‘I’m all right, honestly, Eddie... although I could do with a cup of tea.’ As she tied the dressing gown cord around her waist, she winced from the pain in her neck.
‘Are you hurt? What happened?’
‘Please, Eddie, just give me a bit of time.’
He stood with his hands on his hips.
‘You go back to bed I’ll bring you up a cup of tea.’
As he boiled the kettle, Eddie checked over the sitting room, noticing the charred paper in the grate. Jane came down the stairs, and he could see that she was holding tightly on to the banister.
‘I need some Paracetamol,’ she said. ‘I think they’re in the kitchen drawer.’
Eddie put her mug of tea on the kitchen table and found the packet of pills in the drawer. Jane touched the flowers and gave him a smile.
‘Champagne too. You’ve had good news about the job?’
He took the pills out of the box and broke open the foil, handing a couple of tablets to her. Pulling out a chair, he sat down beside her.
‘Never mind about the job. Tell me what the hell went on here, Jane. You’re freaking me out.’
He watched her swallow the tablets with some tea, then cup the mug in her hands.
‘Jason Thorpe and his mother broke in last night. I’m sorry, there is no way I can tell you everything that happened... but it was horrendous.’
‘Christ! Did he assault you, Jane?’
Jane shook her head. After sipping some more tea, she gradually told him as much as she felt she could, leaving out most of the long conversation with Beatrice.
‘You’re going to press charges, right? I’d beat the shit out of him if I saw him.’
Eddie couldn’t believe it when Jane shook her head again. Then she winced, and he was instantly on his feet.
‘Do you have concussion?’
‘I don’t think so... I’ve just got a headache now.’
He gently touched her neck and then felt the back of her head.
‘I’m taking you to A&E right now and I am not going to take no for an answer. Come on, you don’t need to get dressed.’
Jane didn’t have the energy to argue and then felt herself becoming quite tearful as Eddie went upstairs and reappeared with her slippers and a blanket to keep her warm.
Jane and Eddie were in the A&E department at Queen Mary’s Hospital for three hours. Thankfully, it was a Saturday morning and was not that busy. The young doctor assured them that they had done the right thing in getting Jane checked out. After taking such a bad fall and being unconscious for some time, he recommended an MRI scan.
She was eventually given the all-clear but was told that she should rest in bed until the following day, taking painkillers as necessary.
Back at the house, Eddie made sure she followed the doctor’s orders and called his mother to see if she could bring round some soup. Tucking Jane’s duvet round her and putting another cup of tea on her bedside table, he told her he would fix the back door to make it safe and would sort out the bathroom door later in the week so as not to disturb her.
Jane took some more pain killers and started to drift off to sleep. She felt safe and realised how lucky she was to have Eddie there.
Whilst Jane slept, Eddie stood looking down on her for a while, curled up beneath the duvet, trying to understand why she had not reported the break-in. It didn’t make sense, particularly with her being a police officer. He quietly left the room, closing the door silently behind him. As he went down the stairs, he frowned at the recollection of some of the things she had told him about the family tree and the mistakes she had made.
He then went out to his van and rummaged in his tool kit to find some hinges that would fit the back door.
Eddie worked methodically door, bringing his radio in from the van and switching it on low to help him concentrate. It took longer than he thought it would to refit the hinges, as some of the wood was warped, and the door wouldn’t close to his satisfaction.
Jane wasn’t sure if she was awake or still dreaming, as she heard Janice Joplin singing faintly. She recognised the song, which took her back in time and an emotional wave swept over her. ‘Piece of My Heart’ was the song she had played over and over again when she had been a probationary officer in Hackney. She had been heartbroken when an explosion at the bank had killed DCI Bradford but she had been forced to suppress so much of the pain. Now, all these years later, the memory rose to the surface, and she was unable to stop the floodgates opening. She sobbed uncontrollably.
With all the noise of his hammering and drilling, Eddie didn’t hear her crying. He only downed tools when he was completely satisfied that the door was secure. He had taken all his tools back to the van, along with his radio, and was just checking out the Tupperware container of soup and fresh bread his mother had brought round when he heard movement from upstairs.
Jane was standing in the shower, holding her face up to the spray. She tried to understand what had made her return to that fateful day, then bowed her head and let the water soothe her still-painful neck. Not for the first time, she wondered if her feelings about DCI Bradford’s death had held her back from committing herself fully in her subsequent relationships. She turned off the shower and wrapped herself in a bath towel, sitting on the edge of the bath to dry her wet hair.
Eddie tapped on the half-open bathroom door, then peered in.
‘Did my hammering wake you up?’
Jane smiled. ‘No, I had a bad dream and I’m just trying to work out what it meant.’
‘No wonder, after what you just went through.’
‘It wasn’t about that,’ Jane said. ‘But maybe it surfaced because of it. Anyway, I’m all right now — and I’m starving hungry.’
‘I’ve got Mum’s soup here... so get back into your pyjamas and I’ll bring it up.’
‘Why don’t we go out, to celebrate your job?’ Jane said.
Eddie frowned. ‘Have you any idea what time it is? And you’ve been told you need to rest, so back you go.’
Jane crossed over to him and put her arms around him, resting her head against his chest.
‘I do love you... I’ve never had anyone care for me like you do.’
‘Feeling’s mutual, detective.’ He smiled.
‘Is it?’
‘Yes, Jane. I love you.’
Jane had an overwhelming sense of release, suddenly feeling happier than she could ever remember. They finished off Eddie’s mother’s delicious soup, accompanied with crusty fresh bread. Initially, she hadn’t really wanted to talk about what had happened the previous night, but now she felt able to calmly explain her decision about not taking the matter any further.
‘It’s your choice, Jane.’ Eddie shrugged. ‘Although I don’t quite understand it. Does this mean you’re having second thoughts about your career?’
‘You know, I haven’t even thought about that,’ Jane said. ‘You were right, I did become obsessed, and in some ways what happened was my fault. I have often been reprimanded for not being what they describe in the Met as a “team player”. You’re always supposed to share your information, never go solo... So I guess I need to learn a lesson from what happened.’
Eddie placed their empty soup bowls on a tray and stood up to take them to the kitchen.
‘I’ll tell you one thing. I’m going to make sure you get an extension phone here in your bedroom. I’ve fixed your back door securely, with a new lock and hinges, and tomorrow I’ll come back and sort out the bathroom door.’
‘Are you not going to stay the night?’ Jane asked.
‘No, you need to get more sleep. Unless you’re afraid to be on your own?’
Jane pulled the duvet up around her shoulders.
‘I’m not scared, Eddie, I just want you beside me.’