Page 63 of The Boathouse by the Loch (The Scottish Highlands #4)

Joe opened the door to the hypnotherapist’s garden office and stepped outside.

Bonnie could see Joe and Sean talking in hushed voices, just outside the door, as everyone inside the room rose from their chairs.

Everyone apart from her. She didn’t know whether she was free to go.

She imagined it was more likely she’d be arrested for stealing Robyn’s car.

She had confessed to it, after all. And if she was free to go – where would that be?

Her friends, the people she knew and loved, were filing out one by one.

Nobody was speaking to each other – let alone to her.

Joe and Sean stepped into the therapist’s office. They stepped aside to let David past. He was the last to leave.

‘David?’ she called after him.

He stopped at the door and turned around. ‘Those London trips …’

‘Yes?’ She didn’t see what relevance that had now.

‘That last trip, a week ago, when you asked me not to come with you …’ He paused, as if trying to gather his thoughts. ‘You weren’t meeting Logan, were you?’

Bonnie saw Gayle, who was milling around outside with the others, step forward and stare at her through the open doorway .

‘Logan?’ She looked at him wide-eyed, suddenly realising that Logan could be out of prison, looking for her. What if he came back to Aviemore, the last place he’d seen her, to find her?

Joe spoke. ‘That’s not possible, David. I stepped out during the hypnosis to find out if Logan is still serving time for the attempted robbery the second time round, which he is. It was a longer sentence. He had a firearm. It will be a while yet before he’s released.’

‘Oh, thank god,’ Bonnie and David said in unison.

David said, ‘I don’t know why … I thought you’d discovered someone from your past, and that was why you didn’t want me to go with you – because you were meeting someone in London.’

She looked at him sheepishly. She’d made a promise to herself that she’d tell them everything, but she couldn’t – not right now. She had discovered someone from her past in London. It was true. But she wanted to keep that to herself – for Jake’s sake.

She’d found out something by chance on her last visit to London.

Eleanor Campbell-Ross was alive. But Jake hadn’t been to visit his wife yet – not since the accident.

None of his family had. How would he feel if he found out that a virtual stranger had discovered this fact, and knew Eleanor’s whereabouts, even though she hadn’t actually set eyes on her?

David didn’t need to know about that. Neither did anybody else who’d been in that interview room – least of all Jake.

She watched David leave the room without another word, along with his brother, Joe. Bonnie slowly rose from her chair, and as Joe closed the door on all her friends, and the beautiful life she’d had, her heart felt like it had broken into a million pieces.

‘Bonnie, please can you take a seat.’

Bonnie’s eyes dropped from the door to Sean .

She sat down. ‘Are you arresting me now?’

‘No.’

‘But I stole Robyn’s car!’

‘Yes, Joe has filled me in on everything that has been said in this room. When he comes back with the paperwork, you need to read it through and sign it.’

‘Joe is coming back?’ She felt so relieved that one of her friends wasn’t abandoning her.

‘Yes.’ Sean looked around Marnie’s office before fixing his gaze on her.

‘You’ve been through a bit of a session, haven’t you?

Rather than taking you back to the station to do the paperwork, we thought that under the circumstances, Marnie would be happy for you to remain here until Joe returns and we wrap this up.

He is also going to file a missing person’s report for Robyn Parker. ’

‘But her car—?’

‘Robyn is not here to corroborate your story—’

‘But I’m admitting—’

Sean held up his hand. ‘In any case, in the absence of Robyn Parker, her next of kin, Judith Parker, is not pressing charges.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘But what about the money?’

‘What money?’

‘The money that David handed over to Logan that I then took out of his car and ran away with?’

‘Joe told me you’d bring that up. David never handed Logan any money.’

‘What?’

‘Just what I told you.’ Sean sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. ‘But, theoretically speaking, if you had had a rucksack full of money, might you have spent that on setting up Robyn’s Interior Design, and paying Duncan a lot of rental money that saved his shop, and his livelihood, drawing in more customers, not to mention the financial help setting up his flat above the shop for him to move into? ’

Bonnie understood. She couldn’t believe that David and Joe, and Sean, had colluded so that she wasn’t going to be charged in connection with the stolen money or as an accessory to Logan’s crimes. ‘Theoretically speaking, yes.’

