Bad Advice

by S M Mala

  ‘How could you have said that shit about me!’ she shouted out and walked closer. His head was down. ‘That’s right, you hang your head in shame!’

  He didn’t move.

  She stormed to the window and pulled up the blinds then turned to get the shock of her life.

  One hundred and eighteen

  ‘Your mobile keeps ringing,’ Scottie heard as he slowly opened his eyes. ‘Here.’

  Theo was standing near him, wearing a vest and underpants, holding out his phone.

  ‘Okay,’ he said, his voice breaking out into a hoarse rasp.

  ‘And mum’s popped out.’

  ‘I see,’ he said, feeling the banging thud in his head.

  He grabbed his mobile. There were about ten calls, two from Ruby.

  ‘Can I play on the computer?’ Theo asked.

  Scottie forced a smile and nodded. The first thing he did was listen to the three voice messages.

  ‘You need to get down to the station now. There’s been an incident and it involves Ruby,’ he heard Janine say. ‘It’s really urgent.’

  ‘Oh my god,’ he said, fearing the worse and jumping to his feet. He ran into the spare bedroom to see a naked Sebastian sprawled on the bed, face down. ‘Wake up! Something’s happened to Ruby. I have to go to the station.’

  ‘What?’ Sebastian groaned, not moving a muscle.

  ‘Listen to me,’ he said, grabbing his friend’s head. ‘Look after Theo and I’ll sort something out. Can you hear me Sebastian? This is important.’

  ‘Fine, fine, go,’ he said, pushing his head back into the pillow.

  Scottie quickly got dressed, feeling giddy as he ran downstairs.

  ‘Theo!’ he shouted. The child was sitting at the dining room table. ‘I just have to pop out. Stay with Sebastian, do you hear me? I’ll be back soon.’

  Knowing he was over the limit, he ran to the nearest cab office and hopped into a taxi.

  He rang Ruby’s phone. There was no answer.

  Then he called the station and got through to Janine.

  ‘Is Ruby okay?’ he asked, getting agitated. ‘I can’t get through to her and-.’

  ‘She’s fine but she walked onto an attempted murder scene this morning and is pretty upset. We’ve got her here. She’s been questioned and asked for you to get her.’

  ‘What attempted murder?’

  ‘Michael Dawson. There was an attempt on his life and if it wasn’t for her going to his home, he’d have been dead. Have you read the papers? You’re all over the front page and the Commissioner has just walked in. What’s going on?’

  Instantly he went to the internet. He knew exactly which paper would carry the headline, then he saw it.

  ‘I’m on the way in. Ruby’s pregnant. Don’t say anything but handle her carefully,’ he said hanging up.

  Within seconds of getting to the station, he went straight to the room where she’d be. As he opened the door, Ruby looked up and smiled weakly.

  ‘You know you can’t go out on your own!’ he barked, watching her face crumple into tears. Scottie felt bad at shouting and had never done it to her before. ‘Sorry Rubes but I was worried something had happened.’

  Quickly he down and flung his arms around her. She buried her head in his chest and sobbed.

  ‘Are you alright?’ he asked, grabbing her gently by the shoulders. ‘No one tried to touch you, did they?’

  ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘I was only going round to give him a piece of my mind now I don’t work for the Samaritans. He let me in and then was sitting on the chair. I don’t get it, I really don’t.’

  The door opened and Helen Trott walked in, her face etched with concern.

  ‘Is she alright?’ the woman asked. Scottie felt Ruby’s body stiffen. ‘I read the piece this morning but I certainly didn’t expect this to happen.’

  ‘Has she given a statement?’ he asked, still feeling a little drunk.

  ‘She has but I’d like to speak to her again, if Ruby doesn’t mind.’

  ‘I’ve said everything I have to say. I’m not a suspect as I have a witness,’ she said, sitting up. Even though she’d had a shock, Scottie thought she looked exceptionally well, in fact, radiant. ‘I need to get home as he has left my son with a very inebriated barrister.’

  As Ruby got to her feet, she waivered for a moment. Scottie stood up to steady her.

