He lifted his eyes. ‘She was good to me. For a long time. Her patience ran out. Alyssa’s never did. My angel . . .’ This time, the sobs took him over. Maddie backed away. He slumped onto his side, his head buried in the cushion. Sandra took less than five minutes. Maddie answered some questions. There was no way of flowering them up, of making the truth less harsh. Alyssa Mills was thrown from the back of a lorry by her boyfriend, a man who they now know was under duress at the time and who died too. The man responsible overall was in custody and would never be seeing the outside of a prison cell again — his sister the same. Maddie knew it was scant consolation. She knew it wouldn’t be enough for Sandra and she couldn’t comprehend the impact on Kevin Mills. And at this moment, neither could he.
Maddie and her colleague backed away. Sandra wrapped herself up in her brother. They sobbed together. It was time to leave. Maddie still had another difficult message to deliver. This was one she had insisted on giving. This one was personal.
Chapter 36
Maddie lifted her hand to knock but just rested her knuckles on the cold wood of the door. From Kevin Mills’s address in Langthorne she had taken the short journey up the motorway to Ashford, to Hythe Road specifically. Behind this door was a young boy seeking answers, some of which Maddie now had. But Rose would need answers, too, and not just about the boy who was still in her care.
The door yanked open. Maddie hadn’t made a sound. Someone must have been waiting for her.
Of course it was Rose. She stepped back from her front door, her bottom lip trapped tightly between her teeth. She raised both hands to rest on her cheeks and her eyes welled. Maddie suddenly felt unprepared for Rose. She surely would have heard bits from the media, an officer seriously injured, fighting for her life even and named as DC Rhiannon Davies. It was a big part of the reason why Maddie had insisted that she be the one to come out and that she do it alone. She knew how close they were. It was only right it was her that told her — and before anyone else.
‘She’s going to be okay!’ Maddie broke into a smile and then welled up herself. It was instant, like a wave that pulsed out from her heart. The embrace was crushing. Rose took her up with incredible power. Maddie hugged her right back.
‘Oh, thank you, God! Thank you, God Almighty! I knew it. I knew it, you know! She’s a little fighter that one!’
‘She is.’
‘Can I see her?’
‘She’ll certainly want to see you. She’s still in hospital. She lost a lot of blood and she’s still very weak. They’re still monitoring her fluids and they want her much stronger and clear of any risk of infection before they let people see her or she gets out. It won’t be long, though.’
Maddie felt Rose shake with a sob. She stepped back. ‘Come in! Come in . . . I’ll make tea!’ The standard British response to news, good or bad: someone had to put a kettle on.
‘Great!’
‘And you need to speak to our friend?’
‘I do.’
‘He still hasn’t spoken a word to me. I took a call from your lot. They said something about how he just wasn’t talking because he’d been told not to or something? They said he might be okay now. Do you think he’ll talk to you today? They said you had news about his family?’
‘I do. But I spoke to Anna, the psychologist who came here. She’s been very good, actually. We may have got off on the wrong foot but she does know her stuff. She’s not convinced he will talk. Not straight away. She said he might have found the silence a good way of coping with all this. It may take a while to sink in, but the good thing is, we don’t need him to talk to us now. There’s no pressure. He can take all the time he needs.’
‘Well, that I agree with! I said that to your lot on the phone, I’d like him to stay.’
‘Thank you, Rose. We really can’t think of anyone better.’
‘I said about adoption. Down the line, I mean, if that becomes a need. I don’t know what other family he has, but I’d like him to stay here. I’d like to know he’s getting his childhood.’
Maddie beamed. ‘I thought you were retired, Rose!’
Rose beamed right back then she leaned forward to take hold of Maddie’s shoulders. Her smile dropped away a little. ‘I chose to be a parent as my career, love — a mother. You don’t retire from that!’
This time, Maddie initiated the hug. Both women’s attention was drawn by the creaking of a step. When Maddie looked up she saw a shadow move, then heard footsteps as someone small and light sprinted across the landing.
