CHAPTER 54
Both women looked drained, and Elaine was still giving little flickers of confusion to my Police, Professional eye. I remembered her apparent obsession with ‘three suspects’ when we were dangling poor Chris in front of that gang, and I flashed a glance at Sioned, who gave the slightest of headshakes.

It hit me like a ton of bricks just then, and I had to disguise my tears with praise for the two little bundles. Blake could obviously sense something from me, so he took my hand as I murmured “Later, love” before standing up to see the new additions to Elaine’s family. They were both following the tradition that demands that rather than looking like their parents, either or both, they resemble more closely a certain wartime Prime Minister, just without the cigar or the rude hand signal. With an eyebrow raise, Siân handed me her little responsibility, and I was as lost as I had been when I first held my own little boy. I smiled at her, and she nodded her head towards her brother-in-law, who was, with no shame at all, sobbing as he held the other child, his older son cuddled round him from behind.

So much damage in one family. That was my lesson de jour, my realisation once more of the good fortune that seemed to follow me around like a puppy, as well as the simple fact of ripples. What had been done to me had been to others, and not just the women and girls who had stood with me in court to stare down that piece of shit. My own parents had hidden their pain from me for years, for one example close to home, and I remembered Peter and Ben up in Southport.

Ripples. So many people got splashed, and not with clean water. I looked at Sarah as she smiled in utter devotion as her man held his child, and even though I hardly knew him, my own heart nearly burst with a surge of utter love for the man who had pulled so many people back from the edge. So very many of ‘The Good Ones’ had come into my life. Sioned broke the mood.

“There will be tea and cake later, and Arwel and Alice are On A Mission!”

I decided to try and break some of the tension that lingered in Elaine’s face and forearms, so settled back down with Annie.

“It’s been very interesting, Lainey. Once we got past the what the fuck stage—er, I suppose I should start watching my language now. Little ears, isn’t it?”

I turned my head and, frankly, stared at Annie as she made noises like some teenage girl. All she would have needed to complete the image would have been her hand over her mouth. She fought down her giggles, took a deep breath and tried again.

“I think these two might be a bit young to worry about language just now, but, well, Lainey? Remember Ginny?”

Inspector Powell’s tension started to evaporate, and she took her child into a loving embrace as she sank into an armchair with obvious relief. All of a sudden that grin was back on her face, and I saw how P, P Annie still was as Elaine dropped herself right into it.

“How’s it go? Fuck, yeah? Sorry, Mam!”

Annie nodded, then turned to me.

“Friend of mine, Di. Bit larger than life!”

Siân guffawed, then winced.

“A bit? Ooh, mustn’t do that, bloody stitches”

Elaine reached out for her hand as Tony pushed another chair next to Elaine’s.

“Aye, very much larger, that is, Annie. And?”

I revised my opinion of Annie’s professional poker face downwards, because just them she was losing it.

“She and her wife adopted a young girl, Di, and the first time Ginny got excited, she almost strangled herself. ‘Fuh—lip yeah’, it was! All the habits of a lifetime’s insanity had to be tied down and sedated”

Sioned’s own stoneface had eroded badly

“Little ears may not be old enough, but these ears are. Now, Elaine: what are you going to do about your mother in law?”

That one clearly came with a whole trainload of freight, and I saw meaningful looks flashing round the room. Once more, Blake squeezed my hand with an unspoken promise of ‘later’. Elaine sat up a little straighter.

“She deserves to see her grandchildren, and before you say it, yes. They will both be her grandchildren. She is what she is, but I married her daughter, and family is family. We know that, here, in our family. Look at how many are here, look how strong we are together. All I want to do is clear it with the other two people involved first”

Sioned looked across to Tony and Sarah, nodding.

“You are right, Elaine. They are as much one as you two are. I see I brought up no stupid children”

I couldn’t resist, and gave the room my best combination Mam and Paddington Stare, and then Annie started that noise again, and I corpse. I was back in Saffron’s bedroom as we did our worst, if not actually THE worst, Clouseau impressions. Annie found her composure before I could.

“Elaine, we’ve done quite a bit of talking, the two of us, once we got past, as Di put it, the double-you tee eff stage. A lot to share, aye? And then she was telling me all about that unit you set up. Very well done, Inspector”

Thank, you woman, I thought, before realising how naturally that now came to me.

“Got a lot of work on now, Lainey. Can’t share details, naturally, but they’ve got us another string to our fiddle. Not just the cold case stuff we did but more of the sort of sub-NCA stuff. National Crime Agency, Sioned. We are picking up some of the nasty organised stuff that isn’t quite big enough to rattle the politician’s cages. Done quite a bit with HMRC and Trading Standards, especially round Christmas. Nothing changes there, isn’t it?”

