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Chapter Fourteen

Josiah

Josiah’s thoughts reeled back to Ben Smith as he drove to work with Alex by his side.

Had Ben got away, or had he been captured and hauled back to the factory he’d escaped from?

If so, what fate had awaited him there? In the immediate aftermath of Peter’s death, he’d been too grief-stricken to spare much thought for Ben, but there had been many times over the years since when he’d wondered what had become of him.

Ben had been petrified. It’d been clear he wasn’t cut out for a life on the run, so Josiah hoped he’d found a way out of the country. To be so close to freedom, only to have it snatched away – that had to be tough.

It had taken the Kathleen Line a while to regroup after Peter’s death.

Josiah had put operations on hold until he and Elsie felt able to resume.

After that, they’d taken much more care.

Whereas Peter had been casual about allowing indies to stay over in their house on occasion, Josiah refused to allow it going forward, not wanting an IS under his roof ever again, or to put his volunteers in danger, either.

He set up safe houses for that specific purpose.

He introduced new safety protocols: nobody did a pick-up alone, or was left alone with escaped indies; stun guns were routinely taken on all pick-ups; and escapees were checked for weapons before they were admitted to a safe house.

He also gave training to his volunteers on how to spot and deal with potentially dangerous indies.

Lars was long dead, and Matthew had never shown up, but Josiah still wondered where Ben was now.

Was he alive? Did he blame Josiah for sending him away that night?

If his life as an IS had been as much of a misery as Josiah suspected, then maybe he’d spent the last seven years hating him for being sent away.

Maybe he was out there, leading a desperate existence as someone’s IS, hating him to this day.

Ben was the only other witness to the events of that night.

He was the only one who could testify that Josiah had lied to Esther and her investigation team about what had really happened.

If he’d been captured, he hadn’t talked, because Josiah hadn’t received the knock on the door that he’d been half expecting since he’d joined the Kathleen Line.

Even though it was seven years ago, he felt he was still linked to Ben Smith by their shared experience that night. He hoped the terrified young man was now living a happy life abroad, free from abuse and fear.

“Hey,” Alex said, jolting him out of his thoughts. “You’re quiet.”

“Just thinking.” Josiah shrugged.

“About anything in particular?”

“No – just someone I knew once. I was wondering how he’s doing.”

“You should call him and find out,” Alex suggested.

“Yeah, I should,” Josiah said absently, wishing it was possible. Elsie had called Ben’s nano as soon as Inquisitus had wrapped up its investigation, but the nym was out of service. “It’s been on my conscience.”

“Is he someone special?”

“Yes. I didn’t know him for very long, but let’s just say he made an impact.”

“Then I hope you get the chance to speak to him one day,” Alex said, with a sideways glance at him. Then he changed the subject. “So – Esther sounded pretty pissed off. Are you worried about your job?”

“No.” Josiah shook his head resolutely. “I can handle Esther. She’s firm but fair. She might be angry, but I’ll survive. ”

The usual media scrum was waiting for them when they arrived at Inquisitus. After Josiah’s announcement earlier they were buzzing, clearly wanting more. He steered Alex through the crowd, using the bulk of his body to bulldoze them through.

Once inside, he went straight to the SID to find Reed talking to Sofie Baumann. She glanced at him coldly.

“I see you’ve decided this particular IS isn’t guilty, Investigator Raine,” she said. “Maybe you should revise your mantra about how ‘it’s always the serf or the spouse’.”

“It’s not my mantra,” he snapped.

“It might as well be. If you went into cases with an open mind, instead of automatically assuming the indie is guilty, then you wouldn’t have to make any more humiliating climbdowns like you did this morning,” she told him tartly.

“I don’t believe it was a humiliating climbdown,” Alex interjected, taking Josiah by surprise. “Investigator Raine has been nothing but fair to me, Doctor Baumann; I have no complaints about either his treatment of me or the way he’s conducting his investigation.”

She opened her mouth in surprise, then closed it again. After another withering look in Josiah’s direction, she left.

“You’ll ruin my reputation as a hard-arsed bastard,” Josiah said with a grin.

“I doubt that’s possible,” Alex replied, grinning back.

“I must have missed something,” Reed interrupted, glaring at them both.

“When, exactly, did we decide that Lytton is innocent?” He swept a hand over his holopad and pointed at all the files that pinged up in mid-air with giant red question marks over them.

