The Last First Time

by Andrea Bramhall

  “I see what you mean now about not wasting other resources until we were sure it was the right man.” Gina clicked the link to register and pay for his full details.

  The amount was nominal. Barely worth thinking about for one person, and the details that came up once the card was charged were scary. At least they were to Kate. George Xavier Boyne’s full address was now theirs. His telephone number and the names and ages of the other people living in the property with him were also there for them to see.

  “Wow,” Gina said.

  “Yeah,” Kate said with a lump in her throat. It had been a long time since she’d done a search like this. It was a lot easier now. Scary easy. The picture of the fifty yellow roses Gina had received popped into her mind. Fifty yellow roses, sender unknown.

  Scary fucking world.

  Chapter 6

  The door opened, and the doctor walked in with a nurse behind him. The doctor was a tall guy, maybe six foot three, with a shock of blond hair held at the back of his head with a rubber band. A scruff of beard covered his lower face, but his eyes smiled despite the serious look on his countenance. “Stella Goodwin?”

  Gina pointed to the bed.

  He nodded and crossed the floor. “I’m Dr Gilad, this is Nurse Bell. Can you tell me what happened?” He peeled the wad of gauze away from the back of Stella’s head.

  She moaned and shifted under his hands.

  “She was at the bomb site when the explosion occurred. She had her back to the blast. It looks like she got caught by some of the shrapnel flying around,” Kate said.

  “Do you know how far away she was from the blast?”

  “No. Does it matter?”

  “Yes. The further away she was, the less force the projectile would have carried—the lower the potential for serious issues.”

  “Sorry. All I can tell you was that she was in the shop. Gina, do you have any idea?”

  Gina frowned, her face scrunched up in concentration. “Stella was trying to edge me towards the door, and they were by the counter, pretty much in the middle of the shop. Fifteen, maybe twenty feet away from them. But there were shelving units and clothing racks between them and us.”

  “Thank you,” the doctor said. “Are you Georgina Temple?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded, and Nurse Bell closed the distance to her.

  “I’m okay,” Gina said. “Honest. Just a few bruises. The blood wasn’t mine.”

  “Okay. Just let me take a quick look, and then you can be on your way,” the nurse said.

  “And I want an X-ray on this other patient as soon as you can,” the doctor said.

  The nurse nodded, then quickly concluded her examination and left the room.

  “You think she has a skull fracture?” Kate asked quietly as she peered over his shoulder at Stella’s wound. The gash was deep. So deep she could see the white bone beneath the thin layer of flesh at the back of her head. She couldn’t make out any signs of damage to the bone, but that didn’t mean anything.

  “I want to rule it out. Yes.”

  Kate nodded.

  “We’ll get it taken care of. Don’t worry.” He slipped from the room.

  Kate picked up her phone and dialled Timmons, never more grateful for the lowered restrictions on using mobile phones in hospitals.

  “You still at the hospital?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And?”

  “The doctor’s just been in. He’s sending Stella for an X-ray to rule out a fractured skull.”

  “Right. How’s she look?”

  “She’s in and out, sir. Mostly out, if truth be told.”

  “Bloody hell. And your girl?”

  “She’s okay. A few bruises, but now the blood’s all washed off, she’s fine.”

  “Right, that’s good, at least.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Brannon, I need you to stay with her. With Stella. Don’t leave her until we know she’s okay.”

  Kate frowned. “You don’t want me to come back to the scene?”

  “Are ya deaf? I said stay with Stella. We’ve got bodies stood around here with nothing to do because the pricks from terrorism have got a bigger dick to swing right now. No point in you being here to help take measurements.”

  Kate chuckled. “But, sir, there’s got to be something I can do.”

  “There is. Make sure Stella’s all right.”

  Kate didn’t answer. There was clearly more to this than she knew.

  “She’s important to me, Brannon.”

  Kate grinned and looked at Stella. “Understood, sir. Consider her under my personal protection.” Kate gazed down at the stricken woman and hung up. This was gold. Pure, unadulterated gold.

  “What’s that evil grin for?” Gina asked.

  “I’ve just been ordered, by my superior officer, to stay here and make sure Stella’s okay, while our office takes part in one of the biggest investigations to date, because she’s ‘very important to him’.” She curled her fingers in the air around the direct quote.

  “Oo, Stella’s been holding out on us.”

  “Looks like it.” Kate rubbed her hands together gleefully as Gina’s evil grin grew to rival her own. “I’m gonna enjoy this one.”

  “Oh, Kate, at least let her recover before you start taking the piss out of her.”

  “Of course I will. I’m not completely insensitive, you know.”

  Gina sniggered and grabbed her hand. She tugged on it until they stood close together again, leaning against the edge of Stella’s bed. “Did he tell you any more about the investigation? You must be itching to be out there by now rather than stuck here with me.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Gina raised her eyebrow.

  “Okay, that’s not entirely true.”

  Gina smiled.

  “I love my job. I’m good at it. But I always want to be with you if I can be.”

  “It must be confusing. Wanting to be in two places at the same time.”

  Kate shrugged. “Not really. Most of the time it’s not an issue. I mean, just a little while ago, I actually didn’t want to go there. But now…right now, I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t like that feeling.”

