by A J McDine
‘Shit.’ Lou runs a hand through her hair. ‘What about sniffer dogs or helicopters?’
‘All the available dogs and the police helicopter are looking for an elderly gent with dementia who’s gone missing on the Isle of Sheppey.’
‘But Roz is dangerous. She was going to kill Sophie and take her baby. You need to find her!’
‘We’re doing our best with limited resources, Mrs -’
‘Sullivan,’ supplies Lou curtly.
He turns to me. ‘This woman who threatened you, what’s her name?’
‘Roz Beaumont. Although her real name is Leanne. She may have changed her last name, too.’
He scribbles in his pocket notebook. ‘Where does she live?’
I give a helpless shrug. ‘I don’t know. But I have her mobile number if that’s any use?’
He jots down her number. ‘We found a Sony Xperia in the cellar. Is that yours?’
‘No, Lou has my phone. It’s Roz’s.’
‘In that case we can’t track her phone. Does she have a car?’
‘A red Clio. Old shape.’
‘Registration plate?’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know it. But it wasn’t in the car park when I arrived this evening.’
‘She may have parked it nearby. I’ll alert the control room and we’ll see if we can get any hits on ANPR. Ah, here’s the ambulance. I’ll let them check you and the baby over.’
Two paramedics jump out of the ambulance, introduce themselves and usher me, Lou and Teddy inside. I feel myself relax as they regale us with stories of the strange places women have given birth on their shift, from a village post office to the car park of a Chinese restaurant. They check us over with friendly efficiency and declare us in good shape considering our ordeal, although they want to take us to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, so Teddy can be checked over by an obstetrician just to be sure.
There’s a cough at the door and Sergeant Holland appears. ‘Mrs Saunders, do you feel able to give me a brief idea what happened here this evening?’
‘Sure,’ I say, although re-living the last few hours is the last thing I feel like doing. I wrap the blue cotton blanket one of the paramedics gave me tighter around myself and he perches on the bed beside me.
He listens in silence as I relate the events of the last few hours, from the moment I received Roz’s text to the arrival of the police. His eyes widen as I describe Roz’s makeshift C-section and home birthing kit and the needle filled with a deadly cocktail of heroin and fentanyl.
‘We found two hypodermic needles. One full, one empty.’
‘The other one was Syntocinon. It’s used to bring on labour.’
‘Yes, my wife had it for our twins.’
‘Roz injected me in the leg with it. It wasn’t long before Teddy arrived.’ I pause to run a finger down the sleeping baby’s cheek. ‘She also admitted the arson at Angela Platt’s home in Bridge a few weeks ago, and the criminal damage here last week. DC Sam Bennett was investigating them.’
‘Righto.’ He barks something unintelligible into his radio. Another officer, an older man with the suggestion of a paunch under his uniform, appears in the doorway.
‘No sign of anyone, Sarg. You want us to check the fields and outbuildings?’
‘It wouldn’t do any harm, Reg.’ Sergeant Holland smiles at me. ‘That’s all for now. You and the little ’un get yourselves to hospital. We’ll be in touch.’
As we watch his retreating back I remember my hospital bag stowed in my locked car containing everything Teddy and I need.
‘My bag’s in the car but I don’t suppose they’ll let me into the cellar to pick up the keys,’ I say.
‘They don’t need to.’ Lou plunges her hand into the pocket of her jeans and produces the keys with a flourish. ‘I grabbed them when I picked up your phone. Didn’t want Psycho Bitch using your car to get away. Won’t be a sec,’ she calls over her shoulder.
I clutch the handle of Teddy’s car seat and stare at my phone. It’s two thirty in the morning, almost an hour since Lou left a message for Matt, and he still hasn’t phoned back. Where is he? Doesn’t he care that his heavily pregnant wife has disappeared off the face of the earth?
My imagination running overtime, I picture our empty house, my note screwed up on the kitchen table and a second propped against the fruit bowl in its place. But this one is in Matt’s messy scrawl. He’s sorry, he says. He didn’t mean for it to happen. It’s not me, it’s him. He tried so hard not to fall in love. He just couldn’t help himself. He’s leaving. He can’t live a lie any longer.
