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“Grandma, who is Hetty?” he asks as he reaches her. Mum looks to me, and I give a nod of my head letting her know that I already checked she’s still here.
“I think you should go with your dad and find out while Gramps and I set up ready for when you get back.” She smiles, patting him on the head. Max looks between the two of us with a look of intrigue and slight confusion on his face.
He runs back to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me forward. “Come on, Dad, let’s go. I want to meet this Hetty, whoever she is.” I allow him to drag me forward down the dusty path that leads to the farmhouse I pointed out earlier. “Will I like her, Dad?” Before I get a chance to reply, he yanks on my arm, and I look down at him. “Does she have sweets, or ice cream. Maybe she has hot chocolate.” I chuckle as his voice trails off as he runs ahead going through all the things he loves.
It’s stilldark outside when I wake the next morning, and Max is fast asleep beside me, sprawled out like a starfish and taking up most of the bed. Sliding from the bed, I grab my phone, and slip quietly out to the kitchen. I make a cup of coffee, not my usual kind, but it will do the job just the same. I throw on my coat from the hook near the door and slip my boots on before stepping outside.
Mum and Dad set up the small fold up table and chairs outside last night, and I take a seat as the sun begins to rise in the distance, casting a beautiful red hue over the dew-covered fields this morning. I sip my coffee, grimacing slightly at the bitter taste, and open my phone. There are messages from Seb and Ryder about coming for the weekend, and several emails. Skipping the messages, I open my emails. A couple are possible new jobs that I’ll need to have a look over at some point, but the last one catches my eye.
Once it opens, there’s nothing other than a link. No introduction or explanation on what it’s about or who it’s from. The email address is not disclosed, and no doubt the sender used a VPN.
Given the number of scams via text and email lately, I’m hesitant to click the link, even though my phone has the latest anti-hacker software and virus protection. Before I can click it, the door to the caravan opens, and my dad steps out.
I drink my coffee as I chat to him and reply to my messages when he goes inside to make a start on breakfast.
I’m not surprised when Ryder replies instantly. I guess Jamison is awake. After chatting back and forth with Ryder for a while, I then check out events in the area over the next couple of days. There are several we can attend that Max will enjoy.
Once Max is awake, we go and check on Hetty. Although Hetty the hen wasn’t exactly what he was expecting, when I explained that she and a couple of others would be ours to look after for the week and he can collect eggs every morning for breakfast, he was more than happy.
Following breakfast, Max and I head off for a walk round the nature reserve.
I picked up a leaflet of the trails at the farmhouse yesterday, and we take the Little Ranger’s trail where Max can find and collect a selection of rubbings from different trees along the trail. If he manages to collect all of them, he’ll get a prize.
Max collected them all and was over the moon when he received his bug collecting kit from Val at the farm. I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been given the amount of time he spends with my dad, that Max knew almost half the trees we had to find.
He then spent the rest of the afternoon off with my dad going round the site looking for as many bugs as he could find from the pocketbook he was also given.
I tried to keep my mind off work, but the email from this morning has been niggling the back of mind all day.
With Max in bed and my parents retiring for the night too, I decide to go over the new jobs that came in this morning. There’s nothing big or urgent, so I send details to Scott for a small security job at a hotel in London, and another to Jay working with the local police on an investigation of an escort agency.
I open the same email from this morning, and this time I don’t hesitate to click the link. I get an instant ripple of trepidation down my spine as I wait for it to load, and I check the volume is down.
Once it does, the footage is a little grainy, and there’s very little light, but it doesn’t take me more than a second to recognise what I’m looking at.
On the screen, I watch as a man steps towards someone hung up like Jesus on his cross. Blood trickles down his torso, and my stomach turns over at what I know comes next.
I know because the man hung up there is me from five years ago.
Nine
Jess
After sleeping, well, more like tossing and turning, on what my father said yesterday, I’ve spent most of the morning searching for a good, affordable solicitor. I might not be able to shirk my responsibilities, but I sure as hell don’t need help from my father.
I wasn’t lying to my father when I told him I put my flat on the market. In fact, I have no intention of returning to London unless absolutely necessary. After I instructed Hodgeson & Co solicitors to act on my behalf in Tobias’ ridiculous professional negligence case against me, I immediately began searching for a property here to either rent short-term or buy.
I’m lucky that I’m not dependent on my father’s money, and I certainly don’t need to throw his name around to get ahead in life either.
“What’s this?” comes Eleanor’s voice behind me. I close my eyes and release a small sigh at being caught checking properties out.
I turn my head to see her standing behind me. “I’m just weighing up my options, that’s all.” She raises a disbelieving brow.
“Jess, you know you can stay here as long as you need, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And if you need to talk—”
