Sleepwalk (22 page)

Felicity waited at the front desk at East Barton police station while David drove around looking for a parking space.

‘DI Carter will see you now miss Breen; if you’d like to come through.’

She followed the tall uniformed officer through the security door and along the hall to a door bearing a bronze plaque which read ‘Detective Inspector Carter’. The officer knocked the door and opened it a little.

‘Miss Breen to see you Sir’

‘Ah Felicity come in. Sit down.’ He beckoned her to the leather chair in front of his desk. ‘What can I do for you then?’

‘Well Detective Inspector, it’s been two weeks now and I haven’t heard anything from you. We were in town so I just called in to see how your investigations are going. Do you have any news?’

‘No more fires or things that go bump in the night for the past two weeks then. All quiet on the western front is it, since you moved in with David Wilson?’

Felicity’s face reddened.

‘I ….. I haven’t moved in with David. I’m just staying with him until my cottage is habitable.’

‘Yes of course. And how is the cottage coming along? You’ve got the builders in I see.’

‘Yes. Well obviously once the fire officer was happy……. and your department of course; I wanted to get the work done as quickly as possible so that I can move back in. It’s coming along. The new windows are going in today and the stairs are going in this week so hopefully it won’t be much longer.’

‘Good. Good. And how does our Mr Wilson feel about you moving back in?’

‘What? I …. I don’t know. Look; David’s been brilliant. We spent the whole weekend cleaning and painting. Look Detective Inspector, I’m not here to talk about David. I want to know what you’re doing to find this man. Time is dragging on and no-one is telling me anything. I haven’t heard from you; I haven’t heard from my insurance company and I’ve no doubt they won’t help me until you find this man. I’ve taken out a huge loan to pay the builders and it’s not easy all this. You excavated the poor little cats grave and took his body and I haven’t heard anything more. How can he rest in peace? I…… I just want closure on all that’s happened you know? I want to know that it’s safe for me to go home when the work is finished…….. that it’s safe for me to sleep at night.’

‘We are still following up our investigations at present Miss Breen…… er Flick, but I can assure you that when we find the person responsible, you will be the first to know. Now I’m sure you’ll appreciate I have a very busy schedule so if you have no further information for me perhaps you’ll leave me to follow up my enquiries.’ He pressed a buzzer on his phone. ‘Miss Breen is ready to leave now’, then as the door opened and the tall officer appeared she stood up and crossed the room, then hesitated in the doorway.

‘Inspector I know you think this has something to do with David but you are wrong. I know that someone somewhere is angry with me for some reason…….. angry enough to want to harm me……… but I honestly have no idea who could have…….. who would even be capable of………’

‘Attempted murder Miss Breen?’

She stepped closer to the door then turned to face him once more. ‘But I know one thing; as long as I’m with David I feel safe but the thought of going home while this man is still out there…….. that scares me.’

The door closed behind her and Carter took her file from the cabinet and read it over and over then he slammed it down on the desk and read it again. They had come up with nothing; nothing at all. The boy; Hendford, had a cast iron alibi which ruled him out. Door to door had been completely fruitless. No one had seen or heard anything. The only person who had anything to gain from the fire was the Breen girl herself but Carter was sure this was no insurance job. He’d put DC Peters on the case on Thursday and had heard nothing from her. He buzzed the front desk to track her down and the duty sergeant told him she was out investigating the Breen case.

‘Have her come and see me when she gets in Steve, will you?’

‘Yes Sir.’

Slim crouched in the undergrowth at the foot of the immaculate garden, his long bony fingers muzzling the dog’s pointed nose as he began to whimper softly.

