Beyond Reach by Graham Hurley

Author:Graham Hurley [Hurley, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘I really liked him, Paul. I thought he was fabulous.’

Marie had summoned Winter to tea in the Tenth Hole, a wooden shack, handsomely refurbished, that looked onto the Craneswater pitch-and-putt course. Mo Sturrock, it turned out, had been here to meet his new employer.

‘We had the most brilliant lunch. You know the way some men can put you at your ease? Make you laugh? Make you feel you’ve known them half your life? Mo’s got that … and you have too. Except he’s better-looking.’

‘And younger.’

‘Quite.’ She put a warm hand over his. ‘Don’t take offence, Paul. If anything, I’m thanking you. That man’s an inspired choice. Truly. I mean it.’

Sturrock, it seemed, had shared a great deal of his past six months with Marie. Suspension from the Social Services directorate had forced him into taking a long hard look at his life. All communication with the office was forbidden: no phone calls, no emails, not even the chance to natter with a colleague you might bump into at the weekend. Twice he’d met friends, friends for God’s sake, at the big Tesco in Ryde, and both times they’d fled. If you were thin-skinned or vulnerable enough, he said, this kind of back-turning and isolation would drive you nuts. It was exile. It was like being sent to the Gulag except worse because you had no one to talk to.

‘What about his missus?’

‘That was the point really. She works part time as a counsellor but just now they’re obviously spending a lot of time together. Mo says that’s been brilliant. You get the feeling the relationship’s always been pretty sound but now he says he never realised what he was missing.’

‘Wonderful. So why is he interested in us?’

‘That was my question. I get the impression they might need the money.’

‘But he’s on full pay.’

‘Sure, but that won’t last forever and if he ends up losing his registration then he’ll have to leave social work entirely. So things might get tough for a while.’

Winter nodded. Social workers couldn’t practise without being registered with the General Social Care Council, just one of the reasons why Winter had tried to convince Bazza that he was a trespasser in the field.

‘What else did Sturrock say?’

‘He told me about his kids. He’s got three: Temple, Poppy and Fleur. They’ve been on the island a while now. Mo says they love it.’

Temple, she said, had just got himself a motor scooter. Fleur, the youngest child, was Down’s syndrome but like her sister she was mad about horses. It sounded idyllic.

‘Is she bad? Fleur?’

‘Mo was cagey about her. I get the impression she can be a bit of a handful sometimes but Mo says she just loves having her dad back full time. I can imagine. The guy’s really good news.’

Winter helped himself to another scone. As far as he could gather, Mo Sturrock had been invited across so Marie could check him out. In which case he’d somehow managed to turn an interview into a blind date.

‘Bit of a star, then, our Mo?’

‘Absolutely, and I’ll tell you why.

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