Cinnamon Gardens

by Anna Jacobs

  ‘No. She owes me for bringing her up. She’s mine to do what I want with.’

  ‘Not in my house, she isn’t.’ Wayne suddenly swung his fist at his cousin, who had to let go of Janey to defend himself.

  When Wayne yelled, ‘Run for it, girl!’ Janey didn’t need telling twice. She took off at top speed, heedless of the fact that she was wearing only her slippers.

  She hadn’t a clue where she was heading because though she’d been to Wayne’s smallholding before, it’d been years ago and in the dark everything looked different. But any risk was better than staying with Lionel.

  Sobs escaped her and they weren’t forced this time. She felt sick with disgust and horror. How could she have a father like him?

  When she fell over, she scrambled to her feet and was running again within seconds. Branches whipped in her face, but she ignored the stinging pain. Something trickled down her forehead and she brushed it away from her eyes impatiently.

  Finally she saw lights ahead and when she got closer, stopped for a moment and glanced over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t coming after her. This was still a minor country road and she wasn’t going to knock on any doors unless she knew who was inside the house. What if they didn’t believe her? What if they handed her back to him?

  On the other side of the house she saw moving lights and limped up a small slope. Beyond it was a wider road and two or three cars passed by while she watched.

  If she could get to it, she could flag down a car. They’d take her to a police station, surely?

  She thought of Millie and that helped her move on. She had to walk more slowly now, because her feet were hurting badly.

  She still couldn’t hear any sounds of pursuit so picked her way more carefully. Her slippers were torn, not much protection.

  Everything hurt.

  Kieran followed the satnav’s instructions, driving as quickly as he dared, but it took him a full twenty minutes to get there, even though there was hardly any traffic on the roads.

  The house was dark but a car was parked in front of it and when he got out of his vehicle to examine it, he found that the motor was still warm.

  He took firm hold of the weighted cudgel that looked like a rounders bat. He’d carried it before in self-defence.

  He knocked on the front door, but there was no answer.

  He knocked again, sensing someone behind him and sidestepping quickly. But it was Paul, his young face grim in the moonlight.

  Kieran tried the door handle and it turned.

  He felt around for a light switch and caught a man in its sudden brightness. Dobson. Creeping towards the back of the house.

  ‘Stay where you are.’

  ‘Who’s going to make me?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘And I’m with him,’ Paul said.

  ‘I’ll be photographing it all on my phone,’ Nicole said from behind them.

  ‘I’ll call the police if you attack me,’ Dobson blustered.

  ‘They’re already on the way. Where’s the girl?’

  ‘What girl? There’s no girl here.’

  There was a sound from the room at the end of the short corridor, a groan.

  Was it Janey?

  Paul pushed past so quickly he took everyone by surprise.

  When Lionel tried to follow him, Kieran used a trick he’d learnt while on a story assignment in the Far East to send the bigger man sprawling. He used some handcuffs he shouldn’t have been carrying to clamp Dobson to the stair rail before the man realised what was happening, then went to investigate.

  ‘Is Janey all right, Paul?’ Nicole called down the corridor.

  ‘It’s not Janey. It’s a man. And he’s hurt.’

  He knelt down and checked the man’s vital signs quickly but the injured man was conscious. ‘What happened to you?’

  ‘Lionel beat me up. They need to lock that sod up! He’s into incest now as well as violence.’

  ‘I’m damned well not into incest,’ Dobson roared from down the hall, yanking at the handcuffs, making the banisters shake about. ‘She’s not my daughter.’

  There was silence for a few moments, and it seemed to echo with the implications of that reaction.

  There was the sound of a struggle but when Kieran ran back into the hall, he found Dobson bent double, gasping for breath and Nicole standing over him.

  ‘My fist happened to connect with his belly,’ she said. ‘My foot will connect with something a bit lower if he gives us any more trouble.’

  In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Kieran grinned at her. ‘Atta girl!’ Then he got his phone out and called an ambulance.