Who stole his heart?
Not Lou. I chastise myself for the thought ever crossing my mind. I know now Lou would never betray me. Not Roz, either. She couldn’t disguise her shock when I told her Matt was having an affair.
Perhaps it’s Susie from head office, who is always tipping him off when the regional manager is about to make a surprise visit. Or Kelly, the pretty redhead from accounts, who seemed to hang on to his every word at the awards night we went to a couple of years ago.
Lou returns, my hospital bag on her shoulder. One of the paramedics slams the door closed and his colleague turns on the ignition. As the ambulance trundles down the driveway Lou takes my hand in hers.
‘Has he phoned?’
I shake my head.
‘Everything’s going to be OK, Soph. I promise.’
I blink back tears. Roz is on the run and my husband doesn’t give a toss if I’m alive or dead.
‘I love you for saying so. But it’s not really, is it? Everything is not going to be OK.’
Chapter Forty-Seven
Now
The bright lights of the hospital hurt my eyes after the gloom of the cellar and I blink as one of the paramedics wheels me into A&E. Lou resembles a pack horse, with Teddy’s car seat in one hand and my hospital bag over her shoulder. Every few minutes he stirs, the snuffles and whimpers becoming louder each time, and once we are shown into a cubicle he begins testing out his lungs properly for the first time. His wails reverberate around the ward and his face is red and angry.
‘He needs a feed,’ Lou says, unclipping him from the car seat and handing him to me. At first, he’s too worked up to latch on, which sends me into a panic, but then he remembers what to do and the cubicle falls silent as he feeds.
Lou pours me a glass of water from the plastic jug on the bedside cabinet. ‘Christ knows how long it’s sat there but you need to drink something.’ She looks at me critically. ‘You look very pale. Are you alright?’
I don’t know if it’s the relief of being in hospital or the fact that the adrenalin that has seen me through the last few hours is wearing off, but I feel terrible. Nauseous from the ride in the back of the ambulance and light-headed with exhaustion. ‘I’ll be fine,’ I say, taking a sip of water. It tastes so fusty I almost gag.
Lou places a hand on my forehead. ‘You feel very cold.’ She takes the blue baby fleece from the car seat and drapes it over my shoulders.
I shudder. ‘Not that one.’
‘Sorry.’
She gives me her cardigan instead and ferrets around in my hospital bag. ‘We’ll change his nappy when he’s finished his feed. Did you do the first one?’
I try to think, but much of the evening is already like a half-forgotten dream. ‘I think Roz must have.’
Once Teddy finishes feeding I check my phone, but the battery has died. Matt still doesn’t know he’s a father. I need to find one of the nurses to ask if I can use their phone and am summoning the energy to haul myself out of the chair when a doctor whisks the cubicle curtains open and strides in. He looks remarkably fresh-faced for the time of night, although I’m so tired I’m having trouble focusing on his features.
‘Sophie Saunders?’
‘That’s me.’
‘We’ve arranged a side room for you and the baby.’ He smiles. ‘If you’d like to follow me.’
Lou steers the wheelchair towards me, but
I shake my head. ‘I’m not an invalid. I’ll be fine if you can take Teddy.’
I shuffle along the corridor a few steps behind the doctor.
‘Sophie!’ Lou cries, as I cannon into a wall.
‘Stop fussing. I’m fine.’
‘You are not bloody fine.’
They are the last words I hear as my legs give way and I crumple to the floor.
When I wake I’m lying in the side room, wearing an itchy blue gown with a drip attached to the back of my hand. I pull myself up in a panic, only relaxing when I see Teddy asleep in a cot beside my bed. His arms are stretched above his head and he’s wearing one of the yellow sleepsuits I bought in Fenwick all those weeks ago.
‘You’re awake,’ says a familiar voice.
Lou is sitting on a chair beside my bed, her legs tucked underneath her. Her hair is all over the place and there are purple shadows under her eyes. She looks like the dishevelled older sister of the glossy woman in her Facebook profile photo.
