by Joy Ellis
Nikki caught Joseph throwing her an “I told you so” look, before he said, ‘We have an ongoing situation here, sweetheart, and as Nikki just said, we can’t stay. The cottage is not safe. Now . . .’
A baleful look flooded Tamsin’s face. ‘Oh, that’s absolutely perfect, isn’t it? Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any worse.’
Nikki had a sudden picture of Cat’s face. Then she saw a hospital trolley and blood-soaked dressings. ‘I don’t know why you’ve had such a piss-poor day, girl, but we have one dead officer, smashed to a pulp by a truck, and one of our team, a pretty kid, will never look quite the same again. So forgive me, but I’m betting that your day isn’t half as bad as ours.’ She returned the look with a blazing one of her own. ‘Now, into my vehicle. Before we go any further with this, we are getting to a place of safety, understood?’
Tamsin turned pale. Then she nodded.
Joseph looked as if he were about to have a go at Nikki for her harshness, then suddenly he turned away and locked the cottage door. ‘We’ll explain en route,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m really sorry, Tam, but I promise we’ll explain everything.’ He forced a small smile at his daughter. ‘And we do have facilities at the nick. They tell me the women’s shower room is really very nice.’
The atmosphere in the car was frosty, but at least there were no more outbursts and in twenty minutes they were in Nikki’s office.
On the way there she had ordered takeaways for the three of them and sent one of the night shift officers to get them hot drinks. She drew two chairs close to her desk and pointed to them. ‘First things first, Tamsin. What happened to you? From the beginning.’
‘Don’t you generally use interview rooms and leather straps to grill your victims?’ The attempt at sarcasm fell flat.
Nikki smiled. ‘Sometimes. But you are not a victim. And it’s because we don’t want you to become one that we are here.’ She looked up as the coffees arrived and indicated the desk. ‘Just there, thanks.’
As the door closed, she passed a drink towards Tamsin. ‘Now, tell us what happened.’
It seemed as if the girl suddenly knew that there was no getting out of this. She clasped her drink to her, as if for warmth, sat back and said, ‘All right.’ She blew on the hot drink for a moment, then said, ‘Actually it was really weird. Gemma, a uni friend of mine and I were going up to Edinburgh.’ She looked almost apologetically at her father. ‘Mother has organised an interview for me with a big company in the city. A real chance for when I finish uni. And as Gem had always wanted to see Edinburgh and she has a faster car, we thought we’d make a holiday break of it.’
Nikki glanced at her one small travel bag, but the girl saw her. She said, ‘I suppose detectives have to be suspicious, but it’s the truth. I have plenty of clothes at Mum’s house. I can afford to travel light when I go to Scotland.’ She sipped her drink then carried on. ‘Gem’s not keen on the M1, so we decided on the A1M and we’d share the driving. We left later than we’d planned so we decided to stop overnight in York.’ She paused and pulled a face. ‘But we never got that far. We pulled into Peterborough Services to fill up and some bastard stole my phone.’
Joseph’s face darkened. ‘Your smartphone?’
She nodded. ‘With all my contacts on it.’
‘Did you report it stolen?’
‘I was going to, but then it all went wrong.’ Her face had lost its aggrieved look. Now she just seemed tired and upset. ‘Gem got this call from her parents’ home in Dorset. Her mother had collapsed and been rushed to hospital. Apparently it was serious.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘What could I do? I didn’t want to miss my interview, and I knew that Dad lived about an hour away, so I told her to go, that I’d make my way to Dad’s place, and liaise with Mum from there.’
‘So what was so weird about it? It sounds very sad, but not actually weird,’ Joseph asked. ‘Expensive phones get nicked all the time, and people get bad news,’ he raised an eyebrow, ‘and usually at the most inopportune moments.’
‘That’s not the weird bit.’ Tamsin looked at him anxiously. ‘Gem has a phobia about being out of touch, so if she’s going anywhere, she always takes a spare phone, a PAYG throwaway. She lent it to me when mine got stolen, and she rang me on it while I was in the cab on the way here.’ Her voice dropped and she looked from Nikki to Joseph. ‘When she got down to South Mimms service station, she pulled in for a wee and rang the hospital. They had never heard of her mother.’ She swallowed. ‘Then when she rang home, her mother answered the phone. She was fine. It was all a hoax, Dad. Just a hoax.’ She looked at Nikki. ‘And now I feel as if I’ve landed in the middle of a Cold War film. What’s all the secrecy? What is going on here?’
