The Moor (DCI Ryan Mysteries, #11)(81)

“—and she’s bright, Frank. Funny, kind and smart as a button. It’s like she was made for us.”

Phillips’ eyes crinkled as he smiled.

“I know, love. It’s like being shown a whole new world.”

“She might want to stay with a younger couple,” MacKenzie said.

“Speak for yourself,” Phillips said. “I’m in the prime of life.”

“That you are,” she agreed, patting down the wispy salt-and-pepper hairs on the side of his head. “So, what do you say?”

“I think we should ask Samantha,” Phillips replied. “If she’d like to stay here with us, then we’ll put up a fight for her.”

*

When they stepped back into the living room with a trayful of tea and biscuits, they found Samantha fighting back tears.

“She says the investigation’s over now, so I need to go into a long-term home!”

“I don’t want to go to another family. I want to stay here! Can I, Denise? Can I, Frank?”

“I don’t think—” Mrs Carter began, but MacKenzie’s soft Irish burr interrupted whatever she’d been about to say.

“Would you like that? Would you want to stay here, with us?”

Samantha nodded, and then shuffled off the sofa to run into MacKenzie’s arms.

Mrs Carter watched it all and couldn’t help but feel moved; she was only human. But there would be forms and applications to be made, discussions to be had…

She looked across at the girl’s smiling face, and at the little unit that had evidently grown to three.

“I’ll have a word with my boss, and come back tomorrow morning,” she conceded, gathering up her papers.

A moment later, she almost jumped as a pair of slim arms gave her a brief, hard hug.

“Thanks,” Samantha whispered.

“There, now,” Mrs Carter said, blinking furiously before giving her an awkward pat. “I’d best be off.”





CHAPTER 46


Thursday, 6th June 2019

The following morning, Ryan and Phillips looked on as the circus packed up and moved out of the Town Moor. Duke O’Neill had disappeared sometime during the night, amid rumours that the circus was deeply in debt and had only survived as long as it had thanks to a lucrative side-line in drugs smuggling as it toured the various towns and cities of the UK. Now, its various acts scattered to the four winds, their caravans, trucks and motorhomes heading off to pastures new.

As they stood watching the Big Top slowly being dismantled, a woman approached them across the grass.

“Sabina?”

“I know, it’s a different look,” she said.

Gone were the long dark locks and floating skirts. They had been replaced by a shorter, stylish cut and ordinary blue jeans.

“I’ve been offered a job at a local estate agent,” she said, ruefully. “It’s not quite Hollywood Boulevard, but the pay’s good.”

“That’s great,” Phillips said. “Congratulations.”

“What about all your psychic skills?” Ryan asked, and she grabbed his hand before he could stop her.

“You’ll lead a long and happy life,” she said, with a smile. “You’ll be married to the love of your life until both of you are old and grey. You’ll get into scrapes almost every week in your constant quest for justice, but you’ll be remembered as the best friend this city has ever known.”

She let his hand fall away again, then waited a beat.

“See? Total bollocks, really.”

The three of them laughed, and then Sabina came around to the real reason she was there.

“Look, Duke asked me to pass on a message before he left.”

“Oh? Did he leave a forwarding address, n’all?” Phillips asked, pointedly.

“No, but he did leave the horse. He says it’s Samantha’s, anyway, and he thought she might want to keep him.”

“Horse?” Phillips asked, turning slightly grey around the gills.

“He’s called Pegasus,” Ryan remembered, as they followed Sabina in the direction of a blue-painted horsebox.

Inside, stood the most beautiful white Arabian horse they’d ever seen. Not that Phillips knew much about them—as they’d learned during a memorable case in Kielder—but Ryan had ridden a few in his day.

“He’s a beauty,” he remarked.

But Phillips still looked shell-shocked.

“Look, I’d love to be able to give the lass her horse back, but I don’t know the first thing about looking after them—and then, there’s the time and the money…”

Ryan had an idea.

“We have a bit of land, a few acres, that we lease out to the equestrian centre at the bottom of the hill. I could have a word with them and see if we could come to an arrangement? That way, Sam can come and visit whenever she likes, but you’ll know the horse is being looked after in the meantime. I’ll pop in, whenever I’m around, and you’ll probably have a hard job trying to keep Anna away.”

Phillips looked at his friend with sincere gratitude.

“Thanks, son. Let’s surprise her, at the weekend, eh?”

Sabina ticked that problem off her list, and then, always being able to spot an easy mark, decided to mention the next item, too.