Page 28 of The Truth Will Out (DI Sam Cobbs #18)

Bob followed her from the car through the reception area and into her office at her request. He closed the door as she lowered the blind.

They both took a seat.

Sam glared at him, not knowing how to begin the conversation. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Why is your name in that file, Bob? The truth. Don’t give me any bullshit. I deserve to be told the truth, so tell me.”

Bob rubbed his hands together, his gaze fixed on the wall behind her. “It’s not what it seems.”

“Isn’t it? I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Sam, you’ve got to trust me. Doesn’t all our years working together as partners mean anything to you?”

“Don’t pull that one. How can I trust you? You’re just the same as Claire and Rhys, keeping your nasty little secrets close to your chest. People are dying all around us, and here you are, telling me it’s not what it seems.”

He sighed and shook his head over and over.

“It’s not, I swear. I was newly qualified, fresh out of training school.

I was assigned to an incident at Pendle House, just the one report.

A girl went missing for two days and then turned up injured.

They tried to tell us it was a mistake, the girl had run away after an argument with another girl. My sergeant signed it off.”

“And you let it go?”

“What else was I supposed to do? I did raise the question, but the sergeant slapped me down, told me to move on and forget about it. He warned me that if I didn’t let it go, it could ruin my career. So I buried it, Sam.”

Flummoxed, she stared at him for a long time, betrayal twisting a knife in her chest. “All this time…”

“Let’s be fair about this. It’s not like I’ve lied to you on purpose, is it? All this happened a long time ago. The same for Rhys. Treating him the way you did… well, that’s worked out well, hasn’t it?”

Sam sat there and shook her head. “Don’t you dare put this back on me. Can you imagine what I’m going through right now, knowing that the people closest to me have been living with secrets all these years?”

“I refuse to be held accountable for something I did nearly twenty years ago. I haven’t lied to you or betrayed you. If anything, it was an incident that I had forgotten about, until recently.”

“Until people started dying because of their connection to Pendle House. That was the time to tell me, to reveal you had a connection to that place, no matter how small or insignificant you thought it might have been. But nothing. Zilch. You’ve carried on as if…

” She choked up, and her eyes pricked with threatening tears, not for the first time over the past couple of days.

Why am I getting so upset about people lying and keeping stuff from me…

? Hang on, am I not doing the same thing, keeping my boss out of the loop?

She was getting sick to death of dealing with her emotions at work and was desperate to find an off switch.

He looked at her, shame written in every line of his face. “I never wanted to lie to you…”

“But you did. My dilemma is, and it’s a huge one, I just don’t know who I can trust any more. I’ve never felt this way before… and I don’t mind admitting that it’s suffocating the fucking life out of me.”

Not knowing what else to say, Bob shrugged and left the office.

Am I losing my touch as a copper? Why hadn’t I noticed that I was being lied to by everyone around me?

As soon as Pendle House came to our attention, everyone I knew should have told me what they knew about that place…

Instead, they kept it hidden. How am I supposed to deal with that?

Set it aside and ignore the deceit? How is that going to help?

Unlike her, Sam chose to spend the rest of the day in her office away from the others, needing the time to reflect and to consider whether she still had it in her to make the right decisions needed to rescue Rhys.

She put the blind up and stared out of the window, scouring the car park for anyone lurking in the shadows beneath the trees at the rear.

Today, the area appeared to be clear. She questioned whether she would have the ability to tackle anyone in the future, given the way she was feeling.

It was as if all her enthusiasm for the job had diminished overnight, and no matter how hard she searched, she couldn’t find the right emotions to put it right.

She sent the team home at six. Bob remained behind; he appeared to be full of remorse.

She brushed past him. “I can’t deal with this right now. I’ll see you tomorrow. I have a lot to consider this evening.”

“Like what? Sam, please… it was a mistake. I should have told you, confided in you long ago. I realise that now. Please, give me another chance to prove myself worthy of being your partner.”

“That’s something I need to think about. We all know what happens once someone’s trust in you is broken.”

