‘Come on then – debrief time,’ she said, adjusting her position against the wall.
‘Boss, how are you…?’
Kim silenced Stacey with a shake of the head. They weren’t going there.
‘Symes is in custody, and he’ll never get to hurt anyone again. Now tell me about the case.’
‘Gavin confessed,’ Bryant offered. ‘Once his cheek had been sewn up where the bullet exited, Penn went to work on him. Spent two days presenting him with evidence of how much Helen still loved him and had never forgotten him. He did a great job.’
Penn smiled at the compliment, and Kim was glad to hear it.
‘Zach’s been busy. Been spending a lot of time with Reece making plans on what needs doing to sell the house. I think the Porters have kind of adopted him. He’s also removed Daryl from the business and installed a manager to oversee the day-to-day running of it. He’s made financial arrangements so that Mia will always be taken care of, but he wants no further contact with Daryl. He’s broken the contract with the lumber supplier and taken the business back to Roy and Davey Burston. He feels it’s what his dad would have wanted. He won’t speak Gavin’s name, and it’s like he’s going to cut that time of his life out and pretend it never happened, although he seemed very relieved that Gavin would be entering a guilty plea and there would be no trial.’
‘Good. And the girls?’ she asked.
‘Alive, traumatised, both in counselling, but they’ll be fine.’
Kim already knew that Edna was on the mend and would make a full recovery.
That left just one question to ask.
Woody had filled her in on the details of how Leanne had used the tracker device to lead them to her and the girls, as she had known they would. What she hadn’t known about was the second tracker that had been fixed in the heel of her boot that first day when Leanne had stayed up all night. That second tracker had led them straight to her.
‘I’m guessing I know what a number nine is now,’ she said, addressing Leanne. It wasn’t a Chinese takeaway at all.
‘Yep, it’s designed for people who can’t be trusted to follow the rules and do what they’re told.’
And of course, Leanne had known that she would be one of those people.
And that brought her to her final question.
‘So who was it?’ she asked, casting her gaze between Bryant and Leanne. One of them had brought her back from the dead.
‘It was Leanne,’ Bryant said. ‘She didn’t hesitate, just threw herself down and started pumping that chest.’
Kim focussed on her. ‘Thanks, but I still don’t like you.’
‘And I still don’t give a shit, but in some cultures, if you save a life, you own it.’
‘Yeah, right, and I’d like to own a toaster that’s not in bits on my kitchen table, but that’s not gonna happen either.’
Silence fell and Bryant stepped forward.
‘Listen, guv, we’ve all—’
‘Okay, show’s over for today, folks. Time to get back to the day job.’
For them it was but for her not so much. Right now, she had no idea when she’d be signed off as fit and healthy enough to return to work, and even less idea what arrangements would be made in the meantime.
She gave them all a nod before heading slowly towards where Charlie awaited her with Barney.
As she turned away, she allowed the expression to fall from her face. The effort to try and exude normality was exhausting. And she’d had enough for one day.
Kim closed and locked the front door behind her. The cameras were still there, and the app had been downloaded to her new phone. All other traces of Leanne were gone apart from the deconstructed toaster on the dining table.
Without removing her jacket, she lowered herself down to the sofa. She’d pushed her body and her mind to end this. Yes, she could have left it to the team to execute Woody’s plan, but just like Symes had wanted to see her body lowered into the ground, she had needed to see him back in custody.
She had made the effort to achieve three things. Firstly, to get Symes safely back behind bars. Done. The second thing had been to find out who had saved her life. Done. The third was to convince her team she was okay, and two out of three wasn’t bad.