Wrong Place

by Michelle Davies

  Maggie distracted herself by studying the photographs on the walls. A visual timeline of family life, they included a monochrome wedding-day portrait of a couple wearing of-an-era attire that made her presume they were Sadie and her late husband. There was also a series of school photographs of a dark-haired girl and another one of the same child aged about nine or ten, perched on the arm of a chair next to the man from the wedding photograph, the lights of the Christmas tree behind them flaring like fireflies in the camera’s flash.

  Her gaze was then drawn to a small framed photograph of a young woman with long brunette hair sitting on a beach in a vest and shorts, hand raised to shield her eyes against the sun. A quick check confirmed it was the only image of her anywhere on the walls, whoever she was.

  ‘Neville, in here.’

  Renshaw beckoned her into the kitchen. Still weeping, Audrey Allen flashed Maggie a sad smile as she squeezed past on her way out.

  ‘Don’t ever interrupt me when I’m taking a statement,’ said Renshaw coldly, when Audrey was out of earshot.

  ‘I didn’t say a word,’ Maggie protested.

  ‘You didn’t have to. The way you barged in was enough.’

  Renshaw was standing in the middle of the tiny kitchen with her arms crossed. She was dressed in one of the new black trouser suits she’d been favouring since her promotion, her long auburn hair pulled tightly off her scrubbed face and secured in a low ponytail. That Renshaw felt compelled to underplay her femininity now she was elevated a rank baffled Maggie, who did not consider herself particularly girlish but liked to think she wouldn’t suppress the part of her that enjoyed wearing make-up just to be taken seriously in her job.

  ‘You made me lose my thread,’ said Renshaw. ‘Now, what did you want?’

  Maggie fought to keep her voice steady. Anger wasn’t an emotion she succumbed to that often but now it simmered constantly in the pit of her stomach, stoked by Renshaw’s affronts. One of these days the new DS would poke too hard.

  ‘Paul’s found something he wants you to see,’ she said.

  ‘Fine. In the meantime I want you to go to the hospital and talk to the granddaughter. Uniform took an initial statement but it needs doing properly. Call me when you’re done. Oh, and if the victim dies I’ve decided you can be the Family Liaison.’

  That decision wasn’t Renshaw’s to make, as they both well knew. Maggie’s deployment would be up to DI Tony Gant, the Family Liaison Coordinator for their force – her other boss.

  For the past four years Maggie had specialized as a Family Liaison Officer for Major Crime investigations in addition to her detective constable duties with Force CID. DI Gant worked with the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) at the onset of each case to ensure he dispatched the most suitable officer and had to clear each FLO’s deployment with their line manager, as it often meant them being away from their day job for weeks at a time. In Maggie’s case that would be the Detective Chief Inspector at Mansell Force CID, not Renshaw.

  ‘We should be hoping she doesn’t die,’ said Maggie pointedly.

  ‘Of course,’ said Renshaw.

  She didn’t sound like she meant it. But then her focus was not dealing with the victim’s family but running a potential murder investigation, a coup for any new DS. Renshaw had a limited view of how a family’s grief manifested, whereas Maggie knew from being up close how raw, visceral and bewildering it could be. Stepping into that environment was not easy.

  But although being a FLO was at times harrowing and wearing, Maggie loved the role. She knew how crucial it was for the victims’ relatives to feel like they had someone from the police acting in their interests during the investigation. At the same time she collated and fed back information to the SIO about the victim – and about the relatives themselves if she suspected the guilty party was among them.

  ‘Right, you need to get going while I talk to Paul,’ said Renshaw.

  As Maggie nodded, she glanced at the back door. The top half was made up of six equally spaced glass panels but the one in the lower right-hand corner, nearest to the handle, was broken. The key was still in the lock, covered in fingerprint powder from Paul’s earlier examination.

  ‘Did the neighbour hear the glass being smashed?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ll brief everyone back at the station later,’ said Renshaw haughtily.

