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.

Any worries I might have had about Casey and her weekend trip to the wilds of North Yorkshire were dispelled by her smiling face when she came out of the 'Royal Oak' to begin another day of work towards what I hoped would be the saving of what I'd begun referring to as my company.

[authors note]
If you love formulaic and, in my opinion, cringeworthy ‘Christmas Movies’ or similar ‘Made for TV Romances’ that use an ensemble cast of ‘almost perfect specimens of humanity’ then stop reading now.

[The following Friday]
I had finished making all the parts for the device the previous evening. I caressed the smooth wood like you do a newborn baby. Like all my custom pieces I’d grown to love it despite its primary use. I went to bed satisfied that I had made a piece of furniture and one that I was proud to put my signature on.

I’d just finished putting the last coat of varnish on my latest job when I saw the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway of my Workshop.

“I’ll be with you in a minute or so. I need to clean the brush before the varnish on it dries,” I called out to the person. The person didn’t answer so I took it as they didn’t object.

Roberta saw the stick drawing of a person being hung and for a moment, she momentarily panicked before her training kicked in. Immediately, she dropped the photo and the envelope onto the floor.

The next day was a big anti-climax compared to the previous one. Working on the catalytic converter thefts was right up her street and the sort of policing that she loved. From that high, there was always a new low not far away.