Craven (9781921997365)

by Casey, Melanie

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  He hung up and sat staring at the crumpled butcher’s paper in front of him.

  ‘Earth to Dyson!’ Dave clicked his fingers in front of Ed’s nose, breaking into his daze.

  ‘Wanna tell me what that was all about?’

  ‘A friend of mine’s been attacked in a break and enter.’

  ‘Well, come on then, don’t just sit there like a useless pile of shit.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’ll drive.’

  CHAPTER

  16

  My eyelids sprang open. Bright light pierced my retinas, making my eyes ache and water. I could feel movement and then a face swam into view. Panic took over and I tried to sit up. I had to get away. Hands descended on my arms and pinned me back down. I started to struggle.

  ‘Miss Lehman? Can you hear me? You’re in an ambulance on the way to hospital.’

  I tried to focus on the face but then a barrage of pain and suffering hit me.

  Oh God! There are so many of them! The conscious thought only lasted a second before it was erased as my body was twisted and torn into a thousand shards of pure agony, forcing my back to arch off the bed and my teeth to clench.

  I felt every moment of pain the people who’d died in this ambulance had felt. An ocean of fear swept over me. My thoughts tumbled over and over like a slide show in hyper-drive as I jumped from one experience to another to another. I screamed and lashed out. Everything went black.

  ‘Cassandra? Cassandra! I need you to open your eyes. Open your eyes, please!’

  The voice held a note of authority that dragged me from the strange half-dream I was having about running along a long, dark corridor.

  I forced my eyes open a crack. There was the same scalding white light and I was still moving but it felt different this time.

  ‘I’m Dr James. You’re in the Royal Adelaide Hospital Emergency Department. You’ve had a knock to the head. We’re on the way to do some tests. We need to do a CT scan to make sure you haven’t got a fractured skull. If you can keep nice and still.’

  The part of my mind that was still functioning wondered why he’d bothered to wake me up. Surely if he wanted me still, letting me sleep would have been the smarter thing to do?

  I felt disconnected, like most of me was still asleep. I realised I had a stiff collar fitted around my neck. Fluorescent lights flashed overhead as I was wheeled down the corridor. My heart started to pound as the realisation that I was in a hospital settled over me. For someone with my gift it was one of the worst possible places to be. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer.

  It was going well until we stopped in the radiology department, and then without warning I was behind someone else’s eyes. Every part of my body throbbed and ached. I felt like there was a mammoth weight compressing my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to speak but couldn’t. Faces bent over me in concern and someone put a mask over my face. I felt a needle pierce my left arm. The pain in my chest got worse. I called out, asking for someone called Joanne and then there was nothing.

  The next time I woke up it was quieter and not as bright. I glanced around and realised I was in a hospital bed. I held my breath, waiting to see if a vision would hit me. It didn’t.

  I turned my head, groaning as it pounded in response to the movement. I felt like someone had planted an axe in the middle of my scalp. I raised my hand and felt the tug of a drip line.

  A nurse must have been hovering nearby. Realising I was awake she hustled over and bent close to me.

  ‘Hello, I’m Liz. I’m looking after you tonight, Cassandra. How are you feeling?’

  ‘My head hurts,’ I whispered.

  ‘Yes, do you remember what happened?’

  ‘Someone attacked me.’

  ‘You put up a fight by the looks of you.’

  I tried but failed to muster up a smile.

  ‘The good news is that your head’s still in one piece, although you’ve got a nasty concussion. The doctors are a bit concerned. You had a fit in the ambulance and then another one while you were in radiology. They want you under close observation and they’ll probably order some more tests tomorrow. You’re in our high dependency unit. Hopefully you won’t have any more fits and we’ll be able to move you to a private room tomorrow.

  ‘Here’s your bell,’ she pushed the console into my hand. ‘If you need anything at all you ring me, all right?’

  I realised for the first time that there were other beds in the room as well. We were arranged in a circle around a nurses’ station where I could see a flurry of activity.

