Chapter 3
THREE
Come Monday morning and Harry was in the office, standing in front of a disconcertingly blank white board, wondering if something he’d said had somehow managed to upset every single one of the team.
The morning had begun well, which had been quite the relief, considering the nightmare that had woken him during the night.
He and Grace had been up early enough to enjoy the first glimmer of sunlight through the curtains.
After a while spent together enjoying each other’s warmth under the duvet, they’d then shared a shower.
This had started off very enthusiastically on all fronts, then descended into lots of laughter, especially when, considering what they were doing, the shower door pinged off its hinges at just the wrong moment.
After a hearty breakfast of bacon and black pudding from Cockett’s, eggs from a local farmer, and fresh bread, also from Cockett’s, Harry had chuckled to himself all the way to work at the memory of it.
He’d taken the long way round as well, with Smudge bouncing along in front of him, as they’d followed narrow paths through the fields, to come down into the back of Gayle, and then on into Hawes.
As journeys to work went, this, Harry believed, was one of the greatest on the planet.
A life-affirming smattering of friendly nods and waves as he’d wandered down into the town had only set his smile more firmly on his face.
Confirmation, if any was needed, that here, of all places, he was home.
‘Right then,’ Harry began, keen to crack on with the Action Book.
Unlike the board behind him, it was rather full of things for them to be getting on with.
That didn’t necessarily mean it was all exciting and interesting.
Far from it, in most cases. But jobs had to be done, investigations and phone calls and emails and all kinds of other matters had to be followed up on, so that’s what they would be doing.
A hand was raised.
‘Bit early for questions, isn’t it, Matt?’ he asked, as the detective sergeant lowered his hand.
‘That all depends on the question, don’t you think?’ Matt replied.
It was an answer that confused Harry utterly, and so did the man’s tone. Matt wasn’t one for sharpening the edge of his words with his tongue, yet Harry felt sure he heard a hint of bared blade in them.
‘And what would that be, then?’ he asked, wondering what had got Matt so bent out of shape.
‘When you were going to tell us.’
‘Tell you what?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Exactly what?’
‘Exactly what you didn’t tell us. Any of us, actually.
Kept it a secret, didn’t you? No idea why.
None of us has a clue. And I don’t just mean us in here, either, by the way.
’ He jabbed a finger at the window, which stared out onto the lane leading down into Hawes.
‘I mean everyone out there, too. Up and down the dale, folk are talking about it, muttering. Odd behaviour, Harry, very odd.’
Even Fly, who was curled up with Smudge by the radiator, gave Harry a look of moderate disappointment.
Harry had a strong suspicion of where this was going. ‘You’ll need to be a little more specific,’ he said, deciding to play along for a while. ‘Any chance of a hint?’
‘You mean like in charades?’ asked Dave. ‘I’m brilliant at charades.’
Dave’s comment had a good number of the team laughing.
‘No, not like charades,’ corrected Matt. ‘We just need Harry to clarify what’s going on, why he’s keeping secrets. Not just him, but Grace, too, and Ben, and’ - he eyeballed Liz - ‘PCSO Coates, here.’
Harry burst out laughing.
‘You’re kidding, right?’
‘You tell me, Harry,’ Matt said, arms folded across his chest like a pub owner barring someone from entering his establishment. ‘You tell me, and then we’ll see who’s kidding, won’t we?’
Harry needed a moment, needed Grace, had neither. Liz was there, though, and he could tell she’d realised too, and was shaking her head, eyes rolling.
‘You do know you’re jumping the gun, don’t you, Matt?’
That comment had Matt’s eyes nearly pop out of his skull.
‘Jumping the gun? JUMPING THE GUN? I’m not the one keeping secrets, am I? And neither is anyone else. Except for you lot, I hasten to add.’
Harry cast an eye around the team. Apart from Liz and Jen, Harry noticed with a wry smile, they were all wearing the oddest of expressions. Some were frowning, others look baffled, most were caught between those two, and the strain of resisting the urge to laugh.
‘What is it that you know, then?’ Harry asked, winking at Liz.
He was keen now to make Matt suffer a little. If he wanted to be Mr Grumpy Pants so early in the day, then Harry would certainly make him pay a high price for it.
‘I know enough, like,’ said Matt.
‘Go on, then. I’m all ears. Liz is, too, isn’t that right?’
‘I’ve stuck a pair of extra-large ones on each side of my bonce, just so’s I don’t miss a word,’ said Liz.
