Father Unknown (48 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

Joel saw Daisy’s Beetle in the car park of Askwith Court and parked next to it, then ran straight round to the front entrance and rang the bell. When he got no reply from Flat 9, he rang the bell of Flat 8.

‘It’s the police,’ he said when a woman spoke on the entryphone. ‘May I come up and speak to you?’

The door opened with a hiss, and Joel raced up the stairs. When he reached the top, a middle-aged man and a woman were standing outside their front door looking a little puzzled.

He explained he was looking for the owner of the blue Volkswagen parked outside and that she must have been visiting their neighbour, Miss Pengelly.

The couple exchanged glances. ‘Someone did call on Miss Pengelly around quarter to six,’ the man said. ‘We heard voices. But she went out later on. I heard a noise and looked out to see what it was. Miss Pengelly was just going down the stairs with a suitcase.’

Joel ascertained they hadn’t actually seen Daisy and that they didn’t know Miss Pengelly well. They said she kept herself to herself.

Joel knew it was feasible Daisy had gone with Ellen, but he thought it unlikely. He also knew if he broke into Ellen’s flat and Daisy wasn’t there, he’d be in serious trouble. But he was prepared to take that risk.

‘I’ve got to check Miss Pengelly’s flat, so I’m going to force the door,’ he explained to the startled man, ‘I’d be grateful if you’d come in with me in case I need a witness.’

The door was a strong one and didn’t yield to his shoulder. But a hard kick opened it. Joel went in with the neighbour close behind him.

It was immediately obvious Ellen had made a hasty departure. The bedroom door was open and clothes, shoes and other belongings were strewn about, wardrobe doors and drawers left open. The door into the lounge was closed, but as Joel opened it and switched on the light, he saw Daisy lying bound on the settee, blood splattered everywhere.

‘Oh my God!’ the neighbour exclaimed in horror. ‘Is she dead? Did Miss Pengelly do this?’

Joel was every bit as horrified, but he was in no mood now to answer questions. ‘Call the emergency service,’ he ordered, already bending over Daisy and feeling for a pulse. ‘She’s alive, but only just, so make them hurry. Tell them she’s been viciously assaulted and has a bad head wound. Hurry!’

As the man disappeared, Joel knelt down beside Daisy and gently removed the scarf used as a gag. She was lying on her side, the wound on the side of her head already congealing. Her hands and feet were tied clumsily with a single piece of tow-rope.

‘Can you hear me, Daisy?’ he asked, even though she was unconscious. He felt sick with fright for her, for the wound looked very serious. ‘It’s Joel. I love you, baby, and I’m going to get you to hospital.’

Nurse Franklin approached Daisy’s bed. Daisy’s head was swathed in bandages, her face was almost as white as the sheets, and she had a drip in one arm.

‘You’ve got a visitor, Daisy,’ she said gently, for her patient hadn’t been conscious for very long. ‘It’s your sister, I said she could have just a minute with you.’

It was now Monday morning. Daisy had been rushed to University College Hospital on Saturday evening and had been operated on immediately to remove small fragments of bone embedded in the head wound. Joel, John and the twins had kept a vigil in the waiting-room all that night and most of Sunday. They had only gone home in the evening once the nursing staff had convinced them she was out of danger.

‘Lucy?’ Daisy said weakly. She was still very confused about what had happened to her.

‘Yes, Lucy,’ said the nurse. ‘The poor girl looks frantic. But then all your family and that lovely man of yours have been here all weekend. We had to chase them all out last night so they could get some rest.’

A few seconds after the nurse had gone, Daisy saw Lucy hovering at the foot of her bed. Even though her vision was slightly out of focus and her mind confused, she could sense her sister was distraught.

‘It’s okay,’ she managed to whisper. ‘I’m all in one piece.’

Lucy came round to the side of the bed and bent over her, gingerly trying to hug her. ‘It’s been the worst weekend of my life,’ she gasped out. ‘I couldn’t believe what that woman did to you.’

Daisy only knew what Ellen did to her because the nurse had told her when she first came round. She certainly wasn’t up to discussing it yet.

She lifted the hand without the drip in it, and tentatively touched the bandages around her head. ‘Have they cut off my hair?’ she asked in a whisper.

‘Some of it, round the wound,’ Lucy said. ‘But don’t worry about that, it will soon grow again. You’ll be as good as new in no time.’

