When Will There Be Good News? (38 page)

'S weartogod.'

An ambulance arrived, surplus to requirements, like Joy. Another unnecessary one followed on behind, siren wailing. By now it looked like a major accident scene, traffic cones, lane closures, emergency vehicles, a lot of noise on the police radios, God knows how many attending officers, including a large incident van. Considering that no one was injured, not even walking wounded, the tension and excitement in the air seemed out ofproportion to the circumstances. Perhaps it was a slow day on the A1.

'I used to be a policeman,' he said to the officer who had breathalysed him.

He hadn't had much of a positive response to this statement lately but he wasn't expecting to be suddenly brought down by two officers who seemed to come out ofnowhere and who flattened him to the tarmac before he could say anything helpful, like 'Mind my arm because you're ripping my stitches out.' Luckily, Reggie had a good pair of lungs for someone so small and jumped up and down a lot asking them if they couldn't see his arm was in a sling and that he was an injured man -which didn't go down well with the army boys who wanted to know why he was driving at all then, but Reggie was more than a match for a bunch of squaddies. It was like watching a Jack Russell fending off a pack of Dobermanns.

A police radio crackled and he heard a voice say, 'Yeah, we've got the nominal here,' and Jackson wondered who the wanted man was that they'd collared. He sat on the road while Reggie inspected his arm. At least he wasn't pumping out blood like spilled petrol all over the road, just a couple of stitches out, although he still felt squeamish when he looked at the wound in his arm. Reggie was coaxed away by one
of the
paramedics and then, without warning, a police officer cuffed his good arm and, speaking into the radio on his shoulder, said, 'We're taking the nominal to hospital: so it turned out that Jackson was the wanted man. He couldn't think why but somehow it didn't surprise him.

Sitting in the A and E waltmg room in hospital in Darlington, bookended by two police officers as silent as funeral mutes, Jackso
n
pondered why they were treating him like a criminal. Driving o
n
someone else's licence? Kidnapping and beating up a mino
r
(I'm sixteen!)? What had happened to his unshakeable littl
e
Scottish shadow? He hoped she was giving his details to recepti
on and not locked up in custody somewhere. (The dog was i
n
the back of a police car awaiting a verdict on its immediat
e
future.) Not that Reggie knew his details. He had a wife and
a
child (two children) and a name. That was all anyone needed t
o
know really.

Another couple of uniforms put in an appearance and one of them cautioned him and passed on the interesting information that there was a warrant out for his arrest.

'Are you going to tell me why?'

'Failure to comply with the conditions imposed on you when you were released from prison.'

'You see, I'm not actually Andrew Decker,' Jackson said.

'That's what they all say, sir.'

He had a feeling it was going to take more than Reggie jumping up and down shouting to get them out of whatever trouble they were in. Where was a friendly policeman when you needed one? Detective Inspector Louise Monroe, for example, she would do nicely at this moment.

A phone rang, a mobile. The police officers both looked at Jackson and he shrugged. 'Don't have a phone,' he said. 'Don't have anything.'

Indicating the pile of bags that Reggie had left at his feet, one of the officers said, 'Well, it's in that bag,' in a tone of voice that for a brief, bizarre moment reminded Jackson of his first wife. With some difficulty -stitches ripped, good arm handcuffed to a police officer, etcetera, he extricated the phone from the front pocket of Reggie's backpack and answered it. 'Hello, hello?'

'It's me.'

Me? Who was me, he wondered.

'Louise.'

'That's amazing-' He got no further (I was just thinking about you) because the police officer who was handcuffed to him leaned over and pressed his finger on a button on the phone and ended the call.

'Mobiles aren't allowed in hospitals, Mr Decker,' he said with a look of satisfaction on his face. 'Of course, you might not know that, having been away for so long.'

'Away? Where've I been?'

