She raised a hand to wave to the pilot but hesitated as he turned to look at her. His grin was not one of joy. It was only a mechanical grin sculpted on his face by the wind in the cockpit pulling at his cheeks. It did not reach his eyes and it was his eyes that held her. They were like her dad’s eyes as she had seen them when he had first come home from the War. They saw her, but they looked at her as if through a film that allowed through no emotion. They offered her no threat or greeting but only noted her presence as an item in the stream of an existence that flowed before them. Her dad’s eyes had looked like that until, months later, he had begun to believe in life again.
She dropped back, and as she did so the pilot reached down into his cockpit and held up a bunch of papers like the pages of a notebook but without a cover. There was writing on the loose sheets, although she could not see what it was. He waved them vigorously at her with his left hand as if determined that she should see them. He spoke no words to her but there was a message in his gesture.
“I’ve got it,” he signalled to her. “I’ve got it all worked out.”
And with that he turned his head forward and raced off. She did not follow him and in the next instant she was back in Mother’s arms being smothered and rocked and soothed.
“It’ll be all right, my pet. Your dad will be back soon. Please God let him be back soon. You’ll see, it’ll be all right. I’ll not let you go.”
Mother was crying and sister Alice was sobbing, and she looked round at the damp, gritty walls of the ditch and the stagnant mud clogging around Mother’s boots, and suddenly she too felt afraid.
She woke with a cry, her hand grasping in the darkness for the switch on her bedside light and Rani standing with her forepaws on the bed covers whimpering anxiously.
Chapter 31
Aunt Gwendoline decided she was feeling remarkably fresh and alert in spite of her disturbed night. The afternoon tea was Darjeeling, the sandwiches smoked ham and cress and the cakes were fussy angel cakes full of fresh cream from one of her favourite bakeries in town. There were also some chocolate biscuits which Gerard was devouring down to half their number.
“So, continue with your story,” she prompted him. “Dr Brinsley was becoming habitually drunk and Sergeant Chak had told you he was doing so in clubs and bars owned by the Crater gangland family, after which you saw him home.”
Gerard nodded. “I didn’t dare tell Sue about what Sergeant Chak had told me, about how Mark was being a nuisance to the Craters,” he mumbled around a mouthful of cream. "She was in a nervous enough state when I got home and I couldn’t in all conscience scare her right out of her mind. She was standing in the hallway when I arrived back, looking at Aunt Alice’s vase. It seemed almost strange that it should still be there with all the turmoil going on in our lives. Sue didn’t say anything and I went and lay down on the bed for a couple of hours before heading off to my office at the university.
“In hindsight, it was not a good idea not to tell Sue what Sergeant Chak had said to me,” he reflected. "Because it was less than forty-eight hours before Mark and the Craters were back in our life again. Sue and I were asleep in bed when we were both woken by the sound of a car engine revving its way along our road. We both sensed something was wrong as the car’s tyres screeched in a tight turn and the noise of the motor drew up outside our house. There was a brief sound of running footsteps followed by a short hammering on our front door, then a car door slammed and the engine roared away again. It was just after one thirty.
"Sue was immediately hysterical. Lights went on in a couple of the neighbours’ windows but it was clearly us who had been the focus of the attention.
"‘Don’t open it,’ she screamed as I went to unlock the door.
"I looked out, and at first I could see nothing except a couple of neighbours standing in their front doors in their dressing gowns. Then I heard a faint groan in the darkness and made out what looked like a heap of old clothes trying to get up. It was Mark. He was bloody about the nose and face and had obviously been damaged in other places too. He was vomiting furiously. His clothes were muddy and he tried to stand, but he couldn’t manage it and collapsed back on the ground groaning loudly.
"‘Call an ambulance,’ I shouted to Sue.
"I tried to calm Mark as best I could and Sue brought out my coat and some blankets to cover him.
"‘I’ll get some clothes on and then you can get dressed while I watch him,’ she said. ‘You’ll need to go with him in the ambulance and I’ll follow in your car.’ I was surprised how calm she was.