‘Wow, you look like shit.’
She raises an eyebrow. ‘I love you, too.’ She stretches her legs and stifles a yawn. ‘You don’t look too hot yourself.’
I hold up my hand. ‘What’s with all this?’
‘It’s fluids to rehydrate you. The doctor said you’d lost so much blood you were lucky you didn’t need a transfusion.’
I reach over to the cot and stroke Teddy’s hair. It’s as fine as cobwebs.
‘He’s been an angel,’ says Lou, smiling. ‘He’s the original contented little baby. Gina Ford would be proud.’
‘Just as well, considering I’m going to be bringing him up on my own.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Matt obviously doesn’t want to know. If he did he’d be here.’ I wave my hand around the room, almost dislodging the drip. ‘But he’s conspicuous by his absence, isn’t he?’
I don’t expect her to answer, but I don’t expect to see the corner of her mouth twitch, either. I narrow my eyes. ‘Some sympathy wouldn’t go amiss. I’ve been kidnapped by a mad woman, forced to give birth in a cellar, Matt has dumped me and all you can do is laugh. Some friend you are.’
There’s a timid knock at the door. Lou runs her hands through her hair and smoothes her rumpled shirt. ‘That’ll be my favourite ward assistant with some tea. I’m telling you, he’s hot.’
‘Christ, Lou, do you ever stop?’
She sprints to the door and pulls it open. My heart misses a beat. Standing in the doorway is my husband, a plastic cup in each hand and a worried expression on his face.
‘She’s awake,’ Lou says unnecessarily. She flicks a look over her shoulder at me. ‘It’s time you two talked properly. I’ll be in the poor excuse for a café if you need me.’
I want to beg her to stay. I’m not sure I can deal with the disintegration of my marriage right now. Matt nods and she slips out of the room. I watch out of the corner of my eye as he places the cups on the ring-marked cabinet beside the bed. His fingers are trembling. If Lou looked bad it’s nothing compared to Matt. His cheeks have a hollowed-out look as if he’s sucking on a slice of lemon and he doesn’t have shadows under his eyes, he has bloody great bags. The stubble on his chin is more salt than pepper and his complexion is waxy.
He sits heavily in the chair and his eyes scan the room as if he’s looking for an escape route. For a second, his gaze rests on the cot. We need to be civil, I remind myself. For Teddy’s sake.
Finally, he turns to me and I hold my breath, waiting for the bomb to drop.
‘I’m so sorry, Sophie. You have no idea how sorry I am.’
‘It’s OK. I saw it coming.’
His eyebrows shoot up. ‘You’d already guessed?’
‘I’m not stupid,’ I say hotly. ‘I just wasn’t sure who. The delectable Susie from head office or the accommodating Kelly from accounts? Or maybe someone else altogether? Why don’t you tell me?’
I smile a smile that doesn’t reach my eyes and pluck at the hospital gown with my fingers. Matt is frowning as if he doesn’t know what I’m talking about and I have a sudden and very real urge to slap his face.
‘Who is it?’
‘Who’s what?’
‘Who are you having an affair with?’
‘An affair?’
‘Oh, be a man and come clean, for pity’s sake. You’ve been acting weirdly for weeks. Not interested in sex. With me at any rate. Ignoring texts and calls when I’m around. I know you didn’t go to the Indian Village with Greg and the boys. He told me. And that crash on the M26 you claimed you were stuck in actually happened on the A2. Where were you, Matt? And who were you with?’
‘I know how it looks, but you’ve got it wrong.’ He reaches for my hand, but I snatch it away.
‘I was looking for someone.’
‘Oh yes?’ I sneer.
He nods miserably. ‘I was looking for Leanne.’
Chapter Forty-Eight
Now
‘Leanne?’
‘I think you know her as Roz.’
The world tilts on its axis and I draw the thin hospital sheet under my chin. ‘Why were you looking for her?’ I ask in a small voice.
‘I don’t know how much she told you down in the cellar, but we have history.’
