Someone Else's Skin (12 page)

‘Yes . . .’

‘Yes, you took the knife into the refuge. Why did you do that?’

Leo’s chin was on his chest. He mumbled something that sounded like, ‘For her.’

Marnie folded her arms, turning her head away from the bed. She caught Noah’s eye, and flinched a little. Then she looked back at Leo Proctor. ‘Why was Hope in the refuge?’ She used her blandest voice.

‘I . . . don’t know.’

‘You don’t know. Why do most women go to refuges, do you know that?’

Proctor drew a shattered breath. ‘To . . . escape.’ He raised his head. His eyes were wet. ‘To get away.’

‘What was Hope escaping from?’ He was silent. ‘Was it you, Mr Proctor? Was she escaping from you?’

Leo didn’t answer. Tears crawled down his flushed cheeks. Marnie took a sheet of paper from her pocket and smoothed it flat, holding it where Leo could see it. ‘Did you write this letter to your wife, Mr Proctor?’

‘No.’ A whisper, thick with tears. ‘No.’

‘This isn’t your handwriting?’ She put the letter away, staring down at the man in the bed. ‘You hurt her, didn’t you? You beat her, and you raped her. You had her branded, for pity’s sake; I’ve heard about the matching tattoos . . . It got so bad she finally worked up the nerve to leave. Did you try to find her? She wasn’t very far away. Then she called, to let you know that she was safe. That’s when you knew for certain where she was. How did it feel, knowing she got away? That she was with other abused women, swapping stories about abuse. About you. You didn’t like that, did you?’

Her voice remained bland despite the agitation of the man in the bed. The blandness made it worse, as if she was reading a witness statement or a charge sheet. ‘You took a knife, and you bought roses. Because that’s how it goes with men like you. Roses in one hand, a knife in the other, or were the roses an afterthought? An extravagance. She wouldn’t be expecting roses, not from you. Not your style. Nothing says “I love you” like a broken rib.’ She stopped, at last.

Leo was weeping openly, his chest heaving, face collapsed under the flood of tears.

Noah couldn’t look at him. He couldn’t look at Marnie, either. He was sorry for the man in the bed, and ashamed of Marnie’s tactics. After all that she’d taught him about the CPS, about evidence-gathering.

He made himself think of Hope, lying like a broken doll downstairs. Maybe he should be pleased to see Leo Proctor reduced to tears, but . . .

He’d helped save Leo’s life. Fuck it, he’d
fought
to save the man’s life.

This wasn’t right. He made himself stay where he was, at the foot of Leo’s bed, but he didn’t want to be here, in any part of the hospital. He didn’t want to be the person backing up Marnie Rome’s strategy for putting this right.

26

Marnie caught up with Noah Jake in the corridor. He was studying the view from the window. Rain pocked the glass by his head. He looked up when she approached, his face thinned by censure.

‘He’s admitted taking the knife to the refuge,’ she said. ‘That gives us intent.’

Noah put his hands in his pockets. A muscle played in his cheek. ‘Nothing he tells us right now is safe. For one thing, he’s doped to the eyeballs.’

‘He took the knife to the refuge,’ she repeated. ‘Why do you think he did that?’

‘I don’t know. That’s the point, isn’t it? We don’t know. Not yet. And why ask him about the letter, when Hope told you it was written to Simone?’

‘Because I don’t know if that’s the truth or if Hope’s covering for him. The letter plus the knife makes a damning case – and I
know
she’s protecting him. Because she’s traumatised. Terrorised. You didn’t speak with the doctor who examined her. Her injuries tell us she was abused for years. Raped, for years.’

Noah’s eyes darkened reflexively. ‘They don’t tell us
who
was abusing and raping her.’

She wanted to shock him over to her side. ‘Eight months ago, when Hope was living at home, Leo broke his hand. A boxer’s injury, the doctors call it. You know what that is?’ She closed her fist, showing it to him. ‘You get it from punching someone.’

‘He works in construction. He could’ve broken his hand at work. Or playing rugby.’

‘And his wife’s injuries are just a coincidence? Come on, it was him. He’s a bully and a coward. We both know it.’

‘That’s not enough, though, is it? You’re always telling me we need hard evidence, to build a proper case. What you just did in there—’

She cut him short. ‘You didn’t like it. Good for you. Feel free to file a complaint against me.’

Noah raised a quick smile, the way a child raises a hand to fend off a slap.