"I had just finished pulling on some clothes when an ambulance and the police arrived. I told them the victim’s name was Mark Brinsley and the police officers nodded knowingly and reported the information straight away. They then started knocking on neighbours’ doors, much to the annoyance of those who had only just got back to bed. Nobody had seen anything, of course. Meanwhile the ambulance people loaded Mark on to a stretcher and drove off with lights flashing and sirens waking up anyone who might have missed the excitement.
"I did not go with Mark in the ambulance. Sue drove me to the hospital about half an hour later. I was pleased to have her with me even though we travelled in silence. By the time we arrived, Mark had been processed and dealt with through Accident and Emergency and was on a trolley waiting to be wheeled to a bed in one of the observation wards. Various tests had been ordered but Mark himself was asleep or unconscious, presumably sedated, and was looking a lot cleaner for all the attention he had received. He still smelled strongly of whisky but even so he managed to give the appearance of the innocent asleep in angelic repose. It was unbelievable how untroubled he looked. One of the doctors came and gave us what sounded like an extraordinarily long list of significant injuries he had sustained, and ended by saying they would know more after the radiologist had examined the x-rays. Sue had still not said anything.
“‘Let’s find a coffee,’ I suggested, and under the unforgiving lights of the hospital cafeteria I told her what Sergeant Chak had told me the previous day.”
Chapter 32
"‘Why didn’t you tell me earlier?’ she asked calmly.
"‘Because I didn’t want to scare you,’ I replied.
"‘Scare me?’ she repeated, and I could see she was very near to tears. ‘I am already scared, Ger, scared out of my mind. What do you think I have been trying to tell you these past few weeks? I’ve been scared witless. I knew something like this was going to happen. Ger, what have you dragged us into? You realise you’re next, don’t you?’
"‘Don’t exaggerate, Sue, I’m nothing to the Craters. I am simply Mark’s friend.’
"‘Then why did they dump him on our front doorstep?’ she demanded.
"‘Because they are looking to you to help them solve their little problem. Hello, Gerard, Sue.’ Sergeant Chak sat down beside us with his coffee. ‘Well, I did tell you that Mark Brinsley was due for a warning,’ he smiled ruefully. ‘And now they’ve given him one.’
"‘It was quite a beating,’ I agreed.
"‘No it wasn’t. It was just a light dusting.’
"‘It looked pretty severe to me,’ I argued.
"‘That’s because you have never seen a really good kicking delivered by the likes of the Billy Crater. If they had really intended to do your friend damage he would at this moment be in intensive care fighting for his life, not in an observation ward. He would have bones broken all over his body, his hands would have been mashed, his skull fractured, his spleen would be ruptured and most likely his liver as well, and his kidneys would have been split open from the outside. He would have been lucky to come out of it only paraplegic. Believe me, he got a light dusting, that is all. And he was not dumped out in the middle of a park to freeze to death overnight. He was brought to a place where it was known he would get immediate care and attention, namely to your doorstep. I’m sorry, Gerard, but he has now received the warning that I was afraid was on its way to him. He had better take notice o
f it.’
"‘And we’re part of it,’ said Sue.
"‘Only indirectly,’ he replied. ‘You are obviously Mark’s friends and so by leaving him with you the Craters are telling you that if you don’t look after him, then next time they will. It’s a friendly gesture on their part.’
"‘That’s not how I would describe it,’ I answered. ‘It’s bloody scary.’
"‘And it’s not over yet,’ Sue added quietly.
"‘Why do you say that?’ asked Sergeant Chak.
"She did not answer.
"‘Was it Billy Crater who beat him up?’ I asked.
"‘No. It was just a couple of employees from the Purple Heaven nightclub. Your friend tanked up in one of the Craters’ other clubs before going on to the Purple Heaven where he demanded to see the boss. The bouncers recognised him, of course, but they had their orders to treat him gently so after some argument they called the manager.
