Trodds Lane

by Nick Roteman

  The Porsche left Bournemouth along the main A338 and switched onto the A31 to cross the New Forest National Park, the largest remaining tract of unenclosed pastureland in England. Luckily for Moira the traffic was heavy along the A31 allowing her to just keep the Porsche in sight.

  At a junction to some obscure village, the Porsche suddenly at the last minute veered off onto it, barely making the tight left hand turn. Moira behind had more time to act and safely turned off to follow. They travelled along this road almost in convoy, as it was too narrow to go at speed, before Tom turned off again onto what was no more than a single track. The surface of the track suddenly worsened and changed from tarmac to loose stone, held together by nothing more than mud. Both vehicles bounced along until suddenly the track came to an end as it entered a large car park; Tom had badly miscalculated. He screeched to a halt before speeding up and driving around the car park desperate to find an alternative way out, while Moira stopped at the car park entrance and attempted to block his escape.

  There was nothing for it, in desperation Tom drove over the grass edging to the car park and onto the rough heathland. The Porsche bounced on the rough grass, bottoming frequently as Tom increased speed. Moira pulled a face and followed, while Oli hung on for dear life and prayed as they too bounced and rattled along in pursuit. Suddenly they were steaming downhill with both vehicles slipping and sliding on the wet heathland before the Porsche hit a boggy patch and slid to a halt, Moira’s car but a few feet behind. Tom desperately floored the accelerator but all this achieved was to make the wheels spin more; they were stuck in the mud. Moira driving very gently managed to keep her car going and drove passed the Porsche, where upon she suddenly frightened the life out of poor Oli by executing a perfect handbrake turn. They now faced the Porsche, her headlights on full beam blinding the occupants.

  Tom leapt out and waved his gun in the direction of the dazzling lights.

  “Get out, get out!” he screamed at them. “I’m warning you I’ll bloody shoot!”

  They had absolutely no intention of doing what he said.

  Tom pointed and pulled the trigger, the right headlight exploded with an ear-shattering sound.

  Tom screamed again at them. “The next one goes through the windscreen, get out and walk towards me, and dip that bloody light, now, I‘m not joking move it damn you!”

  He slowly held the gun up level with their windscreen, but just as suddenly Moira’s car engine throbbed back into life and she gunned the motor directly at him. Tom managed to get off two shots, one shattered the windscreen, but the car careered towards him forcing him to jump out of the way. It ploughed into his precious Porsche, and with a crash, crunch, and a sickening smash of metal and glass it stopped. Steam hissed wildly as by the dim light of one remaining sidelight, they emerged shakily from the wreckage. Tom looked down at his and Moira’s car and realised there was no escaping from here by means of either of them.

  “Well done, you’ve truly fucked it up haven’t you?” He screeched at them.

  “If I can’t drive out of here, then I can’t afford to leave any witnesses, you stupid meddling idiots. Get over here right now, and put your hands where I can see them!”

  He had reached the end of reason, and they could all die right here, it was not his fault, none of this was. He slowly aimed his gun at Oli who was only a few feet from him, and he closed his eyes and prayed. Tom squeezed the trigger but in that instant before the gun went off, Auburn who had crept unseen out of the car hurled herself at him. It only knocked him slightly off balance but enough for the bullet to fly safely by Oli’s ear.

  Tom spun around and brought the gun barrel down hard on her head. As she slid to the ground holding her head in agony, Oli the brave was upon him, desperately he tried to kick out, or punch Tom, anything, but Tom was far too strong and easily pushed him off before punching him in the face and stomach until he fell down.

  Untangling himself from both of them, he was almost free when it was Moira’s turn to enter the fray. She had picked up a sizeable rock and as he turned his face to growl at her she landed a blow with all the force she could muster, which even for someone so petit was sizeable. The gun slipped gently from his grasp as he fell to his knees, just as Auburn stretched out her hand and grabbed hold of it. He dived on top of her trying to prize the gun from her hand.

