Knockout! A Passionate Police Romance (14 page)

“Supposing it were me Freddie - risking my life, risking my health and brains - how would you feel?”

“I would, I would... I would stop you- lock you up in a palace.” He joked trying to divert her.

“I’d call the cops.

“And some big guy in a uniform with a notebook would give me a medal and we’d have a beer together.” He laughed.

Anna could not help but smile. Quite probably his assessment was spot on. She was about to counter with a hypothetical lady cop but some shred of shame prevented her. She was hammering at him when he had no chance to retaliate. Quite simply she could attack the truth of his life and he could only shadow box against her web of lies. Maybe he would have been content for her to scream a patrol car at 80 mph up the Brixton Road towards the report of a man running amok with a machete - but she would guess that he would not!

“I don’t mean to nag.” She said, watching his lips form into a smile.

“And if I battered Monsieur the boulder Brennan - it would still be violence and be just as bad.” He said, watching her eyes for a response.

She took a deep breath and prepared her answer. She disliked inconsistency in argument but she would not hide this truth from him.

“I would sing if you killed him and he couldn’t hurt you. You are my man and my lover. I know that it’s appalling to say something so brutal and so selfish - but that’s how I feel.” She said with a hard sincerity and pitilessness that shocked her.

He grinned and took her hand, stroking the back with his thumb and raising her ring finger.

“So - ma belle Anna - it looks like I am making the right choice for my wife.”

“Wife?” She repeated numbly, stupidly as if the word was foreign.

“Of course - with so many sons needed to run the vineyard and the other businesses.” He said naturally with a Gallic shrug.

“Wife - if you want me then Yes! Yes - of course yes.” She burbled as fireworks exploded, avalanches crashed down mountains, space rockets lifted off. She was on an Interpol mission. Mafia mobsters were gathering on the sidelines. She had already made love to a suspect and now she was going to marry him! If ever there was a moment to come clean it was now.

He was beaming, and then burying his face in his hands, repeating the words “I can’t believe it - I have found you from the whole world.”

He pulled a Cartier ring box from his pocket, his powerful hand folded around it.

“Maybe it is a little you know - big. I’m sorry - but I am half American you know.”

For a moment the box sat in the palm of his open hand. She watched his long dark lashes as his eyes studied it. Then he opened the box and at once the sparkle of the largest and most beautiful diamond reflected the light of the chandeliers in perfect rays as if he had opened a door from which the sound of a symphony filled the room. He slipped it on her finger.

“You are mine and I am yours.” He said simply, as his eyes embraced hers in a ballet that swept her up and possessed her in its grip.

She blinked at the platinum band set with a 5 carat princess cut solitaire diamond.

“It fits... ” She mumbled stupidly, ashamed that she could not rise above banal confusion.

“I stole - borrowed a ring from your flat to get the size... I was very bad.”

“It is so so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful... ”

“Not beautiful enough.” He said.

“I can’t find the words...” She began.

“The magic word was Yes - and you found it.” He smiled.

She looked away. How could she go on? How could she deceive him? She was his woman. She was a detective, a fraud and a liar. He was her man and she loved him more than her own life. A battle raged in her mind and heart. She retreated onto safe ground.

“You decided to marry me at my flat after one taxi ride and one night?”

“Oh no - I am a boxer Anna, I cannot wait that long to react. It was raining and I was standing in the street…I saw the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and I knew... that if I did not act... then it would be too late.”

She shook her head in wonder and disbelief. Could real life be like that? She looked at him - and knew that it was like that. Just like that!

“I must tell someone.” She said, bursting with joy, despair and the loneliness of her false life.

“Maybe your mother. You never seem to be in touch - but I guess you talk to them all the time about the business.”

It would have been the natural thing to do, but she had hardly spoken to her since she had rejected the family firm and had moved to London as a cop. Her mother had planned a life for her and it did not involve crime and violence. As she thought she realized that her time with Beaumont had reduced her own circle of friends down to zero. Judy was her closest confidante and it was by no means certain that she would approve.

“I’ll let it wait - I’ll just wrap myself up in you.” She said, focusing on the beautiful ring.

###

That night they made love tenderly, without urgency or complication, reaching out to each other like the roots of two seeds blown by chance and woven together as one. At around midnight they lay together in the moonlight. The window was a little open and admitted sounds from the street. In the distance voices and traffic spoke the muffled language of other lives. Somewhere close by in another apartment a sad saxophone played reflective moody late night jazz. If there had ever been a moment when she would have stopped time it would have been then - in the mellow moments of their after-love and their before-life. The great River Seine rippled and pushed on to the sea as the sun tip-toed the back stairs of the world climbing towards dawn across Paris. Maybe the morning light would never uncover two lovers hiding within the protection of each other’s arms…

They following morning they drove to Troyes. She could not resist looking at the ring every few minutes - convincing herself that it was real - that any of this was real. By lunchtime the Mercedes slipped into the courtyard of Freddie’s champagne vineyard. He led her into the kitchen of a magnificent stone walled farmhouse. The smell of savory food, the cooking range, the flag-stoned floor, the enormous wooden table laden with cheese, poultry and wine brought an involuntary “Wow” from her lips.

Freddie introduced her as his fiancé to a procession of staff. She smiled and chatted in French, exhibiting the ring, holding up her hand and wriggling on an invisible glove. He took the time to warn them that Mom had not been told and that they were the first to know.

“Monsieur - you are so very brave!” Exclaimed a rosy cheeked woman, embracing Anna.

“Not a word... if she calls just tell her I was with a fairy tale princess.”

