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“Okay. Call me back if you get anything.” Ellie sighed as she ended the call. “The tox report hasn’t picked anything up yet,” she said as she stowed her phone back in her bag.
There was a grunt from Hardy behind her to show he had heard her. She was flattered as she usually had to decipher what his silences meant.
It had been a long shot but she’d hoped this could have been the breakthrough they’d been waiting for. It was still early days, but Ellie was desperate to unearth the truth, not only because of the horrific nature of the crime but to prove herself worthy of the job she’d worked so hard for.
Hardy being there to witness it was part of the allure but he wasn’t to know that.
Ellie took in her surroundings for the first time since she’d got out of the car. They were far enough in land that the sea breeze was non-existent. It couldn’t have been more than ten miles from where she was born, but it made her feel far from home. Not that there was anything threatening about the long gravel driveway that led to the large house they needed to visit. The sky was clear and the sun had brought out the rose blossoms on the hedges.
Considering some of the places she’d had to visit through her job, this one was positively beautiful.
She eyed the house and snorted at the idea of living there herself. While Tom would undoubtedly love the huge stretches of lawn that surrounded the property, she suspected it would take all of five minutes for Freddie to get lost in a game of hide and seek he would forget to tell anyone else he was playing.
“How much do you recko-” Ellie started to ask Hardy but stopped when she saw he was stood behind her, holding something out to her.
It was a near-perfect pink rose.
He blinked, but her eyes had forgotten how to. Instead, she gawped at him as her traitorous heart jumped to conclusions and nearly out of her chest.
“What are you doing?” she eventually snapped.
Hardy glanced at the rose as though it might field the question for him. “I was just picking it up,” he replied when it failed to.
“Oh.”
“You thought...”
“No!” She shuffled uncomfortably when he wouldn’t look away. “No. Of course not.”
“I wasn’t,” he explained needlessly. If it hadn’t been for the burning in her cheeks she would have been able to think of something clever and biting to say. Something to give her the upper hand. Why the hell could Hardy render her this speechless?
“It just looked like-”
“You can have it if you want.” He held the rose out to her, finally breaking eye contact but Ellie was too stunned to notice. Just when she thought she could get a grip on this conversation he went and ruined everything.
It summed Hardy up, really, a distant part of her brain thought. He could lull a person into thinking he was an insensitive bastard when all along he was…
What was he?
An insensitive bastard who occasionally forgot his insensitive bastardry? A sweetheart that had been beaten into submission by life until he one day stopped trying? A man floundering between cynicism and hope, wondering which would serve him better and praying at least one of them would?
All Ellie knew was this tiny gesture was sincere, as were all of the ones he made to her. She just couldn’t work out if it was from a place of loneliness, companionship or a third option that she herself was doing her best to ignore.
“Right.” She cleared her throat after hearing her voice crack. “Well.”
She took the rose from him and flashed him a smile. He nodded in response.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Her breathing became easier but nothing else did.
“I should probably hide this in the car,” she mumbled, stepping back towards her parked car. “Don’t want the others thinking you’re giving the boss flowers.”
Hardy frowned seriously. “I’d appreciate it. I do have a reputation to maintain.”
Ellie chuckled and hoped he didn’t notice her nearly trip as she walked away from him.