  Paul had been going round the house, banging doors open and looking into every room. ‘She’s not here.’

  Kieran went back into the kitchen where the injured man was lying with his eyes closed. ‘Do you know what happened to the girl?’

  ‘He started feeling her up – his own daughter! – so I thumped him and told her to run for it. Did she get away?’

  ‘Looks like it. Well done.’

  ‘I’m not into hurting women and I’m sickened by incest. That sod was touching up his own daughter.’

  ‘She’s not my daughter, I tell you!’ Lionel yelled again.

  ‘I hope that’s true,’ Nicole said sharply. ‘It’ll be a load off her mind, if it is.’

  ‘Bitch.’

  She raised the meat mallet she’d snatched up before they left home. ‘Shut up, you.’

  A couple of minutes later the police arrived.

  Kieran went out to meet them, explaining what they’d found. The officers’ voices were grim as they checked the injured man.

  ‘He’s not going to die but he’s been badly hurt.’

  One man went back into the hall, raising his eyebrows at Kieran. ‘Who handcuffed him?’

  ‘I did. I had, um, an ornamental pair.’

  The officer grinned. ‘Well, they are highly polished, that’s for sure. But I’d better put one of our own restraints on him before we haul him off to the station. Wouldn’t like you to lose your, um, ornaments, Mr Jones.’

  ‘The girl is still missing, the one he kidnapped. The injured man said he told her to run for it when he started fighting Dobson, and he hasn’t seen her since. Can you put out an alert for her?’

  ‘Yes, of course. This fellow can wait a few minutes while I call it in.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  Janey limped to the side of the main road and flagged down the next car to contain a woman, sighing in relief as the driver stopped.

  All she wanted to do was burst into tears, but she held herself together somehow and quickly told the elderly couple what had happened. ‘Have you got a mobile phone? Could you please call the police, then? Please.’

  ‘I’ll do that,’ the woman said. ‘Get in and we’ll take you home or to the police station.’

  Janey got into the car, relieved to be sitting down, aching all over now.

  ‘George, drive on. I can phone while we’re moving. We don’t want to give that man a chance to attack us as well as this poor girl, do we?’

  He drove off slowly and she dialled 999, speaking clearly and crisply. She was put through to the police, explained again, then handed the phone over to Janey.

  After she’d given her name and details, the woman on the phone asked, ‘Can you please tell us your daughter’s name as identification?’

  ‘Millie. She’s called Millie.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘We have no warnings out for her, so she must be. We only knew that you had been taken from your home. Where are you?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ She turned to the woman. ‘Do you know where we are?’ Her voice broke on the final words and she smeared away the tears that were escaping her control.

  ‘Give the phone back to me.’ The woman gave their location and agreed that they’d take Janey back to Peppercorn Street, where the police were already waiting for her.


  ‘Thank you for helping me,’ Janey said. ‘I’m so grateful.’

  ‘We were happy to do it,’ the woman said.

  ‘Anyway, we’d been having a boring evening,’ the man said. ‘This’ll make a great story to tell our friends.’

  Great story! Was that all he thought it was? Janey wondered. It had been like the worst nightmare of her whole life.

  She shuddered, hating the thought of how her father had touched her, then she let her eyes close as she rested her head against the car seat.

  She’d be all right once she’d seen Millie, she told herself. And surely they’d lock her father away now after he’d kidnapped her?

  Surely she’d be safe now?

  Angus suddenly needed a minute to himself. ‘I’ll go and look out of the front room window to see whether there’s any sign of Kieran or the police.’

  No one answered. Edwina was talking quietly to Winifred and Nell was listening to them.

  He didn’t switch the light on, but stared out of the window blindly, relishing the brief respite. Then something caught his eye, a flash of movement in a car. He didn’t move but suddenly all his senses were on alert again and he watched carefully.

  There was definitely someone in the car, someone slumped down. What was anyone doing sitting out there at this time of night? It must have been the moonlight glinting on a wristwatch that had caused the flash of light. He screwed up his eyes and managed to get the car number, then went back into the kitchen.

