High-Wired (4 page)

‘We used to go to a lot of social events when Kenneth was working in Scotland,’ Lauren explained, half-apologetically. The children’s bedrooms were like those on TV adverts, and the spare rooms were also immaculate. In silence, they headed back downstairs.

‘What’s through here?’ asked the inspector, indicating what looked like another front door that led off a very spacious utility room.

Lauren sighed and muttered, ‘That’s the granny annexe which Kenneth decided we needed for when his mother comes to live with us.’ Her face was a mask of inscrutability, and Olivia couldn’t help herself.

‘You don’t look as if that’s something you want to happen anytime soon.’

‘Well … I don’t want it to happen. Ever. To be honest, I want things to be like they were, when the children attended the small local school, and we didn’t have Gerda around all the time.’

‘No chance of that, I suppose?’

‘None whatsoever. Kenneth wouldn’t countenance the children going to the local comprehensive, and Gerda cleans and cooks as well as babysitting. He said that as long as I work, then we need her – and that his mother has bad arthritis, and will need somewhere small and self-contained with help at hand should she need it.’

‘Where does Gerda sleep?’

‘In a small apartment in the attic area.’

‘Lock her in. I dare you.’ Olivia was feeling defensive of her new friend, and felt that she really had on golden handcuffs. If she gave up work, she’d still have to live here, and her mother-in-law would no doubt be installed sooner than she would, if the mistress – supposed – of the house was working full-time.

As the inspector looked about her, not in envy but with the thought that she preferred her own homely cottage, Lauren spoke again. ‘Thank you so much for last night. I don’t know when I’ve had more fun. Can we do it again in the not too distant future?’

‘If you’re really good, I’ll take you to one of Hal’s band’s gigs.’ Woah! She didn’t want to become haunted by her sergeant, although Lauren would be welcome as a friend. And it had been fun to play the flute with someone about as inept as she was. F sharps and B flats were best described with the full swear words in front of them, the way they had played the night before.

That said, she did love playing the recorder, and had just been treated to an alto sax for her birthday by Hal, in the hope that, one day, she might play with the band. She wondered if Lauren would agree to get herself a sax, so that they could learn together. It really helped, in their job, to have something that totally engaged and saturated the mind, and took it off all the desperate scenes they had to view.

‘Come back to ours for lunch,’ she offered. ‘I’ve got a proposition I want to put to you.’

‘That sounds very mysterious.’

‘Just wait till we get back. There’s something I want to ask you that you may find interesting.’

Lauren had instantly agreed to purchase a saxophone. It was something she had thought about, in a vague sort of way, now and again, but this gave her a solid excuse to buy one, and the thought of having someone to learn with was great. This ‘instant’ friendship had brought home to her just how lonely she was when she wasn’t on duty.

They took the ring road to the office, and Olivia had a bright flash of memory back to when the only way through the town was via a swing bridge over the river. The building of this alternative route had been a blessing, but one that was now no longer valued as it had been, due to the monstrous sprawl of housing that spread across what had been agricultural land to the north, all the way to the downs.

The road was now very busy with all the extra traffic, and often completely blocked, as it was now. They sat in the queue, looking around them for some sort of diversion. A single field which a local grower had refused to give up drew Lauren’s attention, and she pointed out the lone figure in the middle of it. ‘That’s a bit of a tatterdemalion tattybogle, don’t you think?’ she asked.

‘A
what
?’ queried Olivia. ‘I can tell you’ve lived in Scotland.’

‘Sorry. A very tatty scarecrow.’

‘A scarecrow? At this time of year?’ said Olivia, looking in the direction that Lauren was. Suddenly she braked and stopped the car, manoeuvring it into the gateway to the field and out of the barely moving flow of traffic. ‘What are you doing?’ queried her passenger.

‘That scarecrow’s moving, if my eyesight doesn’t deceive me.’

Lauren squinted into the distance. ‘Are you sure it’s not just the clothes being blown by the wind?’ she asked.

‘The clothes seem to be bound to the body. Come on. We’re going to take a look,’ decided Olivia, getting swiftly out of the car and opening the gate.

