by Evie Evans
“You’re neck is terribly bruised,” she said, looking concerned again.
“It doesn’t feel that bad. Honest,” I lied further.
“I don’t know when they’re going to let you home. Apparently, your blood pressure was sky high last night.”
“Imagine.” Can’t think what had caused that. “Oh, I think I’ll be going home today, I’m sure I’m alright.”
“But that man trying to kill you! How awful. Addi told me about it last night.”
Her loud exclamations were drawing the attentions of the women in the beds around me.
“Can you pull the curtains a bit?”
“Oh, do you need the toilet? Shall I ring for a bedpan?” she asked loudly.
“No!” That hurt my throat. I took another sip of water. “I’m sure I can make it to the toilet when I need it. I’d just like a bit of privacy when you discuss people trying to kill me.”
She twitched the curtain near her whilst I struggled to sit up a bit more.
“I hear your plan didn’t quite work out. And after you were so sure it was Tina’s sister,” she said.
“I don’t think I used the word ‘sure’.”
“You must have felt a right idiot.”
“Thanks. It’s lucky you came down here to cheer me up today.”
Aunt June continued, oblivious. “Apparently Addi was quite the hero.”
Was she trying to make me relapse? I fought to remain calm. “Really.”
“He did save your life.”
“I suppose so.”
“Jennifer.”
“Don’t have a go, I’m still trying to get over the shock.”
“Yes of course.” My aunt patted my hand. “You need some time, it must have been a very scary experience.”
“Yes, and not just James’ actions, there’s also the fact that everyone seems to think Addi solved it all.”
“Does it matter? I mean, you caught the bad man. Now there isn’t going to be any more finger pointing at least.”
“Yes.” I told myself I should be happy with that, it was enough. (It wasn’t.)
“There,” my aunt said, “you’re looking better already, you’ve got a bit more colour in your face. I’m so glad−” her voice broke and it looked like she was crying.
“It’s alright, I’m okay,” I assured her.
“I know.” She produced a tissue from somewhere and dabbed her eyes. “It’s just, seeing you here in a hospital bed. It would be terrible to lose you now… now I’ve gotten to know you.”
Aw, bless her lovely, little heart. I’d always felt there had to be a family member somewhere I could get on with and care about, and who could care about me in return. And it had only taken a move of 2000 miles and a near strangulation to find her.
“Well−” my voice caught in my throat and I had to swallow hard to recover, “−no need to worry,” I told her, grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze, “looks like I’m going to be around for a while yet.”
We shared a smile. (I may have shared a fart as well, it was the tablets they’d given me.)
Later, when they said I could go home, she helped me wrap one of her scarves round my neck (bright yellow with a bird pattern, I tried not to wince), so as not to frighten others with the look of my bruises.
“I brought you a clean pair of knickers as well. I wasn’t sure what drawer you kept yours in, I didn’t want to go through your stuff, so I brought a pair of mine.”
She held out something that had legs. This woman kept a man interested with this kind of underwear? Victoria’s Secret had it so wrong. “Thanks, but I can wear yesterday’s until we get home.”
It was good to get home and into the comfort of my own bed. Even though I’d had a full night’s sleep, I soon nodded off again.
I’d only been asleep half an hour when Aunt June shook me awake to tell me Addi had an update for me. I told her to show him in, I couldn’t be bothered to get up. When she left, I did a quick scout around the room and was pleased to see I hadn’t left too many clothes on the floor.
“Sorry I didn’t make it to the hospital,” Addi told me, perching on the chair next to my bed. He looked even worse than me with deep shadows under his eyes and what looked like a good start to a beard on his chin. “We were interrogating James Trott all night. He finally confessed to the murder this morning.”
“Great, I heard you solved the case.”
He had the grace to look a bit guilty. “I’m sorry but what can I tell them? You know you weren’t supposed to be working on it.”
“Hmm.”
“How are you feeling anyway?”
“Okay.” I went to rub my neck but could hardly bare to touch the painfully bruised skin. “It hurts a bit but apparently I’m going to live.”
“When did you know it was him?”
“Well, when he went for my throat was a bit of a clue.” I was tempted to say ‘right from the moment I met him’ but decided this lying business was getting addictive. “Did Trott say why he’d done it?”
“Money. Like you thought, he didn’t know that apartment wasn’t Tina’s. I think his mother was a bit ashamed of her sister and she liked people to think Tina was better off than she was. Trott wanted to start a new business here, but the banks wouldn’t lend him the money. He decided to get it another way.”
“You know, if the interviews had been done properly from the beginning, we might have realised he wasn’t her son. We would have had a physical description of the real one for a start.”
“Yes, it was a shame you jumped to the conclusion he was the son.”
“Me!” I had to stop to rest my throat.
“Alright, us. It turns out, James Trott was never interviewed formally, we never established he was in the country and didn’t have an alibi.”
“Brilliant. And had he tried to poison Tina before?”
“Susan Robinson confirms Trott and her daughter were in Cyprus at the time but he denies trying to poison Tina. Says the murder was unplanned, he went to ask Tina to lend him the money and when she told him she didn’t have it, he lost it and strangled her.”
“Is Susan’s daughter in on it too?”
“She says not, she looked pretty shocked when we told her.”
“Susan Robinson would have inherited if there had been any money, was he planning to kill her as well?”
“He reckons she would have shared it with him and her daughter.”
“Unlikely.”
“I know, but we’ll never be able to prove it. We’ll get him for Tina’s murder and for the assault on you at least.”
