Chapter Twenty-Four Breathing Space #3
And after that minute was up, Harrison continued, “Underwood tried to leave town as soon as the vehicle marker went out, but he didn’t get far.
We had him in custody within the hour. Once he was there, he gave us enough to piece together the sequence of events.
Glen was tracking Emily’s location through the app on his phone.
When he saw she was heading towards Fell Edge, he alerted Mick and set the whole thing in motion. ”
Harrison paused.
“We arrested Glen shortly afterwards. He denies any involvement, obviously, but the evidence says otherwise. And I still think there’s something he isn’t telling us.
Something neither of them has given us yet.
” He gave a small shrug. “Maybe they never will. For now, they’ve both been charged with false imprisonment and conspiracy.
CPS will consider what else the evidence supports, but the core case is there. ”
“And Emily? How’s she doing?”
“She’s stable. Dehydrated, shaken. But physically she’s going to recover.”
Jake could feel his shoulders ease a fraction. He’d been tense for days.
“She’s given an initial account.” Harrison leaned back. “Enough to support what we’ve got. The rest will follow once she’s stronger. And she’ll be going out to stay with her mum in Spain as soon as she’s ready.”
“Good.” Jake nodded. “That’s good.”
Harrison watched him for a moment, as if testing how far he could go. Then, “There’s something else you should know.”
Jake looked up.
“You were right to flag Brodie. He has previous.”
Jake frowned. “In what?”
“Stalking, mostly. Low-level pick-pocketing as a teen. There’s an order in place from Hull. He’s also got a history of sex work.”
Jake blinked. “...Oh.”
Sex work? God, he’d never have guessed. Though it sort of made sense. Jake knew nothing of his past but knew he’d had a ton of men. He’d expected that was…for his own pleasure. Then something else crept in.
Their hookups.
Brodie had never said no. Never made things complicated. Whenever Jake had fancied blowing off steam, Brodie had been game. Christ. Had Jake been another customer without the money changing hands?
The thought turned his stomach.
“He’s been spoken to. Declares no involvement in Emily’s abduction. We’ve confirmed that. But he had taken an interest in Andy.”
“Because of me?”
Harrison nodded. “He’d been trying to get information out of him. Following him, engineering contact. At one point he’d taken Andy’s phone. We believe it was to make some discovery, to prove you right. Then he used it later in a way that’s muddied the picture.”
Jake pushed up from the bed, pacing. “So, he has been playing games.”
“In effect. Though not with the same intent as what we’ve just dealt with.”
Jake scrubbed a hand over his face. “And Andy?”
Harrison held that a second. “Andy Mitchell had nothing to do with Emily’s disappearance.”
Jake stopped pacing. After all this…after everything. It was all for nothing. He’d been wrong. And proved wrong once again. “So Andy’s completely innocent and he had me storming in on him, then Brodie, because of me. Fuck.” He scraped two hands through his hair. “I deserved that three stretch.”
Harrison stood, then grabbed one of Jake’s arms and held it down. “Because of those movements, because of the way Andy was placed within the timeline, because you came to me, we could justify a more thorough search of his property.”
Jake’s chest rose. Harrison didn’t let go of his arm. “And?”
“We found material. Hidden. In his walls. Scrapbooks. Photographs. Cuttings. All relating to Robyn.”
Jake’s fists clenched. “So he did—”
“It’s not that simple.” Harrison stroked his thumb absently over Jake’s arm, dropping his gaze as he chose his words.
“At this stage, it points to fixation. Obsession. Not proof. He still has an alibi for the night she disappeared, and he’s holding to it.
” Then he looked back up, breath warm against Jake’s cheek.
“But it’s enough for me to put your sister’s case to the cold case review and ask for it be reopened. ”
Jake couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.
Hope hit him too fast. Too fucking hard. It tore straight through everything else and left him with no idea what to do with it. He didn’t have the words for this. Never had. Anything that big usually got shoved down, laughed off or beaten into submission behind a drum kit.
So Jake did the only thing that made any sense.
He caught Harrison’s face between his hands and kissed him.
It wasn’t supposed to be anything more than that. One quick press of his mouth to Harrison’s. A thank you. An I trust you. An I don’t know what the fuck you’ve just done to me, but it matters. All the things Jake couldn’t have said without making a complete tit of himself.
Except Harrison didn’t pull away.
He brought his hands up instead, sliding them around Jake’s neck to hold him in place.
And fuck.
That changed everything.
Jake kissed him again. Properly. He tilted his head, opened his mouth against Harrison’s and felt Harrison meet him there, warm and willing.
Jake stepped closer, letting the kiss deepen without rushing it, letting Harrison feel exactly how much he’d wanted to do this from the second he’d walked through the door.
And fuck it was nice. Really fucking nice.
But reality caught Harrison almost as quickly as it had before. He broke the kiss, though he didn’t go far. He dropped his forehead against Jake’s, breath warm and uneven between them. “Sorry.”
Jake huffed a quiet laugh and slid his fingers into the short hair at the back of Harrison’s head, keeping him there. Not dragging him back. But not letting him disappear behind all those walls again quite yet.
“For kissing me, or for stopping?”
Harrison lifted his eyes to Jake’s. “Probably both.”
“Right.”
For a moment, neither of them moved. The air was thick and charged, as if one wrong move would either fix everything or fuck it up completely.
Then Harrison leaned in. Kissed him again.
Then again, slower. As if allowing himself to feel it.
Taste the shape of it. And when he pulled back, his lips parted, his breath close enough to ghost Jake’s skin.
“Okay…” Harrison said, meeting his gaze fully.
Jake furrowed his brow. “Okay what?”
“You were right.”
“That narrows it down to most things. What specifically?”
“There’s something here.”
Jake’s heart gave one enormous fucking thump. “Oh, aye.” He tickled his fingers through Harrison’s hair on the nape of his neck. “I know there is.”
“But that doesn’t make this easy.”
Jake’s smile faded.
Harrison stepped back a fraction, although his hands remained on Jake.
“I’m still not ready. I’m carrying too much.
Chris. London. Everything that happened before I came here.
” He shook his head. “I don’t even know who I am without all of it yet.
And I don’t know what I can give you while I’m trying to work that out. ”
“Who’s asking you to give me owt?”
Harrison looked at him. “Jake.”
“What?”
“You want more than I can give.”
Jake chewed on that.
Did he?
Fuck.
Maybe he did.
That was a fairly horrifying development all by itself.
But Harrison was looking at him as if he’d already decided what more meant. As if Jake was waiting for promises. Commitment. Harrison neatly healed and ready to step into whatever came next without bringing any of the shit from before with him.
Jake hadn’t asked for any of that.
Christ, he’d barely worked out that he wanted Harrison to keep coming back.
“You know what your problem is?”
Harrison arched an eyebrow. “I suspect you’re about to tell me.”
“You think too fucking much.”
“That is something I’m prone to do. I am a detective inspector.”
“Aye, well, stop investigating me for five fucking minutes.” Jake cupped Harrison’s jaw, brushing his thumb over the rough line of stubble. “You don’t get to decide what I want before I know myself. And you definitely don’t get to decide what I deserve.”
“You deserve someone who isn’t still grieving his husband.”
Jake held his gaze. “You planning on stopping?”
Harrison frowned. “Stopping what?”
“Grieving him.”
Silence.