"‘That’s not who I want,’ your friend argued, ‘I said the boss, the man in charge, Mr Crater no less. I want to see Mr Crater.’
"When informed that Mr Crater was busy and not available, your friend insisted that he wanted to make an appointment.
"‘What business do you have with Mr Crater?’ he was asked.
"‘That is between me and Mr Crater,’ he replied. ‘I want him to look me in the eye while I tell him what pigs his sons are and what they did to my wife. He owes me that. That’s what I want, to have him look me in the eye while he hears it from me what his sons did, and he owes me the opportunity of telling him. You tell him that. And if he doesn’t let me tell him to his face then I’ll keep on telling the whole world, and everyone will know what cowardly pigs his sons are. You tell him that too. And after I’ve told him, then I’ll go away. But not before. Once I’ve told him to his face and seen him look me in the eyes while I tell him, then I’ll go away. So, make sure you tell him that too. That’s what business I have with Mr Crater, now when is my appointment?’
"And with that he asked for another drink, which was refused. By this time he was shouting, getting very red in the face, and threatening to upset the enjoyment of all the other customers in the club, whereupon the manager nodded to the bouncers and Mark was taken out the back door, lightly dusted over and delivered to your doorstep.
"‘You have very good information about what happened,’ commented Sue.
"‘The Craters are of special interest to us,’ he replied.
"‘Is anybody going to be charged with Mark’s assault?’ I asked.
"‘Our information isn’t that good.’
"Sue put her head down into her coffee and I saw her shiver. ‘I’ll go and wait in the car,’ she said, and drifted off.
"‘None of this sounds the remotest bit like Mark to me,’ I shrugged after a pause. ‘It’s just not like him to be aggressive and confrontational, at least not under normal circumstances. Tell me, Sergeant, why wasn’t the evidence to convict Billy and George Crater allowed in court? That’s the issue that’s bugging Mark. If he could only have seen some accounting for what they did to his wife, he wouldn’t be like this now. He feels immeasurably let down by the entire system that is supposed to deliver us a sense of justice when we have been wronged, especially wronged like he has been. You seemed so certain about getting a conviction. All the evidence was there, you said, and it was irrefutable according to what you told us. And we believed you. So why did it all fall apart?’
“‘It’s a sore point,’ he answered, shifting uncomfortably.”‘You’re right, we did have the evidence, good, solid forensic evidence, not based on the testimony of frightened witnesses. We had enough evidence to convict them both twice over on rape, assault, murder plus a whole lot of lesser charges if we wanted to.’
"‘So what went wrong?’
"‘The decision was made high up near the end of our investigations that the case should be handed over to the Major Crime Division, and in court the defence counsels were able to argue that, in the handover, the chain of evidence was broken. Major Crime were not able to demonstrate that the evidence they wanted to present against the Craters was the same evidence that we had collected at the crime scene and handed over to them. We don’t agree. As far as we are concerned we can identify every scrap of it through every step of the way into court, but the Prosecution was not able to carry the argument against the massively expensive briefs the Craters employed. As a result, none of the evidence could be used.’
"‘In other words, someone goofed,’ I summarised.
"‘My team did not goof. We were rock solid,’ he responded angrily. ‘As I said, it’s a sore point. We don’t like losing either.’
"‘You’re not on duty at the moment, are you?’ I said to him.
"‘No,’ he confirmed. ‘I got a call from one of my team at the station and came straight here.’
"‘Your wife couldn’t have been very happy about that,’ I suggested.
"I was thinking of Sue waiting in our car.
"‘Divorced,’ he replied. ‘It’s an occupational hazard. But I do have two lovely kids and their mother and I still get on very well, so there’s no conflict. It was just that being a policeman’s wife is a job she couldn’t live with, so it was better we lived apart.’
"I did not have any real argument with him. Right from the start he had been hugely supportive and a friend, and I could see he was as frustrated as we were by the turn of events.
