He’d landed awkwardly when he’d jumped the last foot from the rope the kids had used as an access into the old factory. Momentarily crippled and cursing soundly he’d stood back and watched Jason pull in the rope and jump the sixteen feet to the ground. There’d been a time; and not that long ago, he reflected regretfully, when he could have done the same and run a mile afterwards. Limping, he hobbled into the station. ‘You all right, sir?’ Sarah Merchant asked as he hobbled past her desk. ‘Fine,’ he grimaced, heading down the corridor towards his office. Peter had taken possession of his desk, yet again, Anna was behind hers, and Dan was standing in the doorway that opened into his office. ‘We were considering putting out a missing persons report on you,’ Peter commented. ‘You were lost this morning.’ ‘Not as lost as I’d have liked to have been.’ Peter had spent a fruitless ten minutes over breakfast trying to persuade Anna that an hour of passion in the pub would make their relationship blossom.
