Hunted on the Fens

by Joy Ellis

For a moment their eyes locked, and Joseph was gripped by both pure anger and a terrible flash of remembered pain from the last time they met. If they ever did meet again, Joseph was sure that one of them would die.

  Cox threw himself inside the car. ‘I promise!’ he called out.

  Joseph staggered to his feet, clutching his side and saw Yvonne dive at the man who had hurt him. Then he saw the man slip an evil-looking knife from his pocket.

  ‘Leave him, Yvonne! He’s got a blade! Let him go!’ Fear pulsed through his veins and his own memory of facing a knife threatened to overwhelm him. ‘Let him go! Okay? That’s an order! He’ll kill you.’

  As the car’s engine roared into life, he saw Yvonne pause and step back. He heaved a painful sigh of relief, and fleetingly saw the driver of the vehicle staring at him as he drove away. Cox had certainly been under the surgeon’s knife, but although the skin was less tortured, the evil written on his face had not changed. Not one bit.

  * * *

  Nikki and Dave hammered on Archie’s door. There was no answer. ‘This is all wrong.’ Nikki tried to see through a window, but there was no light in the front lounge. ‘Get that bloody enforcer out again, Dave.’

  In a few moments he returned with the heavy metal device that made short work of locked doors in times of emergency.

  ‘Forgive me, Archie. If I’m wrong I promise to pay for the damage.’

  The door lock shattered and the front door swung inwards.

  Joan Leonard lay on the hall floor, a trickle of blood feeding a growing puddle around her head.

  ‘Jesus! Dave, get an ambulance. And tell them to make it fast!’ She knelt down and felt the side of Joan’s neck. ‘She’s alive, but her pulse isn’t good.’ She called out her name, but apart from a slight tremor in her eyelids, there was no response.

  Nikki heard Dave urgently requesting help. She stood up, wondering what else she would find as she moved deeper into the house. She went into the lounge and pulled a throw off the sofa and took it back to cover the unconscious woman.

  ‘They’re on their way.’ Dave crouched beside her, helping to keep the woman as warm as possible. ‘Who is she, guv?’

  ‘Archie’s daughter-in-law, Joan. She’s been looking after him.’

  ‘Archie’s ill?’

  Nikki didn’t want to admit it, especially to herself. She heard herself whisper, ‘Archie’s dying.’ She was grateful that Dave didn’t ask any more. ‘You stay here with her, Dave. I’ll check out the rest of the house.’

  ‘I think you should wait for back-up, ma’am.’ There was real concern in Dave’s voice.

  ‘Whoever did this, and I think we know exactly who that was, is now busy being pursued by Greenborough’s finest, so I’m perfectly safe, Dave.’ She stood up and walked through the house, putting on lights as she went.

  ‘Police! Is there anyone in here? We’re here to help.’

  Nikki checked the ground floor and found nothing. The she moved to the stairs. She called out as she went up step by step. ‘It’s the police! Is anyone there?’

  On the top landing she stopped and looked around. She thought she had heard a noise, but wasn’t sure where it came from. ‘This is DI Nikki Galena! Come out, please.’

  Nikki eased open the first door she came to, but as light flooded the big bedroom she saw that it was empty. She moved to the next room and the next and found them the same. The noise had stopped. Had she imagined it?

  A corridor stretched ahead of her, one she knew led down to Lisa Jane’s old room. She really didn’t want to go, but she had no choice.

  ‘Archie? Are you alright? It’s Nikki.’ Her voice echoed down the silent hallway. And then she heard a moan. A low, animal-like noise that made her blood run cold.

  ‘Archie!’

  Nikki pushed open the door, and saw that the room had been all but destroyed. Furniture and ornaments lay shattered and broken. Posters had been torn from the walls, and an oxygen cylinder and its metal trolley lay on the floor. There was a heavy metallic smell of blood mixing with the familiar jasmine room fragrance that Joan liked to use.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Nikki ran to the figure that half lay, half leaned against the far wall. His head had taken a vicious blow and thick blood was clotting into his wavy hair. He cried out, clearly in great pain.

  ‘Mickey! Oh no!’ She ran back to the door. ‘Dave! We need another paramedic team up here! It’s Mickey, and he’s in a bad way.’ She ran back to the boy. ‘Oh, sweetheart, I’m here. It’s Nikki. I’ve got you now.’ She sat down and held him to her. ‘Help is on its way. You’re going to be fine, you hear me? Just fine.’

