‘I thought she’d been staying at your place?’
‘Not a permanent thing. Sometimes she’s there, sometimes she isn’t. I always assumed she was back at your flat.’
‘She certainly wasn’t there last night,’ Rik said. ‘Not when I rolled in.’
‘Which was at. .?’
‘Three-ish. Probably around at her lover’s shag-pad,’ Rik said bitterly, doing the speech-mark finger tweak on the word ‘lover’s’.
‘Right, whatever,’ Henry said, not wanting to get involved, other than to be a brother to Lisa and offer her somewhere to crash if she needed it. ‘I hope you work it out, but you are here because of your skill as a detective, not because I want to punish you, OK? I was up till gone two this morning and, trust me, I don’t want to be here either — but I have to show willing.’
‘Point taken, and sorry about your mum. I hope she pulls through.’
‘Thanks.’ She won’t, Henry thought.
The office door opened and Tope reversed in, clutching three mugs of steaming, freshly filtered coffee. He placed them on Henry’s desk, then sat down. Henry and Rik grabbed a mug each and sipped the brew gratefully.
‘That’s bloody excellent,’ Henry said as the caffeine immediately hit the spot.
‘I logged onto the secretary’s computer while I was waiting for the machine,’ Tope said, ‘and checked the misper figures for this week last year. Three hundred and fifty-two people were reported missing in the period we are interested in. Three hundred and fifty turned up unharmed or at least accounted for, leaving two. One, our victim, David Peters, and another, a girl found dead from an overdose. Mostly they were youngsters who went AWOL after parties. There were about twenty, male and female, in the demographics we’re interested in.’
‘I think you can assume much the same number this year,’ Henry said. ‘Did you look at last night’s mispers?’
Tope nodded. ‘Only quickly. . my gut is just to keep a watching brief on things. . a lot could easily roll in hung over or still pissed, tails between their legs. A lot more will be reported towards the end of the day when they haven’t rolled in.’
Henry nodded, sipping his coffee. ‘The Christmas rush.’ He made a decision and looked at the two murder files. ‘Let’s just spend the next hour going over these two files, make sure we’re all acquainted with the scenarios, then’ — he looked at Rik — ‘you and me will work out strategies for the victims. I’d like to look at the guy from Blackpool — Peters — if that’s OK? Just so I’m on hand if my mum needs me.’ Rik said that wasn’t a problem, he would cover the woman who’d been killed in Blackburn.
Henry’s first port of call was to the cardiac unit where he found that his mother was still alive, but sleeping. Leanne was at the bedside, but there was no sign of Lisa. He walked into the small ward and his daughter looked up tearfully, then rose to embrace him. He sat next to her and regarded his mother as he spoke softly to Leanne.
‘Have you seen Lisa?’
‘No, not at all.’
Henry raised his eyebrows.
‘One of the nurses said she wants to speak to you.’
‘OK. . how long are you staying for?’
‘As long as.’
‘Great Christmas Day,’ he said sadly.
‘We still haven’t exchanged pressies.’
‘No, but we will. Later, eh?’
Leanne nodded. ‘Jenny’s on her way up from Bristol.’
‘Yeah — she texted me. Be great to see her.’
‘Yeah, I really miss her. Just hope she doesn’t bring that dink of a hubby with her.’
Henry chuckled. His eldest daughter’s choice of mate hadn’t gone down too well with Leanne, but Henry knew he was a decent enough chap, just had nothing about him except a dreary job in banking that made him a fortune. What could Jenny possibly see in such a guy?
‘Mr Christie?’
Henry glanced around to see the nurse he’d spoken to the evening before standing by the ward door, the one who’d given him the keys to the empty office. She was back on duty already. She beckoned him and he followed her to her office. She then broached a subject that Henry had been mentally tangling with. A very uncomfortable one.
He emerged drained and dithery, but put on a brave face for Leanne and said he had to nip out to make a phone call.
He dialled Lisa, but the call went straight to voicemail, so he left a short message and also dropped her a text, the gist of both being to call him as soon as possible.
He wondered where she was. No doubt licking her wounds somewhere, or maybe with her new ‘lover’ — and Henry imagined Rik’s speech marks around the word. Henry needed to speak to her sooner rather than later. There was a decision to make here and he didn’t want to shoulder it alone.
He then called Alison and asked if she was still in the vicinity. She was — but getting ready to head back to the Tawny Owl. She wasn’t planning on opening the pub at lunchtime, but was going to open up from four until eleven, even though it was Christmas Day. The villagers of Kendleton would need some escape from home. She and Henry planned to have dinner together that evening, but that idea had been put on hold.
‘Can I catch you before you set off?’
Henry told her he was back in Blackpool visiting a witness, but if she fancied getting to the drive-through KFC on Preston New Road for a coffee in ten minutes, that would be excellent.
He dropped back in to see Leanne, who said she was going to stay for a few more hours. He kissed them both and left.
The coffee served by KFC was pretty good. Henry and Alison had one each and sat at a corner table next to the window. The place was doing healthy business.
‘Have you thought about what I asked earlier?’ he said.
Alison smiled. ‘It was a hell of a big ask.’
‘You should’ve seen it from my side of the court.’
‘Did you really, really mean it?’
‘Yes,’ he said simply, holding her gaze.
‘I. . I feel like I’m teasing you,’ she said.
‘It’s something you need to think about, I get that. Lots of things to consider, not least of which is the age difference.’
‘That’s bollocks and you know it.’
‘Whatev-’
‘But that’s not all you wanted to talk to me about, is it?’
‘No.’
‘Something concerning your mum?’
He nodded.
‘DNR?’ she guessed.
He nodded again. Do Not Resuscitate. ‘Jeez,’ he said painfully and rubbed his tired eyes. ‘If it ever becomes an issue, which it will if her heart packs up again — which it will — does she get pounded and electrified again? Or do we let her die with some dignity?’
He looked past Alison at the main road, feeling stupid as his bottom lip quivered. He inhaled a steadying breath. Alison reached across and laid her fingers on his arm.
‘Has your mum ever talked about it at all?’
‘No. She thought she’d live for ever. . she might. But what do you think?’
Alison paused thoughtfully. ‘It might be her time to go, love. Sometimes keeping people alive is done just for the sake of others, not for the good of the person in the hospital bed.’
‘Yeah, I mean what the medical staff did was fantastic. I know they don’t want to lose people, but it was so. . degrading, almost.’ He shook his head at the vivid memory of the doctors and nurses working on his mother’s body. ‘Crikey,’ he laughed, ‘it’s a tough one.’
‘You need to talk it through properly with a consultant, not a nurse. It’s all about quality of life. . what are the chances of her ever going home and living any sort of a normal existence? If it’s a good chance, then OK. If not. .’
‘Yuk,’ Henry said.
‘But there is one thing I do know, Henry Christie.’ Her left hand slid down his forearm and covered his hand. He glanced down at it and his eyes widened with shock. He looked sharply up at her. ‘Let’s get through this, however it pans out, and then when the time is right you can whisk me away for a dirty, sorry — romantic — weekend, and then you can ask me to marry you again. Obviously you’ll know the answer already’ — she held up her hand and wriggled the third finger, the triple diamonds twinkling in the ring he had given her — ‘but I still want it done properly. . down on one knee. . ah-ahh — I know you’ve got bad knees, so I’ll help you back up — without anything else for us to worry about but us.’