Half an hour later, when he was still waiting for a doctor to look at his arm, she appeared in person, marching through the automatic doors ofA and E as ifshe was going to break them down ifthey didn't open fast enough. Jeans and a sweater and a leather jacket. Just right. He had forgotten how much he fancied her.

'The cavalry's arrived,' he murmured to his yellow-jacketed bookends.

'You've finally gone insane then?' she said testily to Jackson.

'We have to stop meeting like this,' he said. She was joined by a youthful sidekick who looked as if he would jump off a cliff if she told him to. He would do well, Louise liked obedience. She flashed her warrant at the bookends and said, 'I've come for the one-armed bandit. Uncuffhim.'

One of the bookends dug his heels in and said, 'We're waiting for the Doncaster police to come and get him. With respect, ma'am, he's out of your jurisdiction.'

'Trust me,' Louise said. 'This one is mine.'

Reggie appeared and said, 'Hello, Chief Inspector M.'

'You know her?' Jackson said to Reggie.

'You know him?' the sidekick said to Louise.

'We all know each other?' Reggie said. 'How's that for a coincidence?'

'A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen,' Jackson said and Louise said, 'Shut it, sunshine,' as if she was auditioning for The Sweeney. He put one uncuffed hand in the air and said, 'It's a fair cop, guv,' and she replied with a curse so black (and blue) that even the bookends blanched.

'Not to be a nuisance or anything,' Jackson said to her, 'but I need stitching up. If I haven't been already.'

'Enough of the comedy,' she said.

*

'Now what?' Jackson said when they finally made their escape. 'Fish and chips?' Reggie said hopefully. 'I'm starving.' 'No one eats in my car.'

Road Tri
p
'I GOT FOUR FISH SUPPERS, BOSS,' MARCUS SAID CLIMBING BACK IN
t
he car. 'I didn't know what to do about the dog but he can have some of my fish, although it'll be a wee bit hot for him just now.' 'A dog person, are you?' Louise said, but he failed to catch her sarcasm and said, 'Love 'em. They're everything people should be.'

He was in the front passenger seat, Jackson and Reggie in the back, the dog sitting awkwardly between them. Louise had suggested putting the dog in the boot, an idea that was received with a chorus of horror from Reggie and Marcus. 'Just kidding,' she said, although they clearly didn't believe her.

'Still a hard-hearted woman, I see,' Jackson said. 'You know tha
t
I'm not actually going in the same direction that you are.'

'How true. In so many ways.'

'If you could just drop me somewhere -a train station, a bu
s
station, the side of the road, anywhere really. I'm on my way home
,
to London.' 'Tough,' Louise said. 'You've committed a crime, several crimes actually. Obviously you're taking the stupid pills again -driving on a licence that isn't yours, driving when you're not fit to drive, what were you thinking? Let me guess, you weren't thinking at all. You'v
e
got mince for brains.'

'You haven't arrested me,' he said.

'Not yet.'

The Espace had been towed away, Louise had confiscated his driving licence -Andrew Decker's driving licence. It was obvious that neither Jackson nor Reggie had a clue who Andrew Decker was.

'So this,' Marcus turned and looked at Jackson, 'this is the guy in the hospital bed, the guy who was mistaken for Decker. Who keeps on being mistaken for Decker.' He blew on a chip to cool it down. 'And you know him, boss?'

'Unfortunately.' 'You never said. Shouldn't you have let the NorthYorkshire police charge him?' ('Ma'am,' one of the bookending officers had ventured, 'are you taking the prisoner back into custody?'

'He's not a prisoner,' Louise said. 'Just an idiot.')

'Yes I should. Anyone got any more questions to plague me with, or can I just drive?'

When they set off she claimed the driving seat before Marcus had a chance to offer to drive. Everyone in this car, as far as Louise was concerned, needed to know who was in charge.

'You look terrible,' she said, studying Jackson in the rear-view mirror. 'Even worse than you did earlier.'

'Earlier? When was there an earlier?'

'In your dreams,' she said.

'Congratulations,' Jackson said.

'On what?'

