Page 40 of The Long Walk Back

‘Pleased to meet you, Captain. I’m glad to meet you. I have heard lovely things about you from Jamie.’

Cooper shrugged off the praise and Kate’s heart skipped a beat. Modest, for a hero. The man had breathed life into Jamie, had given him his smile back, his laugh. These people owed him more than she could ever tell them. More than she could ever reveal.

‘Hello, Mrs Harper,’ Cooper said, turning his gaze to Milly. Roger gave her a look, and she uncrossed her arms and looking again at Jamie, she let Cooper take her hand. He shook it gently, nodding to her in deference. She seemed to relax a little then, and Kate could see her gripping his hand a little tighter. She reached forward suddenly, leaning down closer to him. Kate thought that she was going to tell him off, from her stiff stance and she locked eyes with Cooper as she moved closer to his ear.

He looked a little wary himself, but he flashed her a wink to reassure her.

Kate couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Milly didn’t speak to him at all. She threw her arms around him instead, hugging him tight to her thin frame.

‘Thank you for being there for our grandson.’

Cooper didn’t say a word, he just hugged her back. Roger came to her side and left the three of them talking as he pulled Kate further into the lobby.

‘Has Neil really not tried to see Jamie? He rang us yesterday, and finally told us the address of the centre. We’ve not seen him since after the accident! He’s acting strange, but he won’t talk to us about it. We’re going to the house from here, see if we can catch him after work.’

Kate shook her head.

‘Roger, the house is being sold, no one’s living there. Our stuff is in storage, I left Neil’s things there. We’ve only spoken through solicitors. I’m sorry he didn’t tell you.’

Roger looked at Milly, who was laughing with Jamie at something Cooper had said.

‘This will really upset her. Do you know where he is?’

Kate had a good idea, but she wasn’t about to do his dirty work for him. He hadn’t even told them about the house.

‘No, I’m sorry. I don’t have a clue. The solicitor sent the paperwork to his office.’

Roger nodded. ‘Then that’s our next stop. We will help, Kate, you’re not on your own. I don’t know what happened, but my son should be here.’

Kate sighed, looking at her son who was now being wheeled around to the gardens by Milly, Cooper following in his own chair.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘He should.’

22

COOPER

I never told you this, but I spoke to Hightower in the hospital, before I flew home. He came to see me, after my op. The op. He slipped through the net. I told the nurses and Trevor not to let any visitors in and at that point they were all bending over backwards in a bid to stop me complaining to the big wigs. You could hear the eggshells cracking and crunching under their tip-toeing feet.

I was kind of enjoying it, at least it distracted me from facing the truth of my new life a little. As you know, I wasn’t a fan.

Hightower practically shimmied under the tent flap to get to me. He was so stealthy I didn’t even see him until he was standing right in front of me.

I remember our conversation, even now.

‘Jesus, stalk much?’

He had laughed then, a deep booming laugh that matched his huge frame. They didn’t just call him Hightower because he was a crack shot sniper. The guy was huge.

‘I came to check on you. I can’t stay long though; the guys aren’t doing well with the new dickhead in command.’

I laughed, but the pain soon cut off my chortling. Hightower’s jaw tensed, but he said nothing. In our line of work, we know that our buddies have our back, but seeing them hurt, or worse, is unthinkable. When it does happen, we go to the mats for that guy, get to them, bring them home. Even if it’s just their body, we risk our lives to get it. We know that we won’t sleep, knowing that we left them there. We bring home what we can. There are lots of things we don’t talk about. Is it a guy thing? I don’t know. Till you, I never understood the importance of expressing how you feel. I kept it zipped up. Locked and loaded.

‘Who is it, Daley?’

Hightower snorted, taking a seat in the plastic chair the doc had vacated. ‘You wish it was Daley, at least the guy has chops. Nope, Simmons.’

‘Christ!’ I said, the pain worth the chance of a semi-normal conversation. ‘I would rather be shot in the face.’

---