‘I think he’s looking forward to seeing you,’ Rose said. ‘I’ll put that kettle on.’
Maddie nodded. She sucked in a final gulp of air and started up the steps. Every one creaked. The lighting was poor, just like it had been for her last visit. The same blind was pulled on the window over the stairs. The window in Alex’s room was covered, too. She stopped when she got close enough to see in. Straight away, there was the familiar shape of the boy sat under his duvet. She sat down on the landing.
‘Hey, Alex,’ she said. She was aware her voice was carrying her tension and she took a moment to gather herself. She couldn’t come across as nervous. She had practiced how she could explain what had happened, but her mind was suddenly blank, struggling for a place to start.
‘You remember me, right? We’ve met a couple of times. There’s no one else here, okay? So you don’t need to worry. I won’t come any closer. I just came here to tell you about your brother and sister. Is that okay?’
There was no reaction.
‘They’re both okay. But you have to come out of there for me to tell you more. I don’t even know if you’re awake!’ She chuckled, she reckoning it sounded more natural. There was still no movement. She chewed on her lip. The message she had practiced was focussed on how his brother and sister were okay, about how they might have made mistakes and how they were in custody, but were still trying to piece it all together. How it might turn out that they hadn’t done anything wrong. Now she was sitting in front of him, or at least his outline, she couldn’t say it. It didn’t seem right, she knew what they had done, they had both made full admissions in their interviews, Mark Garner to the point of boasting. She decided on a change of tact.
‘They can’t hurt you, Alex. Not anymore.’ Her words were almost blurted. She held her breath. There was movement, slow at first. She saw the duvet slither off the upright figure and his face was revealed. The light leaking from behind the curtains was enough for her to see some features at least. His hair was longer than she remembered and it was messed up by static. The last time she had seen him clearly it had been stuck down by a clump of dried blood. He was back to being still and silent, his exposed arms resting in his lap as he wrung his hands.
‘We found Michelle first. She told us all about it — all about Mark and how he had got himself involved with some people who were making him do bad things. She told me about your dad, too, Alex.’ Maddie paused. The boy’s head dropped a little, his frizzy hair pointing towards her. ‘About what Mark did. About how you were there. Then Mark told us, too. So you don’t need to tell us about that, you don’t have to talk about it ever again if you don’t want to and no one is going to try and make you. Is that okay?’ Maddie waited for longer this time. Alex sniffed. His head was still slumped forward. She chanced movement, rising to her knees and moving to the edge of the room. His head lifted up to her as she dug in her bag. Making sure her movements were slow and deliberate, she pulled out an empty water bottle. She squeezed it gently and it made a crackling sound. She stood it up in the middle of the room and backed away. She stayed kneeling.
‘Your dad, Alex . . . We found him, too. I think you probably know that he died. I’m so sorry. But there can be a proper funeral now. I want you to know that it is going to happen. We’ll make sure you can go if you want to. I thought you might want to say goodbye . . .’ Maddie was starting to struggle now with not getting any reaction. She didn’t know if she was making things better or wo
rse. His face was still down; he was still silent.
‘I know this is hard. Your family are gone. But Rose, downstairs . . . she really wants you to stay and she really wants it to be for as long as you want. Forever even. You’ll be safe here — and so loved! I don’t know how you feel about that but Rose . . . she’s a wonderful woman. She loves you very much . . .’ Maddie heard another sniff. ‘Do you think that might be something you would like?’
The boy’s head moved so he was looking down towards the bottle in the middle of his floor. He shifted to the edge of the bed, closer to the bottle, still not close enough to touch it. His legs hung over the edge of the bed and he was still slumped forward. She could see the arc in his back. He sniffed again.
‘Rhiannon . . . she’s a friend of mine. She came to see you. She wanted to come back today. She will come and see you again. When she was younger, she lost her family, too, and she came here. And Rose loved her, too. And, my goodness, she still does! Rhiannon wanted me to tell you that you’ll be safe here. She wanted me to remind you that you’re not alone, Alex, no matter what you think. And that they can’t hurt you.’ Maddie spoke out into the room, remembering her conversation with Rhiannon, the concern in her eyes, the sadness in her words when they had talked about this boy.
