Deep Waters

by Patricia Hall

  ‘He’s not answering the phone,’ Kate said and she could not disguise the catch in her voice. ‘I was with the police for hours and they wouldn’t let me make a phone call before I left. It looks as if I’ll have to sleep on a bench by the station till it opens in the morning.’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ Tess said sharply. ‘It’s not safe. Go back to the police station and tell them they’ve left you stranded.’

  ‘I don’t want to do that,’ Kate said, her voice breaking. ‘They’ll either send me away or put me in a cell again. And I couldn’t bear that, it was horrible.’ There was silence at the other end for a moment before Tess spoke again.

  ‘Is there a directory in your phone box?’ she asked eventually. Kate glanced at the bracket where one should have hung but it was empty and swung on a single screw.

  ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘It should be here but it’s not.’

  ‘Look, I’ll see if I can find some numbers for you from here. Bed and breakfast places, maybe, something like that. Even the Salvation Army. They have beds, don’t they? We don’t want you sleeping on the beach, do we? Ring me back in ten minutes, la. Have you got enough change to make more calls?’ Kate looked in her purse.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ll try Harry’s flat one more time and if he doesn’t answer I’ll call you back in ten minutes. Thanks Tess, you’re a star.’ But there was still no reply from Highgate and she felt a sense of dread threaten to overwhelm her that had been building up ever since she realized the station was closed and the last train gone. The cramped phone box was close and smelly and she needed to get out. Before pushing the heavy door open, she scanned the street outside but it still looked deserted. Southend, she thought, was not like London, where the streets seemed to be bustling for most of the night. With the holiday season still a distant prospect, Southend had clearly gone to bed early. She would walk down to the seafront, she decided, where at least the air off the sea would be fresher, and find another phone box. In the end, if Tess failed to come up with any answers, she might have to go back to the police station and take her chances that she would be able to find help there.

  But looming ever larger was her concern for Harry. Where was he? And why wasn’t he searching for her if he knew she hadn’t got home by now? As she walked towards the seafront, she felt a rogue tear creeping down her cheek and dashed it away angrily. She would complain about DCI Jack Baker’s tactics as soon as she got a chance. It might embarrass Harry Barnard, but she didn’t see why the fat detective should get away with such blatant bullying.

  That decision made, she walked more briskly towards the seafront, where there was much more activity. Most of the shops had put up their shutters and the pubs had closed, but there were still lights in a couple of cafés and several groups of young people milling around by the entrance to the fairground and the pier. But the stalls and attractions were in darkness and it was not until she got closer that she realized that the atmosphere amongst the groups of young men was restless, bordering on threatening. She hesitated on the opposite side of the road and watched for a moment, wondering if being here was a good idea. She could not see another phone box and was about to retrace her steps when one group of lads spotted her, all dressed in leather jackets and tight trousers which reminded her of John Lennon before he took to a suit.

  ‘Hello, darling,’ one of them shouted across the road, then began to move in her direction. The rest straggled behind him and almost before she could draw breath she found herself surrounded and up against the shutters of a darkened shop window where she could barely move, her heart thudding uncomfortably.

  ‘Where are you going, sweetheart?’ said the most aggressive of the young men, running a hand across his well-greased hair. ‘We could give you a good time.’

  ‘No thanks,’ Kate said sharply, looking around for a way to slip out of the threatening mob. But there seemed to be no way through the wall of broad shoulders that surrounded her or to escape the boozy clouds of breath that turned her stomach. ‘I’m looking for a phone box. My boyfriend’s expecting me to call.’

  ‘Well, he can have you back when we’ve finished with you,’ the leader of the gang said with a laugh as he put a heavy arm on her shoulder and made as if to kiss her. Between the shoulders of her tormentors Kate could see a motor scooter approaching. In desperation, she screamed as loudly as she could. The scooter slowed and then turned into the crowd, pushing through the threatening circle, revving loudly and spinning round to face the road again.

  ‘Get on the back,’ the scooter rider said. ‘Quick.’

