SHAUN SAT DOWN WITH JO at the table and started taking notes while she told him what had happened. Will busied himself wrapping a pack of frozen vegetables in a dish cloth and handing it to her so she could cover her eye.
`Thanks,’ she said, looking up at him and he nodded and sat down next to her, his face grim. He didn’t say anything while she ran through the events of the past few hours, but she could feel the anxious tapping of his foot under the table, saw the angry tension in his jaw.
When she reached the part about Jack attacking her, he stood up suddenly, his chair scraping angrily. `I’m going to find Jess and Nemo,’ he said, not meeting her gaze, and stormed out the house.
Shaun watched him go, sighed, turned his attention back to Jo, saw the tears in her eyes and misunderstood the reason for them. `Don’t worry about Will. He … well, he has some trouble holding onto his temper occasionally. He’ll calm down soon.’
When she nodded but didn’t reply he frowned. `He’d never hurt you Jo.’
She looked up then, shook her head, sniffed. `Oh, I know. I’m not worried about that. It’s Jess and Nemo … I mean, where are they? What if …’
Shaun’s face closed, his expression blank and he looked away. She knew he didn’t have much hope for them then and she started crying again, knew all this was her fault.
Will found Shaun in the kitchen, dragged his hands through his hair in frustration and interrupted Shaun’s conversation with Cherie.
`Can’t you bloody wait?’ Shaun snapped.
`No I fucking can’t wait. I’ve found the dogs, where’s Jo?’
`She’s upstairs, said she wanted a shower. What –‘
He didn’t get a chance to finish as Will rushed out the kitchen and upstairs to the bathroom. He knocked on the door. Not getting a reply, he tried the handle, was surprised to find it unlocked. He turned it and walked in, stopped dead.
Jo was curled in a ball on the floor of the shower, her body shaking with a succession of heart-wrenching sobs. She hadn’t heard him come in.
It was an intensely private moment and for an instant he debated stepping back out and leaving her alone but he needed her for Jess and Nemo. So he walked over to the shower door, opened it, crouched down.
`Jo?’
Her body tensed but she didn’t look up.
`Go … away …. Will,’ she said in-between sobs.
The agony in her voice tore his heart into shreds and he sat there, not able to move, not sure what he could say to stop the tears.
`I … said … go … away!’ she yelled at him, looking up, the despair in her eyes an echo of Jamie’s, that last day. Every fiber in his body was yelling at him to simply get up and walk out, keep walking, not have to face this yet again.
But he couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone in that state.
So he stood up, switched off the shower and climbed in next to her, sat down on the floor and cradled her in his lap, felt the wet seeping through his clothes. She struggled initially then gave up, kept on sobbing and he simply held her against him, trying to offer what comfort he could.
`His hands …. were on me …. again. I … can’t … get rid of … that feeling,’ she said eventually.
He felt her trembling at the memory and frowned, pulled her closer.
She started sobbing again and he decided that perhaps it was better to give her something else to focus on so he stood up, pulled her to her feet and dragged her out the shower. She stood shivering on the bath mat while he grabbed a large towel and started drying her off.
`What … are … you … doing?’ she said, hiccuping for air.
`I’ve found the dogs. You need to come see them.’
Her eyes welled with tears again. `What … did … he … do?’ she asked.
`It looks like tranquilizers. There are darts in the field behind the cottage. Both dogs seem fine, they just look like they’re sleeping but you need to come check.’
She stopped shivering. `They’re alive?’
The sudden hope in her voice cut him to the core, made him realize just how down she’d been only seconds before.
`Yep so hurry. You need to come check them out. The police wouldn’t let me move any of them.’
He smiled as she pushed his hands away, grabbed the towel and wrapped it round herself, suddenly self-conscious again.
`Okay … but go … go wait outside,’ she said with a final sniff and he left the room, waited for her in the passage.
Jo dried her tears, somehow pulled herself together and went to find Jess and Nemo, was relieved to see that they were still breathing but heavily sedated. She frowned when she saw the darts, forced herself to be calm and focus on what needed to be done, not on what had happened.
`Okay we’re going to need to get them to the surgery and do some blood tests. I need to see what’s been used,’ she said, hearing the hoarseness in her voice and clearing her throat, trying not to notice the resulting pain.
She looked at her watch. `I’d say they’ve been out about an hour already. Given the duration and the fact they’d probably have used something fast-acting, I’d guess it’s Telazol, which means they had access to veterinary supplies of some sort. That’s a pretty common sedative.’