Suddenly there was movement. The boy had sprung from his bed and he paced towards her. The bottle was kicked over as he moved and it spun against the wall. Maddie was still kneeling. She just had time to raise her arms as the boy made straight for her.
He fell into her, his stick thin arms wrapped around her head at first. She rocked back and the boy reset his grip to hug her midriff. His grip was strong and warm, his head pushed hard into her chest and she could feel his sobs. She steadied herself enough to be able to work her own arms and she hugged him back. She felt herself break, too; the emotion of the past week got the better of them both.
Maddie scrunched her eyes tightly shut. She opened them to the sound of the creaking top step. Rose stood out in the hall.
‘Let’s start with some sunlight shall we!’ Rose said. The hall suddenly erupted in swathes of warm daylight. The boy was still buried in Maddie’s chest but he reacted to the light. Blinking and squinting he looked over towards Rose. ‘Will you stay then, lad?’ Rose beamed. ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, but I would love to have you!’
Maddie felt his grip loosen. The boy was looking at her. She smiled and felt a thick tear run down to her lips. She nodded. The boy ran the distance between her and Rose and, judging by her expression, his grip on her was just as tight.
Chapter 37
Harry was already sitting on the park bench. He had his back to Maddie as she approached. The sun was bright and carried the warmth of an established spring season. The thick-trunked trees that stood in silent formation on the riverbank were now starting to show their colour on branches that leaned out over the meandering water.
‘Hey,’ she called out when she was a few steps short. He dipped forward at the sound of her voice, and when he sat back up he was holding two takeaway coffee cups. He held one out for her to take.
‘Hey.’
‘Now I am worried!’ Maddie stayed standing at the end of the bench.
‘Worried?’
‘First you don’t show for work, then there’s a text asking me to meet you here, but you don’t reply to my follow-up questions.’
‘And there were a lot of those!’ Harry cut in, but his tone was warm, almost jovial.
Maddie relaxed a little. ‘What can I say, I’m a detective.’
‘So I hear.’
‘And now I get here to find you’ve bought me a coffee.’
You make it sound like I never bought you one before.’
‘Never for no good reason.’
She took a seat. The water made a pleasant gurgling sound where it was shallower at the edge. It mingled with the birdcalls and she was almost able to forget that they were in the middle of the busy city of Canterbury. A superstore was visible as a smudge of orange through the branches.
‘I checked the system . . . you don’t have any annual leave booked this week. It shows you as in, actually.’
‘Of course you did!’
‘I’m a detective.’
‘So you said.’
‘What’s going on, Harry?’
‘I got told to stay away for a few days. It’s pretty standard.’
‘Suspended?’ She turned from the nature scene around her to study him. He kept facing forward and her eyes fell on the smudge of scarring across his cheek. She felt her anger rising. The things this man had given for that job and they had suspended him!
‘No. The boss was quick to tell me it isn’t a suspension. The first time he told me I believed him. When he went on to tell me again another two times I started to believe him less.’
‘Why would they suspend you?’
‘They haven’t. Don’t forget that. The boss was very insistent. It’s standard with this sort of thing apparently. He told me that a lot, too.’
‘This sort of thing?’ She was incredulous — like their last seven days was in any way standard.
‘An officer got injured. Seriously injured. I went in alone. I didn’t call the area commander or firearms cadre. Knowing what I knew at the time, I should have sent it up the line for other tactical options.’
‘Rhiannon would have died. We’d never have got anywhere near her.’
‘I agree.’
‘The boss doesn’t?’
‘He didn’t say that and he doesn’t matter.’
‘Did you tell him what you did?’
‘What I did?’
‘I saw the message you sent on Michelle’s phone, Harry. You told Garner that a police officer was going in there to try and fool him. To get close enough to take him out . . . Why would you do that?’