‘Good. That’s what they thought – theoretically speaking, of course.’

For the first time since she’d been arrested, Bonnie managed a small smile.

‘So, once you’ve signed the paperwork, you’re free to go.’

‘But go where?’ she blurted.

Sean sighed. ‘Now that, I cannot help you with.’

By the time Marnie appeared with two cups of tea, and they had finished their drinks, there was another knock on the door. Joe had returned from the station.

‘Ah, Joe. I’ll let you finish off.’

‘Thanks, Sean.’

Bonnie watched Sean leave Marnie’s office and turned to Joe as he took the seat Sean had just vacated. ‘Joe, I want to thank you for—’

Joe held up his hand. ‘Not necessary,’ he said, very businesslike. ‘Now, if you could read through this paperwork, then sign it, I can go back to the station and file the missing person’s report.’

Bonnie didn’t bother reading it. She trusted Joe. She wanted to get it all over with. She signed it.

‘Good.’ Joe picked up the paperwork, put it in a file, and rose from his chair .

Bonnie pursed her lips. She remembered once overhearing Duncan warn David that he didn’t know what he was getting himself into with this stranger from out of town.

He didn’t know her from Adam. Duncan had been right to be wary of her.

They all should have been. She’d done just what they were afraid of – broken David’s heart.

Now they were closing ranks, and probably thinking it would be good riddance when she finally left town.

She looked at Joe as he waited at the door. This wasn’t the friendly, easy-going Joe she was used to. This wasn’t her friend. This was Joe doing his police duty and escorting her out of Marnie’s office.

As they approached the door, she suddenly had the most wonderful thought. Were they all waiting behind that door, in hushed silence, read to surprise her?

When Joe opened the door, there was no one there – just the view down Marnie’s lovely garden with the neat lawn, prim rose bushes, and tall privet hedging shielding her garden from the neighbours.

Joe said, ‘I’m taking you back to the boathouse.’

She frowned. ‘What? Why?’ That was the last place she wanted to go, to remind her of the life that would never be.

‘To collect your things.’

‘Can’t you just take me back to the police station?’ That was the second last place she wanted to return to, but she’d much rather that than the boathouse. ‘I’d like you to go and get my belongings for me.’

Joe was already shaking his head. ‘Look, I wouldn’t want to pack your things myself.’

Bonnie understood. David had probably gone to the pub to drown his sorrows. She expected he didn’t want to return to the boathouse just then either. It would be awkward for Joe, packing up her clothes, her underwear, her personal things.

‘Of course.’ She grimaced. As they walked down the lawn to the patio outside Marnie’s dining room, a little part of her thought, just for a moment, that they might still all be waiting for her with Marnie in the house.

But of course, they weren’t. It was just Marnie, giving her a hug before she left, and wishing her well.

As they stepped out of the front door, she stopped and looked about her. ‘What about Percy?’ Sean had been looking after Percy because Duncan couldn’t bring him into the hypnotherapy session.

‘Who?’

‘My dog!’

‘Oh, the rescue dog.’

As soon as he said the word rescue she knew she had to give him up too.

He’d just found himself a wonderful home in the boathouse.

Just because she’d screwed up, it didn’t mean he had to pay for her mistakes too.

She said as much to Joe. ‘I want him to stay with David, if he would be so kind as to keep him. If not, please can you ask Duncan, or Gayle – or maybe you could take him? I really, really don’t want him ending up homeless in a shelter all because of me.

’ She could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks at the thought.

‘He is such a sweet boy. He doesn’t deserve that. ’

‘David won’t give up on Percy – I can assure you.’

Bonnie stared at Joe, wishing with all her heart that David felt the same way about her.

Joe looked at her for a long moment.

She was about to ask him what was on his mind when he said, ‘Right, let’s get on the road, shall we?’

Perhaps it was just as well that she didn’t ask.

Bonnie breathed a heavy sigh. She was not looking forward to returning to the boathouse.

She couldn’t fail to see the irony. Now she had her memories back, thanks to Marnie, returning there would no longer fill her with dread.

She’d quite happily live there now, forever.

At least the saving grace was that nobody would be there when she arrived to pack up her stuff and leave.