by Joy Ellis
‘What are her injuries?’ asked Nikki, not liking the sound of extensive blood loss.
The doctor paused before answering. Another thing Nikki didn’t like.
‘It’s the flying glass that has done the damage. It’s mainly her legs. She wasn’t actually hit by the vehicle and she didn’t sustain any other kind of injuries, but we need to take her to theatre to clean her up.’ Another pause. ‘And we have asked the plastics boys to take a look at her face.’
Nikki felt Joseph tense beside her.
‘Why? What has happened to her face?’
‘She has a deep laceration that extends from her temple to her jaw-line. Fortunately, it missed her eye.’ He raised his own brows. ‘By a centimetre.’ He looked seriously at them. ‘I won’t lie to you. She will be scarred, although our reconstructive surgeons can work wonders.’
‘Then I think we need to hold on to the fact that she wasn’t blinded.’ Joseph exhaled loudly. ‘Does she know about her injuries?’
‘Yes. And at this moment in time she’s of the same mind as you. Her eyes are safe. But then she’s still in shock. I have no idea how she will react when she’s had time to consider what has happened to her.’
‘Can we see her?’ Nikki was feeling sick with apprehension about what might lie behind the screen around Cat’s bed.
‘Certainly. She is booked for theatre in half an hour’s time and she’s been given a sedative and pain relief, but she’s asking for you, DI Galena.’
Together, she and Joseph walked into the large cubicle. Nikki tried to ignore the bloodied swabs and puddled areas of scarlet that a nurse was hurriedly cleaning up, and looked directly at Cat.
‘Can’t smile, but hell, I’m glad to see you, guv. And you too, Sarge.’
One side of Cat’s slender, elfin face was covered with a large temporary dressing, and her voice was slurred, as if she’d had root canal injections. Nikki saw that the young detective’s hands were shaking.
‘I couldn’t do anything, ma’am, nothing. It happened so quickly. Danny was talking to me, and then . . .’ The shaking intensified.
‘Hey! Shh, it’s alright, we’ll do this later. Let’s get you sorted first. Then we’ll talk.’ Nikki took Cat’s bloodied hand in her own. ‘It’s you we need to concentrate on now.’
‘No, you need to know what happened. For Danny’s sake, I need to tell you.’ Cat fought back tears. ‘The vehicle drove straight at him, ma’am. It was intentional, I’m sure of it.’
‘But that’s a busy little street, and people do park there, even though there’s a yellow line,’ said Joseph. ‘How could they be sure they’d be able to carry off such a complicated manoeuvre?’
Cat tried to move, but winced and settled back again. ‘I parked in the last legitimate space, three shops away. There was a smallish gap, then there was an old flat-back lorry, a white one. It was pulling away as we got to the bakers.’ She halted for a moment and dabbed at a split in her lip. ‘It had bald tyres and Danny said he’d like to PNC the index, but it was too filthy to make out.’ She shuddered, then sobbed out, ‘That’s the last thing he said, guv. And then he was hanging there, like some awful rag-doll mascot, on the grill of that black vehicle. Then he was on the floor at the back of the shop.’ Cat fought to control herself. ‘He’s got a little boy, ma’am. A dear little kid called Connor.’ Her fight ceased and the tears fell.
‘I know.’ Nikki wanted to cry with her, but for the young woman’s sake, she knew she had to keep strong. ‘Cat? The black vehicle? What do you remember about it?’
Cat swallowed and said, ‘Mitsubishi L200 Barbarian long-bed. Plates covered. Black windows. Approached from the docks end of the road, and took off towards the main road out of town.’
‘Hey! I see your memory is not impaired! Good work, detective.’ Nikki smiled at her. ‘Now let’s concentrate on you. Have they called your mum?’
‘I told them not to. She’s on holiday with her sister. She hasn’t been away for years. I’ll be out of here by the time she gets back, and . . .’ she paused, ‘my mum’s nerves aren’t too good. I’d rather tell her myself, in my own way.’
‘Anyone else we could call for you?’ asked Joseph.
Cat looked at him with a weird twisted grin. ‘Other than mum, you guys are my real family.’