“As far as I can see, he’s still our prime suspect, sir, unless you have some new information to the contrary. ”

“No, I don’t,” Josiah admitted.

“Then, what – you take Lytton home with you for a few nights and now he’s innocent? That’s bloody good mojo you’ve got, Lytton,” Reed accused. “If there was one investigator in the country who it’s impossible to fool, I’d have said it’s Josiah Raine, but it looks like you’ve managed it.”

“Hey!” Josiah turned on Reed angrily. “I’m in charge of this investigation, and I made a judgement call.

I believe Alex is innocent, and I’m happy to put my reputation on the line for him.

Apart from anything else, I don’t appreciate the media hanging around outside my house.

My announcement was partly designed to call them off. ”

“Yeah? And how’s that working out for you?” Reed asked sarcastically.

At that moment Esther arrived. “Ah – you’re here – good. Why did you bring the IS with you?” She glanced at Alex.

“Because I’m increasingly uncomfortable with leaving him in my house with a bunch of news crews camped out front.

Being a houder comes with certain obligations – I’m responsible for his personal safety and welfare now, and that’s a responsibility I take seriously.

So, I would prefer to have him with me, where I can keep an eye on him. ”

She gave a grudging grunt. “Well, he can stay here for now, but you’re coming with me.” She pointed her wheelchair in the direction of the lift.

“He’s coming with us. There’s nothing you have to say to me that you can’t say in front of him,” Josiah grated.

She paused for a moment, studying him, and then she shot a shrewd glare at Alex. He gave her his standard vacant smile in return.

“Hmm. Okay – if you want your IS to hear your boss giving you a bloody good bollocking, then be my guest.”

They followed her into the lift and up to her office in silence. The minute her office door was closed behind them, she started talking.

“Joe, I’ve known you for ten years, and you’ve never let me down. I’d like to think you have a good reason for what you did earlier, but right now I don’t know what the hell it can be.”

“Esther, you’ve always trusted me to handle the press in any way I see fit,” Josiah replied as calmly as he could, gesturing to Alex to sit at the table in the corner of the room.

“Usually, the way you see fit is something I approve of, but not today. Why did you do it, Joe? You’ve placed us in a very difficult position.”

“Only if you think Alex is guilty of Dacre’s murder.”

“Alex?” She raised an eyebrow at the shortened name. “I warned you about getting too close to him, Joe. I told you he’s a charming manipulator who uses people to get what he wants.” She shot Alex a sharp look.

Josiah glanced at Alex, and saw it was wasted on him; his expressionless mask was firmly in place. “You also said you didn’t think he was guilty,” he pointed out to Esther.

“I didn’t – I don’t – but we don’t have the evidence to support that stance. You made it sound like Inquisitus is convinced of his innocence, and I don’t believe we are, yet.”

“I am,” Josiah said tightly.

“On what grounds? Do you have another suspect?”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

“Joe…” She exhaled. “This isn’t like you. You don’t make rash decisions based on nothing.”

“Not based on nothing.”

“On a feeling, then?” she challenged. “Didn’t we discuss this already? Since when do you do anything based on feelings?”

“I used to,” he retorted. “When you first knew me. It was only after Peter died that I stopped, and that was only because I didn’t feel anything very much for years. I had to rely on the cold, hard facts instead.”

“You said they never let you down.”

“They don’t – but they haven’t always helped me, either.”

“So, what’s changed?” she demanded. “Something has. You look different.” She waved her hand at him. “What is it, Joe? You look…” She paused, studying him intently.

“Like I don’t have a stick stuck up my arse anymore?”

“I was going to say younger.”

“That’s because I faced up to something I should have dealt with a long time ago.”

“Christ, you didn’t…” She looked at Alex and then back at him.

“No,” he responded curtly. “I didn’t fuck him.”

“That’s not what I?—”

“Yes, it is.” He glared at her. “Look, I’ve been a robot since Peter died.

I’ve made a virtue out of not relying on anything as vague as a hunch, but the truth is I didn’t have them anymore.

I always used to have a nose for something being off, but I lost that after Peter died, so I had to make up for it in other ways. ”

“What are you saying? Now you’ve woken up and can smell the roses again? What are you? Sleeping bloody Beauty?”

“No – I’m back to being the Josiah Raine you hired ten years ago, and he was a bloody good investigator.”

“And what caused this transformation?” She glanced at Alex.