Chapter Thirteen
AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF LATER, after running through the fields that surrounded Bledburn, arriving at Harville Hall and finding it empty, and leaving in search of Jenna, Jason found himself passing the police station.
The sight of it made him consider something that hadn’t even occurred to him yet – of reporting what had happened at Harville’s cottage.
Jason’s record with the police was such that he would do almost anything and everything possible before involving them. But his plan had been to tell Jenna everything and leave the course of action to be taken up to her. And Jenna would surely have called the police.
Or would she? Bad publicity, of which she’d had more than enough lately, might put her off. Perhaps it was best to keep the boys in blue out of it. But then again … who else was going to charge up and rescue Deano?
He was pondering this question – safely out of sight of the front of the station – when a back door opened and disgorged none other than Mia.
‘Jay,’ she exclaimed, stopping stock still on the pavement.
His heart skipped a beat.
‘What are you doing here?’ he said through cold, somewhat stiff, lips.
‘Have to sign in every week. Probation type thing, you know.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ he said, looking up the street, unable to meet her eye.
‘So … you all right, then?’ she said diffidently.
‘Not so bad. You?’
She laughed sadly and looked down at the pavement.
‘Oh, you know,’ she said.
There was an awkward paus
e.
‘Fancy a coffee?’ she blurted.
Jason stared at her, startled.
‘What?’
‘Might be nice to catch up,’ she said, with a defiant edge in her voice. ‘I do think about you, you know. A lot.’
‘Yeah, well, I haven’t got any money on me …’
‘No probs. I’ll pay.’
He frowned. ‘What’re you after? Anyway, I can’t, really. Kind of an emergency. But I don’t know what to do about it.’
‘Maybe I can help?’
He was about to laugh scornfully and say he didn’t think so, when it occurred to him that perhaps she could.
‘Go on then,’ he said. ‘Coffee. A quick one.’
She smiled, as if she couldn’t believe her luck.
‘Yay!’ she said. ‘Come on then.’
She led him to a kind of fancy tea-room, not a Bledburn kind of place at all, if you asked him, and it didn’t look cheap either, but then she was paying, so who cared?