  I nodded, wincing as my head throbbed again. I knew one thing for certain. It was dumb luck that no one had died in the bed I was lying in. If they started moving me around again there was a good chance I’d have another vision. A hospital was at the top of my worst nightmare list, especially the emergency department where people died suddenly and unexpectedly.

  I had to get out of the hospital, but the effort of thinking about how to do that was more than I could manage. I could worry about it in the morning. My eyelids started to sink. Sleep was calling and I let them close.

  ‘Excuse me?’

  The voice wrenched me back from the brink of sleep. My head jerked around sending a fresh wave of pain through my skull. I would have recognised it anywhere. It was Ed. He was over at the nurses’ station.

  ‘Can I help you?’ Someone other than Liz answered him.

  ‘I’m here to see Cassandra Lehman.’

  ‘Liz? This man here wants to see one of your patients.’

  ‘Are you her partner?’ Liz asked a few moments later.

  ‘Um, no. I’m a friend.’

  ‘Well, I’m sorry, but Miss Lehman isn’t up for visitors at the moment. Perhaps you can come back tomorrow?’

  ‘We’re detectives. We’d really like to speak with her now if possible,’ another male said.

  I frowned. I didn’t recognise that voice.

  ‘All right, but only for a few moments. She’s had a nasty knock to the head and she really needs her sleep.’

  ‘But she’s going to be all right?’ Ed asked.

  ‘We think so, although we need to do some more tests.’

  ‘Why’s that?’ Ed said.

  ‘I’m really not at liberty to discuss her condition with you if you’re not family.’

  ‘OK, where is she?’

  ‘This way please.’

  I watched as they walked into my line of vision and approached the bed. Ed was behind Liz and behind him was a man I didn’t recognise. He was dark and good-looking in a toothpaste-ad kind of way.

  ‘Cassandra? These detectives want to see you for a few minutes. You buzz me if it gets too much, all right?’

  ‘I’ll be OK,’ I said.

  I waited until she walked off before turning my head to look at Ed, who’d pulled up a chair next to me. His brow was furrowed in concern.

  ‘God, Cass, what happened?’

  ‘Someone broke into my flat. I walked in and he attacked me. Who’s your friend?’ I looked over his shoulder at the other man.

  ‘This is my partner, Dave.’

  I nodded at him, wincing.

  ‘Your head?’

  ‘Nothing that a few days’ rest won’t fix.’

  ‘The nurse said they need to run more tests. What’s that about?’

  I looked over at Dave. Did he know about me? Shit, did it matter?

  ‘I’m in a hospital.’

  ‘And …?’

  ‘Lots of people have died here.’

  ‘Oh, right.’

  ‘I have to leave.’

  ‘But you’ve got a concussion.’

  ‘I don’t care. I can’t stay here. They’re going to move me again tomorrow. I can’t take the chance!’ My voice rose in panic.

  ‘Shhh, just relax. So, what do you want me to do?’

  I looked at him and tried to roll my eyes. I only half succeeded. It hurt too much.

  ‘
Just get me out of here.’

  CHAPTER

  17

  It took nearly an hour for Ed to help Cass work her way through a procession of medical staff who were all opposed to her leaving. Finally she convinced them she was serious and signed all the paperwork that would protect their arses if something happened to her. While that was going on, Dave showed a new side to his personality and was amazingly patient. It could have had something to do with the attractive trainee nurse on the desk, but Ed was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  Red tape dealt with, and a list of instructions in his hand, he helped Cass into a wheelchair and they headed for the main exit. All was going well – he was striding along the corridors, trying not to stop for too long in one spot – when they came up against a family group wheeling an elderly woman at a snail’s pace.

  Cass gave a low moan and stiffened in the chair. Ed frantically tried to navigate his way around the group while uttering a series of terse ‘excuse me’s.

  Dave grabbed his arm once they were past. ‘Ed, stop! You’ve got to take her back. Look at her, she’s having another fit.’ He reached towards Cass.

  ‘Don’t touch her!’ Ed barked.

