Woman in the Water. Katerina Diamond

       Chapter Twenty-Five

      Since Imogen and Adrian had started dating, things had definitely changed at work. As they drove out to Reece Corrigan’s home address, Imogen found her cheeks warming as she watched Adrian drive. She had never really thought about how attractive he was, as if the mere fact of her thinking about it might inflate his ego. He was a more cautious driver than her, didn’t seem to wander off in his own head as much as she did. He was definitely more at peace than he had been in a long time. Since his last girlfriend, Lucy, was murdered in connection with an investigation they were conducting last year.

      She remembered when they’d met, how she had assumed so much about him and yet within just a few hours they were completely at ease with each other. You don’t get that every day. Imogen knew that this could get tiresome at some point. That one day she might not want to spend the day with the person she spends her nights with, but for now it was easy, it felt right. These moments together in the car were her favourite, she had no idea why.

      ‘Do you think the DCI knows about us?’ Imogen said.

      ‘No, I don’t, do you?’

      ‘I can’t imagine her not pulling us up on it. What would you do if she does?’

      ‘Then we deal with it, I guess. I’ll move, if she wants, to another department, another team or something.’

      ‘You would do that?’ Imogen said, taken aback by the very idea.

      ‘Why not? Wouldn’t you?’

      ‘I feel like I’m just getting settled here and don’t really want to change again. I like the way things are.’

      ‘I like it too, but I think I like you more. I’ve been here since I started, maybe a change would be good for me.’

      ‘I wouldn’t want to feel responsible for that.’

      ‘I know, but you wouldn’t be. I have thought about this before. After losing Lucy and now finding myself with you … I know I hadn’t been with her long, but it was the first time in a long time that I thought I was capable of a real relationship. When she died, I thought that was it for me. No more chances. Sometimes you just have to decide what you want most – and I know you’re more important to me than this job.’

      ‘Where would you go?’ she said, surprised that he had given this any thought at all.

      ‘I have no idea. Maybe I could train new recruits for a while, or maybe I could move to canine division.’

      ‘Dogs?’

      ‘What’s wrong with dogs?’

      ‘Nothing. You’ve just never mentioned it before.’

      ‘It could be time for a change, anyway. I don’t want to piss off the DCI and who knows, maybe you’ll like me even more?’

      ‘Not sure that’s possible.’ She smiled.

      He put his hand on her knee and squeezed. This felt like an unusually mature approach to the situation from Adrian, Lord knows he wasn’t usually so level-headed and measured when dealing with matters of the heart. They had been through a lot together over the last couple of years and she had seen him at both ends of the spectrum, high and low. There was no doubt that he had grown and changed into a different person. She liked to think she was at least partially responsible for that.