`So it wasn’t Jack. Must’ve been the other guy. Although with the distance that other shot must have been fired from in the dark and the fact that he got the guy with a single hit, I’d say Jack has experience shooting, whatever he told you before,’ Will said.
Jo tensed, took a deep breath before replying. `Well he was in the back with … with me when the dogs were shot with the tranquilizers. So it must have been the guy in the driveway. That’s why he found me at the cottage when I got away from Jack. I don’t know why they used the darts though; they could simply have shot them.’
She stood staring down at the dogs, Will and Shaun mirroring her posture.
Then Shaun sighed. `Well one good thing is that once we ID the body we’ll have a lot more to go on. Plus there’ll be a lot more resources on the case now,’ he said.
Will frowned but didn’t reply and Jo knew he was probably thinking the same thing she was. Why did someone have to die before anything could be done to stop Jack?
`Right, well let’s get going. I may need to give them something else to ensure recovery. We don’t have a lot of time,’ she said, changing the subject.
Both Will and Shaun nodded and once they’d been cleared to move the dogs, Will drove her to the surgery. She busied herself conducting the necessary tests, confirmed the use of the Telazol combination and gave both dogs an injection to counteract the effects. Then she asked Will to help her settle them down into two cages, wrapped them in blankets and started tidying up. Once she’d finished, she turned to Will. He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, resting his elbows on his thighs, legs apart, hands laced as he stared at the floor.
`I’m going to have to stay and check on them for the next few hours,’ she said. `You can stay or go back home if you like, get some rest.’
He scowled. `Like I’d leave you alone here.’
She pulled a face, went and sat down on the floor next to him, stretched her legs out and touched the corner of her eye gingerly. She knew it was beginning to swell, had had a quick look in the mirror when she got dressed.
`God knows what I’m going to say to Ian and Laura tomorrow,’ she said.
`You mean you haven’t told Ian what’s going on? Didn’t he ask about Nemo last time you brought him in?’
Jo sighed, shrugged her shoulders. `Yes, they know about that but I kind of made out it was a one-off thing, not likely to happen again. I didn’t tell them Jack’s … well that he’s been after me for so long or what he did.’
`Ian will understand. You should tell him, for all you know Jack could come here. I’m surprised he hasn’t yet.’
She gritted her teeth. `I just wish this was over already. There’s nowhere to go that he won’t find me, I can’t relax. It’s like he’s always there, always watching me and I can’t get it out of my head. Sometimes I forget, like …’ she paused, glanced up at him, `like when I’m with you. But mostly I’m scared. I don’t know how much longer I can go on living like this.’
He sighed, reached down and squeezed her shoulder.
`You just have to keep thinking it will end soon. Grit your teeth and bear it the rest of the time.’
`Hmmm.’
She rested her head against the wall, stared up at the ceiling, tried to make sense of what had happened to her life over the past few years.
`You know, up until a few years ago I lived a pretty boring life. Went to work every day, hung out with my friends, went out occasionally … then I met Jack and it was all downhill from there.’
`How’d you meet him?’
She grimaced. `At a work do. He came with a friend of mine. I thought they were an item originally but it turned out they were just friends. She’d known him for a few months and brought him along because she didn’t want to come alone. Anyway, he sort of asked me out and …. well, he can be charming you know. He’s quite good looking, he knows all the right things to say, fits in anywhere. People trust him easily. I didn’t think too much about it. I was stupid.’
She looked down, stared at her fingers, then started biting at a nail.
`You said before you should have seen the signs. What made you start worrying initially?’
`A couple of arguments we had. He grabbed me once, I could see he was close to snapping, about to punch me, but he controlled it. That’s the thing with him you see. Everything is always meticulously controlled, planned out, ordered. The facade only slips if you mess up his plans … I guess you can never really know what anyone is capable of.’
Will shifted slightly, looked across at her. `I don’t know about that. I think you can tell a lot about someone’s character just by how they deal with shit. Everybody has some issue they’re dealing with. It’s what they do to try fix their problems that’s so telling. How they react when the chips are down, so to speak.’
She glanced up at him again, met his gaze then looked away, `Thanks for what you did earlier,’ she said.
He stood up, came to sit down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She lay her head on his chest.
`It scared me to see you like that,’ he said after a pause and she sighed, lifted a hand and started nervously twisting the bottom of her T-shirt.