  Without thinking Kate flung her arms around the rider’s waist and hung on as he accelerated away towards the pier, where he pulled up by the kerb and turned to face her. She realized that he was in army uniform and looked older than the boys who had been threatening to assault her. She took a deep breath and thanked him.

  ‘I was only looking for a phone box,’ she said, conscious that her voice was shaky and her knees felt weak. ‘I’ve missed the last train home.’

  ‘Where’s home?’ the soldier asked, but she didn’t answer directly even though his accent was very close to her own. ‘Not Fazakerly anyway, la, if you’re right down here,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘Not any more,’ she conceded. ‘I was going to call my boyfriend and ask him to come to pick me up but he’s not answering his phone. I need to try again.’

  ‘Is he a Scouser too?’

  ‘No, London born and bred, but he’s all right,’ Kate said.

  ‘Do you want to go to the police and complain about those baby thugs?’ her rescuer asked.

  ‘No,’ Kate said firmly. ‘I don’t want to go anywhere near the police.’ The squaddie looked at her curiously but did not ask why.

  ‘Well, there’s a phone box a bit further along here, on the Shoeburyness road. I could take you there if you like. I’m going that way back to barracks.’

  ‘That would help,’ she said. ‘I’ll call Harry again, and my friend Tess. I’m sure we can somehow sort something out. I don’t want to end up sleeping on the beach.’

  ‘Not with that lot about, you don’t,’ he said. ‘Hop on. I’ll take you as far as the phone box and see if you get through. If not, I’m not sure what I can do with you.’

  Kate hitched herself up behind her rescuer and they set off again, more slowly this time. The road became more built up as they travelled east and from what Kate could see, with the intermittent street lighting, some of the buildings looked distinctly military.

  ‘Is this your barracks?’ she shouted as they passed a well-lit and gated entrance with sentries on duty. The driver did not reply until she pressed a hand into his ribs. He looked over his shoulder.

  ‘The phone box is round the back,’ he shouted and turned left so sharply that Kate almost lost her balance.

  ‘Steady!’ she shouted into the wind and quite suddenly he stopped and pointed to a phone box almost hidden by thick vegetation at the side of the narrow road.

  ‘There you are, darling,’ he said. ‘You’d better say thank you nicely.’ Kate realized with a shudder that over the course of their short ride his tone had changed. She turned away abruptly and walked the short distance to the phone box and pulled open the heavy door. Which was enough to tell her that the place had been vandalized and she would not be calling anyone from there. Her heart began to thud uncomfortably as she realized that she might have jumped from the frying pan into something even worse. She cursed herself for a fool.

  ‘You must have known this place was wrecked,’ she said. ‘Will you take me back to Southend now, please?’

  ‘Not just yet, sweetheart,’ the squaddie said, taking off his beret and tucking it into his epaulette.

  ‘You owe me a thank-you for getting you away from those scallies. So give us a kiss, won’t you?’ He reached out a hand towards her but she quickly dodged round the corner of the wrecked box before he could get a grip. She glanced up and down the narrow lane, but although she coul
d see lights in the distance there was no traffic in sight and no sound apart from the wind rustling the trees.

  ‘You’re no better than that gang back there,’ she said angrily before she turned and ran. She had gained a slight advantage before she heard him start the scooter again and was conscious of him following close behind her.

  ‘You won’t get anywhere down here,’ he said as he drew level. ‘There’s nothing here but the ranges and the road to Foulness Island. It’s a bloody wilderness. I’ll take you back if you’re a good girl. I promise.’

  Her heart pounding, Kate kept walking fast just ahead of the cruising scooter, aware that she could occasionally see the flash of headlights ahead, which might possibly mean salvation. Before they had gone far she was convinced that there was a busier road not far away and began to run in the middle of the lane, guessing that her tormentor would not run her down. But before she reached the junction he had skidded round her and stopped the bike broadside on, legs outstretched either side of the saddle, the engine ticking over, leaving her no room to squeeze past.