Marnie turned away before he could reply, heading back down the stairs to the ward where Ed was waiting. She was in the wrong, and she knew it, but she had no intention of stopping, or retracting the words she’d spoken to Leo Proctor to reduce him to tears. Her one regret was that she had to tell Hope that the man who’d made her life a living hell was alive and kicking.

Someone had closed the curtains around Hope’s bed. There was no sign of Ed.

Marnie came to a standstill. ‘Hope?’ No response. ‘Simone?’

Nothing.

She drew the curtain and looked inside the cubicle.

The chair where Simone had been sitting was empty.

So was the bed.

27

‘Hope Proctor,’ Marnie said to the woman in the next bed, ‘did you see her leave?’

The woman tapped at the oxygen mask over her mouth, and shook her head.

Where was Ed? Marnie pulled out her phone as Ed and Noah came through the swing doors. Ed was carrying a hospital gown and robe. ‘I’ve alerted hospital security.’ He was grey with worry. ‘But it looks like they’ve gone.’

‘Both of them?’

‘Together. Hope wanted the bathroom. Simone said she’d take her. They looked safe. Hope was in her robe.’ Ed shook his head, putting the robe and gown on the bed. ‘Simone must’ve had a set of clothes in her bag. I’m sorry—’

Marnie cut him short, looking at Noah. ‘Speak to security. Tell them we need CCTV from the exits and entrances. And find Abby Pike.’

Noah nodded, and went.

Ed shook his head. ‘I should’ve stayed with them . . . Jesus, Rome, I’m so sorry.’

‘Don’t be. I should’ve checked Simone’s bag. And I shouldn’t have told Abby Pike to take a break.’ Her palms pricked with sweat. Her armpits too. ‘I’m in charge here, not you.’ She crouched to check the cabinet next to Hope’s bed, needing to hide her face from Ed, just for a minute, until she had it together.

‘How’s Leo?’ Ed asked.

‘Awake. That’s what the doctor wanted to tell me.’

‘Do you think Hope guessed as much?’

‘Yes, I do.’ The cabinet was empty. She straightened and turned to face him. ‘But it doesn’t explain why Simone brought clothes.
Before
she knew he was awake. She was planning this escape. She must’ve been.’

Ed pushed his hands into his hair. ‘Damn,’ he said. Then again, with more feeling, ‘
Damn
.’

‘Don’t,’ she snapped. ‘I need your help here. Do the freaking-out on your own time.’

His look of injury made her flinch, just as Noah’s disapproval had, in Leo Proctor’s room upstairs. She softened her voice: ‘I need your help. You need to tell me about Simone, the sort of person she is, where she might go.’

Ed nodded. ‘I’ll give you whatever I can, but I can’t believe she’s done this. She’s the last person I’d have expected to do something crazy.’

‘Crazy would’ve been leaving on an impulse, with Hope in her hospital gown.’ Marnie pointed at the discarded gown and robe on the bed. ‘This was planned.’

‘Taking a sick woman out of hospital . . .’ Ed shook his head. ‘I thought Simone had more sense. She can be forceful, I knew that, but I never thought she’d take a risk with someone else’s health.’

‘Perhaps she thought she was doing the best thing for her friend.’

‘I should’ve stayed outside the bathroom door.’ Ed was still beating himself up. ‘But I didn’t want them to feel under armed guard.’

Simone had counted on Ed’s chivalry and that angered Marnie, but she was the one who’d sent Abby Pike off duty. Abby would’ve gone into the bathroom with the women. Hope would’ve returned to bed. What had Simone said, to make Hope run? If Hope had confided in her, told Simone that she saw a chance to stop Leo’s abuse and took it . . .

What then?

‘How’s Hope going to manage physically?’ Ed asked. ‘You said the medical exam made grim reading.’

‘No recent injuries, or nothing debilitating. The CT scan was clear. I’m more concerned about her mental state. Which bathroom did they use? Where did Hope get changed?’

‘The bathroom you fetched Simone from, when we first arrived.’

‘She was checking it out,’ Marnie realised. ‘I found her testing the locks on the doors, thought it was a privacy thing.
Stupid
.’

She’d been stupid since Saturday. The visit to Sommerville had left her fretful, squeamish. She’d exorcised some of it upstairs, giving Leo Proctor a taste of his own medicine, but she was in danger of making more mistakes, worse ones. She was hitting out at random – to see what lit up and what broke.

Ed was staying close. As if she might need him to catch her, in the event she tripped over her own feet. His vigilance made her want to shove him away. ‘You’re going to tell me everything you know about Simone Bissell. Forget about confidentiality, and the need to allow these women their secrets. I’d say Simone knew exactly how to exploit your respect for her privacy, wouldn’t you?’

