She filled it and pushed it towards him.
‘New toaster?’ he asked, nodding to the left of the kettle that the toaster no longer matched.
‘Yeah, anonymous benefactor.’
‘Wonder what she’s doing now,’ Bryant mused about her former protection officer.
Kim shrugged. She couldn’t say she hadn’t thought about it because she had. For a brief time, Leanne King had taken over both her home life and her work life, and a part of her wondered if they would ever meet again. In a perverse, masochistic kind of way, she missed the woman’s presence.
‘So, what you been up to on your nice long holiday?’
‘This and that,’ she said, picking up her mug and cradling it against her chest.
‘In the garage?’ he asked, his eyes brightening.
‘Sometimes.’
‘Bloody hell, you’re talkative this evening,’ he said, pushing himself off the bar stool. ‘You know I’ve been dying to see how you’re getting on with the Vincent.’
Bryant knew she’d been working on the restoration of the Vincent Black Shadow for months.
He approached the door that led to the garage. ‘May I?’
She nodded. He was going to see it eventually.
He pushed the door open and switched on the light. ‘Oh,’ he said as he walked into the space.
She followed him in.
‘Not really what I expected to see.’
He took a good look at all the parts she’d acquired for the Vincent that had been pushed into a pile in the corner of the space. The tools that were normally strewn over the workbench and floor were neatly stored on the wall board or in her Sealey tool chest.
He walked into the middle of the space, the spot between the treadmill and the weight bench.
‘Not sure I like what you’ve done with the place.’
‘Priorities, Bryant,’ she answered, looking at the space that had once been her safe haven, her happy place, but which had been turned into a place of focus and steely determination; a place to better her achievements every day. Somewhere to push her body back to what it had been before.
She bristled at the look of disappointment she saw on his face. Not least because it mirrored the feelings inside. She was allowed to be pissed off at herself. He was not.
She headed out of the space, and Bryant followed her back to the kitchen. He took a sip of coffee and a deep breath.
‘Listen, Kim, there are some things you should—’
He stopped speaking as her phone rang. It was a sound she’d got used to not hearing in her home.
She frowned at the caller ID. She’d said all she wanted to say to him earlier.
‘Stone,’ she answered.
There was a pause from Keats. ‘Oh, my mistake. I meant to call Burns, but you two are close together on my contact list.’
Only if he had her listed as Bitch; otherwise the space between B and S alphabetically meant he had very few contacts.
‘What’ve you got, Keats?’ she asked, trying to stifle the natural curiosity that seemed to be waking up after a long sleep.
‘Possibly another one. I’m not touching it until I have CID presence. But never mind, it’s not your problem. I’ll make the appropriate calls, and Burns can update you in the—’