  Another loud bang shook the still night as the gun went off again, and the birds in the trees once more too flight circling above. Moira stopped dead in shock, waiting, a prayer on her lips bit it was Tom who roughly pushed Auburn off him and stood up swaying unsteadily on his feet. Emitting a high pitched wail Moira was upon him, hands out desperate to scratch his eyes out at the very least. She scratched at the wound she had inflicted on his head and the pain was excruciating but he threw her off him and fired again. Oli was slowly getting to his feet, then seeing Auburn he rushed to her side totally ignoring Tom.

  “Auburn, Auburn,” he cried as he slipped to his knees, his own pain suddenly forgotten.

  She was alive. He carefully felt her body and found she had been shot through her shoulder. Suddenly he remembered Moira and seeing her lying face down crawled over to her. She was unconscious. He fumbled in his pockets praying his phone was still on him, it was. As he rang for an ambulance and the police, it suddenly dawned on him that Tom was gone, vanished into the darkness. He had been so engrossed in the plight of his women he had quite forgotten about the danger he had been in.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Auburn opened her eyes, her head really throbbed so she quickly closed them again, but the pain was still with her. She realised she was lying down, and in attempting to move her shoulders she found she was unable to. This started the panic rising in her and she moaned softly, desperately struggling to try to sit up but still keeping her eyes tightly shut; she was too frightened to see where she might be.

  “Hey my darling, you’re awake, don’t panic now, relax everything is alright.”

  That voice she recognised it, could it be? The sound of her voice calmed her enough to risk opening just one eye and peeping out at her surroundings.

  The smiling face of her sister Stella came into focus beaming down at her.

  “Yes, you’re in hospital,” Stella assured her. “You’ve just had surgery to mend your shoulder, so don’t try and move.”

  “Stella, Stella...” Auburn repeated, as a smile formed on her face, as she saw her.

  “What’s happened, where am I, where are the others Stella? Oh it’s been so horrible, you just don’t know!” She wailed as she stopped and sniffed hard, suddenly feeling very sorry for herself.

  Stella bent down and wiped away the tears, a flash of concern crossing her face, although she tried to appear relaxed.

  “As I say you’re fine, you’ll soon mend. Your friends Oliver and Moira are also fine. Moira is in the same hospital but a different ward, oh and the lovely Oliver complete with black eyes will be here later to see you.”

  “What happened to Moira, and where’s Freddy, he was hurt you know trying to save me!”

  Stella smiled warmly as she looked down at her darling sister. “You rest for now, enough questions darling, you need sleep. I will be here when you wake up I promise, just sleep for now.”

  Auburn did as her sister bid, she normally did. Her big sister looked after her, and being a nurse knew what she was talking about, although sometimes she was also too bossy; feeling safe and very tired she drifted off to sleep.

  With a start she awoke, she had had terrible nightmares about being buried alive in the forest. She opened both eyes this time and was pleased the pain was bearable. She glanced about her trying to take in her surroundings. From her comfortable bed she could see the room was small and plain but clean and dimly lit. Seated in the corner of the room under a wall mounted TV sat a nurse. She jumped up when she noticed Auburn staring over at her.


  “Hello Auburn, how are you feeling now?” she asked.

  Auburn attempted to sit up, and the nurse came across to help.

  “I’ll put a few pillows under your head and you can sit up, but be careful you have a drip in your arm and we don’t want to pull that out do we?”

  “Who are you, and where’s my sister?” Auburn bluntly demanded.

  “Oh your sister has just gone to ICU to see your good friend, she will only be a few minutes I’m sure, I will be here until she returns.”

  “Oh!”

  Stella did return about fifteen minutes later and both were relieved to see each other.

  “Gosh you look so much better already, keep this up and I’ll see if you can be discharged soon.” Stella confirmed.

  “How soon?”

  “Well the doctor has the final say but I don’ see why it shouldn’t be in a couple of days.”

  “My shoulder hurts, and I’m very thirsty Stella.”