  ‘Got up too quickly,’ she said and glanced at him. ‘Can I go home please?’

  ‘I really want to speak to you,’ Helen Trott said in a sharper tone.

  Scottie could see the Commissioner wasn’t in a good mood, looking tired, so he placed an arm firmly around Ruby’s waist.

  ‘She’s not been well and has suffered enough trauma over the past few weeks. I’d like to take her home.’ He looked down at Ruby. ‘Are you willing to come back in?’

  ‘Yes but I do need to get home and speak to Hugh. He’s got to find out about what happened.’ She hesitated for a moment and glanced over at Helen Trott. ‘You wouldn’t have anything to do with the article this morning, would you? He wouldn’t have let it get printed to tarnish your team unless there was a reason for it. Is there a reason?’

  ‘I had no idea he was going to do this. I take offence you think I would allow one of my senior members to be exposed in this manner,’ she sniffed while Ruby grinned.

  ‘Which means you knew about it and decided not to intervene. Do you think the police are spending too much time looking after the likes of me and not Mick Dawson? Seems they have a point considering he was attacked. Did it ever occur to you, that with his new found ‘z’ list celebrity fame, the killer would come after him?’

  ‘Whoever tried didn’t succeed, thanks to you,’ Helen Trott replied sharply. ‘Our key witness is now in a coma while they try to save his life.’

  ‘Well, you better keep him safe,’ replied Ruby, grabbing Scottie’s hand and pulling him out of the room.

  They got into a cab and Scottie noticed Ruby looked very tense. Immediately he knew she was holding something back.

  ‘Did you tell them everything you know?’ he gently coaxed.

  ‘I tried to.’

  ‘Did you see anything unusual?’

  ‘Don’t think so,’ she mumbled, biting her lip. ‘It all happened so quickly.’

  ‘You are telling me everything, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’ There was a look of confusion as well as guilt written across her face. ‘Sorry about all this with the papers. You shouldn’t be getting involved in the cross fire, poster boy. I’ve never heard your bark before. Pretty scary, if you ask me.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to shout,’ he said, stroking her face. ‘I can’t let you out of my sight for a moment, can I?’

  ‘I need to see Hugh,’ she replied, turning to look at him. ‘I have to speak to him. This shit has to stop.’

  ‘Listen to me. Can we get back to mine, pick up Theo and do this civilly? I’ve left Sebastian in charge and I don’t think he’s in a fit state to look after himself, let alone an eight year old.’

  When they were all back at her house, Scottie watched her walk around. Something was playing on her mind.

  ‘I’m taking us all out for lunch,’ he said as she did a double take. ‘It’s still part of my birthday celebrations and I want to do something nice.’

  ‘Can we got to the place that does onion rings?’ Theo asked eagerly. ‘I’m starving. Sebastian couldn’t figure out how to work the toaster and well, he kept being sick. Can men get morning sickness?’

  ‘I think that’s down to drinking too much beer,’ laughed out Ruby, letting out a massive sigh and walking towards Scottie.

  He had logged into work and was checking out the details of the incident. Slowly he closed the lid not wanting Ruby to see.

  ‘Am I a suspect now? Being the fact he kept writing shit things about me, got me sacked from the Samaritans and was a pain in the bloody arse?’ she asked, tongue in cheek, then whispered. ‘Remember handcuffs don�
��t work for me, just my knickers.’

  Scottie sat back in his chair and took her all in. Something wasn’t sitting right based on her constant look of confusion. He was going to ask her again if she saw something then his phone rang.

  ‘Jonathan Scott,’ he answered and watched as she rolled her eyes, walking off to see her son.

  ‘Hello there,’ said Dave. ‘Great party and I’ve got a banging hangover to prove it.’

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ smiled Scottie, watching Ruby whisper to Theo. ‘Did you hear what happened this morning?’

  ‘I thought I’d give you the heads up on something else. Nigel Stubbs walked into the police station saying he had carried out the attacks. He wanted to come clean because he thought he’d be suspected for the attempt on Mick Dawson’s life. We’ll keep him in custody until this is all sorted.’

