by Diane Saxon
He was supposed to be a god. Strong, powerful, brilliant.
He’d never been any of those in his entire pitiful life. It was unlikely he’d ever be more than he was. The son of a gambling, alcoholic whore.
He toppled onto his side and lay still, the burn of the bleach soaking through his thin black T-shirt and heavy denim jeans instead of the PPE suit he’d been instructed to wear at all times.
He’d failed.
His eyelids, too heavy to keep open, closed and the soft comfort of darkness blanketed him.
36
Tuesday 11 February, 23:30 hrs
Jenna waited up for Fliss with the weight of a thirty-two kilo Dalmatian sprawled across her lap until her legs went numb and her shoulder ached from where he rested his chin on it.
All for the comfort of knowing her sister was home. She was safe.
Jenna smoothed her hand over Domino’s velvet coat, tracing the long line of scar tissue along from his shoulder to his hip while she smothered the worry that surfaced each time Fliss went out.
The soft tones of the TV brought her a little comfort, with its benign western repeat from the 1970s as her eyelids drooped and she shuffled Domino into a more comfortable position.
Muscles lax, Jenna closed her eyes and slipped into a slight snooze.
The ping of her phone jerked her awake and she blinked away the haziness of sleep as she retrieved the phone from the arm of the chair. Denton Harper’s text glowed from the screen.
It was really good to see you today. I appreciate you have a job to do and you did it very professionally. Have your sorted out your complication yet? How about dinner?
Flattered, Jenna pushed upright so she could read the message once more, adjusting Domino as he grunted and groaned, a dead weight reluctant to move from the comfort of her body. She jiggled him; his head lolled as it bumped its way down her shoulder onto her stomach so she could slip her frozen feet from the footrest onto the floor. Pins and needles shot through her numbed feet as she wiggled her toes to get the circulation going once more.
She read the message again and then tapped the screen to return to Adrian’s earlier message.
Coffee, cake, chat?
It was a no-brainer. She wriggled to free her trapped hand from underneath Domino’s shoulder so she could type her reply.
I’m free tomorrow after 1800 hours.
* * *
Dinner, then?
Surprised at the speedy reply, Jenna grinned. Right decision.
She tapped the screen to return to Denton.
Thanks for the offer, but I think I’d like to give my complication a fair chance. You’re a really nice man and also very professional, but it would be unkind of me to keep you hanging on while I sort out my life.
She stared at the screen as she waited for a reply. When it went blank, she placed her phone back on the arm of the chair and bumped her heels on the floor to rid herself of the last of the pins and needles.
Domino raised his head, tilted it as he listened and then rammed his bony elbow into her groin as he wriggled himself free from her lap to tip-tap over to the open lounge door. Alert, he waited, his connection to Fliss so strong, Jenna wondered if he merely sensed her approach, or if it was something more tangible, such as the sound of her car engine as it approached home. Whatever the reason, the dog knew instinctively she was on her way.
A full fifteen minutes it took before Fliss turned the key in the front door.
The icy blast of a February night whipped through the door as Fliss barged in, her gentle laughter at Domino’s greeting soothed Jenna’s heart as she realised she’d held her breath for almost the whole time Fliss had been gone.
She needed to stop. She needed to let her sister go and stop overprotecting her.
Fliss bustled through the door and flung herself on top of Jenna, giving her a swift kiss on the top of her head and making her realise she’d never let her go fully. Fliss was her baby sister and Jenna loved her.
As Fliss slipped into the seat beside her, nudging her over so she could yank Domino up onto their laps, Jenna huffed at her to make her understand she was being a damned nuisance.
Oblivious, Fliss snuggled in. ‘It’s bloody freezing out there.’ Wide awake, unlike Jenna, she tickled her icy fingers under Jenna’s jumper and screeched with laughter as Jenna scrabbled to get away from her.
‘Get off, you cow.’ It was good to see her happy. Jenna grinned at her. ‘You had a good time?’
‘Yeah. It was okay.’
‘Only okay? You seem pretty stoked for someone who had an okay time.’