  ‘Officer, I think there’s someone in a parked car watching the house.’

  Edwina jumped to her feet, licking cake crumbs off her fingers. ‘Show me.’

  They moved carefully into the front room, staying a little way back from the bay window. After a few moments the person moved again.

  ‘Can you keep an eye on the car and I’ll call in to see who it belongs to.’

  Before she could do that, however, another strange car pulled up outside and Janey tumbled out of it, running towards the house, looking as if she’d been beaten or worse.

  Angus ran to the front door, just as Janey crashed it open. He managed to slow her down. ‘Millie’s all right,’ he said, guessing this would be her first worry.

  ‘Oh, thank goodness!’

  ‘Who brought you here?’

  ‘I escaped and flagged down a car.’

  Edwina joined them. ‘I’d better go out and speak to them. Oh, damn! That other car’s driving off.’

  ‘We have its number,’ Angus reminded her.

  ‘Yes. Can you look after Janey? I’ll speak to the people who picked her up.’ She went outside, taking his agreement for granted.

  ‘Come on, love. But keep quiet, if you can. You’ll wake Millie if you go rushing into the kitchen and Nell’s only just got her back to sleep. Your daughter has very powerful lungs.’

  He put an arm round the girl’s shoulders and walked into the kitchen, saying, ‘Look who came to join us.’

  Janey stared round the room. ‘Where’s Millie?’

  ‘She’s in my bedroom.’ Winifred stood up and came across to give Janey a big hug. She held on to the shaking girl, making shushing noises as Janey struggled not to weep.

  Dan stood beside them, patting them indiscriminately on the shoulders, first one woman, then the other.

  ‘Just let me see Millie,’ Janey begged. ‘I’ll be all right once I’ve seen her.’

  She stood for a moment in the doorway of Winifred’s bedroom, then tiptoed across to the bed, where Millie lay fast asleep, spread-eagled in her usual starfish manner. The child looked rosy and well.

  Janey drew in a long, sobbing breath and turned. ‘Thank you for looking after her.’

  ‘We were happy to do that. You know I love her as if she really were family.’

  Janey sniffed and managed a near smile. ‘Yes. I know.’

  Winifred put an arm round her again at the door and led her across to a chair in the kitchen. ‘Soon you must have a shower and we’ll tend to your poor feet—’

  ‘My feet?’ Janey looked down. ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘But first, how about a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of cake?’

  ‘I know I’m home when you offer me cake. Thank you, Auntie Winnie. I love you.’

  ‘I love you, too, dear.’

  ‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Dan said.

  Edwina had come back, staying by the hall door and listening. She and Nell smiled at one another, seeing the tender little scene, then she beckoned to Angus. ‘They’re taking Janey’s father down to the police station. I need to get some sort of unofficial statement from her, just to be sure what happened.’

  He looked into the room, where Nell was bathing Janey’s face with a damp cloth, Dan was brewing a pot of tea and Winifred was cutting a piece of cake. ‘Give her a minute or two. The fussing will help her recover.’

  ‘You’ve got a big bruise on your face, Janey,’ Nell was saying, smoothing the girl’s tangled hair from her forehead. ‘Did he hit you?’

  ‘Yes. He always does. And he touched me.’ She pointed to her breast. ‘There. My own father!’

  Edwina muttered and came forward. ‘He’s in custody and his cousin has accused him of the same thing, but he’s claiming he’s not your father.’

  Janey stared at her, her face slowly brightening for all its bruises and scratches. ‘He’s saying he’s not my father? Oh, I do hope he’s telling the truth. It’d be the best news I could ever have. I’ll phone my mother first thing tomorrow. She’ll tell me if it’s true or not.’

  She stared down at the plate and piece of cake, murmuring, ‘Not my father. Oh, please, let it be true.’ Picking up the cake, she took a big bite.

  Edwina looked at Nell. ‘I’ll have to ask you to stay here to look after Millie, if you don’t mind.’