  ‘Why? She’s going to hurt herself. One of us has to hold her arms.’

  ‘No! Leave her. She’s done this before. Trust me, she needs to get away from here. If you touch her she’ll hurt you.’

  He pushed on, ignoring his partner’s protests. Eventually Dave stopped trying to turn him around and hurried along with him. By the time they made it out the main front doors, Cass had quietened down and was slumped in the chair.

  They got to Dave’s car and loaded the semiconscious Cass into the back seat before Dave turned to Ed.

  ‘What the fuck, man? She’s not well. We shouldn’t be doing this.’

  ‘She’s going to be OK.’ Ed sighed.

  ‘She had a fit back there! She could die.’

  ‘It wasn’t a fit.’

  ‘What the fuck was it then? It sure as hell looked like one from where I was standing. And what’s with the crap about not touching her?’

  ‘Just tell him,’ Cass said.

  Ed hadn’t realised she was awake. He looked in at her; her eyes were closed and she seemed completely spent. He had to get her home and the quickest way to do that was to tell Dave what he wanted to know and get the hell out of the car park.

  ‘Get in the car and start driving and I promise I’ll tell you. We need to get her home and into bed.’

  ‘Fuck, all right. As long as she’s not going to fucking die in the back of my car.’

  ‘She won’t.’ They climbed into the car, Ed in the back seat with Cass who’d fallen into a deep sleep.

  Ed checked her pulse. ‘She’s asleep. That happens after.’

  ‘After what?’

  ‘After a vision. Cass is a type of psychic. She experiences how someone died if she passes over the place where it happened.’ For the first time he fully appreciated how hard it was for Cass to try and make people believe in what she could do.

  ‘A psychic?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So what happened back there?’

  ‘She had a vision,’ Ed said.

  ‘Of someone dying?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But people die in hospital all the time. If what you say is true then she would have been having visions all the time.’

  ‘Exactly, that’s why she had to get out.’

  ‘Oh.’

  He went quiet for a while. Ed was anticipating more questions, more disbelief. When Dave finally asked another question it wasn’t what he’d expected.

  ‘Is she still helping the police?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Well, you had help from a psychic on the Fleurieu serial killer case. There aren’t that many of them running around. It was her, right? Does she still do it?’

  ‘Yeah, it was her, but as far as I know she hasn’t done any more work with the police since.’

  ‘She’d be pretty handy on the case we’re working now. It’d be one way to know for sure whether Jenkins jumped or was pushed.’

  ‘Don’t even go there, man. I couldn’t ask her.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because until this week she wasn’t even talking to me.’

  Dave shot him a look. ‘You were screwing her?’ he whispered.

  ‘Shhh! She might wake up and hear you. No, I wasn’t, we were seeing each other for a while before I moved here, though. I broke it off.’

  ‘Man, that’s so stupid.’

  ‘You’re a fine one to talk. You change your women more often than I change my ties.’

  ‘Yeah, but I never crap where I work.’

  ‘She’s not a cop.’

  ‘No, but if what you say is true, she’s bloody useful to have onside, and now you’ve fucked with that.’

  Ed couldn’t really argue with him. He looked over at Cass’s sleeping form and sighed. ‘Yeah, I guess I have.’

  Ed’s place was only a short drive west of the city. He’d rented a small two-storey townhouse in which style had been sacrificed for low-maintenance simplicity. It was one of the breed of modern ‘Tuscan’ places that in no way resembled the beauty of their namesake.

  Dave parked in front of the single car garage and between them they lifted Cass and carried her inside. Ed tucked her up in his bed. She barely stirred. They left her and made for the kitchen, where Ed handed Dave a beer.

  ‘I won’t be in tomorrow. I’ll call Arnott in the morning,’ Ed said.

  ‘What are you going to tell him?’

  ‘Fucked if I know.’

  ‘Gastro’s always a good one,’ Dave said.

  ‘I’ll get stuck into writing up where we’re up to so far and then I’ll spend some time going back over the case files for Roslyn and Ben,’ Ed said.