‘Sshhh….. Quiet Bits. Wait……’ He whispered. The two watched as Vanessa Gordon locked her front door then turned and looked in their direction, her beady eyes scanning the garden. She pulled some dead leaves from a variegated trailing ivy in the hanging basket above her head and tossed them into a wheelbarrow parked at the foot of her log pile then made her way up the path to the lane where she climbed into her landrover and fired up its tired diesel engine. They watched it rocking from side to side as she pulled away along the bumpy lane until it disappeared from sight. Slim crept up the path with Bits in hot pursuit and stuffed his rucksack full of small logs then, in a daredevil moment of wickedness, stuffed some more in his pockets until they were bulging. As he made his way back down the path he turned and saw Bits standing bravely, but awkwardly in the centre of Vanguard’s perfect lawn like a raven in the snow. He was leaving his mark for her. Slim couldn’t help but smile as he reached the river boundary fence and Bits was still there digging and scratching furiously at the turf in an exaggerated attempt to cover his faeces. Jonky was waiting for him under the bridge. Her thin pale face looked drawn and the skin beneath her eyes was dark. Basically she wasn’t a picture of health.

‘How’re you feeling Jonk?’

‘Like shit. Did you manage to get some firewood?’

‘Yes. No worries. We’ll have you warm in no time. Bits! No! Leave it.’ The dog was chewing up a small log, and every little splinter counted right now.

‘Managed to liberate a few bits of coal on the way back’, he proudly announced.

Jonquil smiled half heartedly and shuddered beneath the dirty white blanket he had wrapped around her when she’d come to him in the middle of the night coughing and sneezing and holding her head. He’d taken off her wet clothes and hung them over the fence to the wasteland and dressed her in his spare vest and trousers; they were dirty but at least they were dry. He’d wrapped her in the old moth eaten blanket that he’d got from the dump and then sat her into his pride and joy; a bucket seat from an old mini cooper he’d found abandoned on the dual carriageway. He’d huddled up next to her that night and promised her a breakfast fit for a queen in the morning; but now, as the sun rose over the river bank and still three days to go before giro day he glanced at his meagre offerings. Someone’s discarded cold chips from the pavement in town and some onions left over from a kebab someone had dropped the night before. He looked at the girl; her face so thin and pale; her body shivering uncontrollably; her knees drawn up to her stomach for warmth, and he pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a large round shiny coin. He turned it over in his hand and the colonel’s second medal glistened back at him. The colonel would understand. He was sure of that.

‘I’ve lit the fire Jonk. Try to get some rest and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘A fiver? You’ve got to be kidding me.’

‘It’s not worth any more.’ said the man with the grey beard and the shifty eyes. We get these all the time. I can’t sell them on. No one wants them. In fact, a fiver is probably too much.’

‘Done.’

Slim threw the medal onto the counter and held out his hand. The man flipped a button and the till made that ching ching sound and he was holding a dirty green note out in front of him.

‘Cheers. The colonel ….. and me, both thinks you stitched me up but cheers anyway.’ Slim left the pawn shop and headed toward the cafe where the familiar aroma of breakfast was already wafting up the street to greet him. The grey bearded man watched him go into the café and lifted his phone. Ten minutes later Slim reached the bridge with a cardboard takeaway breakfast carton and watched as Jonquil opened her mouth like a little bird as he fed her bacon, sausage, mushrooms, egg and hash brown, his mouth watering as she opened and closed; opened and closed and the delicious aroma lingered long after the cardboard carton was scraped clean. Slim licked the fat from its moulded casing and then threw it to Bits who chewed it to pieces until there was nothing left. He sat down next to Jonky and passed her his little plastic bottle of water and watched as she drained the bottle, right down to the last drop.

‘Oh…… I’m sorry I didn’t think………’ She held the empty bottle out to him.

‘It’s ok; plenty more where that came from. How do you feel now?’

‘Better. Thank you. You’re good to me Slimmy. You always have been. Sometimes I think…… well I don’t know why you bother with me.’

‘You’re a mate Jonky. You needed help and I was here. Bad job if I can’t help a mate innit? Anyway, if I’d have left you in them wet clothes last night you’d have caught your death.’

‘Perhaps I was supposed to?’

‘What?’

‘Catch my death. Perhaps with your help I’ve cheated it again.’

‘Cheated?’

‘The angel of death. She came for me and I ran and hid……. in the wasteland. You weren’t here and I didn’t know what to do. The night the colonel……. she came for him, but she saw me. She looked right at me. Then after she took him, she came for me. It must be my turn too, you see.’

‘Did you tell the cops about this?’

