Aaron are a drop in the bucket compared to some of these gangs working out of London and Manchester. This is our opportunity to end their operation before it becomes a monster.”
