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Wind was one of the many things that Hardy had forgotten about living next to the coast that he absolutely despised. His tie kept blowing in his face and his coat was always twisted, not to mention the constant tang of salt water in his mouth. The town itself was enough to make him feel claustrophobic; he didn’t need the air around him to try and suffocate him as well.
Another thing he’d hated when he first lived here was the sound of Miller yelling at him after he’d walked away from her. The woman could not take a hint.
It wasn’t until he left that he found that it was one of the things he missed the most.
“You think storming off like a bloody kid will shut me up?” she called. Hardy was sure if it weren’t for the wind he’d be able to hear her sensible heels as she chased after him. “You were out of order back there and, whether you like it or not, I am-”
Though he had plenty of practise, blocking out Miller’s tirades was still struggle for him. There was just something about her voice that pierced the defences that kept everyone else out.
“It’s done, Miller,” he said as he spotted a familiar person leaning against his car. “Drop it.”
“Oh, okay then.”
Hardy stopped walking and eyed her suspiciously. “Really?”
“Of course not, you piss stain!”
“Nice,” he replied mildly as he headed towards his car.
“You are constantly undermining this investigation at every-”
Miller thankfully stopped her tirade when she saw the person by his car acknowledge him with a small nod of their head. He filed this away and wondered if he could use this to his advantage in the future.
“You’re late,” Daisy greeted them, shoving her phone into her pocket.
Hardy checked his watch to see she was right. He had told her would meet her twenty minutes ago but his argument with Miller had taken longer than expected. “Sorry. You been waiting long?”
“Nah, only just got here.”
Beside him, Miller cleared her throat and Hardy took the hint.
“Daisy, this is Miller. Miller, Daisy.” He gestured vaguely between the two women. His tie felt as though it was on too tight and he adjusted it. Although Miller had been to Sandbrook and had met Tess, this was a melding of his two worlds that had him more nervous than ever before.
“Ellie,” Miller corrected smiling at Daisy. “I think we’ve already met?”
“Yeah,” Daisy said. “You were nice to me.”
She said it with a hint of contempt that implied it had been an unpleasant experience. Hardy had seen enough of Miller being nice to know Daisy might have had a point.
“That sums up Miller.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing. Still.” Miller shrugged with that infuriating smile of hers. “It’s good to put a name to the face.”
“Same.”
Miller blinked and the smile faltered. “He’s talked about me?”
“You piss him off.”
“Daisy.”
His daughter seemed unbothered about swearing in front of both him and his friend. Well… colleague. Miller.
“That sums up your dad,” Miller chuckled and nudged him with her shoulder. He’d seen this bizarre version of herself she presented to strangers many times, but this particular performance irritated him. Daisy wasn’t a suspect or potential witness she needed to get on side; she was his daughter. It was clear she wanted to make a good impression for some reason, but this facade wouldn’t endear her to Daisy. The girl could smell bullshit from a mile away.
Hardy would know. She’d called him on his enough times.
Eager to end this social minefield of a conversation, Hardy unlocked his car and opened the passenger door for Daisy. “I’ll see you in the morning, Miller.”
“Oh… okay. Bye,” Miller said with an edge to her voice. Hardy didn’t wait to figure out what he’d done now before rounding the car and getting into the driver’s side.
Before he’d started the car, Daisy had hooked her phone up to the stereo and some intolerable blur of bleeps and monotone vocals was blaring out of the speakers. He sighed, knowing there was no way he’d convince her to change it to anything else without first being made to feel like a dinosaur.
Daisy threw her bag onto the back seat before making herself more comfortable. “Are you shagging her?”
The question had been asked so casually that Hardy could hardly believe he’d heard her properly. He stared at his daughter in the hopes she’d correct herself, but instead she stared back as though already bored with the line of inquiry that she had opened.
“You think I’m going to tolerate language like that?”
“It’s not swearing!”
She had a point. He concentrated on pulling out of the parking space to come up with another argument. “It’s rude!”
“But are you though?”
An unbidden slideshow of all the dreams he’d been having recently flashed through his mind and Hardy frowned. It did nothing to make the images disappear but at least he didn’t look like he was thinking those kinds of thoughts.
“No!”
“Really?”
Daisy sounded mildly surprised and Hardy fought the urge to ask her why. What in the brief conversation they had just had made her think otherwise? Had he missed something?
“What’s this obsession with my love life all of a sudden?”
“I’m not obsessed!” she spat. “She’s just the first person from work I’ve ever seen you speak to outside of work.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re…” Hardy tried to think of word that he wouldn’t chastise Daisy for using. Unfortunately, his mind was still firmly flailing in the gutter. “Doing that!”
“All right!” cried Daisy as though he’d started this discussion. She went back to scrolling through her phone. Hardy hoped the music would stop but, as with everything else in his life, he wasn’t that lucky.
The rest of the drive was made in silence, which wasn’t unusual for the two Hardys. The one behind the steering wheel let his thoughts drift to his DI, analysing every interaction they had shared recently for any hint of what his daughter had seen.
He would have been lying to himself if he said this was remotely unusual.