  Maggie stalked out of the kitchen before she said something regrettable. Her question about the broken glass was perfectly reasonable, unlike Renshaw’s reaction to it. The new DS’s habit of sharing only the minimum of information outside of the briefing room frustrated the hell out of Maggie and she imagined Renshaw had been the kind of pupil at school who shielded her work with her arm so the kid sitting next to her couldn’t copy it.

  Maggie was almost at the front door when something caught her eye and she stopped. There were more framed photographs on the wall at the foot of the stairs but there was a gap in the middle where one was missing, the wallpaper bordering the empty space noticeably darker.

  She snapped an image of the wall on her iPhone for reference then stuck her head round the sitting-room door.

  ‘Paul, I think a frame’s been taken off the wall out here. Can you have a look?’

  ‘Just the one?’ he said as he followed her into the hallway carrying a small jar of fingerprint powder and a brush.

  ‘Yes. Look, it’s just over here.’

  ‘Perhaps Mrs Cardle removed it to clean it,’ said Renshaw, who’d joined them in the hallway. She clearly didn’t want to acknowledge Maggie might have found something of significance. ‘You could ask her granddaughter, Della, if she knows where it is when you finally get to the hospital,’ she added, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Maggie didn’t rise to the bait and kept her expression neutral as Paul, seemingly oblivious to the tension, painstakingly dusted the inky black powder onto the wallpaper until a partial handprint emerged. He stood for a moment, head cocked to the side as he contemplated the finding.

  ‘I bet it’s the victim’s,’ said Renshaw airily.

  ‘Not based on what I’ve found so far. This,’ said Paul, pointing at the wall, ‘is a bit smaller. I wouldn’t assume it’s hers if I were you.’

  Renshaw looked so furious that Maggie had to turn away so she couldn’t see her smile.

  3

  Della Cardle had never been one to stand out in a crowd, but right now she felt invisible in the same way a homeless person begging for the price of a cup of tea must feel, looking up at the sea of faces dashing past and praying just one kind soul would slow down long enough to catch their eye. Ten minutes she had been waiting outside the room where her nan was being treated but not one of the nurses or doctors who’d bustled past her had stopped to ask if she was okay and needed help.

  She wished her boyfriend, Alex, was with her. He’d have made sure someone stopped, would’ve found out the name of the consultant treating Sadie and he’d have got an update on her condition. But when she’d rung to tell him what had happened, his boss said he couldn’t leave work. Not for someone else’s grandmother.

  A young nurse with hair dyed the colour of a ripe plum bowled past her into Sadie’s room, eyes fixed straight ahead and mind clearly focused on whatever task she needed to execute next. Della raised her hand to get her attention but dropped it just as swiftly as the nurse shut the door firmly behind her.

  Della had been timid for as long as she could remember. While other children excelled at sport or topped the class in maths, shyness had been her chief attainment. Isolating her in the playground back then, now as an adult it thwarted her from applying for jobs she’d be good at given half the chance and stopped her pursuing friendships with people she had enjoyed meeting. The only reason she was with Alex was because he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She’d initially rebuffed his request for her phone number the night they met, in a pub, baffled as to why someone as confident as him would be interested in someone like her. Ten months down the line, although hap
py and in love, she still wasn’t sure what he saw in her.

  You’re being silly, she scolded herself as another nurse, this one older and with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, scurried past. Just stop someone and ask. You need to know how Nan is.

  As the same nurse made her way back, a quaking Della blocked her path.

  ‘Excuse me, can you help me?’ she said.

  The nurse’s expression immediately softened. ‘Are you okay?’

  Della’s eyes brimmed with tears as she shook her head.

  ‘My nan’s in that room and I don’t know how she is. Her name is Sadie Cardle. I didn’t think I could just go in . . .’

  ‘Let me see what I can find out,’ said the nurse, touching Della lightly on the arm. The gesture, though fleeting and infinitesimal through the sleeve of her thick Puffa jacket, made Della want to weep with gratitude.

  The nurse returned in less than a minute.

  ‘Your grandmother is about to be transferred upstairs to HDU. The consultant up there will be able tell you more.’

  ‘What’s HDU?’

  ‘It’s the High Dependency Unit.’

  That didn’t sound good.