Joseph leaned forward and kissed her forehead. ‘And we’ll be here for you, okay?’
‘The doc said my face is a mess.’ She gave Nikki an apologetic look. ‘Sorry, guv, but I think my undercover days could be over. A bloody great scar would be something of a giveaway.’
Cat Cullen was the best undercover detective Nikki had ever known. She had the ability to blend in and assume other identities in a strangely chameleon-like fashion. For some reason, scar or no scar, Nikki got the feeling that she wouldn’t lose that talent. ‘You’re not getting out of it that easily, young lady! A smart plastic surgeon and a bucket of make-up will see you back with the low life in no time!’
‘Goody,’ murmured Cat sleepily. ‘I can hardly wait.’
‘I think the sedative is getting the better of her,’ said Joseph.
‘Which is lucky,’ said a voice from behind them, ‘because theatre is ready now.’ A nurse and a porter approached the bedside and smiled down at her.
‘Hope you’ve got plenty of cotton and a really sharp needle. I feel like one of those teddy bears that’s all patches and sewn up bits.’
‘Well,’ the nurse laughed. ‘I hope you come out looking a bit better than that, or you’ll be suing our surgeons!’
‘Hang on in there, kiddo!’ Joseph grinned at her. ‘Your adopted family needs you back.’
‘Ditto.’ Nikki gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
As Cat was wheeled away, Yvonne and Niall moved forward.
‘We’ve checked the other casualties, ma’am. Luckily, no one is critical. They were at the far end of the shop and missed the worst of it.’ Yvonne stared after Cat. ‘Other than Danny, DC Cullen took most of the fall-out.’
‘She did, didn’t she? And for that reason, I want you two to stay here with her. When she’s back from theatre, don’t leave her alone.’ Nikki gave them a worried stare. ‘It’s probably not necessary. It could have been a hit and run, a scared idiot who didn’t stop, but until we know more, we have to assume it was intentional. Then we should consider that Danny Wilshire might not have been the target. It could have been someone else altogether, like the bakery owner, or it could have been Cat. Okay?’
Niall and Yvonne nodded in unison. ‘That nasty thought had already gone through our minds, ma’am. Don’t worry, we’ll look after her.’
Nikki knew that to be true. She had worked with them often enough to be able to trust the two uniformed officers completely.
As they walked down the corridor to the car park, the knot in her gut began to unravel. Cat was a strong woman. She would make it through.
Outside, she threw Joseph the car keys. ‘Right. Back to base, my friend. It’s time to go see the super. Something very unpleasant is happening in Greenborough, and I’ve a horrible feeling it’s just the beginning.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘The bakery has been sealed up. And I’ve asked DI Jim Hunter to take over the investigation.’ Superintendent Rick Bainbridge looked hollow-eyed and gaunt. ‘You’ve got enough on your plate with Operation Windmill, and anyway, this is too close to home for you guys.’ He gave a small shrug. ‘Of course there’s always the chance that it was a tragic accident, and when the driver saw what he’d done he panicked and drove away.’
Nikki shook her head slowly. ‘I thought that initially, sir, but we’ve just seen the CCTV footage.’
Joseph agreed. ‘It was carried out like a military exercise, Superintendent Bainbridge. Timed perfectly. The lorry moved out and the Barbarian moved in. They were helped by the fact that the bakery is the last shop in the row and close to the corner of the road.’
‘No one parks on the corner,’ added Nikki, ‘so when the old
lorry had vacated its space, there was easily enough room for the manoeuvre.’
The older man sighed loudly. ‘Uniform are pulling out all the stops to find the vehicle. And as you can imagine, every officer in this and all the surrounding counties, are out looking for it. There’s not a man or woman that wouldn’t like to be the one to get their hands on him, or her.’ Rick glanced at his watch. ‘I’m giving a statement to the media in an hour’s time. Apart from the villains, the general public will be devastated at the news of such a promising young policeman being killed in such a sickening manner.’
‘And an attractive young woman CID officer having her face half sliced off,’ added Nikki vehemently.
‘I know, I know.’ Rick looked as if he were aging by the minute. ‘Why would anyone want to hurt either of them?’