  ‘Inspector Nik?’

  His voice was slurred. Nikki didn’t like the sound of it. He was just a kid, and he was talking like a stroke-victim. ‘Shh, Mickey, you keep still now. We’ll talk later when you feel better.’

  ‘At least they didn’t get Archie.’ The words were laboured and slow, and then his eyes closed.

  ‘Mickey? Stay with me! Come on now, it’s not the time to sleep! Wake up, Mickey!’ Nikki felt panic welling up and hot tears were burning her eyes and straining to be released. No more dead kids. Please!

  The boy gave a little moan and she breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Don’t you dare do that again, or Sergeant Joe will never forgive you!’

  ‘Sorry,’ he murmured. ‘So tired.’

  Sirens filled the night air, increasing in volume until they finally came to a halt outside. And as the green-clad paramedics filled the doorway of the small room, Nikki finally allowed herself to let the tears fall.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Joseph eased his aching body up off the pavement and winced. Nursing his bruised ribs he threw a half smile at Yvonne. ‘That went well.’

  ‘I’ve radioed in the vehicle registration, but something tells me they will find that 4x4 either abandoned or burnt out.’ Her face twisted into a frown. ‘I just wish that I’d—’

  ‘Don’t go there,’ interrupted Joseph. ‘I’d rather see the bastards get away than see you with a knife stuck in you.’ He looked at her seriously. ‘It’s not something I’d recommend.’

  ‘Sorry, Sarge. If anyone should know, it would be you.’ She looked up as Nikki’s car pulled into view. ‘It’s the guv’nor.’

  Joseph tried to breathe normally as Nikki and Dave stepped out of the vehicle, but knives still stabbed mercilessly in his chest, making him suspect a couple of cracked ribs. ‘’Fraid, we lost him, ma’am. It was Cox, but he had two goons with him and they . . .’ He stopped mid-sentence when he saw bloodstains on Nikki’s shirt and Dave’s jacket. ‘Oh no. Not Archie.’

  Nikki was slow to answer, and he began to fear the worst.

  ‘No, not Archie.’ Her voice held a faint tremor. ‘I’m sorry, Joseph, but both Mickey and Joan were attacked. They are on their way to hospital.’

  Joseph tensed. Mickey? He closed his eyes. ‘Is it bad?’

  ‘Bad enough. They both have head injuries, but judging by the mess in the house, it looks like young Mickey put up one hell of a fight before he got coshed.’

  ‘Cox actually went after the Leonard family? Is he off his trolley?’

  ‘Well, if he was looking for Archie, he came unstuck. Archie’s already in hospital. A neighbour told me that he had a breathing attack early this morning, and the ambulance crew took him into A & E. He’s pretty poorly, by all accounts.’

  ‘And Mickey? Have Peter and Fran been notified? Maybe I should go and be with him.’ Joseph made no secret of the fact that he was fond of the boy. Years ago, he and Nikki had all but saved the boy’s life. He’d never quite fathomed out how he felt about it, or why. You’d think it would be the person who got saved who would be the one with the burden of obligation — forever in your debt, and all that. But strangely, after Mickey recovered from his injuries, Joseph had felt responsible for the boy and what happened to him. And he still did, although now he had backed right off and allowed Mickey’s new family to look after him.

&
nbsp; ‘Peter is already on his way, Joseph. Leave it for a while, okay?’ Suddenly she noticed his injury. ‘You’re hurt! Joseph, what happened?’

  ‘Got taken out by a Harlequin’s prop, or that’s what it felt like.’ He tried to straighten up. ‘Shit! That’s painful.’

  ‘Okay, X-ray. Now.’ Nikki shook her head. ‘Come on, I’ll drive straight to the hospital. Lord, everyone we know seems to be in Greenborough General at the moment!’

  Joseph decided not to argue. Little could be done for cracked ribs, but they could give him some pain relief so that he could continue working.

  As they drove, they talked about Stephen Cox. None of them could understand why he had gone anywhere near Archie Leonard. And although he had run off alone, the neighbour said that after hearing a terrible commotion, her family saw three men run from the house. Two went in different directions from the back, and one from the front.

  ‘Star-burst,’ said Yvonne. It was standard procedure, especially when exiting a stolen car. The villains know that if you’re on your own, you can’t chase all of them.

