Nine Ten Begin Again: A Grasshopper Lawns affair

by EJ Lamprey

  ‘On condition you use some of that makeup on yourself. You look as if you haven’t slept in a week.’

  ‘Not far off,’ Edge agreed ruefully. ‘You soaked up all the sleep going, I think.’ She crossed to a small mirror above the basin in the room and grimaced at her reflection. ‘No wonder Donald’s been keeping a respectful distance. Oh, well. He was there for what counted, can’t ask for more.’

  ‘Things not going well?’ Vivian obediently sipped at the lukewarm soup and made a face.

  ‘Not going at all. Oh, he’s been there every step of the way for me and for William, but as a friend. We’ve been taking it in turns to sleep so two of us were always here, so at first I thought it was that. There have been opportunities, but he was almost embarrassed when I tried to—well. I didn’t try again.’ She shrugged and managed a smile. ‘I think he ran out of rocket fuel. Patrick did warn me.’

  ‘Rubbish. He was probably terrified; people cope with sickness different ways. Talking of Patrick, was he behind all the weird stuff? What’s happening on the investigation, anyway?’

  ‘Heavens, that all seems so long ago.’ Edge perched on the edge of her bed. ‘No, Patrick wasn’t. As far as I know, and Kirsty was round here briefly this morning, Jemima’s murderer still hasn’t been caught. The police are still pretending to buy the suicide and are still quietly looking. Hamish has been coming into the Lawns every day to keep an eye on everything, bringing his grandson with him. Creepy Thomas is making himself indispensable. We’ll have to put our heads together with Clarissa when she gets back and come up with a campaign to get rid of him somehow, because everyone else thinks he’s fine. Just us, and Buster, standing out against his effortless charm.’

  ‘Ew,’ Vivian said appreciatively, sounding much more like herself, and handed back her empty cup. ‘You’re right, it’s not bad. I’ll try some more later. I actually remember dreaming about him, and thinking I’d made a discovery. I wonder what it was?’

  The door opened before Edge could answer and she stood up, smiling, as William walked in. ‘Look who’s awake and has had a cup of soup.’

  ‘Bloody hell.’ William stopped dead. ‘About time. Talk about attention-seeking behaviour.’

