Streetwise (34 page)

Ava lay still on the bed while the doctor and nurse fussed around her, examining the gunshot wound in her hip and the cut to her head that she’d got when she’d fallen against the door at Beast. With her eyes, she followed the doctor’s fingers as he checked her line of vision. She’d been lucky. She knew she had. If Silver had raised the gun just a little bit higher, she could have been lying in an entirely different place.

Outside the door, DI Valerie Middleton was waiting to talk to her. Silver Delaney was dead and there were questions to be answered. She thought about Silver and shivered. What had happened to that girl to turn her into the monster she’d become? Ava didn’t want to think about it.

Tash had been in earlier and told her about Noah Clark’s confession. That was good. It meant Chris was in the clear. No more running, no more hiding. Ava had talked to her dad on the phone. He’d wanted to visit too, but she’d ordered him to stay at home and keep his germs to himself. She’d be out in a day or two and then everything would get back to normal. Except, would it? The threat that DS Higgs had made still lay heavily on her mind. Would they arrest him for the robbery at Finian’s? She hoped and prayed that they wouldn’t.

After ten minutes, the medical staff pronounced her likely to live and left her alone in the room. She waited for the inspector to appear, dreading the moment, but knowing that it couldn’t be avoided. The experience would have to be relived, the horror revisited. But then, then it would be over and she might finally get some sleep.

As she mentally prepared herself for the forthcoming interview, it suddenly occurred to her that Chris had told her that the gun he’d taken into Wilder’s wasn’t loaded. Had he been lying or had Silver put the bullets in herself? She stirred slightly, felt the pain in her hip and winced. Men like Chris lied about all sorts of things. It didn’t do to trust them, to put much faith in what came out of their mouths.

Several more minutes passed before she heard a small commotion in the corridor. There was the sound of footsteps, of voices slightly raised. DI Middleton said, ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t go in there —’

‘Ten minutes,’ a male voice said. ‘It’s the least you can do after falsely accusing me of murder.’

Ava recognised that voice, and a few seconds later she recognised the face too. Chris Street strode into the room and grinned at her. He was wearing his long dark overcoat and his hair was damp from the rain. ‘Up for visitors?’ he said. He held out a brown paper bag. ‘I come bearing gifts. Or grapes, as it happens. Do you like grapes?’

‘You’re back.’

‘I am indeed.’ He put the bag on the table and perched on the edge of the bed. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like I’ve been shot.’

He frowned. ‘I suppose this means you won’t be at work tomorrow.’

‘Due to circumstances beyond my control.’

‘That’s the trouble these days. You can’t get the staff. If they’re not reversing your Merc into a wall, they’re out there getting themselves shot.’

A smile flickered at the corners of her mouth. ‘Sorry to inconvenience you. Perhaps you could ask your brother to choose his girlfriends more wisely in the future.’

‘I can ask, but I can’t promise anything.’

Ava suddenly became serious again. ‘Look, I need to know something before the cops come in.’ Quickly, she told him about DS Higgs and the threat to arrest her father if she didn’t come clean as to Chris’s whereabouts. ‘Do you think they will? Do you think they’ll charge him?’

‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘I don’t. If the delightful DS Higgs does have any evidence, she’ll be burying it right now. She’s not going to want you telling the world what she threatened to do. It won’t look good for her if you make a complaint.’

‘Are you sure you’re right?’

‘I’m always right.’

Ava relaxed a little. She moved her head on the pillow and gazed up at him. She felt a faint tingling that she put down to the drugs she’d been given. ‘So are you okay?’

‘Right as rain.’ His face suddenly grew solemn. ‘I owe you one.’

‘That’s what friends do,’ she said. ‘Watch out for one another.’

He gave her a long lingering look, his gaze travelling over her face and searching out her eyes. ‘Is that what we are – friends?’

Ava felt a light blush rise to her cheeks. She didn’t answer him directly; she still needed time to sort out how she felt. ‘But you’re right, you do owe me. Sixty quid, as it happens. You still haven’t coughed up for that ticket the cops gave me.’