  There was a massive wave of anger enveloping Scottie.

  His first reaction was to go to the station and beat the living shit out of the man.

  ‘Did you hear what I said?’ Dave gulped. ‘Are you there?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, staring at Ruby who was trying to cheat while playing a consul game to the annoyance of Theo.

  ‘Seems Mr Dawson is the one that put Nigel Stubbs up to it, even including the attack on himself. And he instructed both the incidents on Ruby and paid the guy to do it. Nigel Stubbs is in debt with his bookie so needed the money. They used to be part of a football hooligan gang, that’s how they know each other.’

  Nodding his head, he examined her laughing and then glanced at her stomach.

  He couldn’t think straight.

  Scottie was just angry.

  ‘And you’re not allowed to come in and question Nigel Stubbs, that’s an instruction from the Commissioner. Do you hear me?’

  ‘I hear you.’

  One hundred and nineteen

  She was sitting in the study after taking Theo to school. Scottie was asleep upstairs and she realised he’d been acting a little odd. Ruby put that down to what had happened on Sunday with the press expose and Mick Dawson.

  Glancing at her laptop screen, she flicked through the pictures of the parties she had been to with her ex Samaritan colleagues.

  There was rise of nausea building up in her throat but she knew that wasn’t the baby. It was down to the pure fact she had lost a focus that had made her feel good about herself.

  The Samaritans.

  Even if it was happiness for only five seconds, once every six months, it was still something she enjoyed.

  Diane’s comment about someone seeking revenge on her for her past doings played on her mind. Then she did the internet search and found the article that hounded her nearly twenty five years ago, feeling the same sense of guilt.

  If only she had got his side of the story, that’s what she thought once again.

  Letting out a low groan, she then went back to the photos and looked at the faces of the deceased popping up in every other shot.

  Then she saw Mick Dawson’s round cheeks beaming at her.

  Ruby zoomed in.

  ‘Should have got there later,’ she mumbled to herself then shook her head, knowing that was a bad thought and she had saved his life. ‘Maybe five minutes.’

  There were footsteps coming down the stairs. She glanced at her watch and realised it was just after nine.

  Scottie had emerged from the bedroom.

  Once again, she wondered why he was acting so strange. Even her attempt to break into his case came to no avail. He simply didn’t have any documents. The laptop was password protected.

  She got up and walked to the corridor, stopping when she saw him walking around in his underpants.

  It was the sight of the man which made her hold her breath. He was fit and gorgeous, even though he looked half asleep. She peeked to see where he was going. Scottie stopped by the kitchen window, waiting for the kettle to boil.

  Ruby walked straight up to him, feeling him jump when she wrapped her arms around his waist.

  ‘Morning,’ she said, sniffing his warm sleepy smell.

  ‘Morning,’ he sighed, turning around to look down her at.

  She took the opportunity to hold his arms behind his back in the strongest grip she possibly could.

  ‘What aren’t you telling me? Jonathan Scott, you’ve been acting suspiciously, do you know that?’

  ‘And you, Ruby Marquis, didn’t go back to the police station as I promised.’

  ‘I’m busy with one thing or another.’

  ‘I need to go to work.’

  ‘No, you don’t need to do anything. Considering you came in just after midnight, they could at least let you spend some time with me.’

  ‘You know it’s going to be like this. If I’m working on a case it takes up my time.’

  ‘And does that case involve me?’ Scottie’s lips looked very pouty and pink when he stared at her. ‘Tell me. I’ve got no-one else to speak to about it. I certainly won’t go and tell the ex who has summoned me for lunch.’

  ‘He must be feeling really bad about what happened to Mick Dawson.’

  ‘The sales of his paper have probably increased so that’ll make him happy.’

  She grinned then noticed his returning smile looked strained.

  ‘Where are you meeting him?’

  ‘Just round the corner. He’s taking the afternoon off and says he wants to pick up Theo and spend some time with him. And I need to tell him about the baby. It’s a matter of time before he gets wind and who knows what else will happen.’