  Edge slipped past him as he strode heavily forward, leaving them alone. She sat down abruptly in the small waiting room directly outside the ward. Two weeks of dry-eyed terror, hidden behind a calm face more for William’s sake than for Vivian, who had been oblivious, took their toll, and tears of relief slid down her cheeks. She tried to flick them away, then gave in to the luxury of finally being alone to cry away the fears that had racked her.

  ~~~

  ‘Mr MacDonald!’ The nurse on duty called him as he strode down the hospital corridor, frowning. ‘I’ve got Shona Black on the phone again asking for Mrs Cameron. Could you speak to her?’

  He hesitated, then nodded and took the phone across the counter. ‘Shona?’

  ‘Donald! I’d hoped to catch up with Edge, but they won’t call her to the phone. I just wanted to see how she is, and to say we’re all rooting for her friend. What’s the situation?’

  ‘Not great, Shona. The doctors insist Vivian’s okay, but she’s not waking up. I think the nurses are going to try to wake her at around four pm, at least to feed her something.’

  The nurse nodded and he glanced down the corridor slightly impatiently.

  ‘You sound rough. How’s Edge coping?’

  He shrugged. ‘It’s hard on her. Vivian’s more than a friend, she’s virtually family. Edge doesn’t have a lot of family.’

  ‘She’s got you, that must help. Tell her I was asking after her, ken?’

  He responded politely, handed the phone back and walked on, the frown returning. Two weeks of avoiding being alone with Edge, keeping his distance while still offering a friend’s support. . . he rounded the corner and stopped short at the sight of her sitting outside Vivian’s room with her hands to her face, her shoulders shaking.

  ‘Edge?’ He lifted her to her feet and she rested her forehead lightly against his shoulder, keeping space between them. ‘What is it? What’s happened?’

  After a fractional hesitation he put his hand on her back and patted her slightly awkwardly and she shook her head.

  ‘Sorry. Tears of relief, she’s awake. Back to herself. I came out to give her time with William. I didn’t mean to cry. I thought you’d dropped him off and gone home.’ She brushed tears off her cheeks, and he found a handkerchief in his pocket and offered it.

  ‘I was parking. She’s really, really okay?’

  ‘Hungry as a horse, weak as a cat, but really okay. Herself. No more odd comments or unfocused eyes. William was ticking her off about her attention-seeking behaviour when I came out.’

  She took the handkerchief and dried her eyes, still with her head bent. Tension he hadn’t even realized he’d been feeling went out of him and he put both arms round her to rock her gently.

  ‘Look at me, silly woman. You’re not even wearing any makeup to streak, and I want to see your face. I’m bloody glad. I thought for a while there she was going to break the first promise I ever made to you.’ He smiled ruefully as she looked up, surprised. ‘I promised you she’d be all right. That day Patrick came to tea?’

  Her eyes creased a little uncertainly, her tired face tilted up to his. ‘Not the first promise. You promised you’d keep me away from anything shocking when you took me to the club. Then you shocked my socks off yourself.’

  ‘I’d forgotten that. Damn. But strictly speaking, I don’t think it counts as a broken promise. You shocked me too.’ Her mouth quirked and his arms tightened. ‘Don’t look at me like that, Miss Prim. You don’t want to be ravished here in the waiting room.’

  Her brows puckered. ‘Donald, I do. I thought you didn’t want to any more.’

  ‘Always. But it would have been crass, trying to jolly you along when you were so upset. Wouldn’t it?’ he added at her expression and she rested her head on his shoulder again.

  ‘I thought you’d lost interest, and were back to being only my friend. And you were that. I clung to that. And now you say you did want me. I don’t understand.’

  ‘Well,’ he moved his head so he was talking into her hair, ‘it was partly I was raised not to demand attention when there was a crisis. But I was also terrified that something would happen to Vivian—that she might die—at exactly the time you were with me instead of here. And you would never have forgiven me.’

  She was silent, then nodded reluctantly. ‘We’re still at cross-purposes, we’ve got to learn to talk things through. Even if it doesn’t seem to be a good time. But Donald,’ she tilted her face up again, an imp of mischief in her shadowed eyes, ‘I told you she’s okay. So what’s your excuse now?’