  ‘All right. I’ll have another go at tracking down the last name on the list, Sarah Jones.’

  ‘Yeah, good luck with that.’ After seeing Metzger they’d put in some serious overtime trying to find her. Their initial search had turned up close to forty Sarah Joneses.

  ‘She has to be out there somewhere,’ Dave said.

  ‘Yeah, and hopefully in one piece. I’ll call you tomorrow.’

  Ed closed the door behind him and wandered back upstairs to his bedroom. Cass was still asleep. He would have put her in the spare room if there was a bed in it. He hadn’t bothered beyond furnishing his bedroom and the lounge/dining room.

  Cass looked small and pale against the dark blue sheets and quilt. She’d thrown her arms out from under the covers and her mane of hair was spread over the pillow. Her mouth was hanging open slightly as she snored softly. Ed smiled. She’d hate to imagine him hearing her snore. He walked over to the bed and pulled the covers back over her shoulders then bent down and gave her a feathery kiss on her brow. A weird mix of feelings made his gut twist; fierce possessiveness and tenderness blended with regret and anger. No one was going to hurt her on his watch.

  It was a long night. Ed had been tasked with checking on Cass every hour overnight by the doctor who’d discharged her. Thankfully she rested well, apart from the few seconds every hour that he forced her to stir. By 7am he was wrecked but at least he could stop the hourly checks. He left a voicemail message for Crackers before collapsing into an exhausted sleep on the couch.

  He woke to find Cass shuffling around his kitchen opening and closing cupboards. Rubbing his eyes he unfolded his six-foot-two frame off his cheap and cheerful red couch, massaging the kinks in his spine.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

  ‘My head is killing me and I’m gasping for a cup of tea.’

  ‘Sit down. I’ll get you some painkillers and your tea. I even have milk.’

  ‘That must be a first.’

  She wasn’t far wrong. He’d taken to keeping small containers of UHT milk in his pantry because he was so crap at shopping for fresh food. He helped her over to th
e couch and tucked her up in the blankets he’d only just abandoned. Her willingness to give in told him how bad she was feeling.

  He watched as she let her head fall back against the pillows. She still looked exhausted. He felt the same way. He hadn’t had the pleasure of sleeping on his own couch before. The experience wasn’t one he wanted to repeat. He glanced at the clock. It was just past nine-thirty. He’d had just over two hours of solid sleep. It was better than nothing. With a coffee under his belt he’d be almost human.

  He turned the kettle on and fished around in the freezer for some bread which he dropped in the toaster.

  ‘You don’t have to babysit me,’ Cass said.

  Ed looked across at her and smiled. She looked bruised and battered, but reassuringly belligerent.

  ‘I’m not allowed to leave you alone, doctor’s orders. They want you to stay with someone for a couple of days.’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘I’m sure you are, but I’m more afraid of your grandmother and mother than I am of you. If they thought I’d left you alone for a minute they’d skin me alive.’

  ‘They don’t know yet.’

  ‘They don’t?’

  ‘I didn’t want the nurses to ring them. It would have sent them into a panic and they would have spent half the night driving down here.’

  ‘Do you want to ring them now?’

  She frowned, thinking. ‘I probably should. You have to go back to work and if I need someone to look after me then it’s going to have to be Mum or Gran.’

  ‘I can look after you.’ He felt awkward as he said it and the words came out more gruffly than he intended them to.

  ‘I’m sure you can, but I don’t think it would be right, do you?’

  Ed walked over and handed her a cup of tea and some Vegemite toast. Their hands touched briefly. Cass jerked hers back, almost spilling her tea.

  Ed sat down in one of the armchairs, heaving a sigh as he did. ‘Cass, I don’t know what to say. I never meant to hurt you.’

  ‘Don’t!’

  ‘Don’t what?’

  ‘Don’t rake over the ashes. It makes it worse.’

  ‘I wish I could explain what was going on in my head. I really wish you could understand.’