CRIME ON THE FENS a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (25 page)

‘You’re a good boy, Swampy,’ she ruffled the fur under his chin, ‘and if I had half your intelligence, I’d have been here a day ago, after I saw you running across the marsh.’

‘Any change, ma’am?’ asked Cat.

‘No damn it! We just need those paramedics.’

‘Should we try to get her out of this damp hole, do you think?’

Nikki chewed on the inside of her cheek. ‘I’d love to, but no, I don’t think we should move her. We don’t know what injuries she may have. Better we leave her to the medics.’

‘Pity we can’t scramble the helicopter,’ said Niall with a boyish glint in his eye.

‘Nice one, Numpty!’ said Cat, with a hopeless expression on her face. ‘We’re in the middle of a marsh, with nowhere to land, and the rotor blades would bring what’s left of this dump down on us like a pack of cards.’

‘Ah, good point.’

‘Shut up, you two and do some police work while we wait.’ Nikki glanced around. ‘Did the scumbag who brought her here leave her food or water?’

‘There are some plastic water bottles, ma’am,’ said Cat. ‘And a few empty sandwich boxes. Anything your side, Niall?’

‘A syringe and a needle. Maybe he drugged her, the wicked sod.’

‘Bag them.’ Nikki checked her wrists and ankles. ‘At least she wasn’t tied up. Just imprisoned.’

‘So how did fur-face get in?’ Cat looked around.

‘Here.’ Niall pointed to a small channel where some sort of pipe work had once led out to the stream. ‘Certainly not big enough for even a little kid to get through, and it’s concrete, so she couldn’t have enlarged the hole in any way.’

‘How much longer?’ cursed Nikki. ‘If we don’t get help soon, we’ll only be needing a body bag to take her out in.’

‘They’ll be here, ma’am,’ said Cat calmly, ‘And soon, there’s no one better behind a wheel than our Vonnie.’

And a few minutes later, they heard the sirens scream across the bleak and brooding marsh.

‘Thank God.’ Nikki felt the anguish begin to melt away. ‘And she’s still with us, so she has a chance.’

As the green uniforms came down the steps, Nikki thought that maybe for the first time ever, she had something to thank Frankie Doyle for.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

‘This hospital has more people in it that I know, than the bloody nick! Visiting time is taking me hours!’ Nikki handed Joseph a large bag of seedless grapes. ‘Thought you’d start carping on if I forgot them again.’ She smiled down at him. ‘How goes it?’

‘Fair to middling, as my mum used to say, but I’m starting to get suspicious about what they are doing with all the blood they keep taking from me.’ He eased himself higher in the bed, and winced. ‘And my gut is still tender as hell.’

‘Ah, then you’d better give me that fruit back. Maybe they weren’t such a good idea after all.’ She moved a chair up to the bed, sat down next to him and pulled a small cluster from the bunch of grapes. ‘Everyone sends their love, or their regards, delete which is not applicable.’ Nikki bit into a grape. ‘So . . . any news on when they are going to discharge you?’

Joseph pulled a face. ‘Five, maybe six days. Things aren’t operating quite normally yet, and some liver function test was not quite what they expected either.’

‘More blood tests?’

He nodded glumly. ‘I know I should be just happy to be alive, but my boredom threshold is pretty low. I need to be doing something.’

‘How about concentrating on getting better?’

‘Done that. I’m improving by the hour! Oh, and how’s Kerry?’

‘That’s one resilient kid! If it hadn’t been for Kris Brown’s dog, I’m not sure she’d have made it.’ Nikki grinned. ‘I saw her earlier, and she was raving on about the light/shade juxtapositions in the Coggin’s Cottage cellar! Can you believe it, she actually wants to go back there and photograph the place for her final project?’

‘Incredible! But I wish her well.’ Joseph moved uncomfortably. ‘Have you pieced together what actually happened to her yet?’

‘More or less,’ said Nikki with her mouth full. ‘Nice grapes. Sorry about that gut of yours. Now, just prior to Kerry’s abduction, Fluke III mugged Kris Brown, nicked his wallet to make it look good, but actually took his mobile phone.’

‘Ah, that answers a lot. Texting her, luring her up to the seabank, and diverting the suspicion to Kris.’

‘Spot on. And lucky for them that Kris was a bit of a weirdo. I was
so
unhappy with that boy, but it turns out he was always obsessive, then his father’s death made him ten times worse. He watches the heavens to be closer to his dad.’ Nikki looked slightly abashed. ‘I may just have to make a few apologies there.’

