by M A Comley
“Sorry, in a nutshell, yes,” the woman technician replied. “Want me to have a word with Patti, maybe get your cases put on the priority list?”
“I think they’re probably up the top already, so let’s leave things as they are for now. The last thing I want to do is piss her off. Keep things as they are for now.”
“As if I’m likely to do that. We’ll get back to you soon, I promise.”
“I appreciate your help. Thanks.” She ended the call and rang home.
AJ answered within a few minutes. “Hey, is everything all right?”
“I’m fine, just needed to hear your voice. A pig of a day already, and I don’t foresee it getting any better in the short or long term.”
“Ugh…sounds ominous. Anything I can do to help?”
“Make me laugh, try to brighten my dull and dreary day.”
“Oh heck. Hang on, I heard a really dreadful joke the other day. What was it now…? Ah yes. Did you hear about the racing snail who got rid of his shell?”
“No, can’t say I have.”
“Wait for it…he thought it would make him faster, but it just made him sluggish.”
Katy held back a groan and laughed. “Oh my, I wish I hadn’t asked now, that was truly awful.”
“Awfully good, though, and dare I say it, it appeared to do what it was intended to do and made you laugh.”
“It did that. I’m super appreciative. How are things there?”
“I wasn’t sure if I should call you or not. I’ve rung the doctors about Georgie.”
“What? Is she all right? Oh God, I feel terrible and selfish now, you should have mentioned it as soon as I called. Oh heck…what if…?”
“Katy. Take a bloody breath. She’s fine. A slight temperature and a bit sniffly. Samir rang me this morning, concerned about her. I went to pick her up from her house and came straight home. The doctor told me to monitor Georgie and to take her up to the hospital if she gets any worse.”
“No medication? Nothing like that?”
“Nope, junior paracetamol, if I think it’s necessary. I don’t think it is, she’s up there at the moment, zonked out. I checked her a few minutes ago.”
Katy let out an exasperated breath. “We’ve had it too good with her lately. The specialist warned us she could have a relapse. We should have kept a closer eye on her, not allowed her to sleep over at another child’s house. No one can take care of her as well as we can.”
“Stop that. It’s a mild cold. Stop getting yourself all worked up.”
“What? I can’t help it. I should be there with her, comforting her like any normal mother.”
“Now you’re talking utter nonsense, and thanks for doubting my ability to cope in the process.”
“Bugger, I didn’t mean to do that. I would never cast aspersions about your ability to care for our daughter. You do an amazing job, but it’s natural for me to kick myself and throw a guilt-ridden analogy into the mix when things go wrong.”
“I know, but I wish you wouldn’t, it’s not doing anyone any good. She’ll be fine, I’m sure.”
“Go check on her now, while I’m on the phone.”
He tutted, and the phone hit the table. In the distance, AJ’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. She strained her ear, hoping to pick up on any other possible noises, and then his measured footsteps returned a few moments later.
“Well?” she asked impatiently.
“She’s fine. Snuggled up with Bear, not a care in the world. I told you not to worry.”
“Did you feel her forehead? Does she have a temperature?”
“Katy…she’s fine. Leave it there. If anything changes, I’ll get her to the hospital immediately, I promise you.”
She blew out a breath. “Thanks. I’m in no way doubting your parenting skills, don’t ever think that. It’s me being a worrying ninny, that’s all.”
“You’re entitled to be. Now back to work with you, you have a case to solve.”
“He’s a spree killer now. Three murders all linked to one man.”
“You know who it is?”
“Yep, all we’ve got to do now is find him.”
“That’s the hardest part, you have my sympathy.”
“Thanks. I’d better get on now. Promise me you’ll call me if Georgie’s condition deteriorates.”
“I promise. Don’t worry, she’s fine with her old dad caring for her.”
“That’s not my concern, and you know it.”
“I do. Some men might get a complex, but I’m fine, honestly.”
They both laughed.