  ‘Right here, right now?’ His eyes crinkled and he shook his head. ‘We couldn’t. It would frighten the patients. Although—to hell with the patients. Where can we go?’

  The polite gloss of friendship, the careful distance of the last fortnight, evaporated instantly as she gasped with laughter and leaned into him.

  The door opened and William peered out, then spoke over his shoulder.

  ‘You were right. Crackling like high tension wires, I’m not going out there. Shall I leave a message?’ He grinned back at them. ‘This is a hospital. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Actually I thought you’d have locked yourselves in a linen closet by now, or tipped some poor patient out of his bed. Anyway, stop it. Come in here. Vivian’s had an idea.’

  ‘You weren’t really crackling, were you?’ Vivian, roses in her cheeks, smiled up at her from her pillows as they followed William into the room, both rather flushed. ‘Actually, I hope you were. I’d hate to think I put paid to the oddest couple since Sylvester and Tweetybird.’

  Donald laughed for the first time in two weeks. ‘Sylvester, I’ll take that. Thanks for coming back. We missed you. What’s the idea?’ He glanced at William.

  ‘Vivian’s not lost interest
in our mystery, the way the rest of us have. She’s been dreaming about Thomas, which is not something of which I entirely approve. And she has a theory about why Thomas kept going into our apartments, even when Maggie attacked him and Clarissa complained. When Vivian complained she was told it had been a misunderstanding, and he stopped doing it.’

  Vivian nodded. ‘So, in my half-dream, I thought what could he misunderstand? The only thing I could think is that Joey had told him he had to do maintenance checks on every apartment, just walk right in. He’d know that would create a series of complaints, which might even get Thomas fired. Once we knew Thomas was his nephew, we never thought of Joey again.’

  ‘A sort of passive-aggressive warning system.’ Donald said thoughtfully. ‘It didn’t work, though. Not enough people caught him at it, perhaps. Only two complaints, and he talked his way out of trouble. But why would anyone want the job enough to plot to get it?’

  ‘There’s been no change on my bank accounts.’ William got out his mobile phone to check. ‘I set up an alert back when Edge put the wind up all of us. Any non-standard transaction, even a pending one, over five hundred pounds and my bank notifies me. The service costs, but I felt better. And there’ll be nothing over the holidays. Whatever the Bateman woman was planning, it died with her.’

  ‘Thomas is still there, and from what Edge told me, working in the office as often as not. You need me back at the Lawns,’ Vivian said firmly. ‘Frail Care and the office are on the same floor, so I can wander across while I’m convalescing. Be your spy on the spot. Except that you’re going to have to speak to Joey. I doubt I could coax him into the San.’

  ‘Hamish could probably speak to him, even if he wouldn’t say anything to us.’ Edge leaned her cheek against Donald’s shoulder. ‘We’d pretty much decided we were imagining things but you’re right, there are still oddities and undercurrents. Hamish and Joey are old friends, and if anyone understands being under threat, Hamish does. Vivian, you were already declared out of danger, so I can’t see that you couldn’t come home tomorrow.’

  ‘Today. Now.’ Vivian was emphatic. ‘I should have been moved back two days ago, from the sound of it. Much less trouble for all of you if I had been doing my imitation of an aging Sleeping Beauty there instead of here. If you don’t get me out of here, I’ll check myself out and get a taxi home. Your choice.’

  ‘Damn, I missed you, cailleach. Laying the law down and making us all jump around.’ William, who had been resting his rump on the edge of her bed, stood up. ‘I’ll go find some terrified little intern I can bully into releasing you. Edge can help you get dressed. Donald, I’m putting you onto sourcing a wheelchair, and you can phone Matron and warn her we’re bringing Vivian home for Christmas.’

  ‘What, now we’re the A Team and I’m Face? And before I go tipping patients out of their wheelchairs, hadn’t you better check you can find that intern?’

  William waved away Donald’s mild objections. ‘We’re busting Howling Mad Vivian outta this joint. Trust me on that. I love it when a plan comes together.’

  ‘Hang on, I don’t have nearly enough jewellery for my role.’ Edge hugged William spontaneously. ‘Good to have you back to your bossy self too, big man. Get out of here. I got me a crazy fool to dress.’

