Page 173 of Too Close To Home

Harrison pointed at him then. “You stopped that from happening.”

Jake shook his head. “Eileen did.”

“Eileen didn’t break through a wall to get to her. And if she had reported the noise to anyone else, it would’ve gone undetected. Think about that for a minute, eh?”

Jake said nothing. But he did think about it.

And after that minute was up, Harrison continued, “Underwood tried to leave town as soon as the vehicle marker went out, but he didn’t get far. We had him in custody within the hour. Once he was there, he gave us enough to piece together the sequence of events. Glen was tracking Emily’s location through the app on his phone. When he saw she was heading towards Fell Edge, he alerted Mick and set the whole thing in motion.”

Harrison paused.

“We arrested Glen shortly afterwards. He denies any involvement, obviously, but the evidence says otherwise. And I still think there’s something he isn’t telling us. Something neither of them has given us yet.” He gave a small shrug. “Maybe they never will. For now, they’ve both been charged with false imprisonment and conspiracy. CPS will consider what else the evidence supports, but the core case is there.”

“And Emily? How’s she doing?”

“She’s stable. Dehydrated, shaken. But physically she’s going to recover.”

Jake could feel his shoulders ease a fraction. He’d been tense for days.

“She’s given an initial account.” Harrison leaned back. “Enough to support what we’ve got. The rest will follow once she’s stronger. And she’ll be going out to stay with her mum in Spain as soon as she’s ready.”

“Good.” Jake nodded. “That’s good.”

Harrison watched him for a moment, as if testing how far he could go. Then, “There’s something else you should know.”

Jake looked up.

“You were right to flag Brodie. He has previous.”

Jake frowned. “In what?”

“Stalking, mostly. Low-level pick-pocketing as a teen. There’s an order in place from Hull. He’s also got a history of sex work.”

Jake blinked. “...Oh.”

Sex work? God, he’d never have guessed. Though it sort of made sense. Jake knew nothing of his past but knew he’d had a ton of men. He’d expected that was…for his own pleasure. Then something else crept in.

Their hookups.

Brodie had never said no. Never made things complicated. Whenever Jake had fancied blowing off steam, Brodie had been game. Christ. Had Jake been another customer without the money changing hands?

The thought turned his stomach.

“He’s been spoken to. Declares no involvement in Emily’s abduction. We’ve confirmed that. But he had taken an interest in Andy.”

“Because of me?”

Harrison nodded. “He’d been trying to get information out of him. Following him, engineering contact. At one point he’d taken Andy’s phone. We believe it was to make some discovery, to prove you right. Then he used it later in a way that’s muddied the picture.”

Jake pushed up from the bed, pacing. “So, he has been playing games.”

“In effect. Though not with the same intent as what we’ve just dealt with.”

Jake scrubbed a hand over his face. “And Andy?”

Harrison held that a second. “Andy Mitchell had nothing to do with Emily’s disappearance.”

Jake stopped pacing. After all this…after everything. It was all for nothing. He’d been wrong. And proved wrong once again. “So Andy’s completely innocent and he had me storming in on him, then Brodie, because of me. Fuck.” He scraped two hands through his hair. “I deserved that three stretch.”