Joseph smiled. ‘You were pretty hard on him. But going back to Kerry, why didn’t Fluke kill her?’

‘Fluke’s II and III were the worker ants, it wasn’t in their remit to murder, just cause chaos.’

‘So why kill Lisa Jane?’

‘I’m afraid that was simply a whim on the part of Frankie Doyle. Jealousy and spite. Lisa Jane was all the things that Frankie was not. Beautiful, and loved by her family.’

‘So no vendetta? No take-over? No revenge on the Leonard family for past crimes?’

‘Nope, just a twisted, bitter woman without a scrap of humanity in her heart, if she has one.’ Nikki thought how right Rory Wilkinson, the pathologist, had been when he said she would have “a heart as cold as a gravedigger’s shovel.”

‘And Stephen Cox? The original Fluke?’

Nikki’s face darkened. ‘Disappeared.’

‘With a face like that! How on earth did he manage that?’

‘Beats me. But I really wouldn’t want to be him right now.’

‘What, with the entire British police forces hunting him?’

‘No, because Archie Leonard has offered a reward. A strictly unethical and totally below board offer, you understand. Right now, the Carborough looks like Dodge City, with
Wanted! Dead or Alive
posters everywhere! The faster we take them down, the quicker they spring back up again!’

‘Sounds like a bit of light relief actually,’ said Joseph.’

‘It shouldn’t be, but it is. Oh, and we are running a Mask Amnesty! Boxes of the ugly buggers have been handed in over the last few days! Mainly by furious parents, it has to be said. We are going to have a ritual burning at some point.’ Nikki glanced at her watch.

‘Great! You’ve eaten my grapes, now you want to go.’ Joseph endeavoured to look miffed.

‘Not without giving you these.’ She reached into her bag, pulled out three copies of the Beano and threw them on the bed. ‘Guess who sent you those?’

Joseph’s face brightened immediately. ‘How’s he doing?’

‘Brilliantly. He could go home soon, but . . .’ Nikki shrugged.

‘Social Services?’

‘Not sure yet, I’m working on a few ideas.’

Joseph tilted his head to one side, ‘And they are?’

‘You’ll be the first to know, if I come up with something more suitable for him.’ She smiled. ‘And now, I really do have to go.’

‘To see Hannah? How is she?’

Nikki looked at him but didn’t answer for a moment. Then she smiled again and said, ‘Fancy a trip in a wheelchair?’

* * *

‘I’ve never brought anyone here.’ Nikki said softly, as she gently stroked her daughter’s hair.

Joseph watched the girl, and Nikki noticed a tear glistening in the corner of his eye.

‘It’s disconcerting at first, but you get used to it,’ she said. ‘Don’t we, Hannah?’

There was no response.

‘She seems to be awake, but there’s no signs of awareness are there? Can she hear us?’ asked Joseph.

‘They say not. They say she is completely unaware of her surroundings, but I’m not convinced.’ Nikki took Hannah’s hand and gently massaged her fingers. ‘She breathes for herself, she goes into a sleep cycle, and she wakes up, but it’s widely accepted that any other movements or noises she makes are just involuntary.’

‘This must be so hard for you.’ Joseph’s voice crackled with emotion.

‘It was worse when she was in the coma. At least this is a slightly better neurological situation.’

‘Nikki! Hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you come in.’

‘Hi, Bob.’ She turned and indicated towards Joseph. ‘This is a colleague of mine, skiving off active duty at present. Joseph, Bob Trainer, one of Hannah’s ministering angels. Or one of her specialist nurses, as they like to be called. So, how’s my girl doing today?’

‘I was just going to bathe her. She had a great workout with the physio earlier, didn’t you, Han?’

‘We’d better leave you then,’ said Nikki.

‘No hurry. Have you got a moment before you go, Nikki? Hannah’s consultant asked me to give you a letter if I saw you. It’s in the office.’

Nikki’s heart lurched in her chest.
Please, not like this, not after all this time. Surely not in a letter!
Somehow she kept it together, and said, ‘Would you stay with her Joseph, just for a minute or two?’

‘My pleasure. Time we got acquainted. I’ve got
such
a lot to tell this girl about her mother.’

* * *

Nikki followed the nurse into the office. ‘Do you know what the letter is about, Bob?’