  ‘Will you come with me?’ said Della anxiously. ‘I don’t know who the consultant is.’

  The nurse touched her arm again. ‘I’m afraid I’m needed down here,’ she said. ‘But the staff up there are lovely and they’ll look after you.’

  Overcome, Della began to sob. She scrabbled in her pocket for something she could use to wipe her eyes with but all she found was a torn receipt. Embarrassed, she stuffed it back in.

  ‘Your nan is in good hands,’ said the nurse kindly.

  The door to the treatment room flew open and suddenly Sadie was in front of her, laid out on a trolley, a blanket tucked firmly around her stout body and tubes snaking out of her exposed arms. Her face was half covered by a clear, plastic mask.

  ‘Oh, Nan,’ Della whispered, brushing the veins on the back of Sadie’s hand with her fingertips. Her skin was clammy but reassuringly warm.

  ‘We need to get her upstairs,’ said the grim-faced porter at the head of the gurney. ‘Now.’

  With him was the young nurse with the plum-coloured hair. She flashed Della a dimpled smile.

  ‘Hi, I’m Zoe. Do you want to come with us?’

  Della did as she was told, bringing up the rear of the sad little procession as it reached the lifts. Inside, as they headed up to the fourth floor, she caught Zoe’s eye.

  ‘Do you think she’ll be okay?’ Della asked. ‘She’s not going to die, is she?’

  ‘The consultant on HDU will talk to you about your nan’s prognosis.’

  Zoe spoke in an accent that Della recognized as being the local dialect for their part of Buckinghamshire, a lilting hark back to the area’s farming origins. It wasn’t commonly heard any more, not since Mansell’s population had swelled with out-of-towners blending Estuary English with immigrant patois from far-flung continents. But it was how Sadie spoke and in a panic Della wondered if she’d ever hear her nan’s voice again.

  ‘Is she going to die?’ she repeated.

  ‘Let’s get her upstairs and then you can talk to the doctors there.’

  ‘Of course, I’m sorry,’ said Della humbly. The last thing she wanted to be was annoying.

  ‘Don’t be. I’d be asking the same in your shoes. It’s understandable.’

  Della looked down at her grandmother’s inert form and her insides clenched with fear. Zoe was wrong: there was nothing at all understandable about this. Sadie shouldn’t be here, not looking like this. Her grey curls, set every fortnight in her kitchen at Frobisher Road by a mobile hairdresser called Jackie, were hidden from view, swaddled in a tightly wound bandage. Della stared down at her nan’s slackened face and willed her to wake up. Give me a sign, Nan, she prayed, anything to let me know you’re going to be okay. Tell me you’re not going to leave me on my own.

  Sadie was Della’s maternal grandmother and her sole guardian. She and her late husband Eric had raised Della from the age of three; Della had no relationship with her mum and her knowledge of her dad was limited to just his first name. Della was an only child too, as her mother had been, and any extended family on the Cardle side had been snuffed out decades previously: Sadie’s brother was killed during the Korean war of 1950 and Eric’s sister passed away in her twenties before she too could start a family of her own. It was just the three of them, alone.

  Della was eleven when Eric died and the loss of the only father figure she’d known still affected her keenly. The prospect of losing Sadie as well was more than she could bear and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to stop the wail that was building inside her from escaping.

  The lift shuddered to a halt and the doors slowly slid open. Della waited for the porter to push her grandmother out then followed Zoe. Two nurses were waiting for them, poised to spirit Sadie into HDU.

  ‘They need to get her settled, so it’s best you wait in the relatives’ room for now,’ Zoe said as they watched Sadie disappear from view with her new carers. ‘Is there anyone else we can call for you?’

  Della quickly shook her head.

  ‘Are you sure? I don’t mind giving them a ring.’

  ‘Really, it’s fine.’

  ‘What about your parents? Is your nan on your mum’s side or your dad’s?’

  ‘I don’t have any parents,’ said Della quietly.

  Zoe appeared confused for a moment then, with a fleeting look of contrition, gathered herself. ‘Well, let me show you where to wait then,’ she said. ‘It’s along here.’

