Dead on Cue (31 page)

She saw him coming, and while she showed no sign of welcoming him, she at least made no effort to leave.

He came to a stop in front of her. ‘Fancy runnin' into you,' he said.

‘How did you know I'd be here? Did Jill tell you?'

Woodend shook his head. ‘No. I
did
call at her house, but while her mam admitted you were stoppin' there, she swore she didn't know where you'd gone today.'

‘So why come looking for me on Hampstead Heath?'

‘Just a hunch. I used to bring you here as a kid, an' you always seemed to enjoy it.'

‘Always!' Annie repeated. ‘You make it sound as if it was a regular thing.'

‘Wasn't it?'

‘You had no time for “regular things”. You must have brought me here five or six times. Seven at the most.'

Woodend sighed. ‘You're right,' he agreed. ‘Seven at the most. Listen Annie, I know you said in your note that I shouldn't try to find you, but I assume that's only because you were worried that if I did, I might try to take you back. Well, that's not why I'm here.'

‘So why are you here?' his daughter asked.

‘To talk. To put a proposal to you.'

‘What kind of proposal?'

‘I know you miss your friends, so if you can persuade Jill's mam to put you up on a regular basis while you finish your schoolin', we'll pay for your board and lodgin's.'

‘A few days ago, I would have jumped at the chance,' Annie said.

‘But not now?'

‘No. You can't turn back the clock, however much you might want to. I've only been away for a few months, but already my old friends seem to have new lives. Besides, staying on at school is not what I want to do anymore.'

‘So what do you want to do?'

‘I'd like to go to nursing college.'

‘I see.'

‘Is there anything wrong with that?' Annie demanded.

‘I . . . No. Nurses do a wonderful job. Your gran was a nurse durin' the Great War.'

‘But . . .?'

‘But I suppose I'd always thought you'd go to university, so I could swank about you in front of Bob Rutter,' Woodend said, trying to make a joke of it.

‘That's
your
dream for me,' Annie said, refusing to share in the humour. ‘Does it have to be mine as well?'

‘Nay, lass, we're all entitled to make up our own dreams,' Woodend admitted. ‘But if you're goin' to study to be a nurse, does it have to be in London? Or could it be in Lancaster or Manchester, where me an' your mam get a chance to see you now an' again?'

‘I wouldn't mind studying in Manchester.'

‘An' would you mind comin' home – I mean, back to Whitebridge – while we make the arrangements?'

Annie smiled. ‘No, I wouldn't mind that, either.'

She stood up, and Woodend put his arm round her shoulder. Together, father and daughter began to walk down the hill.

‘I told you not to come, and you came anyway,' Annie said, ‘but if you
were
going to do that, why didn't you do it
sooner
?'

‘I . . . er . . .' Woodend said uncomfortably.

‘You were up to your neck in a case?' Annie suggested.

‘It wasn't easy to get away right then,' Woodend said in his own defence. ‘Reputations were at stake. Perhaps lives as well.'

‘I've never known you be on a case it
was
easy to get away from,' his daughter told him.

Woodend came to a halt and looked his daughter in the eyes. ‘I'd die for you, Annie,' he said. ‘I'd give up my life for you without a second's thought.'

Annie met his gaze with her own. ‘I know you would, Dad,' she said, perhaps a little sadly. ‘But give up on a murder investigation right in the middle of it? Well, that's quite a different matter altogether.'