‘I saw an opportunity. He was taking orders from that phone . . . tasks. I needed to get his attention on me and away from Rhiannon. He was never going to believe I was part of the same thing he was. I couldn’t be what he was expecting. I knew he trusted that phone. It was our only chance.’
Maddie failed to suppress a grin. ‘You’re the cleverest stupid person I’ve ever met, you know that?’
‘She nearly died, Maddie. I can hardly say I’m proud.’ The warmth was gone from his voice.
‘She didn’t, though. I don’t see what else would have got that outcome, to be honest. I think you saved her life. And that got you suspended?’
‘I’m not suspended, remember?’
‘Ah yes, you just can’t go to work and you’re on full pay.’
‘There’s more. Another complication.’
Maddie had relaxed a little. She was back to watching two ducks dipping their beaks in the water. Now she stiffened. ‘More?’
‘Why I wanted to talk to you. I was hard on you. Too hard. And I’m sorry.’
‘That’s what this is? An apology?’
‘Well, no. I mean, that’s the apology.’ Harry nodded at her cup.
‘No it isn’t. It’s a hot drink.’
‘Very good. So, yes, this is an apology. I wanted to say you didn’t let anyone down. The whole blundering thing too . . . I shouldn’t have said it. We’re all blundering through life, truth be told. This wasn’t your fault; you shouldn’t have to be looking over your shoulder. Mark Garner was the bad man, not you.’
‘Okay. I did get lax. I could have done things better. I’ve learned lessons. I don’t need you to say—’
‘I wasn’t angry with you. I was angry with me. When you went to follow up your lead at the café, I should have come with you . . .’
‘You went to Maidstone and had it out with a Probation Officer who wasn’t doing his job. It’s no—’
‘I had no right!’ Harry blurted. He came back more measured. ‘I didn’t . . . I was angry Wootan wasn’t going back to prison and I let that guide me. I got nowhere. Then I went to where he lived, I didn’t learn, wh
en I called you . . . I should have called you earlier. I know you would have stopped me.’
‘Okay. But you didn’t. You said yourself, making a mistake can happen, it’s only a problem when we don’t learn from it.’
‘I saw him die, Maddie. And I did nothing. I didn’t just sit outside. I barged my way in. And there was a witness. He was there, too, in the flat — with me.’ Harry paused. Maddie knew he wasn’t finished.
‘They found Wootan’s body in his flat a couple of days ago. He overdosed. He didn’t turn up for an appointment and someone checked his place. They spoke to a few of his associates and someone told a copper that they had seen someone leaving the flat a few days earlier. Old, heavy build, waxed jacket with a scarred face.’
‘You were there? In the flat?’ Maddie breathed.
‘I checked for a pulse. It was weak but it was there.’
Maddie bit down on her lip while she tried to process what she was being told. ‘Is that it?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Is that all they have? Someone loosely matching your description was at the scene of an overdose? Are they going down the ID route?’
‘The point is, I was at the scene. Yes he had already overdosed by the time I got there, but I did nothing. I let him die.’
‘Is that what you told the boss?’
‘Of course not!’
‘So the ID route then? Are they going to prove you were there?’
‘No. This witness isn’t giving anything official. It’s just hearsay.’
‘And are they even looking at foul play?’
‘They certainly weren’t before this witness was located. The report was of someone seen leaving the building, not his specific flat. There’s not enough for it to be called as sus.’
‘But enough for you to be not suspended.’
‘Enough for questions to be asked. If I was ID’d . . .’
‘I would nick you for that,’ Maddie said.
Harry snorted. ‘Of course you would! You’re a detective.’
‘So I’m told.’
‘The boss reckons it’ll go away. The scene tells a pretty clear story. Forensics supports that he injected himself with heroin. The toxicology shows it was enough to take down a bear, let alone a recent release from prison whose tolerance may have dropped away if he didn’t have access inside.’
HE WILL FIND YOU an absolutely gripping crime thriller with a massive twist Page 34