So, she wasn’t lying. I wait for my husband to continue. When he does his voice is heavy. ‘We met when I was working at a bank in Portsmouth. I’d just been made assistant manager and she was a mortgage advisor who had transferred from the Southampton branch. She was edgy and cool. Nothing like the girls I usually dated. Perhaps that’s what attracted me to her. But it was a destructive relationship. We weren’t good for each other.’
‘She said you lived together.’
‘We did. But not how you think. Not how she wanted, either. I’d bought my first house and the mortgage was crippling. I decided to rent out a room, put an advert on the staff noticeboard and Leanne was the only person to respond. I was her landlord.’
‘With added benefits.’ My voice is bitter.
Matt hangs his head. ‘You make it sound as though I’m some kind of sexual predator. But she did all the running. And she wasn’t very good at taking no for an answer.’
‘She told me you were going to get married, have kids, the lot.’
‘That’s not how it was. You have to believe me. She has a warped sense of reality. I never made any promises. She knew I wasn’t in the market for a serious relationship. I was twenty-three, for God’s sake. All I ever wanted was a bit of fun, no strings attached.’
‘Who was Tess?’
Matt buries his face in his hands. ‘She was a cashier at the bank,’ he mumbles.
‘And?’
He looks at me with a haunted expression. ‘We fell in love.’
A dart of jealousy pierces my heart even though I know how the story ends. ‘And Leanne didn’t take it too well?’
‘She totally freaked out. She trashed her room and made a spectacle of herself at work. I asked her to move out, and let’s just say it didn’t go down too well. That’s when I first realised her edginess was because she was literally on the edge. She was completely mental.’
I wince at Matt’s un-PC choice of words.
‘She started following Tess and me outside work. She posted long, rambling love letters through my letterbox and dog shit through Tess’s. She tried to turn everyone at work against Tess, claiming she’d been sacked from her last job for sleeping with the boss. She even lodged an official complaint about her with HR. It was a nightmare.’
‘Did you report her to the police?’
He nods. ‘They told us to keep a diary of all the incidents. They needed us to show it was a pattern of behaviour and not a one off. Did you know that stalking behaviour has been identified in nine out of ten murders?’
The temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees and I shiver. Matt is staring blankly at the wall behind me.
‘So, you kept a diary. What happened then?’
‘It was the day before our appointment at the police station. Tess went for a run. I would have gone with her only I was nursing a groin injury from five-a-side and I didn’t want to make it worse. She set out on her usual five-mile run. It normally took her about forty-five minutes. When an hour had gone by and she still wasn’t back I began to worry. I just had a feeling something was wrong, you know? I jumped in the car and drove her route. At first when I saw the ambulance and police cars I told myself it couldn’t be her. But it was. A hit-and-run driver had knocked her over at a crossroads and fled the scene. Tess died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.’
The sound of the door handle makes us both jump and we sit in silence as an orderly bustles in and changes the jug of water on my bedside cabinet.
Once he’s left I say, ‘You think Roz - Leanne - knocked her over?’
A sob catches in the back of Matt’s throat and he nods.
‘Did you tell the police?’
‘Of course, but there were no witnesses, no CCTV, nothing. They brought Leanne in for questioning, but she denied everything. In case you didn’t realise, she’s a very good liar.’
‘What about her car? It would have been damaged, surely?’
‘They checked, but there wasn’t a single mark on it. They found a stolen van with a dented bonnet nearby, but there was nothing to link it to Leanne. Without a shred of evidence, there was no case. The crime report was filed.’
He sounds so distraught I can’t stop myself reaching over and taking his hand. ‘What happened then?’
‘Leanne turned up at the funeral, all caring and concerned. I almost punched her lights out. I knew I had to get as far away from her as possible, so I put my house on the market and started looking for jobs. When I was offered one in Chester I grabbed it with both hands. I sold up and moved on.’
‘What happened to her?’
‘One of the cashiers told me she was admitted to a psychiatric unit after having another meltdown at work. It was a relief. I thought I had finally managed to free myself of her.’