by Diane Saxon
Ryan stood to one side, hands on hips, head bowed. Unused to this kind of outpouring of emotion, his Adam’s apple bobbed in his skinny neck, but he still clung to a vestige of control.
Control Sylvia had an apparent abundance of as her sour smile wrinkled her cheeks and she turned away to shuffle her paperwork. Perhaps she went home at night with a sense of pride in what had been achieved. A job well done. Another case resolved. A tick in the box. But she’d long since stopped investing her heart and soul, if ever she had, into the work.
Work Jenna could never imagine without the compassion and empathy. Before Fliss had been kidnapped, she’d considered herself a good police officer, honing her skills in the job, displaying the right amount of understanding. Since then, she’d discovered there was no shame in showing emotion. If she wanted to cry, she’d damned well cry and sod the buggers who laughed it off.
She rubbed her hand in soft circular motions over Simi’s back and spared Sylvia another glance as tears trickled down her own cheeks. She’d far rather feel than return home after a day at work with a dead heart.
Zak circled around with Joshua still fast asleep, cradled in his arms, and beckoned to Simi. ‘Mum.’
The woman flew from Jenna’s arms to Zak’s in a heartbeat and made the fast prick of tears start again as she squished the little grey rabbit between their bodies.
Jenna puffed out her cheeks as she swiped the back of her hand over them.
‘Cup of tea, I think.’
Grateful for Mason’s suggestion, Jenna sent him a watery smile.
They may have reunited a child with his father, but there was one hell of a lot of work to be done to find out why he’d been in that house in the first place.
Jenna moved through the room to the open-plan kitchen, followed closely by Ryan and Mason. She filled the kettle and snapped the switch on, then turned and leaned her back against the worktop, tears and emotion evaporating in the light of work they now had to do.
Mason rubbed his fingers over his chin and made the dark stubble rasp. ‘A good result.’
‘A great result.’
Jenna glanced over at the huddle of three in the living room. ‘You found some clothes for him.’
Mason’s lips curved upwards. ‘Couldn’t have the poor bugger going into the hospital in a dress.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I made Sylvia stop at Next. Took me all of three minutes to grab something. She wasn’t bloody happy, I can tell you. Apparently, it wasn’t in the fucking handbook, stopping off to shop for the poor little sod. Anyway, I convinced her by saying I needed the forensics on the clothes as soon as possible.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Still in the bloody car. Bagged and tagged. I’ll hand them over to SOCO at my earliest.’
Jenna’s lips twitched as she sent a furtive glance at the little boy decked out in a white short-sleeved T-shirt with navy blue and fawn stripes and a little pair of dungaree shorts in mid denim blue. There were no shoes, just a dainty pair of navy-blue socks.
Mason had just surged up the charts in her estimation.
Ryan bounced on his toes. ‘What happens now?’
‘We’ll let the DI know, get Harry out here to wrap things up with Zak.’
‘She’s already on her way. I spoke with Taylor earlier once Joshua fell asleep. What a nice temperament the little bugger has. He was bloody exhausted and still he never kicked off. Just fell asleep while I was holding him.’ Mason’s gaze slipped over to Sylvia as she packed her paperwork into her briefcase, he kept his voice low. ‘It seemed Sylvia and I didn’t have much to talk about, so I updated the DI from our side and he told me they still haven’t tracked Emily down.’ He leaned forward and reached over Jenna’s head to take mismatched mugs from an open shelf. He placed them on the bench and raised his voice, a curl of a smile in place. ‘Coffee, Sylvia?’
A mild look of horror slid over the woman’s face before it cleared to blank again as she realised he may possibly be teasing. ‘As I said earlier, I don’t drink coffee, DC Ellis. Normally green tea. So much better for the skin.’
Jenna swallowed the response she would have loved to have given about the woman’s parched, dry skin. Sylvia’s bitterness was none of her business, but in the absence of substance abuse, coffee, cigarettes and alcohol, the woman only had her disappointment in life to blame for the deep lines etched in ever-increasing brackets over her skin. ‘I don’t think we have green tea in here.’
Mason obligingly opened a cupboard and swept his fingers across the array of herbal and fruit teas and Jenna sent him a grateful smile. ‘Fruit tea, or camomile?’