'Your promotion. And your marriage, of course.' She glanced round at him and he nodded at her wedding ring. She looked at her hand on the steering wheel, she could feel how tight the ring was on her finger. The diamond was back in the safe but she had kept her wedding ring on even though it was squeezing her flesh. A penance, like wearing a hair shirt. A hair shirt reminded you of your faith, a wedding ring that strangled your finger reminded you of your lack of it. Strangled, estranged -fat Hayley had been right, the words were very similar.

'You're married as well, apparently,' she said to him in the mirror. 'Sorry I didn't send a card or anything, that would be because -oh yes, you forgot to tell me.' She could feel Marcus cringing in the passenger seat next to her. Yeah, the grown-ups are fighting. Never pretty.

'It didn't take you long to get over Julia,' she carried on. 'Oh no, wait a minute, she cuckolded you, didn't she? Carrying another man's baby and all that
. T
hat must have made being dumped easier.' Jackson, rather admirably in Louise's unvoiced opinion, didn't rise to this remark. 'So don't even think about commenting on my relationships.'

'Your small talk hasn't improved,' he said, and then, unexpectedly, 'I missed you.'

'Not enough to stop you getting married.'

'You got married first.'

'I never had a full set of parents,' a small VOIce m the back interjected. 'I often wondered what it would be like.' 'Probably not like this,' Marcus said.

'The aunt, the aunt,' Reggie had chanted when she first saw Louise. 'The aunt lives in Hawes, it's not far away. We have to go and see if Dr Hunter's there. She's been kidnapped.'

'Well, not by the aunt, I can assure you of that,' Louise said.

Reggie's little face lit up. 'You're down here to see the aunt!You've spoken to Dr Hunter? You've seen the baby?' 'No.' The little face fell. 'No?' 'The aunt's dead.' 'She must have been very sick then,' Reggie said solemnly. 'Poor Dr Hunter.'

'She's been dead a while,' Louise admitted reluctantly. 'Two weeks to be precise.'

'Two weeks? I don't understand,' Reggie said.

'Neither do I,' Louise said. 'Neither do I.'

Reggie inventoried the entire contents ofJoanna Hunter's handbag again, announcing each item loudly from the back -'A packet of Polos, a small pack of Kleenex, a hairbrush, her Filofax, her inhaler
,
her spectacles, her purse. These aren't things you leave behind.'

Not unless you were in a hurry, Louise thought.

'Not unless you were in a hurry,' Jackson said.

'Don't start thinking,' Louise warned him.

'Look at the facts,' he said, ignoring her advice. 'The woman has definitely gone AWOL, but whether voluntarily or against her will, that's the question.'

'No shit, Sherlock,' Louise muttered.

'Something bad has happened to Dr Hunter,' Reggie said stoutly. 'I know it has. I keep telling you the man in Mr Hunter's house was threatening him, he said something would happen to "you and yours". He wasn't joking.'

'I'm just kicking the wheels on this,' Jackson said, 'but maybe the husband's covering for her?'

'Why?' Louise said.

'Dunno. He's her husband, that's what spouses do.'

'Do they?' Louise said. 'What's she called?'

'Who? What's who called?'

'Your spouse.'

'Tessa. She's called Tessa
. Y
ou would like her,' he added. 'You would like my wife.'

'No I wouldn't.'

'Yes you would,' Jackson said.

'Oh,just shut up.'

'Make me,' Jackson said.

'Stop it,' the small voice of reason in the back seat said.

'She left everything,' Reggie said. 'Her phone, her purse, her spectacles, her inhaler, her spare inhaler, her dog, the baby's blanket. Plus she didn't get changed, the first thing she does is get changed and the men who were threatening Mr Hunter said he would never hear from them again if he didn't come up with the goods. And the aunt doesn't exist! WHAT MORE EVIDENCE DOYOU NEED?'

'Get her to breathe into a paper bag or something, will you?' Louise said to Jackson.