Fliss planted a light punch on Jenna’s shoulder. ‘Guess who asked me out?’
Boom! Just like that, Jenna’s mouth clamped down on any reply she could imagine. She kept her eyes flat as she deliberately turned her attention to Domino, smoothing her hand over his broad head. Voice steady, she gave her head a slow shake. ‘I don’t know. Who asked you out?’
Fliss’s next punch carried a little more weight and Jenna jerked her head upright. ‘Mason.’
‘Mason?’ She tried, really tried, but the injection of surprise in her voice evidently didn’t cut it with her sister. If Fliss was ever on jury duty with Jenna on the stand, she’d know immediately if she was lying.
Fliss pursed her lips, fine wrinkles appeared at the side of her eyes as she squinted at Jenna. ‘You knew.’
‘I didn’t know he’d asked you.’
‘You knew he was going to?’
There was no point denying it. ‘Yes.’
Fliss leaned in until her nose almost touched Jenna’s. ‘Please don’t tell me he asked your permission.’
‘No, he…’
Fliss jerked back so Domino jiggled about, jamming his back foot into Jenna’s stomach as he struggled to get comfortable. ‘Bloody hell.’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Not really.’ Fliss slumped back against the sofa cushions and curled her fingers around Domino’s ear to give it a light scratch. ‘Before I say yes to him, have you and Mason ever… you know, done the dirty?’
‘No! God no!’
‘Well, that’s hardly a good recommendation for him.’
‘Possibly not. But it’s different. Mason and I are work colleagues. When we first met, he had that strange girlfriend.’
‘The psycho?’
Jenna chuckled. ‘Yeah, slept with him on the third date, then thought they were engaged or some shit. It took him eight months to realise what had happened and move her out. Him and I, we never had that attraction. From the word go, I’ve treated him like a younger brother. He’s really nice. A pain in the arse, but I trust him with you, Fliss, or I would have told him straight when he asked me.’
‘But he shouldn’t have asked you first.’
‘I don’t see a problem. Mason’s got backbone. It wasn’t about being cowardly but being honourable. He wanted to make sure I wouldn’t object to him dating my sister and that I was comfortable with it.’ She slid a sideways glance over at her sister. ‘He also wanted to give you enough time to get over Ed.’ She sucked air in through her teeth. ‘And you know… the abduction.’ She touched her hand to Fliss’s thigh. ‘If it’s what you want, then I say go ahead and give it a go.’ She eyed her sister. ‘If it’s not right, though, dump him quickly and get it over and done with, will you?’
Momentary surprise flickered through Fliss’s eyes and then she grinned as she understood. ‘Of course.’ She pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped out a quick message. Within seconds, a reply sounded, and she stared at the screen. ‘Looks like I have a date tomorrow night.’ Her smile widened as she waggled the phone at Jenna.
Jenna picked up her own phone and waggled it back at Fliss. ‘Me too.’
37
Wednesday 12 February, 08:00 hrs
At bang on 0800 hours, the last thing Jenna needed was to be greeted by a bloodbath. She’d not even got in through the station doors at 0740 hours when Mason, face grim, strode t
owards her with Ryan in tow. Despite the early shift and lack of sunrise, they hadn’t even the decency to bring her a coffee, even though each of them protectively cradled one themselves. She’d considered confiscating one of them, but it would only be sweet, slushy shit, not the pure black, heavily caffeinated saviour of the universe she needed.
In truth, she hadn’t needed to go. It was their shout, the boys could have dealt with it just as effectively as she could, but curiosity and a desire to get away from the looming paperwork pile got the better of her.
‘A domestic.’
She eyed the car keys in Mason’s hand as he made his way around the car to the driver’s door and considered commandeering them.
He jiggled them in his hand and grinned at her over the roof of the silver Vauxhall Insignia. ‘Possession, Sarg. Nine-tenths of the law.’
Unconcerned, she shrugged her shoulders and reached for the passenger door at the same time as Ryan. His eyes widened as their hands met.
