A Chance Encounter by Rae Shaw (e manga reader TXT) 📗

had told Hettie. But Jackson went no further with his rebuke. ‘And the appeal?’ she asked.

‘I kept an open mind, for a while. It proved short-lived. Mark has to deal with the fallout from that too.’

Mark was already in a bad place and they were about to make it worse. Her weekend plans were rapidly tumbling into a blackhole. She would have to show him how to punch harder without breaking his knuckles.

What she didn’t know was part of Haynes’ past. ‘The Haydocks client was what caught your attention though, not Mark or Henderson. Redningsmann is Norwegian for deliverer.’

Jackson nodded. ‘As I said, we know of other aliases, but that one was a new one.’ A brief smile crossed his lips. ‘Mark certainly unleashed a swarm of frightened bees at Haydocks.’

Julianna sensed another possible wrist slapping. She had drawn somebody else into Jackson’s game. ‘I took advantage of my time alone with Sophia in the car. It’s what started… Sophia told me the witness to the murder referred to a malevolent person, the Deliverer, and I think she noticed my reaction.’

Jackson balled his fist and smacked it on his thigh. ‘I don’t know the details of what Sophia uncovered. She’s the Clewer’s solicitor. She only told me that they’d found the witness.’ He perpetuated the silence for longer this time. ‘She doesn’t know about the threats, where they come from. I didn’t want her unintentionally revealing anything to Hettie. They’re very close. She’s going to be family.’ Jackson spoke into the glare of lights and kaleidoscopic raindrops snaking across the windscreen, his thoughts out in the open when previously he had kept them to himself. Under different circumstances, such faith in Julianna should have brought her pride. But not today. He sighed. ‘Perhaps involving her was a mistake. It’s why I needed an outsider, someone like you with no ties to my family.’

‘Sophia brought an end to those futile appeal attempts. In his way, Mark is grateful. She doesn’t know what makes Mark’s case special to you. I think she deserves to, because what Mark uncovered isn’t trivial.’

‘You’re right. This business of the Deliverer goes back further than Mark’s involvement. To when Hettie was young.’

The last piece of the jigsaw. Between them, they were solving the puzzle. ‘I don't want to intrude, sir. I know that she’s precious to you...’

‘You should know more – I dropped you into this mess. Hettie was adopted, which you know. A good family with enough money to support her creativity. She needs that outlet. When she was six, her birth mother slashed her wrists in the bath. Hettie found her.’

The handles of the pram. Jackson had calmly reacted to the fuss, knowing the injury was superficial, and protected his wife at the hospital from intrusive questions that might reveal the real nature of her affliction.

‘Oh, my God. Her fear of blood—’

‘Yes. It's from that time. I must have appeared uncaring from where you sat. I was cross with Lara for making a poor decision about the ambulance. She’d been briefed, I thought.’

‘Chris informed me of the fear, but not the reason why. Perhaps Lara missed—’

‘Blood is the trigger,’ Jackson said sharply. ‘It doesn’t matter now. The point is, she fears the emotions it might awaken. So she protects herself by locking down – a form of catatonia. As a child she was taken into care and swiftly adopted. It helped her heal.’

‘I understand. Her birth mother brought her up alone?’

‘Divorced, alone, unsupported and a lot of debt. A hard time for them both. She got into drugs and then they came for her, the loan sharks, and forced her into prostitution. She obviously hated it. She spiralled into this darkness and took her own life. I met Hettie years later at a party. Young, vivacious. I'd no idea how fragile she was beneath that exuberance. I want to keep her safe. Always. The charity idea was one way I could help Hettie come to terms with her past. I set up Opportunitas, hoping to save people from this never-ending cycle of a life of poverty, drugs and sexual exploitation. It snowballed and became a crusade to find out who was behind these pimps, the gangs, the traffickers. The detectives I employ are successful, and consequently, I'm hated and threatened.’

‘Hettie doesn't know who’s behind these threats.’ A statement of fact. Julianna had seen the emails and letters including the horrific images they tried to send her. Chris's team intercepted the lot. Hettie was cocooned behind a ring of protection. Jackson's commitment to take care of his wife depended on her trust in him and a marriage built on devotion to one another. Julianna had misunderstood marriage. Love was one thing that gelled a couple, but trust and loyalty underpinned it. Alex might have loved her in the beginning, and she had loved him for a time, but neither of them had worked to build on it.

‘I fudge the truth,’ Jackson acknowledged. ‘She acts as if it’s money that necessitates the bodyguards and the other measures I put in place. She could work it out, I know, but her instinct for now is to protect herself, and the kids, so she doesn’t. You know, the things they want to do to her have nothing to do with money. They want her to suffer.’

‘This Deliverer, is it one person?’

‘There’s one man behind the worst gang. We don't know his nationality. We know little of what he looks like – rumour has it his face is scarred. He uses this alias and versions of it. His online persona might be utilised by a network of handlers who seek out vulnerable people. So it's a representation for a particular purpose, but Chris and his team have unearthed enough evidence to prove this one man has a personal interest in seeing me and Hettie destroyed because of Opportunitas. I