She tried to keep the tremor out of her voice.

‘I do actually. And I know he also wants to talk to you personally about it.’

A shiver rippled from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. She wasn’t ready for this. Not on top of everything else that had happened recently. ‘And?’

Bob Trainer smiled at her. ‘We did a functional MRI scan yesterday.’

‘I know, I consented for it, but I didn’t know you’d done it already.’

‘It threw up some very slight differences from the last one we did.’

Nikki stared at him. ‘For the better, or . . .’

Bob rubbed his hands together. ‘Let’s just say that her consultant, Mr Leyton, has been in touch with the cognition and brain sciences unit at Cambridge. He wants to do further tests and he wants their expertise. That’s what this letter is, an explanation and a consent form for you to sign. He would have spoken to you himself, but he’s in Liege in Belgium at the university. He’s taken Hannah’s case to them for review.’

For a moment Nikki felt as though she would pass out.

‘You know that this is not a cure, Nikki, don’t you?’ He looked at her seriously, as he handed her the envelope. ‘But we do believe that she has some new brain activity that we
may
be able to stimulate.’ He exhaled, then added, ‘Just don’t expect too much, she’s been in this state a very long time, and that’s not good, but . . .’

Nikki tried to stop herself grabbing the man and hugging him. ‘But, it just may be an early sign of recovery?’

‘I wouldn’t go that far, but stranger things have happened in medical science.’

‘If nothing else, it’s a reprieve, isn’t it?’

‘Oh yes! It’s that for sure.’

As Nikki walked back to Hannah’s room, she felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted from her. It was the smallest improvement, a tiny drop in the ocean, but it
was
a step forward, not another backward slide. She felt as if someone had given her a little piece of her daughter back.

At the door, she paused and looked in.

Joseph sat, with Hannah’s hand in his, and chatted comfortably with her. She saw him talk, then smile, then laugh, as if they were sharing some secret joke. And who was to say that they weren’t?

Nikki stepped back from the door and watched them unnoticed.

Joseph was a natural with Hannah. She thought of Mickey Smith, and the way that Joseph had handled him. Hyperactive, or not, he had got through to the boy, and very quickly.

She then saw him take a tissue from a box beside the bed, and carefully wipe the corner of Hannah’s mouth. He was good man, and those around him should see past the rumours and the gossip and see the real Joseph Easter.

Nikki took a deep breath. He deserved better. Especially from his own family.

EPILOGUE

It was called the Garden of Tranquillity. Lots of hospitals have them, if you know where to look. Greenborough’s was set at the back of the chapel, and could be accessed either by a door from the chapel, or by a long straight pathway that led from the car park.

In the centre, was a rectangular fish pond, its surface interlaced with oriental looking pink water-lilies, and a scattering of tiny lime-green duck-weed. All around were tall, scented shrubs and beds of brightly coloured summer plants. It was well kept, but Nikki had hardly ever seen it used. Which was a shame in one way, but when Hannah had first been brought here, it served as a private place for her to bring her broken heart, and cry unnoticed.

Today, as she entered the garden, she didn’t feel sad. She felt excited, almost elated, but part of her was as nervous as a school kid waiting for A-level results.

With a rueful smile on her face, she walked across to a wooden bench with a faded brass plaque on it, sat down and wondered if she had done the right thing.

But there again, she had done rather a lot of quite radical things in the last few days, and most of them were still open to question.

The first thing she had done was to ring her landlord and give him a month’s notice on her grim little ‘bijou residence’ in the town. She had then driven out to Cloud Fen, taking with her a builder and a decorator, and told them that they had four weeks to get her old home liveable again. She knew it would mean a very different work schedule for her, living back out on the marsh, but she also knew it was time for changes.

In the last few days, she had done a lot of hard thinking.

The dark thoughts and intentions that she had harboured when in that small room with Frankie Doyle, had scared her badly. If she had continued with her old crusade, if she had travelled much further down that ever-spiralling pathway of bitterness and revenge, without ever being forced to take a look at herself, what would she have done in that room?

Nikki shifted uncomfortably. It was the fact that she really didn’t know, that had sparked off her new mission, to make some big life choices, some big life changes. Before it was too late.

