When he’d caught sight of her talking with Adrian, in broken whispers, so intimate and close, it had been a timely reminder. She was here because she was a secondary witness, and that was because she was involved with Adrian. He’d had no right to get involved, even though she’d kissed him, and it was a big mistake.
He shook his head. He couldn’t afford the brainpower to even think about it; he was supposed to be working out a way to expose Emery Lavonne in the safest way possible. He had to let his chief know they had a viper in their nest, but he couldn’t put the witness at risk while doing so. It had occurred to him that Lavonne might expose himself, given time. Stephen Ward, their chief, was a clever man. He’d figure out the nature of the reason for the unorthodox behaviour in regard to the witness. It was just a matter of time.
As long as he had the witness safe, that was his primary concern.
Chapter Seven
The witness protection division was in chaos. Emery Lavonne stalked in, using the chaos as cover for the fact he was late. As he did, he caught sight of one of his fellow officers jogging out of Stephen Ward’s office, red in the face and carrying a sheaf of papers. The chief was in bad humour, judging by the overriding sense of urgency in the atmosphere and the raised voices. Seth Jones’s change of plans wasn’t, as he had expected, planned.
“Please don’t tell me you’re thinking of going in there,” Janine, an admin support officer, said as he passed her desk.
He paused. Janine was a good source of information. “Problem?”
“Uhu. Seth Jones has gone walkabout with his witness. Nobody seems to know where he is, and Stephen is in a foul mood.”
“Really? Any ideas why Jones has gone off the grid?”
Janine shrugged. “Apparently he wouldn’t explain to his partner, just told him to get lost.”
“Weird.” He peered through the glass frontage of Ward’s office and noticed that Seth Jones’s partner was in the office with the boss. Stephen Ward was pacing up and down. Ward and Jones had some kind of bond, an old friendship from their early days on the force. Ward would be furious about this.
He took a deep breath and tried to decide whether to stay low profile, or jump into the fray. Whilst sitting in traffic on his way back from the midlands he’d got his annoyance under wraps and was freshly determined to find out the alternate location Seth Jones had used. Entering the fray might be the fastest route to gathering that information. He walked closer, and leaned up against the open door frame, listening.
Stephen Ward looked even more stressed than usual. He had three officers in there. Two of them from the internal investigation division. Ward was issuing instructions, rapid fire. “We need to check with the emergency services, look into any car accident or anything unusual that took place between here and the safe house. We can’t rule anything out.” Ward’s frown deepened. “Other than that, all we can do is wait until he makes contact, and he better have a bloody good explanation for this.”
“Anything I can help with?” Lavonne offered.
Ward looked his way and thought about it for a moment. “No. I need you working on your next witness. I had the file sent down yesterday before this kicked off, you need to stick with that case. Janine is organising a safe house for the lead in to the trial. When she gives you the details, do your usual checks on the place. You’ll need to be ready for your one-to-one and the witness relocation in five days time.”
Lavonne ground his teeth. Five days. He had hoped this task wouldn’t drag on past twenty-four hours, but with Jones and the witness on walkabout, who could say how long it would be. The trial wasn’t for another thirteen days. Worst-case scenario, Jones could keep the witness hidden until then. He balked at being penned like this.
He glanced at the paperwork on the desk. Were they checking alternate safe houses? Could he find that out by checking the task sheets online? Maybe. If only he could get closer to Ward, and to the men he had working on the whereabouts. He couldn’t afford to draw attention to himself though. As that thought crossed his mind he noticed the two plain clothes officers staring his way and he jolted himself out of his thoughts. Nodding to show he understood, he took his leave.
“I’m here if you need me,” he said as he went, and headed for his desk.
* * * *
It took the whole day for Lily to finally relax around the two of them, but it finally happened. Adrian watched her walking round the kitchen that evening, trailing her fingers on the surfaces. Seth was watching her too, Adrian knew that. Why wouldn’t he, she was beautiful and sexy and rather embarrassed about the whole situation, which made her blush appealingly every now again, her thick, dark eyelashes lowering whenever she did. Was she thinking sexy thoughts, or did she just look that way?
That morning she’d gone back to her room with a handful of books. After lunch she had lingered, before sitting in the lounge area reading, while they watched TV, occasionally making comments on the shows, edging closer to joining them. When Seth had invited them into the kitchen while he made them some dinner, she’d come with them. A barrier had been breached, and Adrian was glad of it. He could tell Seth was, too.
“Beans on toast, this is your idea of dinner?” Lily asked as she watched Seth pulling provisions out of the box he’d brought from the car.
“You have a problem with that?”
She shrugged at him. “I suppose it makes a change from boring old cheese and pickle sandwiches.”
Adrian smiled inwardly. Seth did seem to have a limited range.
Seth rooted about in the box as if he was hoping a three course dinner would materialise, and Lily began opening cupboards, investigating. A moment later she opened a door in the corner of the room and poked her head inside. From what Adrian could see from his seated position, it looked like some kind of larder.
“Hey, why are we eating butties and beans on toast when there is much more interesting stuff in the storeroom in here?”
“There is?” Seth frowned. “The stores are usually cleared out during the winter.”
“Well, the shelves aren’t full, but there are plenty of dry provisions, pasta and the like, spices. There are some onions and potatoes on the veggie rack, and a whole slew of canned food. I could rustle us up a good meal from what there is.” She glanced back over her shoulder. So long as you like Italian.” She looked from one to the other of them. “Is Italian good?”
They nodded in unison and she started to carry various items out to the work surface.