“Assault? He tried to kill me!”
“Perhaps if I’d let him strangle you for a little longer.”
“Cheers.” Talk of strangling made me think of someone else. “I bet your mother’s pleased.”
He grinned. “I haven’t told her yet. I’m going home when I leave here. If you hear a loud explosion, it’ll be my mother bursting with happiness.”
“I’ll batten down the hatches.” I led my head back on the pillow, this talking lark was pretty exhausting. “You’d better go, I’m getting tired.”
He got up.” Okay, get well soon.” Before he walked out the door, he turned back. “You liked him, James Trott, didn’t you?”
“About par for the course for me.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain that another time, I’m too tired now. Don’t tell your mother you were in here!” I shouted at his departing back.
Yes, I should have known James Trott was a wrong ‘un by the fact that I liked him. I knew how to pick my men.
Aunt June bustled in. “I’m worried about you dear. You haven’t eaten anything in hours, well at least four.”
Some people may have heard an insult in that, luckily I’m not that sensitive. “Okay, it if makes you happy I’ll try to force something down.”
The chief allowed me a few days off work to recover. I’d like to say I was given a hero’s welcome on my
return, but word seemed to have gone round that I’d been a bit of an idiot, cornering a killer, so people weren’t exactly waving banners. Vara was the only one who seemed pleased to see me.
Shortly afterwards, I found myself back in the corridor where it had all happened. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled at the thought of what had almost been. I stopped walking and had to just stand for a few moments to steady myself. As I was turning to walk away, something on the floor caught my eye. Bending down, I retrieved a red plastic bead, probably from one of the necklaces James had thrown at me. Rolling it along my finger I thought of the poor woman whose neck it had once adorned. The woman no one had seemed to really care about, the woman many had been reluctant to admit even knowing. At least we had found her killer. At least we had done that for her.
At that moment, Addi walked past. I showed him the bead, wondering if it was as emotional for him as for me.
He took it from my hand and studied it. “The cleaners round here are getting worse,” he said and walked off.
I did eventually concede and thank Addi for saving my life by buying him a new notebook. He needed it now he’d been promoted to sergeant. Yes, the chief had been so impressed with how well he’d organised the murder investigation, especially the paperwork, that he was promoted and held up as an example to the junior officers. I had a feeling that wouldn’t last.
Luckily, so far was the police case against James Trott was holding up. Contrary to my concerns, the breaches of police procedure hadn’t been spotted by his defence lawyer and he was due to stand trial for murder shortly.
And me? I got a telling off by Sergeant H for reckless behaviour and a grilling on how I had accessed the evidence room. He reminded me as I was still on probation jobwise, any more incidents and my position may have to be reconsidered.
“I’ll go down and have a word with him tomorrow,” Aunt June threatened, bristling, after I told her of my telling off.
“Don’t you dare!”
“It’s not right, treating you like that. After the work you put into it. Someone should tell them.”
“Thanks, Aunt June, but it wouldn’t help. They’d probably fire me if they thought I’d been doing Addi’s job. I guess I’ll just have to be content with helping to solve those crimes.” I gave a dramatic sigh.
“Huh,” my aunt scoffed.
“What?”
“Well, you and Addi hardly solved those crimes, did you dear? I don’t mean to be critical but the missing dogs? I had to tell you who’d done that. The stolen cars? You stumbled on that on a tip off from me about a different robbery. A robbery you haven’t solved and probably won’t now, those cups will have been melted down long ago. And you didn’t exactly work out it was Tina’s nephew, did you? Not until he had his hands around your throat.”
“Thank you very much.” Everyone’s a critic.
“Just trying to be honest.”
Just being trying, more like.
That was that. Life went back to its routine - going to work, eating dinner with Aunt June, watching her go out with her friends - except now I went with them sometimes (occasionally I even enjoyed it).
Two months had passed before I realised it. The improving weather meant I got to visit Frankie on my days off. It gave my heart a little thrill to see her come to meet me now when I arrived (it was nothing to do with the carrots I usually brought with me).
“You look happy,” my aunt commented one morning as I was going out the door.
I thought of the residency permit in my pocket that had arrived that morning, and the international weather forecast I’d just seen on the telly which showed it was snowing in Swindon.
“Yes, I am,” I decided, giving her a smile before stepping out into the sunshine and continuing on my way to work. Who wouldn’t be happy here? It was a lovely island and the Cypriots were good people, warm and hospitable (Addi’s mother was obviously the exception that proved the rule). It was just a shame I worked with the expats and not them.
I wasn’t even worried about Aunt June any more. That woman was more in control of her marbles than I was. Okay, so she wasn’t quick on her feet anymore, all indications still pointed to her living longer than any of us.
Not many minutes went by from my arriving at my desk that morning to Addi turning up. It was unusual to see him in this early. I should have known it wasn’t just a social call.
“Jennifer, I need to talk to you,” he whispered, his face looking a little grey.
“Alright,” I agreed and followed him out to our usual talking place, outside the back door.
“What girl has your mother lined up for you now?” I asked as the door closed behind us. His mother had gone into matchmaker overdrive since Addi had started working with me.
“No, it’s not that. Well, it’s only partly that.”
“What’s the other part?”
“I need your help.” There seemed to me to be a desperate tone to his voice. My heart began sinking.
“With?”
“A case.”
“Not the missing cups again? I don’t think I can take that.”
“Well, CrossGlobal are still making a fuss about them, but that’s someone else’s problem now. It’s another case; I don’t know what to do…”
“Oh no. Not again.”