`I … I wanted to die then. Just have it all over and done with and not have to worry about it anymore.’
She felt him tense, could have kicked herself when she remembered what Shelley had told her about his friend. `I wouldn’t … well, I wouldn’t ever do anything like that though.’
He didn’t reply, just pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. They sat like that for a long time, not talking, both replaying the events of the day over in their minds and wondering what would happen next.
Ian was surprised to see her at the clinic so early that morning, especially when he saw the black eye. Jo didn’t miss the assessing look he sent Will; nor did Will it seemed, as he frowned.
`Oh. No, it’s not what you think,’ Jo said to Ian. `Can we go into your office?’ she asked, thinking it best to talk with him in private.
He nodded and she followed him into the room, closed the door, sat down and took a deep breath, filled him in on what was happening.
She was glad to find him understanding and supportive.
`Why don’t you take the week off. Try to relax a bit, give your eye some time to heal. It’ll save you answering awkward questions,’ he said.
`Are you sure? I mean I’ve been having quite a lot of time off lately.’
He put his hand on her shoulder in a grandfatherly gesture, smiled. `You’ve had a lot to deal with Jo, I wish you’d told me earlier, didn’t try to handle it all yourself.’
She smiled faintly. `I guess.’
`Anyway, get yourself off to bed, you look exhausted and so does Will. We’ll look after the dogs. You’ve done a good job,’ he said, leading her back out to the waiting room.
`Thanks,’ she said, cherishing the compliment.
`I’ve given her the week off, you look after her and make her get some rest,’ Ian said to Will as he stood up, came over to meet them.
`I’ll make sure of it,’ he said and Ian smiled, shooed them out the door.
`You can come check on Jess and Nemo later this afternoon if you like,’ he called to Will as they climbed into the Land Rover, waving a hand and heading back into the clinic to call in a locum.
`That’s a relief,’ Jo said, glad to have escaped before Laura turned up.
`Okay, well now you have the week off you’re going to do just what he said. Relax.’ Will replied.
She looked over at him, saw the dark rings under his eyes and sighed, reached a hand over and rested it on his thigh. He looked over at her, smiled, and tired as she was, she still felt a sudden rush of attraction, smiled back.
Once back at the farm, Jo fed Whiskers then went straight to bed, climbed under the covers. Will joined her a few minutes later and she cuddled up to him, promptly passed out.
When she woke, it was late afternoon, around four. She stretched and yawned, turned to see Will but he wasn’t in the bed.
She sat up, rubbed her eyes and flinched at the resulting pain, gathered up some clothes and headed into the shower. She tried her best to cover the bruise with make-up but her eye was still swollen and anybody taking more than a casual glance would be certain to know she had been hit. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, gave up and went downstairs.
Will was lying on the couch in the lounge, flipping through an Auto magazine. He turned his head when he heard her on the stairs and looked up. `Oh good, you’re awake.’
She smiled, sat down next to him and he lifted his head, laid it back down on her lap.
She ran a hand through his hair. `You not going in to work today?’ she asked.
He shook his head. `No. Gus has offered to cover my shifts over the next few days. I’m going to take some time off too. We can go visit Shelley a bit later if you like. Grant phoned earlier.’
`Is everything okay?’
`Uh uh, all went relatively smoothly,’ he grimaced `don’t ask me for the details because I don’t want to know. All Grant said was it’s a boy, they’re calling him Luke Matthew.’
She leaned back against the couch, smiled. `Oh cute. Yes, we should go see them. When are the next visiting hours?’
`Tonight probably. Shaun also called, he wants us to come see him at the station tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got to sort out the insurance and that sort of thing tomorrow too.’
`Okay,’ she replied, continued running her hand through his hair, smoothing it back from his forehead, looking at his scar. `It’s so quiet without Jess and Nemo,’ she said after a minute.
`I know. We can stop off and see them on the way to the hospital tonight.’
She nodded but didn’t reply and they were silent for a while. Will went back to reading the magazine while she simply stared out the window, lost in thought.
`Will?’
`Hmmm?’
`Do you wish you’d never met me?’
He frowned, turned his head to look up at her and she met his gaze, her eyes serious.
She could tell he was trying to think of what to say in reply and a part of her knew she shouldn’t be putting him on the spot like that but she couldn’t help herself.
`No, Jo. I don’t,’ he said eventually, started to say something else but stopped, turned back to the magazine.
She pursed her lips, frowned slightly but didn’t say anything, not sure she could put what she was feeling into words.