  ‘It happened less than five minutes before we arrived,’ Dave said. ‘I don’t think they had expected to find a police presence on the Carborough and they decided to leg it when they realised things were hotting up.’

  ‘Did he speak to you, Joseph?’ asked Nikki tentatively.

  ‘Oh, we just passed the time of day, promised to catch up sometime. The usual.’

  ‘Very droll.’

  ‘And I need to keep it that way. I still can’t think too deeply about Cox and what he did.’

  Nikki glanced across at him. It was a fleeting look, but it was filled with sadness and compassion — and something else Joseph couldn’t quite identify. He heard Vinnie saying, “I’d give my eye teeth for someone to look at me like that.” Was that what he meant? Because Joseph saw only concern and a shared memory of difficult and painful times. Was Vinnie seeing something different? Something he was missing? His mind stopped spinning and although he knew it was not the right time to be thinking this way, he stared at Nikki. Could Vinnie be right?

  ‘I can’t believe that Cox has out-run us, yet again,’ Yvonne was grumbling. ‘And even if there were ten squad cars on the Carborough tonight, Cox has the luck of the devil. He’d have got away.’

  ‘We need to hope that Mickey rallies quickly, then maybe he can tell us why Cox was there,’ Dave pondered.

  Joseph dragged his thoughts into the present. ‘What if he wasn’t after Archie? Mickey knows a lot, and he has a knack of seeing and hearing things that maybe he shouldn’t be seeing or hearing. And now he is part of the Leonard family, who is he going to tell his secrets to?’

  ‘Archie.’ Nikki nodded. ‘Maybe Mickey was the intended target. Perhaps he’d found out who was hiding Cox and was about to pass the information on.’ She carefully guided the old car into the hospital gates. ‘Maybe we should go see Mickey after all.’

  ‘And organise a uniformed officer to keep a watch on him,’ emphasised Joseph. ‘Cox is still out there, so the boy is vulnerable.’

  ‘Deja vu!’ Nikki pulled into a space close to the entrance. ‘Just like the good old days!’

  ‘Some say,’ muttered Joseph. ‘I’ve known better.’

  * * *

  As Joseph waited to be seen in the A & E department, Nikki waited too, for news of both Mickey and Joan Leonard. She also enquired about Archie, only to be told that he was still in ITU and at present visits were restricted to close family members. She could have flashed her warrant card, but when she heard that Raymond was with him, she decided to leave it.

  As she walked towards the area where Mickey was being treated, she saw Peter Leonard approaching. He was an intelligent, fine-boned man in his early forties, with light, sandy hair and dark-rimmed designer glasses. Nothing about him betrayed his family’s criminal background. They met at the door and he immediately held out his hand to her, clasping hers warmly.

  ‘Inspector! What happened?’ The words gushed out. ‘Was it Cox? We heard he was in the area, then I got the call about Mickey and Joan. This is terrible.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Peter, and all on top of Archie being taken ill. If there’s anything we can help with, just say.’

  ‘By the sound of it you’ve already done plenty. It seems we have you to thank for getting Mickey here so quickly.’ He finally let go of her hand.

  ‘Thank God, we did.’

  ‘Mr Leonard? DI Galena?’ A nurse practitioner was beckoning to them. ‘You can go in for a while.’

  ‘How is he?’ Nikki asked.

  ‘He has a nasty head wound, but that kid must have an iron skull! We can’t find any internal bleeds. He has concussion, but no fractures, which is really amazing.’

  ‘You’ll be keeping him in though?’ said Peter.

  ‘Oh yes. We need to monitor him carefully after a crack like that. Plus he has multiple other bruises and abrasions to sort out.’ The nurse looked from one to the other enquiringly. ‘They say he was attacked?’

  ‘That’s right, in his grandfather’s house.’

  ‘Mm. Well, whoever did it meant business. He’s lucky to be alive. If he’d been left any longer, he could have died.’

  Again, thought Nikki grimly. Then she felt Peter’s hand on her arm. ‘Was it Cox?’

  ‘It appears that way. I’m hoping that Mickey will tell us more. Joseph gave chase to one of three men seen running from the vicinity of Archie’s house, and he was certainly Stephen Cox.’

  Peter looked across to where his adopted son lay on the trolley, then pulled out his mobile. ‘You go in, Inspector. Tell him I’ll be right there, but I have a call to make.’