She was right, and as they neared the figure, they could see that it was, in fact, human, and was making weak movements to try to draw attention to itself. ‘Good God! Who on earth would do a vile thing like that?’

When they reached the figure, they could discern that it was, or had been, a youth. His eyes were blacked and swollen, there was the imprint of the toe-cap of a boot on his forehead, his nose was broken, and he had some teeth missing.

‘It looks like he’s taken a hell of a beating,’ Hardy said. ‘Phone for assistance as quickly as you can. Oh, and from now on, we’d better not use first names. Back to Sergeant, and Inspector or ma’am.

‘Ambulance on its way, CSI team being scrambled, ma’am,’ replied the DS in her most formal tone.

‘CSI? What happened to SOCO teams?’

‘Gone. Swept away in the rush for keeping up with the times, I suppose.’

‘Bugger. Can’t they leave anything alone? It’s going to be all right, son,’ she finished softly, putting up a hand to the figure bound on the cross of wooden poles. ‘Sergeant, go to the car and look in the boot. There should be a tool kit in there, and maybe you can find a pair of pliers to get rid of some of these wires. The blood supply to his hands is all but cut off.’

Groves scurried across the field to search for the tool, but before she had returned, they could hear the siren of an approaching ambulance. The station wasn’t far away, and they were arriving in double-quick time. Arriving back at the inspector’s side, the DS handed over the pliers, as the ambulance was trying to park, and Hardy began to cut the wires restricting the circulation in the lad’s hands, but as soon as she started, he began to scream in a high-pitched voice.

‘You’d better leave it to the professionals, ma’am. You could do more harm than good if you don’t know what you’re doing.’

‘I’m only trying to help,’ snapped Hardy, her voice harsh as she registered the distress in the young man’s yells, and her legs turning to jelly.

‘Well, it doesn’t seem to be working that way, does it, guv?’ replied Groves with immaculate logic.

‘You’re right. Sorry, son. The ambulance has just arrived and they’ll get you down and into hospital in just a few moments.’

The wailing continued unabated, and both women had the almost irresistible urge to put their fingers in their ears to block out the obscenity of human suffering, but both realised that they should be talking to this poor soul who had been so ill-used.

‘Keep calm and don’t try to free yourself. You’ll likely do more damage than good. The paramedics will be here in just a couple of minutes.’ Hardy had to almost shout to be heard through the howls and screams, but she tried to make her voice comforting and confident.

‘You’ll be nice and comfortable in a hospital bed before you know it,’ called Groves, but their words could do nothing to penetrate the agony of the figure hanging there looking like a crucified criminal.

When the paramedics made it to the scene, one of the first things they did was to give him something to relieve the pain, then talked to him as they worked at the wires fixing him in position. He continued to wail for quite a while, as it was a tricky operation, untangling the mess of wire that had been used to bind him, and Lauren had to absent herself for a few minutes to throw up behind a bush.

Once as much painkiller as was safe to use had finally been administered, his screams died down to a pathetic whimpering. Groves returned wiping her mouth with a cotton handkerchief and apologised for her momentary lapse.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ answered Hardy. ‘I nearly followed you over and did exactly the same. I can’t abide the sound of someone in agony, and that was harrowing. I’m sure we were very lucky not to be on the other end of it.’

As the medical staff gently lowered him on to the stretcher, he gave an almighty scream, and the two women winced, Groves giving another dry heave as her stomach rebelled again.

‘Let us know how he is, won’t you?’ Hardy requested, glad that they were not going in the ambulance with him. She felt harrowed almost beyond endurance. She had come across great suffering in her professional life, usually at the scenes of accidents, but she had encountered nothing like this before in all her years in the force, or rather, service.

They waited for the arrival of the CSI team and after some discussion left the field.

‘Just drop me in the car park,’ said Groves in a voice made husky with stomach acid. ‘The paperwork can wait. I just don’t feel up to talking about this. I just want to go home.’

‘Fair enough. I wish I could do the same, but it’s Saturday night, and anything could happen. You know what the seafront clubs are like at the weekend.’

‘Rather you than me.’

‘You realise what we’ve just witnessed, don’t you?’

‘Enlighten me.’