Even through the fog in her mind Daisy was aware Lucy was terribly afraid she wouldn’t be. ‘I’m so glad you came,’ she managed to get out. ‘I’m sorry if I’m not really with it.’

‘Just to see you awake and hear you speaking is enough,’ Lucy blurted out, and bent closer to her. ‘That’s why I came alone. You see, when I thought I was going to lose you, it made me see how much I love you. I knew I must tell you.’

Confused and groggy as Daisy was, Lucy’s words struck right through to her heart. She was deeply touched that her little sister who was always in control, so unemotional, could be moved enough to express her feelings.

‘Bless you, Lucy,’ Daisy whispered, and her eyes filled with tears.

The nurse came back and said they’d had long enough. Daisy felt Lucy kiss her cheek and squeeze her hand and she was gone.

By the time Tom and John came in much later in the day, Daisy was a little more alert. Some of the events of Saturday afternoon and early evening were coming back to her, though a little jumbled, and she wanted them to fill in the gaps. After reassuring them she was feeling better, she asked a few questions.

Her father ran through what he’d found out from Mavis’s granddaughter, and told her how he rang Joel for his advice.

‘It was Joel who went over to Ellen’s and kicked the door in,’ John explained. ‘Thank heavens I phoned him, Daisy. If I’d just rung the police they would have told me to wait at least twenty-four hours.’

He didn’t have to add that would have been too late. Daisy could see it in the concern on his face.

‘So he found me?’ she said. ‘One of the nurses said something about my boyfriend, but I was too dopey to take that in. After the way I treated him I didn’t deserve rescuing.’

‘He still loves you,’ Tom chimed in. ‘If you’d heard his voice when he rang to tell us you were in hospital! He sounded like he was crying.’

Daisy mulled that over for a moment or two. ‘Do you know what happened to Ellen?’

‘Joel wants to tell you that when he comes in tonight,’ Tom said. ‘But you’d better start calling her Josie. That’s who she really was, not your mother.’

John took Daisy’s hand in both his and stroked it. ‘It’s going to be hard for you to come to terms with all this,’ he said soothingly. ‘I know you got very attached to her, but remember we are your real family, and we’ll be there for you through it all.’

After they’d gone Daisy lay there trying to piece everything together. She could remember driving to Askwith Court and the events with Mavis which preceded it. She also remembered suddenly realizing that Mavis had been right, the woman she thought was her mother had to be Josie or she wouldn’t be packing to run off somewhere. Yet she didn’t remember being attacked.

The doctor had said earlier that head wounds like hers often resulted in complete amnesia and the fact she could remember most of what happened was an excellent sign. Yet Daisy almost wished she had lost her memory, it was embarrassing to think how she’d raved to her family about the woman, and now she’d turned out to be a murderess. So much for her judgement of character!

Yet after cringing with shame for some time, Daisy came to see that embarrassing was all it was. Not painful really, for now she could look back objectively on the time spent with Ellen/Josie, she could see with some relief that she hadn’t exactly bonded with her. She had liked her, admired her business acumen, her taste and her aura of glamour, but there wasn’t anything about her that had made Daisy feel ‘Now I know where that came from’ or the sense of completeness she’d expected. In fact the woman had been something of an enigma right from the start.

By the time Joel came into the ward at seven-thirty that evening, Daisy was feeling very much better. Her head ached, she didn’t like lying down flat, but her vision was perfect again and she was far less confused.

Yet as she saw him coming in hesitantly, almost dwarfed by a huge bouquet of flowers, she suddenly felt choked up. He looked more handsome and fit than she remembered, a tight black tee-shirt and jeans showing off his muscular body. A drastic hair-cut emphasized his rugged face. He had rushed to her aid without a second thought. She had made some very bad judgements about him too.

‘Hello, Action Man,’ she said as he approached her bed. ‘I should be sending you flowers for rescuing me, not you bringing them to me.’

‘I’m not the flower kind.’ He smiled a little shyly and she noticed that his brown eyes were still as lovely as she’d thought when they first met. ‘I’m just happy that you look pleased to see me. Or is that just a polite facade?’

‘No, it’s not,’ she said, and blushed furiously. ‘I’m sorry I was so…’ She paused, unable to think of the right word.

‘Stroppy?’ he suggested, and grinned. Daisy thought he looked gorgeous.

‘That’ll do,’ she smiled. ‘Now, put those lovely flowers over there and sit down. Dad told me you were going to tell me about what happened to Josie.’

