I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

of uniforms, followed by Luke.
    “Sophie?” he said incredulously. “Put the bloody gun down.”
    My hands were shaking. “Are you going to take him away?”
    “Yes. He’s going into custody. And so are you unless you give me that gun.”
    Not taking my eyes off Brown, I handed the pistol over and felt my body slump. Luke put his arm around my shoulders, holding me up. It was probably an inappropriate time to notice that his body was very warm and hard, but I noticed it anyway.
    “This yours?” Luke asked Brown, passing the gun, wrapped in a handkerchief, to one of the uniforms.
    Brown nodded.
    “You are in so much trouble,” Luke said as the Ace guy handed Brown over to the coppers.
    I wasn’t entirely sure who he was talking to.

Chapter Three
     
    When I got home it was dark.
    I’d been at the airport police station for hours, tired and hungry, shocked and dirty. My uniform was probably beyond repair, torn and splattered with mud, but I didn’t really care. Probably they’d fine me for it. Fuck them. I’d had an unbelievable day. No one was going to fine me for anything.
    Was I in trouble? I kept asking the policemen but they never really answered. They took full statements on every part of the incident and I signed billions of things without really looking at them. Probably I should have looked. I didn’t really care.
    Tammy was scratching around the gate as I unfastened the latch and tripped down into the yard. Really it was supposed to be a little courtyard, but my nannan used to live here, you see, and where she came from it was a yard . It had one sad-looking conifer in a tub and a washing line and a metal dustbin, and that was it. Not what you’d call pretty.
    The security light came on as I pushed the gate open and I didn’t see Agent Sharpe at first, sitting with his back against my door, elbows resting on his knees, changed out of his Ace uniform into jeans and a fleece.
    He looked up at me. “You’re late.”
    I shrugged. “Got held up.”
    “Did you come straight back?”
    I nodded. I’d wanted to go to Tesco’s for some ice cream but I couldn’t face walking around in the state I was in. I’d planned to get changed, walk up to Total and get five of everything that was bad for me. Then I was going to get in a hot bath and stay there until tomorrow.
    “Were you waiting for me?” I asked, rather unnecessarily, but I was feeling brain-dead.
    Luke nodded and got to his feet. “You okay?”
    “I will be.” I pushed past him to unlock the door, and when the key stuck I felt like crying.
    Luke shoved at the door and it came open easily.
    “Thanks.”
    “Can I come in?”
    I shrugged, and he followed me in. My flat is rather small, just one room with an open-plan kitchen, then a bedroom and postage-stamp bathroom, but it was all mine.
    Well, actually, it was my mother’s, because she inherited it from my nannan, but it was mostly mine. I paid rent and everything.
    I dropped my bag on the floor and went through to the bedroom, picking up comfort clothes as I went and changing in the bathroom. I wasn’t sure I entirely trusted Luke not to walk in on me, so I locked the door.
    “I’ve been waiting about an hour,” he said from the kitchen. I could hear the kettle being boiled. “It’s bloody freezing out there.”
    Poor baby. I threw my uniform in a pile on the floor and kicked it.
    “I didn’t think they’d keep you so long.”
    “Yeah,” I called back, opening the airing cupboard and switching the heating on to max, “well, they did.”
    “It wasn’t all necessary.”
    Now he tells me.
    I stomped through to the kitchen with my muddy clothes, pushed past Luke and dumped them straight in the washing machine. So the colors might run. Did I look as if I gave a crap?
    “Hey—” he caught my shoulder as I turned to the kettle, “—are you sure you’re all right?”
    I shrugged. “Yeah. Nothing a hot bath won’t cure.”
    “You look like hell.”
    “Thanks.” I picked up the coffee jar, then thought better of it and got the hot chocolate out instead. Then I ran some hot water in the sink, got out my first aid kit and rolled up my sleeve.
    “Shit,” Luke grabbed my arm, and I winced. “What happened?”
    “Nothing. Just a bit of glass. Nothing.”
    He narrowed his eyes at me. “Those two broken windows…”
    “Had to stop him somehow.”
    “Did you really smash them with a wheel chock?”
    I gave him a sullen look and reached for the cotton wool to wipe