Tooth and Claw

by Oliver Davies

  “Where have you been? Why’re you calling me now? Not that I’m not happy, God I’m so happy to hear from you, but- Darren, you’re not ill, are you?”

  “No! No, nothing like that. I’m fine, I just… I guess the past has been coming up a lot recently, and I wanted to talk to you.”

  “I’m happy you did,” she said, sounding genuinely overwhelmed.

  “You’re not angry?” I asked, aware that I sounded like a child expecting to be scolded but unable to stop myself from asking. “When I refused to talk to you back then-”

  “You were so young and angry and hurting when your dad passed, love.” There was a beat of silence. “If I’m hurt about anything, it’s that you never called me during all those years in the middle. Where have you been? I’ve thought of you every day, wishing I knew where you were.”

  “I’m sorry, Mum.” I swallowed thickly.

  “Come and see me, will you? Or I can drive to see you. I couldn’t bear it if another ten years pass after this without me hearing from you. You hear me, Darren?”

  “I hear you. I’ve- I mean, I’ve got nothing on today,” I stammered out.

  The thought of seeing my mum again after so long was as tempting as it was painful. After hearing her voice, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to hug her tight. And yet the reality of what we’d say to each other after all this time made my stomach twist into knots. But she still wanted to see me, even after all these years of silence, and that was enough.

  “I haven’t moved. I’m at the same old address, so you come on by anytime you like, okay?” She paused. “I don’t even know where you are in the country.”

  I gave a short laugh at that. “I couldn’t leave Yorkshire, Mum, not for long. If you’ll have me, then I can be over at yours this afternoon.”

  “So close by, and you never came to see me?” she said, the hurt in her voice making me wince.

  “I guess I- I got tangled up in work, and I tried to forget it all, to leave everything. I’m sorry. That’s a poor excuse. I didn’t know if you’d even want to talk to me when I called today.”

  “Don’t be daft,” she said, and I huffed a laugh.

  “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too, love. I can’t say that I understand why you stayed away so long. You really hurt me, Darren, but you’re my boy. You’ll always be that.”

  She cleared her throat, her voice thick with emotion. She’d never been one for tears or dramatics when I was a lad, and it stung to hear her sound so choked up now.

  “Thanks, Mum.”

  She sounded more like her normal self as she said more briskly, “You can thank me by coming to see me, alright? I’ll make us some tea, and we can have a proper catch-up about what you’ve been doing with your life.” She chuckled quietly. “I have oodles of questions, love, but I’ll save ‘em until you’re here.”

  “I’ll look forward to it,” I said honestly.

  Nervous and excited at once, I called Stephen up as I got ready to leave. He came up on video call with a local park and his two kids in the background, but he assured me that he could spare a few minutes. So he patiently listened to me ramble about, talking to my mum for the first time in years, a slight smile on his face as I filled him in. I was slightly breathless by the time I’d finished and realised how fast I must have been talking.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just- I guess I was struck by the urge to talk to her today, but I hadn’t planned it at all. What you said came to mind, and well…” I trailed off with a vague gesture indicating what had come of it all.

  “I’m happy you called her, mate, seriously,” he said warmly.

  The sun was bright behind Stephen, so I could only really see an outline of him, but I could tell by his voice alone how much he was smiling, and that made me smile too. Honestly, the call with my mum had gone about as well as I could’ve imagined or better, and now that I was starting to get over the shock, I was buzzing with anticipation to see her.

  Still, I hadn’t forgotten that one of the reasons why I’d contacted her now was in hopes of furthering the case. There was no guarantee in the slightest that she had even known about my dad being involved in dogfighting at the time, let alone that she would remember it now, a decade on. Still, like Stephen had said, I had to give it a go.

  “I’ll ask her about the case, too,” I assured him, my phone held in front of me as I continued the video call whilst moving around my apartment, getting ready to leave.

  “Don’t stress that too much, man.”