He put the bouquet down on the bed table, and pulled up a chair. ‘How are you feeling, first?’ he said.

‘Sore head, getting bored already,’ she replied flippantly. ‘Tell me.’

A shadow crossed his face. ‘I thought I knew how I was going to tell you when I came in,’ he sighed. ‘But now I’m here, it’s tougher.’

‘She’s been nicked and she’s in prison?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘She’s dead, Daisy.’

He told her about it all in a rush. Early on Sunday morning, Josie’s car with her still strapped into the seat-belt was found stuck in the mud at a place called Point about four miles from Truro. She had drowned.

‘Point is on the Restronquet creek. Apparently there’s a little old quay there from the times of the tin mines. She must have driven over the edge of it at high tide.’

Daisy knew roughly where that was, she’d been to a pub called the Pandora Inn on that creek while she was staying at St Mawes.

‘Are you saying it was accidental?’ she asked.

Joel shrugged. ‘I spoke to one of the team down in Truro that fished the car out and they don’t think so. It was tipping down on Saturday night, and there’s no street lighting at Point, but the sea is always visible and the quay at least partially fenced off. They said that even if she’d got on to it by mistake, or used it to turn the car, it’s too wide for an accident to happen. Besides, if it were an accident she’d surely have made an effort to get out of the car.’

‘But why kill herself that way? It must have been so slow waiting for the car to sink,’ Daisy said.

‘I think she must have been out of her mind,’ Joel said thoughtfully. ‘I’ve been thinking about it ever since I got the news. She must have intended to run for it when she left London, or she wouldn’t have taken so much stuff. But it was crazy going to Cornwall, the one place where people were likely to recognize her. So I reckon she flipped on the way. Maybe she’d kind of blanked out that she set that fire, but attacking you brought it all back with a vengeance. She must have known the game was up, and perhaps that freaked her out completely.’

Tears trickled down Daisy’s face.

‘I don’t know why I’m crying for her,’ she said, trying to stop. ‘She killed my mother, and did her best to kill me.’

Joel took out his handkerchief and tenderly wiped her eyes. ‘I’d have been disappointed in you if didn’t see a few tears, after the mammoth effort you made to find her and all it meant to you.’

Daisy looked at his face. She saw no animosity, nothing but concern for her, and she felt soothed.

‘If I hadn’t searched her out, no one would have ever known she was responsible for the fire. So why didn’t she tell me to get lost when I turned up?’ she asked him. ‘That would have been the smartest thing to have done.’

‘Maybe she was like me and didn’t see you were potential trouble straight off.’ Joel grinned. ‘Maybe because she’d acted out the role of Ellen for thirteen years, she actually believed she was her. Or maybe she was lonely and liked the idea of a daughter. She could also have been afraid you’d make waves if she sent you packing. But whatever her reasons, I think she must have been mad. What sane person would burn three people alive?’

Daisy remembered when she first called on Mavis and she’d said something to her about mad relatives. That reminded her what a turn the old lady had had when she recognized Josie.

‘Do you know how Mavis is?’ she asked.

He nodded. ‘I went to interview her this morning with another officer. She was of course very upset that you’d been hurt, but I think glad in a way to be proved right about Josie. She said both she and her husband had always thought there was something very fishy about the fire. She said in her opinion the police should have been more thorough in their investigations. But she’s a strong, bright old girl, she’s going to be fine. She said she was going home tomorrow and sent you her love.’

‘No one has told me when I can go home,’ Daisy said plaintively.

‘It won’t be for a while,’ Joel said. ‘You’ve had a very serious head wound. They have to check for brain damage.’

‘What brain?’ she said, and began to cry again. ‘I don’t see any evidence I’ve got one, losing you, chasing murderesses, alienating myself from my family.’

‘You haven’t alienated yourself from your family at all,’ he said stoutly. ‘And nor have you lost me. I’m here, aren’t I?’

‘But I’ve spoilt it.’

‘We’ll see when you are better.’ He bent down and kissed her on the lips. ‘Maybe we’ll have to start at the beginning again.’

Daisy’s recovery didn’t come as quickly as she’d expected. Shock set in soon after Joel’s visit, bringing with it nightmares, a high temperature and a very bad sore throat. After a fortnight in hospital she was sent on to a convalescent home in Sussex for a further three weeks. She tired easily, there were vicious headaches to contend with, and now and again she found herself falling into fits of deep depression when she didn’t want to speak to anyone and spent hours just staring into space.