‘And how did anyone even know they’d be there?’ Joseph frowned. ‘It’s not a regular thing they do at a specific time of day. Cat was only showing Danny where we pick up cakes from because most of uniform go to the baker in the High Street.’
‘Maybe you’ve just answered your own question,’ said Nikki pensively. ‘We always go there, so do quite a few others from the station. The High Street bakery is in a pedestrianised zone, hence a no-go area for this type of attack.’ Nikki rocked to and fro on the back legs of her chair. ‘I think our killer was after police officers, simple as that, and Danny and Cat were the unlucky choice.’
‘So are we looking at a cop-hater, or was it a revenge attack?’ Joseph’s eyes narrowed, and he turned abruptly to Nikki. ‘Have you told the superintendent about the fire at your place yet?’
Nikki drew in a deep breath. ‘It seems rather insignificant in the light of what has just happened.’
‘Fire? What fire?’ asked Rick, his craggy furrows deepening even further.
‘Someone torched my garage last night, sir. The fire investigator confirmed arson.’
‘Bored yobs?’ He pulled a face. ‘But then it wouldn’t be, would it? Considering the remoteness of your farmhouse on Cloud Fen. Few people know it’s even there.’
‘He’s certain it was a professional job, sir.’
‘Add that to what has just occurred and I’m beginning to worry even more.’ Rick stood up and began to walk around. ‘Should we connect the two?’
‘Not yet,’ said Joseph firmly. ‘There are too many unanswered questions to jump to conclusions, don’t you think?’
‘True.’ The superintendent perched back on the edge of his desk. ‘Like I shouldn’t be thinking that all this is happening the moment we hear a rumour that Stephen Cox could be back in Greenborough, but I really can’t help but wonder.’
‘You and me both,’ muttered Nikki and looked across to Joseph, but he said nothing.
‘Nikki?’ Rick Bainbridge stared at her. ‘Would you mind keeping the thing about your fire being deliberate to yourself for the present? The whole station is in shock right now, but they naturally think that it is an isolated incident. Let’s allow things to settle before we suggest that our officers are possibly being targeted.’
‘Certainly, sir. Meantime, I’m fully aware that our investigations must go on unimpaired by what has happened. Operation Windmill isn’t going to solve itself, so as soon as we can get our heads around what has happened today, we’ll press on with that. If it’s all right with you, we’ll also surreptitiously check out any known fire starters in the area.’
‘Good idea, but right now I have to go.’ He stood up and adjusted his collar and tie. ‘I need to decide exactly what to say to the press. As PC Wilshire’s family have all been informed, I want to be the one to tell the national media what happened, before the tabloid sensationalists get hold of the story and twist it beyond recognition.’
* * *
Nikki was staring at some memos that had been left on her desk, but not really seeing them. Danny’s death and Cat’s terrible injury seemed to have sent her usually well-ordered mind into free fall. Right now it was playing back old memories, some of Hannah, and others of Bob Wilshire. Her funny-faced Bob. Always bright, the eternal optimist, and totally on the ball when it came to policing. As crew-mates went, they were a shit-hot team, but just as they were tentatively taking things one baby step further than that, she had met another Robert. Sometimes Nikki wondered how she could ever have fallen for Robert Galena in the way that she had. Soon after Hannah had been born, she had known without a doubt that they had made a terrible mistake. She had mistaken raging hormones for love, and he had never understood how important her career was to her. He had wanted to come first in all things, and she simply couldn’t comply. Then one really bad case had torn Nikki apart, and that was the final straw for Robert. She had always believed that he would leave her one day. She’d been right about that too.
Nikki turned over some of the paperwork. She wanted to ponder on what life would have been like as Mrs Wilshire, but that would mean there would have been no Hannah, and no Danny, so she ditched that particular hypothetical scenario.
She pushed the reports away and walked out into the silent CID office. ‘Someone should go back to the hospital, to be there when Cat wakes up.’ She spoke generally.
‘Can I go, ma’am?’ asked Dave Harris. ‘I was going to go when I finish work anyway. I haven’t seen her yet and I really need to.’