“Are you talking about terminating our partnership? You can’t be serious… not over something so…”

“So what? Minor?” she finished for him. “It might have been minor in your eyes, but trust and loyalty mean everything to me. That’s the end of this conversation. I’m leaving now. Switch off the lights on your way out.” Sam grabbed her bag and coat and flew past him without saying another word.

She drove home on autopilot, her adrenaline pumping. No sooner had she left the station than she drew up outside her cottage, or so it had seemed. She knocked on Doreen’s door to collect Tilly.

“Sam, are you all right?” Doreen asked.

“I think so. I’ve had a pig of a day, and I’m in dire need of a walk with this little one. Sorry, Doreen, I’m going to grab her and run this evening, if that’s okay?”

“You do as you see fit, love. Just answer me one thing before you go.”

“What’s that?”

“Any news about Rhys?”

Sam sighed. “Not a dicky bird. It’s been a trying day for all of us. In all honesty, I’m not sure how much more I can take… sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Goodnight, see you soon. ”

“I’m getting the sense that you need to talk, but I don’t want to push you, Sam.”

“Thanks, Doreen. I’d be a blubbering mess if I stopped to chat now. I can’t seem to control my emotions today.”

“It’s only natural, given the circumstances.”

Sam hugged her neighbour, popped Tilly’s harness on, then set off for the park.

She wished there was somewhere else she could go within walking distance.

The park brought back too many memories of how she and Rhys met while she was still married to Chris—and look how that had ended.

As she walked, she contemplated the amount of shit that had been sent her way over the last few years.

She dared anyone not to feel the way she did at that moment.

Add the betrayal of her work colleagues, not to mention Rhys’s, and bang… how the fuck was she supposed to react?

Tilly tried to pull her towards the tree a squirrel had just scampered up. “Not so fast, sweetie. Let’s just have a leisurely walk at Mummy’s pace for a change. I need to learn to chill, to take my foot off the accelerator now and again. Maybe that will be beneficial to me.”

Tilly whimpered, desperate to get to another squirrel that ran past them barely five feet away.

“Come on you. Let’s go home.” The walk had satisfied Tilly’s needs, and she appeared to be a lot calmer now. Sam withdrew her phone from her jacket pocket and made a call. “Pick up, you ignorant so-and-so.”

The phone rang out until Bob’s voicemail kicked in. “You’ve reached Bob Jones. You’ve got this far; you might as well leave a message. I’ll get back to you soon.”

She glanced down at Tilly casually trotting beside her, her tail wagging. “I think he’s ignoring me, and who could blame him after what I said to him today? I’ll leave him to stew this evening and make it up to him in the morning.”

Sam waved at Doreen, who was in her usual spot, keeping an eye out for when they got back.

They exchanged a thumbs-up, and Sam opened the front door.

Tilly ran ahead of her. The day had been a damp one, and it had negatively impacted the temperature inside the house.

She switched on the heating for just half an hour to take the chill off.

After feeding Tilly, she searched the freezer for one of Rhys’s batch meals he had recently knocked up.

She kicked herself for not having the time to stop off at the supermarket and stock up the fridge.

Eventually, she found a meatball dish with rice and put it in the microwave to defrost. While she waited, she rang Bob’s number again.

She kicked out at the stool as the answerphone spewed out its inane message.

Furious that Bob was choosing to ignore her, she poured herself a glass of red wine to go with her meal.

Tilly sat beside her, waiting for scraps.

Sam left her some rice and sauce, making sure there was no onion in her bowl before she gave it to her.

She rinsed her plate under the running tap, switched off the heating now the house felt warmer and put the TV on in the lounge.

The local news was running the story about the murders that she and her team had been investigating all week.

It highlighted her need to speak to Bob and apologise for the way she had treated him.

Her walk had given her time to think and reflect, and she had realised she was in the wrong for taking it out on him.

She was eager to put things right, and the only way she could do that was in person.

“Come on, girl. Let’s go for a ride.”

She put Tilly in the back seat and waved at Doreen. Her old neighbour looked worried at seeing her drive off again so soon after getting home. Tilly curled up in a ball, sensing something wasn’t right.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise. Bob and I have fallen out before over the years. He’s just winding me up. Playing hard to get, that’s all. Everything will be fine, trust me.”

There was that word again… trust!