Scarred for Life (38 page)

‘What about it?’

‘What if I wanted more?’

‘I thought you said you were owed a few days. Perhaps they’ll let you take time instead of money? We could have a weekend away?’

‘I didn’t mean that – I meant taking lots of time off. Perhaps when Jack goes, I should too. It’s like the end of our era anyway – Jason left, now Jack. There’s that Pratley report due in the new year and it looks like there’ll be another reshuffle. New chief inspector, possibly a new super, and so on. It would be a good time.’

‘You know I’ll support whatever you want to do. It’s never been about the money – after my grandmother and your dad, plus the insurance money after the fire, it’s not as if we’re scraping around for pennies.’

Everything Jessica had been thinking came flooding out: ‘We can look into all we talked about . . . we couldn’t adopt while carrying on as we were. Someone like Iz can balance everything but I’m not like that. I have to be as good as I can be at one thing at a time.’

Adam kissed the top of her hair. ‘I know.’

‘And that’s still what you want – the meetings, the appointments . . . ?’

‘Jess – we were going to have a son together and I was delighted with that. I think that would have given us a bit more work than having to visit a few social workers. I’ve been waiting for you to say this the whole time; I just didn’t want to force anything. We’re going to do it together.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yes!’ He dug his fingers underneath her ribs and began tickling but Jessica bucked so violently that she ended up headbutting him in the chin.

‘Ow,’ they said together, rubbing their various injuries.

‘What about Bex?’ Adam whispered.

‘I want her to stay as long as she wants . . . if you’re okay with that.’

Adam grinned. ‘We got a big house because we wanted to fill it with people. Babies didn’t work, so if you want to start collecting people from the street, then fair enough.’

Jessica returned his smile and wrapped her arms around him again. ‘There’s something about her. I don’t know what. I just get this sense that she’s going to do something with her life. I like it.’

‘It’s nice spending a morning with you,’ Adam said. ‘Your late shift and my half-day Wednesdays work out well. Perhaps I’ll get used to it if you really are going to give your notice.’

‘I am.’

‘You don’t have to.’

‘I want to. I’m going to do it later.’

Adam fought to get his feet out from under her. ‘I still have to be at work for twelve, so if you can move your car from the drive to let mine out . . .’

He stood but Jessica pointed down at her pyjama bottoms and fluffy white boots. ‘I’m not dressed to go outside.’

‘I can’t drive your car – you have the seat too far forward.’

‘So move it back.’

‘Why can’t you do it?’

Jessica stuck out her bottom lip. ‘If you
really
loved me, you’d move my car first, then come back for yours.’

‘Or, I could just sit in my car, wait for you to move yours, then go to work . . .’

‘Addddddaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmm . . .’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. Where are your keys?’

‘I don’t know – in the kitchen somewhere. I can never find them.’

Grumble, grumble.

As Adam clattered around the kitchen shouting about all the places he
hadn’t
found them, Bex crept into the room. She was wearing a set of thick pyjamas and dressing gown that Jessica had insisted on giving her the money for. Bex promised to get a job, or else find another way that didn’t involve stealing to pay her back. She seemed confused. ‘What’s up with him?’

‘He’s lost some keys.’

Adam’s voice called ‘found them’ from the kitchen and then his footsteps echoed their way up the stairs.

‘You look happy,’ Bex said.

‘I think we’ve just made the decision to adopt.’

Bex grinned, reaching out and touching Jessica’s knee. ‘That’s lovely.’

‘I’m going to quit the police.’

‘Oh . . . why?’

‘I can’t do both and I don’t want to do that any more. I’ve done too much.’

‘You’re only young.’

Jessica shrugged. ‘Better to go now than wait until I’m forty or fifty.’

Bex nodded, taking a breath and turning away. ‘I’ve been thinking too. You said you wanted to help me figure out what I should do with my life. I think I want to go to college. I was always okay at school but other things kind of took over and—’

‘That’s really good. There are lots around here. I can help you go through prospectuses – unless you already know what you want to do?’

Bex shook her head but grinned. ‘I’ll get a part-time job and I can pay you rent. I don’t want to stay forever – not because of you or Adam, just because—’

‘I understand.’

Adam clumped his way back down the stairs and peered around the living-room door at Jessica, thrusting her keys in the air. ‘I hope you appreciate this.’

He was trying to stop himself laughing but Jessica played along. ‘I’m sure I’ll find a way to say thank you.’

‘There are cars parked all the way up and down the street too, so I’m going to have to go all the way to the bottom, then walk back and get my car.’

‘Wow – my hero.’

Bex dissolved into laughter, which set Jessica off. Adam was stifling a smile as he headed to the door.

‘Oi! Are you going to give me a goodbye kiss?’

‘I’ll bring your keys back in and do it then.’

The front door slammed and Jessica shifted to the edge of the sofa to watch him try to move her car seat. He had forgotten where the mechanism was, leaving Jessica to giggle as he stood with his hands on his hips, arms in the air.

‘He’s lovely,’ Bex said.

‘He really is. Just don’t get him going about the
Star Wars
sequels. Or cartoons from his childhood.’

Finally Adam found the lever, heaved Jessica’s chair back and climbed into the car.

‘Where did you find him?’ Bex asked.

‘On a case. I think he’s been in my head ever since, even when we weren’t together.’

The engine rumbled to life and Adam edged it towards the road, waiting for a passing car.