  Nikki narrowed her eyes. ‘Officially I have to tell you that if your family goes after Cox and anything happens to him, you will be in serious trouble.’ She raised one eyebrow. ‘And unofficially, your brother Raymond is upstairs with your father.’

  Peter gave her a grim smile. ‘Thanks for that. He’s just the man I want.’ He waved to Mickey, then turned and hurried out.

  Nikki walked over to the boy and shook her head in exasperation. ‘We’ve got to stop meeting like this! You in a hospital bed and me with no get well card.’

  Mickey gave her a weak grin. ‘Inspector Nik! Where’s Peter gone? And where’s my friend the sergeant?’

  Mickey never called Peter his father. To him, the words “father” and “dad” meant neglect, alcohol, and cruelty, so his adoptive parents were always referred to as Peter and Fran. ‘Peter will be back in five, and your Sergeant Joe is getting patched up himself. You weren’t the only one to get clobbered tonight, although you are way ahead of him on the injury stakes. He’s just being a wimp.’ She smiled at the teenager. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Head feels like someone’s holding a rave in my skull.’ He blinked. ‘Thanks for helping me. I’m a bit foggy over what happened, but I remember you shouting at me not to sleep.’

  ‘You scared me, kiddo. I had no intention of losing you too.’

  He reached out a hand that was stained with dried blood, and took hold of hers. ‘I know where you’re coming from, and I’m sorry I scared you.’

  Nikki squeezed it gently. ‘What can you remember, Mickey?’

  He closed his eyes for a moment, then said, ‘Not much. I heard a cry. I suppose it must have been Joan. I was up in Lisa-Jane’s room tidying up. The ambulance guys had had to move furniture and stuff to get Archie out on the carrying chair. Then all hell broke loose. They just bust in. Two guys came at me with a cosh of some kind, then Cox arrived and I thought I was a goner, Inspector Nik, really I did.’ He shivered. ‘Then it’s blank, until you were there with me.’

  ‘Did he say anything?’

  The boy shrugged, then winced. ‘I can’t remember. Sorry.’

  ‘Have you any idea what they were after?’

  Mickey sighed. ‘None whatsoever.’

  ‘If anything comes back, tell the officer who will be looking out for you, ok
ay?’

  ‘I get protection?’

  ‘Sure do.’

  ‘Surely he wouldn’t try anything in a hospital?’

  ‘We are talking about Stephen Cox, Mickey, so rather be safe than sorry.’

  ‘And Grandfather?’

  ‘He has family with him. Raymond, to be precise.’

  ‘Then God help Cox if he tried anything in there.’ He flexed his neck painfully. ‘Joan’s badly hurt, isn’t she? Have you seen her yet?’

  ‘No. She’s still unconscious. They are talking about transferring her to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. They have a special brain injury unit there.’

  ‘That’s so unfair. Joan’s a bit of a grump, but she’s really good to Archie. She didn’t deserve to be hurt like that.’

  ‘Cox doesn’t care who he hurts. There’s not an ounce of compassion in his whole body.’

  ‘Get him, Nik. Please? Get him, lock him up, and see that he finishes up on the same wing as one of the Leonard family. They would put an end to it once and for all.’

  ‘Oh, I’ll get him, Mickey. You can be sure of that, and though some would call it rough justice, your idea is a good one, a very good one.’ Nikki looked up as the nurse returned.

  ‘We need to do some obs, Inspector. You can come back later, but this young man needs some rest now.’

  Nikki explained that a uniformed officer would be close at hand, waved to the boy and left the unit. As she passed the doors to ITU, she saw a throng of people all still working on Joan Leonard. Mickey was right, she had never been exactly friendly, but she cared about Archie and their family. Nikki prayed that she would either make a proper recovery, or die, because the alternative would be a living hell. Nikki knew all about that. A lump formed in her throat. She didn’t want to be here, in the hospital that had been home to her child for so long. ‘Oh, Hannah,’ she whispered. ‘I miss you so much.’

  She stopped walking for a moment as the urge to run from the place became almost overwhelming. Then she thought about Joseph and knew there was no time for that sort of emotion. She needed to be firing on all cylinders, and so did he. Time to check out his injuries, find Yvonne and Dave, then get back in the ring. Because there was a fight going on, and she was damn well not going to be the one to hit the canvas.