Blood Tears (22 page)

“
Yep,
sure,” I agreed with a fake mega-smile. “As long as you want to
share a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of tap
water.”

“
Tess.”

“
I’m
sorry, Sarge,” I said, smile fading, embarrassed again today. “I
don’t have much money on me today.”

Or any day, for that
matter.

“
No,
I’m sorry. It was just a joke. I’ll pay.”

“
No,
you won’t.” I smiled tightly. “I’m not hungry.”

“
Bullshit,” he said immediately.

“
I’m
not
hungry,” I insisted. “You have your lunch. I’ll wait for
you here in the car. I’ve lots of messages to catch up on.” And I
took out my phone, the cheapest I could afford, and stared intently
at the screen, pressing buttons, knowing full well I had no new
messages.

With an exasperated
sound, he pulled up in front of a sandwich shop. Ten minutes later
he came back, flipping a wrapped baguette on to my lap, and placing
two juices into the car’s console.

“
God,
it was busy in there. Took forever to be served,” he said
neutrally, unwrapping his own baguette. Tuna and salad, by the look
of it.

“
Sarge! I said I wasn’t hungry.”

“
Just
eat. You’re unbearable when you don’t eat.”

I glared at him. “I
didn’t ask for this. I can’t pay you back until payday.”

“
I
didn’t ask you to pay me back, Tess.”

“
There seems to be a lot of not asking going on in this
relationship at the moment,” I fumed.

“
Doesn’t there,” he replied, equally snippy.

Starving, I reluctantly
unpeeled the wrap from my baguette – chicken salad with avocado –
and munched away, in food heaven. We ate in complete silence and
when we’d finished, he collected our rubbish and threw it in the
nearest bin. I didn’t know why I was finding it so hard just to say
a simple thanks to him, apart from the humiliation of being
eternally broke.

On the way to the
hospital, I asked something that had been burning me. “Am I your
designated personal charity?”

He laughed out loud in
surprise. “No! Why would you even ask that?”

“
You’re always feeding me. I feel like you worry about
me.”

He shrugged casually.
“I like feeding you. And I’ve told you a million times I do worry
about you.”

“
I
can feed myself. And I can look after myself. I don’t need you to
worry about me.”

“
You
can do everything yourself, Tessie. We all know that. But sometimes
it’s nice to let someone do something for you.” He shot me a loaded
glance. “You’re allowed to feel grateful for assistance sometimes.
It’s not a sign of weakness.”

That stung, as I
presumed it was meant to. I had nothing else to say on the way to
the hospital, positive he was thinking I was the most ungrateful
human he’d ever encountered in his life – and he’d been engaged to
Melissa for years, so that was really saying something.

“
Are
you all right?” he asked, puzzled at my silence as we walked
through the hospital to Annabel’s room again.

“
Yep.”

Just before we got to
her ward, we met Mr X and Zelda leaving.

“
Learn much?” asked the Sarge.

“
Enough to be able to track down that boy’s family and let
them know what happened to him. And the social worker is arranging
some accommodation and care for her. That means we can write this
case off as a solve,” said Zelda.

“
Did
you ask what they were doing in our town?” I demanded.

“
They
were teenage runaways, Tess,” explained Mr X patiently. “They were
running away, that’s what they were doing.”

“
Why
were they running away? Who from?” I persisted.

Zelda shrugged. “She
got pregnant, and that wasn’t welcome news in her family. They
wanted her to have an abortion. She wanted to keep the baby. So
they took the only option they thought they had, and ran away.”

“
They
ran out of money, so the kid tried to rob the grocery store,” said
Mr X. “And we all know how that ended. And that’s the end of the
story.”

I stared at them in
disbelief. “What about what they did to Dave? They hijacked him and
stole his money. Annabel had valuable jewellery on her.”

“
Tess, we’re not going to arrest a new mother, especially one
who has just learned that the father of her child was killed. And
she wasn’t the instigator – remember Dave Gatton said she was
crying all the time. And besides, Gatton hasn’t pressed any
charges,” Mr X said. “He got his vehicle back unharmed, and if he
lost a bit of cash, then perhaps he’ll think twice about picking up
hitch hikers in the future.”

Rather incensed by now
at their lackadaisical attitude towards the case, I kept at it,
“But what about that man who came looking for Jamie who said he was
his father?”

“
What
about him?” replied Zelda, impatient with me by now. “It doesn’t
have any impact on what we’re required to do on this case, which is
to identify the boy and inform his family; make sure the girl is
looked after because she doesn’t want to return to her family; and
investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident to ensure it
was an accident. And as we’ve exonerated the truck driver from any
blame, then I’d say tick, tick, and tick. Case is officially
closed.” She looked at her partner. “Come on, X. Let’s go get some
lunch. We’ve still got those witnesses in that new bashing case to
interview this afternoon.”

And with that, she
stalked off down the corridor.

“
Sorry, Tess, but Zelda’s right,” said Mr X, rather more
conciliatorily than his partner. “As far as this case is concerned,
we’ve done everything to bring it to a conclusion.”

The Sarge headed into
the ward, obviously expecting me to follow him. But Mr X laid a
hand on my arm to stop me.

“
Don’t suppose you’ll want to show off your midwifery skills
again when my baby appears?” he said with the hint of a smile. He
turned on his heel and whistling a soft but jaunty tune, strolled
off after Zelda, his hands in his pockets.

I watched him go, but
there was no corresponding smile on my face.

Chapter
15

Annabel was nursing her
baby when we approached her bed. Only her little face was visible
within the swaddling blankets, her eyes closed, tiny lips pursed,
fast asleep.

“
She
just had a feed,” Annabel explained, looking down at her daughter
with painful tenderness, her eyes still red from crying
earlier.