Evidently the vineyard workers had a good idea that Mom might not wish to come second in anything.

They ate a light non alcoholic lunch, whilst the staff freely celebrated the great event with jugs of wine, several bottles of champagne and all manner of meat and cheese. An old man of about eighty hugged Freddie around the neck, then bounced on his feet and jabbed out as if he were a boxer. Freddie’s face beamed as he took a stance and sparred lightly with his elderly opponent. As he moved she almost gasped at his physical grace. His body was fluid and quick like a spring. He moved like a deer with speed and delicacy. He was truly beautiful. Finally he raised the old guy’s arm as the victor and poured him a huge glass of champagne, and let him melt away into the crowd.

“That man was middleweight amateur champion of France before the war,” he told her passionately, “he comes to work every day - I am so proud to know him.”

“Does he work here?” She asked, wondering what he could do.

“He kinda checks stuff out...”

“Do you pay him?”

“Ummm - yeah,” he replied thoughtfully. “Madame is thinking of the purse strings... this is good - but you know life is not fair - sometimes we have the luck to be alive and able to change things a little.” He said with a firmness that she realized was a hint of a deep side to his nature. She kissed his cheek and let her kiss translate itself into words - through the dictionary of their love.

When Freddie went to the office with the vineyard manager, she took the chance to walk outside. She called the office.

“Yo! How’s the big city?”

“Anna - God, I’ve been worrying - are you OK?” Asked Judy urgently.

“Sure - why wouldn’t I be OK?”

“Nothing - nothing specific - this guy Tondelli is a real killer - he’s gonna be with the lawyer who manages Brennan. Beaumont thinks you ought to be pulled out - he wants to know if you call in. Christine Jones has told him to back off and let it run.”

“She’s right - I’m fine- these guys don’t even land in France until tomorrow - anyway there’s something else - something far more important.” Anna hesitated, unsure of how to break such momentous news.

“What... what?” Squealed Judy excitedly, picking up on Anna’s manner.

She took a deep breath. She was on the edge of a platform, looking over into a canyon. Once she said a word it was free fall with no way back. Her palms sweated.

“I’m going to marry him.” She declared abruptly.

There was a silence as she plunged downwards.

“Judy...?”

“What? What? Have you told him... .does he know?” She shrieked. Anna laughed nervously at her friend’s odd humor.

“Of course he knows - he’s given me the most beautiful Cartier diamond ring... I wish you could see it.”

“Do you know what the hell you are doing?”

She thought for a second - it was a sound question.

“Sure - we’re gonna have sons to run the champagne business-oh-and a girl for him to spoil.”

“What? Bloody hell, I mean God - I mean it’s wonderful - you’re nuts!”

“I’m nuts and it’s ecstasy,” replied Anna dreamily, “he’s in the clear - I just know.”

“So why is he meeting these mobsters?”

“Well, I’ll find that out won’t I.” She stammered, unable to fire back a reflex answer. “Anyway he hasn’t said he’s meeting anyone.”

“Ok Anna - I know you’re cool with this - I won’t mention to the Commander that you are going to marry the suspect and have his babies. It may just be too much for the morning conference to swallow. We need everything off his phone. You’ve got the blank SIM card so go girl! We have got to show contacts to back up evidence of conspiracy... geddit?”

Anna nodded and smiled. Judy was right to bring her down to focus. She had a job to do.

“I feel so bad going behind his back when he loves and trusts me.” She sighed, almost sick with the thought of it.

“Then don’t get caught honey! And keep your eye on the ball - I’m worried about you.” Ordered Judy, completely oblivious to the superior rank of her friend.

She felt a slight stab of resentment. No one knew him like she did! This was the sort of idea that she had wanted to escape from when she had not admitted to being a cop.

“It’s not just a case of being caught - it’s a case of what I can take emotionally - I love him.”

“Oh - honey - I can see that - look, just work to show he is innocent. Freddie is not the target here.”

She heard his voice inside the farmhouse and ended the call. Luckily Judy was not compromised by the same passions. Here she was - standing in the back yard of a fabulous building with ducks and geese around her feet. Vines stretched away into the distance over the soil that could be the nursery of her children. Her man - her bull, poet and lover was about to appear. Between her and the dream stood a lie that robbed her of her future. She had to go on. She would have to copy the files from his phone and soon everything that she could see in front of her would be ripped away and trodden in the mud of mistrust and deception. The woman he loved was an Interpol detective who was there to spy on him.

What was it that his father had said - that our lives are not the bus stop ahead but the bus itself and the view from the window. So - she would live each second with no thought for the next - if she could.

She wandered back to the house, getting a grip of her raging emotions.

“Cherie - I’m sorry. I had to deal with a little business.” He said openly, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

His caring manner doubled her shame. Thoughts tumbled like random items from a sack. Time and time again she asked herself what it was that he would not discuss when he clammed up. Time and time again she asked why he had agreed to this fight and why, oh why oh why were two gangsters associated with the fight flying in to Nice - one of them his opponent’s business manager and the other a killer?

She loved him. She loved him.

“I love you.” She said almost desperately.

“Hey - cherie - what’s up? Some little cloud has come across your sunshine.” He said gently.

“Sometimes I worry that you don’t know me - this is all so beautiful - maybe I don’t deserve all this. Maybe I’m not what you need or what you think I am.” She said, tearfully, searching his face for understanding and compassion.

“Ah - yes the old wooden leg trick - it’s OK - the moment I fell in love with you I knew you had a wooden leg.” He teased.