  Janey looked up. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘We need to get you to a doctor to check your injuries, then we have to take a proper formal statement. Do you trust Ms Chaytor and Miss Parfitt to look after your daughter?’

  ‘I’ve had plenty of practice,’ Nell told her. ‘I’ve brought up three sons.’

  Janey sighed. ‘I’d rather stay here and look after Millie myself. Can’t you take the statement here? I don’t really need a doctor. It’s just bruises and scratches.’

  Angus crouched beside her, studying her bruised face. ‘Better to do things by the rule book, Janey. It’ll make things easier when he’s taken to court.’

  ‘Will you come with me to the police station, then?’

  He cast a questioning glance in Edwina’s direction and at her nod, said, ‘Yes, of course.’

  Edwina turned to Winifred. ‘Thank you for your hospitality. We’ll be in touch.’

  ‘Look after her.’

  ‘We will.’

  As they walked out, Edwina murmured to Angus. ‘My colleague will drive us. I’m going to check that car number plate on the way there. Do you mind coming in the police car? We’ll arrange a lift back. It’s just that I’d rather be able to say that I was with Miss Dobson from the minute she got home and you can bear witness to that, if necessary.’

  ‘Good thinking. I’ll do whatever you feel is best.’

  She eyed him sideways for a few seconds, then said, ‘We got off to a bad start, you and I, didn’t we?’

  ‘I think your father is to blame for that.’

  ‘I suppose so. He’ll never change. He’s living in the past about that sort of thing.’

  ‘Well, you’re Nell’s cousin, so I’m willing to wipe out the past and start again.’

  ‘Yeah. Me, too.’

  He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to have done that needed wiping out, but what the hell! Life was too short to hold grudges.

  ‘I can’t believe how quickly you and Nell got together,’ Edwina said suddenly.

  ‘Yes. It took us both by surprise. I certainly didn’t expect to find someone to love again.’

  She didn’t say anything else but concentra
ted on the response to the car number plate query.

  He sat quietly and when he noticed how strained Janey was looking, he patted her hand and whispered, ‘You’ll be safe from now on. We’ll make sure of it.’

  When they got to the police station they were kept busy with interviews and writing statements for several hours. Janey also had to do a mouth swab for the DNA test.

  At one stage Edwina came to see them, looking excited. ‘Do you mind waiting a bit longer? Will the baby be all right? It’s just … we’ve found something out that affects the bigger picture.’

  ‘Any hint as to what?’

  ‘Not yet. But I promise you’ll both be pleased.’

  ‘Is it all right if Janey makes a phone call?’

  ‘Perfectly all right.’

  He glanced out of the window. ‘I see there’s a café across the street. Perhaps we could grab something to eat, since we missed breakfast?’

  ‘Of course. But please come straight back.’

  As Edwina returned to the rear offices, he looked at Janey, hating to see her poor battered face. ‘What do you make of that?’

  ‘I don’t know. But I don’t think she’d lie to us, do you?’

  ‘No. In fact, she’s usually too blunt. Let’s phone Auntie Winnie from the café. It’ll be much pleasanter there.’

  The detective now in charge of the case grinned at Edwina when she asked him how long it’d take to check Dobson’s DNA to find out if he was the father of Janey.

  ‘It just so happens we’re trialling a new speedy DNA test from America. How about we put your samples forward for inclusion in the trial? The new test isn’t yet validated for court use, so you’ll still have to get a standard test done as well, which will mean taking more samples, but we can find out within a couple of hours what the samples show and it should give you some guidance at least. Actually, we’ve found it very accurate so far.’

  ‘I’ll owe you for that tip, David.’

  ‘You can buy me a drink one night.’

  She looked at him in surprise, then smiled. ‘OK.’

  ‘Friday next?’

  That did surprise her. He was new to the area and not the best-looking guy on the planet, but then, she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, either. He seemed pleasant enough, so why not have a drink with him and see if anything came of it? Her father wasn’t around any longer to deter men from dating her. ‘Suits me just fine.’