[Edinburgh early that evening]

“You look great,” said Sarah.
She’d just finished applying makeup to Jak. Both of them were dressed to go out on the town. While Jak’s clothes appeared to be a little dated, the addition of a brightly coloured shawl changed the look entirely.

After they’d eaten and cleared away,
“Is Calum’s ‘grand plan’ becoming a bit clearer?” asked Sarah.

“I can sort of understand why Calum invested in the Salmon farms. It is a growth area, but some of these other businesses seem a bit weird to me,” said Jak as he reviewed the descriptions of the businesses that he’d left them both.

Jak was surprised by the cheerful tone of her greeting.

“Yes, or at least I think so. I’m Jak McGee, and I’d like to see Mr MacKay.”

“Would that be Mr MacKay, the elder, or Mr Mackay, the Junior?” she asked.

News that a woman was being interviewed for the position of Chief of Police spread through the town like a rampaging wildfire. Opinion was divided, but because of the corrupt nature of the last Chief, many were willing to let her have the benefit of the doubt should she take up the post.

[The events in this part of the story take place before County Sheriff – Part 17.]

When Ingrid returned home, she had started to call Sean’s place home now, and she found him kneading some bread. Despite trying hard, she failed to stop herself from laughing.

“What’s so funny?” said Sean as he used the back of his hand to move a lock of hair from his eyes.

After the revelation about the seizure of the van and the discovery of some of Dido’s DNA, the atmosphere at the cottage was very subdued.

Trish was taken by surprise by Dido wanting to kiss her. She slowly responded, but broke off the kiss before it got out of hand.

“Sorry, Trish,” said Dido.

After the episode with DI Farmer and the PI’s report, or rather what was implied by the report, but not said, and a couple of phone calls, John Proudfoot did something very much out of character for him: he booked a round of golf at the Army Golf Club in Aldershot.

[The following February]

The steady stream of punters leaving the club signified that closing time was near. The flow soon dwindled to a few stragglers. The two doormen looked at their watches anxiously. It was well past 02:00 when the last customer left the club and climbed into a waiting taxi. For the doormen, their work for the night was done and dusted. They went inside and locked the door behind them.

Three years have passed since Dido turned eighteen and was therefore legally able to make decisions about her life for herself. In the interim, she had enough cosmetic surgery done on her face to make her look quite different from the sixteen-year-old who had tried to break into John's lovingly restored Ford Cortina. With John’s help, she’d become a legal person with all the responsibilities that came with being a citizen. She had even voted in an election.

“Moira, do you think that Neil is a fake?” asked Melissa as she helped with the food for the party.

“I do. Thanks to TV shows like ‘Outback Truckers’, I’ve seen people who work on huge Northern Territory Stations. That’s what they call farms out there. They all have seen the sun. His skin is almost as white as mine.”

[Cape May, NJ]

“Mom, what are you doing?” asked Brittany.

Melissa was standing at the window of their apartment, peering into nowhere.

The dinner was far better than Melissa had envisaged. It was made even better by Jack’s Father, Henry, who proved to be quite a raconteur.

[Sunday evening, Washington DC]

“Thank you for not being angry with me over all this,” said Jeff as he poured some wine.

[Monday morning]

“Thanks for seeing me at such short notice, Dana,” Melissa said as she sat down in her office.

A tale of three halves is set in both the USA and UK. It is fairly contemporary in that it starts in 2022 and I hope reflects at least partially the Political Scene in the USA then and sadly now.

The promised rain had finally caught up with me around two miles from home. The shower was heavy, so much for the forecast of just the odd light shower.

Dido sent her team of ‘dips’ off for their summer break in late June. That allowed her to see how being on the ‘right’ side of the law felt.

Dido went back to her 'panhandling' early the next morning. This time, she settled down outside the entrance to Farringdon Thameslink Station.

Dido left early the next morning to avoid speaking with John. She did leave a scrawled note on her neatly made bed that just said,

“Thank you for being there yesterday. Dido.”

I returned to my hotel with a lot to think about. Corey had shown me a picture of the ‘RV’ that he was going to travel around in. It wasn’t anything like the bog standard white ‘box on wheels’ that you see almost everywhere clogging up the roads.

The Christmas period was very quiet for me. That was a godsend as the last few days of the old company were pretty hectic, so a few days of chilling out in front of the TV, eating and sleeping was very welcome.