‘The first potential murder case working together.’

‘Don’t say that. He’s not dead yet.’

‘I’d put money on it.’ DI Hardy wasn’t one of life’s optimists. ‘All the same, I had better get an officer dispatched to sit with him in case he is lucid enough to talk.’

Maybe it was the cold, miserable weather, or the sleety rain that started about nine o’clock, but it was very quiet for a Saturday, and DI Hardy was able to get through some of her reports and figures with barely an interruption.

She got home just before midnight, only preceding Hal by about ten minutes. As he came through the front door, she looked up from the book she was trying to concentrate on and asked, ‘Close early, did they?’

‘There was nothing doing. I think you ought to get someone in plain clothes in there next Saturday night, though. There seemed to be some under-the-counter business going on at the bar that I think might interest your lot. Mmm, you smell nice,’ he concluded, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

‘New shampoo. Had to shower as soon as I got in. I got rather bloodied earlier in the day, and had to get out of my clothes before I puked. Drugs?’

‘I reckon so. The regular barman wasn’t in, and his replacement seemed to have other business on his mind rather than that of serving drinks. Just a word to the wise, that’s all.’

‘I’ll sort it out when I’m in next. Thanks for the heads-up.’

While Hal was lugging in his instruments, Olivia was surprised to find her mobile phone ringing, and answered it to find Lauren on the other end of the call. She was sobbing into the handset, sounding as if her heart was breaking. ‘Whatever is it, Lauren?’ asked the inspector, wondering if there had been some tragedy in her personal life.

‘It’s just that lad we found. I can still hear him screaming. What am I going to do? I can’t get it out of my mind.’

‘Look, I wasn’t going to tell you till tomorrow, but he didn’t make it. He slipped away in the ambulance, but you can comfort yourself that he didn’t die out in that field, and at least we made sure that his pain was dulled, and that he was warm and as comfortable as he could be when he went.’

‘Can I sleep at yours tonight?’ the younger woman asked, unexpectedly.

‘Er, well, I suppose so … and I’ve got some sleeping tablets that you can take, but, Lauren, you’ve got to grow a thicker skin. I have to ask … how did you make sergeant, if this sort of thing upsets you so much?’

She didn’t want to have to nanny her sergeant. Lauren was a grown woman, a wife and mother, and theirs was supposed to be a grown-up relationship, forged through the adversity of being in the same profession. On the other hand, she didn’t have a husband to go home to, and her children were away at school, whereas her own husband had just arrived back and her children were still around, although currently on the AWOL list.

‘I haven’t the faintest idea, but I’ve never seen or heard anything like today before in all my time in the police. Can I come now, please?’

‘Come on over. Company will do you good, and with one of my little bombs inside you, you’ll sleep like a top.’

‘Thanks, ma’am … Olivia. I’m on my way.’

When she got to the cottage, there was no peace to be had there, though. She could hear the shouting from outside the front door.

‘You bloody stupid thoughtless little shit. How could you do this to me in my position? You could lose me my job, as well as frying your own brain,’ she heard, before Hal opened the door to her stentorian knock.

‘Do you want to end up in the gutter or in a filthy squat with a dirty needle in your arm?’

‘I only took a bit of blow,’ replied a voice Lauren had not heard before.

‘Ben,’ said Hal in explanation. ‘I saw him in the club, although he was too drunk to notice I was there. It would seem that he’s now experimenting with drugs, and Olivia’s not too pleased.’

‘I thought he was at college,’ she almost whispered as he beckoned her to come inside.

‘It’s the local college, and he just goes in every day, but not usually from here. He stays at mates’ houses so much that he might as well not live here. Tonight he’s decided to show his face, but apart from his mother knowing all the signs, he doesn’t know yet that I saw him buying something from under the bar at the club.’

‘Should I go?’

‘Not at all. Let them yell themselves out, and we’ll sit in the kitchen with a glass of wine. I’ll go through when things aren’t quite so heated and read him the riot act in fairly calm tones, pointing out that he’s taken his first step on the road to hell. It might do some good, and at least it’ll get Olivia off her high horse for now. What a stupid little shit he’s been, though.’