‘Shotgun!’ he burst out.
She slapped his hand away and grabbed the door handle, pulling it upwards. ‘Outranked. Better luck next time, Detective.’ She slipped into the passenger seat and exchanged an elbow nudge with Mason as he sputtered with laughter.
‘Nice one, boss.’
Jim Downey was already well ensconced as Jenna, Mason and Ryan walked into the bloodbath. In her entire career, with many domestics under her belt, Jenna had never witnessed a massacre of such epic proportions.
‘Don’t even enter this room.’ Jim barely looked up from where he crouched next to the victim.
‘Fuck,’ Mason whispered in her ear as he leaned into her. ‘There’s too much blood for only one victim.’
‘Two victims.’ Jim took a photograph, changed position and set up for another one before he peered over the camera at them. ‘The other one, white male, taken to hospital.’
‘Still alive?’
‘Barely.’
Jenna almost leaned against the door frame, then stepped back to inspect it. Fine blood splatter peppered it at head-height. ‘Was it a domestic?’
PC Lee Gardner, assigned to the first-response team, swaggered along the hallway towards them as Jenna resisted the temptation to groan. Gardner bared his teeth in a cocky grin as he spotted Jenna. He whipped a pen from where he’d had it balanced behind his ear and tapped the small notebook he slid from his uniform pocket. ‘Looks like a domestic. He slapped her around, she stabbed him, he stabbed her.’
Jim Downey straightened from where he crouched in front of the victim, impatience mixing with weary derision as he considered the PC. ‘I’m flattered that you’ve deigned to express your two year experience, secondary-education opinion on the situation, PC Gardner. I’m sure it holds a lot more weight than my double degree, masters and doctorate.’ He puffed out a sigh. ‘Would you care to expand on your theory?’
A dark burgundy flush stole up Gardner’s face and his eyes turned stony as his mouth tightened. ‘I just gave my opinion, that’s all.’
‘And a very misleading opinion, if I could be so bold as to point out.’
‘I can’t see why, it’s quite clear what happened.’ Gardner’s jaw squared up and Jenna heard the grind of his teeth. More than content to allow Jim to figuratively wipe the floor with him, she resisted the temptation to lean against Jim’s crime scene wall and attract any attention to herself.
Jim let out a soft cough, placing the back of his hand in front of his mouth as he did. As he removed it, he took a step closer, camera still in his other hand, his eyes turned wintery. ‘It’s not clear, not to you, not to me. We can all assume what happened, but we know the old adage that goes along with that.’ He spread his arms wide. ‘There is nothing in this room that is clear. Not from my very first glance. It’s one of the most confusing crime scenes I’ve come across, so how do you propose to solve the case, PC Gardner?’ His voice still soft, Jim peered over the top of his frameless glasses to skewer the constable with a look. ‘Sit on your arse at your desk, raise the paperwork, attribute it to a domestic and close the case down?’
Gardner’s chest puffed out. ‘Well, if no one else was involved—’
Jim cut him short, his thick white eyebrows slammed down. ‘This is a crime scene!’ He circled his hand over the room. ‘At no point so far have we established any facts beyond,’ he pointed, ‘there being a dead body there.’
‘A female.’
‘No!’ He slammed the single word out to stop PC Gardner. ‘You don’t even know that for sure. We have a dead body. As yet unidentified. Ah, ah!’ As Gardner opened his mouth to interrupt yet again, Jim wagged a finger at him. ‘You do not know for a certainty that this is a female. You have not examined the victim.’ His skinny chest expanded as he breathed in. On a soft breath out, he smiled. ‘We can assume that the deceased is a female, but until we have confirmed identification, who’s to say?’
‘What about the other… umm… victim?’
‘Ah, well. Once again, we cannot assume that the person removed from the scene ten minutes ago was a victim.’
Jenna scrubbed a hand through her short hair as she tried not to jump down the PC’s throat. His lack of respect still lurked in belligerent eyes.