My husband leapt up at the sound of the front door, rushing into the kitchen, and I understood why once Arwel and Allice brought the smell of fish and chips with them into the living room. Blake called back to us all.

“Bread and butter are on their way, boys and girls!”

Ice broken, subject shifted away from risky areas, the only downside being the need to explain the joke to those who didn’t know Chris. I snuggled into Blake that night, trying to get the day’s events into some sort of order while I was conscious, rather than leaving my dreams to make a dog’s dinner of it all. He murmured into my ear.

“What was your niggle, love?”

I sighed, looking for the right words.

“Lainey, love. Not so sure she’s back with us. She was losing it when we were following Chris, and I don’t think she’s quite back on song”

“Aye. I spotted that. All that stuff about ‘three suspects’. It’s odd, you know. I think her sister is more like you than Elaine. I mean, Sarah is more like you than she is like Lainey. You both got the nasty, but both of you have coped, in the end”

“Strong people round us, love. Makes it easy”

“Aye, maybe. But sometimes it’s not so easy for what you call the strong ones. I think Elaine’s a bit like your Dad”

“My Dad?”

He pulled me closer to him, just a squeeze, just to let me know he was there.

“Yeah. Mark didn’t cope at all well, love. Really felt he had failed you, and don’t go telling him I said that. Took a lot to get him back on song”

“Yeah, well, you did that”

“Um, yes. I suppose I did, a bit of it. Anyway, Lainey’s a bit that way towards her sister. There’s other stuff too”

He sighed, and there was a shudder underneath the long breath.

“You missed a lot of the stuff about Lainey, Di. The trial…”

He paused for a few seconds, tightening the arm he had around me once more.

“Siân’s mother is a cow, but her Dad, dear god. I sat through that stuff up in Caernarvon, and all I could think of is what you and Jonny Boy had to sit and listen to. Enough on that one, aye? I am just astonished at how Siân herself turned out so tidy. Can’t have been easy, especially the way she is. Anyway, over and done now. You and Annie? All sorted?”

I squeezed him back.

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, what we saw in that café, that was nothing. You sit with her for ten minutes, and it’s all so right, so HER, isn’t it? How did I not see that when she was working right next to me?”

He chuckled.

“What was that phrase? That would have worked HOW, exactly. Besides which, neither of you are gay, as far as I can see…”

Our conversation became somewhat derailed at that point.

The next day was a busy one, as some of us slaved away in the kitchen preparing a vast quantity of Full Welsh before yet another attack on the supermarket for all of those things we had either forgotten or had not realised we actually needed. To my surprise, Arwel and Alice made their apologies after lunch and set off back to their own home, Alice slapping his arm as he explained how little he trusted his son with the business. Arwel amused me, all smiles and teasing as he hugged each woman goodbye, but the absolute epitome of Stern Masculinity for each manly farewell. There remained a twinkle of delight in his eyes though, especially when he looked over towards the two new arrivals.

No sooner was he gone when even more people arrived. There was a car fitting into the space Arwel had vacated, and behind it a bloody great motorcycle marked ‘Moto Guzzi’, which looked small next to its rider, who was immense. I looked across at my husband, and there wasn’t that much in it, to be honest, but the new arrival simply exuded a sense of size and weight.

The car held two girls, a young lad and a comfortably-plump dark-haired woman of around Sarah’s age. There were embraces all round, including, to my astonishment, a rather warm one between young Jim and one of the teenager girls. Sarah called over their heads in introduction.

“Di and Blake Sutton, they work with Big Sis, aye? And this is Steve, Arris, Stevie, Ali and Suzy Barraclough. Two of my oldest friends and their brood. Jim! Wash your face afterwards, son”

That made him blush, but he was still grinning and giving no sign of moving away from the girl he was wrapped up with. The man laughed, a rich deep sound, as he pulled his helmet off, and I had a little moment of ‘oh shit’.

Well over six feet tall, long blond hair just starting to show some grey, and a drooping moustache. Two things hit me at once, two memories.

Joe Evans, short of a testicle, jumping at every noise from the interview room door, pissing down his own leg at the Custody desk.

Ellen describing the death of her own nephew. Devon Barraclough. Hell, it was a common enough surname, but not in South Wales. Joe Evans had upset Sarah, and then received a serious kicking from someone very, very big, and from what I had picked up through the grapevine, he had described his attacker as having a blond moustache.

The giant grinned as he shook my hand, and as I watched the joy in Elaine’s face shining out at him, I made a firm promise to myself.

I had no need to know anything else about their past, other than how well they loved my friends.