  ‘Come on, darling, don’t be shy. If you’re out as late as this on your own, I’m sure you must be up for it.’ Kate looked around frantically for a weapon of some kind, but all she could see in the light of the scooter’s headlight was loose gravel at the side of the road. She scooped up a handful, threw it at his face, and as he cried out in fury dodged around the bike and ran for the main road as fast as she could. But it did not take him long to recover and as she reached the junction she felt a massive blow to her legs and back as the scooter hit her and she careered across the carriageway to land in the ditch on the other side of the road.

  Cars were approaching in both directions. Her assailant spun his scooter around and accelerated back down the lane they had come along. Kate lay panting in the ditch for several minutes, cursing her own stupidity, before she gently tested all her limbs and found she could pull herself out of the ditch on to the edge of the road. The darkness was almost total. Feeling groggy and disoriented, she wondered if anyone would find her before morning.

  EIGHTEEN

  Kate O’Donnell woke with a start in a strange room that was almost completely dark. She seemed to be bundled under musty blankets on a sofa and was aching all over. She groaned but apparently no one heard and she tried shifting position to make her legs and hips more comfortable, but could not summon up the energy to shout. She could hear the low murmur of voices not far away, but could not tell who was speaking. She felt no inclination to move, her head aching almost as sharply as her legs, and eventually she dozed off again. The next time she woke, she was being shaken hard in a harsh light. She opened her eyes and to her astonishment found Ray Robertson leaning over her.

  ‘Are you all right now?’ he asked. ‘You were lucky I found you when I did. You’d have frozen to death by morning. What happened for God’s sake? How did you get to Shoeburyness and why were you sprawled across the road? I bloody nearly ran over you.’ As he spoke, Kate’s memory of her ordeal with an apparently helpful squaddie returned and she offered Robertson a few choice Scouse epithets as she told him everything that had happened after the police turned her out on to the streets of Southend.

  ‘The police did it on purpose. I’m sure they did,’ she said. ‘DCI Baker told me to stay away from Southend and was obviously furious when I turned up again. To make matters worse, I’d tracked down Connie and her boy then lost them again and I had no idea where Delia was taking them. I was scared she was still in touch with her husband … I made a terrible mess of everything, and I couldn’t get through to Harry. I would never have got on the back of a stranger’s scooter if I hadn’t been surrounded by a gang of scallies like that.’ She felt a tear run down her cheek and dashed it away angrily. ‘The lad on the scooter, the army lad, said he’d help. He seemed like a nice boy and I needed a phone box to get hold of Harry.’

  ‘And?’ Robertson said.

  ‘Great mistake,’ Kate said bitterly. ‘I’d have been better off staying in the town centre and taking my chances with the scallies. There was no phone box that worked, just a pitch-dark road near the army barracks.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘He wanted something in return,’ Kate whispered. ‘Don’t they all? I should have known better after living all those years near the docks. So I ran.’

  ‘Did he do anything to you?’ Robertson asked and Kate could see the fury in his eyes.

  ‘I didn’t give him the chance,’ Kate said. ‘But he followed me and then rammed me with his scooter and knocked me over. But he took fright because I’d got to the main road and he went off the way we’d come, back down the lane.’

  ‘Back to the barracks, I expect,’ Robertson said. ‘Try to remember everything that happened. When I did National Service, the military were pretty good at finding the bastards in their ranks. There’s enough of them, especially when they’ve been boozing. And not the National Service boys either. It’s generally the long-timers who end up in Colchester.’

  ‘Colchester?’

  ‘Military prison,’ he said as if he knew it well.

  ‘Can you take me back to London, please?’ Kate asked. But Robertson shook his head slowly.

  ‘That’s the last place where I want to make an appearance right now,’ he said.

  ‘Where the hell am I?’ Kate asked.

  ‘You’re at Delia Dexter’s farmhouse on Foulness,’ Robertson said. ‘I needed to check something out with Delia before going on my way. Family stuff. She’s my sister-in-law. What I said to Delia is that I’ll take Connie Flanagan and the boy somewhere safe so she doesn’t have to worry about them. I’ll get hold of Flash Harry for you and tell him to come and pick you up. That’s the best I can do. She’s moving on herself, she says, but you’ll be OK for tonight. I don’t want to be nicked by some overenthusiastic copper at this stage in the game. I’m off out of it for a while, while the Met sort this mess out. Miller’s killing was never anything to do with me and I’m not going to take the rap. Rod was a good bloke I’d known for years. I’d no more bump him off than I would my own ma.’ Kate looked at him and almost believed him, but she felt deathly weary. The pain in her legs was jabbing intolerably and she didn’t feel sure about anything.