Matt shuffled in his seat, clearly uncomfortable.
‘I know that you and Grace, along with Ben, and Liz here, got married at the weekend, didn’t you?’
‘Impressive detective skills, Matt,’ Harry smiled. ‘Not sure we’ve committed a crime, though.’
Matt, Harry thought, looked rather peeved at that suggestion. This was proving to be rather fun.
‘I didn’t say that you had,’ Matt sighed.
Harry could hear that he was trying to make him understand something he deemed to be supremely important, but failing to get that across.
‘Then why do you look like a horse?’
That question threw Matt immediately.
‘A horse? I don’t look like a horse.’
‘Long face,’ said Ethan.
Matt looked at Ethan, at Harry, at Ethan, then back at Harry again.
‘I haven’t got a long face!’ he blustered. ‘I just don’t understand why you thought it was the right thing to do, to go off and get married, without any of us there to celebrate it with you! Can you not see that?’
‘Of course I can,’ said Harry.
‘This is a big deal, Harry,’ Matt said, clearly not hearing what Harry had just said. ‘Everyone knows you’re not big on large gatherings, or people in general, really, but surely you could’ve made an exception for getting married?’
‘We have.’
‘Because, and this isn’t something you’ll find me saying much, by the way,’ Matt continued, clearly still unaware of anything Harry was saying in response, ‘despite your gruff, grumpy, grouchy exterior, we—’
Matt paused, stared at Harry, looked around the room, then back at Harry.
‘What did you just say?’
‘I said we have, Matt,’ Harry smiled. ‘By which I mean, of course I can see how it would be very important to have all of you there to celebrate with us, and that we have, actually, made an exception.’
‘Then why weren’t any of us invited, Harry, that’s all I’m asking; why?’
‘Because, Matt, we want to do the celebration our way, not the way the rules say we have to. All we’ve done is get the legal bit out of the way.
Now we can celebrate in whatever way we want!
We can have you parachute in with a speech, get Dave to do some kind of weird goat dance, who knows?
But all we’ve done, and I hope you can see this, is make the celebration of us being married, the most special part of the whole thing.
Simple as that. We weren’t keeping it a secret; we just weren’t making a big deal out of signing some legal papers.
And we all knew that if we let the cat out of the bag too early, everything would get a little bit crazy, wouldn’t it? ’
Harry could see that Matt looked rather shell-shocked.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I didn’t ... I mean ... I ...’
Matt stared at Harry for another few seconds, clearly trying to decide whether he was annoyed, embarrassed, or relieved.
Eventually, he seemed to settle on all three.
‘So let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘You’re telling us you sneaked off to get married, purely so you could have the actual celebration your own way?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you. The reception will be at the Fountain.
Grace cleared it with Mandy first thing this morning, on her way to work.
We’re also going to be doing a ceremony down by the river, where Gordy spread Anna’s ashes, because we all agreed that we want her there, too, in spirit.
I sent a message to Margaret about that on my way here, as we want her to officiate.
Judging by her response, she was expecting it.
Matt looked around the room.
‘And everyone else knew this before me?’
‘Only Jen, actually,’ said Liz. ‘But that’s only because I blabbed about it all over a little too much wine a couple of weeks ago. She promised to keep it quiet. You’re just taking it the worst, that’s all.’
That got a chuckle from everyone, including Matt, though he tried very hard not to.
Dave raised a hand.
‘Just for the record, I’d like it officially noted that I’m extremely excited about this goat dance Harry mentioned earlier.’
‘There is no goat dance,’ Harry said.
‘There is now,’ muttered Ethan.
Laughter lit the room like a firework.
Harry leaned back against the desk and looked around the office. At his team. His people. And, for one brief moment, everything felt ... easy.
His phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen, opened the message without thinking, and only then realised he didn’t recognise the number.
Photographs. The first was Harry and Grace, Ben and Liz, walking into the registry office.
The next, them leaving. Then they were entering the pub.
The next photo was zoomed in, showed them all out on the Shawl, sharing the champagne.
There were others, but Harry closed the message, only to see another pop up from the same number.
This time, just two words glared back: Congrats, Harry.
‘Harry?’
Matt’s voice brought Harry back into the room.
‘Everything okay?’
Harry slipped his phone into his pocket and forced himself to forget the photographs.
‘You tell me, Matt,’ he said, then added, ‘You’re Master of Ceremonies ...’