“Cheeky sod. I love you and appreciate all you do for us. Any calls regarding the business today?”
“Yep, an extra couple of bookings. Next month is shaping up to be good so far.”
“I’m thrilled for you. You’ve worked so hard to pull it all together.”
“I know. Thanks for being such a supportive wife.”
“Get away with you. I’ve gotta fly. If all goes well today, we’ll have a celebratory drink or two later.”
“I’ll put a bottle in the fridge to chill.”
Katy ended the call with a smile on her face. It slipped soon after she placed the phone in the docking station. She couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Georgie. Although, the consultant did say that they should prepare for things to get worse before they got any better. Why did God have to punish children in this way? If he was angry with the parents then take it out on them and not the innocent babies out there. Some of whom are born with a heart defect, such as Georgie. Where was the justice in that?
Charlie knocked on her door and poked her head into the room. “Everything okay? What’s wrong, Katy?”
Katy brushed away the tear that had seeped onto her cheek. “Nothing, me being silly, that’s all. What have you got?”
“We’ve confirmed James Boyd’s address via the electoral roll.”
Katy rubbed her hands together in glee, pushing aside her own problems for the time being to concentrate on the investigation again. “Marvellous news. We need to organise a surveillance team ASAP.”
“Graham and Patrick have volunteered to be the first shout.”
“What about their tasks?”
“The rest of the team have said they’ll take up the slack, add them to their to-do lists.”
“If everyone is okay with that suggestion then give them my blessing. Tell them to keep in touch if he’s there or if he goes on the move at all.”
“Of course I will.”
Charlie left her to celebrate the news on her own with a bottle of water from her desk drawer. She spotted her roll from the day before and binned it.
She downed the contents of the bottle and then joined the others. Graham and Patrick had already left.
“Can we go over where we stand?”
The phone rang, and Charlie answered it. “Thanks, not what we wanted to hear. I’ll pass on the news.” She hung up and grimaced. “The blue Honda was spotted on a waste site this morning, burntout. The desk sergeant saw it on the wires and thought we’d better know ASAP.”
“Great. Hey, let’s not lose heart, at least we’ve got an address for Boyd, we don’t need the vehicle.”
“What if…?” Charlie began and stopped.
“Go on, Charlie.”
“What if he dumped that car, torched it and stole another one close by?”
Katy pointed at her. “See, now that’s what I call thinking outside the box. Can you do some digging in the system for me?”
“With pleasure. It’s the only way I can think of him getting out of there.”
“Either that or he got a cab, if it’s near a main thoroughfare,” Karen chipped in.
“Damn, I never thought of that,” Charlie admitted.
“Another great suggestion. We can work both angles. Karen, can you ring round the many taxi firms in the area and see if any of the drivers picked James Boyd up. We’ll need to trace his steps ready to fling at him during an intervi
ew and a possible court case. What am I saying? You’re aware of that shit!”
Charlie smiled. “Leave us to it.”
“I’ve chased up Forensics, they’re going to do their best but they’re up against it because of all the different crime scenes involved. Nothing in this life is easy, apparently. I know what I can do, call the hospital, see how Camilla is,” Katy said as if justifying her need to be active. She raced back into the office and dropped into her chair. She glanced up to see Charlie standing in the doorway.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Don’t I seem it? Oh no, you think my flighty behaviour is to do with the bump on my head. It’s not, I promise.”
“Okay, I was concerned for a moment there.”
“I might as well tell you. Come in and shut the door. I called AJ. He told me Georgie was feeling under the weather, and my motherly guilt gene took on a life of its own.”
Charlie placed her hands on the back of the spare chair and asked, “Define ‘under the weather’?”
“A slight cold. She was tucked up in bed. I made AJ go and check on her while I was on the phone.”
“Gosh, then I can see why you seem a bit anxious. She’s in good hands with him.”
