Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Dedication:
Originally written for anyone who enjoys such things,
and finally finished for my new friends.
Taken
By Joodiff
PROLOGUE
It's a fluke. It's a million-to-one chance. It's one of those accidental, coincidental things that are so wildly improbable that no-one actually believes in them. It's Saturday night, and Eve Lockhart is in the back of a black cab, heading home after a few quiet drinks with an old friend. It's a clear, cold late autumn night, and as the cab comes to a smooth halt at a red light, it's maybe the chill of the night that's ultimately responsible for what she sees. Certainly, Eve isn't really concentrating as she gazes out of the window, but it's the familiarity of the silhouette, of the long dark coat with the collar turned up against the biting cold that subconsciously catches her attention. It disturbs her reverie, makes her focus properly. He's tall, the man in the dark coat. Tall, broad-shouldered and greying. His stance is assertive, easily recognisable. Eve doesn't need to see his face. She knows immediately that she is looking at Peter Boyd. She sees him every single working day.
The elegant woman with him is also wearing a winter coat, but its bulk doesn't disguise how small and slight she is in comparison to him. And there's no mistaking her identity, either. Doctor Grace Foley, Home Office psychologist and criminal profiler currently attached to the Metropolitan Police's Cold Case Unit. Eve sees them. They do not see her, sitting in the back of the anonymous stationary cab. She suspects that they have probably just left the restaurant on the corner, a moderately expensive Italian place renowned for the superior quality of its wine cellar. But it doesn't matter where they have been. What matters is where they are now. On the pavement just nine or ten feet away from her, utterly oblivious to her presence.
Eve wants to look away. She knows she should look away. She wants the lights to change and the driver to pull off into the night. She can't look away. She sees Grace take Boyd's arm, sees her look up at him and say something, a smile quite clear on her face. She sees Boyd laugh in response. It's a moment. A quiet, affectionate and intensely private moment, taking place right in front of her. Eve sees quite clearly the way they are so easy together, so familiar.
They are out of context. These are her colleagues, people who belong to her working life. And here they are alone on a Saturday night, just the two of them; the way they are looking at each other tells Eve everything about them, and the true nature of their relationship. The way she holds his arm is possessive. The way he looks at her is territorial. The two people standing together on the pavement are lovers. Of course they are.
And as the cab finally starts to move again, Eve sees the quick, gentle embrace and the light kiss that confirms it. And what really surprises her is not the unforeseen revelation itself, but the incredible tenderness she witnesses between them.
She knows she has been inadvertently gifted a secret. A precious secret that she must hold in trust; and hold it Eve will, quietly and determinedly, for however long is necessary.
-oOo-
Continued…