  She steered Della into a room furnished with two sofas covered in a murky green fabric and the means to make tea and coffee laid out on a table in the corner. The room already had occupants: a middle-aged woman and two teenaged boys talking quietly amongst themselves on the sofa farthest from the door. They had an ease about them that suggested they were regular visitors and made Della wonder about the plight of the patient they’d come to see.

  ‘I’d best get back downstairs,’ said Zoe.

  Della was overcome with anxiety. She’d only met Zoe five minutes previously and already she felt like someone she couldn’t manage without.

  ‘But who do I speak to now? What do I do?’

  Before Zoe could answer, the woman, who’d been eyeing them from the sofa, got up and came across the room.

  ‘Don’t worry, everyone feels a bit lost at first,’ she said. ‘I know I did.’

  She smiled companionably at Della, but she had an air of sadness about her.

  ‘Would you like a cup of tea? Liam will make it, won’t you, Liam?’ she said, nodding to the two teenagers on the sofa, who Della presumed were her sons. The one who looked to be the eldest unwound his lanky frame and lolloped over to the table bearing cups and saucers and two huge urns.

  ‘It looks like I’m leaving you in good hands,’ said Zoe with a smile, and she shot back into the hallway.

  ‘There’s a toilet through there if you need it,’ said the woman, pointing to a door on the other side of the room. ‘I’m Trish, and this is Liam and Leo. Their dad, Tony, my husband, is just down the corridor.’

  Della wasn’t sure how to respond to that but Trish was the chatty type and ploughed on regardless.

  ‘He was in an accident at work. He’s a warehouse manager at the Falkland Depot and he got hit on the head when a pallet fell on him. The silly bugger wasn’t wearing his hard hat.’ Trish sounded like she was trying to be matter-of-fact but her voice caught as she explained that while her husband was badly injured, he was conscious. ‘This is our seventeenth day here,’ she said with a grimace. ‘I think we’re here for the long haul.’

  Della was still at a loss for what to say. It was difficult to find the words to react to someone else’s bad news when her mind was filled with her own.

  ‘At least he’s awake, even if he can’t remember my name,’ said Trish resignedly. ‘Right, I won’t ask you why you’
re here; there’s plenty of time for that later. You drink your tea and we’ll leave you in peace for a bit. I could do with stretching my legs.’

  ‘You don’t have to go on my account.’

  Trish shook her head knowingly. ‘The day Tony was brought in, another family was already in here, “old timers” like we are now. They left us to it as well because they knew the last thing you want or need is a bunch of strangers fussing around you when you’re still in shock. So you have a bit of time to yourself and have a think about what you want to ask the doctors. It’s worth writing down the questions so you don’t forget when they blind you with jargon.’ Trish beckoned to her sons. ‘Right, come on boys, let’s leave – sorry, what’s your name, love?’

  ‘Della.’

  ‘Right, let’s leave Della alone.’

  The room felt huge once they’d gone. Della thought about ringing Alex again but decided it wasn’t fair to badger him and he would get there as soon as he could. He was busy preparing for a presentation later in the week and had been stressing about it. She hadn’t seen him all weekend because he said he’d had to work.

  Alex was the sales manager for an independent car dealership in Mansell. Four years older than Della, who was a month from turning twenty-one, he was ambitious and determined and had his sights set on running the company one day. Della wasn’t anywhere near as motivated and had been happy ticking along as a backroom administrator at a hotel on the fringes of town until Alex decided she should aim her sights higher. Now, under his direction, she was studying for a degree in event management in her spare time through the Open University, even though the thought of hosting events made her sick with nerves. It was bad enough when one of the receptionists was off and she had to fill in on the front desk.

  The cup of tea Liam made was on the table but Della left it where it was. She settled herself on the other sofa but kept her coat on because she couldn’t stop shivering as the shock of the past few hours took hold. In her mind’s eye all she could see was her nan sprawled out on the carpet in a halo of blood. What if it had been any day other than Tuesday? It was the only lunchtime Della popped round to see Sadie during the week, to drop off her favourite magazine, My Weekly. If it had been any other day – how long would she have lain there before someone found her?