‘Are you really looking forward to giving up the job?’ Bex asked. ‘I thought you were the type who would end up running yourself into the ground before you’d even realised.’

Jessica leant closer to the window. ‘I probably was. I think a combination of you and Adam especially made me realise that other things are important.’

‘I suppose you only get one chance at life.’

Jessica peered at Bex and grinned. ‘Exactly – and I can’t wait.’

She turned back to the window just as Adam pulled out, turning right onto the road. For some reason the car didn’t surge ahead as Jessica would have expected, almost as if his foot had slipped off the accelerator. It came to a halt in the centre of the road outside the house next door. Jessica could only just see the top over the parked vehicles but had a perfect side view of Adam’s confused face. He looked both ways and then checked the mirror.

Jessica stood just as the explosion shredded its way out of the bonnet with a ferocious roar. She didn’t have time to speak, to breathe, before the car was engulfed by an inferno that erupted sideways, tearing through the metal and popping like a tin can in a microwave. The fire leapt to one of the parked vehicles but Jessica only had eyes for one: hers, where another boom signalled a second explosion that made the car bounce half a metre into the air before landing in a crackling, simmering shard of flames.

AFTERWORD

Um. Sorry about that ending. I had plenty of angry emails after I broke Jessica and Adam up in an earlier book, so lordy knows what this will bring.

I just want to make it clear that this ending wasn’t written without plenty of thought beforehand. You’ll have to trust me . . .

It goes without saying that the story here is fictional but I wanted to make that extra clear, simply because the University of Salford really does have a rowing team. Partly to avoid any confusion with reality but also to give the story a marginally better setting from my point of view, I have given them a made-up headquarters in the real Peel Park. It’s not there, so don’t go looking for it.

On a slightly similar note, the explanation of GMP’s structure is also a deliberate blend of truth and fiction.

Other than that, any other mistakes you didn’t notice are entirely mine, as ever. The ones you did spot were added in by a person or persons unknown. Honestly.

There are, as always, lots of people to thank, primarily: Nicola, Trisha, Natasha, Jodie, Susan, Sam, Stuart and Tom – they know why. These books don’t write themselves – I really wish they did – but it takes those people to take my meanderings and make them better.

Finally, a disclaimer: Jessica’s views on workmen, builders, plumbers, golfers and taxi drivers are all hers and definitely not mine. This is especially true if I need the services of a workman, builder, plumber, taxi driver or, erm, golfer.

COMING SOON

FOR RICHER, FOR POORER

The tenth book in the Jessica Daniel series

Three houses have been burgled in five weeks. The robbers barge in through the back, disable any way to contact the outside world, and then ransack everything – before distributing the stolen cash to local charities.

It might be robbing from the rich to give to the poor – but Detective Inspector Jessica Daniel is not a happy bunny. The new DCI has a whiteboard with far too many things on the ‘unsolved’ side and he wants the burglars found. Doesn’t he know Jessica has other things to do?

There’s a lottery winner who’s gone bankrupt, the homeless teenager Jessica’s taken in, a botched drugs raid, a trip to London with DC Archie Davey, and a man-mountain Serbian with a missing wife who’s been pimping out young women.

All the while, someone’s watching from the wings and waiting for Jessica to mess up. Officers are being pensioned off and booted out – with a certain DI Daniel firmly in sight.

COMING SOON

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN

The new Manchester-set crime novel from Kerry Wilkinson

‘I’m going to do you a favour: I’m going to tell you my name and then I’m going to give you thirty seconds to turn and run. If any of you are still here after those thirty seconds, then we’re going to have a problem.’

Jason Green’s life is changed for good after he is saved from a mugging by crime boss, Harry Irwell. He is then drawn into Manchester’s notorious underworld, where smash-and-grab is as normal as making a cup of tea.

But Jason isn’t a casual thug. He has a life plan that doesn’t involve blowing his money on the usual trappings. That is until a woman walks into his life offering the one thing that money can’t buy – salvation.

SCARRED FOR LIFE

Kerry Wilkinson’s debut,
Locked In
, the first title in the detective Jessica Daniel series, was written as a challenge to himself and went on to become a UK Number One Kindle bestseller within three months of release.

Since then, his Jessica Daniel series has sold over three-quarters of a million copies and he became the first formerly self-published British author to have an ebook Number One and reach the top 20 of the UK paperback chart.

Scarred for Life
is the ninth title in the Jessica Daniel series.

Kerry is an occasional sports journalist and can frequently be spotted cycling the hills of Lancashire while trying not to be knocked off. Please drive safely around him. He was born in Somerset but now lives in Lancashire.

For more information about Kerry and his books visit:

www.kerrywilkinson.com or

www.panmacmillan.com

Twitter: twitter.com/kerrywk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JessicaDanielBooks

Or you can email Kerry at [email protected]

By Kerry Wilkinson

The Jessica Daniel series

LOCKED IN

VIGILANTE

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

THINK OF THE CHILDREN

PLAYING WITH FIRE

THICKER THAN WATER

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

CROSSING THE LINE

SCARRED FOR LIFE

The Andrew Hunter series

SOMETHING WICKED

The Silver Blackthorn Trilogy

RECKONING

First published 2015 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-4791-3

Copyright © Kerry Wilkinson 2015

Cover design ©
www.blacksheep-uk.com
Photography © Alamy