“
Everything going all right in that respect?” I asked,
perching my butt on her bed again, while the Sarge pulled up the
visitor’s chair.

“
Yes,” she said with quiet and modest pride. “It took a few
tries to get the hang of it, but it seems to be okay now. It’s
hard, but I have to try to be strong for her.” A tired tear
trickled from one eye down her cheek. “I just can’t believe that
Jamie will never see her or hold her. He was so excited at the
thought of being a father.”

I took her hand and
squeezed it gently, guiltily thinking that if I hadn’t chased Jamie
that day, then three lives wouldn’t have been so badly changed
forever.

She glanced between us.
“Have you come to ask me more questions? Because I just spoke to
those detectives. I told them everything I could about Jamie and
me.”

“
Annabel, you remember that photo I showed you earlier today
of Jamie?” She nodded. “It, and another one, were given to me by a
man who came into the station asking after him.” She continued to
give me her full attention, but I sensed an immediate stiffness and
wariness showing in her body language. “That man said he was
Jamie’s father.”

“
No.”

“
Are
you sure?”

“
Yes.
He was lying. Jamie doesn’t . . . didn’t . . . have a father.” A
tear from her other eye followed the previous one in tracking down
her cheek. It plopped off her chin, landing on her baby’s face.
Delicately, she wiped it away, the baby too deep in slumber to have
noticed. “His father abandoned his family when Jamie was three.
Nobody in his family has heard from him or seen him
since.”

“
Perhaps it was him, and he’s managed to track Jamie
down?”

“
I
don’t think so.”

“
Did
the detectives show you the other photo of him and
Jamie?”

“
Yes.”

“
Did
you recognise him at all?”

“
No.”

“
Do
you have any idea how he might have got his hands on those photos?
You saw them. They were recent pictures. Jamie wasn’t a
three-year-old in them. It would kind of suggest that he’d been in
contact with Jamie fairly recently.”

“
I
don’t know.” She fixed watery eyes to me. “Am I going to be
arrested for stealing that man’s car and his wallet? I didn’t want
to do it, but I couldn’t walk much further. If I go to jail, will I
lose my baby?”

The tears started
falling in earnest again.

I patted her hand.
“That’s up to the detectives, Annabel. But from what they’ve told
us, and because the man you hijacked hasn’t pressed any charges,
they will let that slide.”

“
Really?” A tiny light of hope shone in her teary
eyes.

“
That’s what they were saying. But it’s not something you
should ever do again.”

“
I
didn’t want to do it in the first place. I feel bad about what we
did to that man, but we didn’t have much money, and Jamie was
worried about me.”

“
Why
did you come to our town?”

“
We
needed to get away from Wattling Bay, and Jamie picked it at random
from the surrounding towns. We thought it was a good distance from
Wattling Bay.”

“
Why
did you need to get away?”

Her eyes dropped to her
baby. “Because of her,” she whispered, leaning down to kiss her
daughter’s feathery hair. “My . . . father . . . was very angry
when he found out I was pregnant.”

“
Does
your family live here in Wattling Bay?”

“
No,”
she said, but she didn’t meet my eyes.

“
Do
you remember where you stayed when you were living in our town? If
you’ve left any personal goods behind, I’m happy to collect them
for you.”

“
I
don’t know. It was some kind of shed or something. I don’t know
where it was.”

“
Have
you thought about trying to reconcile with your dad now that the
baby’s born?” I asked.

“
No!”
she said vehemently, startling her baby awake. Little eyes searched
around frantically. Annabel started comforting her, gently rocking
her back and forth. “I’m never going back there. Never. You can’t
make me.” Her eyes were wild. “I’ll run away again if you try to
make me.”

The baby started
crying, the Sarge shooting me a reproachful glance.

“
It’s
okay, Annabel,” he soothed. “We’re not going to make you. The
social worker will help find some alternative accommodation for
you.”

He stood, and I
followed suit. For some reason, I scribbled my mobile number on the
back of one of the station’s cards and handed it to her.

“
If
you ever need anything, Annabel, please don’t hesitate to ring me.
I mean that,” I said earnestly.

“
Just
go, please,” she requested, her baby’s wailing attracting the
attention of the same nurse who told us to leave
earlier.

“
Not
you two again. Every time you come here, you upset her. Please
leave immediately.”

“
We’re leaving,” assured the Sarge, ushering me out with a
hand on my elbow.

I shook him off as we
walked to the exit.

“
You
upset her,” he said, with deceptive blandness.

“
I
know, and I’m sorry about that. But I can’t shake this feeling that
there’s something hinky going on. She knows more than she’s
telling. I’m positive of it,” I said.

“
Tess, you heard what she said. It was exactly what she told X
and Zelda. What do you think she’s hiding?”

“
I
don’t know,” I said in frustration. “But there’s that whole
question about Jamie’s supposed father. Why isn’t anyone except me
interested in him?”

“
It’s
exactly what Zelda told you. Their job was to identify the dead boy
and let his family know. Their secondary concern was to ensure the
girl would receive adequate care. They’ve done their
job.”

“
But
what about that man?” I demanded stubbornly.

He shrugged as he
unlocked our car. “Perhaps he was Jamie’s father and Annabel just
didn’t want to admit it. She didn’t want to be found by her or
Jamie’s family.”

That made a certain
sense to me, but I couldn’t let it go. “But then, why would he give
me a false name and address?”

“
I
don’t know,” he said, driving from the carpark. “He’s obviously
someone dodgy. Perhaps he wasn’t willing to reveal his identity to
the police, but was still concerned about his son and was trying to
track him down. People can be complex like that. Life isn’t always
black and white.”

It was halfway through
our trip home that I broke the thoughtful silence into which we’d
each fallen.