  “So call Jimmy or Tom. Find out what’s going on.” She nodded to Stella. “I’ll stay with her, and I promise not to let her know you know about her and Timmons.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive. Bring me back something to eat.”

  “You got it.” Kate kissed Gina’s cheek and closed the door behind her before Gina had a chance to change her mind.

  She exited the main entrance and found an empty spot on a bench on the raised verge to sit down. It was wet from the melting snow, but she didn’t care. Nor did she care that she’d no doubt look like she’d wet herself when she stood up in a while. Kate just wanted to take a load off and find out what was going on. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she dialled Tom’s number.

  “Massage parlour, how may I direct your call?”

  Kate burst out laughing. “Did you lose another bet?”

  “When don’t I?”

  “Fair point. Well made, Detective Constable Brothers.”

  “So are you calling just to give me shit, or do you need something, Sarge?”

  “Where are you?”

  “Jessop’s Photography Shop, next door but two to the main blast site, looking at the hole in the roof that collapsed about ten minutes ago.”

  “Very specific, thank you.”

  “Welcome. So…?”

  “I just want an update on what you’ve got so far.”

  Tom sniggered. “You’re still at the hospital, aren’t you?”

  “Yup.”

  “And Timmons is pissed off that the terrorism dudes have taken over.”

  “Yup.”

  “And you need little old me to fill in the blanks.”

  “Okay, I’ll call Jimmy.”

  “Wait, wait, wait. There’s no ne
ed to be like that.”

  Kate waited.

  Tom sighed. “Nothing’s been released to the press yet, but we think we’ve got pictures of the bombers.”

  “How?”

  “The blast didn’t take out the CCTV cameras server. We’ve got it all on tape. From the moment they walked in the doors until the second the blast destroyed the camera. Len Wild sent the footage straight over to Grimshaw in the tech lab. Fuckin’ hell, that dude’s scary with a computer.”

  “Do you have names?”

  “Not yet. He’s cleaning up the images before he can run them through facial recognition programs. He reckons he’ll have an ID by the morning at the latest. But nothing so far.”

  “Who’s heading up the task force?”

  “Good question. Not sure we know yet. There’s some woman here from Norwich who reckons she’s the big cheese until the head honcho gets here from London. Apparently already en route.”

  “Who’s the woman from Norwich?”

  “One Chief Inspector Clare Green.”

  Kate groaned. “Fuck.”

  “Know her?”

  “Yes,” Kate said through gritted teeth. “Didn’t know she’d made Chief Inspector, though.”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot you came over from Norwich. What’s she like?”

  A fucking bitch who’ll wander off with your girlfriend given half a chance. She didn’t want to think about how close she and Clare had been. The woman had practically been her mentor when Kate started on the force. To know that she’d meant so little to her—that their friendship and their history had counted for nothing when it came to shagging Kate’s then-girlfriend Melissa…well that just fucking stank. On a personal level. Professionally, Kate couldn’t fault her. No matter how much she wished she could. “She’s a decent copper. Good track record and knows how to play the game.”

  “Glad to hear that,” Tom said. “At least knowing she’s a human being will make this shit easier to deal with.”

  “Oh, I never said she was a human being, Tom. Just a decent copper. As a human being, I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.”

  Tom cleared his throat. “Sounds like you know her well, Sarge.”

  “No. The problem was I didn’t know her half as well as I thought I did.”

  “Ex?”

  She laughed. “No. I thought she was a friend.” She shook her head to clear it. Brooding about Clare and Melissa wasn’t going to help her get the info she needed. “What’s the count now, Tom?”

  “Too much. Death toll’s at twelve inside the shop and five outside. Injured at twenty-five. Mostly glass and shrapnel wounds, a few broken bones from people who were blown into walls or fell in the panic.”

  Kate gritted her teeth and asked for the piece of information that she already knew would haunt her. “The pushchair?”

  “Two-year-old Gregory Walsh. His mum had just come out of the card shop, and they were going home. She’s in hospital with shrapnel wounds. Lost a lot of blood. Touch and go, the paramedics said. She’s on the critical list, and she doesn’t even know about her son yet.”

  Kate whimpered. How do you tell a mother something like this? How do you look her in the eye and tell her that her little boy won’t…can’t…isn’t…that he’s dead? How do you even say those words? Never mind what you do after them. Kate pressed her thumbs into her eye sockets, hoping to push away the tears maybe just long enough to get through this conversation. It didn’t work. They rolled down her cheeks while she sat listening to Tom breathe. She sniffed back a sob.

  “It’s okay, Kate.” Tom’s voice was soft. “Let it out.”

  She barked a harsh laugh. “I’ve never cried on the job before, Tom. This is the second time within one day.”

  “I saw Timmons crying when he pulled the blanket over the baby’s body. We’re human, Kate. If we don’t cry on a day like this…well, it’s time to pack it in then. Don’t you think?”

  She wiped her cheeks dry. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “Not probably. I am. Anyway, how’s Stella doing?”

  “Possible fractured skull. We’ll know more after the X-ray comes back.”