Sylvia made a point of glancing at her analogue wristwatch. ‘No, thank you. I’ll be off now.’ Her lips crinkled inwards. ‘I should have finished fifteen minutes ago.’
Never a clock-watcher herself, Jenna stayed until the job was done to the best of her ability and at a point at which she could hand over to the next shift, or when Taylor booted her out of the door as he’d done recently when she’d hovered on the edge of complete exhaustion.
Unlike Sylvia. This woman was about to simply walk away.
‘When can we expect your report?’ Jenna prompted.
‘Report?’ Sylvia blinked. ‘It’ll take me a few days.’
‘We could do with it as a matter of urgency.’
Sylvia swiped up her briefcase and smoothed her impeccable steel grey hair with the back of one hand. ‘I’ll see what I can do. I’m off now.’
Without a backward glance at father, son or grandmother, Sylvia strode to the front door and let herself out.
‘Shit.’ Mason drew in a long breath.
‘What the hell did you say to her, Mason?’
‘Fuck all.’ He kept his voice low, so it didn’t carry to the others. ‘She’s a fucking automaton. Not a single fucking emotion to be had. I wish to God they’d sent Tammi out.’ He sent a quick glance over to Zak, Simi and Joshua. ‘She never so much as offered to touch Joshua. Cold fish.’ His voice urgent, he shook his head. ‘Poor little man had to be examined by a doctor, and Sylvia didn’t flicker. Bloody good job we had a fabulous doctor on board because, Christ only knows why, but Sylvia just stood back and let her do what she wanted to Joshua. Never asked a single fucking question. Never queried anything.’
Jenna unscrewed the lid on the coffee jar and spooned out instant coffee into five mugs. ‘I assume you did.’
‘Too fucking true.’
The woman had obviously got to Mason; if he couldn’t hit it, he was going to swear profusely about it.
As she poured water into the mugs, Mason leaned around her and pulled a milk carton from out of the fridge. He slopped milk into two mugs, swiped one up and offered it to Ryan.
‘Sugar?’ Ryan’s eyebrows jiggled and Mason passed the mug back as Jenna opened the cutlery drawer, took out a spoon and reached for the bag of white, granulated sugar. She dumped two spoonful’s in and, just as she was about to plunge the spoon into the mug, Ryan leaned in close. ‘One more, Sarg, if you don’t mind.’
She plopped another spoonful in. ‘Do you want me to stir it to the left or the right?’
With a cheeky grin, he snagged the mug from the bench. He took the spoon from her and stirred it himself, turning as DI Taylor walked in through the front door and straight into the kitchen.
The man’s astute gaze ran around the room, taking in every last detail as he made his way towards them. He held out his hand, wiggled his fingers and whipped the coffee from Ryan’s clutches before the officer had time to raise it to his own mouth. ‘Thanks, lad. Perfect timing.’ He took a quick slurp of the coffee, his short nose wrinkling with distaste. ‘A little sweet for me, young Ryan, just so you know for the future. No more than a spoonful of sugar, I’m sweet enough as it is.’
Speechless, Ryan’s mouth dropped open. A little in awe of Taylor, Ryan rarely had direct personal contact with him, apart from his enthusiastic questioning whenever they ran a case.
Jenna suppressed her grin, put
another three sugars in the remaining mug with milk, gave it a quick stir and handed it to Ryan.
‘Better rustle up another one.’ Taylor nodded to the kettle. ‘Harry’s on her way in.’
‘Excellent.’ It meant with the team all in place, they could do a debrief in-situ before returning to the station.
Mason reached over the top of Jenna’s head and slid another two mugs from the shelf above her as she grabbed the coffee jar again.
‘Harry drinks water.’ Jenna flicked Ryan a quick glance. Observant as he was, she didn’t dispute his claim and reached up for a glass. She let the tap run for a moment and filled the glass, placing it on the bench next to the coffee mugs. Turning, she squinted at the family, still cocooned in each other’s arms, the soft rabbit snuggled in tight, so it squished against Joshua’s plump cheek.
Chest tight, Jenna turned away conscious that she didn’t want to intrude on such an intimate moment.
As Harry swept through the door, Jenna held out the glass of water and had it plucked from her hand in an instant.