28

‘Anything?’

Abby Pike was out of breath, her face flushed from running. ‘Nothing.’

‘Let’s try the bus stop. Maybe someone saw them get on a bus.’ Noah wasn’t hopeful. He kept remembering what Marnie had said about the way these women lived without leaving a trace. It was as if Hope and Simone had vanished into the hospital’s sterile air. He remembered the intense way Hope had studied the doctor’s face when he was telling Marnie that Leo was awake. Could Hope lip-read? Perhaps she didn’t need to. She’d known the chances were in favour of her husband’s recovery. She’d known what that might mean.

No one at the bus stop had seen an African woman with braided hair, or a blonde woman answering to Hope’s description.

‘We’d better check back in with the boss.’ Abby glanced at Noah. ‘Who’re you calling?’

‘Ron Carling, back at the station. He’s checking the CCTV from the refuge.’ Noah nodded at the street cameras. ‘He can check this lot, too.’

When they returned to the ward, DI Rome was talking to a man in a cheap suit with a guarded expression. From the hospital’s administrative team, Noah guessed.

‘She wasn’t under arrest,’ Abby whispered to Noah. ‘What does that mean?’

‘The hospital hadn’t discharged her. They’ll implement their missing persons procedure. Effectively, she’s gone AWOL.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Abby said. ‘Why would Simone persuade her to run? She wasn’t in any fit state, for one thing.’

‘Her husband’s just woken up.’

‘Shit. Do you think she knew that?’

‘She knew there was a good chance of it.’

Abby pulled her jacket on, buttoning its front. ‘She didn’t look well enough to walk out of here, let alone run. Wish I hadn’t taken that break. If I’d stayed here . . .’

‘The DI told you to take a break. Ed Belloc was with them.’

‘Poor bloke,’ Abby whispered. ‘Looks like she gave him a right bollocking.’

Noah glanced at Ed. Abby was right; Marnie had chewed chunks out of him. It made Noah reluctant to share the news that no one had seen Simone or Hope leave the hospital. Unless the street CCTV yielded a clue, they were screwed.

‘AWOL means we can bring her back, right?’ Abby dusted lint from the front of her jacket. ‘Even though she wasn’t under arrest?’

‘If we can find her.’

Marnie saw the pair of them and jerked her head for Noah. He walked over, with Abby following. The man in the cheap suit turned to look. They all did. Only Ed Belloc had any hope in his eyes. Noah shook his head. ‘The hospital’s CCTV shows them leaving by the front entrance at 11.37 a.m., towards Bull Lane. There’s a bus stop on Bridport Road, but no one remembers seeing them boarding a bus.’

‘That’s London for you. Everyone minding his own business.’ The hospital administrator sounded resigned, uninterested in the women’s fate. He’d tackled worse, in all likelihood. At least Hope Proctor wasn’t recovering from surgery, or psychotic.

Noah said, ‘I’ve asked the station to start looking at street CCTV.’

‘Well, good luck.’ The hospital bureaucrat waited a moment, then took his leave.

Marnie said, ‘I’m treating this as abduction.’

‘On what basis?’ Ed Belloc looked like someone had wrung him out. ‘Simone’s not an abductor.’

‘I don’t know what she is or isn’t. That’s what you’re going to tell us. Abduction will get us more manpower than missing persons. We don’t know that Hope went willingly. Abby, you’ve spent more time with her than any of us. What do you think?’

‘She stayed in her bed, sleeping mostly. I tried talking to her, but she wasn’t keen. Didn’t want to listen to music, or read. I offered to get her a magazine or a newspaper, but she said no thanks, she wasn’t interested.’

‘How was she with the staff?’

‘Very quiet and polite, did as she was told, said thanks a lot.’ Abby lowered her voice. ‘Some of the women make a fuss about food, or bed changes. Not Hope. I’d be surprised if she enjoyed the meals, but she ate everything. Kept saying she didn’t want to be a trouble to anyone.’ It was easy to imagine, from the description she gave, that Hope Proctor would’ve gone with Simone Bissell just because Simone told her to.

Marnie nodded at Abby. ‘Call it in, and get things started. We’d better check the refuge in case they went back there, but it’s a long shot.’ She looked at Ed. ‘Does Simone Bissell go by any other names?’

It was a routine question; Noah doubted whether Marnie expected any answer other than no, but Ed Belloc said, ‘Nasiche Auma.’

They all looked at him. Noah heard Marnie suppressing a sigh.