Over the next twenty minutes, Nikki and Joseph told her all they deemed necessary.
And when Joseph went out to refresh their drinks, Nikki made quite sure that Tamsin understood the distress her father had been feeling, knowing that she would be walking into a virtual siege situation, but not wanting to turn her away.
‘I know I’m a first-class bitch sometimes.’ Tamsin looked at Nikki and gave her a rueful smile. ‘I’m sorry. When I phoned, I sensed he was less than thrilled to hear from me, but I thought it was going to be just another “job comes first” situation.’ Now, well, I understand why he was so worried.’ She drew in a breath. ‘I’ll ring my mother in the morning. Perhaps Dad would be able to put me on a train? Then when this is all over, I’ll try to come and stay for a few days, spend some time with him for once.’ She gave Nikki a warmer smile. ‘I think it’s time I tried to see our past history from his point of view. No promises that I’ll understand, but I’ll try.’
‘He’ll be so pleased to hear that, Tam. It’s all he wants.’ She looked at the familiar-but-different eyes. ‘And I’m sorry I was so hard on you back at the cottage, but you can see now that I was concerned for your safety.’
‘Forget it. I deserved it, flouncing in like some prima donna when you guys have a killer running loose.’
‘You weren’t to know that.’ Nikki stopped, then suddenly said, ‘I had a daughter too. She was a bit younger than you.’ She swallowed. It was probably too early to be talking like this but she felt that, for Joseph’s sake, it needed to be said.
‘Had a daughter?’
‘She died a few weeks ago. But the thing is, we didn’t see eye to eye either. Now she’s gone, I realise that instead of fighting, we should have made an effort to find a little bit of common ground, some neutral territory, and make some time for each other.’ She fought back tears, and said, ‘When she was young, we had some wonderful, magical times, but later things changed, and now I can’t turn back the clock and do things differently. Your dad loves you very much, Tamsin, and he’ll never give up trying to make things good between you.’
Tamsin stared silently down into her lap.
‘And the young officer who was killed, he was around your age too. I keep hoping that when he left for work that morning, he kissed his wife and told her he loved her.’
Tears formed in Tamsin’s eyes. ‘I hear what you are saying, DI Galena.’
‘Nikki. Call me Nikki. And Tam? I know a little about your issues with your dad. While I have no idea what kind of soldier he was, I do know that he’s a damned good policeman. He has the respect of every officer on this station and I’d trust him with my life.’ She paused. ‘Although, come to think of it, I already do that every day that I work with him.’ She took two tissues from a box on her desk and passed one to the young woman. ‘Remember, just find some common ground, and start to build on it.’
She looked up as the door opened and Joseph appeared carrying another tray of drinks and several bags of food. ‘What have I missed?’ He looked in surprise at the tissues and the two sets of red eyes.
‘Girl stuff,’ murmured Nikki, sniffing hard.
‘Absolutely,’ added Tamsin, snorting heartily into the tissue. ‘Now, when we’ve finally got to eat this takeaway, perhaps you�
��ll point me in the direction of those fantastic shower rooms that you were telling me about?’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
At around six in the morning Joseph drove out of Greenborough and across the fen lanes to a spot on the marsh where he knew there were old wooden bird-hides. He’d been there before when things got tough, just to sit and think.
The narrow single-lane track was lined almost to shoulder height with grasses, spiked broad-leaved reeds and brilliant yellow rapeseed that had self-sown after the last harvest. He knew that the wall of gently waving greenery and flowers concealed a deceptively deep ditch, one that he was anxious to keep out of.
He carefully steered the big vehicle around the long winding lane, knowing that when the mist lifted, it would be a stifling hot day.
As he got close to the route of the wide tidal river, he pulled into a small roughly concreted area surrounded by stubby trees and shrubs, and parked the car. Opposite him was the mud-caked Land Rover belonging to Vinnie Silver.
He locked the car, offered a swift prayer that it would still be there when he returned, and set off through the treeline and down the grass path to the copse that housed the hides.
