Too Good to Be True

16 The Letter

Jimmy Perez left the next morning without saying goodbye to Tom and Sarah King. In a place like Stonebridge, news of Gail’s arrest would soon get out and the gossips would have another target for their chatter. Tom and Sarah would be left in peace.

It was a calm sailing on the ferry, and Perez’s friends brought his daughter, Cassie, to meet the boat when it got into Lerwick after the overnight crossing. He dropped his stepdaughter at school and went into work. Over the next few weeks he was busy with everyday police work in Shetland and he’d almost forgotten the case in Stonebridge when a letter arrived from Sarah.

The envelope contained a photo, and it was this that slipped onto the table first. The picture had been taken in the Kings’ garden. It showed Tom and Sarah and the children wrapped up against the cold on a bright, clear day. There were Christmas lights on the fir trees on each side of the front door.

When Perez looked again he saw that there were three children in the photo, not two. The third child was smaller and she had dark curls and a wide, beaming smile. It was Lucy, Anna’s daughter.

Perez read the letter that went with the photo. It had been written by Sarah.

Thanks so much for all your help. You can’t know what a difference you made to our lives. We’ve had a fab Christmas and that was all down to you. I wanted to tell you that we’ve become Lucy’s guardians and we hope to adopt her. You know I always hoped for a big family and her cousins love her to bits. Now my life’s perfect.

Perez smiled to himself and stuck the photo onto the fridge.