“Do me a favour,” Winston said, as he shook my hand. “Win the World Cup for me. My wife’s English and she’ll make my life a living hell if you lot lose.”

“You’re not trying to influence the outcome of a sporting event are you, Superintendent?” I joked. “I don’t do that anymore, but I guess in this case I can make an exception.”

Winston explained that I’d need to go down to the station at some point to give a statement, but that could wait until after the semifinal. Right now I just wanted to get back to Michelle and the kids.

Not even winning the World Cup could be as sweet as walking into my house and seeing their faces. I’d been distant these last few days, but now it was time to start planning our futures without any threat looming over us.

For the first time since I saw my friend and mentor crying in changing rooms, I felt free of worry and fear. I didn’t think this day would come, but thanks to Michelle I could finally let go.

It had just turned one in the morning when I heard the key in the lock that finally told me Oliver was home. I leapt out of my seat, giving Maisie, who had fallen asleep on my shoulder, a sudden wake-up call in the process.

I ran up to Oliver and threw my arms around him. “We were so worried,” I said, holding back tears. I’d been trying to keep a brave face for Maisie and Shaun, but now all the fears I had been hiding came leaping up to the surface. “Why didn’t you call? What took you so long?”

Oliver laughed. “Nice to see you too.” He kissed me on the cheek, and went into the living room before collapsing down on the sofa. “One question at a time please.”

I sat down next to Oliver, and noticed some dried blood on the back of his head. “You can start with explaining the blood,” I said. “Who did that?”

“It doesn’t matter who?” Oliver said. “I took a knock when I went in there and confronted Hodgson. I’m fine now.”

“Why did you confront Hodgson? I told Winston what was going on so that you wouldn’t have to do that. Did he not get there in time?”

“Yes, he did. But he wanted me to go in there and get a confession from Hodgson. I was only too happy to oblige. Speaking of which, are you going to explain how you figured out Hodgson was the one behind it, not Winston? Because that has me stumped.”

I grinned sheepishly. I had to admit, I was rather proud of that, but it didn’t seem like the time to be bragging.

“Yeah,” Maisie said, still in the process of waking up. “I’m still confused about that as well.”

“You helped,” I said to Maisie. “And you Shaun. You needing to pee came at a good moment.”

Shaun and Maisie looked at each other, and both shrugged their shoulders.

“You’re really going to milk this, aren’t you?” Oliver teased.

“Hell yes. It’s probably not going to be all that exciting, now you’ve made a big deal out of it.”

“That’s fine,” Oliver said. “I’ve had more than enough excitement for one night as it is.”

“The word ‘bathroom’ was what finally made everything click. Shaun said he was going to the toilet and Maisie told him to use the American term. In every conversation we’d had with Hodgson she would use some American terms. Instinctively, I knew something was off, but I couldn’t figure out what.”

Oliver nodded. “She said she was on her way to the bathroom when we bumped into her in the police station,” he said. “I remember that, but I assumed she was doing it for your benefit.”

“So did I. But then she also told you to take off your Chargers hat which she must have recognized from the logo. The San Diego Chargers are hardly a big franchise in the US, let alone the UK, so it seemed odd she would know them from just that weird symbol without any writing.”

“Unless she spent a lot of time in a US bar,” Oliver added.

“Exactly. And she also told me to try a lager with Sprite, not lemonade, like you people call it. She must have picked that up from a US bar.”

“I’m all for Americanisms being criminalized,” Oliver said, “but it’s a bit much to call the police on someone for saying a few of them.”

“Better get used to them, Olly,” Maisie said. “You’re coming to live with us soon and it’s going to be awesome.”

I laughed, as Olly cringed. “There was something else too,” I added. “It’d been bugging me for ages, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I spoke to Hodgson a while back to thank her for putting the men who attacked us behind bars. She said ‘Some men matching the description you gave showed up on CCTV a few hundred yards down the road.’ And then there was a mention of Maisie and me having scars from that night.”

Maisie and Shaun both looked confused, but Oliver figured it out right away. “You never told the police about your burns,” he said, “so how would Hodgson have known you were both injured in the attack?”

“And neither Maisie nor I gave a description of the attackers, because we didn’t see them. I’m just kicking myself for not spotting it sooner. It’s been on my mind for ages, but I could never put the pieces together.”

“I think I can let you off for that,” Oliver said, putting his arm around me, and kissing my forehead. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

I turned to look up at him and mouthed the words back hoping Maisie wouldn’t notice. I should have known better.

“Okay,” Maisie said slowly. “I guess we had better give you two some privacy.”

Maisie and Shaun left us alone, but they needn’t have bothered. We were both too tired to do anything other than cuddle.

Oliver told me all the details about what happened, which set me off crying again. He didn’t admit it, but I could hear from the strain in his voice that he had been scared.

Now it was all over. We could all close the door on that awful chapter of our lives. Now I could watch the World Cup, and truly enjoy it no matter what the outcome.

-*-

“I don’t think I can watch,” Maisie said, covering her eyes with her hands and then peaking through a gap in her fingers.

“These seats are worth thousands of pounds,” I said. “You should probably make the most of it.”

“I just wish one team would win it comfortably, so I could relax either way. This back and forth thing is too painful.”

I knew what she meant. After a convincing semifinal win, England had been made clear favorites to win the World Cup, but after a number of injuries in the first twenty minutes, New Zealand had pulled back the deficit and early in the second half they took the lead.

I had no idea how professional athletes coped with the pressure. I was a nervous wreck and so were Maisie and Shaun. Those two were supposed to be used to the pressure of playing competitive sport, but right now you’d think they’d never watched a game before.

“At least Olly’s playing well,” Shaun said. “The press all built this up as the moment he would redeem himself for 2007.”

“He’s already done that,” I insisted. “England wouldn’t be in the final now if it weren’t for him.”

“No need to convince me,” Shaun said. “But you know what the press is like. Anything to sell papers and get clicks.”

The press would have a field day when the full-story about Oliver’s involvement in the sting operation came out. Gary’s death would end up being in the news again, so we’d all agreed to take a vacation the minute things were leaked, to protect Shaun as much as possible.

Shaun always tried to put a brave face on things, but the confirmation that his father’s death hadn’t been an accident had hit him hard. Maisie comforted him as best she could, but I could tell he needed Oliver’s support. The second this game was over he’d have Oliver’s complete attention.

Well, maybe not his complete attention. We’d been sending each other explicit messages for the last few days of forced separation, and I knew we would both be desperate for some alone time come the end of the game.