Vinnie was waiting for him. He was sitting on the rickety wooden steps to one of the disused hides, and staring out across the watery landscape of shallow lagoons and marshy wetland. ‘Reminds me of Vietnam, although hopefully we aren’t about to get ambushed by the Cong.’
‘You never fought in Vietnam! That was the sixties!’
‘Well I’ve seen The Killing Fields a dozen times.’ Vinnie gazed lazily around the lonely place. ‘It has a strange feel to it, don’t you think? Kind of old, no, more like primeval.’
‘Sometimes it feels that way, but when the dawn light glints off the water and everywhere is bathed in a green/gold hue, it seems almost like Eden.’
‘Bloody hell! Wordsworth lives! Reincarnated in the body of a copper.’ Vinnie gave a mighty laugh, and a surprised pheasant took off with a noisy clatter of wings. ‘So, why here?’
‘I needed to feel that we were completely alone. No distractions, no surveillance and no listening devices.’
‘Fair enough. And?’ Joseph’s friend knew him very well.
‘And this morning I looked at my daughter, sleeping on a futon in the boss’s office, and it nearly broke my heart when I realised that I’d missed all those years of her growing up, changing from a child to a woman.’
‘So instead of drinking that moment in, and savouring it like nectar, you wanted to run away to a boggy mire and watch geese flying by with an ageing squaddie? Bunny, I frankly doubt your sanity.’
‘Put like that, I’m inclined to agree.’ Joseph sat down beside him. ‘Tamsin is going up to Scotland this morning. Her mother is going to meet her in Edinburgh.’ He drew in a long breath. ‘She says that she’ll come back when this is over, but . . .’ He pulled a face.
‘Then she will.’ Vinnie turned and squeezed his shoulder. ‘If she has anything of you in her, she’ll have appreciated the deep shit you guys are in right now. She’ll want to talk to you when things calm down, I’m bloody certain of it.’
‘I hope so.’ He forced a smile. ‘But now, what plans do you have regarding Snipe?’
Vinnie straightened up. ‘Plenty. But first, I’m going to strip both your places out of everything he’s set up. Forget alerting him to what we know. I’ll sweep again for bugs and any other form of hidden surveillance equipment and then I’m going to set up a bit of technology of my own, something that will warn the bastard off setting foot on Cloud Fen again, unless he wants us to see his pretty face as wallpaper on our laptops.’
‘And the station? What about his watching the nick?’
‘If he’s got cameras in there, and I’m sure he will have, you can consider them gone. And I won’t even have to set foot in the building.’ He grinned maliciously. ‘I can find them, block them, and destroy them with a nasty little bug of my own. My company has some very bright youngsters working for it right now and I’m very glad they are on my side.’
‘Can we help you at all?’
‘No. I’m better working alone. And as you have no idea who Snipe is, it’s best I remain in the background. I’ll ring you when I’m through, and we’ll organise a command post so that I can monitor anything that Snipe endeavours to do electronically.’
‘Great.’ Joseph watched as a pair of oystercatchers coasted into the lagoons to feed. ‘I must get back now. I’m going to pick up some breakfast and hopefully get back before Tamsin wakes up. Plus I have the feeling that today is going to be hellish busy.’ He looked anxiously at Vinnie. ‘And you? What about your own business?’
‘It’s in good hands, Bunny. Fear not, I’m with you until the fat lady sings.’
* * *
Tamsin looked at the McDonald’s box with a worried expression on her face, then she opened it and smiled down at the toasted bagel. ‘You remembered.’
‘Hope it’s okay? It’s got Philadelphia on it. There’s not too much choice for a veggie around here at this time of the morning.’ Joseph passed her a beaker of black coffee. ‘Did you sleep?’
‘On and off.’ She nibbled around the edge of the bagel, then placed it back in its cardboard tray. ‘I kept thinking about the photos on that board in the CID office.’ She gave a little shiver. ‘There’s so much of that kind of thing on the television that you think nothing of it, until you see something for real. How could anyone do those terrible things?’
‘Sadly, all too easily,’ said Nikki, tipping a sachet of ketchup onto her bacon and egg McMuffin. ‘But we’ll get him.’ Her face hardened. ‘Oh yes, we’ll get this one alright.’
‘I certainly hope so.’ Tamsin turned to her father. ‘What time is the train, Dad?’
‘10.15 from Peterborough. We have a squad car arranged to take us to the station, and your mother will be at the other end. It’s a fast train, only four hours.’