  “Ok I’ll fetch you a drink, how about orange, yes?”

  Auburn nodded a couple of times, then grimaced as the pain from her shoulder shot up to her head.

  “I’ll get the nurse to give you a sedative, let you sleep and tomorrow you’ll feel so much better my darling.”

  She left Auburn for a minute or two, to return with a glass of orange juice and the nurse and another female in uniform.

  “Don’t worry darling.” Stella said quickly seeing the flash of alarm across her sister’s face.

  “This is WPC Green, she will stay here with you all night.”

  “Why?”

  “Just to be on the safe side,” she muttered reassuringly. “And tomorrow if you are up to it, Inspector Simpson, I gather you have met him before, anyway he would like to have a talk with you.”

  “It should be now, I have to tell him what happened, it’s important he needs to know. Tell me how is Moira, and Freddy, oh and Sergeant Ash?” She asked.

  “You rest, let’s leave all that to tomorrow. Tomorrow will be soon enough.”

  Stella kissed her sister and with a nod to the nurse, both left the room as WPC Green entered and closed the door behind her.

  She smiled kindly at Auburn who was staring unsmiling at her.

  “Hello Auburn, I will be with you tonight, so you sleep well. My name’s Karen Green.”

  Auburn suddenly did feel tired and ignoring the WPC slumped back into her soft pillows and closed her eyes. Stella told the nurse she would be back around 7am, and both went their separate ways.

  DI Simpson had arrived at the hospital at almost the same time as the ambulance carrying Moira and Auburn, and had remained there ever since. He had been unable to talk to either of them and was extremely vexed at having to wait; the death of his Sergeant was weighing heavily on his mind, and he needed answers. He kept thinking how it had all been his fault, and not being able to interview Auburn whom he knew was awake was almost too much. He had tried to convey this to Stella, but she being an A+E sister was used to dealing with difficult people and absolutely refused point blank, so he had agreed to wait and see Auburn in the morning at 8am sharp.

  It was now approaching 3am in the morning, and seeing no point in going home, he decided to walk down to the café in the basement in the hope it was still serving. He was pleasantly surprised to see it was not only still open, but also quite busy, with an eclectic mix of hospital staff, worried relatives, and half-drunk friends of patients in casualty awaiting assessment, for a whole host of drink related incidents.

  Simpson passed the time with several cups of black coffee and even risked a lukewarm pasty. He took one bite and left it reckoning it had probably been sitting there for a day or more at least. He was desperate for a cigarette and decided he could combine going for one with a visit to the ward, and see if his WPC was alright, and maybe if Auburn was awake, well, a few words wouldn’t hurt would they!

  A troubled man with an expression of resoluteness walked into the A+E Department. Without looking to his right or his left, he moved purposely through the Department, and slipped unnoticed into one of the corridors leading to the wards. He soon found a doctor’s staff room and nipped inside as it was empty. There were three long white coats hanging up and putting one on he left the room and continued up to the wards.

  Tom stopped at the desk on Juniper Ward on the second floor, and beckoned to a night duty nurse who was changing a drip on an elderly patient. The rather overweight nurse finished and ambled over to him.

  “Yes doctor, how can I help, sorry I don’t recognise you.”

  “Dr Beckett, I just need to look in on Auburn Grimley, I gather she is in one of your private rooms, I’m sorry to bother you, you must be so busy.” He replied softly, even putting on a smile which he knew would do the trick.

  It did, the nurse smiled back and pointed the way, not offering to walk all that way with him; there was still half a tin of Quality Street chocolates on her desk to be finished before the end of her shift.

  Tom walked through the ward and into a wide corridor, where there were several doors opening off it on either side. He stopped outside Room 3 on the left and hesitated. The door was shut but the top half was frosted glass. He tried to look inside to see who might be in there but it was impossible to tell in the darkly lit room. There was nothing for it, turning the handle he pushed the door open wide and stepped inside, leaving the door open behind him.