She twisted her head around, pinning PC Gardner with her coldest stare. ‘PC Gardner, considering you were first on the scene and you have a notebook in your hand, so far I’ve heard very little of consequence from you. Facts, PC Gardner. We’re police officers.’ She flicked her hand around to include Mason and Ryan. ‘All of us, police officers.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Grow up, stop showing off and do your job.’
His pale blue eyes shot wide at her attack and she drew in a long breath.
‘Give me a report of the facts, PC Gardner. Make it succinct and make no assumptions.’
He pulled back his shoulders, his gaze scooting around the others before he started. ‘We had a shout at 0650 hours, Sarg.’ She nodded for him to continue. ‘Sudden death. The mother called it in. She’d come to check on her daughter. She hadn’t heard anything from her and was apparently worried. She’s been taken back to her own house by PC Donna McGuire. She only lives around the corner. She’s shaken.’
Jenna raised her eyebrows, that had to be the understatement of the year. It was a godsend though, that Donna was with the mother instead of the…
‘Twat,’ Mason muttered from behind her and had her lips twitching up.
She met PC Gardner’s pale gaze. ‘Did you touch anything?’
He nodded, his eyes shifting from her to Jim, less confident than he had been. It would do him good to bring him down a peg or two. He’d possibly make a good police officer if he learned a lesson. She skimmed her gaze over him, the neck of his black wicking T-shirt open wide, presumably to show off the chest he appeared so proud of when he puffed it out. She’d reserve opinion of him.
‘We had to; we didn’t have a choice.’
‘What do you mean?’
Jim let out a heartfelt sigh and Lee’s eyes flickered with doubt. ‘We stepped in—’
‘Rushed in like a bull in a china shop, stepping through blood, guts and gore.’ Jim turned away and set up his camera for another shot.
‘Stepped in, checked the bodies. The male… the second person was still alive, so we had no choice.’
‘What injury had he sustained?’
‘He was bleeding profusely from a wound to his left armpit.’
‘What kind of wound?’
Lee flashed a quick look at Jim and lowered his voice. ‘I’d guess at a knife wound. It looked pretty deep to me. I had to hold a tea towel on it until the paramedics arrived. He’d bled out a lot. It was all down his front. He was propped up against the wall.’ He glanced at Jim again, his lips twisting. ‘I took photographs once the paramedics were here to give the position of the body.’
She gave him an encouraging nod. He’d done his job, maybe he wasn’t as bad as all that. Perhaps all that was required was training, a lesser sense of hi
s own importance and a step towards maturity. It didn’t always go together.
‘They told me he’d been stabbed in the axillary artery and lost a lot of blood. He appeared to be unconscious, they said his pulse was very weak. Then they whipped him off to A&E.’
‘Okay. Who accompanied him?’
‘PC Massey.’
At least they’d got that right. ‘Good.’ She took pity on him. It wasn’t every day you came across dead bodies. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘About an hour and a half, Sarg.’
‘Okay. Get yourself back to the station, get cleaned up, have a cup of tea and write up your notes. With facts. I’ll be back later.’ She reached out and patted him on the shoulder. ‘You’ll be okay.’
As he walked away, his shoulders rolled down, his spine wasn’t as stiff, and a pearl of pity stirred in her. They’d all been cocky at one time.
‘Fucking twat.’
Still, Mason’s pithy description wasn’t far from the truth.
She turned her attention back to Jim Downey as he leaned over the body, pen in hand, as he lifted a lock of amber hair from her shoulder.
‘What have we got, Jim?’
‘Female, age twenty-five, five foot six, identified by her mother as Eleanor Mooney. That’s all the information the poor woman gave before she collapsed.’
Jenna sensed rather than saw the tension run through Ryan. She stared at the redhead on the floor and then did a slow head turn to meet Ryan’s agonised expression. ‘Not another one.’
He rolled his head forward in a single nod, his gaze never leaving hers. ‘She’s on my list.’
‘Christ. Another nurse?’
Ryan nodded again and Jenna turned her attention back to her chief forensics officer. ‘Who was the other person?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Did the mother recognise him?’