Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

“I know what you are saying,” Elspeth began. “What do we do if he isn’t in that box?”

“Find him,” Aaron replied succinctly. “Then we find out what the Hell he thought he was doing bringing everyone so much, well, grief.”

Elspeth shook her head. There was nothing she could do about the tears in her eyes, they were brought about by confusion more than anything else. She had a firm belief that it was Thomas she had seen at the window. Deep in her gut she knew it had been him.

“How much worse can this get?” she whispered.

Aaron hauled her into his arms and settled her against his chest.

“I will go and fetch the paperwork from home. One of the others can get the authorisation from the magistrate to have the coffin exhumed. Callum should be back from London in the next couple of days. Maybe he will have some information from Thomas’s friends as to whether Thomas went to London, and what for, who he met, that kind of thing. Once we have some facts, then and only then can we decide what we are going to do,” Aaron informed her.

“What do we do about Rollo Voss and Frederick in the meantime?”

“Well, if that wasn’t Thomas you saw at the window, it has to have been either Voss or Frederick. That means they are still trying to get in here. Once we have confirmed whether Thomas is alive or dead, then we can go and see Voss and Frederick and interrogate them. I will have no hesitation in throwing them behind bars if I have to. I can arrest them on suspicion of breaking and entering. A stint in prison will not hurt either of them given their willingness to break the law. It will also make them amenable to answering our questions because they won’t be released until they do.”

They will also pose no further threat to you, he finished.

Aaron gently stroked her hair. Elspeth sighed and rested her head against his chest. It was an intimate embrace that was so natural that she didn’t stop to question it.

“What are you going to do about your work with the War Office?”

“We actually work for the Star Elite. It is a division of the War Office that works on large scale crime, gangs and that kind of thing. We are – were – working on the kidnappings that have been happening in Leicestershire and Derbyshire when Thomas passed away. We followed our target, a man called Horvat, to London only for the news about Thomas to reach me. The men, by that time, were sick of the sleepless nights with little or no rest, and the constant flow of work without the ability to go home for a while. I think news of Thomas was the final straw for all of us. The men know that what happened to me could have happened to any of them. Unfortunately, my delayed letter arrived at a time when we were all still reeling from a serious problem that went wrong with our investigation.”

Aaron fell silent and stared thoughtfully into the fire as he relived the last several weeks.

“What is it?” Elspeth asked when she felt him go still.

She sensed his thoughts were troubled. Aaron wasn’t just revisiting the past, he was remembering a significant time that brought him distress. That was evident in the dark frown on his face. Slowly, gently, she traced a finger down the deep groove in between his eyebrows.

Aaron caught her hand and kissed it.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

Aaron sighed and leaned his head back against the seat. “A good friend of ours, Angus, is also one of our colleagues. He met a wonderful young woman, Charity, during one of our investigations as a matter of fact. She allowed us to use her house to observe someone we thought was responsible for the kidnappings. Unfortunately, we realised we were wrong, and left. But, we weren’t wrong, as it happens. The man tried to kill Charity, and very nearly succeeded in destroying Angus’s life as well.”

“What happened?”

“Charity was shot, and very nearly bled to death,” Aaron breathed. “We overwhelmed the gunman and his accomplice, but Horvat, the kidnapper, escaped.”

“Charity survived, though?”

“Yes, thankfully,” Aaron smiled.

“What happened to this man, Horvat?”

Aaron cursed. “He seems to have nine lives. Just when we think we have caught him, he slithers away. It is as though he has someone feeding him information on where we are going and when because he seems to do a better job of avoiding us than we do of keeping tabs on him.”

Elspeth sighed. “Are you going after him when Sir Hugo asks you to return to work?”

“I don’t know if he will,” Aaron replied. He studied her. “I don’t want to sacrifice my life, and a chance at a future with you just to chase criminals up and down the damned country. It’s a fool’s errand. Everyone seems to feel the same, which is something I didn’t expect. When I found out about Thomas and realised that I had been denied the ability to say a final goodbye to him, I quit. It was a shock when my friends rode out of town with me.”

“They are good friends,” Elspeth assured him.

“I know,” Aaron agreed. “Which is why we are good at what we do. We stick together and help each other no matter what.”

“It’s why they are helping you now,” Elspeth murmured, more to herself than to Aaron.

“It is. I think it gives them something to do with their time,” Aaron mused.