‘Cheers.’ With little finesse, Harry glugged the water down, tipping her head back until she’d drained the glass. ‘Fucking hell, but it’s hot. The devil is definitely in his playing ground today.’ As DI Taylor had, Harry cruised her gaze over the scene in the living room, only she took her time, her narrowed eyes taking in every detail of the reunited family. ‘Good news, then.’
Jenna nodded. ‘Brilliant news.’
‘I had thought otherwise when I saw Sylvia hoofing it to her car, face like a slapped arse.’
Ryan almost snorted his sweet coffee out of his nose and Mason obligingly gave him a few hard slaps on the back.
Taylor, having spent his working life with police humour, merely raised a brow and took another sip of his own drink. ‘I’ve never known Sylvia be otherwise and I’ve known her for a long time. It’s a sad day when a woman with Sylvia’s knowledge and experience is so unwilling to impart any of it, not to mention the woman’s absolute lack of any emotion other than annoyance, when she doesn’t get off shift in time.’ Taylor turned his head to take in the family. ‘Pity Tammi hadn’t been assigned. No matter, we won’t be needing Sylvia now.’ He turned to Jenna. ‘I don’t suppose she was obliging enough to let you know when we’d receive her report.’
Jenna flashed him a tight grin. ‘I can’t see that it will be imminent.’
‘Fucking cold-hearted…’ Jenna shot Mason a look and stopped him mid-flow.
‘Okay.’ Taylor took another look at the family group. With a healthy swig of his coffee, he drained the mug and snapped it down on the bench. ‘Right. Let’s get some answers.’ He clapped his hands together once and nodded at Jenna. ‘Sergeant, you take the lead.’ As they made a move towards the living room, Taylor held up a hand to stop them. ‘Do we really need the entire crew?’
Mason dipped his hands deep into his pockets and shrugged. ‘Continuity, boss, I need to be here to fill in the gaps regarding Joshua’s journey through hospital.’
Taylor turned his gaze on Ryan. ‘Now you’ve had your coffee, son. What’s your reason for being here?’
Ryan’s desperate gaze darted back and forth between Jenna, Mason and Taylor, then a boyish grin sparked out as he jiggled his bony shoulders self-consciously, swiped up the two remaining coffees and raised them as he nodded towards Zak and Simi. ‘Experience, sir. I need the experience handling this kind of case. Not had one like this before, so it’s really interesting and I’ll be completing the paperwork for the Sarg to approve.’
Impressed with the lad’s creativity, Jenna pursed her lips and waited for Taylor to call him on it.
‘Better get your notepad and pen out then, son. There’s a hell of a lot of paperwork to be completed for this case.’ Taylor shot Jenna a dry twitch of his lips. ‘I won’t be paying overtime on it, so anything above and beyond will be unpaid, DC Downey, and in your own time.’
‘Sir.’
‘If you bloody well salute, I swear I’ll deck you,’ Mason murmured as he snatched up his own mug of black coffee and turned away.
Jenna picked up her mug and headed towards Zak and his mother, still clinging onto the sleeping child. ‘Zak.’ Eyes bubbled with pleasure as he met her gaze. ‘We need to talk. If you and Simi would like to take a seat.’ She never suggested putting Joshua down, didn’t see the point. He could hug him until the end of time, but it still wouldn’t take away the trauma they’d all been through. Trauma they had yet to discover as far as Joshua was concerned and may never, if the truth of what happened in Emily’s house wasn’t uncovered.
As they all took their seats, Ryan placed the mugs of coffee on the small wooden table and Harry took the closest seat to Zak. The first time Jenna had ever seen the other woman tear up, Harry placed her fingers over her lips and shook her head. ‘What a beautiful, beautiful little boy. I can’t tell you how delighted I am for you.’ An obvious bond having been established with his father, she reached out to stroke Joshua’s cheek.
With a grateful smile, Zak adjusted his son, so he lay sideways across his lap, leaned over to grab the coffee and sipped at it while he raised his gaze to meet Jenna’s.
‘Right. Well.’ Jenna’s heart still refused to settle to a normal rhythm, but she continued, knowing she gave little away of her emotions now she’d had time to park them. ‘Let me take everyone through the situation so far, so that we’re all apprised of the facts and the relative questions.’
