Page 78 of Artful Deceit

“I need to ask you something?” she said, handing him a mug when he joined her.

“Go on.”

She sipped her coffee, searching for the right words. “I was wondering what happens now about your job.”

“How do you mean?”

She twisted her lips to one side. “I know this sounds insensitive, but there’s a job opening now, isn’t there? Can you stay?”

He stared at her for one long moment. “There’s an opening for a sergeant. I’m not a sergeant.”

“I know you said you didn’t want to be a sergeant, but you also said in theory you could.”

“One day. But not now. I’m not qualified to be a sergeant. I’d have to take exams. There’s a whole process.”

“What about PC Hill? Can’t he take the sergeant job and you take his job?”

“No,” he said impatiently.

“Why not?”

“Because PC Hill doesn’t want to be a sergeant.” He set his mug down heavily. “There’s a new sergeant arriving on Wednesday.”

It took her a moment to remember what day it was.Monday.“That’s fast.”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re still leaving?”

He nodded.

“On Saturday?”

“I’ve changed the flight to Monday. There’ll be a memorial service for the sergeant on Sunday, and I want to be here for that, but as of Friday I officially don’t work here any more. I’m down for a shift in London next Thursday.”

She felt sick. “Next Thursday?”

He nodded again.

“So, a week from now you’ll be back in London?”

“I have tried to speak to you about this,” he said. “You never wanted to discuss it.”

“No, I didn’t.” She still didn’t. “I kept hoping something would change, and you’d be able to stay.” She watched him intently as he reached for his coffee again. The nausea she’d previously felt was replaced by fiery anger. “Would you have stayed if it had been a possibility?”

His features scrunched up. “What?”

“Sometimes, it feels as though you want to go. You’re so calm about it – as though it’s fine with you.”

With a frustrated growl, he paced the small room. “I don’t want to go. If I had a choice, of course I’d stay. But I’ve never had a choice.”

“You do have a choice,” she snapped. “You could just stay.”

“Without a job?”

She nodded while her windpipe constricted. “Stay here with me.”

“You know I can’t,” he said sadly.