The second thing she had done was to champion the cause of Mickey Smith. There had been no way on God’s earth he could have gone back to his ‘family,’ and Nikki had been certain that a foster home was not appropriate, considering what the child had gone through. So, she had approached Archie Leonard. To an outsider it may have seemed like madness, but Nikki knew quite a lot of well-kept secrets about the Leonard family, and in particular one that involved Archie’s youngest son. Peter wasn’t a rogue, like most of his family. He had a home, a wife and a small business of his own. And the previous year, he had lost his only son, a boy with severe learning difficulties. The death had left a big aching chasm in the little family’s life, and she had no doubt that, given the chance, Mickey could go part of the way to healing it. And let’s face it, Mickey had been brought up rough, very rough. He was at home on the Carborough, and this was something that Peter understood, given his own background. Give Mickey to a nice, middle-class family, and he’d be running riot in no time! So she’d arranged a month’s ‘holiday’ for him. It may not work, but it was worth a try, for Mickey’s sake.

A warm breeze blew across Nikki’s face, and brought with it the smell of orange blossom. There had been an orange blossom tree at her old home. She wondered if it were still alive after being neglected for so long. She hoped so. She inhaled its perfume, and it made her think of happier times. Nikki sighed. She was making changes alright, but it was too soon to think that happy times may come round again, although she would dearly love that to happen. One day.

She glanced at her watch. Joseph was meeting her here in just about ten minutes, and she had some news for him. The problem was, she was not sure if it would be welcome news.

As soon as the doctor’s had assured him that, in time, he would make a full recovery, she had gone to Rick Bainbridge and asked if he would consider assigning Joseph to her team, as her permanent detective sergeant. The super had practically tripped over his own tongue in saying yes, but it would all hinge on Joseph. His time in Greenborough had been hardly peaceful, and whereas once she couldn’t wait for him to high-tail it back to Fenchester, now she felt very different.

She touched the delicate petal of a rose that grew close to the seat. If Joseph hadn’t been with her, even if only in her mind, in that stark and dangerous room, she may not be sitting here now, smelling flowers. Because no way could she have continued as a police officer knowing that she had consigned another human being, and she used the term loosely in Doyle’s case, to a violent death. To protect life, that was what it was all about.

The rose felt like silk to her fingertips. She desperately hoped he would agree to stay. It was all part of her plan for a new attitude to policing her patch, and if he didn’t, well, she wasn’t too sure how she’d manage. She pursed her lips, and gave a little shrug. She’d know soon enough
.

Nikki leaned back, closed her eyes, and breathed in slowly. It was so good to be alone like this, with the breeze and the flowers and birds singing. It was very different to the kind of ‘alone’ that she used to enjoy, in dark alleys, waiting for another drug dealer to walk into her trap. Oh, she’d still go after them, and she’d still catch them and lock them up, but that would just be a part of her life, not all of it.

The sound of footsteps dragged her from her reverie. She cursed under her breath, she had hoped to get time alone with Joseph. She’d never really told him that he had been the pivotal point in how she dealt with Frankie Doyle, and she felt that he deserved to know.

She opened her eyes and squinted in the sunlight. A figure was moving towards her from the lane. A young woman; tall and willowy, with a light brown hair and a curtain of a fringe hanging across one eye.

Nikki took a shaky breath, and looked again. She had not dared to believe this would really happen, but as the girl came closer, there was no doubt.
My God!
she thought, s
he’s actually come!

Because that was the last, and probably the most radical thing that Nikki had done in her busy three days.

It hadn’t been easy, but somehow she had traced her halfway round the world, and then, ironically, found her in London of all places. The girl had made no promises, but she
had
listened to what Nikki had to say, and Nikki had asked no more of her. Just told her where and when she could find him.

She looked up at the girl, and smiled.

Tamsin had her father’s eyes. Nikki hoped that she also had his capacity to understand and to forgive.

‘Thank you. You won’t regret this,’ Nikki whispered, then she heard the door to the chapel open. ‘Time for me to go.’

She slipped quietly out into the lane and walked swiftly towards the car park. It was
so
hard not to take a look back, but this was their time, not hers.

She unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat. Joseph had said it would take a miracle to reconcile him with his daughter. So, no one knew what this meeting would bring, but it could be that miracle. And if Joseph could have one, maybe she could too?

Nikki slipped the key into the ignition and smiled. One day at a time. Right now she’d settle for a permanent detective sergeant for her team, and if Joseph Easter didn’t want the job, he’d better have a damn good reason for turning her down!

THE END