  Surprised, I paused what I was doing for a moment. “Why not? It was you who suggested that she might know something about my dad’s involvement.”

  “Yeah, I know I did, and I still think it’s possible,” he said, and then paused.

  “I sense there’s a ‘but’ coming,” I prompted.

  He huffed a sigh. “Don’t jeopardize this new relationship with your mum over the case, Mitch. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “What d’you mean? How would I do that?”

  “She might not want to talk about your dad or the past, so don’t push too hard. That was all I meant, mate. Let’s not argue about it.”

  I bit back a sharp retort and nodded into the phone. “Aye, alright, I hear you. I wasn’t planning on, like, driving her away anyway, but yeah, I’ll be careful. I’m not that hopeful that she’ll have much information to offer me even if she does want to talk about it.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Stephen agreed.

  We talked back and forth for a short while longer, moving away from the topic of my mum for a while.

  “What’re you going to do the best of the-? Oh, wait, my kid’s fallen over, give me a sec.”

  Stephen’s camera went shaky as he headed over to look after his son, and I smiled faintly. I didn’t have a burning desire to be a father at this point in my life, but seeing Stephen being a dad always made me fond. He was so much more involved and interested in his kids than my own dad had been, and I couldn’t imagine a better way to raise children.

  After Stephen got his son sorted out, we talked for a little longer, but it was clear that his kids were calling for his attention, and I let him go.

  “Thanks for listening to me prattle on,” I told him wryly.

  “Anytime,” he said with a cheery grin before hanging up.

  I smiled and dropped my arm from where I’d been holding up my phone, tucking it away into my jean pocket. I was nearly ready to head out to go and see my mum in person for the first time in far too long, and my stomach felt like it contained a whole butterfly farm’s worth of fluttering worry. But the excitement was still there, too, as well as my determination to at least ask my mum whether she knew anything that might help the case. Maybe she didn’t know or wouldn’t want to tell me when she found out that I worked for the police, but I could give it a shot. Today had at least told me that having a go at something, even something as daunting as calling my estranged mum, was better than failing to try to putting it off for another interminable year.

  After all, things might turn out better than I hoped.

  Sixteen

  Despite spending a good part of my weekend driving over to see my mum, not once but twice, I felt buoyant and refreshed when I came into work on Monday.

  “You’re looking chipper,” Stephen noticed immediately, his lips tilted into an amused smile.

  I rolled my eyes at him and headed off to make myself some coffee, not that I even felt like I needed the caffeine this morning. Stephen happily accepted the huge mug of tea I made for him, too, and we sat quietly at our desks for as long as it took for Stephen’s curiosity to get the better of him.

  “So?” he prompted.

  “So what?” I grinned.

  “You know exactly what I mean. How was it with your mum? I’m guessing it wasn’t awful since you’re, like, glowing.”

  “Gee, thanks, mate,” I laughed. “No, it wasn’t awful. It was pretty damn good, actually. I guess I didn’t realise how mu
ch I missed her until I was there.”

  He reached out to rub my shoulder, moving his hand slowly enough that I could see it coming. I gave him a slight smile.

  “I’m glad it worked out,” he said.,

  “Aye, I should probably thank you for giving me a wee nudge, right?”

  “I’m always right,” he said with a grin, tapping the side of his nose. His expression slipped into something more serious after a moment, and I raised my eyebrows in a wordless question.

  “Did you ask her, y’know, about the case?” he asked awkwardly.

  I sighed, leaning my chin on my elbow. “I did, aye. She didn’t mind me asking, thank God, but she didn’t have much for us. She knew that he was up to a bunch of illegal stuff, and she wanted nothing to do with it.”

  “Understandable.”

  “Yeah, so she didn’t know much about it, she said. She seemed right shocked when I mentioned dogfighting.”

  “Nevermind. It still worked out for the best, and we’ll find some other lead to look into.” He sent me a sideways glance. “Did you tell her that you’re in the police, by the way?”