‘Yes. I had to draw some pictures of her because I’d seen her before. You see that’s another thing. I’ve seen her many times and twice I’ve seen her come for old souls whose lives are near the end but I’m not old so why does she keep searching for me unless my time has come?’

‘So, what does she look like then?’

‘Like this……..’

Jonquil took an old sketch pad from her rucksack and passed it to him just as the familiar sound of Vanguard’s landrover turning off the road and onto the wasteland made them both jump to their feet and Slim grabbed their things as they ran to the hole in the fence. He helped her through and passed the rucksacks through to her then he saw her sketch pad lying on the muddy path under the bridge and could see Vanguard’s shadow fast approaching. He must have dropped the book when he picked up the bags.

‘Go Jonky! Run! ....... I’ll catch you up’

He watched Jonquil as she picked up her rucksack and skipped away through the long grass; her fair hair dancing in little ringlets around her face. She stopped then, and turned to face him. She was still quite close to him; only a few metres away and he could see the greenery beneath her reflecting in her ….
o
h so green
…. eyes.

‘Slimmy?’ she whispered.

‘Yes?’

‘I just wanted to say thank you; for a breakfast fit for a queen’ ..........
for loving me
...... ‘........for everything you’ve ever done for me; thank you Slimmy.........that’s all.’

She gave him a big beaming smile, then turned and ran across the wasteland; her rucksack bouncing against the top of her multi-coloured striped socks and her dirty blue denim jeans.
It was the last time he would ever see her
……..

Slim ran back to the path, leaned forward and reached out his hand for the book just as a strong gust of wind caught it and took it a few feet further away. He could see the feet of Vanguard’s green rubber boots and her stick waving around in front of them dangerously close to it.

‘I’ve got you now Williams. I’ll take that ……… thank ….. you!’

The stick reached the book before he did but he dived at it all the same and tried to grab it. Vanguard began to poke him and beat him with her stick furiously.

‘Ow! Get off me you old witch!’ He reached out his hand to the book which was partly being swept further away by the wind and partly by her prodding and scraping at it with her damned stick. He was lying on the path; his knees bent back behind him; his arm outstretched then, just as he almost had it she brought her stick down hard on his wrist making him recoil in pain. She stepped closer to him and grabbed the neck of his anorak, pulling it tightly upwards.

‘I’ve got you now Williams. I’m making a citizens arrest.’

And then, like Lassie to the rescue, along came Bits who was barking and growling like a crazed demon. He grabbed the end of her stick in his teeth and began to tug backwards and pull and tug and pull until Vanessa Gordon suddenly lost her balance and began to topple sideways and down she went. With a faint scream she landed in the long grass with a thud. Bits was running sideways under the bridge dragging his victory stick along clumsily, his head held high. Slim stood up and pulled his dishevelled coat down. He picked up the sketch pad, tucked it into his pocket, turned and started toward the wasteland. Then he stopped. He looked back at Vanguard who was lying awkwardly on a grassy knoll holding her leg, panting and wailing occasionally in pain. He couldn’t leave her. He went back and crouched down beside her.

‘Are you ok?’

‘Am I ok? Am I ok? Does it look like I’m bloody well ok? ……….. I’ll have you for this Williams. This is assault; and I’ll have that mangy mongrel of yours put down for this, you mark my words. Ouch! ….. Oh God I think my leg is broken. Ow…..’

‘Don’t try to move. I’ll go and get some help.’ He ran to the bend in the road and looked both ways. In the distance he could see a car approaching. He waved frantically at the driver but instead of slowing down, the driver knocked it down a gear and speeded up, swerving around him as he passed by; as if his car might catch something. Slim had that effect on people. He looked both ways. People rarely used this road which led to a disused warehouse. He had camped there in the past; until the owners had made it impossible to break in to. There was a lane leading from it that took you from the supermarket car park under the dual carriageway and out here to the back of Sainsbury’s and the old road to Compton without having to go along the dual carriageway thence avoiding rush hour traffic; but no one used it at this time of the morning. He went back to check on Vanguard who was huddled up in the same position and had begun to shiver. Her cries had now become a whimper.