‘Oh God! Four hours with no iPhone,’ groaned Tamsin.
‘You could try a book . . .’ suggested Nikki. ‘But maybe not a crime thriller.’ She broke off to answer the desk phone.
‘I do love family reunions, don’t you, Detective Inspector? Oh, sorry, I forgot, with a mad father and a dead daughter, you don’t have much in the way of family left.’
The distorted voice made Nikki drop her food and, placing her hand over the receiver, she mouthed, ‘Joseph! Trace this!’
‘And don’t bother with the trace. I’m not silly enough to stay on here long enough. I just have a message for the sergeant. Well, it’s more of a question really. Ask him if he’s sure that sending such a pretty young woman off on a long journey all alone is wise? Oh, and tell Tamsin her phone was most useful.’
Nikki drew in a breath, about to speak, but all she heard was a howling noise and then silence. She swallowed, then stood up and walked to the door. ‘Tam, excuse me, I won’t be a minute. I need to report that call.’ She hurried out into the CID office and saw Joseph at Niall’s desk, replacing a receiver and shaking his head.
‘No chance, boss. He was only on for a matter of seconds.’ He looked at her expectantly.
‘We have a problem,’ she whispered, then told the two men, word for word, what had been said.
Neither of them spoke for a moment, then Niall gave Joseph a determined look and stood up. ‘If that’s the case and you still want her to go to Edinburgh, then you can’t put her on that train, Sarge. I’ll drive her. I’ll take her directly home to her mother. She’ll be safe with me, I promise you. I won’t let her out of my sight.’ He gave his boss a boyish grin to lift the taught atmosphere, ‘Even if she does have to wee in a bottle rather than leave the car.’
‘Women can’t do that, numpty, but I do appreciate your offer.’ Joseph looked at Nikki. ‘What do you think, guv?’
‘All the time she’s here we are going to be on tenterhooks. We have to get her to a safe place, no question. But isn’t she still vulnerable at her mother’s hous
e? Snipe knows everything about us, and that probably includes where your ex lives.’
‘I’m still certain that we are his main targets, that he’s just using Tamsin to scare the shit out of me. It’s all about fear, isn’t it? About what scares us the most.’ He bit on his lower lip, then looked up determinedly. ‘I’ll talk to her mother, tell her the whole situation and get her to take Tamsin away for a few days, somewhere safe where no one would know her. She’ll hate me for it, but tough. I want Tamsin as far away from Greenborough as possible.’
‘Then yes, do it, as soon as possible.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘And I suggest we disguise her in some way to get her out of the station, just in case we really are being watched.’
‘What about one of Yvonne’s spare uniforms, ma’am?’ Niall offered. ‘She always keeps a change of clothes in her locker. Seeing a WPC going out wouldn’t alert him to anything.’
‘Good thinking. Is Yvonne in yet?’
‘No, but she won’t be long. I’ll catch her and we’ll sort something out.’ He hurried off, leaving Nikki and Joseph in the empty office.
‘So the son of a bitch did orchestrate Tamsin’s “detour” to Greenborough,’ growled Joseph.
‘I think we’d already worked that one out when we heard about the hoax on her travelling companion.’ She glanced back towards her office. ‘Now, what do we tell Tamsin?’
Joseph shrugged. ‘Change of plans? It’s too dangerous leaving her alone on a train. We are going to get her chauffeured to auld Reekie, courtesy of the Fenland Constabulary, etc. etc. etc.?’
‘Okay, let’s get it over with, and I suggest you ring Midlothian Police and put them in the picture too.’
Joseph nodded and together they went back into the office and closed the door.
* * *
Cat was back online and barely managed to find time for breakfast. Travis’s sites had opened a whole new world for her, one that just might make her a useful part of the investigation, even if she had to stay in hospital a bit longer.
She gave a little grunt of excitement as another batch of answers spewed out of the search engine, but hell, she really needed to talk to the sarge. Some of the stuff that she was picking up didn’t tie in with what he had told her, and she was pretty certain that the info she had dredged up from the dark side of the Internet was true. Well, in essence, at least. One thing she was sure of, Magda Hellekamp’s life was not what it originally seemed. Posted comments, underground articles and discussion boards were throwing up alternatives all the time.
