I'll keep you safe

Chapter 146

Once she had dropped Rose off at the Young Offenders Institute, Rachel made the ten minute trip down the road to the office of Denzil's solicitor.

Bolton and Paul had sat quietly throughout the whole trip. Rachel hoped Bolton was thinking over his choices and would change his mind. She doubted it of course. Bolton was just as stubborn as she was. It would take something big to make him rethink, like a miracle.

Once they had entered the office building and signed in, they sat in the Reception area to wait. Well, Bolton and Paul sat down. Rachel stood opposite them, pacing up and down as she took deep breaths to calm the nausea that was bubbling in her stomach again.

She jumped as her phone beeped in her pocket. To her relief, it was a text message from Eddie:

"Rearranged your appointment to tonight at 6:30pm xx"

She was glad he had done that, especially when looked at the time and realised it was already 3:50pm. Where was the time going today?

"Miss Mason?"

Rachel turned to the woman with curly ginger hair. She returned her warm smile.

"Yes, that's me"

"I'm Miss Browitt, Denzil's Solicitor"

Rachel shook her hand.

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice"

"No problem at all"

Rachel turned to Bolton and Paul.

"Boys, this is Miss Browitt, she's Denzil's Solicitor"

Paul smiled politely at her. Bolton didn't acknowledge her at all, keeping his eyes on the wall opposite him.

"Which one of you boys is Paul?" Miss Browitt asked

Paul quietly raised his hand.

"Thanks for coming in" Miss Browitt said, smiling at him reassuringly

Paul nodded.

"There are a couple of things I need to warn you about. First, when you sign your affidavit, you will be admitting to withholding evidence. Second, you will be expected to explain what you say in front of a Court. Unless they're persuaded that you were intimidated by Earl, you could face charges yourselves. Are you still willing to proceed?"

Paul thought for a moment before nodding. His eyes flicked to Bolton, whose face was empty of emotion as he stared at the wall. There was no chance of persuading him, he knew that now.

"Perhaps you could have a word?" Miss Browitt whispered to Rachel, nodding toward Bolton

Rachel wanted to tell her she had already tried, as had everyone else. She'd figured that fear was Bolton's motivator for continuing to stay silent. And she didn't just mean fear of the story of what happened with him, Paul and Earl getting out, that was only part of it. The other part of his fear was talking to the Solicitor. She'd hoped that once they'd got into the building and Miss Browitt had introduced herself, that Bolton would relax a little and change his mind. But right now, he wasn't playing ball.

She wanted to say it was hopeless trying to get through to him. But, somehow, she found herself nodding at Miss Browitt. She hadn't quite given up on Bolton yet. Until they were leaving the Solicitor's, there was still a chance she could get through to him.

Miss Browitt stepped through the double doors to give them some privacy. Rachel paced a little, gathering her courage to have another battle with Bolton.

"What is it with you, Bolton? Hm? Haven't you got enough people putting themselves on the line here?"

Silence.