  “Aye, but not till after I’d asked about the case,” I admitted, a flush of heat rising in my cheeks. “A bit sneaky, I know, but I-”

  “You didn’t want her to hide anything because you were a police detective,” Stephen finished, giving me a nod to show that he understood. I’d been slightly concerned that he’d disapprove of my selective truth-telling with my own mum, but he seemed to get it.

  “I shouldn’t have worried. She didn’t seem to mind me being in the police at all.”

  “Makes sense, really. She left your dad to get away from anything illegal, right?”

  Left me too, I thought reflexively before grimacing and dismissing the thought.

  “Aye, she’s doing good now. Got a new partner and a solid job.”

  “I’m happy for you, Mitch, really,” he said with a warm smile.

  “Alright, enough soppiness,” I decided, waving my hand. “Got any ideas for our next steps?”

  “Not really, if I’m honest.”

  “That’s a real help, thanks a bunch.” I rubbed a hand through my hair, which was still damp from the post-run shower I had before work. “If you’ve got no better ideas, I thought it would be worth a shot to try to chase up whoever rammed their car into Freddie’s. What d’you think?”

  “I mean, I think LACS were looking into it, too, but-”

  “We’ve got more resources, and they’re not trained as detectives, are they?” I countered.

  Stephen lifted his eyebrow in an unimpressed expression. “If you’d let me finish, I was going to say that it sounds good to me. We can call Ross to give her a heads up and see if they’ve made any progress.”

  “Exactly. Will you do that? While you do, I’ll have a nose around the database for the report. LACS must have filed one after it happened, and it’ll be around somewhere.”

  “Sure, we can see which officer handled it and have a chat with them.”

  I agreed with a firm nod, and we got to our respective tasks. It didn’t take too long before I managed to dig up the report that Ross and Snell had filed with the police about the incident, giving us the details of what had happened.

  Stephen was still on the phone with Ross, making diligent notes as she talked on the other end, so I moved on to searching for any CCTV that might help us. Ross or someone else from LACS might have been investigating the incident, but they didn’t have access to the roadside cameras, not unless they’d contacted another member of the police to give them access.

  I frowned slightly at the idea, hoping that they would contact us first if they needed anything like that, since we were already involved in the case and more than ready to help out. Still, they might have pre-existing contacts in the police that I didn’t know about, and there was no point troubling myself with something that might not even be a problem. If they seemed to be reluctant to share information with us, I could talk to Rashford about it later and make sure that we were all on the same page.

  Going back to the police report, I sighed when I saw that Freddie had only given a vague description of the car that hit him. In his statement, he’d described how the car had seemed to come out of nowhere, sending his car spinning before he could even see what had hit him. What he had given us was a precise record of the route he’d driven and a location for exactly where the hit-and-run had happened, so it was that I focused on as I brought up the CCTV for the area.

  There hadn’t been any witnesses that we knew about, so CCTV was our biggest hope for finding out who had landed Freddie in hospital. Unfortunately, the place where he’d been hit was on the backroads of York, and I hissed out a disappointed breath through my teeth when I saw that there were no cameras focused on the exact intersection where the ‘accident’ had taken place.

  “No good?” Stephen asked, startling me. I got so absorbed in my work that I hadn’t realised he was done with talking with Ross.

  “Not yet, but tell me what Ross said first.”

  “Not too much to say, really. She and another of her colleagues gave it a good go trying to find out who did this, but they didn’t have much luck. She doesn’t have access to local CCTV, of course, so she told me to remind you to do that.” Stephen sounded slightly amused at that, and I knew why.

  “What did she think I was going to do? Consult an oracle and hope that the answers came to me in a dream?”

  He gave a snort of laughter. “I don’t know, mate, you can take that up with her. She seems like the kind of person who takes thoroughness to the next level, as far as I can make out.”

  “Aye, I got that impression, too. Which makes it all the more worrying that their operation didn’t work out, doesn’t it? Did we even ask Snell exactly what it was that broke his cover?”