“I know. I have no qualms in that department. We were told by her consultant to keep a close eye on her so, naturally, when she comes down with something, no matter how minor it might seem to others, to her, and her damaged heart, we could be talking about a life-or-death situation.”
“Damn. I knew there was an underlying problem but I never knew how severe it was. No wonder you’re fretting. Should you be here?”
Katy waved the question away. “Yeah, if I dropped everything and went home now, I don’t think AJ would ever forgive me. I’d be stepping on his toes as her primary carer.”
“A tough situation, I admit that. You two, your combined efforts are amazing. Georgie is a very lucky little girl.”
“Thanks, Charlie, AJ has to take the main share of the credit, though. I refuse to hog the limelight when he does most of the hard work caring for her.”
“It’s a joint effort, stop putting yourself down.”
“I’m not. All I’m being is truthful. Now get out of here, let’s remain focused on the job in hand.”
Charlie mock-saluted her and left the office.
Katy rang the hospital. Camilla had been placed on the women’s ward in a private room. The nurse informed her they were keeping a constant eye on her. Camilla was tearful and obviously very upset by the loss of her fiancé but appeared to be bearing up well under the considerable strain she was under. Katy gave the nurse her number to call if things should change while Camilla was still in their care. The nurse promised she would, then hung up.
With vigour, Katy had breezed through the chore of dealing with the paperwork that had been lying in her in-tray. That left her free to lend her team a hand.
Karen discovered that James Boyd had since left Zedex, gone freelance and registered a firm with Companies House. That added up, and would have allowed him the time off to have committed the murders. Katy’s spirits were lifted by the news which would add ammunition to their armoury when they pulled him in. Tracking his movements and being able to place him at the scene could be the key to putting him behind bars.
The boys reported in a few times during the day. Nothing, Boyd wasn’t around. They’d even conducted a small house-to-house enquiry of the road to see if anyone had seen Boyd recently. The next-door neighbour told Graham and Patrick he hadn’t seen James at the house in over a week. It wasn’t the news Katy wanted to hear.
On the way home that evening, she called in at the hospital to have a brief chat with Camilla.
The young woman had red raw eyes. There was a bag of used tissues beside her bed. She glanced up and stared at Katy with glassy eyes. “Hello, aren’t you the policewoman who…?”
“That’s right. I was with you earlier.”
Both of them skirted around the ‘saved’ word.
“I should thank you for what you did. The truth is, I can’t figure out yet if what you did for me was a good or bad thing.”
“I understand your confusion. It’s been a tough day for you.”
“It has. And here I am now, lying here, thinking…just reflecting on what we had.”
“The struggle is going to be real for you during the coming weeks and months, but I believe you’re strong enough to cope with what life is about to throw at you.”
“How can you say that? I have so many doubts…you should’ve let me go…I wanted to be with him. Now what’s going to happen to me? I’m going to die a lonely old woman. I can’t be trusted to fall in love again…not while James is on the loose. You really think he’s the one who did this?”
“Don’t you? From what we’ve learned so far, it wouldn’t make sense not to consider him as our main suspect. That’s why I’m here, not to pressure you into speaking to me, but to see if you can help us track him down.”
“How do you expect me to do that? I haven’t seen him in ages, that was by choice.” She nervously twisted a tissue through her fingers, and her gaze was drawn to her hands.
“I appreciate how hard this is for you. Don’t you want us to catch him, Camilla?”
Her head shot up, and her eyes narrowed. “What sort of question is that? Of course I want him caught. I want you to lock him up and bury the damn key so he never sees the light of day again.”
“My problem is that we’ve had a team sat outside his house all day, and he hasn’t been near the place. He’d stolen a car to use to get him to the various crime scenes, but we discovered that burnt out earlier on a waste site. You see, although we’re doing our very best to find him, we’re struggling to locate him. In other words, he’s proving elusive and we can’t understand why.”
