Page 51 of In Too Deep

Every part of him knew it made no sense.

Women didn’t vanish for thirteen years then wash up neatly where everyone could find them. But grief had never cared much for logic.

A fox darted across the road then, quick and lean beneath the rain before disappearing between two garden walls. Jake watched it go, then looked back down the empty street and sighed. He could be out here all night. Who the fuck knew where Harrison was? Still at the station probably. Wading through whatever this case had become while Jake stood soaked to the skin because he’d fucked up his phone in a fit of rage. Typical Jake Whitton. Anger costing him again.

This time costing him the only connection he had.

Not that he even knew if Harrison had tried calling him. Jake had stayed long enough at his parents’ house to expect a knock at the door at the very least. If not from Harrison himself, then another copper. A FLO. Every passing set of headlights had caused hands to clench. Every car slowing outside had his mum staring out the window, bracing for uniformed officers stepping onto the path. For any type of news.

But no one had come.

No knock.

No confirmation.

Jake couldn’t take another second of it and had driven straight here instead.

He scrubbed both hands hard over his face, exhaustion creeping in beneath the adrenaline that had carried him through the day. A day spent holding everything together for everyone else while internally he’d felt seconds away from splitting open. He’d comforted his mum while she’d cried herself hoarse at the kitchen table. Tried to calm his dad, who’d turned quieter with every hour that passed, retreating into himself in that dangerous way he did when he couldn’t fix things. Then picking Teddy up, talking him through it all over a fish supper gone cold, pretending a certainty Jake didn’t remotely feel.

It might not be her.

That was the line he’d repeated all day. To them. To himself.

And every time it sounded less convincing.

Sweeping headlights across the lane caught his attention and Jake straightened, body tightening with the anticipation as the car turned around the corner at the end of the street. Beams slid across the cottages, through the rain, then landed fully on him. The car stopped. Or rather stalled. And Harrison stared back at him through the windshield, clearly having not expected to see him there at all. Then he restarted the engine and pulled onto the driveway beside his van.

The driver’s door opened. “Jake…”

Jake couldn’t bring himself to look at him. He kept his gaze fixed on the uneven paving slabs at the edge of the driveway where rainwater had gathered dark between the cracks. “Is it her?”

“I’ve been calling all day.” The dull thud of Harrison shutting the car door was like a beat to Jake’s skull. “And I went to your flat just now.”

He came around the bonnet, shoes splashing through shallow puddles before stopping a few feet away. Jake looked at him then. Christ, he looked exhausted. Shirt creased, soaked through too, tie gone entirely, and face drawn tight with fatigue.

But Jake only had one thing he needed. “Is it her?”

Harrison exhaled, mist drifting from his lips. “I don’t know.”

Jake’s stomach dropped violently into his shoes. “Jesus Christ…” He swallowed hard, staring at him. “So it is a girl?”

“Jake—”

“Is it a girl?”

Harrison bowed his head. “Yes.”

“Fucking hell…” Jake scoffed, sharp and wrecked around the edges. “You knew? Last night, you fucking knew.”

“I knew we’d recovered a female body from the river. That’s all I knew.”

“Christ.” Jake shook his head, rainwater flying from his hair. Everything from last night twisted together in his chest. The hesitation. The distance. The way Harrison had looked at him. “I thought last night was about him. Chris. You struggling with…” He gestured helplessly at him. “I thought that’s why you couldn’t let me touch you properly. Why you were all in your own head. But it weren’t really about him, were it? It were me. This. Her.”

Harrison stepped forwards, as if approaching something already half-broken. “Jake, please. Come inside and let me explain.”

“No.”

“Jake—”