  “Now that you mention it, I don’t know that we did. It might not have been either of their faults, though. Maybe it was an underling’s fault, or one of the dogfighters got too nosy.”

  “We should ask them,” I decided.

  Stephen huffed out a breath. “You couldn’t have told me that before I called her?”

  “That’d ruin the fun of annoying you,” I snarked before giving a dismissive wave of my hand. “It’s not urgent right now, anyway. We can follow it up later. I’m going to keep looking into this CCTV and see if I can find anything relevant to help us.”

  “And I’ll contact an oracle in case that doesn’t work out?” Stephen teased.

  I swatted him lightly on the shoulder. “No, you pillock. You can go fetch me more coffee,” I said with a grin. It was just too damn fun to wind him up, and well, I could always do with a new cup of coffee.

  “What am I, an intern?” he grumbled, but got up, regardless. He pointed a finger at me when he saw my grin and gave me a faux-stern look. “I’m only going because I want some tea, so don’t get your hopes up. I might end up making you a frothy latte with extra sugar.”

  I grimaced at just the thought of ruining a perfectly good cup of coffee like that, and Stephen snorted with laughter.

  “I know you too well, Mitch,” he said, clearly pleased with himself.

  “Suddenly, I’m regretting all my life choices so far,” I said dryly. “And if you know me so well, you should know to leave my coffee well enough alone, Stephen Yves Huxley.”

  “Ouch, no need to bring my middle name out like that. That’s uncalled for.”

  “Threatening to mess with my coffee is uncalled for, so watch it,” I huffed.

  “You’re scary, real scary.”

  He patted my shoulder cheerfully before ambling off towards the break room. He even had the audacity to whistle as he went, and my pretence at a grumpy frown cracked into a snort of amusement. I shook my head wryly and made myself get back to work while I waited to see whether Stephen really would bring me back a milky coffee monstrosity.

  With the CCTV for the actual hit-and-run coming up as a no-go, I did what I usua
lly did when faced with a scarcity of evidence and worked backwards. We were lucky that Freddie Snell had given us a detailed route of the route he’d taken to end up where the so-called accident had happened. I could use that to try to spot the car that had slammed into him. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d forgotten the route he’d taken, especially since he’d taken a hefty knock to the head, but he’d said in the report that he’d been heading to a nearby farmer’s market, and he drove the same route every time.

  Using the journey he’d marked in biro on a map, I checked every CCTV camera along the roads he’d travelled along. I obviously couldn’t troll through every piece of footage for the day it’d happened, but focusing my search around an estimated time span helped greatly.

  “Here you are, boss,” Stephen said, making me jump for a second time today. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” He pulled an apologetic grimace.

  “If you’ve got me a decent coffee, I’ll forgive you,” I said lightly, taking the chunky mug he’d offered me.

  He blew out an exaggerated breath of relief. “Guess I’m off the hook then, aye?”

  “Guess you are,” I agreed once I’d seen the almost-black colour of my usual toxic-strength coffee in the giant mug, which easily contained enough caffeine to send a mammoth into heart palpitations. I grinned and took a blissful sip.

  “You’re weird. Anyone ever told you that?” Stephen teased.

  “Only a few times every hour. And there’s nothing weird about appreciating the beans in their purest form.”

  “Mate, I’ve tried your coffee, and it tastes like jet fuel, swear to God. Definitely weird.”

  “Oh shut up, leave me to drink my poison in peace,” I tossed back as I returned my attention to my computer monitor.

  I hadn’t been trawling through the camera footage for long, but I was hopeful that we’d find something useful, eventually. Freddie might’ve said that the car that hit him came from nowhere, but unless his attackers owned a flying car ala Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Harry Potter, it had to have come from somewhere. And that meant that it could be tracked down. The UK came in third in the world for countries with the most CCTV cameras, so it was the law of averages that this car would have been caught on one of them.