Camilla shrugged. “What do you expect me to do about that? I’m sitting here in hospital after trying to commit suicide, and here you are, hounding me about the one man I detest the most in this world—no, make that this universe. I can’t take this. You’re pushing me closer to the edge again. I want you to leave.” Her voice rose.
The next second, a nurse rushed into the room. “Everything all right in here?”
Katy’s cheeks warmed under her intense gaze. “Yes, just a misunderstanding.”
The nurse shifted, leaving a gap between herself and the hallway. “I think you should leave, Inspector, now. Mrs Boyd is in a fragile state. I knew it was wrong allowing you to see her so soon.”
Katy’s head dropped as the shame descended. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me, Camilla. The last thing I wanted to do was make your rehabilitation worse. All I’m trying to do is capture the man who has affected so many lives in the past thirty-six hours.”
Camilla sniffed and wiped her runny nose. “No, I’m sorry. I appreciate you have a job to do.” She let out a long breath. “I’m just tired. Tired of thinking what my future held, and now all I can consider is how lonely the world is going to be without him. Rufus, I mean.”
The nurse approached the bed and puffed up the pillows behind her. “There, there, you don’t have to talk. Just relax, there’s no need for you to get yourself in a tizzy again.”
“Is that a technical term?” Katy asked, smiling in an attempt to cut through the chilled atmosphere which had descended.
It worked. Camilla grinned. “I’m sorry for getting in a ‘tizzy’. You have to understand that today…I lost everything. Rufus was my world…”
“Honestly, I get that. Please, won’t you consider helping me by trying to find James?”
Camilla stared at the corner of the room for what appeared to be an eternity until she finally relented. “Okay, I’ll help, for Rufus’ sake.”
Katy pulled up a chair.
The nurse patted Camilla’s hand and said, “I’ll leave you to it. Give me a shout if you need me.”
“Thank you,” Camilla replied.
Katy glanced up and nodded at the nurse. Th
e door closed, leaving Katy alone with Camilla. “Please, hear me out. I’m going to try and make this as painless as possible. My intention isn’t to cause you any more unnecessary anxiety. You’re doing exceptionally well. If at any time you want to stop, that’s fine by me.”
“No, I think I’d like to get it over with in one go. I’m getting tired, my lids are drooping. What do you need to know?”
“When you were with James, was there a place he dearly liked to visit?”
“In the area?”
“Yes.” She watched on as the woman’s eyes narrowed and her head tilted as she thought. “Wait, maybe. I think his parents…no, I know his parents used to own a holiday cottage somewhere down on the coast. He was left it in his father’s will. It was only a one-bedroom place. Now where was it?”
Katy kept quiet, giving Camilla the time and space to ponder.
Camilla eventually shook her head. “I can’t for the life of me think where it was. There’s definitely one around, though, if that’s any help.”
“We can do some digging. Did you ever go there?” Katy tried her best to jog the woman’s memory.
“No. We were planning to, but things always went against us. Either bad weather or something cropped up at work to prevent us from going. In the end, we never got around to using it. Shame really, going away for the weekend might have helped save our marriage in the long run.”
“You really believe that?”
She stared at the tissue in her hand. “I don’t know. We led a boring life. His controlling behaviour destroyed my self-esteem. The one night I arranged to go out with the girls and I was fortunate to meet Rufus. He sincerely turned my world upside down. I fell in love with him the first time I laid eyes on him. I know it was wrong of me as I was married at the time. But let’s face it, if I’d been happy my eyes wouldn’t have wandered.”
“When you told James the marriage was over, what was his reaction?”
“I feel like you’re testing me, asking me the same questions again. Like I said before, he accepted it. His demeanour didn’t change. He didn’t plead with me not to leave him. He didn’t say that his world would collapse if I walked out on him, nothing! Therefore, I moved in with Rufus and we lived our lives to the fullest. He treated me like a princess. I know a lot of women say that about their fellas, but he truly did. He couldn’t do enough for me. All our plans have now disintegrated. I’m lost without him. I can’t see it getting easier anytime soon.”