  As Tom went into Room 3, so Simpson entered the corridor from the same ward behind him. He balked and stepped back out of sight. Tom with the light from the corridor shining in, looked about him. On the right was the bed, and to his left a TV screen mounted on the wall and in an armchair next to it was the WPC. She blinked, bewildered, she had dozed off. Before she could stand up, Tom towered over her, his right hand firmly enclosed around the butt of his gun still in his trouser pocket.

  “Dr Beckett, need to check on Auburn, would you step outside!” he said.

  She pushed him back and stood up. “Sorry I have no instructions to...”

  That was as far as she got, as Tom pulling out the gun fired from point blank range straight into her face. She dropped to her knees temporarily before sliding onto the floor, dead before she touched it.

  Simpson also produced a gun and tiptoed as fast as he could towards the open door. He dropped to his knees and waited.

  Inside the room Tom slowly walked towards the bed, while Auburn peacefully slept on, the slight noise from the silencer having failed to interrupt her dreams.

  Simpson crawled up to the doorway and tentatively glanced in. He saw the WPC lying on the floor but before he could focus on where Tom was, Tom spotted him and fired, and Simpson was out and flat against the nearside wall. He fired again out the door but it hit the wall opposite and ricocheted up into the air. Luckily with the silencer fitted the sound was probably not loud enough to cause that nurse to come a waddling, and be shot as a thank you.

  Simpson knew this was it, it was now or never, there was only one-way to have any chance of succeeding, just one clear shot was all he needed.

  He glanced at the shiny floor and prayed the cleaners had polished this corridor floor recently. He tiptoed back up a couple of feet, did up all the buttons on his woollen jacket, before running and diving to the floor just before the door. He slid on his stomach across the doorway, saw a silhouette standing and fired at it, before crashing into the doorframe for his troubles. He struggled to his feet waiting for Tom to appear and shoot him but nothing moved from within all seemed quiet.

  He boldly stepped inside the room and saw two bodies lying on the floor. Switching on the overhead light flooded the room; he dropped to his feet to look at Tom, quickly throwing his gun across the room out of harm’s way. Tom was still alive but badly wounded, but managed to glare defiantly back at him. He next went over to the WP
C to check her but he knew she was already dead.

  Standing up he walked up to Auburn’s bed fearing the worst, but she was not only alive but wide awake; her large eyes wide and staring. He smiled down at her, winked, and walked back to stand over Tom.

  Tom glared up at him. “Fuck you copper, at least I got two of you bastards!” he hissed. “Now what you going to do, DI bloody Simpson, I reckon it was self-defence and an accident. Won’t be in long with a good barrister, you stupid bastard, You’re just not clever...”

  The bang of a gun going off cut off his final words.

  “And fuck you too!” Simpson retorted. “That’s for my Ash and the WPC. No point wasting money on a trial on shit like you.”

  He spun around to look over at Auburn, but she watching and smiling back at him.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  A month had now gone by. The funerals of both Freddy and Sara Ash had taken place; and at Freddy’s house, most of his possessions had been dispersed of and Auburn was packed and ready to leave. She had been very quiet of late, and Stella figured it was due to her not wanting to return with her back to Manchester, in spite of all that had happened.

  “I think my darling Auburn we deserve a cream tea, what do you think?”

  Auburn’s ears pricked up at the mention of food. “Yes ok,” she said rather solemnly.

  “Come on, I know where we’ll go!” Stella called out enthusiastically to her, already at the door.

  Stella held her hand and led her down the street and up a short alleyway, and at the end of that turned left into another side street. Two shops along, she opened the door of an old fashioned but perfect tearoom, and pushed Auburn inside ahead of her. Auburn stood awkwardly just inside the entrance looking furtively about her. Suddenly she recognised three people and rushed to their table to greet them.

  Moira was the first to get up and Auburn threw her arms about her.

  “Moira, Moira, I’m so glad. Are you ok now?” Auburn cooed.