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Kate sighed, ‘No.  But I might call you.  If you’re lucky.’

‘I hope so.  For someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, casual sex
,
you name it.’

Kate shook her head in bewilderment; he just never gave up!  He was like a
horny version of the Energiser bunny.  ‘I’ll let you know.  Bye.’

‘Wait!’ he said sharply. ‘Er, there is one other thing.  I hate to even mention it but the press are going to go absolutely berserk about this.  After
the other two stories, I mean.  They’re going to love it.  I’m sorry, Kate, but I think you’d better be prepared for a media frenzy.  I told you I saw some reporters outside earlier, waiting for you to emerge.  Well, they aren’t going to go away until you talk to them.’

She closed her eyes and pressed down the cut-off but kept the receiver in her hand.  That was all she needed.  She sighed;
what can’t be cured, must be endured.  And a big bloody help that was. 
She took a deep breath and dialled her Aunt’s number, dreading the barrage of worried questions that was coming but knowing that it had to be done.  And as it was inevitable, she might as well get it over with now.  And in the end her family reacted in pretty much the ways she would have expected, with Josie doing everything she could to persuade her to visit them.  She even enlisted Uncle George to the cause and he, in his quiet way, left Kate in no doubt how warm her welcome would be if she accepted the offer.  The youngest boys, Martin and Gary, who still lived at home, both had their turns on the phone too, first pleading with her to visit and then offering to come and stay with her, as bodyguards.

Kate,
touched by their concern, refused without laughing; at fifteen and thirteen respectively they took their masculinity very seriously indeed, and even loving, grateful laughter would have been a cruel blow to their burgeoning masculinity.  But although she did it kindly Kate refused all offers of aid, and was finally allowed to hang up only after promising to set off for Cork if she were molested again in any way.  She then rang her older cousins, first Sean and then Oisin, both of whom reacted in a similiar way to their younger brothers, save they both demanded that she set out immediately for their homes, to stay until the police captured the madman who had attacked her.  Again Kate rejected their offers, and eventually they gave up, though Oisin seemed near tears at her refusal, and only let her go after she promised to ring him at the first sign of trouble.

When she finally got off the phone Kate was
both mentally and emotionally drained.  And yet there was a good feeling, a satisfaction, underlying the exhaustion.  A feeling of being loved and wanted.  Of
belonging. 
And that feeling comforted her more than any words could have.

She made coffee and began thinking about food, but not with any great enthusiasm. 
There we go!
she thought as she sat down in the kitchen, making a mental note for the thousandth time to change the awful, blue-flowered wallpaper that had been already there when she had purchased the apartment,
I’ve invented the perfect diet.
  Personal trauma was the key.  And if one can tie one’s personal life up into a sort of Gordian knot at the same time; why, so much the better. 
So long fat, forever!

In th
e end she settled for a Cup-A-Soup, wishing she could go and visit Sean Morrison but knowing that there was no point at this time of night; the staff would run her if she showed up so long after visiting hours.  And nurses could be such bitches.  It was strange; she had never met a man with a bad word to say about nurses, and rarely a woman with a good word to say about them.  Which said a lot about the type of woman who went in for nursing.  Or at least about her mood just then.

Her vague and slightly off-kilter musings were interrupted by the doorbell, and she closed her eyes and thought,
Jesus Christ!  What now?

She put her dirty cup and side plate into the sink and went out to answer the door, deciding that if it was Michael she would kick him in the balls and slam the door in his face.  Not very lady-like, perhaps, but then she had never claimed to be a lady.  And the past twenty-four hours had just about used up her store of patience and sympa
thy towards oversexed ego-maniacs.

She peeked through the glass panel and saw, to her horror, Peter standing there looking in at her.  There was no escape; he had seen her so she had to open the door. 
But why didn’t I have a God damned shower?  Or change yesterday’s slept-in clothes?  Or even just brush my
hair,
for God’s sake? 
She steeled herself and opened the door, saying unenthusiastically, ‘Peter.  Hi.’

There was a uniformed Gardai standing beside him him, though overshadowed a little by him, who now said, ‘Is this a friend of yours, miss?’

Kate nodded, ‘Yes.  You can let him in.’

The cop vanished and Peter took a step forward.  His
face was hard and his dark brown eyes bored into her as he demanded, ‘Are you okay?  I was driving up from Sligo and I heard what happened on the news.  They didn’t mention your name but I knew
it was you, and your guard-dog outside confirmed it.  He was most reluctant to let me in until I explained who I was; he seemed to think I was a reporter, or something.  There’s a gang of them across the road, by the way; your pet copper won’t even let them stand outside your gate.’  He paused, aware he no longer had the right to drop by unannounced, before saying awkwardly, ‘Er, I tried ringing but the phone’s been engaged and your mobile just rings out so I thought I’d come over and make sure you were okay.’

‘There was no need,’ she said, peeping around his bulk towards a small knot of reporters who were taking photos from across the street.  She ducked back hurriedly, lowering her head to hide the sudden, unwanted tears that were welling there;
Thank God she had returned home at an hour when most of them were still unconscious; she couldn’t have faced running that gauntlet.
  ‘I’m fine.’

His jaw tightened and there was a rasp to his voice as he said, ‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?  If you don’t I assure you I’ll spend the night right here on your doorstep.’
  He gave her a half-smile, ‘And it’s
very
cold!’

Kate gave a half-laugh, half-sob and simply turned and walked into the sitting-room.  But she left the front door open and he took this as an invitation and followed her inside
, firmly locking the door behind him.  Kate sat in her armchair and Peter kneeled on the thick carpet in front of her, placing one hand on either arm of her chair and fixing her with his dark eyes as he asked, ‘Are you really okay?  Were you hurt?’

She shook her head, ‘
No, Sean came along before he could…do anything.’

