Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers and readers. I especially like the love I've felt for the playmobil people. You are amazing, thank you.


Chapter 4

The cabin crew were circulating. Preparing for landing. Thomas couldn't wait to be out of the confines of his seat and breathing natural air but at the same time, he wanted the world to stop so he would never have to emerge into the reality of the present. Is that what Harry had done in Budapest? Disappeared from it all, even from his colleagues.

Had it gone well for him?

There had been newspaper reports of that one, so he was aware of the facts. "Pathologist fakes his own death…" He had to give the man credit. He'd done a convincing job. Harry's attention to detail had been exquisite. How long had he left it? How long had he waited before letting his colleagues know he wasn't dead? What sort of a man, or what sort of circumstances could make a man do that?

And the reunion?

He tried to imagine Jack, peeling the earth away, clawing at the wooden boards in a desperate attempt to free Nikki. Pulling her up out of that sunken hell and into his arms. What would that look like? Tears? Laughter? Exhaustion? It would no doubt depend on whether she was still breathing when he got the top off that box.

'Nikki' he sighed.

He couldn't help his mind wandering back to the news reports he'd read of Harry's death. He'd let them think he was dead but the newspapers had quoted DNA identification evidence. That wasn't possible… Unless? The comparison sample the police had been given was not Harry's but the dead man's. They, Leo and Nikki or one of them must have been in on it! Knew he was really alive, but carried on with life as if he were dead. What kind of a job demanded that? Who would willingly tamper with evidence in a police investigation to protect their friend?

His limited imagination made it difficult to conceive what it must have been like. The stress that would let colleagues break laws to protect the friend who had betrayed them.

How had they let him disappear again when they had only just been reunited? It was unfathomable. He wondered if the whole event had precipitated Harry's leaving the Lyell.

But after the events of the last few days he did not need to imagine. He knew. It was reality.

Knowing that your colleague was miles away, reported missing, presumed dead and there was nothing you could do to change it.

He understood completely.

What more could he have done?

And more importantly what had Jack already done?