Page 28 of Snow Going Back

‘I’m fine,’ Kate replied. ‘I’m out now.Finally.’ She leaned back against the chair and ran her fingers through the damp ends of her hair.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Bob said crossly. ‘They assured me when they called that they were releasing you straight away. That was around eleven.’

‘They didn’t call you untileleven?’ Kate asked in disbelief.

‘When I hadn’t heard from you by one, I called back and kept calling all afternoon, making myself as big a pain in their asses as I could. By then it was too late in the day to send anyone.’

‘Don’t worry. There was nothing you could do. Even if I wasn’t five hours away, who could do something I can’t?’

‘True. Whathappened? The story they gave me made no sense at all.’

‘That’s because it was nonsense,’ Kate told him, the reminder reawakening her annoyance. ‘But don’t worry about it. It’s sorted, the charges are dropped and I’m fine. Honestly. By the way, did you know Cora had a great-nephew called Sam Langston?’

‘Name doesn’t ring a bell,’ he replied.

‘Well, apparently he lives here. In Cora’s house,’ she told him.

‘Oh. That complicates things,’ Bob mused. ‘Or possibly not. It’s certainly a stronger claim for the house.’

‘Mm,’ she agreed. ‘Maybe.’

Kate watched the snowflakes falling outside her window and felt a spear of homesickness. It was the first of November, which meant Eleanor would be baking the big family Christmas cake, ready to spike with honey whisky liqueur – her secret twist on the more traditional brandy – every few days between now and Christmas Day.

‘There anything else you need?’ Bob asked. ‘Anything I can do?’

Kate focused back on the call with a sigh. ‘No, I’m fine. Really. I just want to get on and wrap this up as soon as possible.’

‘Alright, well…’ Bob lingered.

‘Honestly, I’mfine.’

‘Alright. I’ll leave you to it then. Keep me updated.’

‘I will. Night.’ Kate ended the call and chewed the inside of her lip, staring down at the blank screen. If they’d called Bob at eleven, why had she been kept in that cell for another eight hours?

Kate stood up and made her way downstairs and into the front room, where she could hear Sam pottering around. As she walked in, he pretended to jump and put a hand to his chest, letting out an exaggerated whoosh of air.

‘Oh, it’s justyou.Thank God.For a moment, I thought there was some crazy British psycho in my house who wanted to kill me with a baseball bat.’

Kate gave him a withering look. ‘It’s still tempting. Why was I not released this morning?’ she demanded. ‘My boss was called at eleven, but I wasn’t released until nearly seven. I want to know why. Your moron friends understand that I’m alawyer, right? I could easily end both their careers if I decided to pursue this, and yet they wanted to push their luck by anothereight hours? Really?’

‘Hey, Mike’s no moron,’ Sam replied, dusting off his hands as he turned away from whatever he’d been doing by the fireplace. ‘He’s actually a very clever guy. And as for when you were released, that was the time I asked them to let you out at.’

He walked past her, through to the kitchen, and Kate’s jaw dropped. She stood there, momentarily too stunned to move, then hurried after him.

‘I’m sorry,whatdid you just say?’ She caught up and stepped in front of him with a deep frown.

‘I said that’s the time I asked them to keep you to, so you didn’t get in my way,’ he repeated with a shrug, opening one of the cupboards.

‘Howdareyou?’ she demanded, a fresh wave of anger rushing through her. ‘As if last night wasn’t bad enough, youtold them to put me through that hell for a wholeday, too? Aworkdayfor me, by the way.’

‘Yeah, a whole day in there is fun, huh?’ he replied, shooting her a pointed look before returning to his search of the cupboards. ‘You started this, remember? I was simply returning the favour.’

‘What?’ she exclaimed. ‘You gotyourselfarrested!’

‘It could be argued that you did, too,lawyer girl. You cost Mike a good arrest by wasting police time.’ He tutted as he reached the last cupboard. ‘Hey, did you eat all my Cap’n Crunch?’ he asked with an accusing frown.

Kate stared back at him in disbelief. ‘Yes,’ she shouted, losing her temper. ‘I did! And it tasted likecrap! In fact,Crap’nCrunch would be a better description of that sugar-coated cardboard.’

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