‘Sean?  Oh, the policeman.  How is be?’

‘Out of danger, last I heard.’

He nodded, ‘I sent him a note, and flowers.  I’ll have to call in and thank him in person as soon as he’s up to it.  What about his family, do they need any help?  Does his wife need anyone
to help with the shopping or to run errands or anything?’

Kate shook her head
but gave him a little smile, ‘His wife’s a Dub so she’s got her family to look after her.  But thanks for the thought.’

He shrugged and went silent for a moment, before saying, ‘It’s not much, in view of what he did.  Do you have any idea who it might have been?’

She shook her head and he asked, ‘Do the police?’

‘No.  I thought it was some sort of
random maniac at first, with a grudge against mental health professionals.’

He raised his brows,
‘Do I hear a
but
in there?’

Kate heaved a huge sigh, hating to do it but ready to tell him to mind his own business and just go away.  But instead she somehow found herself telling him
everything that had happened recently, up to Mullins’ idea that burglary had been the intruder’s aim rather than murder.

He listened int
ently before saying, with a frown, ‘He’s right, you know; you have to give him a copy of that file.  Obviously we can forget Meagher or Straub as suspects, so all that leaves us with is whoever paid this Shiels guy to break in here.  If he really exists, if this Madelyn girl was telling the truth, then
he
has something to hide, something worth killing over.’

‘I’m tired of telling people that there’s
nothing
in that file,’ snapped Kate.

Peter looked at her in amazement,
as if she were an idiot, before saying simply, ‘That’s nothing to do with it.  There probably
is
nothing in it.  The point is that this guy clearly
thinks
there’s something in it. 
Fears
there could be.  And is willing to do almost anything to find out if there is or not.’

This silenced Kate as she realised
that he was of course right.  But it didn’t help uncover the identity of her unknown stalker.  ‘I can’t think straight,’ she said at last, ‘I’m just going to sleep on it and worry about it tomorrow.’

Peter made no reply but from the expression on his face she could
see
him thinking;
Same old Kate.  Face nothing now, resolve nothing now, put everything off till later.

But all he said was, ‘Whoever it is, h
e’s made two attempts to get this file, and I wouldn’t bet against him making a third.  That’s why I’m staying here with you tonight.’

Kate glared at him
and opened her mouth to protest but he raised his right hand decisively and snapped, ‘No!  Whatever you’re going to say;
don’t
!  Unless you move out I’m staying here until all this is sorted out, and the only way you’ll remove me is by calling the police.  And even then they’ll have to drag me out by force.  And even
then
I’ll simply park myself outside your door and follow you everywhere until we know what the hell is going on.  And that’s the end of it.’

K
ate opened her month to roast him for his presumption but instead somehow found herself saying, with silky malice, ‘And what will the lovely Rachel think of that?’

He looked startled for a moment but then said grimly, ‘I really don’t give a shit!’
  He held her gaze and said grimly, ‘Rachel stopped meaning anything to me a very long time ago and you bloody well know it.  So don’t pretend to be jealous of her now.  This is too serious for games.  Your
life
could be at risk here.’

Even the idea of mortal danger couldn’t deflect Kate and her
lip curled as she said, ‘It
looked
like she meant nothing to you the other day, all right.  Walking around town, arm-in-arm…why were you even with her?  And what about your little trip to Sligo?  Don’t tell me you were alone!’

He looked at her in astonishment
, unable to fathom this diversion into the trivial, ‘I didn’t think you’d care in the slightest who I saw, to be honest.  But yes, actually, I was alone.  Remember my Uncle Ernie’s deserted cottage?’

She did, only too well; i
t was bleak and lonely and isolated, and didn’t even have any electricity or running water.  And they had spent one of the best weeks of their lives together there, two summers before.

‘I went there. 
Alone
.  To think, I suppose, and to try and get you out of my system for once and for all.’

She r
aised her eyebrows and asked innocently, ‘Any luck with that?’

He laughed aloud, ‘You always were something of a bitch!  So I’m not telling you.  But I’m not kiddi
ng when I say you’ll have to have me arrested to get me out of here.  I couldn’t live with myself if I left you here alone and anything happened.  I never said anything but I suffered over that whole Straub thing too, you know.  I never mentioned it because it was nothing compared to what you went through, but it
tormented
me.  All I could think was
why did I go out that day?  Why didn’t I go home earlier?
  Why, why, why…I’m not going through all that again.  I’d never forgive myself if something happened that I could have prevented.’

Kate remained silent; in the aftermath she had asked hersel
f those same questions, and even once or twice blamed Peter for her ordeal, for not being there to protect her.  Though only in her darkest moments.  Yet she had never once considered how it had all made
him
feel.  Had she been born selfish or was it a talent she had developed, something she had worked on?  Not that it mattered now; that was all ancient history.  But still, since coming home she had learned a lot about herself, none of it good.

She got to her feet, perhaps to order hi
m
out of her home.  But when he stood up too, stubbornness written all over his face, she stepped forward and quietly rested her head against his broad chest instead.  And closed her eyes as his arms wrapped around her in a vast embrace that threatened to smother her but somehow didn’t.  It never had.

After standing like that for a long, blessed moment in which she had nothing to fear and nothing to worry about,
nothing even to think about, she opened her eyes and lifted her face to his.  He accepted her silent invitation and kissed her, hard, and then somehow they were lying on the thick rug in front of the dead fire, with a fire of quite another sort flaring up inside both of them.  He opened the buttons of her blouse and kissed her neck and her breasts before flicking his tongue gently over her erect nipples.  Kate closed her eyes in pleasure and hungrily thrust her pelvis against him as she slid her hands down his back to grip his buttocks tightly before sliding around to the front of his jeans, unbuckling his belt and pulling down the zipper.