  “Bollocks.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, other than that, I’ve got nothing to add, Sarge. Other than making sure the perps were acting alone, there’s not a lot more we can do.”

  “And you think they were?”

  “Acting alone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah.” He blew out loudly. “Maybe. I dunno. I mean, maybe that’s just wishful thinking, but King’s Lynn isn’t exactly a bustling hive of Islamic or Muslim action, never mind radicals or extremists. I mean how many Muslims are even in King’s Lynn? Less than a thousand?”

  “Yeah, but you know as well as I do that tension has been rising. The last couple of years, there’ve been a string of incidents at the mosque. Racial slurs, graffiti; then there was that attack a few years back. It all builds, Tom.”

  “So you’re saying focus on the mosque.”

  “No, I’m saying keep an open mind.”

  “I always do, Sarge.”

  She sniggered. “Yeah, about as open as a Yorkshireman’s wallet.”

  “Now, Sarge. No need for racial abuse like that.”

  She shook her head. “Right. Thanks, Tom, and keep me informed, okay?”

  “Got it, Sarge. You let us know how Stella’s doing.”

  “Will do.”

  “And, you…you look after Gina too, okay?”

  What was this? Body swap soppiness? “I will.”

  “And be kind to yourself, Sarge. This is off the fuckin’ chart.” And he was gone.

  She slid her phone into her pocket and walked to the cafe. She got sandwiches and croissants for them both before heading back to Stella’s room. It was empty when she got there. “Bugger.” She closed the door and spotted the nurse who had seen to Gina earlier.

  The nurse held her hands up to ward off the questions that she knew Kate was going to ask. “They’ve gone down to X-ray. Should be back in just a few minutes. Wait in there. Then you won’t miss them.” She pointed back to the room.

  Kate smiled at her seeming omniscience. “You’ve worked here a while, then, I take it?”

  “Feels like forever, except the place wasn’t built until the fires of hell cooled a little.”

  Kate laughed. “Thanks, I needed that. Tell me honestly, what’s going on with my friend? Is she going to be okay?”

  The nurse’s smile gentled. “It’s always tricky with head injuries. Especially traumatic ones. The X-ray will tell us what we need to do next, but most likely it will just be rest. The best medicine for the brain is rest, relaxation, and time. She has a concussion, quite a bad one. Her head is going to hurt like hell for a while, but that will get better. If the skull is fractured, we may just have to give it time, or we may need to operate to fix it.” She shrugged. “Until we get the result back, we just don’t know. But don’t worry. She’s in good hands. I know he looks young, but Dr Gilad really is one of the best we’ve got here.”

  Kate smiled. “Thanks.”

  She reached over and squeezed Kate’s arm. “She’ll be okay.”

  “Yeah. Hard-headed. There was one more thing you could help me with, if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Gina. She’s stuck in that crappy little Tyvek suit and my coat, and it’s getting cooler. I don’t suppose you’ve got a set of scrubs she can use? They’ve got to be warmer than that paper get-up.”

  “Let me see what I can do for you,” the nurse said with a chuckle and moved on.

  Kate went back to the room and sat down to wait. Gazing again at the small mountain of evidence bags sitting in the corner of the room, she lifted the letter from the pile. Pat’s neat handwriting stared back at her. She lifted the photograph off the pile too, her mind whirling before she quickly grabbed her phone and dialled Ruth’s number.

  “Yep.”

>   “Did you get hold of the next of kin for Patricia O’Shea yet?”

  “No. She’s got a son, but he’s over in Australia. Haven’t been able to reach him yet. Might have to get one of their local officers to do the notification.”

  “Right. Okay, thanks.”

  “Why?”

  “Gina was with her when she passed.”

  “Oh, I see.” Ruth paused. “Want me to let the son know when he’s informed?”

  “Nah. Don’t worry about it. Thanks, though.”

  “No problem. Now let me get back to work. I’ve got too much to do and not enough hands. Unless you want to come down and do an autopsy or two.”

  “No thanks. Bye, Doc.”

  Ruth sniggered and ended the call.

  Kate read through the letter again. The poignancy, the bittersweet, the history in those few pages. Well, it wouldn’t help the investigation at all. And it didn’t sound like it would hurt them to hold on to the letter while Gina decided what she wanted to do about it. The idea of tampering with evidence felt alien to her. Difficult. She was the one who wouldn’t use police resources to try and find George in the first place. The idea of keeping the letter out of evidence, no matter how little it would affect the outcome of the investigation, made her itch.

  No, she couldn’t do that. But she had the pictures of it. She could still use the letter, reprint it, and give the copy to George Boyne if Gina wanted to go and see him.

  It made sense to her. Evidence wasn’t tampered with, and Gina could still get the resolution she needed. She could still grant Pat’s last request. As much as she’d tried to hide it, Kate could see that it had bothered Gina to not be able to do what the woman had asked of her. Well, it was a pretty good compromise as far as Kate could see.

  Chapter 7

  Gina followed behind the sleeping Stella while the porter wheeled her back into the room and clipped on the brakes of her bed. She smiled at the heavyset man as he winked at her and pulled the door closed behind him.