‘Of course you can, Dave.’ She took in his haggard features, and mentally agreed that he did need to see her. Cat was his partner on the team, and although he was old enough to be her father, they bounced off each other perfectly. He would be imagining terrible things until he knew the truth. ‘In fact, as I can’t concentrate on anything, I’ll come with you. Give me five. We’ll take my car.’ She walked over to Joseph’s tiny office.
He looked up from his screen. ‘How are you doing, Nikki?’
‘Can’t get my head around it.’ She shook her head as if to make the point. ‘Got the attention span of a gnat, and I keep trying to imagine what that poor kid went through seeing Danny killed just inches away from her.’ She gave him a wan smile. ‘Hold the fort for me? I’d like to get back to see Cat.’
He nodded. ‘Tell her I’ll go down after my shift finishes. And tell her I’ll take the obligatory grapes, then sit and eat them myself.’
‘I’ll do that.’ She looked at the screen on his computer. ‘What’s that?’
‘A list of known arsonists. I’m checking out their methods of starting fires.’ He looked at her earnestly. ‘I’ll let you know if there are any similarities. And how about I call into Cloud Cottage Farm on my way home from the hospital, with a Chinese? I know if I don’t, you won’t eat anything.’
‘As I said before, I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
‘Starve, probably. See you just after eight.’
* * *
Nikki and Dave walked across the station car park to the corner where Nikki liked to park her silver 4x4 X-Trail.
She flipped the central locking and opened the front passenger door. ‘Hold on. I’ll just throw all my gym stuff in the boot.’ She hauled out a red and black sports hold-all and a pair of training shoes from the front seat. ‘I’m always hoping that I’ll make it to the gym or the pool after work, but it rarely seems to happen.’ She smiled ruefully at him. ‘Good intentions, huh?’
‘I’ll get the tailgate, guv.’ Dave moved quickly around to the back of the vehicle as Nikki juggled the car keys, her shoes and the grab bag.
‘Thanks, I—’ The bag crashed to the ground. ‘Jesus! What the hell . . . ?’ She stiffened and stepped back away from her vehicle. ‘Don’t touch anything, Dave! Go in and get the desk sergeant. Now!’
As Dave raced back to the station building, Nikki stared at the interior floor of her boot. She had lined it with rubberised matting to protect it. Now it had been decorated, graffiti-style, with three words: CRASH AND BURN.
Nikki’s heart raced as she stared at the message. It wasn’t just the words and the implications they held, it was the smell that had hi
t her when the back door had lifted. She knew instantly that they were written in blood.
She drew in a long shaky breath, then her professional hat slid back into place.
How had it been possible to do this? The station staff car park was monitored from every angle by cameras. Anyone seen going near her car would have been dragged into the nick in seconds. So where else had she been? Immediately she thought about the hospital. That was the most likely place, but what about the smell? Had she noticed anything odd as she drove back here? She decided that she hadn’t. She had a good sense of smell, and a boot smeared in blood would have registered warning bells before she’d driven out of the hospital gates.
‘Guv? Dave’s just told me what happened.’ Joseph stared down into her car. ‘Hell!’
‘Apart from the blindingly obvious message to me . . .’ she kept her voice low, ‘i.e. the method of Danny’s murder and my garage fire, what does crash and burn actually mean?’ Her eyes hadn’t left the three words.
‘In slang I guess it means a spectacular fall from grace.’ He frowned. ‘It’s also a great album by Savage Garden, a sci-fi film and a book, amongst other things.’
‘Mmm.’
They were still staring into her boot when the sergeant and two constables arrived.
‘We need to look at our CCTV straight away, and I want a SOCO called in, with a camera.’ The sergeant sent one of his officers hurrying off and spoke quickly to the other one. ‘Stay here. No one comes near or touches the Inspector’s vehicle until forensics have been over it.’ He turned to Nikki. ‘Sorry, ma’am, but they could be working on it for some time.’
‘They must do whatever they need to.’ She glanced at Joseph. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever feel quite the same about this vehicle again.’
‘I could arrange a pool car for you,’ said the sergeant.