Page 54 of Savage Justice

“Both,” I whisper.

“We could do that here,” he suggests.

“Oh, no. Not with houseful of rampant crime lords ready to burst in at any moment. I need my own space. Our own space.”

“Fuck. Okay then.” He’s starting to appreciate the potential benefits. “But I’ll need to check out your security first. And make some arrangements for Lucy to be escorted to and from school.”

“I thought you said Borys was out of the picture.”

“He is, but indulge me. You need security.”

I settle for what I can get. “Okay. You do what you need to do. A couple more days won’t make any difference.”

“Yes? What is it?” Nico gestures to me to wait while he takes the call.

We’re on our way to a gallery in Edinburgh. An associate of mine has an exhibition of landscapes opening today. It’s not my specialism, but I like to show support for a fellow artist and I’m also keen to pick up the threads of my former life once more. I told Nico I intended to show my face. He offered to come with me.

“You’ll be bored to tears,” I told him.

“You seem to think I’m a Philistine with no appreciation of art?” He assumed a mock aggrieved expression. “Let me assure you, I’m as cultured as the next marksman.”

“I’m sure you are, but this is landscapes. Mountains and meadows, the occasional rolling cloud…”

“Now who’s not appreciating the finer qualities? I’m coming, and that’s it. If I’m going to hang around with you, my artistic horizons need expanding, and this sounds like the very thing.”

I shrugged. “Okay. It’s next Wednesday, at Modern One in Edinburgh.”

“How many Moderns are there?”

“Two at the last count.”

“Who’d have thought it?”

So, Lucy and Noah are safely settled with Ruth and baby Faith, and we’re strolling across the grounds towards the sprawling old carriage house which is now home to the fleet of vehicles at the disposal of the Savage crew. The drive to Edinburgh will take us an hour or so, but we’re leaving early with the intention of stopping off for a nice lunch somewhere on the way.

It’s good to actually relax at last. It seems so long since…

“What the fuck? Did they say anything else?” Nico comes to a halt on the gravelled driveway. “What did you tell them?”

He doesn’t catch my eye as he finishes the call. I wait, my new-found sense of peace and calm evaporating fast.

He shoves the phone back in his pocket and faces me at last. “There’s a problem. Maybe.”

“What problem?” I refuse to panic, not yet. My kids are safe, that’s all that matters.

“That was Eddie. He’s the electrician I sent to install the security at your house.” Nico insisted on cameras, and audio-triggered surveillance system, state-of-the-art remote monitoring. He brought in a crew he’s used before, and they’ve been crawling all over my property for the last two days getting the system operational.

“Has he run into a snag?”

“No. Nothing to do with the security system. You had a visitor. Well, two visitors…”

“Who? What did they want?”

“Police. Detectives, apparently.”

“Was it to do with Lucy being abducted? They did say they’d be back if there was any news.” And the fact that their prime suspect was released on bail and has since disappeared without trace probably qualifies as news.

Nico shakes his head. “These two were from the Art and Antiques Unit. They wanted to speak to you about a missing painting.”

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