  ~~~

  Vivian was very pale and subdued by the time she was finally tucked up in Frail Care, Matron bustling around and scolding her fondly. ‘Such short notice, I couldn’t organize a night nurse but Jayenthi said she’ll sleep in the next room tonight, no problem, and you’ll have your panic button. I sleep upstairs, I’ll be two minutes away.’

  ‘Jayenthi doesn’t have to, I’ll sleep here,’ Edge offered and Vivian laughed weakly.

  ‘You most certainly will not. You’ll be here as soon as you’ve had breakfast, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after some sleep, to pick up our investigation.’

  ‘Not more murders, surely?’ Matron smiled down at her. ‘I’ve got a three-course early supper on its way upstairs. Double helpings, because I doubt I’d get William out of here with a crowbar, but I am going to chase the others out. You need to eat to get your strength back, but you also need a quiet evening.’

  Edge hugged Vivian good night, told William he could go through, and almost danced down the stairs to where Donald was waiting.

  ~~~

  ‘This is the part where it would be nice to be smokers,’ he said idly as they lay curled together in a tumble of bedclothes, rosy in the soft radiance of the pink nightlight. ‘Blow smoke rings at the ceiling and feel complacent. I feel we rescued the situation in the nick of time. A few more days, and you might have regrouped for good.’

  ‘Oh Donald, you are such an idiot.’ Edge rubbed her cheek on his shoulder and ran her hand across his stomach, feeling the deep muscles contract under her touch.

  ‘About that.’ He trapped her hand. ‘I’d like to raise a tiny objection. I’m not crazy about your pet name for me.’

  ‘What pet name?’ She tilted her face up, surprised and he sighed.

  ‘That’s sort of the point. You only call me Donald, or idiot. Or, as now, both.’

  She gurgled with laughter. ‘That’s your fault. Months ago I accidentally called you darling, and you ticked me off, and said you weren’t my darling and that I said it too often anyway. Which was fair comment, I know I do. Anyway, Donald is a love name. I love saying it. Donnnnnald. And you are an idiot. You proved that. You’ve made up for it very thoroughly, but you were.’

  Donald smiled slightly. ‘Okay, I’ll admit I was wrong about the benefits side of our agreement. I did genuinely think it was for good times only and you wouldn’t want to be bothered. I think the whole agreement needs re-examining.’

  She turned her cheek into his shoulder, laughter gone. ‘Well, I liked it, but I’ll listen. What did you have in mind?’

  ‘Do you remember our first night, when we talked about us, about how we would handle the relationship?’

  ‘Hmm, first night, first night—the leather club, right? Was that it?’

  ‘Funny.’ He shook his head reprovingly. ‘I’m being serious.’

  ‘Of course I remember. I remember every minute in perfect detail. When I’m gaga I’ll be embarrassing my carers by cackling lasciviously and insisting on telling them bits. As far as the agreement went, I said something tremulous about love and you said love wasn’t an option, we would take friendship to a whole new level. I didn’t know how we would do that, but you were right, we have.’

  ‘We were so good together, I was afraid of changing the way things were, but they have anyway. I wanted to say, if the love thing is still important to you, okay. I haven’t a clue where to start but if you still want that, I’m not going to insist on hanging on to the friends’ agreement.’

  She propped herself up on her elbow to look into his face in the soft light, hesitating as she picked her words. Normal assumptions didn’t work with Donald.

  ‘You are my friend, and I value that more than anything. Our minds mesh, we’re in total synch, when we work together. You’re also the most exciting man I have ever met, the only man who has ever made me shake with longing, but we know now whether we have that or not, you were there, my rock, when things got tough.’ She paused, aware he was watching her intently. ‘Dear heart, I am in love with you. I thought you knew. Love is different for everyone. But if you feel any of that, you’re already in love too.’

  ‘Aye?’

  She nodded, still smiling and he looked pensive, then quirked one eyebrow.

  ‘So you’re saying, let me get this right, you ignored my stated requirements from the beginning and without my permission, knowledge or consent, you dragged me into your coils?’

  She nodded again, more vigorously and he abruptly rolled them both over, laughing aloud.

  ‘You sneaky baggage!’

  The cat fled.

  Chapter 12 - Tuesday

  December 24th Onderness Police Station

  Sergeant Kirsty Cameron s
at up smartly in her chair and smiled at Detective Inspector Iain McLuskie as he walked into the station.

  ‘This is a surprise. Snap inspection?’

  ‘Oh aye,’ he nodded. ‘Disciplinary actions all round, as a Christmas present. Talking of which, this is for you and Drew.’ He handed over a festively decorated bottle bag, and she grinned and dipped below her desk to produce one of her own.

  ‘You’ve saved me dropping it off at the house. Thank you, Iain. South African?’

  ‘Oh aye. I know your tastes by now. Okay, the wife does. She assures me it’s one you like. What time does your shift end?’

  Kirsty glanced at her watch. ‘Twenty minutes.’

  ‘Well, if you want to go now, I’ve got a bit of stuff to do so I don’t mind holding the fort. Not as if anything’s going to happen, after all.’

  He was interrupted by the young constable who leaned in through the door frame, looking excited.

  ‘Got a tip-off about six bad guys hanging about, sir. Some old bloke walking his dog spotted them, insists there’s going to be trouble. What do we do?’

  Iain waved Kirsty off as he answered Stuart and she gratefully shut down her computer, locked away her Airwave and was pulling on her coat when Iain’s barked ‘What?’ halted her. She looked across as he turned on his heel to stare at her.

  ‘It’s the leather gang guys—and they’re at the Lawns.’

  ~~~

  Edge was brushing her hair out vigorously after the morning class when the phone rang. She’d been waiting to hear when Hamish could see her, and pressed the speakerphone option, smiling. ‘Megan?’