  ‘I couldn’t get through to Harry,’ Kate said. ‘I don’t know where the hell he can be at this time of night.’

  ‘Looking for you I expect,’ Robertson said. She wondered why he looked away so quickly and suspected he was lying, though she couldn’t understand why. ‘I’ll keep trying his number. He’ll be going frantic.’

  ‘Will he?’ Kate said doubtfully, wincing as she tried to sit upright. ‘I’m never very sure about that.’ Robertson stood up and helped her get her feet to the floor, but she couldn’t move any further.

  ‘Do you think you’ve broken anything? I had to carry you in here.’ Kate shrugged and felt her knees.

  ‘I don’t know. The scooter pushed me sideways.’

  ‘I’ll get Delia to come and have a look at you now you’re awake,’ he said. ‘Best if she does it, and I want to get on my way with Connie and the boy.’

  ‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ Kate asked.

  ‘That’s a very long story,’ Robertson said. ‘People kept telling me Loretta was looking for me and I knew that couldn’t be right. I thought Delia could tell me what was going on.’

  ‘And did she?’ Kate asked. Robertson laughed, but there was no real mirth in it.

  ‘Not entirely,’ he said. ‘I guess it was Delia looking for me in London. She’s got some of Loretta’s clothes here. They’re twins, you know. And I knew damn well that it was unlikely to be Loretta toddling down Oxford Street. But what that was all about she wouldn’t say – they always were a devious family, long before I met them – and I didn’t hang around. I’ll tell Harry where you are.’

  ‘Look after Connie and the boy,’ Kate whispered.

  ‘Sounds as if somebody should,’ Robertson said. ‘Take more care
now, will you?’ Kate nodded and she watched him leave through the open door. He ushered Connie and Luke outside, then picked up what looked like a heavy suitcase that Delia Dexter pushed in his direction. Within minutes she heard the sound of a car driving away, and then Delia came into the room with an unfriendly look on her face and shut the door behind her.

  ‘I thought he was going to take you too,’ she said. ‘I suppose we’d better look at the state of you if you’re staying. I can’t get you to a doctor till the morning, so you’ll have to manage with a bit of first aid until then. Where does it hurt?’

  ‘Why the hell did you bring Connie and Luke out here and leave me in Southend?’ Kate asked as Delia washed the cuts and bruises on her legs and applied some antiseptic.

  ‘This seemed like the safest place and I’d left some of my stuff here,’ Delia said. ‘And you weren’t needed any more. Those two are family. It was up to me to look after them now Bert’s dead. I wasn’t planning to keep them here except just overnight. I was going to move on in the morning. At least if I could get my car to start. It was supposed to be fixed the other day, but it was sounding a bit ropy by the time we got here.’

  ‘You landed me in big trouble with the police,’ Kate said, wincing as the antiseptic stung sharply. She glanced at her legs, which were badly cut and bruised, but as she flexed them experimentally it didn’t feel as if anything was broken.

  ‘And what’s Ray Robertson doing here? He said he wanted to check something out with you?’ she asked.

  ‘He’s family too, in a way, I suppose. Though I haven’t seen him for years, not since the divorce,’ Delia said. ‘He wanted to know if I’d seen my sister. I thought she was in Spain, but he seemed to think she might be in England.’

  ‘She was in London looking for him, according to my boyfriend in the Met,’ Kate said cautiously, not sure which version of the story to believe. ‘He saw her.’

  ‘So I’m told,’ Delia said sharply. ‘She didn’t bother to come and see me, did she? Stuck-up cow. There now.’ She fastened a rough bandage with a safety pin and pulled Kate’s trouser legs down. ‘You’ll survive till morning and then I’ll drop you off at the hospital. Try to get some sleep.’