Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 30

The farm house door opened long before we got there by Lizzy, who looked less than pleased about this. Robin attached to her legs might be the cause, but he soon toddled out to me like he remembered me from the other day.

'Robin come back here,' Lizzy let rip, as I scooped him up and was rewarded with two sticky hands to my face.

I strolled the final stretch with Robin in my arms. Lizzy stood off to allow me through. I stopped and gave her what I hoped she would take as my sorry look. She nodded me in and then smiled at mum and David who were behind me.

The interior of this house hadn't changed much, nor had the outbuildings to what I could make out. I followed my nose and my ears to the kitchen, which was big and pretty full of bodies. I smiled at Helen, who was near the kitchen sink, probably putting the kettle on for us. Sat at the table was Liz Steven and the man next to her with thinning hair looked to be her husband and Lizzy's dad. Rosie was there too along with Danielle, but minus her parents, which could only mean her mum was minding the shop for this short while. There was another man in the kitchen that seemed familiar but I couldn't put a name to is face. I noted that Theo and Gideon were missing, probably busy around the farm.

'Okay, who's going to start the ball rolling,' the man next to Liz Stevens asked.

'How about sharing names?' Helen suggested, offering mum a mug of tea and indicating to David if he would like one too, to which he nodded.

'I would prefer it if we get this moving quickly though,' David injected. 'I've had to leave my business to come and although my second in command is brilliant I'm normally not missing and a certain woman was in there earlier.'

'What certain woman?' Lizzy asked him.

'Margo Brockhurst, I wished I could have her ASBO but that is impossible and she doesn't take subtle hints,' he explained.

'Why not have Helen on the door,' I joked, which had David frowning at me.

'It was only a misunderstanding,' Helen meekly explained. 'She's not pressed charges...'

'Yet,' Lizzy injected, as Helen offed me a mug of tea, which I took the minute I had dispatched Robin back to Lizzy.

'I don't think she will, otherwise we'd have heard through the grapevine,' Liz Stevens added.

'The woman is a pest, busybody, and is a thick skinned as a crocodile, Helen snorted out.

'Possibly as old too,' Danielle added, to get a dirty look from Lizzy.

'We're getting off the point here,' Rosie stated. 'We need an action plan.'

'Names,' David persisted.

'I agree, the familiar man near to Rosie agreed.

So with that decision made, I took the bull by the horns and told them who I was, what my career had been and that it was my fault we were all sat there or stood in most cases. Danielle went next in a brief kind of way. We skipped over Rosie because she was so well known in her profession. Mum and Helen followed suit, as did Liz Stevens as David had already met her and she did go with mum and Helen to the brown cow café. Robin needed no introductions and nor did Lizzy, that left the two men, the one with the reseeding hair was Lizzy's dad, Sam Steven's, occupation was now retired policeman of many years. He not been replaced when he had retired a few years back, which reminded me why I thought I knew him. he'd been our local police officer. The other man, younger, taller and slightly shifty, turned out to be Lizzy's older brother Isaac Stevens, who'd just done fifteen years in the army and was thinking of enlisting into the police. He never seemed to smile and I felt that I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alleyway without help. The other surprising fact was that he was living with Rosie. How had she kept that quiet, I thought, slightly narked about that one.