‘This morning at 06:55 hours, we received a phone call from a lady who claimed her neighbour had a child who had been crying continually for some time.’ In order to avoid putting Zak and his mother under any further stress, Jenna didn’t divulge just how long Joshua had been crying for. ‘The woman’s concern was that, as far as she knew, there was no child at that address. It was only after she heard shouting, then silence, other than the child crying, that she called us.’
Zak never took his gaze from her as he trailed the back of his knuckles across Joshua’s cheek, time and time again, as the little one slept on, evidently feeling the security of his father’s hold on him.
‘When we arrived at the address in Lawley, we discovered an injured young woman, Fern, whose full identity has not yet been confirmed, but who we believe may have possibly been a friend or relation of the woman whose house it was.’
Zak’s eyes went wide, and his mother let out a whimper as she covered her mouth with one hand. Possibly too much information, but they were bound to hear it sooner or later.
‘On entry to an upstairs nursery, we discovered a child, who we now know is Joshua. Initially we believed he was a little girl as he was wearing a dress, we can only assume to disguise him. Disappointingly at that stage, we believed there was no connection to Joshua’s disappearance and that we’d walked into the fallout of a domestic dispute.’
Jenna took a sip of her hot coffee. ‘It was only when DC Ellis offered to change the child’s soiled nappy that we discovered it was in fact a little boy. The similarity was too close to dismiss. Joshua has very distinctive hair and eye colouring, which obviously saved us some considerable time. DC Ellis and I pretty much knew immediately that we had Joshua, but obviously we needed you to verify that.’ She couldn’t help the wide smile that spread across her face as the warmth enveloped her heart at the sight of father and son reunited.
Zak cupped the little boy’s cheek in his hand and lowered his head to place a gentle kiss on the end of his son’s nose. ‘Thank God. Thank God we have him back.’
Jenna nodded. She needed to keep them on track and time was still an issue. ‘In the interim, while we arranged to visit you, DC Ellis and Sylvia Cross from social services…’ she glanced at Zak, but he showed no recognition of Sylvia’s name, ‘took Joshua to the hospital.’ She paused to let him absorb that fact for a moment and waited for the question, which came relatively quickly.
‘Why? He’s not injured.’ Panic flashed over Zak’s face.
‘No. But he could well
have been. It’s standard practice, for Joshua’s own protection, to ensure that nothing… physical had occurred whilst he was out of your protection.’
Zak’s lips tightened as understanding came to him. ‘And was he? Abused?’
Simi’s hand fluttered to her throat.
‘No.’ Mason raised his head, his gaze firmly fixed on Zak. Now wasn’t the time for subtlety. The man needed to know what had happened to his son. ‘The examination revealed no evidence of sexual or physical abuse. Joshua has no bruises, nothing to indicate he’s suffered anything physical.’
Zak visibly melted as his eyes closed for a long moment. When he opened them again, winter passed through them. ‘But he has suffered abuse. In another form, mental and emotional. He possibly witnessed his mum being attacked and then was kidnapped. He was found crying. He’s witnessed someone being stabbed.’ Frantic, he turned to Harry. ‘Will he be affected by this? Will he remember?’
Harry reached out a hand and patted the back of Zak’s. ‘Research shows that most children have no cognitive memories until they’re beyond the age of two. From now on, it will be about how you handle the situation and whether your stress and emotions rub off on Joshua.’ She squeezed his hand as he nodded, desperate for the reassurance she offered him. ‘We’ll make sure we have counselling in place for you to deal with this. You and your family have already been through so much, Zak, and you still have a long way to go, but we’ll make sure everything is in place to help you all move forward, that you have the support you need.’
With his breath coming in deep pulls, Zak looked around at all of them. ‘Mum and I will see to that. When Imelda comes home, we’re going to make sure it’ll be okay.’ His eyes filled with tears and he blinked, while his mum let out a small, distressed sob that jerked at Jenna’s heart.
She dry-swallowed as Zak’s pain stripped the spit from her mouth. ‘Good.’
The sharp peal of Zak’s phone had Jenna jumping, her heart rate, already too high, skipped and stuttered before it settled into its overly fast rhythm as he fumbled, trying to keep hold of the infant while he grappled his phone. ‘Yes!’