“‘Thanks, Sergeant,’ I sighed. ‘Thanks for coming in.’”
Chapter 33
"I went up to the ward to find Mark clean and comfortable in his hospital bed, and conscious.
"‘I did tell you,’ I began. ‘I don’t know whether you remember it because you were still more than half cut at the time, but I did tell you. Sergeant Chak said you were headed for a beating and now you’ve had one. So, now will you listen? It’s got to stop, Mark. You can’t go on getting drunk and worrying the Craters like this. You were lucky that this time they decided not to bury you without trace, but next time they might think differently. And it’s not just you that’s involved, it’s me and Sue too. You are putting us at risk too simply because we are your friends, or trying to be, and that’s not right. Take the warning, Mark. Take it and let this drunken madness go. It’s not going to bring Janet back and the police have not given up on the Craters. They will eventually get them for something. So, let them get on with their job and you get back to your own life, for all our sakes.’
"He didn’t look at me. He just remained still and quiet, propped up on his mound of pillows, but then I suppose he was probably stiff and sore all over. All he could manage was a smile and it was not an easy smile given the bruising to his face and the stitches in his upper lip, but I’m convinced it was real.
"‘You’re right, Gerry,’ he wheezed at last, trying not to move his mouth too much. ‘It is time to bring it all to an end.’
“It seemed a very strange way of putting it but it was the answer I wanted. Aunt Gwendoline, are you all right?”
Aunt Gwendoline tensed in her chair. The silver and black skyfire was shimmering in front of her, exploding and burning, breaking and crackling silently in the middle of her sitting room in the space between her and her grand-nephew. She could feel its heat and she was afraid she might pass out as she watched three bright stars fly from it, waving and flailing in agony, getting brighter as they fell until they seemed to explode silently in mid-air and disappear into blackness before reaching the ground. At that moment the noise of a biplane screamed overhead and cracked the air around her. She winced with the pain of it, the shock of it hammering her into her chest, and she panted momentarily with the fear it spread in its wake. And then it was gone and all was quiet, and she became aware of Rani standing up against her, whimpering and pawing at her leg. She put her hand down to reassure her and heard Gerard’s voice once again.
“Aunt Gwendoline? Aunt Gwendoline?”
“Yes, I’m all right. Would you be a dear boy and get a
glass of water for me?”
“Yes, of course.”
He hurried out to the kitchen. His hand shook and the glass rattled against the tap as he filled it. He was having difficulty breathing too. He had never seen her in such a state. He rushed back to the sitting room and was relieved to see she was still breathing and not collapsed or fallen out of her chair.
“Thank you, dear boy,” she said as she took the glass.
Her colour returned, and with it the cosiness and security of her sitting room. Gerard allowed himself to take a deep breath.
“Aunt Gwendoline, are you sure you are all right?” he asked. “I kept you up very late last night and the night before. I can finish my story another day if you’d rather. There is not much more to tell and it will keep. It’s all just history now anyway.”
“I am quite all right,” she reassured him. “It was just one of my turns. Old people get them, you know, and by the time you have reached my age you feel yourself perfectly entitled to the occasional dizzy spell if you feel like one. But we get over them. You must finish your story for me. My late sister Alice’s vase is still intact and I need to know the exact circumstances under which it met its end. I insist on it.”
Gerard watched her cautiously, and helped her as she rearranged herself in her chair. “Very well, if you are sure you are not too tired,” he queried.
“Continue,” she instructed.
Chapter 34
“There really is not much more to tell,” he sighed. "I drove home with Sue and she was very quiet. Apart from a ‘how was he?’ she said nothing more for the rest of the night. I told her I had read Mark the riot act again and that he had said he really was going to behave himself from now on. She didn’t believe it and I don’t think I did either, but I didn’t feel that there was anything more I could do. With Mark tucked up in hospital we could at least get a couple of hours uninterrupted sleep before facing work the next day, and probably get a few nights of completely undisturbed rest while he recovered.
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