  Scottie held her face gently in his hands. The look was mixed with concern and love.

  ‘I won’t go off anywhere, I promise. I’ll come straight back home and put my feet up. And in this weather, I fancy a pie so that will put me to sleep all afternoon.’

  He moved forward and kissed her very gently on the lips. She could taste toothpaste.

  ‘What aren’t you telling me?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘I’m telling you that I love you and want you to keep safe. If that ex lays a finger on you, tell me and I’ll get him thrown in a cell,’ he grinned. ‘And you need to speak to the police about anything you remember when you went to Mick Dawson’s home. There’s no security footage there and, for all we know, you might have walked past the killer.’

  ‘I didn’t see anyone other than the old man. Oh and someone was going down the other stairs.’

  ‘You didn’t say that before,’ he frowned. ‘What else do you remember?’

  ‘I saw the door close and turned but then I was too focussed on having a go at bloody Dawson, I forgot.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘No,’ she said, shrugging, knowing she did remember thinking something at the time then grinned. ‘Can’t think of anything right now.’

  ‘Ruby.’

  ‘Jonathan.’

  ‘I’ll tell Dave what you said and maybe there were some cameras at the back that might have caught who it was.’

  ‘I really can’t remember much, you know,’ Ruby said, realising she just told the man she loved a massive fib.

  One hundred and twenty

  After trying hard to extract his pregnant and extremely hormonal fiancé off his bones, Scottie managed to head back to the station.

  He knew Janine had been working on the background checks on all the Samaritans who worked at the branch. Scottie had spent the previous day reading what they had found, but still his mind wandered to Nigel Stubbs and what he said about Mick Dawson.

  Mick hadn’t come out of the coma so he couldn’t defend himself.

  He walked into the office and noticed Janine was sitting at the computer, focussing on something as he sat down next to her.

  ‘Morning,’ she smiled.

  ‘Morning. Have you got any more information about the others?’ he asked, scratching his head and opening up his emails on his laptop. ‘Ruby thinks she saw someone down the corridor when she got to Mick Dawson’s place but only just remembered.’
>
  ‘That’s the pregnancy hormone, makes you forget,’ Janine whispered. ‘Congratulations by the way.’

  ‘Don’t say anything. Only a handful of people know and I don’t want-.’

  ‘Commissioner Trott finding out?’ she added quietly. ‘I know the connection and that it’s a very sensitive issue. Who’d have thought she was her step daughter once? Poor Ruby. It’s quite a turn of events. Did you know this when you met her?’

  ‘Had I known, I don’t know what I’d have done.’ Then he smiled for a moment. ‘But I’m pleased I met her and the rest is history.’

  ‘Is she alright? She didn’t look too good on Sunday.’

  ‘She’s not saying everything about what she saw and I haven’t told her about the Mick Dawson and Nigel Stubbs link. If I do, I know she’ll march down to the hospital and pull out the life support. Any news on him?’

  ‘He’s not in a life threatening situation so some good might come out of it. He may be able to identify the killer.’

  ‘As long as he doesn’t say it’s Ruby.’ Scottie thought about her face this morning when she remembered seeing someone and, for a moment, he wondered if Ruby recognised them. ‘Can we check for any CCTV cameras, anything around the area of that building? Someone let Ruby in with the intention of her finding Mick Dawson.’

  ‘Or they let her in with the intention she would be the next victim but something changed their mind?’

  It threw him, her comment.

  Scottie stared hard at Janine and felt suddenly sick.

  It hadn’t crossed his mind, until then, that Ruby might have been close to the killer.

  ‘They would have had the perfect opportunity but chose not to,’ he said, trying to think straight. ‘And given the level of sedative, she would have been out like a shot.’

  Looking down, his hands were trembling then noticed Janine had spotted it and stood up.

  ‘You look like you’re in need of a cup of tea,’ she said, smiling reassuringly. ‘I’ll get you one.’

  He picked up his phone and walked out to the corridor.